Signs Of the Times

Concerns about a potential humanitarian emergency were mounting in late July as people of Haitian descent began to be forced out of the Dominican Republic and into tent cities along the border with Haiti. • A decision by the Boy Scouts of America on July 27 to allow gay troop leaders and employ

If you attend Mass in Chicago, you might encounter a blind lector reading the day’s Scripture from a Braille lectionary while accompanied at the altar by a guide dog. You might receive communion from a eucharistic minister seated in a wheelchair. Through the SPRED (Special Religious Education)

A Ukrainian bishop said a Russian-backed separatist rebellion has plunged his country into its worst humanitarian crisis since World War II. He warned that “millions of refugees” could soon head for Europe to escape starvation.“Huge numbers are now caught between hammer and anvil;

A reliquary discovered in the grave of Gabriel Archer, a founding member of Jamestown has raised the possibility that there were crypto-Catholics among these early settlers. David Collins, S.J., associate professor and director of doctoral studies in the history department at Georgetown University w

Immigration advocates hailed a court ruling on July 24 that could mean the end of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy to lock up families in compounds run by for-profit prison companies while they pursue asylum and other types of protection from deportation.Judge Dolly Gee of the Central C

The Holy See welcomed Iran’s historic nuclear deal and expressed hopes that other breakthroughs may be on the horizon. Under the new deal, decades-long sanctions would be lifted in exchange for an agreement by Iran to restrict its nuclear program to peaceful purposes. Federico Lombardi, S.J.,

One year after war with Israel turned daily life in Gaza into a nightmare, a Catholic priest there said the situation in the besieged Palestinian territory has deteriorated even further. “Compared with a year ago, we’re worse off. Although a truce stopped the war, the blockade of Gaza by

More than half of young Catholic families participating in a recent survey identified themselves as Latino or Hispanic, a finding the president of Holy Cross Family Ministries said will require new ways of ministering in the U.S. Catholic Church. Overall, 54 percent of young couples in the 25- to 45

Recriminations continued to accumulate after the release of a gruesome conversation about fetal remains, recorded by a hidden camera, went viral on the Internet, provoking a national uproar about Planned Parenthood procedures.Produced by the Center for Medical Progress, the video captures Dr. Debora

In a message commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty on July 16, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops renewed its opposition to capital punishment. “Our faith tradition offers a unique perspective on crime and punishment, one grounded