Signs Of the Times

Obama administration moves on immigration were drawing attention and pre-emptive opposition from Republican lawmakers, who will soon control Congress when the lame duck session ends in January. President Barack Obama was poised in mid-November to unveil a series of executive actions on immigration t

Is the “Francis effect” slowing the diminishment of Latin America’s Catholic population?

As world leaders prepared to meet in Australia on Nov. 15-16 to continue looking at ways to improve the global economy, Pope Francis asked them “not to forget that many lives are at stake” behind their discussions and decisions. The measure of success of the Group of 20 heavily industria

Ecumenical Day of Solidarity feeds ‘hope against apathy, fear, death and impunity.’

First there was dead silence and then there were tears.That is how the Rev. Robert J. Verrigni described the reaction of parishioners at St. Ursula in Mount Vernon, N.Y., to the announcement on Nov. 2 that their parish would merge with another and cease to celebrate weekly Masses after Aug. 1, 2015.

According to data collected in October by the Chaldean Diocese of Erbil, there are more than 10,000 Christian families who have found refuge in the suburbs of Erbil and other parts of Iraqi Kurdistan after fleeing Mosul and the cities of the Nineveh Plain before the advance of Islamic State militant

A parish twinning-style relationship between St. Lawrence Parish in Tampa, Fla., and a small Catholic community in Cuba’s Pinar del Rio province has resulted in official permission for the construction of the first new Catholic church to be erected in Cuba in nearly six decades. • In a le

If you have been paying any attention to California news lately, you’ve heard about the state’s devastating three-year drought: counties worth of farms decimated, whole towns without water and government officials proposing emergency legislation. This year has been thus far the driest ye

Catholic leaders in Pakistan protested the beating and burning on Nov. 4 of a young Christian couple accused of desecrating the Quran. “The government has absolutely failed to protect its citizens’ right to life,” said the National Commission for Justice and Peace of the Catholic B

The Archdiocese of Chicago on Nov. 6 released approximately 15,000 pages of documents related to 36 archdiocesan priests who have substantiated allegations against them of sexual misconduct with minors. The documents are posted on the archdiocesan website, www.archchicago.org. All the records pertai