Each year at this time, near the Fourth of July, we contemplate freedom. But maybe we are also being called to do an extended examination of our own fears.

“Deep cuts” to SNAP and Medicaid will “inflict real suffering on these families…. SNAP and Medicaid are not luxuries, they are lifelines for millions of children across our country.”

“We are alive only through the grace of God. At one point, I got messages saying someone had offered 1 million lempiras [$38,000] to have me killed.”

The end of U.S.A.I.D. will result in the loss of a “staggering” 14 million lives by 2030, including the deaths of 4.5 million children under age 5.

Though other factors are surely at play, church leaders in Nigeria insist the attacks are part of a systematic campaign to drive Christians from the region or force their conversion.

How should American Catholics respond to the U.S. attacks on Iran? Perhaps the Feast of Corpus Christi offers a counterpoint to the god of war, power and vengeance invoked by so many today.