NEW ORLEANS (RNS and NPR) — ‘I’m praying for this new pope from the United States who has roots in the 7th Ward. That was a mind-blowing moment for me,’ said one Black priest, whose church is a mile from where the pope’s ancestors once lived.

On “Preach” this week, the Rev. Kareem Smith, pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Church in Co-op City, the Bronx, reflects with host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., on the Gospel reading for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time—the wedding at Cana.

Gail Lumet Buckley, who died on July 18, was an award-winning chronicler of the African American experience. She once wrote of herself in 'America' that "I choose the cross of faith over the sword of ideology."

Those who knew Father Norman Fischer said the priest’s easy ability to model the love of Christ and build bridges—sometimes through a beaming selfie or a fist bump—was legendary.

Xavier University, a small Catholic and historically Black school in New Orleans, formally signed an agreement with Ochsner Health to establish a medical school.

Both Joyce’s and Jones’s stories move us through tragic epiphanies that leave the soul, pained by paralysis, on the threshold of conversion.