The Catholic Sun

Speaking in a conference with Mexico's foreign relations secretary, the Vatican secretary of state lauded church-state relations in Mexico as exemplary -- an acknowledgment of the church's improved standing in a country where priests were previously persecuted and Catholic rebels took up arms against an anti-clerical government.

If young people recognize all that they have received with gratitude and older people take the initiative of relaunching hope in young people for their future, then nothing can stop the flourishing of God's blessings among people, Pope Francis said.

After nearly two hours of oral arguments April 26, the Supreme Court justices had mixed views on the Biden administration ending a Trump-era immigration policy called "Remain in Mexico."

While English colonists who arrived in the New World were looking for greater opportunities, many of the Catholic colonists who arrived in Maryland also were looking to escape religious persecution.

Having "the smell of sheep" for one military chaplain serving in Ukraine has now meant being surrounded by the smell of burned homes and lives.

Catholic leaders were thankful that death-row inmate Melissa Lucio was granted a last-minute stay of execution April 25, but they also said her sentence shows a failure in the use of capital punishment in this country and stressed that they would continue to pray for Lucio and her family and advocate on her behalf.

Bishop Christian Carlassare of Rumbek, South Sudan, expressed hope for conversion and healing, as a court sentenced a Catholic priest and three others for his shooting.

There is no such thing as a "good" or "bad" nation because wickedness can be found everywhere, Pope Francis said.

The majority of Supreme Court justices seemed to side with a former high school football coach April 25 who said his postgame prayers on the field -- that cost him his job -- amounted to private speech and not the public school's endorsement of religion.

Good Friday, the day Christians commemorate the Crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ as payment for the sin of humankind, has for two decades in the Diocese of Phoenix also been a time for Catholics to gather publicly to pray for the lives of the unborn, as well as their mothers contemplating ending their pregnancy and the workers performing those procedures.