U.S. & World News

An Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos qualify as children under state law has raised complex legal questions about artificial reproductive practices opposed by the Catholic Church.

Five days after mourners filled the iconic St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York for an irreverent "homecoming" funeral for actor and author Cecilia Gentili, New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan said he believes the "cathedral acted extraordinarily well."

Two days after St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City was filled with mourners for an irreverent "homecoming" funeral for a prominent activist who identified as transgender, the cathedral's rector acknowledged that many people "have let us know they share our outrage over the scandalous behavior" that took place at the service.

Even in a politically divided country, the reduction of child poverty in America -- reported by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2022 as 16.3% nationally, or more than 11 million children living in persistent want of adequate food, clothing, shelter and utilities -- can typically be embraced as a bipartisan, pro-family and pro-life goal.

"Imagine getting ready for a party for 30 years and then wondering if anybody is going to show up," Dan Gonzalez said with a nervous laugh.

In 2009, Jessica Hooten Wilson was freshly finished with her doctoral dissertation, which included the Southern Catholic writer Flannery O'Connor. Over dinner at an academic conference in Rome, a revered O'Connor scholar mentioned to her the writer's unfinished novel. Wilson was intrigued, and later that year she traveled to see it herself at Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville, Georgia, which holds O'Connor's papers in its archives.

Lisa Lopez-Galvan, a Catholic mother of two and beloved disc jockey for the KKFI radio station in Kansas City, Missouri, was killed Feb. 14 amid a mass shooting following the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory parade.

The vice of "acedia," often translated as "sloth," can cause laziness, but it is much more than that; it is a lack of caring for anything and being bored with everything, even one's relationship with God, Pope Francis said.