Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar met with Pope Leo XIV on Friday at the Vatican as part of a delegation visit from Ukraine that’s asking the church to help return more than 19,000 children who have been abducted during the ongoing war with Russia.

Klobuchar said she spoke with the first American pope for 20 minutes. They talked about the missing ...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As Border Patrol agents fan out of Charlotte and fear lingers from days of federal immigration enforcement across the region, Bishop Michael Martin is urging Catholics to confront the moment through the lens of faith, not politics.

Half of the diocese’s roughly 565,000 Catholics are Hispanic. Many stayed home from Mass, ...Read more

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and first lady MK Pritzker met with Pope Leo XIV in Rome on Wednesday, where they discussed the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and the two formally invited the pope to visit Chicago, the governor’s office said.

“It was an honor for MK and me to meet with @Pontifex — a son of Illinois — to ...Read more

NEW YORK — After enduring fire, flood, recession, a pandemic and changing times, a Brooklyn church still stands to celebrate its 170th anniversary on Sunday.

Much as visitors to Red Hook experience today, the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s clock tower was among the first sights immigrants spotted arriving in New York Harbor, said ...Read more

White House border adviser Tom Homan lambasted the Catholic Church on Friday over its stance against the Trump administration's mass deportations.

"The Catholic Church is wrong, I'm sorry," Homan told reporters outside the White House. "I'm saying it not only as the border czar, I'm saying it as a Catholic."

Homan described himself as a "...Read more

LOS ANGELES — For the first time in 12 years, U.S. Catholic bishops have issued a unified statement to support the country's immigrants and oppose the Trump administration's "indiscriminate mass deportations of people."

The move marked a voice of support for immigrants — long a vital part of the U.S. Catholic Church — amid a year of ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — For the first time in 12 years, U.S. Catholic bishops issued a unified statement Wednesday to support the country's immigrants and oppose the Trump administration's "indiscriminate mass deportations of people."

The special statement was issued during the bishops' annual gathering in Baltimore. It was the first time since 2013 ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Rabbi Ethan Witkovsky and Reverend Adam Hearlson seem like they've been friends forever.

Witkovsky, 41, is the senior rabbi at Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El (TBH-BE), a Conservative movement synagogue in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Hearlson, 44, is the pastor at Overbrook Presbyterian Church (OPC), in Philadelphia.

Sitting in the ...Read more

CHICAGO — Moody Bible Institute is suing the Chicago Board of Education for alleged religious discrimination after the college was barred from the district’s student teaching program.

The Christian college alleges Chicago Public Schools will not allow it to participate in the program unless it signs the district’s non-discrimination ...Read more

Pope Leo XIV urged U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to respect the spiritual rights of individuals in ICE detention after Catholic clergy members said they were prohibited from giving Communion to immigrants at a Chicago-area facility.

On Nov. 1, ICE officials refused to let a group of clergy members led by Bishop José María Garcia-...Read more

MIAMI — Miami’s top Catholic leader Archbishop Thomas Wenski, who turned 75 this month, will be submitting a retirement letter to the Vatican.

But that doesn’t mean he plans to go anywhere — at least just yet.

Sending the letter of intent to retire is “regular protocol” for all Catholic bishops and archbishops when they turn 75, ...Read more

A federal bankruptcy judge Thursday granted a request by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland to dismiss its bankruptcy case, setting the stage for hundreds of sexual assault victims to take their long-running lawsuits against the church to trial in the coming months and years.

Judge William J. Lafferty said his decision would not be official ...Read more

Growing up in a religious family, Florida Republican state Sen. Alexis Calatayud has seen how many church communities are no longer anchored to a single building in the way they used to be. Her small prayer groups take place over chats these days, not necessarily in person or sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in pews.

With churches in her Miami-Dade...Read more

Across America, churches meant to be sanctuaries are facing deadly threats in the 21st century, and safeguarding congregations from attacks has become increasingly challenging.

Church security is a hugely complicated field, experts say, one that brings no one-size-fits-all solutions and few easy answers. Churches range in size from tiny ...Read more

BALTIMORE — The Rev. Rodney Hudson has had enough scary confrontations in and around his churches that he has taken safety measures many would consider extreme.

There was the day he was giving the eulogy at a funeral and the son of the deceased rose to attack him in the pulpit. And another day, when two men mugged him in the church parking ...Read more