Catholic leaders call for peace, prayer after second person killed in Minneapolis by federal agents January 26, 2026By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit Filed Under: Gun Violence, Immigration and Migration, News, World News Catholic leaders are calling for peace the day after a second person was killed by federal agents this month in Minneapolis.
Vance visits Minneapolis to ‘tone down the temperature’ during immigration enforcement January 23, 2026By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit Filed Under: Immigration and Migration, News, World News Vice President JD Vance said he visited with business leaders, federal immigration enforcement officers and local law enforcement in Minneapolis Jan. 22 to better understand how an increase in immigration enforcement was unfolding and to “tone down the temperature a little bit, reduce the chaos, but still allow us as a federal government to enforce the American people’s immigration laws.”
Wisconsin man’s Catholic faith revived after finding bishop’s crosier in scrapyard January 3, 2026By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit Filed Under: Jubilee 2025, News, World News A bishop’s golden crosier, or hooked staff symbolizing his office, found in a Minnesota scrapyard has drawn the man who discovered it into a journey back to the Catholic Church of his youth.
Hope, healing highlight prayer service and Mass a month since Annunciation shooting September 30, 2025By Joe Ruff OSV News Filed Under: Feature, Gun Violence, News, World News Sharing hugs, tears and smiles, more than 150 people gathered on the lawn outside Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis for a morning prayer service Sept. 27.
Bishop blesses hospitalized 12-year-old Annunciation shooting victim still in critical condition September 3, 2025By Joe Ruff OSV News Filed Under: Gun Violence, News, World News Blessing her forehead and both hands with holy water from Lourdes, France, as she lay unconscious in a hospital bed in Minneapolis, Auxiliary Bishop Michael J. Izen of St. Paul and Minneapolis prayed for 12-year-old Sophia Forchas, left in critical condition with head injuries when bullets tore through Annunciation’s church in Minneapolis one week before.
Annunciation pastor calls first parish Mass after church shooting a ‘humble beginning’ September 2, 2025By Joe Ruff OSV News Filed Under: Feature, Gun Violence, News, World News Recalling the fear and the cries from students, parents and school staff to “get low, stay down, stay down, don’t get up” as bullets tore through Annunciation church at an all-school Mass in Minneapolis, Father Dennis Zehren, the pastor, said it marked a new beginning.
Archbishop Hebda prays for community’s peace, fortitude, consolation after school shooting August 28, 2025By Joe Ruff OSV News Filed Under: Feature, Gun Violence, News, Schools, World News Hugs and tears preceded a service the evening of Aug. 27 to mourn and pray for those killed and injured after a shooting earlier in the day at a Minneapolis Catholic elementary school.
Suspect arrested for murdering Minnesota lawmaker, husband June 16, 2025By Joe Ruff OSV News Filed Under: Gun Violence, News, World News A man suspected of killing Democratic State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, was arrested June 15 after a nearly two-day manhunt that authorities described as the largest in state history.
Minnesota lawmaker who once taught Catholic Sunday school shot and killed in apparent ‘politically motivated assassination’ June 15, 2025By Joe Ruff OSV News Filed Under: Feature, Gun Violence, News, World News Democratic State Rep. Melissa Hortman, who once taught Sunday school at St. Timothy in Blaine, Minn., and was a speaker of the Minnesota House, and her husband, Mark, were shot and killed in their home early June 14 in what Gov. Tim Walz said “appears to be a politically motivated assassination.”
International model of faith-based small groups finds a home in Minnesota archdiocese September 28, 2024By Joe Ruff OSV News Filed Under: Evangelization, News, World News An international model of faith-based small groups is finding a home in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis less than a year into its implementation as part of Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda’s vision in his 2022 pastoral letter, “You Will Be My Witnesses: Gathered and Sent From the Upper Room.”
Vatican finds Archbishop Nienstedt acted ‘imprudently’ but not criminally under canon law January 5, 2024By Joe Ruff OSV News Filed Under: Child & Youth Protection, News, Vatican, World News A multiyear investigation overseen by the Catholic Church into Archbishop John C. Nienstedt, who resigned from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 2015, has ended with the Vatican finding that he acted “imprudently” in several instances but not criminally under canon law, Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda said in a statement Jan. 5.
Bishop who served Czechs in U.S., Canada, Australia dies in California August 17, 2021By Joe Ruff Catholic News Service Filed Under: Feature, News, Obituaries, World News A native of Czechoslovakia who fled persecution by that country’s communist regime and served in Minnesota for nearly 30 years before being appointed a bishop in the Czech Republic died Aug. 10 in California. Retired Bishop Peter Esterka was 85.
