The number of Catholics and permanent deacons in the world rose in 2023, while the number of seminarians, priests, men and women in religious orders, and baptisms all declined, according to Vatican statistics.

Representatives of Catholic and immigration advocacy organizations, and Washington’s new Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, grappled with the need to send a clear moral message on the dignity of migrants amid the “uncertainty” of the political moment at a recent event in the nation’s capital.

Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, a top contender to lead the French bishops’ conference, delivered a powerful lecture March 22 in Marseille, calling for a “reawakening of hope” in the face of global turmoil.

Jesus seeks out people in their woundedness and isolation to offer healing and hope, even when they feel furthest from God, Pope Francis said in a prepared catechesis.

A 30-year-old man believed to be homeless was arrested and charged with the commission of an act of terrorism following a threat he allegedly emailed to a music minister at St. Louis Catholic Church in Memphis, Tenn., claiming he wanted to “butcher” people in the church with a machete.

Ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas will have “dire consequences” for civil society’s future and is likely to worsen the region’s tensions for another generation, Bishop A. Elias Zaidan, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, said in a statement following the breakdown of a ceasefire agreement in the Holy Land.

The principal of a school run by members of Regnum Christi, the lay arm of the Legionaries of Christ, resigned after a school chaplain was arrested for sexually abusing five underage girls.

The language of the latest incarnation of the Let Pregnancy Centers Serve Act, a bill aimed at protecting more than 2,700 pregnancy resource centers nationwide from federal and state interference, is not radically different than the language of the one introduced in Congress last year.

A special Mass for federal workers and civil servants celebrated at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington offered a message of solidarity and hope amid ongoing employment uncertainties.

Catholic groups that minister to migrants and refugees are expressing concern over President Donald Trump’s order to revoke the parole program that allows legal migrants from several Latin American and Caribbean countries to connect with sponsoring family members and work in the United States.