As hundreds of drones illuminated the night sky above Barcelona’s Sagrada Família, or Basilica of the Holy Family, forming the image of Antoni Gaudí and one of the architect’s most enduring maxims — “First love, then technique” — the message seemed almost paradoxical.

The U.S. Catholic bishops approved several  updates to their landmark document on protection policies for children and minors, seeking to define key terms while balancing care for victim-survivors with accused clergy’s right to a presumption of innocence until proven otherwise.

At the final Mass of his visit to Spain, Pope Leo XIV called on Christians to look beyond the allure of commerce and profit and instead embrace the vocation of hospitality and the wisdom that comes from the encounter with the vulnerable and the suffering.

Pope Leo delivered a powerful message to human trafficking survivors June 11 during the first stop of a two-day visit to Spain’s Canary Islands, one of Europe’s closest points of entry from the African coast.

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States with the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. bishops are consecrating the country to the Sacred Heart of Jesus June 11 in Orlando.

President Donald Trump signed legislation June 10 providing $70 billion to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol.

Headlining the June 10 public session of the U.S. bishops’ spring plenary in Orlando were addresses by the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the new apostolic nuncio to the United States, along with a preliminary presentation on proposed updates to the bishops’ landmark document on protection policies for children and minors.

Pope Leo XIV blessed the newly completed Tower of Jesus Christ at Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia basilica June 10, inaugurating the crowning spire that makes the iconic church the tallest Catholic church the world and urging people to lift their gaze to Christ “who alone reveals to us the truth about God and the truth about ourselves.”

As Catholics from around the world gathered in Vilnius, Lithuania, for the sixth World Apostolic Congress on Mercy, Pope Leo XIV said the world’s growing need for peace cannot be separated from mercy, urging believers to become witnesses of God’s compassion in a time marked by war, violence and uncertainty.

Amid the loneliness and despair of life behind bars, God continues to love and encourage the imprisoned to not let the sorrows of their past deter them from the hope of a better future, Pope Leo XIV told prisoners in Barcelona.