When hope seems long gone, Christians can turn to Jesus to overcome being resigned to despair and regain the desire to be healed, Pope Leo XIV said.

Just over a month after his election, Pope Leo XIV is enjoying positive reviews from most of the nation’s Catholics, according to a new poll.

The Supreme Court said June 16 it will hear an appeal from a group of faith-based pregnancy centers in New Jersey challenging an investigation by that state’s attorney general alleging they misled people about their services and seeking information about their donors.

New Jersey’s top court ruled June 16 that grand juries can be empaneled to investigate clerical sex abuse allegations in that state.

The fight by religious groups against New York state’s abortion mandate requiring most private insurance plans to cover abortion has renewed life.

Key religious liberty challenges facing Americans include the threat of the destruction to an Apache sacred site by a copper mining giant, as well as a new law in Washington state requiring clergy to report child abuse or neglect without exceptions for clergy-penitent privilege, said witnesses at the inaugural meeting of the Department of Justice’s Religious Liberty Commission on June 16.

As Israel’s continued bombardment of Iran entered its fifth day, Catholic clergy in both countries called for peace and an end to further bloodshed in the Holy Land and the Middle East.

Finding more effective ways to proclaim the Gospel, educate for peace, defend human dignity and promote dialogue are key challenges to living the faith and building the kingdom of God today, Pope Leo XIV said.

Pope Leo XIV will spend two weeks of July at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, bringing back a centuries-old tradition that had been suspended by Pope Francis.

Close to half of the nation’s adults have a personal or family connection to Catholicism, but Mass attendance makes for significant differences in what Catholics say is essential to their identity.