Heaven is not a secure vault protected from outsiders but a “hidden treasure” that is reached by cultivating virtues, Pope Francis said.

Reflecting on the Apostle Peter’s liberation from prison after an angel opened his cell, the pope said God “is the one who sets us free and opens the way before us” in his homily during Mass for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul June 29.

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Democratic and Republican presidential nominees, participated in the first general election debate of the 2024 cycle on June 27, including on topics like abortion, immigration, foreign policy, and the economy.

The Supreme Court on June 27 dismissed a case concerning abortions for medical emergencies in Idaho, sending the case back to a lower court without resolving the central question of whether a conflict exists between Idaho’s abortion restrictions and federal law governing emergency health care.

Days after they gathered for their annual spring meeting, the U.S. Catholic bishops’ conference has laid off an unspecified number of employees as part of the reorganization of a key department tasked with promoting awareness of and advocacy for Catholic social teaching at home and abroad.

Despite tensions with Pope Francis which have sometimes boiled over into public view, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Pope Benedict XVI’s longtime secretary, will become the pope’s representative to the Baltic states.

The Supreme Court on June 24 agreed to hear a challenge to a Tennessee state law banning certain types of medical or surgical gender reassignment procedures for minors who identify as transgender, the high court’s first major step toward weighing in on the controversial issue.

Pope Francis said that Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati “will be a saint soon.”

Ana Rodriguez-Soto, who recently retired as editor of the Florida Catholic, Miami edition, is the recipient of the 2024 St. Francis de Sales Award from the Catholic Media Association.

Now — with the Vatican’s recent approval of the organization as a lay association of the faithful — Mater Filius is poised to spread its mission as part of the Catholic Church’s pro-life outreach.