The federal government appears to be heading toward a shutdown at the end of September, as congressional lawmakers are running out of time to pass legislation funding the government after Sept. 30. Advocacy groups, including the U.S. bishops conference, have cautioned against allowing that to happen, urging lawmakers to come to an agreement and keep the government open.

People often are tempted to think their relationship with God is some kind of commercial transaction where they buy God’s grace with their hard work, Pope Francis said.

The world and the Catholic Church today need to take a leap forward “in faith, charity and hope,” Pope Francis said in his homily at a late afternoon Mass in Marseille’s open-air stadium.

President Joe Biden is establishing the first White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention and has named Vice President Kamala Harris to oversee it, the White House announced Sept. 21.

Unlike earlier meetings of the Synod of Bishops, which focused on a specific issue or a specific region of the world, the “synod on synodality” is focused on the church itself: Who belongs? How are leadership and authority exercised? How does the church discern God’s call? How can it fulfill its mandate to share the Gospel with a changing world?

When Clive Staples Lewis bought The Kilns, a former brick factory, in 1930, he used its quiet remoteness to produce a stream of literary and spiritual masterpieces that are still quoted with reverence today.

Earlier this summer, Jeff Gerads volunteered to construct a giant rosary for the Harvest of Hope Area Catholic Community. When he invited his sons Ethan, 16, and Owen, 12, to help, he could never have known how special that rosary would become.

Jesuit Brother Bob Macke, a Vatican astronomer and meteorite expert, has built a custom device for studying material from the first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid.

On Oct. 9, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion celebrates the 164th anniversary of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s second and third apparitions to Adele Brise — the only approved Marian apparitions in the United States. While the observance has long been a yearly event, this is the first year the liturgy is marked as a solemnity.

In a rather unusual moment for secular France, the president of the country confirmed he will attend Mass celebrated by Pope Francis in Marseille Sept. 23.