In Canada’s province of Québec, Bill 21, officially known as “An Act Respecting the Laicity of the State,” prohibits public servants in positions of authority — such as teachers, police officers, and government lawyers and judges — from wearing religious symbols at work. The law also extends the ban to staff at subsidized day cares, private schools and professional development centers.

Father Mike Schmitz entered the green room of the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale with his characteristic warm smile — and an extra bounce in his step.

Promising to “guard the deposit of faith pure and entire” and to “encourage the holy people of God and to guide them in the way of salvation,” Bishop Gary R. Studniewski and Bishop Robert P. Boxie III were ordained July 7 as auxiliary bishops of the Archdiocese of Washington.

The U.S. Supreme Court ended its 2025-2026 term with major rulings striking down President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship, and upholding West Virginia and Idaho state laws requiring student athletes to compete on sports teams that correspond to their biological sex rather than their self-identified gender.

Pope Leo XIV marked the United States’ 250th anniversary with a relaxed July 4 dinner at the Rome residence of U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Brian Burch, offering a rare glimpse of the first U.S.-born pope in an informal setting.

Cardinal Robert W. McElroy of Washington said his decision to remove a high-profile priest as an archdiocesan exorcist was driven by the public way he exercised his ministry, not by his specific beliefs about UFOs.

Catholic leaders and organizations in the U.S. continue to aid Venezuela as that nation recovers from two deadly earthquakes that struck seconds apart June 24.

As America’s 250th anniversary was celebrated across the States and the world, with Pope Leo XIV accepting the Liberty Medal for the occasion, U.S. Ukrainian Catholic bishops asked Americans to consider the meaning of freedom through the experience of a nation still fighting to preserve it.

A Catholic priest working for peace and reconciliation in the Central African Republic was killed by armed men near his residence in the town of Zemio on June 29.

French Catholics attached to the traditional Latin Mass but loyal to Rome are expressing deep sadness after the Society of St. Pius X consecrated four bishops without papal approval, prompting the Vatican to declare the group in schism and excommunicate six SSPX bishops.