In a legislative development that has drawn concern from both Catholic and labor leaders, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, R-Ark., signed into law March 8 the Youth Hiring Act of 2023, which eliminates state age verification for children younger than 16 seeking a job.

Many of the 40 international trips Pope Francis has made over the past 10 years have been to countries where Christians are a minority or where he can draw close to people on the fringes of the world’s attention.

Marking the 10th anniversary of his election, Pope Francis concelebrated Mass with cardinals resident in Rome in the chapel of his residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

Pope Francis focused his papacy on the poor and needy.

Despite being labeled a Democratic “heretic” by the media for his pro-life stand and his support for traditional marriage, former Congressman Dan Lipinski told a Washington conference he never backed down from “what I knew was true.”

In interviews focused on the 10th anniversary of his election, Pope Francis insisted it is not his task to make an accounting of what he has or has not accomplished since March 13, 2013.

The pope reflected on the day’s reading from the Gospel of John (4:5-42), in which Jesus encounters the Samaritan woman at the well at midday.

In documents issued his first 10 years in office, Pope Francis covered topics as diverse as strengthening one’s faith, evangelization, caring for creation, accompanying families and young people, and respecting indigenous peoples.

When Pope Francis greeted the thousands of faithful gathered in a rain-soaked St. Peter’s Square March 13, 2013, he quipped that his brother cardinals looked almost to “the ends of the earth” to find a new bishop of Rome.

Pope Francis’ call for the church to serve those on the peripheries should prompt American Catholics to reimagine their role in U.S. public life, Catholics in politics or public life told OSV News shortly before the pontiff’s 10th anniversary as pope.