Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is best honored when people “recall to mind and heart that the issues Dr. King placed before our nation have not been adequately accomplished,” and strive to continue his work, Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory said during a Jan. 15 Mass honoring the legacy of the late civil rights leader.

As the nation celebrates the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Jan. 16, both personal conversion and action are needed to build what the slain civil rights leader called “the beloved community,” said Catholic clergy and lay leaders.

The death of Australian Cardinal George Pell was a shock because just five days earlier he had concelebrated the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI and “seemed in good health,” said Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals.

As the U.S. observes Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, Sister Jane Marie Klein, 84, looks back on the tragic night he was murdered and how it stayed with her.

Archbishop Broglio noted that while society has made progress toward “a just society that leaves no one on the margins” in the 60 years since Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, nevertheless “much work remains.”

Like his five most recent predecessors, President Joe Biden has issued a proclamation declaring Jan. 16 Religious Freedom Day and calling for the protection of religious freedom in the U.S. and around the globe.

America’s pro-life advocates and health care providers are preparing for another consequential shift following the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s finalization of a rule change that expands availability of the abortion pill mifepristone.

According to the United Nations’ International Labor Organization, 49.6 million people lived in modern slavery in 2021, with 27.6 million in forced labor (6.3 million of which were in forced commercial sexual exploitation) and 22 million in forced marriage.

Days after the federal government signaled it would allow abortion pills to be distributed through the postal service even in states that have banned or restricted the procedure, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall indicated that women who undergo medication abortions in the state could still be subject to prosecution.

The terrorism trial of Sayfullo Saipov, who is accused of fatally striking eight people with a truck in New York City in 2017, began Jan. 9 and marks the first federal death penalty case heard under President Joe Biden, who pledged as a candidate to end the practice at the federal level.