Starting a family and having children has become a kind of herculean task when instead it should be valued and supported by everyone, Pope Francis said at a meeting in Rome on Italy’s severe decline in population growth.

As Title 42 drew to its scheduled close May 11, Catholic immigration advocates called for public policy on immigration that recognizes the humanity of migrants and asylum-seekers.

Cybersecurity at Catholic parishes is less robust than it could be, but several free and low-cost resources — along with a healthy dose of common sense — can bolster technology defenses.

Meeting with delegates to the general assembly of Caritas Internationalis May 11, the pope underscored the dual nature of the church’s charitable arm as a service of charity and a Catholic institution dedicated to pastoral care.

It’s a way of life that leads many to call on their faith for protection.

Processing of migrants will be fully reinstated under Title 8, a measure that experts said would stiffen the consequences for migrants who attempt to cross the border into the United States irregularly.

Catholics working with migrants welcomed the end of Title 42, saying it had prevented many migrants from applying for asylum and, in many cases, forced people back to dangerous Mexican border towns where they were extorted and kidnapped by police and drug cartels. But they also expressed misgivings about what might replace it.

Eliminating the root causes of forced migration means ensuring everyone has an equal share in the common good, their fundamental rights are respected and their lives can flourish through integral human development, Pope Francis said.

Missouri lawmakers passed a bill May 10 banning certain types of medical or surgical gender reassignment procedures for minors who identify as transgender, as well as a measure blocking transgender student athletes from competing on sports teams opposite their biological sex.

A panel of federal advisers voted May 10 in favor of a pharmaceutical company’s request to sell a type of their birth control pills over the counter and without a doctor’s prescription, clearing the way for the Food and Drug Administration to approve such sales of oral contraception.