In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the nation’s movement for racial reckoning, the Catholic Health Association of the United States announced an initiative to confront racism in the provision of health care.

A hundred years ago the U.S. Catholic bishops were insightful enough to realize there was a role for a news service to provide accurate information about the church, said Thomas Lorsung, retired director and editor-in-chief of Catholic News Service.

A prominent Russian Catholic urged his nation’s bishops to condemn the mass arrest and beating of protesters, but the Moscow archdiocesan chancellor said the church could not comment on “political matters.”

Under the slightly altered title “Our Friend” (Gravitas Ventures), Teague’s award-winning piece comes to the screen as an emotionally wrenching but ultimately uplifting drama.

John Sweeney, who led the AFL-CIO for 14 years from 1995 to 2009, and headed one of the nation’s largest unions, the Service Employees International Union, for 15 years before that, died Feb. 1 at age 86 at his home in the Washington suburb of Bethesda, Maryland

Anyone seeking to understand Hopkins’ poetry, particularly its deep spiritual depth, will find “A Heart Lost in Wonder” indispensable.

The liturgy is not a spectacle to be observed but a prayerful event where Christians encounter Christ’s presence in their lives, Pope Francis said.

Asked about the role of U.S. Catholic journalists today, Pope Francis said, it is to promote unity and to “try to get people to talk to each other, reason together and seek the path of fraternity.”

Recognizing their welcome of and witness to Christ, Pope Francis has approved changing the liturgical feast of St. Martha to include her sister and brother, Mary and Lazarus, on the church’s universal calendar of feast days.

Supreme Knight Carl Anderson urged the pro-life movement to remain committed to four foundational principles: justice, truth, democracy and compassion.