With so many people left unemployed or in a precarious position because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pope Francis launched a fund aimed specifically at helping people in Rome struggling economically in the wake of the crisis.

“The Catholic voice as a group, as a family needs to be heard,” said Father Cornelius Ejiogu, a member of the Baltimore-based Society of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart, best known as the Josephites.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference and a few Catholic Charities agencies have joined more than 30 other religious groups, states and a group of Congress members urging the Supreme Court to protect Philadelphia’s faith-based foster care.

One of the seven Catholic peace activists convicted on charges related to entering a naval base in southeastern Georgia and symbolically damaging weapons systems will not return to prison for her role in the protest.

The Knights of Columbus called on the nation’s Catholics to participate in a novena beginning June 7 to pray for national unity and an end to racism amid the unrest following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.

Catholics are upset about a directive from China’s communist government asking priests to “preach on patriotism” as a condition for reopening liturgical services, suspended earlier this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The Holy Father said that he wanted to congratulate me for the words I am saying,” Bishop Seitz said,

Observing with great concern the social unrest unfolding in the United States, Pope Francis said no one can claim to defend the sanctity of every human life while turning a blind eye to racism and exclusion.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump visited the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington June 2 shortly before he was expected to sign an executive order at the White House to expand U.S. support for international religious freedom efforts.

Twin Cities-area Catholics are among Minnesotans still processing the horror and tragedy, and grappling with their role — and the Catholic Church’s — both in fighting racism and rebuilding the city.