Norwegian Bishop Erik Varden preached a series of meditations for the first Lenten retreat of Pope Leo XIV and the Roman Curia, reflecting on the splendor of truth and the Christian idea of freedom, as well as sin, abuse and Church corruption.

The Diocese of Syracuse, N.Y., has formally closed out its long-running bankruptcy, funding a victims’ trust with more than $176 million to settle claims.

The U.S. bishops and a Catholic immigration advocacy group were among those who offered their support to a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship.

An ecumenical group of Minnesota clergy, including a Jesuit priest, filed a lawsuit Feb. 23 against the Department of Homeland Security over being barred from giving spiritual care to those being detained at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in the Twin Cities area.

The first commissioned bust of Pope Leo XIV by famed Catholic sculptor Timothy Schmalz was installed in Chicago Feb. 22 at Catholic Theological Union, the graduate theology school where the pope is an alumnus. The bust is one of only three Pope Leo sculptures by Schmalz, so far. They are all located in the Americas.

Church governance depends more on holy, prayerful leaders than on bureaucratic expertise, Norwegian Bishop Erik Varden of Trondheim said during the Roman Curia’s Lenten retreat.

Eight hundred years after his death, the bones of St. Francis of Assisi have been placed on public display for the first extended public viewing in history, drawing hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to the hilltop town.

The text of Pope Leo XIV’s introduction to his book “Peace Be with You!” published by HarperCollins and available in bookstores in the United States and English-speaking countries starting Feb. 24.

A statue of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American saint, will be put in a public park on Chicago’s Near West Side. It will replace a Christopher Columbus statue that was removed during the pandemic.

A Catholic legal network and other opponents of the Trump administration’s suspension of immigration from 75 countries are calling into question a key claim the government made in support of that policy.