National News

Faith leaders push administration to extend protections for immigrants

Bishop Joe S. Vasquez of Austin, Texas, told the U.S. government Oct. 17 that current TPS recipients from El Salvador and Honduras "cannot return to safely to their home country at this time" and urged their TPS status be extended.

Priest resigns as consultant to U.S. bishops after letter to pope

UPDATED - A Franciscan priest quit the USCCB Committee on Doctrine after his letter told Pope Francis that "a chronic confusion seems to mark your pontificate." The bishops' president said debates expressed as opposition "are not always helpful."

Faith leaders: Christian politicians who hurt migrants, hurt Jesus

A crowd of more than two dozen religious leaders gathered outside of Congress to primarily call on politicians to pass -- and pass soon -- legislation to help youth who were brought to the U.S. illegally as minors.

Mass formally opens canonization cause for Black Elk

Nicholas W. Black Elk was described as someone who merged the Lakota and Catholic culture in a way "that drew him deeper into the mystery of Christ's love and the church."

Senate confirms Notre Dame professor as federal judge

The Senate confirmed Amy Coney Barrett, a Notre Dame law professor, to a lifetime appointment as a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit.

New York prelates bring solidarity, hope, material help to Puerto Rico

UPDATED - Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York and Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn, New York, made a one-day trip to Puerto Rico to show solidarity, bring hope and provide some material help.

Cardinal Wuerl urges Catholics to confront, help overcome sin of racism

"Intolerance and racism will not go away without a concerted awareness and effort on everyone's part. Regularly we must renew the commitment to drive it out of our hearts, our lives and our community."

‘Horrendous attack weighs on all our hearts,’ says cardinal

News reports about the attack, which left at least eight people dead and 11 others injured, "are too preliminary to understand fully what has happened," the cardinal said, "but it grieves me deeply that we must again respond to such acts of terror."

Dominican sister heard vocational call at eucharistic adoration

There is something about the quiet time in prayer that has spoken powerfully to Sister Anna Wray over the years making her understand God a little more and also get a clearer sense of her path in life.

For seminarian, God wrote straight with crooked lines — or headlines

Anthony Federico is one of three seminarians from the Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut, studying at Theological College in Washington. But he's the only one of them to inadvertently create an internet outcry.