Oklahoma has approved public funding for what would be the nation’s first Catholic charter school. What could be the trade-offs in terms of autonomy and religious freedom?

A Reflection for Thursday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time, by Alessandra Rose

An Alabama priest disgraced after abandoning his parish to travel to Italy with an 18-year-old woman described himself as “married” to her in a Valentine’s Day letter.

While narrow nationalism fanned the fires of war, Father Willie Doyle, a WWI chaplain, often paid as much attention to wounded German soldiers as he did to those on his own side.

“For us, it’s like a miracle,” Msgr. Terrence Watanabe said about Maria Lanakila Catholic Church in the town of Lahaina being seemingly untouched by the fierce Maui wildfires.

A Reflection for Wednesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time, by Heather Trotta

Jim remembered everyone—even my mother whom he had never met or spoken with. A special occasion would not go by without a phone call or a handwritten note from Jim.

“Praise increases joy. Praise is like a ladder: it leads hearts upward,” Pope Francis said. “Praise elevates souls and defeats the temptation to give up.”

A prison warden in Mississippi hired nearly a dozen released model inmates to work as chaplains, counselors and teachers. Other prisons can follow suit—and Christian ministries can help.

By revisiting the various moments of grace from World Youth Day, we might identify some ways we still need to walk together if we are to make effective the pope’s call for a church that is “for all.”