Jean Bethke Elshtain, an ethicist, scholar and author, died on Aug. 11 in Nashville at age 72. • Calling the program “deeply needed” by many, U.S. Agriculture Department undersecretary Kevin Concannon expressed his gratitude on Aug. 19 to Catholic leaders for championing the Supplem

U.S. warships steamed toward the Black Sea on a “routine deployment” as the Russian military solidified its hold on the Crimean peninsula on March 7. With Russian soldiers encircling Ukraine military outposts, a hastily reconstituted Crimean parliament, in a further provocation, voted to

Pope Francis has done it again, generating a global media frenzy with just a few words that referred to the church and its relationship with gay and lesbian people. In a recorded interview with Italian media published on March 5, Pope Francis said that while the church believes “matrimony is b

A cease-fire that seemed to offer a chance for a peaceful resolution to months-long conflict in the world’s newest nation, South Sudan, has unraveled. Intermittent fighting has continued since the cease-fire agreement was signed on Jan. 23. But now in Malakal, a key city in an oil-producing re

“The church in the United States has a moral and ethical imperative to protect human dignity and must address the problem of mass incarceration in our nation,” the leaders of Christian Churches Together in the U.S.A. said in a statement issued on Feb. 7 in Newark, N.J. The coalition incl

Cardinal Kasper says church could in very specific cases tolerate a second union.