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 questionnaire to gather feedback for next year’s Synod of Bishops on the family has been the source of some confusion since it was delivered to bishops’ conferences around the world in October. In preparation for the international meeting, the synod’s secretary general, Archbisho

Cardinal Peter Turkson on March 3 highlighted the importance of religious freedom because it concerns “each person’s freedom to live according to their own deeper understanding of the truth.” Cardinal Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, was speaking

“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