It was no surprise that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted on all 30 counts in the Boston Marathon bomber trial on April 8; in an opening statement, his attorneys had conceded his guilt in the April 2013 horror at the finish line. The State of Massachusetts bars the use of capital punishment, but Tsarn
In the run-up to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, Pope Francis decried on April 9 humanity’s ability to systematically exterminate its own brothers and sisters. He asked that God’s mercy “help all of us, in the love for the truth and justice, to heal every wound and
A delegation representing Catholic organizations in Nigeria offered words of comfort and pledged help for Nigerian refugees who fled to neighboring Cameroon because of a violent insurgency. Led by Bishop Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji of Umuahia, chairman of Caritas Nigeria, the delegation visited Minawao Ca
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees reported that 866,000 asylum applications were registered in industrialized countries last year, the highest number of claims in 22 years and a 45 percent increase over 2013. • Pope Francis prayed for the repose of the souls of the 150 passengers and
The number of new Catholic marriages in the United States is at its lowest point since 1965. Statistics from Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate show that while there were over 420,000 Catholic weddings in 1970, that number has dwindled to just over 154,000 in