U.S. Catholic bishops condemned President Donald Trump’s social media post that showed the faces of former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama superimposed on cartoon apes. Trump has since deleted the Feb. 5 Truth Social post, said he did not intend to post a depiction of the Obamas as apes, and condemned the…

Pope Leo XIV approved the new statutes of the Pontifical International Marian Academy, an organization founded 80 years ago to promote and coordinate Mariological and Marian studies worldwide. According to the Vatican Press Office, the Holy Father approved the new statutes during an audience with Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, substitute for general affairs of the…

“The Hong Kong High Court’s decision to sentence Jimmy Lai to 20 years is an unjust and tragic conclusion to this case,” said U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a Feb. 9 statement. Jimmy Lai, Catholic entrepreneur and media tycoon, was sentenced on Feb. 9 to 20 years in prison over what Chinese officials…

The Ukrainian bishop of Kyiv said he discussed faith and the plight of the Ukrainian people with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a Feb. 4 meeting at the State Department. “It was a very good meeting, because first of all, I met him as with a brother of faith,” Bishop Vitaliy Kryvytskyi, SDB,…

Santa Fe, New Mexico, Archbishop John C. Wester said while nations may regulate their borders, Catholic teaching requires that all policies and rhetoric uphold the inherent dignity of migrants and avoid using Scripture as a political weapon. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson had put forth a biblical defense of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts…

New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch is naming Cardinal Timothy Dolan to co-lead the NYPD’s chaplain’s unit. Dolan, who recently retired as archbishop of New York, will serve alongside Rev. A.R. Bernard, pastor and founder of the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, according to a Feb. 9 press release from the archdiocese.  Tisch is…

In spite of opposition from Catholic bishops and patient advocate groups, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Feb. 6 signed a bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide in the Empire State. Assisted suicide is already legal in California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Washington, D.C. Hochul, a Catholic,…