CHICAGO — Pope Leo XIV made his most important U.S. appointment to date Thursday, naming a fellow south suburbanite as the next archbishop of New York to lead one of the biggest archdioceses as it navigates relations with the Trump administration and its immigration crackdown.

Joliet Bishop Ronald Hicks will replace the retiring Cardinal ...Read more

Pope Leo XIV has announced fellow Chicagoan, Bishop Ronald Hicks of Joliet, Ill., will serve as the next archbishop of New York, replacing Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who has led the state’s 2.8 million Catholics for more than 15 years.

“I am grateful to Pope Leo for appointing such a splendid priest and bishop to serve you, and have pledged to...Read more

WASHINGTON — In an Iowa swing district, Democrat Sarah Trone Garriott recounts how her work as a hospital chaplain and a Lutheran minister set her on a path to public service.

In deep-red Alaska, the Rev. Matt Schultz says his run as a Democrat for the state’s at-large House seat is part of his calling to “feed the hungry, comfort the ...Read more

Sen. Ted Budd offered an unusually blunt stance on a former lawmaker and fellow North Carolina Republican after allegations surfaced that Budd was blocking the Senate confirmation hearing of former Rep. Mark Walker to oversee international religious freedom.

Budd told McClatchy in an exclusive interview Wednesday that he’s not blocking ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Sen. Thom Tillis said Tuesday he believes that the Senate needs to move on from the nomination of former Rep. Mark Walker for ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.

Tillis’ comments to McClatchy come as Walker and his allies have put pressure on senators through social media and news outlets to get his ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Leaders of a secretive religious group in Southern California's Inland Empire region have been charged with murder in two separate cases — the disappearance of longtime member Emilio Ghanem in Redlands and the 2010 death of 4-year-old Timothy Thomas in Colton.

Ghanem vanished in May 2023, just weeks after he decided to part ...Read more

OAKLAND, Calif. — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland proposed a new $242 million settlement with hundreds of parishioners who claim they were sexually abused for years at the hands of local clergy, a plan that drew immediate pushback from the victims’ attorneys, who say it doesn’t go far enough.

The proposal, filed Thursday in U.S. ...Read more

NORFOLK, Va. — The Masjid Ash-Shura mosque on Colley Avenue in Norfolk was vandalized between Sunday night and Monday morning with a series of black crosses spray-painted along the side of the building, but a group of volunteers quickly came together to help clean it off.

Police are in possession of a video that shows one man, at some point ...Read more

BEIRUT — With a rainbow adorning the early morning sky, tens of thousands converged on Beirut's waterfront on Tuesday to attend public prayers led by Pope Leo XIV — the culmination of an international debut that saw the U.S.-born pontiff repeatedly call for peace in a time of increasing war.

Addressing a crowd of an estimated 150,000 people...Read more

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar met with Pope Leo XIV on Friday at the Vatican as part of a delegation visit from Ukraine that’s asking the church to help return more than 19,000 children who have been abducted during the ongoing war with Russia.

Klobuchar said she spoke with the first American pope for 20 minutes. They talked about the missing ...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As Border Patrol agents fan out of Charlotte and fear lingers from days of federal immigration enforcement across the region, Bishop Michael Martin is urging Catholics to confront the moment through the lens of faith, not politics.

Half of the diocese’s roughly 565,000 Catholics are Hispanic. Many stayed home from Mass, ...Read more

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and first lady MK Pritzker met with Pope Leo XIV in Rome on Wednesday, where they discussed the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and the two formally invited the pope to visit Chicago, the governor’s office said.

“It was an honor for MK and me to meet with @Pontifex — a son of Illinois — to ...Read more

NEW YORK — After enduring fire, flood, recession, a pandemic and changing times, a Brooklyn church still stands to celebrate its 170th anniversary on Sunday.

Much as visitors to Red Hook experience today, the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s clock tower was among the first sights immigrants spotted arriving in New York Harbor, said ...Read more

White House border adviser Tom Homan lambasted the Catholic Church on Friday over its stance against the Trump administration's mass deportations.

"The Catholic Church is wrong, I'm sorry," Homan told reporters outside the White House. "I'm saying it not only as the border czar, I'm saying it as a Catholic."

Homan described himself as a "...Read more