Carol Zimmermann

Many Catholic dioceses and archdioceses across the country — which closed their parish doors for a time at the start of the pandemic last year and have gradually opened them to limited occupancy in the past year — are getting ready to fully reopen on the feast of Pentecost, May 23.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has signed into law a bill requiring death-row inmates to choose between the electric chair or the firing squad for their executions if lethal injection drugs are not available.

An Indiana trial court May 7 dismissed the lawsuit of a former Catholic high school teacher in Indianapolis who said he was fired in 2019 because of his same-sex marriage.

The Biden administration's May 5 announcement that it supports waiving intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines — as a means to expand the vaccine's production and distribution — is a move the Vatican has been suggesting.

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said April 27 that fully vaccinated people who wear masks can safely attend many indoor events such as worship services.

Msgr. Kieran Harrington, vicar of communications for the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York, has been named national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States.

President Joe Biden signed an executive order April 9 announcing the formation of a commission to look into possible reforms to the Supreme Court, including expansions and term limits.

On World Health Day, April 7, a new group of 31 U.S. Catholic organizations encouraged people to get the COVID-19 vaccine as an act of charity and solidarity with others.

The Supreme Court's March 22 announcement that it would hear a government appeal to reinstate the death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev brings the death penalty issue in front of the Biden administration.

The Jesuit order is pledging to raise $100 million for descendants of people their order once enslaved and sold as a way to make reparations.

President Joe Biden addressed the nation in a speech from the White House Feb. 22, the day the nation reached, and then passed, what he called the "truly grim, heartbreaking milestone" of 500,000 U.S. deaths from COVID-19.

"Authentic healing and authentic reconciliation require a community to commit itself to the long, slow, painful work of justice," says Fr. Bryan Massingale of Fordham University. For Catholic colleges and universities, this means a thorough "curricula review and overhaul," he says. It also means faculty and board members should reflect diversity.

No one needed to tell the Catholic college and university leaders, attending their annual conference virtually this year, that these different times are affecting their day-to-day operations and what they might do going forward.

The Supreme Court will not hear two scheduled arguments this term on immigration examining policies put in place by the Trump administration that Biden is likely to roll back.

The leaders of two U.S. bishops' committees applauded President Joe Biden's executive order reversing a policy of the previous administration that excluded unauthorized immigrants from the census count.

Long before she burst into the public spotlight delivering her inauguration poem, Amanda Gorman got a standing ovation from fellow parishioners of St. Brigid Church in Los Angeles for reciting a poem she wrote about the parish.

The over 30 faith leaders who joined the online service also prayed for President Joe Biden, members of Congress, the nation's front-line workers, victims of COVID-19 and immigrants. 

In his inaugural address Jan. 20, President Joe Biden said he is committed with his "whole soul" to bringing this country together.

Although the Supreme Court cleared the way for the execution of Dustin Higgs Jan. 15, two justices made their objections known loud and clear in dissents that called into question the speed of these decisions and even the constitutionality of capital punishment.

The Supreme Court Jan. 14 cleared the path for the federal government to execute Corey Johnson after denying his two last-minute appeals.