Catholic News Service

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has called on President Donald Trump to ease the "onerous" contraceptive mandate of the Department of Health and Human Services under the Affordable Care Act because it violates religious freedom.

The remains of Fr. Solanus Casey were exhumed Aug. 1 as part of the canonical process that precedes the saintly Capuchin Franciscan friar's beatification Mass in November. The purpose of the exhumation, according to the Capuchin Province of St. Joseph and the Archdiocese of Detroit, was to both officially identify the body and to collect relics that will be used to venerate Casey after he is beatified Nov. 18.

For more than 900 years, the Sovereign Order of the Knights of Malta has seen its fair share of victories, defeats and institutional changes. However, those challenges did not prepare them for the intense media scrutiny that followed a very public crisis in the order at the beginning of the year.

A heat wave in Israel and the Palestinian territories in July and near-record electricity usage — where it was available — are indications that, despite the continuous political tensions here, Christians, Muslims and Jews are facing a common enemy that needs to be confronted in a united manner.