Patricia Lefevere

Perspective: From June 2-5, Britons will enjoy a four-day extravaganza marking Queen Elizabeth's 70 years as sovereign — the longest reign by a monarch in British history. I for one will be watching in a spirit of thanksgiving.

During the 1983 World Council of Churches' Sixth World Assembly, Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu said that during interrogations and while under house arrest, "I have been physically buoyed by your prayers." 

A French priest started Pueri Cantores during World War I. More than 70,000 young singers — including members of the American Federation Pueri Cantores — now participate in the youth choral program organizers hope instills respect for liturgical music.

Hans Küng died April 6 at his home in Tübingen, Germany, at age 93. Few men throughout Christendom have had as much to say or had their work seen by as many Christians as the Swiss theologian and Catholic priest.

Appreciation: Scores of friends of Fr. John Battista Giuliani gathered recently on Zoom for a ceremony of remembrance and gratitude. Beyond his ministry at the Grange, Giuliani was best known for his art.

Commentary: The most influential lay person in the history of American Catholicism may not be a household name or even well known in every Catholic institution, but some 150 houses of hospitality carry on in Dorothy Day's wake.

Linda Polk, a retired teacher, social worker and longtime advocate of prison reform, calls felonism any "prejudice, discrimination or antagonism directed against someone who has been suspected or convicted of a felony in the belief that they are inferior."

The Catholic Campus Ministry Association held a weeklong training event at Seton Hall University, connecting new campus ministers and veterans for sessions on evangelization, social justice and community.

Fr. Gary Hayes was among 25 survivors of clergy sex abuse and their supporters who sat in a closed circle with four cardinals and St. Paul-Minneapolis Archbishop Harry Flynn at a meeting of U.S. bishops in Dallas in June 2002, unafraid to tell the assembled eminences that their draft document on protecting children from predatory clergy was "totally inadequate."

Before he left for a Trappist abbey, Merton spent three terms at St. Bonaventure, whose campus stretches to the Allegheny foothills, where he climbed frequently to find silence and prayer.

This Nov. 11, at 11 a.m., marks the centenary of the war's end. Longtime NCR contributor Patricia Lefevere recalls her uncle's service and the history there is to learn about the "Great War."

An odd pair of different ages, races and denominations, they seem a match on moral issues. What might a meeting of Martin Luther King and Thomas Merton have looked like in 1968?

Speaking at an event at Seton Hall University celebrating Pope Francis' anniversary and his relation to labor interests, Cardinal Joseph Tobin pointed to himself as ample proof that the Catholic Church has long supported its working men and women.

Havana, Cuba: I joined Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister and 117 other tourists who had long wanted to see the beautiful land and to learn why it had been so difficult to visit for nearly all our lives.

Pioneers: At a recent gathering at Yale Divinity School, people who knew Frs. Henri Nouwen and Thomas Merton shared their impressions with 170-some people looking deeper into where spiritual life was leading them. For one, the priests wrote their books at a time when the word "spirituality" wasn't prominent in our language -- especially in the church.

The Boston Globe's Spotlight team reports on the shrouded lives of Catholic priests' sons and daughters, pained by a past they have had to keep in the dark.