Religion News Service

Signs of the Times: Will President Joe Biden be denied Communion by the U.S. bishops' conference because of his position on abortion? This is a stupid story for canonical, theological and political reasons.

Faith-based refugee resettlement groups are celebrating President Joe Biden's decision to raise the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. for the remainder of the federal fiscal year to 62,500, acknowledging they need to rebuild their capacity.

Commentary: Hindu Scripture extols the virtue of not killing animals for food. That virtue is also supported by science: Vegetarian diets are far better for preserving a healthy planet than are meat-heavy diets.

Signs of the Times: What the bishops haven't said on racial justice has kept them from being a more prophetic voice in American life. And the reluctance to take on racial issues has deep roots in Catholic history.

Appreciation: In the wilderness of my gang-involved teens, DMX was a voice unlike any other, piercing my defenses and opening me up to the work of God that would eventually convert me into a devoted follower of Jesus.

Signs of the Times: Removing American troops from Afghanistan is the right decision, one that conforms to the fundamental principle of the just war theory that you should not fight an unwinnable war.

A religious freedom watchdog is urging the State Department to name four additional countries to its list of the worst religious liberty offenders.

In an online message to grassroots community organizers on April 15, Pope Francis criticized a modern form of politician that he said "turns their back on the poor," and he laid out his vision for a "politics with a capital P."

Signs of the Times: Fr. Tom Reese offers some ideas on improving liturgy, to get the conversation going on how to develop good liturgy that is supported by a consensus within the community.

Signs of the Times: Although charged with overseeing liturgy for the church, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has done little to support badly needed liturgical reform.

Six Catholic elementary schools in the Los Angeles Archdiocese are closing at the end of the 2020-21 school year due to financial hardships heightened by COVID-19.

At events in 14 cities across the U.S., an estimated 5,000 people demonstrated in support of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders March 28 after attacks on people of Asian descent in the Atlanta area this month.

Signs of the Times: Joe Biden will soon be the first Catholic president to nominate an ambassador to the Holy See, something that in earlier days would have been anathema to American Protestants.

As Luz Gallegos hosted a workshop March 18 informing agricultural workers about the COVID-19 vaccine, she held up two photos — one of her late uncle, a missionary Catholic priest, and the other of a beloved local pastor. Both died of COVID-19.

A group of clergy and activists met with Sen. Chris Coons to show support for the sweeping LGBTQ rights bill known as the Equality Act, ahead of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the bill.

Since the Catholic Church forbids same-sex marriage as a sacrament, some Catholics, and even some bishops, have discussed having a blessing for such couples as an alternative. But the Vatican said no.

People from a number of Native American nations came to support the Apache people in their fight to save Oak Flat, a sacred site that's at risk of being turned over to an Australian mining venture.

Pope Francis' pilgrimage to Iraq helped to show pastoral solidarity with his suffering Christian flock, call for peace and reconciliation for the Iraqi people and establish improved relations between Christians and Muslims.

For more than a century, Catholic social teaching has advocated not for a minimum wage but for a living wage for workers. Sadly, however, the U.S. Congress cannot even increase the minimum wage because of parliamentary rules and Republican opposition.

Leaders at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops are discouraging Catholics from using the new Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine if given a choice, citing the use of cells with a distant link to abortion in the development of the vaccine.