ArcaMax

CHICAGO — The letter arrived in late July with the tone of the two before it, the ones that announced the Rev. David Ryan, a longtime Chicago-area priest, had been placed on leave amid allegations of child sexual abuse.

This one, like those previous, came with a sense of the somber, an acknowledgment of the severity of the accusations and a ...Read more

At 67 years old, Raimundo “Ray” Ricardo is one of the youngest members of a senior center in Miami Beach — but he still shows up almost every morning.

A retired industrial engineer, he found the Diener Family Center on Española Way about a year ago when he sat down for a free lunch. Now the Miami Beach native is a regular member and a ...Read more

BALTIMORE — When Heather Miller Rubens and Lora Hargrove met for the first time this year, they agreed they were doing so at a time of extraordinary dividedness, particularly for religious leaders.

Immigration, abortion and LGBTQ+ rights had long since split Americans into separate, often angry camps. Racial and economic inequality were well-...Read more

Q: I have been reading your comments on forgiveness. I sadly admit I am quick to anger and slow to forgive. A few years ago, a very beloved and trusted group that was everything to me betrayed my daughter by making false accusations, intimidating her and taking away a part of her livelihood. I still cannot let go of the hurt and anger this ...Read more

Victims of child sexual abuse linked to the Roman Catholic Baltimore Archdiocese will have a third chance to be seen and tell their stories.

On Monday, Judge Michelle Harner ordered a two-hour status conference for Oct. 6 at 1 p.m., meant to raise awareness of and understanding for sexual abuse victims of the Baltimore Archdiocese.

In February...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — A court has dismissed a lawsuit by a former state senator against the Idaho Department of Education that accused the department of infringing on his family’s freedom of religious expression.

Chris Trakel, a former senator from Caldwell who helped advocate for bills that would have allowed families to use taxpayer money for ...Read more

Pope Leo XIV is calling for the release of eight hostages in Haiti, including a 3-year-old boy and a longtime Irish missionary who remain in captivity after being abducted from a mountaintop orphanage by armed gangs in the middle of the night.

“I make a heartfelt appeal to all responsible parties to release the hostages immediately,” the ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — For nearly 70 years, a little-known tax code provision has served as a firewall between U.S. politics and its nonprofit sector.

Now, Minnesota nonprofit leaders say that wall is showing cracks — and if it falls, public trust could collapse with it.

At issue is the Johnson Amendment, a 1954 law named for then-Sen. Lyndon B. ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — The message for the dozens of volunteers who would soon be supporting immigrants at their court hearings was clear.

“We’re not there to obstruct or prevent any arrest,” said the Rev. Hung Nguyen, associate pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Logan Heights. “We’re there to accompany people.”

The orientation ...Read more

MIAMI -- The past two years have been rough for Christopher Saunders.

Saunders, originally from Ohio, moved to North Miami Beach in 2023 seeking a warmer climate to relieve his arthritis. Things were going fine, until costly car and rental bills forced him into chapter 13 bankruptcy. Around the same time, the rent on the 43-year-old’s less-...Read more

MIAMI — After months of requesting permission to hold religious services at Florida’s controversial detention center for migrants in the Everglades, the Archdiocese of Miami finally got an answer.

“I am pleased that our request to provide for the pastoral care of the detainees has been accommodated,” said Archdiocese of Miami Archbishop...Read more

Q: I do not believe in reincarnation. It is not comforting to think I would be back here after I die in a world where there is so much turmoil. Instead, I love the idea of my soul going back to God at the end of my life and then, when time here is over, my body will be reunited with my soul and I will live with God/Jesus for eternity in ...Read more

Lots of comments about our new, big mystery topic: Are we reincarnated into another life, or is this life the only one we will ever know?

Q: I’m a practicing Catholic. I follow most of their beliefs but have worked for years as a hospice nurse and could not fathom a Purgatory or a Hell. I believe God is all-forgiving and when we die, we ...Read more

One of the strongest proofs for the divine nature of the Bible is the way we turn to it in times of catastrophe. Unfortunately, one of the strongest refutations of the belief in a good and all-powerful God is the obvious fact that God allowed the catastrophe to occur.

The dilemma of evil in a world with a good, powerful God was eloquently ...Read more

How fortuitous or how planned that I have taken up the topic of reincarnation and sent out a survey to my dear readers to share their beliefs as to whether our souls are implanted in a new body after the death of our old one and given a chance to live a new embodied life.

Well, this week, on the occasion of his 90th birthday, Tenzin Gyatso, the...Read more

Thomas Jefferson’s first version of the Declaration of Independence told the truth about America that we would all be well served to remember and exalt this Fourth of July. He wrote,

“We hold these truths to be sacred, that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable ...Read more