“The targeting of this faith-based agency and broader attacks on the Catholic Church should deeply concern Catholics, religious liberty advocates and all people of good will,” Kerry Alys Robinson, president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA, told Religion News Service in a statement, referring to Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley.

Sixty people allege in new lawsuits filed in Missouri that they were abused as children by dozens of Catholic priests, nuns and others, and the man who now leads the Archdiocese of Omaha, Nebraska, is among the accused.

Hundreds of Mexicans have fled drug cartel violence in southern Chiapas state to neighboring Guatemala, causing the bishop of a Mexico border diocese to ask local authorities: "How long will they live trying to hide a sad and painful reality that we carry day by day?" The trend is a reversal of past decades, when Indigenous Guatemalans fleeing genocide and civil war sought shelter in Mexico.

The Archdiocese of Seattle's 136 parishes have officially became 60 parish families as part of Partners in the Gospel, the archdiocese's strategic pastoral planning initiative. The July 1 move comes after two years of planning and consultation with clergy, parish and school staffs and the laity, the archdiocese said. Each parish family will be led by a pastor or pastoral coordinator, and many will have at least one parochial vicar.

Ethiopian Cardinal Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel of Addis Ababa has expressed deep sorrow at the deadly landslide in Gofa Zone, in the southern part of Ethiopia, where the death toll has reportedly reached 257. Humanitarian agencies, including those that are faith-based, have scrambled to rush emergency relief to Kencho Shacha Gozdi, a remote village in the Gofa Zone, following the first landslide that struck July 22.

Catholic immigration and anti-trafficking advocates are expressing grave concern over alleged systemic sexual abuse of unaccompanied migrant children by staff of a private contractor for the U.S. government. The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit July 17 against Southwest Key Programs, an Austin, Texas-based nonprofit that provides housing for unaccompanied minors, as well as services for youth, family and job seekers.

The U.S. government will invest $240 million in salmon and steelhead hatcheries in the Pacific Northwest to boost declining fish populations and support the treaty-protected fishing rights of Native American tribes.

President Joe Biden's call for unity, his care for the poor, the environment and true peace in our fractured world make him an example of what public service ought to be, writes contributor Msgr. Paul Garrity.

This year marks two anniversaries in Jeannette Piccard's life: July 29 is the 50th anniversary of her ordination to the Episcopal priesthood, and Oct. 23 is the 90th anniversary of her flight into the stratosphere.

If Jesuit schools are to avoid corporatization and make mission- and science-based greenhouse gas reduction commitments, they should require substantive formation in Catholic social teaching for senior administrators and trustees.