It is unacceptable that a child’s right to life and a dignified childhood should be sacrificed to “the idols” of power, profit, ideology and nationalistic self-interest, Pope Francis told a group of world experts and leaders.

Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez of Philadelphia is calling for prayer, saying his “heart sank” after learning of a fatal air crash in that city Jan. 31, just two days after a midair collision between a commercial jet and an Army helicopter near a Washington airport killed 67.

How many of us are walking around with broken hearts because we won’t permit ourselves the medicine of weeping and fully feeling the things we’ve determinedly repressed because we want that illusion of strength?

After years of planning, St. John the Evangelist Church in Severna Park is undergoing extensive renovations that will give the house of worship a completely new look and an opportunity to highlight its patron saint.

The Xavier Society for the Blind is celebrating 125 years of helping generations of Catholics, either blind or vision-impaired, participate in worship through braille texts, large-type books and audio books.