All sin is social sin because all sin implicates all persons in a given community. This season of Lent is the time for Catholic Christians to demonstrate to the world that reconciliation can only come through repentance — not of the “nation’s” sins, but of our own.

In this continuing series on the origins of Catholicism in the 50 states, the Catholic history of the mid-Atlantic offers a particularly revealing case. In New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Catholic life took shape unevenly, shaped as much by law and political culture as by migration and missionary effort.

Servant of God Thea Bowman’s canonization cause is moving ahead, with a Mass and ceremony marking the closure of the cause’s diocesan phase to be held Feb. 9 at the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle in Jackson, Miss.

Restoration is set to begin at the grotto of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem for the first time in 600 years.

Following a successful tour in Europe, a newly developed English version of a French musical about Bernadette Soubirous will open in Chicago Feb. 19 before touring nationwide.