The coronavirus pandemic has drawn well-deserved attention to nurses and midwives, who are among “the saints next door,” dedicated to helping people in some of the most joyful or painful moments of their lives, Pope Francis said.

God is love. He loved us first – and loves us forever. He knows us best, seeing deep within us to all we are and all we can be. He sees us and loves us fully. He holds us – and the past, present and future – in his hands.

Catholic bishops have distanced themselves from a letter in which several prominent Catholic clergy warned there were attempts to use the COVID-19 pandemic to create a “world government beyond all control.”

In oral arguments May 11, the Supreme Court examined, and seemed divided about, laws governing church and state in its look at two California Catholic schoolteacher firings where the teachers claimed they had been victims of job discrimination.

The arts center is part of the capital campaign’s Phase III. It will cost approximately $10 million.