Childhood memories for Felipe de Jesus Abrego include celebrating each Dec. 2 with his grandmother at the tomb of two U.S. women religious buried in the local cemetery.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s baldacchino or baldachin is one of the most noticeable features in the interior of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The massive bronze structure was built to signify the importance of the main altar and the tomb of St. Peter, which is directly under the main altar.

When COVID-19 restrictions meant three newly-arrived religious women couldn’t count on the usual ways of meeting their new Dundalk-area parishioners, they improvised.

Heroic trust in the Holy Spirit and a firm resolve to move forward “on mission” are at the heart of the Archdiocese of Detroit’s transition to “families of parishes,” Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron said Nov. 22 in a new pastoral note.

A move by the Department of Justice to expand how it carries out federal death sentences — to include electrocution, gas or firing squads along with lethal injections –was sharply criticized by Catholic anti-death penalty activists.