Camillo Barone

"We need to do more than talk," Fr. Gary Graf said. "We need to engage people in conversation. We need to step into the middle. We need to mediate in a sense."

In the darkest minutes and in the long days after a shooter killed two children and injured more than 20 people, prayer, fellowship and the simple presence of one another has comforted families.

In this tense environment, both faith-based advocates and labor leaders have found themselves working in tandem.

A coalition of Catholic clergy and sisters filed suit Nov. 19 after federal officials blocked them from entering the Broadview detention center to offer pastoral care and Communion.

"We decided from day one not to shut down any ministry, because we do not live in fear — we have faith," the pastor said.

The Fordham Pope Francis Global Poverty Report, compiled by researchers at Fordham University's Graduate Program in International Political Economy and Development, paints a mixed but increasingly polarized picture of human deprivation.

In Chicago's Mexican neighborhood of Pilsen, fear runs deep and families have been torn apart by ICE. Some immigrants have found a "second family" at St. Pius V, where priests have been supporting immigrant parishioners.

Twenty cardinal electors and influential cardinal non-electors spoke to NCR after Pope Leo XIV's election. In Part 2 of this series, the conclave opens and the cardinals make their crucial choice.

After Pope Leo XIV's election, NCR spoke with cardinal electors and influential cardinal non-electors who witnessed the inner dynamics of the conclave and the pre-conclave days. They shared what ultimately led them to Leo.

Even doing laundry is a risk for many recently arrived Venezuelans on Chicago's South Side, where ICE patrols have reshaped daily life. One small parish offers families support.

More than 2,000 faithful gathered to pray outside the Broadview ICE Detention Center Nov. 1, but the group's main request — to bring Communion to detainees — was rejected by federal immigration officials.

 Prelate also views preventing access to detainees as a serious pastoral and constitutional concern as well as a matter of religious freedom. 
 

Kerry Alys Robinson reflected on Catholic Charities USA's 115th anniversary gathering in Puerto Rico, Pope Leo's first apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te and how CCUSA is navigating the moral demands of the present.

In 2025, rapid changes to federal immigration policy have unsettled long-established processes and forced organizations like the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, known as CLINIC, to adapt quickly.

A group of Catholics who marched to a Chicago immigration processing center and were prevented from giving Communion to detainees said they are not about to back down.

Founded nearly 50 years ago, the nonprofit ministry aims to cultivate what it calls "communion, participation, and mission," training lay leaders while stressing the practical application of Catholic social teaching.

In the people Catholic Charities serves, J. Antonio Fernández sees a reflection of his own immigrant journey. That empathy informs his work as he assumes leadership in New York during a period of financial uncertainty.

The UK-based anti-landmines group was honored with the 2025 Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, the world's largest annual humanitarian award for nonprofits.

As the popemobile rolled through St. Peter's Square Sept. 24, the choir from New York's Church of St. Paul the Apostle performed an original hymn for Pope Leo XIV. Its words were drawn from the pope's inaugural homily.

Sen. Dick Durbin will not accept a Catholic award recognizing his immigration work, Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich said Sept. 30. The announcement follows objections from some bishops over Durbin's support for abortion rights.