US & Canada

In a week when Immigrant and Custom Enforcement agent (ICE) refused to allow delegations to offer Holy Communion to migrants being held in detention centres on more than one occasion, Pope Leo appeal for their rights to be respected. Speaking to journalists in Castel Gandolfo, yesterday evening, the Pope said that "many people who have lived for years and years" in the US, "never causing problems... Read More

Up to 2,000 worshippers and 50 priests, women religious and deacons came to ask Immigrants and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to allow a delegation to offer Communion to detainees inside Broadview detention centre in Illinois on Saturday. "The answer was no." A Roman Catholic Mass led by the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership (CSPL) held on Saturday morning outside the ICE detention centre i... Read More

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: On Saturday, Catholic leaders from across Appalachia looked to words written half a century ago to consider how the Church should tackle the current exploitation of the environment and workers. Three bishops convened 150 Catholic and labour leaders at the Diocese of Pittsburgh to look to the future as well as mark the 50th anniversary of the Appalachian bishops' pastoral ... Read More

Chicago is being particularly hard hit by Donald Trump's crackdown on migrants. More than 3,000 people have been arrested in ICE raids over the past month. In response, Cardinal Blaise Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago issued the following statement last Tuesday: My dear brothers and sisters, today I speak to you as your shepherd, but also as a fellow pilgrim who shares the pain of many of our immigra... Read More

On 26 September 2025, US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth announced that the twenty soldiers who participated in the 1890 massacre of hundreds of Lakota men, women, and children at Wounded Knee would retain the Medals of Honour awarded to them. He declared the decision final, stating: "Their place in our nation's history is no longer up for debate." Secretary Hegseth further stated that US soldie... Read More

Some 50 peacemakers, including members of the Pax Christi USA National Council held a prayer service and vigil in support of immigrants outside of the headquarters of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in Washington, DC on Friday, 3 October. The service was sponsored by Pax Christi USA, Pax Christi Metro DC - Baltimore, the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, Franciscan Action Network, ... Read More

During a private audience at the Vatican today, the Hope Border Institute and Bishop Mark J Seitz presented Pope Leo XIV with messages from members of the immigrant community in the United States. The delegation included Dylan Corbett, executive director of the Hope Border Institute; Most Rev Mark J Seitz, Bishop of El Paso and chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee... Read More

For the start of National Migration Week, (September 22-28) the chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Migration, Bishop Mark J Seitz has invited the faithful to join the 'Cabrini Pledge' to be guardians of hope for migrants and refugees. Named after St Frances Xavier Cabrini, patron saint of immigrants and the first US citizen to be canonized, the pledge was launched "as ... Read More

I was living in New York in Spring 1968 and recall the sense of threat that April on hearing the sound of police sirens going up to Harlem after Martin Luther King was shot, and then news of Robert Kennedy's killing just two months later. Assassinations lurk in America's DNA like a deadly mutant gene. It is hard to predict, or describe, their impact on a society. Whatever anyone thinks of Charlie ... Read More

Catholic bishops and Church leaders in the United States have responded with grief and appeals for peace following the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who died yesterday, 10 September, at the age of 31, after being shot during a speaking event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Kirk leaves behind his wife and two young children. His assassination comes amid a series of violent... Read More

The following statement is offered by the Pax Christi USA Gun Violence Prevention Working Group. Our faith tells us that every life is sacred. But the lives of children seem particularly blessed given the incredible potential that resides in each beautiful soul. This is one of the many reasons why the indiscriminate and horrific shooting of the children and adults at the Annunciation Catholic Scho... Read More

Cardinal Vincent Nichols has written to the Most Reverend Bernard A Hebda, Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, to express his deepest sympathy and prayerful solidarity in the aftermath of the "tragic and senseless" shooting at the Annunciation Church in the US city. Two young pupils were killed and 18 others injured in the attack on Wednesday, 27 August. Cardinal Nichols, President of the B... Read More

Pope Leo XIV has expressed his profound sorrow over the murder of two children and the injuring of 17 others at the Annunciation Catholic school in the US city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, yesterday. In a message sent to Archbishop Bernard Hebda of Minneapolis, the Pope expressed his "heartfelt condolences and the assurance of spiritual closeness to all those affected by this terrible tragedy, es... Read More

The Archbishop of Los Angeles, Most Rev José H Gomez, has got together with local business leaders to launch the Family Assistance Program - a new fund aimed at helping families affected by recent immigration raids, Los Angeles Diocesan paper Angelus reports. Speaking at a press conference at St Patrick's Catholic Church yesterday, Archbishop Gomez said: "This program will provide direct support ... Read More