The collapse of two buildings in Philadelphia’s center city June 5 that left six people dead and more than a dozen injured drew the attention of Catholic leaders, including those at the Vatican. Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, wrote a letter June 6 to Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput expressing sympathy for the victims and pledging prayers.

Pope Francis ditched a 1,250-word prepared speech to students saying it would be “a tad boring” to read out loud and opted instead to just quickly hit the high points and spend the rest of the time answering people’s questions.

Until May 21, Father Andrew Switzer had a clean record. Then he got himself arrested. It happened in St. Louis during a rally by the United Mine Workers of America protesting the actions of Peabody Energy, the world’s largest coal producer. The 33-year-old priest, two years out of the seminary, said it was the right thing to do two days after Pentecost even as the arrest was pre-arranged with local police.

Congo is losing a generation to war over diamonds and other minerals in the country’s eastern regions, said the president of the nation’s bishops’ conference.

Those who suffer are brothers and sisters Catholics must pray for, not cases to be analyzed or examples to be used in debates, Pope Francis said in a morning homily.

Like it was yesterday, Vanna Slaughter pulls from memory the details of what was happening when Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc., known as CLINIC, was created — 25 years ago. When the U.S. Catholic bishops’ conference established CLINIC as a legal services adjunct to the more policy-focused Migration and Refugee Services, the immediate goal was to provide legal support to Catholic agencies that were assisting with a new immigration law that was helping millions of people legalize their status.

In Venezuela, sporadic shortages of basic goods can turn a roll of toilet paper into a rare commodity; add bread and wine to the list of scarce products. Catholic leaders in the South American country have advised priests to conserve what supplies they have as they search for an alternative supply to ease the shortage.

Finding a solution to the “ongoing scandal” of worldwide hunger should be a top priority, said the Vatican’s representative to the United Nations. Addressing a U.N. General Assembly meeting on sustainable development goals May 23, Archbishop Francis A. Chullikatt, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, called it “a shame that so many of the poor people in the world continue to find themselves helpless victims of chronic hunger.”

In the Eucharist, Jesus makes himself the food that nourishes and sustains Catholics, even when the road gets rough, Pope Francis said before leading a Corpus Christi procession through the streets of Rome.

Veronica “Ronnie” Royal of Virginia has been an iconographer since 1998, working diligently to hone her craft and encourage the use of icons in contemplation and prayer. Born in Nancy, France, she was raised in the Ukrainian Catholic Church by her Russian mother and Ukranian father. Icons were very much a part of her church and family life.