Addressing participants of a two-day conference at the Vatican May 3, the pope said that like all economic activities, mining “should be at the service of the entire human community,” especially indigenous people who are often pressured “to abandon their homelands to make room for mining projects which are undertaken without regard for the degradation of nature and culture.”

Third Sunday of Easter
First reading: Acts 5:27-32, 40-41
Second reading: Rv 5:11-14
Gospel: Jn 21:1-19

The apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Mogadishu, Somalia, called on the world to “pay attention to the plight of Somali people” as they face critical food shortages because of a crippling drought.

While protests against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro raged across the country, National Guard forces loyal to the embattled head of state launched tear gas at churchgoers attending Mass at a local parish.

A routine thriller for most of its running time, director Deon Taylor’s “The Intruder” (Screen Gems) becomes increasingly trashy before ending with the justification of a profoundly immoral act in which viewers are meant to revel.

Local high school students and chaperones from four Minnesota parishes visited civil rights museums and memorials in Montgomery and Selma that told the stories of slavery to modern-day racism.

During an April 30 hearing before the House Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Security, Bishop Mark J. Seitz of the Diocese of El Paso, Texas, spoke of his border community’s response assisting asylum-seeking families who have been released by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Canadian author and educator Randy Boyagoda hopes an upcoming trilogy of novels will add to the tradition of what he terms “the good/bad Catholic” narratives.