Nation/World

Three years after Oregon voters passed Measure 110, a nationwide surge in fentanyl use has collided with the policy’s legalized tolerance to create a perfect storm of overburdened social services, policing and community dynamics.

Ukraine’s struggle against Russian aggression is “about genocide and the survival of an ethnic nation” — something the West does not realize, states an Ukrainian Catholic archbishop. “This is not about politics, but survival.”

Photos featured this week include Ash Wednesday Mass in Rome and here in St. Cloud, the blessing of Catholic United Financial’s newest location and a Mass for the canonization of St. Maria Antonia de Paz Figueroa.

After requesting items blessed by Pope Francis for Christmas, a fifth-grader has received seven religious gifts in all and has been sharing his joy over the items with family and classmates.

The CRS Rice Bowl initiative, which combines prayer, fasting and almsgiving to help those in need both in the U.S. and abroad, provides “life-changing hope.”

Two local bishops offered prayers for victims after a shooting left one person dead and more than 20 people injured at the conclusion of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory parade.

The Knights of Columbus are calling for nine days of prayer to end the bloodshed as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine reaches the two-year mark.

Between 2009 and 2019, the rate of adolescent depression nearly doubled, increasing from 8.1% to 15.8%, according to a 2021 analysis of National Survey on Drug User and Health studies during that decade.