Nation/World

World Refugee Day, marked annually on June 20, aims to raise awareness of the situations and experiences that refugees endure throughout the world.

The Federal Enforcement Effect Research Survey, also called the FEER survey, released June 12 by the Center for Migration Studies in New York, analyzed the impact of intensified immigration enforcement on the work of Catholic organizations and other faith-based groups that work with immigrants.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services banned the National Institutes of Health from using human fetal stem cells from electively aborted babies for government funded research June 5.

The California Catholic Conference commemorated the fourth anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home” by issuing a pastoral statement calling for heightened attention to ecological issues in the state that could affect future generations.

In a 7-2 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of preserving a historic cross-shaped memorial in Bladensburg, Maryland saying the cross did not endorse religion.

In a remarkably frank and detailed speech, the Vatican official heading the department charged with reviewing clergy sexual abuse allegations told an assembly of Catholic journalists that his investigators and the press “share the same goal, which is the protection of minors, and we have the same wish to leave the world a little better than how we found it.”

Children under the age of 18 make up one half of the world’s refugee population, a U.N. report said.

Cardinal John Tong Hon, apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Hong Kong, and the chairman of the Hong Kong Christian Council called on chief executive Carrie Lam to withdraw a controversial extradition bill.