Nation/World

Former marine finds new mission as a “human exploitation rescue operative,” or HERO, pursuing predators who collect and trade child pornography on the internet.

The Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2018 recently passed by Congress and signed Jan. 8 by President Donald Trump allocates $430 million through 2022 to prevent and respond to human trafficking in the U.S. and abroad.

The laity may be angry over the most recent revelations of the Catholic Church’s sex abuse crisis, but bishops, particularly younger ones, share in that anger and “want to move with real force” toward solutions and it could yield a new season for the church, said the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Feb. 6.

The letters — from the lawyers for Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann, the student most prominent in viral footage of the Jan. 18 encounter in Washington — were sent to individuals and groups the attorneys think may have defamed or libeled Sandmann particularly in the initial reaction on social media.

It is “unconscionable” that the U.S. Senate failed to “unanimously declare to the nation that infanticide is objectively wrong,” said the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities.

Pope Francis said his recent visit to the United Arab Emirates, while brief, was a new page in relations between Christians and Muslims at a time when conflict and violence threaten the goal of lasting peace.

Pope Francis told reporters he is more afraid of the consequences of not engaging in interreligious dialogue than he is of being manipulated by some Muslim leaders.

Racism can be ended in the United States, but the past has to be confronted first for that to happen, said a Harvard professor and author who participated in a panel discussion on racism Feb. 3 as part of the Catholic Social Ministry Gathering in Washington.