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St. Kateri is the patron of Native Americans and people in exile, as well as patron of ecology and the environment. Her feast day is July 14. When I was in elementary school, my parents splurged on a membership to the Catholic Youth Book Club. I was an avid reader, and we lived quite a distance from the library — so each month I’d thrill to tear open the box which arrived in our mailbox, and to reveal the new hardcover biography of one of the saints. I collected the books on a shelf beside my bed, and I read them over and over: adventures of great missionaries, heroic martyrs, and noble young women. One of my favorites was Kateri Tekakwitha: Lily of the Mohawks. Around the same time, my grandparents gave me an Indian doll with tiny beaded necklace, and I named the doll “Kateri” — which was...

ROME – As Tokyo readies to welcome thousands of the world’s top athletes later this month for the Olympics, the local archbishop has announced that “regrettably” no Catholic parish will be able to welcome them due to the spread of COVID-19, as the Japanese city is once again in a state of emergency. The Olympic games, originally scheduled for 2020, will run July 23 to Aug. 8. Close to 10,000 athletes will compete in the international multi-sport event and several thousand more in the para-Olympic games, set to begin in Aug. 24. Though not every athlete speaks openly about their faith, there are several, including some from TeamUSA, who have referred to their Catholic faith as something they lean on, including one of the greatest female gymnasts of all times, Simone Biles, who two years ago...

The Pope is currently hospitalized after undergoing a surgery July 4 to remove part of his colon, fueling reports that health reasons could have prompted Francis to take this step. VATICAN CITY — Rumors started to fly around social media Monday claiming that Pope Francis was “likely” to resign from the papacy “in the next few hours.” The Pope is currently hospitalized after undergoing a surgery July 4 to remove part of his colon, fueling reports that health reasons could have prompted Francis to take this step. In fact, there is no sign that Pope Francis intends to resign soon. And the confusing reports are probably explained by a mistranslation of Italian into English. The initial social media reports of a pending papal resignation cited a July 12 post by the popular Italian Catholic news...

Hey everybody, It’s the Tuesday Pillar Post.  The News  Less than one week ago, the president of Haiti was assassinated at his home, reportedly by a group of Columbian ex-military security contractors (or mercenaries, depending on who you ask).  President Jovenel Moïse was tortured before he died, and his wife was shot three times and is now being treated in a Miami hospital. The assassination is the latest escalation in a series of political travails that have crippled Haiti’s government in recent months, handing over power in the streets — especially in Port-au-Prince — to violent criminal gangs. With a now-dead president, uncertainty about who has a legitimate claim to power, and with the backdrop of Haiti’s long-term poverty, the country is on the brink of total disaster...

ROME – Minutes before being hospitalized for intestinal surgery on Sunday, Pope Francis was given a pectoral cross made from wooden remains of a church in Chile destroyed by arson last year during street protests. “There was a very strong and significant social outburst in Chile, with many reactions and violence,” said Bishop Alberto Lorenzelli, explaining the origin of the cross. “Some churches were burnt down during the protests, including the church of the Assumption. Young people from the Catholic University collected the remains of burnt wood and they made the pectoral cross, as a relic they wanted to give to the Holy Father,” he said. The bishop spoke with Crux over the phone on Thursday, from a hotel room where he’s been staying since flying back to Santiago, Chile’s capital, where ...