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National Catholic Register

Faith Leaders, Justice Department Meet to Push for Stronger Protections for Houses of Worship

Faith leaders meet with Karen Schneier Dresbach, executive vice president of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, and Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Justice, at a meeting Aug. 27, 2026, in Washington, D.C. The gathering focused on strengthening efforts to protect America’s houses of worship, safeguard religious freedom, and confront religious hatred.

‘No American should ever fear violence for simply practicing their faith,’ Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for civil rights for the Department of Justice, said.

US Bishops Urge Global Aid After Deadly Nepal Floods

Rescuers use an excavator to transport a flood survivor following flash floods and a landslide disaster in Devghat, in Nepal’s Nuwakot district, on Aug. 26, 2026. Aid workers said entire settlements had been “wiped out.”

The bishops urged the international community to ‘work together, as one family’ to provide humanitarian aid.

Pope Leo XIV Gives Assent to Election of New Archbishop of Maronite Archeparchy of Damascus

Chorbishop Sharbel Maroun, left, joins other bishops and priests during the processional of the priest ordination Mass on May 30, 2026, at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, Minnesota. Behind him are, second from left, retired Bishop Richard Pates and Auxiliary Bishop Kevin Kenney.

Chorbishop Sharbel Maroun has become archbishop of the Maronite Diocese of Damascus, succeeding Archbishop Samir Nassar.

Pope Leo XIV Warns Against Entrusting Human-Life Decisions to Machines

Elisabetta Trevisan
Pope Leo XIV addresses members of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences on Aug. 28, 2026, at the Vatican.

The Pontiff called for an ethical framework for artificial intelligence and warned that technology must serve life, peace and the common good.

The Cross Brings Life

Jesus: ‘Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.’

In order to gain heaven, we must die to this world.

AI at Catholic Colleges: Institutions Map Policies Guided by ‘Magnifica Humanitas’

Catholic colleges and universities shared how their institutions plan to approach the use of AI in the classroom in light of the Pope’s encyclical and following an announcement from the University of Chicago that all of its social science core classes will be completely analog starting in fall 2026.

Will Catholic colleges follow the University of Chicago as it shifts its social sciences classes to fully analog instruction this fall? At least one says it may.