The Dialog

Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON — Dozens of Catholics, including men and women religious, were arrested in the rotunda of a Senate office building in Washington Feb. 27 as they called on lawmakers to help young adults brought to the U.S. as minors without documents obtain some sort of permanent legal status.

Many of the arrested included Sisters of Mercy, who recalled the arrival of their religious order to the U.S. and their contributions to the country, and asked that the young adults they called “Dreamers,” a reference to a legislative proposal, be allowed to do the same.

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Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON — Students in schools across the country have to navigate their way around classes, exams, relationships, cliques, cafeteria food and crowded hallways.

They also have to think about what they would do if someone with a gun came into their school, which seems all the more possible after the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

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Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has dealt a blow to the Trump administration’s effort to end a program in March that protects young adults brought to the U.S. without legal permission as minors.

On Feb. 26, the court declined to hear and rule on whether the administration has the right to shut down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA program.

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MARRIOTTSVILLE, Md. — Maryland-based Bon Secours Health System and Mercy Health, with headquarters in Ohio, plan to merge by the end of the year, forming one of the country’s largest health systems.

The merger of the two Catholic health care systems will create a network of 43 hospitals, hundreds of clinics and care sites, and housing ministries that spans seven states from Ohio to the East Coast.

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WASHINGTON — The Rev. Billy Graham was “a preacher of God’s word not only in his sermons, but also in the very life he lived,” said Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“Today, we pray for the soul of the Rev. Billy Graham to the Lord he so dearly loved and offer our condolences to his family,” the cardinal said in a statement about the Feb. 21 death of the world famous Baptist preacher.

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Longtime Christian preacher Billy Graham, spiritual advisor to multiple U.S. presidents and among the first evangelicals to make his mark with television broadcasts, died Wednesday at his home in North Carolina. He was 99.

“Today, we pray for the soul of the Rev. Billy Graham to the Lord he so dearly loved and offer our condolences to his family,” said Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston and president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. “Billy Graham was a preacher of God’s word not only in his sermons, but also in the very life he lived. His faith and integrity invited countless thousands around the world into a closer relationship with our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God for the ministry of Billy Graham.”

In a career spanning more than 60 years, according to CharlotteObserver.com, Graham took his simple Christian message to more than 84 million people in almost 60 countries – including multitudes of spiritually starved believers behind the communist Iron Curtain. Add those who heard him live, via satellite, and the numbers jump to 210 million people in 185 countries.

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WASHINGTON — After the Senate failed Feb. 15 to garner the 60 votes needed to move a bill forward to protect the “Dreamers,” officials of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced a “National Catholic Call-In Day to Protect Dreamers” Feb. 26.

“We are deeply disappointed that the Senate was not able to come together in a bipartisan manner to secure legislative protection for the Dreamers,” the USCCB officials said in a joint statement Feb. 19.

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