Daily news coverage of politics, policy, and issues shaping the nation.
Preparation for mass during a papal visit takes water, flour, and the dedication of a group of Pennsylvania nuns hard at work in the kitchen. Pope Francis will spend Saturday and Sunday in Philadelphia. Pope Francis sends a special message to Philadelphia – I’ll Be There because you’ll be there! #popeinphilly #wmf2015 https://t.co/pR22C28yUW — World…
Fresh off the heels of Pope Francis’ historic Washington, D.C., visit, President Barack Obama hosted President Xi Jinping of China Thursday evening for a private dinner intended to ease recent tensions between the two nations. The two-day summit meeting will allow Obama and Xi to underscore their willingness to improve U.S.-China relations, which have become increasingly…
As ISIS terrorists forced Father Behnam Benoka and his fellow Christian people from their homes last summer, they left behind possessions, money, documents, and history. Carrying nothing but faith, Benoka, the former rector of the seminary in Mosul, Iraq, set up a makeshift health clinic at a refugee camp for internally displaced minorities near Erbil,…
Upon arriving in Washington, D.C., earlier this week, Pope Francis was greeted by throngs of people eager to see the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. But across the U.S., the pope is also seeing a Catholic Church in America with changing demographics. Pope Francis arrived in the U.S. on Tuesday and spent two days…
Sen. Ted Cruz delivered a blistering critique of Republican leadership Thursday, just hours before lawmakers held what he described as a “show vote” attempting to end Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding. The Texas Republican summoned a handful of reporters, including The Daily Signal, to his Senate office to blast his own party for surrendering on the…
Earlier this week, as devout American Catholics took to the streets of Washington to celebrate the arrival of Pope Francis, four Chinese human rights activists sat in a small, plain congressional office room on Capitol Hill. There were neither barricades nor the glaring lights of news camera crews at the press conference hosted by China…
A government spending bill that prohibited Planned Parenthood from receiving federal dollars for one year and kept the government operating failed in the Senate today. The continuing resolution, introduced earlier this week by Senate Republican leaders, fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance in the upper chamber after senators blocked the measure, 47-52. Republican…
Pope Francis made an unscheduled stop to visit the Little Sisters of the Poor during his visit to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. The Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of Catholic nuns who care for the elderly poor, has filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration to fight its mandate that employers provide coverage…
On the last day of his trip to Washington, D.C., Pope Francis arrived on Capitol Hill around 9:15 Thursday morning. Francis first met with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, before he entered the House chamber for a joint session of Congress. This event marks the first time a pope has addressed Congress—a goal Boehner, a Catholic himself, has…
House Speaker John Boehner has invited 10 students from Washington, D.C.’s inner-city Catholic schools to join the thousands expected to pour onto the Capitol’s West Lawn to see Pope Francis Thursday after his historic address to Congress. The students shared their excitement for the Pope’s brief address in the speaker’s Wednesday press release, noting his influence…
During his trip to the United States, Pope Francis has chosen to dine with the underprivileged and often overlooked population of Washington, D.C.: the homeless. The pope will spend time on Thursday at St. Patrick’s Church then move next door as homeless people gather for a meal held by Catholic Charities—a social ministry nonprofit that reaches…
Pope Francis, with allegiance to Catholic doctrine, spoke out in support of religious liberty to the 11,000 ticketed guests on the South Lawn of the White House Wednesday. In his speech, the pope made clear that religious liberty is an important freedom in the United States. “With countless other people of goodwill, [American Catholics] are likewise…
Earlier this month, Senate Democrats blocked a resolution to reject President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, effectively allowing the White House to begin moving forward with the agreement. Republicans, though, remain steadfast in arguing that the debate over the Iran deal is far from over. Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., has emerged as one of the…
Republicans riding high after passing their first budget plan in six years earlier this year are in for a familiar scare: the specter of a fiscal cliff and a so-called mega spending deal that may come with it. But even as the stars align for such an all-in-one deal — the government again will likely…
Today, Pope Francis made a historic visit to the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. Mixed into the attendees were college students and other millennials who came from near and far to witness the event. To learn about the issues they hope Pope Francis addresses during his visit to the…
The American people’s trust in government is the lowest it has been in the last 10 years, according to three Gallup polls released recently. The polls measured the population’s opinions on government corruption, government regulation of business, and whether the government poses an immediate threat to personal liberties. In a poll that was released on…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced an initiative to reduce national food waste by 50 percent by 2030. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Environmental Protection Agency Deputy Administrator Stan Meiburg introduced the environmental initiative on Wednesday. The project will aim to improve “food security” as a whole while conserving natural resources. The efforts of the…
The new term for the Supreme Court is gearing up to begin on Oct. 5. Top Supreme Court litigators Paul Clement, a former U.S. solicitor general, and Lisa Blatt, an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University, spoke on Tuesday at The Heritage Foundation. Clement and Blatt, who have collectively argued more than 100 cases before the…
Gallup has released a list of five facts about American Catholics in honor of Pope Francis’ first visit to the United States. According to Gallup’s report: Twenty-three percent of the United States’ adult population is Catholic. Gallup has tracked the percentage of Catholics since 1948 and says the number “has remained fairly steady” since then, averaging at…
Sen. Rand Paul says President Barack Obama has run afoul of the law, this time on the nuclear deal he struck with Iran. Paul contends that the president is in violation of the Iranian Nuclear Agreement Review Act (the Bob Corker-Ben Cardin bill), because the administration didn’t provide Congress with all documentation of the deal…