The government's latest policies at the border include separating children from their parents, refusing asylum to victims of domestic and gang violence, and mass trials. These policies are cruel and shameful and must be ended.

The recent suicides of celebrities has forced our nation to realize that there is a genuine public health crisis about suicide, which is the 10th leading cause of death and has been skyrocketing. This is no time to be thinking about legalizing assisted suicide, which would make the crisis even worse.

The Trustees of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, along with the entire Archdiocese of New York, have long prayed for and looked forward to the Beatification and Canonization of Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.  The Diocese of Peoria has done the Church a great service in advancing the Cause thus far.

The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture’s second annual "Sheen Center Theater Festival of Catholic Playwrights" opens Thursday, June 21 and runs through Sunday, June 24 with staged performances by emerging and established Catholic playwrights telling the stories that speak to the heart of our times.

We all wonder about it at one time or another! What’s at the core of the universe? What is at the very foundation of existence? What power makes the world tick?

Maria Giura is a coordinator of religious education at St. Patrick’s Parish on Staten Island. Like so many of our directors, coordinators and catechists, she brings many special gifts to her ministry. Maria has a doctorate in English from Binghamton University, and has been an education administrator and teacher for more than 15 years. A few years ago, she experienced a call to the catechetical ministry in her parish. However, she has one talent that probably not too many of us in can claim. She is a poet.

The Supreme Court ruled today in favor of the baker who declined to bake a cake for a same-sex "wedding" based on his religious beliefs. Although limited to the particular facts of this case, the decision affirmed that religious people are entitled to a fair hearing by a neutral decision-maker, and that overt hostility by government officials to religious belief is still forbidden.

Here’s an important word in the Catholic lexicon: holistic. When looking at the miracle, the work of art that we call the human person, we take in the whole: body, mind, and soul. This is essential in our works of education; this is necessary in our efforts in health care and charity.

In a Facebook ad about religious liberty, the Public Policy Office used a picture of a young woman wearing a Muslim headscarf. Alarmingly strong negative reaction to that picture is a reminder that we must defend religious liberty for everyone whenever it is threatened for anyone.

The City of Philadelphia is banning Catholic Charities from foster care placements, solely based on Catholic religious beliefs about the nature of marriage and human sexuality. This is religious discrimination of the most blatant kind.

Some dates are set in stone. Others are established by law. There is one date on the Catechetical Office calendar that by custom does not change. This is good news for those who want to know more about the Bible.

The Irish people are faced with a referendum on May 25th that would repeal their constitutional protection of unborn children and create a right to abortion on demand at least as far as viability and perhaps for all nine months of pregnancy. We should pray that this radical anti-life effort is defeated and that all human lives will continue to be protected in Ireland.

The Ascension reminds us of the importance of the virtue of hope. Advocacy in favor of physician-assisted suicide reflects a lack of hope. In contrast, the virtue of hope offers a richer, deeper sense of the inherent dignity of life, rooted in confidence in Jesus' victory over death and his promise of eternal life with the Father.

May... the month of Mary.

On Monday, May 21 at 7:00 PM, come to the Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (18 Bleecker Street, at the corner of Elizabeth Street) for Inside “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination," a conversation with curators about the largest exhibition in the history of The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, featuring a significant loan of papal robes and accessories from the Vatican. Tickets are $20 and available at SheenCenter.org, by phone at (212) 925-2812, or in-person at The Sheen Center box office.

The Alfie Evans case demonstrates the lethal effect of laws that take away the rights of parents to determine the health care of their children, coupled with a denial of the sanctity of every life and confusion over the obligation to provide basic care to those who are sick. We are dangerously close in the US to going down the same path.

You may remember the somber event that occurred in the days prior to Holy Week, when Firefighter Michael Davidson died in the line of duty battling a blaze in Harlem. The entire city grieved, and embraced his young wife and four kids.

The horrifying case of Alfie Evans, the little boy in the UK who is going to be killed by his doctors because he is disabled. Courts in the UK have heartlessly rejected his parents' attempts to bring Alfie to another hospital -- including one near the Vatican. We are in a sick society when a court can decide that a person is better off dead.

The building of a great parish community can begin with a simple hello and a handshake.

In Pope Francis' new document, he urges us to give a "clear, firm and passionate" defense of unborn people, but also to be sure to pay attention to the situation of migrants and all other threats to human life and dignity. All human lives are equally sacred in the eyes of God.