National Catholic Reporter

I hear the same answer almost every time I ask the question. Sometimes it's a slight variation, like "I am with you always" (Matthew 28:20), or "Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). My prayer may begin with petitioning, but it bears fruit in listening. Sometimes I may not hear an answer at all. I remain still. I say, "Be with me." And God's words follow: "I am here for you." Some days I marvel at that idea for a minute or two. Other times, I just get on with my day.

Women must be able to "exercise their leadership" and become "artisans of peace and guardians of life," as the global community fractures and conflicts increase, the Vatican told the United Nations. The Holy See's Permanent Observer Mission to the U.N. shared its thoughts in a Sept. 2 statement during the global body's high-level forum on implementing the Program of Action on a Culture of Peace.

Outside the home, especially when faced with conflict in digital spaces, many are tempted to assume prophetic roles. We denounce, correct, expose and pronounce instant judgments from behind screens, without genuine encounter. Social media, shaped by algorithms, can create an illusion of expertise, with little openness to nuance. Eliciting reactions to a group post can be mistaken for a communal discernment process and become decisive.

There are places in the Catholic imagination where the veil between the physical and spiritual feels unusually thin. A hillside in Portugal; a grotto in southern France; a former Aztec shrine outside Mexico City. Again and again, ordinary people — often children or peasants — claim to have encountered the Virgin Mary in moments that would reshape devotional life for generations. The Catholic Church has never fully resolved the tension these stories create.

My week in California transcended mere professional development; it became the spiritual retreat I did not realize my soul required. Under the brilliant and infectious pedagogy of Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka — founding director of the institute, whose distinguished career spans faculties from Dunwoodie to Lincoln, Nebraska — we moved far beyond the mechanics of square-note notation.

People love nuns. And they love to love nuns. Consider the recent TikTok and podcast sensation of Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist talking about their hobbies and playing ultimate frisbee.

At Georgetown University, students this fall semester could register for "Foundations of AI," a course designed to prepare them to integrate artificial intelligence "into their personal, academic, and professional workflows." Georgetown also offers an undergraduate certificate in artificial intelligence as well as an online master's degree program in AI management that combines topics from computer science, business strategy and ethics.

A Hong Kong court on Sept. 3 dismissed appeals brought by a 94-year-old Roman Catholic cardinal and four others over their convictions for failing to register a now-defunct fund that aimed to help people arrested during anti-government protests. Cardinal Joseph Zen, a retired bishop and vocal advocate for democracy in the city, was a trustee of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, which helped pay medical and legal fees for arrested protesters until it ceased operations in October 2021.

This emergency forced millions of people to flee the country. From being a country that welcomed everyone who arrived with open arms and made them feel like family, we became a country of migrants and exiles. According to UN Refugee Agency figures, around 7.9 million people are expected to have left the country by 2024. Those of us who stayed behind also had to learn to reinvent ourselves. Our routines, our expectations and our way of life have changed. These have not been easy years.

Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, two orders of Catholic nuns, and an Illinois pharmacist sued Illinois Sept. 3 over the state's physician-assisted suicide law, which permits physicians to aid terminally ill adults in dying by suicide. In their lawsuit, the individuals and religious orders — the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm and the Chicago Province of the Little Sisters of the Poor — argued that the law, which is set to take effect Sept.