News

Mitchell Atencio 5-03-2022

Protestors gathered in in Washington, D.C. on May 3, 2022, after a draft Supreme Court opinion published by Politico suggested the court is considering a decision that would overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Photo: Jack Gruber / USA TODAY NETWORK via Reuters Connect

On the evening of May 2, Politico reported on a leaked draft of a Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson which, if it became official, would overturn Roe v. Wade and end federal protections of abortion rights.

A Russian flag flies behind a chain link and barbed wire fence. Via Alamy.

“[Sanctions] are, as we see now in the case of Russia, warfare by other means,” Jim Hodgson, a retired program coordinator for the United Church of Canada whose decades of work focused on Latin America and the Caribbean, told Sojourners.

Bekah McNeel 4-22-2022

Reps. Jeff Leach, Joe Moody, Lacey Hull, Victoria Criado, Rafael Anchia, Toni Rose, and James White prayed with Melissa Lucio at Mountain View Unit in Gatesville, Texas, where the state houses women on death row. (Image: Courtesy of Rep. Jeff Leach via The Innocence Project.) 

“We don’t think the death penalty is in line with Christian values,” said Cameron Vickrey, a staff member with Fellowship Southwest, a network of churches dedicated to social service. While she has always opposed the death penalty on compassionate grounds, Vickrey said Lucio’s case caught her attention because of new evidence demonstrating the likelihood that Lucio is innocent.

Mitchell Atencio 4-14-2022

A graphic of Wipf and Stock’s logo and the cover of ‘Bad and Boujee: Toward a Trap Feminist Theology’ by Jennifer M. Buck. Wipf and Stock announced on April 14 that they would cease publication and distribution of the book. Graphic by Mitchell Atencio/Sojourners.

Wipf and Stock Publishers confirmed today that it has initiated the removal and ceased distribution of Jennifer M. Buck’s book, Bad and Boujee: Toward a Trap Feminist Theology, after days of criticism directed at the book.

People take part in the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) procession led by Pope Francis during Good Friday celebrations at Rome’s Colosseum on April 19, 2019. REUTERS/Remo Casilli

The Vatican’s decision to have both Ukrainians and Russians take part in Pope Francis’ “Way of the Cross” procession on Friday has caused friction with Ukrainian Catholic leaders, who want it to be reconsidered.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson reacts as she meets with Senator Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., March 29, 2022. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday as the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court in a milestone for the United States and a victory for President Joe Biden, who made good on a campaign promise as he seeks to infuse the federal judiciary with a broader range of backgrounds.

Pope Francis holds a news conference aboard the papal plane on his flight back after visiting Malta, April 3, 2022.

Pope Francis paid tribute on Sunday to journalists killed during the Ukraine war saying he hoped God would reward them for serving the common good whatever side they were on.

Melissa Cedillo 4-01-2022

Silvia Perez marches during a protest of Wendy’s in southwest Florida in Oct. 2018. Photo Courtesy CIW.

Farmworkers in Palm Beach, Fla. are set to march five miles in protest of Wendy’s treatment of farmworkers, and their protest has received a blessing from the Archbishop Thomas Wenski.

Indigenous delegates from Canada's First Nations pose for a photo with Pope Francis during a meeting at the Vatican on March 31, 2022. Vatican Media/­Handout via REUTERS

Pope Francis apologized to Canadian Indigenous peoples on Friday for the Roman Catholic Church's role in residential schools that sought to erase their cultures and where many children suffered abuse.

Cemetery workers cover the grave of sergeant Kostiantyn Deriuhin, 44, who was killed in battle during Russia’s attack on Ukraine, during his funeral at the Lychakiv cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine, March 27, 2022. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis

The now twice weekly funerals of soldiers, which take place at the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in the center of the city, are one of the few reminders of war.

Métis National Council president Cassidy Caron poses for a group picture alongside Métis Residential School survivor Angie Crerar, 85, and other Indigenous delegates from Canada's First Nations after a meeting with Pope Francis near St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, March 28, 2022. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane.

Survivors of Canada’s residential schools on Monday asked Pope Francis for unfettered access to church records on the institutions where Indigenous children were abused and their culture denied.

Sarah Einselen 3-22-2022

Ukrainian refugees arrive in Medyka, southeastern Poland, amid a snowfall on March 9, 2022. Kunihiko Miura/The Yomiuri Shimbun via Reuters.

“What is troubling to me, and unsettling, is the fact that this sort of worldwide outpouring of empathy isn't there in other situations that are very similar,” Karen González, an author and immigrant advocate, told Sojourners.

Roland Flores, 48, wears a striped shirt that says 'blessed' as he poses for a picture at the Fullerton Navigation Center, a homeless shelter in Fullerton, Calif., on March 11, 2022. REUTERS/David Swanson

Roland Flores, 48, poses for a picture at the Fullerton Navigation Center, a homeless shelter in Fullerton, Calif., on March 11, 2022. REUTERS/David Swanson

Quick and efficient though they may be, these emergency shelters are a short-term fix. With affordable housing scarce and real estate continuing to rise in one of California’s priciest markets, some critics are concerned Orange County is content to shunt the unhoused out of view without promoting permanent housing.

Philippine Catholic priest Father Nap Baltazar, wearing a bracelet that reads "Let Leni Lead" in support of presidential aspirant Vice President Leni Robredo, fixes his stole before a mass in Sta. Rita de Cascia Parish on March 10, 2022. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

When Philippine Catholic priest Father Nap Baltazar raised his hands to bless the people attending mass, the sleeves on his white vestment slid back to reveal a pink bracelet inscribed with the words “Let Leni Lead.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulates Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia on the day of the 11th anniversary of his enthronement in Moscow, Russia February 1, 2020. Sputnik/Alexei Druzhinin/Kremlin via REUTERS

Russian Patriarch Kirill's full-throated blessing for Moscow's invasion of Ukraine has splintered the worldwide Orthodox Church and unleashed an internal rebellion that experts say is unprecedented.

Jordan Anderson 3-10-2022

Cross Lake School on the Red Lake Reservation in Minnesota. Image via catalog.archives.gov

Across the nation, Catholic Church leaders are beginning to reckon with their institution’s role in operating Indigenous residential schools and the lasting consequences these schools left on Native American communities. One state seeing growing momentum to address this history is Minnesota, which had 15 boarding schools; Catholic groups operated at least eight of them.

Sarah Einselen 3-04-2022

Photo Courtesy FRACEEV.

One measure, an executive order from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, jeopardizes foster care licenses for anyone who takes in unaccompanied immigrant children who arrive in the country without authorization. The other, a bill being fast-tracked through the state legislature, would bar state and local governments from contracting with businesses that knowingly transport undocumented immigrants, including bus companies or airlines.

Josh Axelrod 3-02-2022

Photo courtesy Tania Fernandes Anderson.

Tania Fernandes Anderson, Boston’s newly elected councilor, embraces struggle.

In November, she made history as Boston’s first Muslim, first African immigrant, and first formerly undocumented person to be elected to the city council. Now, with an ambitious slate of policy goals, she hopes to transform the city she calls home. While politics brings a new set of challenges for Anderson, her struggle doesn’t take place at city hall. Rather, her struggle is spiritual.

The flag of East Turkestan and the Uyghur people. Credit: Sachelle Babbar/ZUMA Wire/Alamy

As the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing wound to a close in a ceremony of flags, fireworks, and an LED screen designed to look like ice, one Seattle-area church marked the end of the international games with a very different kind of event: a meal and listening session with members of the Uyghur community in and around Edmonds, Wa.

Bekah McNeel 2-24-2022
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott delivering address at Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin, Texas

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott delivered the keynote address at the Texas Values policy forum at the Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin, Texas on Sept. 24, 2021.

“Obviously this order is actually going to cause more harm,” said Rev. Gavin Rogers, associate minister at Travis Park Church in San Antonio. Rogers said characterization gender-affirming care as “child abuse” flies in the face of research, which has shown its importance in the health and wellbeing of transgender youth, who already face many barriers to access.