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A volunteer poll site worker at the Edmondson Westside High School polling site in Baltimore sanitizes a write-in ballot station after it was used during a special election in Maryland April 28, 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic. (CNS photo/Tom Brenner, Reuters)

By Betty Araya 
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Steven Millies, a scholar who explores the Catholic Church’s relationship to politics, feels more optimistic today than he has in a long time about young people in this country voting in a national election.

The reason for his optimism? The young people who continue to protest the May 25 death of George Floyd, an African American, at the hands of white police officers, and demand racial justice. Millies predicts this activism will motivate young people to go to the polls Nov. 3.

“I’m frankly more encouraged than I have been in a long time by what we’ve seen on the streets in the last six weeks or so, because it’s a lot of different kinds of people who have taken to the streets since George Floyd,” said Millies, an associate professor of public theology and director of The Bernardin Center at Catholic Theological Union.

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Oblate Brother Mickey McGrath, a liturgical artist attempting to foster healing and justice in the struggle against racism through his work, holds his artistry tools in his Camden, N.J., studio in this undated photo. (CNS photo/courtesy Oblate Brother Mickey McGrath)

By Gina Christian 
Catholic News Service

PHILADELPHIA (CNS) — As the nation continues to grapple with the issue of racism, an acclaimed liturgical artist and retreat leader is using his gifts to foster healing and justice.

Oblate Brother Mickey McGrath has created a series of images that take a faith-based look at the struggle for racial equality. From his studio in Camden, New Jersey, Brother McGrath has been posting his recent work on Facebook, often in the form of coloring pages that viewers can download and use as meditative art exercises.

One image in particular has received international attention: a striking portrait of Christ falling under the weight of the cross, above which the words “I can’t breathe” are painted in red.

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A bottle of hand sanitizer is seen on the altar prior to Mass at St. Gabriel Catholic Church in Washington July 11, 2020. (CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn)

By Mark Pattison 
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — To resume public Masses during the coronavirus pandemic, dioceses have issued guidelines to be followed by parishes. The Archdiocese of Washington’s series of protocols, for instance, runs 14 pages.

This story aims to be not quite that long.

With worshippers’ health the key concern, there’s a different way of doing things in U.S. churches, where hand sanitizer has become the new holy water.

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A woman waits in line at Catholic Charities’ Spanish Catholic Center parking lot in Washington July 15, 2020, to pick up free food supplies. (CNS photo/Chaz Muth)

By Carol Zimmermann 
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — When the coronavirus pandemic first hit the Washington area in mid-March, shuttering many local restaurants and businesses, the lines at a weekly food pantry sponsored by the Spanish Catholic Center immediately jumped from about 60 people to hundreds.

And now, four months into this time of job loss, sickness and social distancing, this previously small pantry — part of Catholic Charities in the Washington Archdiocese and previously led by a handful of senior volunteers — is equipped with a large team of helpers to regularly serve meals and give groceries to about 600 people each week.

These workers say the line for the food pantry often starts forming well before dawn and is not showing any signs of letting up.

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President Donald Trump is seen at the White House in Washington July 29, 2020. (CNS photo/Leah Millis, Reuters)

By Carol Zimmermann 
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Faith leaders and immigrant advocates have denounced the Trump administration’s plan to reject first-time applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, and limit DACA renewals to one-year extensions instead of two.

Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, California, said the administration’s action, announced July 28 in a memo issued by the Department of Homeland Security, was “irresponsible and recalcitrant.”

The memo was written by Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and issued more than a month after the Supreme Court ruled against efforts by the Trump administration to end DACA.

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