National

San Jose Bishop Oscar Cantú urged prayers for the victims and their families after a gunman opened fired the morning of May 26 at a rail yard north of downtown San Jose. Law enforcement officials said seven victims died at the scene and one at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose.

Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the prelate who chairs the USCCB's Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs decried a recent rise in anti-Semitic attacks in the United States as "contrary to who we are called to be as the people of God."

A special video series developed by Catholic Extension for the "Month of Mary" has highlighted throughout May the many ways Catholics of the Americas honor Mary in their native languages and culture customs.

After receiving an unprecedented letter from 67 bishops appealing for a delay in a discussion on whether to prepare a teaching document on the reception of Communion, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' president explained in a memo the procedure followed in bringing the question to a vote.

When the Supreme Court decided May 17 to take up a challenge to a Mississippi abortion law, it brought abortion back to the front burner months before the court will hear oral arguments about it this fall.