U.S. Catholic bishops have consecrated the nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, marking the country's 250th anniversary. The ceremony took place Thursday in Orlando with bishops and worshippers kneeling before relics of St. Mary Margaret Alacoque. Her visions inspired the devotion. The service celebrated the nation's history and acknowledged its failures, including slavery and racism. Earlier in the day, the bishops approved minor revisions to policies on responding to sexual abuse, maintaining a ban on priests found to have abused children. Some bishops wanted a delay for broader feedback, but they were outvoted.
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Gordon S. Wood has died. He was 92. Police say Wood died Sunday after being struck by a car in a supermarket parking lot in East Providence, Rhode Island. Wood wrote many books and was a longtime professor at Brown University. His book “The Radicalism of the American Revolution” won the Pulitzer in 1993 and contended that the war eventually created a society fundamentally different from that of Colonial times. Wood never gained the mass popularity of David McCullough or Doris Kearns Goodwin, but his writings were widely reviewed, debated and consulted and his opinions frequently sought.
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Gordon S. Wood has died. He was 92. Police say Wood died Sunday after being struck by a car in a supermarket parking lot in East Providence, Rhode Island. Wood wrote many books and was a longtime professor at Brown University. His book “The Radicalism of the American Revolution” won the Pulitzer in 1993 and contended that the war eventually created a society fundamentally different from that of Colonial times. Wood never gained the mass popularity of David McCullough or Doris Kearns Goodwin, but his writings were widely reviewed, debated and consulted and his opinions frequently sought.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has cast Pope Leo XIV as a global ally on social justice, migration and reparations after meeting the Chicago-born pontiff at the Vatican. Johnson expressed pride in the pope’s Chicago roots and his commitment to justice. The mayor, a progressive Democrat, traveled to Rome with a large delegation, drawing media interest. He praised the pope’s stance against the war in Iran and Trump administration immigration policies. Johnson emphasized their shared focus on social justice, particularly regarding slavery and migrants. The meeting underscored potential cooperation between Chicago and the Vatican on human rights issues.
Pope Leo XIV has made a historic apology for the role the Holy See played in legitimizing slavery. Leo’s own family history includes both enslaved people and slave owners. He delivered the apology in his first encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas” or Magnificent Humanity which was released on Monday. Past popes have apologized for Christians’ involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. But no pope has ever publicly acknowledged much less apologized for the role that past popes played in giving European kings explicit authority to subjugate and enslave “infidels.” One expert calls this “a truly remarkable moment.”
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) - The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum plans to put a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation on display.