Charitable giving is a powerful tool that enables individuals to make a positive impact on the causes they care about.

After a recent Sunday Mass, a woman asked if she could talk to me. She told me that she had been in the state prison five times during a period of years. She explained that she was a drug addict. She told me that she has been clean for more than 14 years.

As I watched my 11-year-old son Colin be quite the ham in a humorous role in a recent production of Beauty and the Beast Jr. at his school, old memories washed over me.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and the photographs released showing Pope Francis greeting a crowd of well-wishers from a balcony at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on March 23 were a welcome sign for those who have been praying for the Holy Father since he was hospitalized on Feb. 14.

In tournament time in high school basketball in Indiana, it’s not unusual for games to draw thousands of spectators. That’s a big part of what “Hoosier Hysteria” is all about. But not for the teenage boys who fill the roster of the team for Gibault Children’s Services in Terre Haute, a ministry founded by the Knights of Columbus in 1921. For more than a century, Gibault has helped children suffering from mental illness, developmental disabilities and difficult family situations.

The dreams we pursue can take us to places we never imagined. At the same time, our dreams don’t always come true—or in the way we imagined. Then there is this reality: The dreams we follow can have an impact on others, opening their imaginations to what is possible in their lives.

In anticipation of Mother’s Day, The Criterion is inviting you, our readers, to share your thoughts, tributes and stories about motherhood from two perspectives—the gift of having your mom and the gift of being a mom.

In the hope of helping youths and young adults make the most of the second half of this Lenten season, the two archdiocesan leaders for these groups were asked to share their ideas.

Just in time for Easter, Angel Studios is set to release King of Kings, an animated retelling of the life of Christ through the eyes of Charles Dickens and his youngest son.

Hope: The Autobiography of Pope Francis is not about the life of Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis). It’s about his heart—what he loves, what he detests, what he is afraid of and, above all, what he hopes for.

In the hope of helping youths and young adults make the most of the second half of this Lenten season, the two archdiocesan leaders for these groups were asked to share their ideas.

As I watched my 11-year-old son Colin be quite the ham in a humorous role in a recent production of Beauty and the Beast Jr. at his school, old memories washed over me. When I was about his age, I played a royal child in a production of The King and I, with my sister, a high school senior at the time.

A biochemical analysis of a host from St. Anthony Church in Morris that was displaying red discoloration in February revealed the presence of a common bacteria found on all humans. No presence of human blood was discovered.

Catholic Charities offices in Indiana are continuing to serve hundreds of newly arrived legal refugees amid the chaos and confusion triggered by the Trump administration’s abrupt halt of funding for a resettlement program the U.S. government had sponsored for decades.

I recently presided at a funeral service for a man I did not know, nor did I know his family. As a permanent deacon for the archdiocese, I am also called to preside at funerals outside of Mass and graveside services.

“The Catholic Church is open to accepting the date [for Easter] that everyone wants: a date of unity.” Pope Francis said this during an ecumenical prayer service on Jan. 25 at Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls at the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.