For Anne Gattman at St. Jerome School in Maplewood, bringing more students into Catholic schools is all about an open heart and open arms.

Bridget Kramer has ridden a roller coaster of enrollment that’s now on the rise in this community school serving four parishes.

As he joined the staff of Holy Family Catholic High School in Victoria in 2016, Scott Breimhorst, executive director of admissions, didn’t like one aspect of what he saw: 395 students enrolled, the first time in 10 years administrators expected fewer than 400 students to fill Holy Family classrooms.

When the late Peter Welvang took over Leaflet Missal Co. in 1980, he capitalized on the advertising of religious goods on the back of missalettes the company produced and grew the business internationally.

Catholic schools across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis saw enrollment increases this year at key entry points for students — preschool, kindergarten and ninth grade.

In a joint letter to Congress March 19, the chairmen of three committees of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said they oppose to the Equality Act because while it is meant to provide protections to those who identify as LGBT, it would impose "sweeping regulations to the detriment of society as a whole."

The March 3 meeting at the Vatican between Pope Francis and Russell M. Nelson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, drew great interest from members of both faiths and was covered extensively in the media in Utah.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told religion reporters in a conference call late March 18 prior to his five-day visit to the Middle East that his visit was focusing on security, the economy, threats from Islamic radical terrorists and the need to promote religious tolerance.

The Archdiocese of Boston is implementing a reporting system to handle confidential and anonymous reporting of misconduct by high-ranking church officials, including cardinals and bishops.

Kelsey Davenport admits that the Cold War and "the impending doom of nuclear annihilation" is not something she recalls while growing up in her native Marquette, Michigan, even though her family lived not far from a now-closed airbase that was a key part of the U.S. nuclear triad.