A Catholic who reported having had some sort of mystical experience is not automatically a candidate for sainthood, Pope Leo XIV said, but such a report is not a reason to dismiss a candidate either.

After the U.S. House of Representatives voted late Nov. 12 to approve a Senate-passed funding deal to reopen the federal government, President Donald Trump signed the measure into law, ending the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approved a "special pastoral message on immigration" Nov. 12, voicing "our concern here for immigrants" at their annual fall plenary assembly in Baltimore.

As reports spread that U.S. President Donald Trump appealed directly to China's Xi Jinping to free jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai when they met in South Korea Oct. 30, American theologian George Weigel told OSV News that Lai "is a non-violent, deeply committed defender of not simply his rights to free speech, but to those of the people of Hong Kong" and that his "witness to human dignity and to basic human rights is an expression of his Catholic faith."

They were the first generation to have technology at their fingertips from birth -- "digital natives" who grew up with the Internet, iPhones, iPads, and computers. They're Generation Z, better known as "Gen Z" -- born between 1997-2012 -- and they're estimated to be nearly a quarter of the world's population.