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.
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FILE - Panels that were part of an exhibit on slavery at the President's House Site in Independence National Historical Park are put back, Feb. 19, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Joe Lamberti, File)
ROME (AP) — Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson cast Pope Leo XIV as a powerful global ally on social justice, migration and reparations after meeti…
PARIS (AP) — For nearly two centuries after France abolished slavery, the colonial-era law that classified humans as property remained quietly…
A statue named "Chains," by French artist Driss Sans-Arcidet, honoring the memory of the abolition of slavery, is photographed in a park in Paris, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, as France's National Assembly examines a bill to formally repeal the Code Noir, or Black Code, the 17th-century royal edict that governed slavery in French colonies and treated enslaved people as property. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)
French lawmaker Max Mathiasin of the French Caribbean island Guadeloupe, poses at the entrance of the National Assembly in Paris, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, before lawmakers examine a bill to formally repeal the Code Noir, or Black Code, the 17th-century royal edict that governed slavery in French colonies and treated enslaved people as property. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)
A statue is photographed by French artist Didier Audrat in Paris, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, honoring the memory of the abolition of slavery, depicting Solitude, the daughter of an African slave who was raped by a sailor aboard the ship transporting her to the Caribbean, holding the proclamation of Louis Delgres, an anti-slavery resistance leader calling for resistance and struggle. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV made a historic apology on Monday for the role the Holy See itself played in legitimizing slavery and for hav…
FILE - Panels that were part of an exhibit on slavery at the President's House Site in Philadelphia are put back on Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Joe Lamberti, File)
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — From her footprints in Philadelphia to her face in New Hampshire, advocates for telling the whole truth of American histor…