Heidi Schlumpf

The Department of Education is threatening the federal funding of any school, including Catholic ones, that considers race in any aspect of student life. Already, 185 students are losing scholarship money from a canceled $6.8 million grant that attempted to address teacher shortages in Minnesota.

Listen: Co-host and NCR senior correspondent Heidi Schlumpf moderates a roundtable of four theologians as they react to President Trump's first month back in the Oval Office.

More than a third of Trump's Cabinet nominees are Catholic. Three — Sean Duffy, Marco Rubio and John Ratcliffe — have already been confirmed by the Senate. Here are brief profiles of all nine of Trump's Catholic picks.

Listen: Heidi, Daniel and David discuss how attacks on USAID affect charities and NGOs; they look at the vice president's theological comments; Heidi interviews Charlene Howard, the new executive director of Pax Christi USA.

Listen: Heidi, Daniel and David talk about the first week of the second Trump administration. Also, they look at the 2025 Academy Awards, and Heidi interviews Fr. Thomas Reese about his life in Catholic journalism.

Listen: Heidi, Daniel and David discuss how Catholics can prepare for the Trump administration; they talk about Cardinal McElroy's appointment as DC's new archbishop; and Heidi interviews Dylan Corbett of Hope Border Institute.

A majority of Hispanic Catholics voted for Kamala Harris in the November election, but Latinos are part of the story of how a shift in the Catholic vote contributed to Donald Trump's win.

For some Catholic women, the election was the final straw. Others saw it as a wake-up call, alerting them to the prevalence of right-wing ideologues in the U.S. church.

Francis Effect podcast: In this episode, NCR's senior correspondent Heidi Schlumpf interviews the publication's Vatican correspondent, Christopher White, about what might be coming next for the Francis papacy.

In response to the synod on synodality's punting on issues of women's leadership, the Women's Ordination Conference is planning a walkout during Lent to protest the pace of reform in the church.

Full-time faculty not on the tenure track want to unionize to address salary and other disparities. They say Marquette's decision not to recognize the union goes against the school's mission and Catholic identity.

"The Francis Effect": NCR senior correspondent Heidi Schlumpf, columnist Daniel Horan and David Dault discuss the implications of President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet picks for vulnerable populations. 

Election results indicate shifts among Catholics overall, especially white Catholics, as well as with Latino voters – and point to abortion's growing insignificance as a political issue. 

The synod concluded without movement on the question of women deacons, but kept the issue open. That was frustrating to advocates but also has helped some remain hopeful.

While amendments to expand abortion access passed in seven states this election season, the three outlier states where they did not were all places where Catholic groups had funneled millions of dollars to defeat the measures. 

In this episode of "The Francis Effect," Heidi, Dan and David welcome their guests, Fr. Bryan Massingale and Social Service Sr. Simone Campbell, to look at the 2024 election and consider: Where do we go from here?

Politicians running for the University of Nebraska board of regents are the unlikely middlemen in a multimillion-dollar ballot initiative fight in Nebraska.

Many Catholic organizations have ramped up spending on campaigns against abortion-rights measures this election, with at least $1.9 million in donations so far, according to a joint investigation by NCR and Mother Jones.

Catholic voters must negotiate a balance between what the church teaches and how their other values contribute to their voting decisions. Nowhere is that more evident than around the issue of legalized abortion.

In a speech to the ecumenical Kentucky Council of Churches, Catholic Bishop John Stowe of Lexington urged pastors to speak out against Christian nationalism and fight it with love.