Morning Briefing

The church (and the world) will have a St. Oscar Romero. Pope Francis approved the required miracle and cleared the way for Romeo to be made a saint later this year or early next, our Vatican correspondent reports.

Speaking of the pope, five years into his papacy, the honeymoon period may be over in some circles according to a survey of U.S. Catholics. Most Catholics are still pro-Francis, but his popularity has waned among political conservatives.

One area of recent criticism of Pope Francis is his handling of the papal sexual abuse commission. One former member of the commission recommended that they have more substantial time to meet with him.

Young people, bishops and scholars are gathering this week at Notre Dame to prepare for this fall’s General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Rome, which will focus on youth and young adults. I’m at the "Cultures of Formation" conference and will have more on the conference in NCR later. (Also, look for my tweets from the event @HeidiSchlumpf.)

Catholics are others are still demonstrating and working to protect DACA recipients.

National Catholic Sisters Week starts tomorrow. Thank a nun who has influenced you.

Opinion:

Sociologists know that more guns do not equal less crime. So why are we talking about arming teachers instead of where we put our money, says Tacoma, Washington’s teacher of the year. (ICYMI: The U.S. bishops are leery of arming teachers and support an assault weapons ban.)

Distinctly Catholic columnist Michael Sean Winters reviews Pope Francis and the Caring Society, which he calls "libertarian propaganda." It gets Catholic social teaching wrong.

How is your Lent going? If you’re trying to increase your spiritual reading, try Shakespeare, suggests Bishop Robert Morneau of Green Bay, Wisconsin.  

Listen up!

On Being is the mama of all religion podcasts, and host Kristi Tippett occasionally interviews Catholics such as Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister and Jesuit Fr. Jim Martin. Earlier this month, she interviewed social worker and best-selling author Brené Brown. It’s good.

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