Author: Reporter

Mike Dulak grew up Catholic in Southern California, but by his teen years, he began skipping Mass and driving straight to the shore to play guitar, watch the waves and enjoy “the beauty of the morning on the beach,” he recalled. “And it felt more spiritual than any time I set foot in a church.” Nothing has changed that view in the ensuing decades. “Most religions are there to control people and get money from them,” said Dulak, now 76, of Rocheport, Missouri. He also cited sex abuse scandals, harming “innocent human beings,” in Catholic and Southern Baptist churches....

The Vatican has been trying for years to debunk the idea that its vaunted secret archives are all that secret: It has opened up the files of controversial World War II-era Pope Pius XII to scholars and changed the official name to remove the word “Secret” from its title. But a certain aura of myth and mystery has persisted — until now. The longtime prefect of what is now named the Vatican Apostolic Archive, Archbishop Sergio Pagano, is spilling the beans for the first time, revealing some of the secrets he has uncovered in the 45 years he has...

More Americans now believe the death penalty, which is undergoing a yearslong decline of use and support, is being administered unfairly. That finding is adding to its growing isolation in the U.S., according to an annual report on capital punishment. But whether the public’s waning support for the death penalty and the declining number of executions and death sentences will ultimately result in the abolition of capital punishment in the U.S. remains uncertain, experts said. “There are some scholars who are optimistic the death penalty will be totally eradicated pretty soon,” said Eric Berger, a law professor at the...

It took four and a half months for Shannon Ross’ life to unravel. Ross, who describes himself as Indigenous and a person of color, was arrested in Chicago in October 2019 on weapons charges and ultimately found not guilty. But that came only after he spent months in jail awaiting trial, lost his home, car, job, and countless moments with his children. Ross could not afford the $75,000 bond set during a hearing that he recalls lasted only a few minutes. “I had to lose everything to prove that I wasn’t guilty,” he said. “It messes with you mentally,...