A woman joins Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, in reciting the rosary for Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican March 8, 2025. Cardinals living in Rome, leaders of the Roman Curia and the faithful joined the nighttime prayer. (CNS/Pablo Esparza)
Vatican News

Doctors declare Pope Francis no longer in 'imminent danger'

Vatican

For more than a week now, the Vatican's daily updates have trended in an incrementally positive direction, lifting the 88-year-old pontiff's prognosis. 

The Latest

Editors' Choice

Focus

A glazed painted tile illustrates Jesus' parable of the splinter and the beam, from the Netherlands, 1750-1850 (Wikimedia Commons/Museum Rotterdam)

In Focus

This Lent, let's focus on getting the logs out of our own eyes

Jesus' counsel is especially wise if we are going to help our society overcome the intense polarization that afflicts it. It is so easy to list the many faults and failures of those whose politics are not like our own.

Most Read Stories

Pope Francis talks with Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston as they arrive for a meeting in the synod hall at the Vatican Feb. 13, 2015. O'Malley delivered a lecture, part of the Bergoglio Lecture Series, Feb. 26 at Sacred Heart University. (CNS/Paul Haring)
NCR Voices

#1
Cardinal O'Malley paints rich, complex picture of Pope Francis

Cardinal Sean O'Malley's lecture offered unique insights into the spiritual sources on which Pope Francis has drawn, specifically the ways he embodies both the Franciscan and Ignatian traditions.

ByMichael Sean Winters
Young people and members of the House of Mary, groups associated with the Pontifical Academy of the Immaculate Conception, pray around a statue of St. John Paul II outside Rome’s Gemelli hospital March 2, 2025. Pope Francis is receiving treatment there for double pneumonia. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Vatican News

#2
Pope Francis experiences two new episodes of acute respiratory failure in hospital

Pope Francis experienced two episodes of acute respiratory failure on March 3 and had to resume receiving oxygen through a ventilator as he continues his battle with double pneumonia.  

ByChristopher White, Camillo Barone
U.S. Vice President JD Vance speaks during the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington Feb. 28, 2025. (OSV News/Courtesy National Catholic Prayer Breakfast/Gary Gellman)

#3
JD Vance 'surprised' by pushback from Pope Francis, US bishops on immigration

Vice President JD Vance's remarks at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., come amid a weekslong spat with Catholic leaders

ByAllison Prang

#4
Editorial: Bishop Barron goes to Washington. Will it be word on fire or a smokescreen?

#5
Cardinal McElroy, incoming Washington archbishop, has no plans to meet Trump

#6
While refuting JD Vance's hillbilly theology, Pope Francis chastises US bishops

Opinion

'Nonviolence is the only way forward,' Marie Dennis tells John Dear

Guest Voices

Remember when we called POTUS the 'leader of the free world'?

NCR Voices
Protestors demonstrate outside the scheduled execution of South Carolina inmate Brad Sigmon, on March 7, 2025, in Columbia, S.C. (AP/Chris Carlson)

Editorial: South Carolina's firing squad execution magnifies cruelty of death penalty

Editorial

Brad Sigmon chose to be the first person executed in the U.S. by firing squad in 15 years because he believed the alternatives — lethal injection and electrocution — are more horrific.

American priest Emil Kapaun one step closer to sainthood

Guest Voices

Will Musk and Trump go to hell for defunding the corporal works of mercy?

Guest Voices
U.S. President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington March 4, 2025. (OSV News/Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

Bishop Barron compares Trump's address to Congress to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

NCR Voices

Bishop Robert Barron was "delighted" to attend President Donald Trump's joint address to Congress and celebrate a private Mass for lawmakers, he said on a lengthy social media video about his "thrilling" trip.

Vatican

A woman joins Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, in reciting the rosary for Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican March 8, 2025. Cardinals living in Rome, leaders of the Roman Curia and the faithful joined the nighttime prayer. (CNS/Pablo Esparza)
Vatican News

Doctors declare Pope Francis no longer in 'imminent danger'

For more than a week now, the Vatican's daily updates have trended in an incrementally positive direction, lifting the 88-year-old pontiff's prognosis. 

3 nuns pray with large crowd
Vatican News

Vatican reports 'slight improvement' in Pope Francis' condition

A Vatican update on the pope's health said, "In order to continue recording these initial improvements in the coming days, the doctors are prudently keeping the prognosis reserved." 

ByChristopher White
Vatican News

Cardinal: Dignity lies at heart of church's stance on gender

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, presented a paper offering "some clarifications" regarding the meaning of the April 2024 document "Dignitas Infinita" during a conference organized by Germany's Cologne University of Catholic Theology. 

ByCarol Glatz, Catholic News Service
People hold a banner with a greeting in Italian for Pope Francis outside Rome's Gemelli Hospital on March 6. The banner says, "Cercola is praying for you. Stay strong, rise and walk." The phrase "rise and walk" is from the Acts of the Apostles, and Cercola is a town near Naples. (CNS/Lola Gomez)
Vatican News

Pope Francis sends first audio message since hospitalization, offering gratitude for prayers

Pope Francis' recovery from double pneumonia is continuing on a positive trajectory, with the pontiff remaining stable for another day. Francis on March 6 released a brief audio message expressing gratitude for the prayers he has received during his three-week hospitalization. 

ByChristopher White, Camillo Barone

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Vatican News

Pope's Ash Wednesday absence looms large as Lent begins at the Vatican

Francis, the comic strip

Francis, the comic strip: What happened to the globe?

Vatican News

Pope Francis spends Ash Wednesday in hospital, but with positive recovery signs

Cacti in desert

Resumed UN nature summit provides faith groups pathway to log conservation progress

The U.N. biodiversity summit, COP16, officially ended Feb. 28 in Rome, four months after the biannual talks began in Cali, Colombia. Nations reached deals on mobilizing funds and monitoring conservation commitments. 

Broccoli cheddar soup
Viewpoints

NCR recipes for Lent: High-protein broccoli cheddar soup

NCR's Heidi Schlumpf shares a recipe for  broccoli cheddar soup from the blog "I heart vegetables." She says it's a family favorite.

ByHeidi Schlumpf
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's sign is seen on the podium at EPA headquarters in Washington July 11, 2018.
Viewpoints

'Flood injustice' calls us to declare the dignity of vulnerable communities

In this dispiriting moment when the Trump administration has rejected environmental justice and climate change, what can the 2023 Pajaro flood teach us about how Catholic moral thought responds to such realities?

ByDavid E. DeCosse
Pope Francis is pictured with Cardinal Pedro Barreto Jimeno of Huancayo, Peru, during a procession at the start of the first session of the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon at the Vatican Oct. 7, 2019. (CNS/Vatican Media)
Faith

Help protect creation from greed, exploitation, pope says in message

At the start of the Lenten season, the pope greeted Catholics in Brazil and praised the country's bishops for their continued support of the annual Fraternity Campaign, which is dedicated this year to "Fraternity and Integral Ecology."

ByCarol Glatz, Catholic News Service

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Viewpoints

NCR recipes for Lent: Sweet chili tofu broccoli stir-fry

Why religion is fundamental to addressing climate change

Justice

21 bishops join scientists, activists to sign letter against oil exploration in Brazil

Culture

Victor Bento performs as S. Adriano (countertenor) in "Sweet Chains" on Oct. 19, 2024, at St. Vincent Ferrer Church in New York City. (Courtesy of David Thompson Fairchild)

Academy of Sacred Drama brings lost Baroque oratorios back to life after 300 years

Hidden gems of these lost sacred dramas are returning to the stage, thanks to the Academy of Sacred Drama. In a unique blend of music, storytelling and history, the ensemble is bringing works back to life after centuries of silence.

'Hip-Hop Mass' brings African American Catholic flair in Atlanta

The new composition premiered this month in Georgia at the Lyke House Catholic Center, with a planned expansion due in the coming months.

BySamantha Smith, Black Catholic Messenger
Image from the Netflix documentary, 'Don't Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever'

'Don't Die,' Ballerina Farm and the theology of self-optimization

Bryan Johnson, the focus of the Netflix documentary "Don't Die," and Hannah Neeleman of Ballerina Farm have something in common: a theology of pleasure-denial now to yield ultimate reward later. 

ByAnna Rollins
Christ on the Road to Emmaus
Book Reviews

'The Road to Wisdom' requires trust in both science and faith

The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust by Francis S. Collins, a medical doctor and head of the team of scientists uncovering the human genome project, offers a timely message of truth and understanding as a possible antidote to today’s political turmoil and social unrest.

By

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Oscars recap: 'Conclave' ripples well beyond its one win

Best Actress Oscar favorite Demi Moore's 'The Substance' is disturbing, disgusting – and liberating

The father of 'Wicked' is a gay Catholic

Antonio M. Lagdameo, the permanent representative of the Philippines to the United Nations and chair of the Committee on the Status of Women in 2024, pictured at the podium and upper part of screens addressing the opening of the 68th session of the CSW in March 2024.

Monday Starter: CSW meetings to focus on 30 years since Beijing Declaration

Plus, a new study from UNANIMA looks at how certain groups, such as women and children, experience homelessness.

Miner with gold

'Yes to life, no to mining': Sisters in El Salvador join church's protest

Sisters are participating in the church's campaign: "Yes to life, no to mining," calling for the restoration of a law against metal mining in El Salvador. 

ByRhina Guidos
A person's hands cupping four juicy, red tomatoes still attached to the vine in front of them on top of a well-worn outdoor staircase surrounded by green shubbery.
Faith

Agrospiritual ponderings: Cultivating spiritual richness within ourselves

The foundation of good fruit lies in healthy soil. But in these times, when not-so-good fruit has become the norm, how do we cultivate the richness of our spiritual soil?

By

Sr. Lucia Caram, who helps Ukrainians in Spain, calls out Trump, pleads for help

Sr. Lucia Caram, who ministers to Ukrainian war victims in Spain, shares her outrage at the heated exchange between Presidents Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

ByRhina Guidos

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

House of Discernment blends vocations and intercongregational community

'Relying on prayers,' sisters fear for their lives as fighting in Congo escalates

After a week of heartbreak about Ukraine, truth still wins out

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