An engraving titled, "Barbarity committed on a free African, who was found on the ensuing morning, by the side of the road, dead!" published in 1822 (Library of Congress/Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.)
Guest Voices

Pope Leo has initiated the conversation Black Catholics have been waiting for

Opinion

Magnifica Humanitas is the most significant map for healing that the papacy has ever placed in the hands of the Black Catholic community, writes Jesuit Fr. Patrick Saint-Jean.

The Latest

Eucharist transforms believers into Christ's body and counters division, pope says

Josephine Peterson, Catholic News Service

These traditionalist Catholics are defying Pope Leo XIV, and embracing their outsider status

Nicole Winfield, Associated Press

Chicago Archdiocese countersuit against alleged abuse settlement fraud ring gets green light

Simone Orendain, OSV News

Editors' Choice

An internally displaced Somali family prepares breakfast outside their makeshift shelter in Mogadishu May 7, 2026. Experts say nearly 6.5 million people in Somalia are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity and more than 1.8 million children are suffering from acute malnutrition because of recurrent drought, displacement, prolonged instability and insufficient resources. (OSV News/Reuters/Feisal Omar)

In Focus

Notre Dame study links climate change to stunted child growth in Africa

Researchers say climate change is a "threat multiplier" on social inequalities facing vulnerable communities and poor households unable to buy food elsewhere after a bad harvest, losing sources of nutrition and income.

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Most Read Stories

Pope Leo XIV smiles as he greets visitors during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican June 17, 2026. A day earlier, Leo spoke with journalists about the Society of St. Pius X. (CNS/Vatican Media)

#1
Pope says church 'must move forward' if SSPX proceeds with illicit ordinations

Pope Leo XIV said that although he is considering a final appeal to the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X, the choice to splinter from the Catholic Church falls on them.

ByJunno Arocho Esteves, OSV News
Pope Leo XIV incenses the relics of St. Augustine as he visits the San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro Basilica in Pavia, northern Italy, June 20, 2026. (AP/Luca Bruno)
Vatican News

#2
Pope Leo prays at relics of St. Augustine, then visits Mother Cabrini's birthplace

The pontiff's day trip marked the midway point of his summer 2026 grand tour of Italy. 

ByNicole Winfield, Brian Hendrie, Associated Press
Martha Hennessy, Dorothy Day's granddaughter, sits by her grandmother's grave at Resurrection Cemetery in Staten Island, New York, June 8, 2026. (NCR photo/Camillo Barone)

#3
Sitting by Dorothy Day's grave, her granddaughter reflects on faith, family and war

Nearly 46 years after Dorothy Day's death, her granddaughter Martha Hennessy still finds herself interpreting Day's legacy — not only for the church and the wider world, but for herself.

ByCamillo Barone

#4
Why Mary, as the Immaculate Conception, became patron saint of the US in the 1840s

#5
A viral photo of Pope Leo XIV and a Barcelona boy sparked an emotional search for his family

#6
Cardinal McElroy: Leo's papacy offers 'great hope' for church's LGBTQ ministry

Opinion

Pope Leo has initiated the conversation Black Catholics have been waiting for

Guest Voices

A deeper look at Pope Leo's encyclical: Catholic social teaching's purpose in AI age

Guest Voices
A Ukrainian soldier listens to artillery fire from his bunker at a front-line position near Bakhmut March 16, 2023, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine. (OSV News/Reuters/Violeta Santos Moura)

Why we can't toss aside just war theory

NCR Voices

"What worries me most about the push to jettison just war theory is that it betrays a deeper inability to wrestle with the fact of evil in the world," writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.

Dear bishops: Devotion to Sacred Heart requires solidarity with LGBTQ community

Guest Voices

Podcast: 'Even when it's hopeless, we can continue on,' says Mel Duncan of Nonviolent Peaceforce

Guest Voices

Pope Leo reveals his political theology in Spain

Guest Voices

"The world is undergoing a profound spiritual and cultural crisis, which manifests in multiple forms of violence, polarization and mutual distrust," Leo said in Spain.

Vatican

Pope Leo XIV greets a child from the popemobile while riding around St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican before his weekly general audience June 24, 2026. (CNS/Vatican Media)

Eucharist transforms believers into Christ's body and counters division, pope says

Participation in the Eucharist transforms believers into the body of Christ and offers a remedy to the divisions affecting families and communities, Pope Leo XIV said.

Pope Leo XIV talks to journalists as he leaves his residence in Castel Gandolfo, on the outskirts of Rome, to return to the Vatican June 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

These traditionalist Catholics are defying Pope Leo XIV, and embracing their outsider status

The Society of St. Pius X, which celebrates the traditional Latin Mass and rejects the modernizing reforms of the Catholic Church, is planning a highly organized, four-day, livestreamed extravaganza for the consecrations at its Swiss seminary.

ByNicole Winfield, Associated Press
Bishops gather at the opening of the spring plenary assembly of the German Bishops' Conference in Würzburg, Germany, Feb. 23, 2026. (OSV News/Courtesy German bishops' conference)
Vatican News

Vatican rejects request for laity, women to preach homily during Mass

The German bishops' conference had requested "in exceptional circumstances, a duly commissioned lay member of the faithful to preach in place of the homily during the celebration of the Eucharist."

ByJustin McLellan
Cardinals from around the world attend a Jan. 8, 2026, session of a consistory with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, held Jan. 7-8. (OSV News/Vatican Media/Simone Risoluti)
Vatican News

'Magnifica Humanitas' discussions prominent in schedule for upcoming consistory

The Vatican released the official schedule of the June 26-27 extraordinary consistory, giving a glimpse into some of the topics and major issues that will be discussed by Pope Leo XIV and the College of Cardinals.

ByJunno Arocho Esteves, OSV News

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

The Leo Chronicles

The Leo Chronicles: Forever friends

Pope Leo XIV warns wars are 'fed' faster than people as aid money dries up

A top banker tried to sway Pope Leo XIV on rare earth mining

EarthBeat

Youths carry freshly caught fish from the sea in Havana, Cuba, Monday, June 1, 2026. (RNS/AP/Ramon Espinosa)

With Cuba in crisis, faith groups work to influence policy, deliver aid

U.S. Republican administrations have long seen faith groups as a cornerstone for humanitarian aid and community trust as they push for regime change in Cuba.

Ilan Goldfajn, the president of the Inter-American Development Bank, speaks to the Associated Press during an interview in Rome June 18, 2026. A day later Goldfajn met privately with Pope Leo, asserting the potential of rare earth mining. (AP/Domenico Stinellis)

A top banker tried to sway Pope Leo XIV on rare earth mining

The Vatican has long opposed multinational mining corporations, especially in Latin America and in favor of the Indigenous peoples, whose lands and livelihoods are often ravaged by mining projects.

ByNicole Winfield, Associated Press
An internally displaced Somali family prepares breakfast outside their makeshift shelter in Mogadishu May 7, 2026. Experts say nearly 6.5 million people in Somalia are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity and more than 1.8 million children are suffering from acute malnutrition because of recurrent drought, displacement, prolonged instability and insufficient resources. (OSV News/Reuters/Feisal Omar)

Notre Dame study links climate change to stunted child growth in Africa

Researchers say climate change is a "threat multiplier" on social inequalities facing vulnerable communities and poor households unable to buy food elsewhere after a bad harvest, losing sources of nutrition and income.

ByBrian Roewe
Demonstrators protest outside the Argentine National Congress building in Buenos Aires as lawmakers debate the Javier Milei government's proposal to reform Argentina's glacier protection law April 8, 2026. (AP/Rodrigo Abd)

Argentine Catholics join push to reverse Milei's changes to glacier protection law

A reform to Argentina's 2010 glacier protection law has been met with popular opposition, with opponents arguing that the changes loosen government oversight of mining and oil projects, and put water sources at risk.

ByEduardo Campos Lima

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Vietnamese sisters help survivors of Formosa environmental disaster rebuild lives

Nuns in Cuba struggle to sustain ministries as fuel shortages deepen humanitarian crisis

Pope's AI encyclical lends church support to calls to slow rapid expansion of data centers

Culture

Iran's Alireza Jahanbakhsh (7) participates in a training session ahead of his team's World Cup Group G soccer match against Belgium Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Tijuana, Mexico. (AP photo/Gregory Bull)

World Cup: Superstars are fun to watch, but underdogs make the sport great

The world's most-watched sporting event is famous for athletes like Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal, but the grit of lesser-known players representing small but scrappy countries is where the real inspiration lies.

From left: Sr. Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking author; Catherine Anyango Grünewald, illustrator for the new graphic edition; actress Susan Sarandon, who portrayed Prejean in the 1996 film; and Rose Vines, who adapted the text for the graphic novel, pose Nov. 6, 2025, at the book launch in Manhattan. (Fordham University/Leo Sorel)
Book Reviews

Graphic novel of 'Dead Man Walking' retains memoir's moral core

The new graphic novel based on Sr. Helen Prejean's bestselling memoir about ministering on Louisiana's death row will attract new readers and satisfy longtime fans of the original book.

ByChris Herlinger
People at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit hold candles April 16, 2022, during the start of the Easter Vigil with then Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron as presider. (CNS/Detroit Catholic/Rosa Maria Zamarron)

New podcast explores Black Catholic resistance to Detroit's parish closures

In researching and creating "The City and the Cross," writer/narrator Aaron Robertson "was wondering, frankly, why Black Americans would even be Catholic."

ByTom Deignan
Emily Blunt portrays Margaret Fairchild, a TV meteorologist, in Steven Spielberg's science fiction thriller "Disclosure Day." (Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment )

Faith, fear and the wisdom of nuns in Spielberg's 'Disclosure Day'

Steven Spielberg anchors his new sci-fi thriller in a moving portrait of faith.

ByZachary Lee

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

'Hazbin Hotel,' the best Catholic show on TV, is queer as hell

This Pride Month, the Sacred Heart of Jesus bleeds for the queer

Why soccer fandom in Latin America feels sacred

Indian police stand outside the premises of the Missionaries of Charity home in Ranchi, where Sr. Concelia Baxla, 62, was arrested July 5, 2018, on suspicion of child trafficking. (CNS/Reuters)

Church leaders welcome acquittal of Indian nun, laywoman in child trafficking case

The Conference of Women Religious of India welcomed the "landmark judgement" which cleared misconceptions spread by "some vested interests" about Christian missionaries' service in India.

A church window depicts Christ's baptism by John the Baptist at the Jordan River. (CNS/Crosiers)
Columns

My friend, John the Baptizer

"The time I have spent with John over the years has somehow shaped who I have become," writes Sr. Francene Evans.

By
Sister Anna Maria of the Sacred Heart celebrated her 106th birthday March 14, 2026. (Courtesy of Perpetual Adorers of the Most Blessed Sacrament)

Q&A with a 106-year-old YouTuber nun, from enclosure to digital evangelization

Sister Anna Maria of the Sacred Heart celebrated her 106th birthday on March 14. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she learned to use digital media as a means of evangelization.

By
Servant of God Mother Mary Teresa Tallon is pictured in this undated colorized photo taken around 1920, when she founded the Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate. (OSV News/Courtesy Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate)

Sainthood cause advances for Mother Mary Teresa Tallon, foundress of Parish Visitors in NYC

The nun grew up on a farm outside Waterville, New York, a destination for hops picking for making beer. She founded the Parish Visitors in New York City in 1920. On June 18, Pope Leo XIV declared her venerable.

ByKatie Yoder, OSV News

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Nun walks with abuse survivors in the shadows of Indonesia's tourism boom

Children are learning to protect their rights and each other in Sierra Leone

As Venezuela remains divided, nuns urge dialogue, justice for national healing