United States Army Specialist Robert Orcutt prays near a makeshift memorial for victims of the shootings at Fort Hood Army post in Fort Hood, Texas, Nov. 9, 2009. (OSV News photo/Jessica Rinaldi, Reuters)

Religious and political leaders object to Hegseth's proposal to livestream execution

News

The president of the U.S. bishops' conference described the Pentagon's Oct. 8 announcement that it plans to livestream a firing squad execution as "a barbaric promotion of a culture of death."

The Latest

First suicide memorial by a US archdiocese signals a compassionate shift by the Catholic Church

Luis Andres Henao, Associated Press

Pope Leo lays groundwork for future conclave by naming Filipino cardinal as dean of cardinals

Nicole Winfield, Associated Press

Cornell Catholic ministry calls on students to witness to faith amid university sexual assault case

Gina Christian, OSV News

Editors' Choice

Fr. Jim Farrell of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis delivers the homily at the Sept. 27 Mass at Miami Correctional, a facility that houses approximately 800 ICE detainees. About 450 people attended the Mass. (Courtesy of Allison Mayer)

In Focus

Across US, Catholics take to streets as momentum builds for immigrant solidarity

"I think we're going to go through a dark night of the soul as a country on this issue," said Dylan Corbett, executive director of the Hope Border Institute. "But I do have a lot of hope."

Support journalism that matters. 

Your donation to NCR keeps independent Vatican news accessible to all. 

Donate Now

Most Read Stories

Vatican News

#1
Pope Leo seeks status update of Francis' divisive opening to divorced and remarried Catholics

Church leaders will meet in Rome next week to understand how "The Joy of Love", Pope Francis' 2016 document on divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, has been implemented.

ByNicole Winfield, The Associated Press
The tomb of St. Francis of Assisi in Assisi, Italy, is seen as it is accessible to pilgrims year-round. (OSV News/Courtesy of Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi)
Guest Voices

#2
St. Francis teaches us about death, 800 years after his own

Just as God loves us and sustains us in this earthly, bodily life, so too does God love us and sustain us as we transition from this state of life to the next. 

ByDaniel P. Horan
Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, gives the keynote address during the USA National Jubilee Pilgrim Gathering at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, July 30, 2025. (CNS/Lola Gomez)
NCR Voices

#3
Bishop Barron swings and misses, again

"Barron is correct to insist he is not a 'member of the Trump administration' but his selective treatment of the church's teachings convicts him as an apologist for the president," Michael Sean Winters writes.

ByMichael Sean Winters

#4
Opening boxes of the soul with Jesus in prayer

#5
Bishop Mariann Budde to resign, will remain in post during lengthy replacement process

#6
Hegseth announces 'Office of Religious Affairs' in speech on Pentagon policy

Opinion

10 years of 'Amoris Laetitia': What Chapter 8 changed

Guest Voices

Your letters: US diplomacy, restricting the chalice and the hierarchy

Letters to the Editor
Loreto Sr. Wamuyu Wachira speaks during an event to inaugurate the Catholic Institute for Nonviolence at the Istituto Maria Bambina in Rome Sept. 29, 2024. (CNS/Justin McLellan)

Podcast: 'Beatitudes should be part of our DNA,' says Pax Christi's Sr. Wamuyu Wachira

Guest Voices

On this week's episode of "The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast," John Dear hosts Loreto Sr. Wamuyu Wachira, co-president of Pax Christi International.

Leo's emerging style of pastoral leadership

NCR Voices

St. Francis teaches us about death, 800 years after his own

Guest Voices
Pope Leo XIV meets with members of the French bishops' conference in the Sainte-Bernadette auditorium at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in Lourdes, France, Sept. 27, 2026. (CNS/Vatican Media)

Pope Leo synthesizes predecessors' style in speech to French bishops

NCR Voices

When Pope Leo XIV spoke to the French bishops who had gathered at Lourdes this week, his message had echoes of Popes Francis, Benedict XVI and John Paul II.

Vatican

Pope Leo XIV

Pope Leo lays groundwork for future conclave by naming Filipino cardinal as dean of cardinals

Pope Leo XIV took a first step Friday to lay the groundwork for the eventual conclave that will elect his successor: He appointed Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle as the new dean of the College of Cardinals, elevating his profile as a papal contender in the process.

Pope Francis speaks to members of the Synod of Bishops on synodality after they approved their final document Oct. 26, 2024, in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. (CNS/Vatican Media)

'Synodality' was a Vatican buzzword. 5 years on, it's still changing the church.

The synodal shift "doesn't make a lot of noise, but it's something deep," said Sr. Nathalie Becquart. "There is still a lot to do, but people are more and more confident that this is the way forward." 

ByJustin McLellan
Sr. Mary Teresa Barron, a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles, speaks during a news conference on the Synod of Bishops on synodality at the Vatican Oct. 7, 2024. (CNS/Justin McLellan)

Pope names Irish sister to lead Vatican's missionary efforts

Pope Leo XIV named Irish Sr. Mary Teresa Barron to lead the Vatican's global network of missionary societies, making her the first woman to hold the post.

ByJustin McLellan
The Leo Chronicles: Brother Leo misses Gabby and worries she may be in trouble somewhere in Somalia.
The Leo Chronicles

The Leo Chronicles: What about Gabby?

The Leo Chronicles: Brother Leo misses Gabby and worries she may be in trouble somewhere in Somalia.

ByPat Marrin

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Pope Leo urges frank reckoning with Catholic teaching on sex and marriage

Ahead of papal visit, archbishop warns of a 'wounded Argentina' at Our Lady of Luján shrine

Vatican News

Pope Leo joins tech, political leaders on Vanity Fair list of influential individuals

EarthBeat

Daughters of Divine Love Srs. Mary Calisata Iwuji and Jacinta Nwankwo pose for a photo in front of the diocesan clinic in Ezza-Nkwubor Nike, a remote village in Enugu State, southeast Nigeria. (Patrick Egwu)

Nigerian sisters minister amid inaccessible roads and flood disasters

A hospital run by the Daughters of Divine Love faces challenges from heavy rains and floods, which have damaged sections of the road leading to their community.

Supreme Court hears key climate change lawsuit, but procedural question remains

In the first case of its new term Oct. 5, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a lawsuit from officials in Boulder, Colorado, against two major oil companies over climate change.

ByKate Scanlon, OSV News
Jeffie Hardin teaches gardening and farming techniques at a North Carolina Title I school. She and her husband, Chris Hardin, moved from the suburbs to a farm that eventually became both a source of food and a kind of informal classroom. (Courtesy of Chris Hardin)

Farming, faith and 'real synodality': How this Catholic couple lives Laudato Si'

Chris and Jeffie Hardin, who live in North Carolina, will visit the Vatican's Borgo Laudato Si' to learn more about how to live and teach ways that honor creation. 

ByCamillo Barone
Sr. Fidelia Viban, mother general of the Dominican contemplative nuns at the Monastery of St. Dominic in Bambui, Cameroon, stands on the monastery farm. The sisters grow crops to support their community and help people in need, including families displaced by the Anglophone conflict. (GSR photo/Doreen Ajiambo)

For nuns in war-torn Cameroon, conflict threatens hard-won climate solutions

As COP31 approaches, Catholic sisters' struggling biogas initiatives at the Monastery of St. Dominic in Cameroon reveal the fragility of grassroots climate action in communities strained by war and poverty.

ByDoreen Ajiambo

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

In and around Assisi, pilgrims retrace St. Francis' footsteps to kinship with creation

Data center boom puts water, power costs and Catholic concerns on the ballot

Celebrating the Season of Creation as a trans Catholic living on a farm

Culture

JoAnn Falletta, music director for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, will conduct "Francis: An Oratorio in Nine Scenes" Oct. 10 and 11. The oratorio brings together music composed by Richard Danielpour and a Fransiscan-inspired libretto by Franciscan Sr. Margaret Carney. (Steve J. Sherman)

St. Francis' messages shared through music at oratorio debut

Franciscan Sr. Margaret Carney wrote the libretto for "Francis: An Oratorio in Nine Scenes." Performances with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra are set for Oct. 10 and 11.

Brandi Carlile (right) performs with Monique Ross (far left) and Chauntee Ross of SistaStrings during the 55th annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Gala at the Marriott Marquis Hotel on Thursday, June 11, 2026, in New York. (AP/Invision/Evan Agostini)

Finding communion at a Brandi Carlile concert

After a Brandi Carlile concert, and with her own son learning an instrument, one mother reflects on the holiness of sharing a collective experience with other human beings.

ByBritt Luby
A crowd gathers in the square in front of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris on Aug. 26, 1944, awaiting the arrival of Gen. Charles de Gaulle after Paris was liberated from the Germans. (Wikimedia Commons/CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain/Préfecture de Police)

As Pope Leo heads to Notre Dame, a brief history of the cathedral's cultural relevance

When the pope visits the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris this week, he'll see a church that has stood as a religious and cultural French landmark for nearly 900 years. 

ByVanessa R. Corcoran
Publications featuring the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen are displayed among other artifacts and memorabilia at the Sheen Museum on July 15, 2026, in Peoria, Ill. (AP/Jessie Wardarski)

How Fulton Sheen paved the way for American acceptance of Catholics

Without Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, would there have been a President John F. Kennedy? In a country historically skeptical of Catholicism, Sheen's TV homilies showed that Catholics were just as American as anyone else.

ByJoseph Connor

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Book Reviews

Stephanie Sy-Quia's debut novel paints forbidden love against Vatican II backdrop

'Sister Act' and the gift of Blackness in the church

With 19 Emmy nods, 'Widow's Bay' gets the link between terror and togetherness

Srs. Rocío García Villegas, Christine Masivo and Angella Rwezaula, participants in the Pentecost Project, are pictured during their communications training at the Vatican News studios in the Dicastery for Communication at the Vatican. (Courtesy of Sr. Rocío García Villegas)
Voices of Sisters

For one Catholic sister, communication becomes a missionary vocation

Horizons - "There are stories that don't seek the spotlight," writes Sr. Rocío García Villegas. "They just need someone who has the courage to stop, look at them and not walk right past them."

Sr. Alice Kasmel Vadakkethundil, member of the Daughters of Our Lady of Mercy, interacts with students at Karuna Speech and Hearing Higher Secondary School in Kozhikode, a town in the southwestern Indian state of Kerala. (George Kommattam)

Indian nuns bring hope to hearing-impaired students and their parents

At the Karuna Speech and Hearing school in southwestern India, Daughters of our Lady of Mercy create bonds with students and parents that "are forever."

By
Lisha McCormick, the CEO of Last Mile Health, delivers acceptance remarks during the June 6, 2026, ceremony at the Beverly Hilton that awarded her group the 2026 Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize. (AP Content Services for Conrad N. Hilton Foundation/Jordan Strauss)

Hilton Humanitarian Prize affirms the work of community-based healthcare

Last Mile Health received the 2026 Hilton Humanitarian Prize and $3 million for its work expanding access to lifesaving healthcare through community health workers in underserved regions of Africa.

ByChris Herlinger
Outside of Immokalee High School in Immokalee, Florida (GSR photo/Chris Herlinger)

Haitian migrants in Florida turn to Catholic sister as deportation fears grow

Returning to Haiti does not feel like a real option: "We don't have anything there to go back to. This is home."

ByChris Herlinger

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

A vision for spiritual renewal of women religious in Africa

Nazareth nuns in India brave bandits to educate low caste community

Q&A with president-elect of LCWR Sr. Betsy Pawlicki on navigating change