OSV News

Some Catholic policy analysts expressed concern about potential cuts to key safety net programs, such as Medicaid, a health care program for low-income Americans, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which is run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Despite his illness, age and hospitalization, Pope Francis is still demonstrating his deep faith and exercising his role as pontiff, said a cardinal who once served as an auxiliary bishop of Rome.

U.S. President Donald Trump's new policies concerning unauthorized immigrants and mass deportation operations have caught some Latin American countries off guard, prompting them to improvise ways to deal with the unexpected arrival of high numbers of those being deported.

The Supreme Court on Feb. 25 threw out the murder conviction and death penalty for Richard Glossip, an Oklahoma man who has been on death row for a quarter century. At issue in the case was whether Glossip received a fair trial, and the high court found he did not.

A Kansas military chaplain who served during two wars is a step further along the path to possible sainthood, thanks to a declaration made by Pope Francis, currently in Rome's Gemelli hospital for severe respiratory illness.

A "silent genocide" — mimicking the Rwandan one of 1994 — is occurring in eastern Congo, said some Catholic Church sources, as shock greeted the killing of 70 people in a Protestant church in the North Kivu Province.

Among President Trump's more than 70 executive orders since the beginning of his second term are those involving withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and the freezing of "clean energy" project funds in the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. 

Pope Francis remains in critical condition and he continues to receive supplemental oxygen, but he has not experienced any further respiratory crises.

Francis' condition continues to be critical and the pope is not out of danger.

Pope Francis has appointed Gregg M. Caggianelli, as auxiliary bishop of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services. 

Hope in Christ and that God's truth will prevail amid Russia's war on Ukraine was the message that Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the patriarchal head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, shared time and again during his Feb. 15-21 Jubilee Year pastoral visit to the United States.

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that aims to expand access to in vitro fertilization, or IVF, a practice the Catholic Church warns is enormously destructive to embryonic human life.

As Pope Francis continues to recover at Rome's Gemelli Hospital, Catholics in the pope's Diocese of Rome and around the world joined in prayer for his health.
 

Across the country, basilicas, churches and shrines have begun opening their doors to local pilgrims. These sites each have a unique history and hold significance in their local region, helping Catholics to encounter God in new ways.

The work of Catholic prison ministry has been mostly carried out quietly. So much so, that it has long been thought of as something only priests and religious do. This has meant that lay involvement "is almost nonexistent," according to Karen Clifton, executive coordinator of the online-based Catholic Prison Ministries Coalition, or CMPC.

Thousands of people gathered Feb. 16 in the small village of Pyin Oo Lwin in Myanmar to pay their final respects to Father Donald Martin Ye Naing Win, a priest who was found stabbed to death in a targeted attack.
 

After the M23 Rwanda-backed rebels Feb. 16 occupied Bukavu, a second major city in mineral-rich eastern Congo, Catholic bishops and experts are warning this offensive in the provinces of North and South Kivu signals a clear intent to establish a permanent foreign country presence in the region.
 

The designation, granted by the Carnegie Classifications of Institutions of Higher Education, means a university must meet rigorous criteria, such as spending at least $50 million on research and grants and having at least 70 research doctorates on average awarded in a single year to achieve R1.

A diverted trip, a grounded flight and an unexpected stay in Canada showed that "Jesus ... is in charge, not us," said Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York in a Feb. 15 homily.

Ongoing uncertainty about funding from the National Institutes of Health could imperil medical research at academic institutions all over the country, including Catholic institutions, multiple sources told OSV News.