Bolivia's Catholic bishops appealed for dialogue and "humanitarian pauses" during disruptive protests, which have collapsed the highlands of the Andean country and threatened the administration of President Rodrigo Paz.
In a May 14 statement, Benedictine College in Atchison disclosed that in late April its campus had been "repeatedly leafletted with anonymous flyers from a group calling itself 'Coalition of Catholics Against Jewish Supremacy.'"
Pope Leo XIV will personally present his first major teaching document on AI's ethical challenges alongside the co-founder of the AI research company that recently thrust into a public clash with the Trump administration.
"We hope with all our hearts that the war will end," said Sr. Camille Fermina Herraiz Martinez, 80. "We have to continue to live and to give war its own meaning. Life does not stop because of the war."
"The future of higher education, and perhaps of democracy, may depend upon the willingness of liberal leaders and intellectuals to engage with the Catholic intellectual tradition, and vice versa," writes NCR's Michael Sean Winters.
On this week's episode of "The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast," John Dear hosts Bishop Michael Curry, who served as the 27th presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church.
Thousands of people streamed onto the National Mall for a daylong prayer rally Sunday billed as a "rededication of our country as One Nation under God."
In recent decades, the 1776 document's few references to God have been especially polarizing, as Americans defend starkly contrasting views of the United States.
St. Zdislava of Lemberk was born around 1220 into a noble Bohemian family. St. John Paul II canonized her in Olomouc on May 21, 1995, citing her life as a model of holiness lived in marriage and family life.
Director Igor Bezinovic's film "Fiume o morte!" turns our attention to the 1919 occupation of a city by the charismatic poet Gabriele D'Annunzio — keeping him ridiculous at every turn.
So often when we think of the Holy Spirit, it's as a dove. But the Holy Spirit can be wild and tempestuous, coming where and when it will, shaking us out of our complacency, asking us to look with fresh eyes.
Sabastian Sawe clinched the London Marathon in record time, becoming the first human to run an official marathon in under two hours. His win also drew attention to the connection between running and faith for Kenyans.
The Milan Archdiocese marked the formal end of the diocesan phase of the sainthood cause of Msgr. Luigi Giussani, founder of the Communion and Liberation movement. His case now advances to the Vatican.
The U.S. bishops and other Catholic groups have issued public comments expressing concern about still-pending proposed federal regulations that would further restrict asylum-seekers and other migrants and their families from work authorization and housing assistance.
With about 1.9 million online visits in March, the National Catholic Reporter placed seventh among nonprofit news sites per rankings maintained by Nieman Lab, part of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
A study group established by Pope Francis after the Synod on Synodality has called for a greater role for the laity and clergy in the selection of bishops, especially by involving the diocesan priests’ council and pastoral council.
Letters to the editor: NCR readers respond to stories about the church and mental health, the war in Iran and the Vatican's handling of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X.
The U.S. officials who will speak "are political lieutenants of an administration that has waged war on immigrants, gutted Catholic Charities contracts, and treated the Holy Father as an adversary," said one critic.
Since Pope Francis was buried in the Basilica of St. Mary on April 27, 2025, the basilica has been transformed from a prominent Roman church into one of the city's major pilgrimage sites for admirers of the late pope.
"This very spiritual malaise of many young people reminds us that we are not the sum of what we have, nor matter randomly assembled in a mute cosmos," the pope said May 14. "We are a desire, not an algorithm."
Before he started his general audience, Pope Leo XIV stepped out of his popemobile on May 13 and walked over to pray beside a plaque marking the spot where history took a turn that shocked the world 45 years before.
There's been no conspiracy to omit the mention of Jesus Christ, but there has been a hesitancy to place him at the center of our events. Pope Leo XIV aims to correct this state of affairs, writes Michael Sean Winters.
The federal government's planned 1.3-mile wall across Mount Cristo Rey, seen as a holy site where "faith transcends borders," has drawn opposition from environmentalists and the Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces, New Mexico.
As immigration enforcement intensified this winter, Minneapolis organizers and parishioners navigated fear, exhaustion and moral responsibility. The trauma, they said, transformed churches, families and neighborhoods.
The Christian tradition is inherently a storytelling religion. And from the earliest days of the experimental Franciscan way of life, people told striking stories about what was unfolding in the town of Assisi.
Pope Leo XIV is sending another Catholic leader who has spoken out for migrants to President Trump's adopted home state. The pope named Capuchin Fr. Emilio Biosca Agüero as the third bishop of Venice, Florida.
Priests, bishops, parish leaders and immigration rights advocates from 10 dioceses gathered at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit to discuss the Church's prophetic witness regarding the debates surrounding immigration and the impact current federal policy has had on immigrant communities over the past two years.
Pope Leo XIV's brother Augustinians and others from the Chicago-area looked back with gratitude on the past year since the election of one of their own at a special Mass May 8.
The Vatican warned that members of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X will incur excommunication if the group follows through with its threat to ordain new bishops without the approval of Rome.
So often, when we in the U.S. debate a war, we omit much of the globe from the conversation: We do not talk about (or to) rice farmers in Asia or soda vendors in Kenya when discussing the cost of a war in the Middle East.
Phoenix Bishop John Dolan lost three siblings and an in-law to suicide and has spoken out about the church's need to accompany those suffering from mental illness and their families.
The pope's refusal to let President Donald Trump misrepresent his position on nuclear weapons points to a "deeper moral problem increasingly present in public life," Fr. Enzo Del Brocco writes.
President Donald Trump said May 11 he plans to discuss the imprisonment of Jimmy Lai during his upcoming visit to China; however, he suggested the prominent Catholic and pro-democracy campaigner "caused a lot of bedlam."
The land targeted by the federal government is at the base of Mount Cristo Rey, a mountain and pilgrimage site topped by a 29-foot-tall limestone statue of Jesus Christ.
Speaking to journalists in Rome May 6, Cardinal Pietro Parolin was asked if the Vatican intends to impose sanctions on the German bishops after the continued promotion of a handbook for blessing same-sex couples.
A recently passed bill decriminalizing suicide in Virginia has been championed by many as overdue relief for families of those who have died by suicide, but it also raises questions from a Catholic ethical perspective.
Bishop Oscar Cantú and two ethicists write: "It is time for the consciences of Catholics and all citizens to examine policies of detention and deportation in light of the demands of love, truth, dignity and justice — and to act."
The Vatican is sending new signals about how it intends to minister to LGBTQ+ Catholics in the Pope Leo XIV era, with signs of openness and limitations after Pope Francis ushered in a notable welcome during his 12-year pontificate.
Bishop Michael Bransfield, who retired in 2018 as head of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston amid multiple allegations of grave sexual and financial misconduct, died May 7 at age 82.
Adelle M. Banks, Jack Jenkins, Religion News Service
"We need accountability. We need to set goals, track registrations, follow up to ensure that those who register actually vote," a Church of God in Christ bishop said at an "emergency" meeting.
Critics of the commission say it embodies a one-sided perspective of Trump's supporters and is threatening a well-established constitutional separation of church and state, despite the chair's claims.
Una religiosa francesa que denunció haber sido abusada por el sacerdote y artista Marko Rupnik decidió responder con arte. La hermana Samuelle diseñó un mosaico monumental en cuyos reversos —una construcción colectiva en marcha— están inscritos nombres, oraciones y mensajes de supervivientes de abusos en la Iglesia católica de todo el mundo, como respuesta al silencio y como acto de reparación y renacimiento.
The Dignity Act, a bipartisan immigration proposal in the U.S. House of Representatives, is drawing significant backing from Catholic lawmakers, who make up more than half of its current supporters.
Trump campaigned on the promise that he would fix high prices and avoid foreign wars. Instead, he has embroiled the nation in a war that has failed to meet any of the president's own stated criteria for attacking Iran.
On this week's "The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast," professor Kate Common explains how archeological studies confirm that the origins of the Hebrew community were peaceful, not genocidal as the Book of Joshua says.
Joseph Caramanno, who accused Msgr. John Paddack of child sex abuse and sued the archdiocese in August 2019, is among 1,300 accusers offered $250,000 as part of an $800 million settlement.
The American impressionist is known for domestic themes in both public and private life, but in her depictions, like in the women she paints, there is more than first meets the eye.
The Rev. Tonya Butler-Truesdale reflects on meeting Pope Leo XIV as a Black woman formed by deep faith, ancestral memory and ecclesial marginalization.
In Love Like a Mother, Elizabeth Berget claims that biblical texts, Christian history, art and women's lived experience are saturated with maternal imagery for God.
Caritas Bangladesh and church-run health centers are building infection prevention awareness while the country grapples with a deadly outbreak of measles that has left more than 330 children dead since mid-March.
Outrage has grown as a photo surfaced of an Israeli soldier desecrating a statue of the Virgin Mary in Lebanon. Concerns are mounting about increasing anti-Christian behavior as Israel continues war in the Middle East.
As the U.S. Senate prepares to consider a farm bill recently approved by the U.S. House, Catholic organizations together with the U.S. bishops sought to stress to lawmakers the importance of efforts to combat hunger, such as robust support for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, a major part of the nation's social safety net.
"The wars still being fought in so many regions of the world call for a renewed commitment that is not only economic and political, but also spiritual and religious," Pope Leo XIV said. "Peace is born within the heart."
In the Church, clergy can play a crucial role in supporting the mental health of those in their parishes and communities, according to Bishop Dolan. He and other Catholic mental health leaders spoke with OSV News about clergy support of mental health for May, Mental Health Awareness Month.
Chris Herlinger, Dan Stockman, Rhina Guidos, Doreen Ajiambo
Al cumplirse un año de su pontificado, las hermanas de todo el mundo celebran al papa León XIV con gratitud y esperanza, pues sigue prestando atención a los desafíos que a ellas interesan y preocupan. Valoran, además, su compromiso con la justicia social, su visita a África, su apoyo a Ucrania y su firme rechazo a la pena de muerte. Fiel al Evangelio, las religiosas ven en el primer papa nacido en Estados Unidos al líder que la Iglesia necesita en este momento.
With decades of experience protesting war and nuclear weapons, Catholic sisters in peace activism said they see an ally in Pope Leo XIV, just a year into his papacy.
"The church does not canonize based on what seems likely or inspiring," writes Fr. Augustine Judd. "She proceeds with great care, relying on what can be clearly established and demonstrated with moral certainty."
Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch, a conservative Catholic, is trying to install two large bronze statues of Catholic saints on the edifice of the city's new public safety headquarters.