Cardinal Fabio Baggio of Bassano del Grappa, Italy, the undersecretary of the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, speaks during a prayer vigil at Sacred Heart Church in El Paso March 24, 2025, following a rally and march against mass deportations by the U.S. government. (OSV News/Bob Roller)
Vatican News

Vatican migration chief: Expand legal pathways to combat illegal immigration

Vatican

NCR Vatican correspondent Justin McLellan sat down with Cardinal Fabio Baggio to discuss global migration trends and the continuity between Pope Leo XIV and Pope Francis on their advocacy for migrants.

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Prayer app Hallow faces backlash over Lenten partnership with Tucker Carlson

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Editors' Choice

Archbishop Ronald Hicks looks on as priests enter the sanctuary to receive Communion during his installation Mass as the new archbishop of New York at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City Feb. 6, 2026. (OSV News/Gregory A. Shemitz)

In Focus

From declining finances to clergy polarization: Inside Hicks' inherited NYC challenges

Behind gestures toward accountability lies a quieter crisis that New York Archbishop Hicks just inherited: uncertainty about long-term solvency, uneven communication with clergy, and increasing ideological polarization.

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Most Read Stories

Steam comes from a coal-fired power station in Emalahleni, South Africa, Oct. 11, 2021. (AP/Themba Hadebe, file)

#1
In South Africa's coal belt, girls disappear — and Catholic sisters quietly pull them back

As illegal mining spreads through abandoned shafts in South Africa, Catholic religious women risk their lives to rescue girls coerced into sex and early marriages in communities the state struggles to protect.

ByDoreen Ajiambo
Fr. Davide Pagliarani, center, superior general of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X is pictured during the society's general chapter in Econe, Switzerland July 12, 2018. With him are Bishop Alfonso de la Galarreta, left, and Fr. Christian Bouchacourt. (CNS/Courtesy fsspx.news)

#2
Traditionalist Catholic group doubles down on illicit consecrations, setting course for potential schism

Despite a Vatican offer of renewed theological dialogue, the Society of St. Pius X says it will consecrate bishops without papal approval, presenting the pope with a major test of church unity.

ByJustin McLellan
Chicago Cardinal Blase J. Cupich places ashes on the forehead of an attendee at the Ash Wednesday Mass near Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish, Feb. 18, 2026, in Melrose Park, a Chicago suburb. (Courtesy of Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership/Gordon Mayer)

#3
'God does not need papers': Cardinals spend Ash Wednesday with ICE detainees, their families

Cardinal Blase Cupich led a Mass in Chicago, which was attended by relatives of those who have been detained or deported. Cardinal Joseph Tobin celebrated Masses inside an ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey. 

ByCamillo Barone

#4
From declining finances to clergy polarization: Inside Hicks' inherited NYC challenges

#5
Epstein files reveal ties to Catholic conservatives' anti-Francis campaign

#6
A true parish welcomes everyone, spreads respect, harmony, pope says

Opinion

US Catholic newspapers began as immigrant outreach, and NCR continues that work

NCR Voices

Mocking Trump is easy, but it isn't a political strategy

NCR Voices
Pope John Paul II talks with U.S. President George W. Bush at the Vatican June 4, 2004, their first meeting after the Iraq war began. The pope, a vocal opponent of the war in Iraq, called for a speedy return to Iraqi sovereignty. (CNS/Reuters)

What is and isn't new about US bishops' criticism of Trumps' foreign policy

Guest Voices

ecent statements continue U.S. bishops' legacy of opposing virtually every major U.S. military intervention since Vietnam, except the invasion of Afghanistan, writes Gerard F. Powers.

A video of a bishop denouncing ICE inspired me — then I found it was AI

Guest Voices

Your letters: Trump's 'destruction' of America and NCR film coverage

Letters to the Editor
"The Prophet Isaiah" by Italian School (1800-1899)

For Lent, give up the jeremiad

NCR Voices

"In our time, people are positively eager to claim the mantle of prophecy," writes NCR's Michael Sean Winters. "They think it absolves them from the need for careful moral argumentation."

Vatican

At Curia retreat, Bishop Varden warns of Gospel's use 'as a weapon in culture wars'

The Lenten season is a reminder that Christians are called to bear witness to Christ through authentic witness, not self-righteous indignation, Norwegian Trappist Bishop Erik Varden told the pope and Vatican officials.

Cardinal Fabio Baggio of Bassano del Grappa, Italy, the undersecretary of the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, speaks during a prayer vigil at Sacred Heart Church in El Paso March 24, 2025, following a rally and march against mass deportations by the U.S. government. (OSV News/Bob Roller)
Vatican News

Vatican migration chief: Expand legal pathways to combat illegal immigration

NCR Vatican correspondent Justin McLellan sat down with Cardinal Fabio Baggio to discuss global migration trends and the continuity between Pope Leo XIV and Pope Francis on their advocacy for migrants.

ByJustin McLellan

Pope renews 'heartfelt appeal' for 'immediate ceasefire' in Russia-Ukraine war

Pope Leo XIV has renewed his "heartfelt appeal" for an "immediate ceasefire" in Russia's war against Ukraine and again urged dialogue "be strengthened to pave the way toward peace."

ByOSV News
Pope Leo XIV gives his homily during Ash Wednesday Mass at the Basilica of Santa Sabina in Rome Feb. 18. In a closed-door dialogue with clergy from the Diocese of Rome Feb. 19, the pope urged priests to not to use artificial intelligence to write their homilies or to seek "likes" on social media platforms like TikTok. (CNS/Lola Gomez)

Pope Leo tells priests not to use AI to write homilies or seek likes on TikTok

 "To give a true homily is to share faith," and artificial intelligence "will never be able to share faith," the pope said.

ByCourtney Mares, OSV News

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Vatican expands visitor experience at St. Peter's Basilica to mark 400th anniversary

Traditionalist Catholic group doubles down on illicit consecrations, setting course for potential schism

Pope to Legionaries of Christ: Authority in religious life is not 'domination'

EarthBeat

Caring for creation this Lent

"Like the popes and bishops speaking up to protect God's creation, our Catholic faith calls all of us to bring our values to public life, too," Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski of St. Louis writes.

A red salmonberry on the vine on Baranof Island near Sitka, Alaska (Wikimedia Commons/Arthur T. LaBar)

Delight in the simple, abundant gifts all around you

Could it be that this was what God was asking of me: to take stock in the simple, abundant gifts all around me, delight in them like a child and find myself delighting in the Holy One right in front of me?

ByPauline Hovey
A man holds a sign during a demonstration marking the start of Climate Week in New York City, Sept. 17, 2023. (OSV News/Reuters/Eduardo Munoz)

In Lenten reflection, US bishops call Catholics to ecological conversion and action

"Indifference and distance from one another have led to devastating consequences for God's creation, including the poor. The conversion that we need is both metaphorical and physical," the prelates wrote.

ByBrian Roewe
Fasting is one of the oldest Catholic traditions, and is honored by most faiths as a way that leads to spiritual enlightenment and discipline. (OSV News illustration/CNS file, Emily Thompson)
Guest Voices

As Abrahamic faiths fast, let us consider food ethics

What is shared between three Abrahamic traditions — Islam, Christianity and Judaism — is the idea that food is never just simply food.

ByShmuly Yanklowitz

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

In South Africa's coal belt, girls disappear — and Catholic sisters quietly pull them back

Faith leaders blast Trump repeal of linchpin climate rule as legal battle awaits

Heidi Kühn had a vision. Crops now flourish in past war zones once planted with mines.

Culture

AB Hernandez, a transgender student at Jurupa Valley High School, competes in the high jump at the California high school track-and-field championships in Clovis, Calif., May 31, 2025. (AP/Jae C. Hong, file)
Book Reviews

New book on trans athletes emphasizes human dignity

Fair Game offers a striking account of the hostile political climate fueled by scapegoating and misinformation, and counters it with the substantial body of evidence showing that transgender inclusion strengthens athletic communities for everyone who participates. 

In a scene from the movie "Midwinter Break," Stella (Lesley Manville) and Gerry (Ciarán Hinds) survey "The Jewish Bride," a Rembrandt painting of Isaac and Rebecca that hangs in the Rijksmuseum, and see two separate but equally plausible meanings based on the circumstances of their own lives. (Focus Features/Mark de Blok)

'Midwinter Break' portrays the complicated beauty in the sacrament of marriage

"Midwinter Break," based on the novel of the same title, is a quiet film about a long marriage between a Catholic woman and secular man, where love and tension both dwell.

ByElizabeth Hamilton
Several people sit on a couch with a Black little girl. A woman stands, holding a baby.

The enduring beauty and message of 'Champagne,' a short film that challenges the heart

Simoa Barros writes on a lesser-known animated flick from the late Michael Sporn that tells of a young Black girl who navigates her world in living color.

BySimoa Barros, Black Catholic Messenger
Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson star in a scene from the 2003 movie "Something's Gotta Give." Keaton died Oct. 11 at age 79. (CNS/Columbia Pictures)

Diane Keaton's search for heaven

The filmography of Diane Keaton is currently showcased at New York City's Film at Lincoln Center, and the throughline is unmistakable.

ByJose Solís

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50 Cent's 'Moses the Black' brings 4th-century saint into mainstream culture

Catholic cross like no other is a beacon of unity in Olympic host city Milan

Olympic skater aims to honor Italy's Catholic culture with 'Conclave' program

Silhouettes of people by the ocean (Unsplash/Gabe Pierce)
Columns

Lent is a communal journey beyond productivity and effectiveness

Often, we ask each other, "What is your chosen abstinence during Lent?" But Lent is also a communal journey to overcome the severe symptoms of alienation and loneliness amid our world governed by late capitalism.

Pope John Paul II greets the Rev. Jesse Jackson at the end of the pope's weekly audience at the Vatican June 23, 1999. Jackson, a towering civil rights icon, died at age 84 Feb. 17. (OSV News photo/Vatican)

Monday Starter: LCWR offers condolences after death of Rev. Jesse Jackson

Plus, sisters throughout Americas attend leadership training, and US sisters call out Trump's racist videos against the Obamas and the inhumane treatment of immigrants.

ByRhina Guidos
A slice of bread and glass of water are pictured in an illustration. "When I was in formation, I was taught to fast, especially from the things I love most at both the personal and community levels," writes Sr. Alice Nyazungu. (OSV News/Bob Roller)

Sisters reflect on how their Lenten practices have changed over time

The Life - GSR's panelists reflect on this question: "How have your Lent practices changed since you were younger or in formation? Are there new traditions, surprises or creative ways you've observed Lent over the years?"

ByThe Life Panelists
The first temptation of Christ, depicted in a psalter from circa 1222 (Wikimedia Commons)
Columns

First Sunday of Lent: What is fundamental to Jesus' mission?

The Gospel for the first Sunday of Lent shares the story of the temptation of Jesus in the desert. This story raises important questions about how we are to think and go about our life and mission as Christians.

By

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The call that remains: Vocation, encounter and journey in consecrated life

'Secular nun' in Pakistan offers skills training to women in need

'We are new women': Abuse survivors in Indonesia find hope with Catholic sisters