The Vatican's influence lies less in direct political power than in its ability to shape moral debate over time, one expert says.

Beyond the clash: What Trump's attacks on Leo reveal about history of US-Vatican relations

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The Vatican's influence lies less in direct political power than in its ability to shape moral debate over time, one expert says.

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As drought reshapes pastoral life, Maasai communities in Kenya find new resilience

Doreen Ajiambo

Historic first canonization ceremony in Vietnam honors war martyr

Monday Starter: Leadership of US nuns stands with Pope Leo against Trump's attacks

Dan Stockman

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Pope Leo XIV speaks to journalists aboard a flight on his way to Luanda, Angola, April 18, 2026. On the flight from Cameroon to Angola, the pope pushed back against a media narrative that has pitted him against President Donald Trump since the start of his 11-day apostolic journey to Africa. (OSV News/Luca Zennaro, pool via Reuters)

In Focus

Pope Leo says he is 'not trying to debate' Trump, refocuses Africa trip on peace

"I primarily come to Africa as pastor, as head of the Catholic Church to be with, to celebrate with, to encourage and accompany, all of the Catholics throughout Africa," the pontiff said.

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Most Read Stories

Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero of Rabat, Morocco, speaks during a briefing about the assembly of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican Oct. 17, 2023. (CNS/Lola Gomez)
Vatican News

#1
During Leo's Algeria visit, North African cardinal says Christians must 'learn how to be a minority'

 "It is a good fortune to be a small church in service of the kingdom of God," said Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero of Rabat, Morocco.

ByJustin McLellan
A composite image features the book "He Leadeth Me" by Jesuit Fr. Walter Ciszek and a photo of Ciszek. The Polish American priest ministered for years in Soviet captivity. (OSV News photo/Megan Marley/A.D. Times)

#2
Vatican ends canonization cause for Jesuit Fr. Walter Ciszek

The decision about the Polish American priest who ministered for years in Soviet captivity "does not diminish the enduring spiritual value of his life, witness, and legacy," the Diocese of Allentown, Pennsylvania, said. 

ByGina Christian, OSV News
President Trump speaks to reporters April 12.

#3
Trump attacks Pope Leo in incendiary social media post

President Donald J. Trump published a lengthy attack on Pope Leo XIV on Sunday night, calling the first U.S.-born pope "terrible on Foreign Policy," among other accusations.

ByMichael J. O'Loughlin, Brian Fraga

#4
Three cardinals stand with Pope Leo XIV in unprecedented interview

#5
St. Augustine is key to the difference between Pete Hegseth and Pope Leo

#6
Vance questions the pope on just war theory hours after Leo honored its founder

Opinion

We need a better way to talk about Pope Leo

Guest Voices

Haiti convinced me that Pope Leo is right: Health care cannot be a luxury

Guest Voices
Michael J. O'Loughlin is pictured on the rooftop of the Jesuit Curia, with St. Peter's Basilica in the background, at the Vatican in September 2025. "Capturing the full range of experiences and individuals that make up the church is my goal as editor of NCR," writes O'Loughlin. (Courtesy of Michael J. O'Loughlin)

Truth, mission and a vision toward the future of NCR

NCR Voices

Executive editor Michael J. O'Loughlin writes that a deep focus on news and analysis, with an emphasis on the ideals espoused during Vatican II, will guide his editorial vision for NCR.

In reversal of nation's anti-Catholic past, Pope Leo defends US ideals against Trump

Guest Voices

US bishops can't be judged by political timing

Guest Voices
In a joint interview with CBS's Norah O'Donnell on "60 Minutes" April 12, 2026, Cardinals Joseph Tobin of Newark, N.J., Robert McElroy of Washington, and Blase Cupich of Chicago, began by giving their impressions of the first U.S. pope, Pope Leo XIV. (OSV News screenshot/Facebook)

Three cardinals stand with Pope Leo XIV in unprecedented interview

Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, Washington, D.C. Cardinal Robert McElroy and Newark, New Jersey, Cardinal Joseph Tobin forcefully echoed Pope Leo XIV's calls for peace and repeated his, and their own, distress about the Trump administration's anti-immigrant policies.

Vatican

Pope Leo brings message of unity to Angola, scarred by legacy of civil war and inequality

Since his election last May, Pope Leo XIV has hammered home the theme of unity. But nowhere has that message taken on sharper contours than in Angola, where the long shadow of civil war and stark inequality continues to fracture the nation.

Pope Leo XIV walks in a procession during Mass at Yaoundé-Ville Air Base in Yaoundé, Cameroon, April 18, 2026. (CNS/Lola Gomez)

Far from Rome, Pope Leo's missionary instincts take center stage

"Leo has started to shed the soft-spoken reputation, raising his voice with a newfound fervor to decry the corruption and violence plaguing much of the African continent in messages that have rippled worldwide," writes NCR's Justin McLellan.

ByJustin McLellan
Pope Leo XIV speaks to journalists aboard a flight on his way to Luanda, Angola, April 18, 2026. On the flight from Cameroon to Angola, the pope pushed back against a media narrative that has pitted him against President Donald Trump since the start of his 11-day apostolic journey to Africa. (OSV News/Luca Zennaro, pool via Reuters)
Vatican News

Pope Leo says he is 'not trying to debate' Trump, refocuses Africa trip on peace

"I primarily come to Africa as pastor, as head of the Catholic Church to be with, to celebrate with, to encourage and accompany, all of the Catholics throughout Africa," the pontiff said.

ByJustin McLellan
Pope Leo XIV speaks to the media as he leaves the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo to head back to the Vatican April 7, 2026. (OSV News/Reuters/Guglielmo Mangiapane)
Vatican News

Pope Leo upholds Vatican opposition to nuclear weapons despite Trump's 'weak' critique

The pope's repeated calls for a world without nuclear arms challenges the president's accusation that he has been soft on the nuclear issue.

ByBrian Roewe

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Pope calls out tyrants, corruption amid pause in Cameroon's deadly conflict

Pope Leo XIV sets stage for June consistory with letter to cardinals

Vatican News

During Leo's Algeria visit, North African cardinal says Christians must 'learn how to be a minority'

EarthBeat

Moses Kelaino (center) and Sr. Stella Cherobon (right) harvest vegetables with another farmer at a demonstration farm in Tuala, Kenya. The project teaches Maasai families climate-resilient farming as drought continues to reshape pastoral life across Kenya’s dry lands. (GSR photo/Doreen Ajiambo)

As drought reshapes pastoral life, Maasai communities in Kenya find new resilience

On Kenya's fragile plains south of Nairobi, where drought has killed millions of livestock and hunger is spreading across the dry lands, Maasai farmers and Catholic sisters are reshaping how communities survive.

Thi Mai sells fish at a market in Hue, Vietnam, on Apr. 4, 2026. She echoes a sentiment common among locals who believe the chemical alteration of the water after the Formosa marine disaster has stunted the growth and quality of the catch. (Photo: Reporter in Vietnam)

Vietnam's coastal Catholics hold the scars of Formosa disaster 10 years later

For the Catholic communities along the coastline devastated by the Formosa marine disaster in 2016, the "common home" described by Pope Francis in Laudato Si' remains a place of profound brokenness.

ByReporter in Vietnam

Indiana bishops put Eucharist at center of call to 'integral ecology' in new pastoral

The letter was commended by Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, who extended Pope Leo XIV's blessing to the bishops.

ByGina Christian, OSV News
Sr. Rose Nyondo, the program director for the Community Transformation Programme, and project coordinator Sr. Matilda Mubanga. The program, run by the Daughters of the Redeemer, promotes agricultural productivity in Chibombo and other areas in Zambia. (Derrick Silimina)

Daughters of the Redeemer pilot 'climate-smart' agricultural program in Zambia

In 2022, the Daughters of the Redeemer launched the Community Transformation Programme, which supports five Zambian villages with agricultural mentorship, nutrition programs, and water, sanitation and hygiene activities.

By

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Green Climate Fund partnership opens access to millions for Catholic Relief Services

Columns

When water is far away, hope must walk with it

Vatican, Notre Dame launch academic alliance to find solutions to ecological crises

Culture

A blue laundry basket filled with clothes (Unsplash/Annie Spratt)
Book Reviews

New book offers fresh perspective on work through a Catholic social teaching lens

NCR Book Club: Kate Ward's Making a Life expands commonly held understandings of work and reevaluates worker justice, looking at the whole person, not merely person-as-employee.

Adi Madden Cabrera, left, and McKenna Tuckett play Catholic school outcasts who start a punk band in "Edie Arnold is a Loser." (Katrina Wan PR)

Punk rock meets Catholicism in 'Edie Arnold Is a Loser'

Visually inventive and pulsating with youthful, vivacious energy, the film "Edie Arnold Is a Loser" might just be the first Catholic coming-of-age punk rock story.

ByZachary Lee
“Beyond Wellness: How Restoring the Religious Roots of Spiritual Practices Can Heal Us” and author Liz Bucar. (Photo © Liz Linder)
Book Reviews

Liz Bucar explores why the wellness industry has failed spiritual seekers

In 'Beyond Wellness,' religious ethics professor Liz Bucar makes the case for connecting yoga, meditation and other practices to their religious origins.

ByKathryn Post, Religion News Service
Natacha Karam and Minnie Driver as Hagar and Sarah in "The Faithful: Women of the Bible" (Fox)

Just how faithful is Fox's 'The Faithful: Women of the Bible'?

"The Faithful: Women of the Bible," a multi-episode biblical drama from Fox, spends a good deal of its run time on Sarah and Hagar. But important details stray from Scripture — and it matters.

ByAlli Bobzien

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

The Black Catholic woman whose defiance on a bus predated Rosa Parks' action

In New York City, the Passion comes to the Metropolitan Opera

Looksmaxxing, Catholicism and the new discipline of the body

Left: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with reporters outside the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, April 13, 2026 (OSV News/Reuters/Jonathan Ernst). Right: Pope Leo XIV waves as he attends a Meeting for Peace at St. Joseph's Cathedral in Bamenda, Cameroon, April 16, 2026 (OSV News/Reuters/Guglielmo Mangiapane).

Monday Starter: Leadership of US nuns stands with Pope Leo against Trump's attacks

Plus, the International Union of Superiors General collaborates on a webinar on the spiritual implications of AI. Dominican sisters in the U.S. offer an immersion experience for those contemplating joining.

Vietnamese faithful pray beside the grave of Fr. Francis Xavier Truong Buu Diep at Tac Say Pilgrimage Center in southern Vietnam. Father Francis, a martyr, is to be canonized as a Catholic saint on July 2 at the center. (Courtesy of Mary Nguyen)
Columns

Historic first canonization ceremony in Vietnam honors war martyr

In 1946, Fr. Francis Xavier Truong Buu Diep was arrested along with more than 70 parishioners. Soldiers planned to kill them all, but Father Francis said he was their shepherd and asked to die in their place.

By
Moses Kelaino (center) and Sr. Stella Cherobon (right) harvest vegetables with another farmer at a demonstration farm in Tuala, Kenya. The project teaches Maasai families climate-resilient farming as drought continues to reshape pastoral life across Kenya’s dry lands. (GSR photo/Doreen Ajiambo)

As drought reshapes pastoral life, Maasai communities in Kenya find new resilience

On Kenya's fragile plains south of Nairobi, where drought has killed millions of livestock and hunger is spreading across the dry lands, Maasai farmers and Catholic sisters are reshaping how communities survive.

ByDoreen Ajiambo
Detail of "Christ With Disciples on the Way to Emmaus" by a 16th-century Flemish painter (Wikimedia Commons/National Museum in Warsaw)
Columns

Third Sunday of Easter: Jesus shares the journey

Theologians' Corner - Even though the disciples on the road to Emmaus do not recognize Jesus, they invite him to remain with them. Perhaps they want to continue the hope-filled conversation.

By

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

As long as the plant has nodes, life will emerge

Catholic nuns sue UnitedHealth Group, citing harm to health care access

Nuns in Cameroon hope pope's visit opens path to peace amid fragile ceasefire