Amira Musallam protests during a nonviolent march to protest the illegal settlers' annexation of Palestinian land in Beit Jala, West Bank, to which Israeli authorities responded with the use of force and stun grenades, in August 2024. (Courtesy of Amira Musallam)

As violence escalates in the West Bank, a Catholic woman leads civilian protection

News

Amira Musallam leads a movement to shield civilians from violence without weapons. But the environment surrounding that work has grown more volatile as the regional war widens and the situation in the West Bank deteriorates.

The Latest

Nicaragua's Sandinista regime halts ordinations in four dioceses

David Agren, OSV News

Judge strikes down Arkansas law mandating schools display the Ten Commandments. Here's what to know

Sara Cline, Associated Press

Every Church institution must listen to victims of abuse, Pope Leo XIV says

Deborah Castellano Lubov, OSV News

Editors' Choice

This undated photograph shows the execution chamber where lethal injections were carried out at San Quentin State Prison in California. In 2019, California Gov. Gavin Newsom suspended the state's death penalty. (CNS /Courtesy of California Department of Corrections) (Nov. 16, 2007)

In Focus

A lenten plea to Newsom: Commute California's death sentences

Catholic Mobilizing Network Executive Director Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy calls on him to protect inmates from future policy that could reverse his moratorium on capital punishment.

Support journalism that matters. 

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

Donate Now

Most Read Stories

In a file photo, Ayatollah Seyed Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad Ahmadabadi answers reporters' questions in Rome Oct. 14, 2010, before giving a presentation at the Vatican. Amid war in the Middle East, Damada, a prominent figure within Iran's Shia clerical establishment, wrote a public letter to Leo calling for peace and respect for international law. (CNS/Paul Haring)

#1
An Iranian ayatollah appeals to the pope as war spreads across Middle East

As war spreads across the Middle East following the conflict that erupted Feb. 28 between the United States, Israel and Iran, a senior Iranian cleric has turned to Pope Leo XIV.

ByCamillo Barone

#2
After 900 years, monks of iconic French La Trappe Abbey consider leaving historic monastery

ByOSV News

#3
Pope escalates call for ceasefire in Iran by addressing those responsible for the war

Pope Leo XIV demanded a ceasefire in the Middle East on Sunday in his strongest comments to date, directly addressing the leaders who launched the war in Iran.

ByNicole Winfield, Associated Press

#4
Pope Leo wants Christians to examine their consciences this Lent — especially if they're waging war

#5
A feminist mom, a Jesuit son and the story of a rekindled Catholic

#6
In wartime, Catholics must stand at the foot of the cross

Opinion

By refusing the Pentagon, Anthropic holds moral line on AI

Guest Voices

US bishops' current criticism of Trump is welcome. But it's also years too late.

Guest Voices
Billy Kearse, known to his friends as Pyth, painted the artworks above. Kearse was executed by the state of Florida on March 3, 2026. (Courtesy of Susan Kaspari/Jesse Cunningham)

Holding on to the light: Lessons from a friendship on death row

Guest Voices

"As I mourn the loss of my friend, I find myself returning to Pyth's final counsel: not to let anger take hold and not to let my heart harden." Susan Kaspari writes about Billy Kearse, who was executed on March 3.

'Most Christian Palestinians are nonviolent peacemakers,' says Jonathan Kuttab

Guest Voices

Armageddon wars and Oval Office prayers: A Catholic response

Guest Voices
Oscar statues are seen March 1, 2025, ahead of the 97th Academy Awards in Los Angeles. The 98th Academy Awards show will be broadcast live on ABC and Hulu, starting at 7 p.m. ET Sunday, March 15. (OSV News/Reuters/Jeenah Moon)

How the 2026 Academy Awards was able to pit faith against religion

Guest Voices

The nominees suggest "that both pure materialism and organized religion are either harmful or insufficient for addressing the problems of life," writes Joseph Holmes. "The answer is for individuals to form a personal faith." 

Vatican

Pope Leo XIV greets visitors and pilgrims from the popemobile while riding around St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican before his weekly general audience March 18, 2026. (CNS/Lola Gomez)

Pope Leo calls universal health care a 'moral imperative'

States have a moral obligation to develop universal health care systems, Pope Leo XIV said, stating that health cannot be "a luxury for the few."

Every Church institution must listen to victims of abuse, Pope Leo XIV says

Addressing the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors March 16, Pope Leo XIV underlined the importance of preventing abuse in the Church, insisting that such responsibility must be concretely confronted and not delegated.

ByDeborah Castellano Lubov, OSV News

Pope's upcoming Africa odyssey takes him to a mosque, a prison and the site of a deadly 2021 blast

The Vatican released on Monday details of Pope Leo XIV's upcoming four-nation Africa tour, suggesting Christian-Muslim relations, comforting victims of violence and encouraging the Catholic community in former European colonies will be key themes.

ByNicole Winfield, Ope Adetayo, Mark Banchereau, Gerald Imray, Associated Press
March Madness
The Leo Chronicles

The Leo Chronicles: March Madness

The Leo Chronicles: The pope is not watching basketball, unfortunately.

ByPat Marrin

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Pope Leo condemns depicting war as a 'video game'

Pope escalates call for ceasefire in Iran by addressing those responsible for the war

Vatican News

After renovation, Pope Leo XIV moves into papal apartment eschewed by Pope Francis

EarthBeat

Chad Eachern, president and CEO of Edmundite Missions, far left, poses after presenting checks Feb. 27, 2026, to people participating in the Selma, Ala.-based Catholic social services agency's farming initiative that helps support small farmers in the South's impoverished Black Belt region. (OSV News photo/courtesy Edmundite Missions)

Black farmers in Deep South see hope in Edmundites' farming aid, grant program

The fledgling Catholic farming program of the Edmundite Misisons has distributed $78,000 to 19 farmers in central Alabama to assist with farming supplies including seeds, piping for irrigation and cold storage.

A team of parishioners cook fish at the annual Lenten fish fry at St. Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church, in St. Louis, March 21, 2023. This year, with the help of a grant from the St. Louis Archdiocese's Laudato Si' Commission, the parish for the first time will compost leftover food and compostable materials in an effort to reduce waste. (St. Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church)

Pass the cod, hold the plastic: St. Louis parishes cut waste at Lenten fish fries

With the help of grants from the St. Louis Archdiocese, Catholics have taken steps to lessen the waste associated with serving hundreds, and in some cases, 1,000 meals in a single night during Lenten fish fries.

ByBrian Roewe
Debris surrounds a damaged home in Three Rivers, Mich., March 7, 2026, following storms and tornado warnings. Powerful storms tore through parts of Michigan and Oklahoma, leaving a trail of destruction that included flattened homes and scattered debris. Volunteers helped residents sift through rubble and begin cleanup as the threat of severe weather lingered across the nation's midsection. (OSV News photo/Rebecca Cook, Reuters)

Chapel left undamaged amid deadly Midwest storms while faith remains strong

Catholic parish and school communities in the Midwest are among those working to clean up after deadly storms and tornadoes tore through a number of states in early March.

ByGina Christian, OSV News
The ExxonMobil Baton Rouge Refinery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, May 15, 2021 (OSV News/Reuters/Kathleen Flynn)

Young Catholic is lead plaintiff in suit challenging EPA's endangerment finding reversal

"It would be nice, I think," Elena Venner said, "for our government to at least acknowledge that we are in this climate crisis and to start by not repealing what we already have."

ByBrian Roewe

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Vatican News

Climate change, crowds prompt maintenance on Michelangelo's 'Last Judgment'

Vietnamese sisters grow organic mushrooms to serve community and fund scholarships

Oil wells on LA Archdiocese land permanently sealed after years of community pressure

Culture

Contestant Dani Evans was pressured by "America's Next Top Model" judges into having a medical procedure to close the gap between her front teeth despite her own desire to leave her smile natural. On "Reality Check," Tyra Banks said she had already "actually apologized" to Evans. (Netflix)

The unrepentant disappointment of 'Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model'

We can't change the mistakes of our past — not even if we're Tyra Banks — but we can and should reflect seriously on them, listen to the concerns of others and work to do better in the future, writes Rose Brennan.

Kristin Grady Gilger did not understand the calling that led her son, Patrick Gilger, to become a Jesuit priest. She saw only "a lifetime of poverty, chastity, and obedience," prompting her to wonder "what college kid in his right mind would sign up for that?" (Courtesy of Gilger family)

A feminist mom, a Jesuit son and the story of a rekindled Catholic

In "My Son, the Priest," author Kristin Grady Gilger recounts the long and winding road of accepting her son's Jesuit vocation — and what that meant for her own faith.

ByBill Mitchell
Mosaic artist Sister Samuelle in her workshop in France. Samuelle, who accused disgraced priest artist Marko Rupnik of abuse, is now a hermit and the creative lead on "Rebirth," a monumental mosaic dedicated to the victims of spiritual and sexual abuse in the church. (Courtesy of "Rebirth: The Tesserae Symphony")

'Rebirth' art project offers counternarrative for Rupnik accusers, abuse survivors

A monumental mosaic designed by French artist Sister Samuelle aims to help survivors "piece the fragments back together and give them a new face: the face of a new life, or at least a life that can still be lived."

BySarah Mac Donald
Timothée Chalamet stars in a scene from the movie "Marty Supreme." The movie has been nominated for nine Oscars, including three for Chalamet. (OSV News/A24)

Ambition and redemption star in 'Marty Supreme'

Amid Timothée Chalamet's character Marty's lies, hustles, infidelities and callow performativity is the core of Catholic teaching: Redemption is not reserved for the pious nor perfect.

ByJean P. Kelly

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

In Oscar-nominated 'Sirāt,' the journey is literal, spiritual and existential

Book Reviews

NCR Members read: Nonfiction

Comedian channels Mary: 'What if it's breech? What if it's sick? What if it's God?'

Srs. Mercy Lal, right, and Cecilia Joseph, left, pose with a group of trainees at their sewing center in Lahore, Pakistan. (Kamran Chaudry)

Pakistani sisters restore hope one stitch at a time

"This center is about restoring hope where opportunity has been denied, giving marginalized women the means to shape their own future with confidence and faith," said Fr. Asif Sardar, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Lahore.

This monument in Nowogródek, Belarus, is dedicated to the 11 sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth who were executed by German forces on Aug. 1, 1943, during the Nazi occupation. (Wikimedia Commons/CC-BY-SA 3.0/Valery Nikiforov)
Columns

In the martyrs of Nowogródek, many faces of holiness

Across the world, countless sisters live lives that will never be publicly recognized as heroic. Yet it is precisely in this ordinariness that holiness continues to take shape.

By
Sr. Jean Rose, a member of the Sisters of the Destitute and a medical doctor, treats a tribal woman at the government Community Health Centre in Marayoor, a remote village in the Idukki district of Kerala, southwestern India. (Courtesy of Jean Rose)

Q&A with Sr. Jean Rose, government medical officer in a remote village in India

Sr. Jean Rose, a member of the Sisters of the Destitute, is the first Catholic nun to be appointed as a medical officer in a government hospital in India's Kerala state.

ByThomas Scaria
Customers buy marmalades and cakes made by cloistered nuns, at a market at the Reales Alcazares in Seville, Spain, on Dec. 5, 2023. Women's religious communities in Spain are making and selling items, and renting rooms in their monasteries, to generate income. (AP/Laura Leon)

In order to maintain aging monasteries, Spanish nuns are becoming entrepreneurs

Sisters have had to think of new ways to generate income in the face of skyrocketing maintenance costs for their historic buildings, coupled with a decline in people choosing religious vocations. 

ByReligion Unplugged

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Sometimes 'creating a clean heart' is not inspirational; it is overwhelming

Catholic sisters confront Nigeria's rising drug crisis

Fourth Sunday of Lent: Use more than your eyes to see