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Pope Leo XIV leads a vigil for peace inside St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, April 11. After praying the rosary, Leo addressed world leaders in his call for peace. (AP/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Leo issues fiery plea for peace at prayer vigil: 'Enough of war!'

Pontiff tells world leaders: "Stop! It is time for peace! Sit at the table of dialogue and mediation, not at the table where rearmament is planned and deadly actions are decided!"

Justin McLellan

Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby, left, meets with Cardinal Christophe Pierre, right, the outgoing apostolic nuncio, and their teams on Jan. 22, 2026, at the Pentagon.

News

'Unusual' Pentagon-Vatican meeting sparks intrigue, denials and whispers of a diplomatic clash

Aleja Hertzler-McCain, Jack Jenkins, Religion News Service

Natacha Karam and Minnie Driver as Hagar and Sarah in "The Faithful: Women of the Bible" (Fox)

Culture

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

Alli Bobzien

The Latest

April 11, 2026

Peruvian bishops' conference secretary general steps down after abuse allegations surface

Junno Arocho Esteves, OSV News

April 11, 2026

'Children need you, they need your presence,' Sister of Life tells educators at convention

Josh McGovern, The Catholic Spirit, OSV News

April 11, 2026

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

Alessandra Harris

A file photo shows a catechumen being baptized during the Easter Vigil. (OSV News/Texas Catholic Herald/James Ramos)

In Focus

Why we are not in a Catholic revival, despite increase in adult baptisms

Young people today say they are interested in spirituality and long for community. The Catholic Church has a rich tradition of spirituality, but it needs to do more than repackage old products, says Fr. Tom Reese.

Thomas Reese

Religion News Service

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Most Read Stories

The Basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie, best known as the home of Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper," sits in Milan, Italy, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP/María Teresa Hernández)

#1
At the convent of Leonardo's 'Last Supper,' Dominican friars still live, pray and welcome visitors

The artwork illustrates the biblical account of Jesus announcing that one of his apostles will betray him and is located in the convent's original refectory.

ByMaría Teresa Hernández, Associated Press

A rainbow hangs above mountains in the distance as people shop at a food market in Lubango, Angola, March 21, 2025. (Dreamstime/Joyfull)

Guest Voices

#2
Pope Leo is not traveling to bring hope to Africa, but to find hope

Pope Leo XIV's 10-day itinerary through Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea is a pilgrimage and a statement of priority. These countries are all "laboratories" of the church's lived experience in Africa.

ByEmmanuel Katongole

James Finley (NCR screenshot/YouTube/Center for Action and Contemplation)

#3
Podcast: 'Jesus is God's complete surrender to us,' says mystic Jim Finley

On this week's episode of "The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast," for Holy Week, John Dear hosts Jim Finley, a beloved teacher of contemplation and mysticism.

ByJohn Dear

#4
St. Augustine is key to the difference between Pete Hegseth and Pope Leo

#5
Latin American religious declare synodality a priority: 'We have to rescue it'

#6
Pope Leo reshuffles top Vatican posts, tapping new chief of staff

Opinion

NCR Editorial Staff

"His kingdom has come, but it is not yet here in its fullness," writes NCR's Michael Sean Winters. "This is the essential tension of the Christian life."

Emmanuel Katongole

Pope Leo is not traveling to bring hope to Africa, but to find hope

Guest Voices

Michael Sean Winters

The pompom presidency of Donald Trump

NCR Voices

Kerry Kennedy speaks at a Harris-Walz campaign event in Phoenix Aug. 28, 2024. (Wikimedia Commons/Gage Skidmore)

John Dear

Podcast: Human rights activist Kerry Kennedy talks of her pursuit of equal justice

Guest Voices

On this week's episode of "The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast," John Dear hosts Kerry Kennedy, president of the Robert and Ethel Kennedy Center for Human Rights.

Vatican

Pope Leo issues fiery plea for peace at prayer vigil: 'Enough of war!'

Pontiff tells world leaders: "Stop! It is time for peace! Sit at the table of dialogue and mediation, not at the table where rearmament is planned and deadly actions are decided!"

Justin McLellan

Pope Leo XIV attends the Celebration of the Passion of the Lord in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on Catholic Good Friday, Friday, April 3, 2026 (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

A country-by-country glance at Pope Leo's trip to Africa

Pope Leo XIV’s four-nation, 11-day trip to Africa is so dizzying in its complexity it recalls some of the globetrotting odysseys of St. John Paul II in his early years. Themes Leo is expected to raise include Christian-Muslim coexistence, the over-exploitation of the region's natural and human resources, corruption and migration.

ByThe Associated Press

Pope Leo XIV blesses faithful as he starts his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Vatican News

A president and a pope: The world's most influential Americans are at odds over Iran

ByBill Barrow, Associated Press

A Catholic worshipper kneels before a crucifix on Easter April 5, 2026, outside the Cathedral of St. Anne in Yagoua, Cameroon. (OSV News/Reuters/Desire Danga)

Vatican News

Among Pope Leo's Africa destinations are targets of USAID cuts

Of the four nations Pope Leo XIV will visit during his trip to Africa, Cameroon and Angola have been particularly impacted by the cuts to USAID operations which began at the start of President Trump's second term.

ByJustin McLellan

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Vatican News

For Leo, first Augustinian pope, Algeria trip marks a spiritual homecoming

Pope Leo praises ceasefire as 'genuine hope,' presses for dialogue, peace

Vatican News

Pope's Easter Vigil message: God drives out hatred and transcends death

EarthBeat

Desiderio Vasquez, a local farmer, shows off a colorful cornucopia of the bounty cultivated and grown partly through a series of irrigation systems the community of Los Hornos, Honduras, built with the help of Catholic Relief Services and local partners. (NCR photo/Brian Roewe)

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

CRS announced its accreditation to the Green Climate Fund, which provides developing countries financing for projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build resilience to the impacts of a heating world.

Brian Roewe

When improving access to water, local leadership is essential. Communities in Walungu Territory in South Kivu Province, Democratic Republic of Congo, form water committees to manage and maintain sources. Women play central roles — because they understand water needs best. (Courtesy of Namulisa Balaluka Rose)

Columns

When water is far away, hope must walk with it

The day we inaugurated a protected water source in a village in Congo, women sang. Children danced. One elder said, "Today, our daughters get their future back." Moments like this remind me why this work is sacred.

Arun Agrawal, left, a professor of sustainable development at the University of Notre Dame, speaks during a session of the first gathering of the Global Alliance on Laudato Si' held March 9-10, 2026, at Borgo Laudato Si' in Castel Gandolfo, Italy. Seated next to Agrawal is Cardinal Fabio Baggio, director of the Vatican's Laudato Si' Center for Higher Education. (Allesandro Sgarito)

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

The Global Alliance for Laudato Si', inspired by Pope Francis' 2015 encyclical on ecology, was officially formed during a March meeting of almost 100 scientists, researchers and environmental activists.

ByCatherine M. Odell

Birds congregate around office buildings as the sun sets on North Dallas, Dec. 17, 2013. One study found that more than 1 billion birds are killed annually in the U.S. in collisions with windows. (AP photo/LM Otero, File)

St. Francis Institute for Animals sets out to limit suffering for all God's creatures

The St. Francis Institute for Animals has a vision of mobilizing animal advocacy informed by Catholic social teaching to address the inhumane ways animals are treated by people in factory farms, laboratories and other settings.

ByBrian Roewe

Trump should have listened to the pope about clean energy. The Iran war shows why.

Platform launches to keep church money out of mining projects

Apache women seek court intervention as federal land is turned over for copper mining

Culture

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.

Alli Bobzien

Right: Private First Class Sarah Keys in uniform in the 1950s (Wikimedia Commons/U.S. Army). Left: A postcard of the bus terminal in Roanoke Rapids, N.C., where Keys refused to give up her seat to a white Marine on an interstate bus. (Wikimedia Commons/State Archives of North Carolina).

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

NCR Book Club: Riding Into History details Sarah Keys Evans' fateful bus ride from New Jersey to North Carolina in 1952 that led to the Interstate Commerce Commission's rejection of segregation on interstate bus travel.

ByAlessandra Harris

Rob Gardner conducts a past performance of "Lamb of God," his concert work about Jesus Christ's death and resurrection. (Courtesy of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)

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

The Passion has inspired endless adaptations, from symphonies to motion pictures to musicals. This Holy Week, New York's Met Opera hosted a Passion oratorio by composer Rob Gardner, with famed Broadway performers.

ByJim McDermott

Recent social media posts by Clavicular. (RNS screen grab)

Looksmaxxing, Catholicism and the new discipline of the body

In the looksmaxxing community, physical transformation is treated as a moral imperative, one obtainable by persistent self-denial and the pursuit of an ideal form. To some, the ethos resembles a kind of inverted asceticism: a life structured around sacrifice and perfection, not to a higher power, but to the self.

ByFiona Murphy, Religion News Service