U.S. Navy sailors tend to a fighter jet on the flight deck of the USS George Washington in the Arabian Sea, Sept. 11, 2026. The aircraft carrier was enforcing a U.S. naval blockade against Iran and providing cover for commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz. (OSV News/Reuters/Ed Ou)

Catholic theologians urge US bishops to speak against Iran war ahead of assembly

News

As U.S. bishops prepare for their November meeting in Baltimore, 83 Catholic theologians and educators are urging them to take a stronger, more unified public stand against the war with Iran and to promote Gospel nonviolence.

The Latest

NJ cardinal 'continues to recover' after successful surgery, grateful for prayers

OSV News

Support for death penalty dips to minority among US adults for first time in decades

Kate Scanlon, OSV News

Pope recalls Argentine saints in Córdoba; priest says apostolic trip like 'new Pentecost'

David Agren, OSV News

Editors' Choice

Pope Leo XIV speaks to people gathered outside the apostolic nunciature in Montevideo, Uruguay, Nov. 6, 2026, at the end of the first day of his apostolic journey to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru. (CNS/Vatican Media)

In Focus

Pope Leo's vote in US, but not Peru, raises questions about papal identity

Does Robert Prevost understand himself to be as Peruvian as he is perceived? 

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Most Read Stories

The reliquary of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, the 17th-century French nun who received visions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is pictured on display at the Parish of St. Catherine of Siena in Trumbull, Connecticut in September 2026. (Maureen O'Brien)

#1
My visit with the relics of the 'Sacred Heart' nun felt like a divine encounter

Maureen O'Brien describes her experience of praying with the relics of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.

ByMaureen O'Brien
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed smiles after his victory in the U.S. midterm elections, during an Election Night rally in Detroit, Nov. 4, 2026. (OSV News/Reuters/Brian Snyder)
NCR Voices

#2
Treatment of El-Sayed's faith, language during midterms was deeply un-Catholic

"Dr. Abdul El-Sayed's Arabic name, his Muslim identity and his religious vocabulary were too often treated this campaign season as if he, and by extension Muslims and Arabic speakers, do not belong in American public life."

ByKaren E. Park
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko attends the Commonwealth of Independent States summit in Turkmenbasy, Turkmenistan, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (AP/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool/Sergei Bobylev)

#3
Belarus sentences Catholic priest to 3 years after he opposed Ukraine war

Fr. Anatoly Parakhnevich was accused of "insulting the authorities" and "extremism" during a closed-door trial, said the Viasna Human Rights Center. Parakhnevich ministers in Alkovichy in northwestern Belarus.

ByYuras Karmanau, Associated Press

#4
She almost became a nun. Now her voice fills the Metropolitan Opera.

#5
Pope Leo's Latin America trip is a high-stakes homecoming

#6
Pope Leo's vote in US, but not Peru, raises questions about papal identity

Opinion

Mission and proclamation can take many forms while remaining faithful to Christ

Guest Voices

Podcast: 'Jesus doesn't win by violence, only by nonviolence,' says John Ashworth

Guest Voices
A voter enters the parish hall at St. John the Baptist Church in Wading River, N.Y., on Election Day, Nov. 3, 2026. The parish serves as a Suffolk County, N.Y., voting location. (OSV News/Gregory A. Shemitz)

What's the matter with Catholic voters?

Guest Voices

In a blue tsunami that saw dramatic shifts among nearly every major voting category, one group decided to merely dip its toe in the water: Catholics, Joe Ferullo writes.

4 of Trump's mistakes that made him GOP's worst enemy in the midterms

Guest Voices

Treatment of El-Sayed's faith, language during midterms was deeply un-Catholic

NCR Voices
Pope Leo XIV gives his Easter blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city and the world) from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican April 5, 2026. (CNS/Lola Gomez)

Podcast: Pope Leo XIV is calling us to peace, says professor Ken Butigan

Guest Voices

Pope Leo "wants the church to take nonviolence seriously and put it into practice," said the activist, author and professor. 

Vatican

Pope recalls Argentine saints in Córdoba; priest says apostolic trip like 'new Pentecost'

Pope Leo XIV traveled to Córdoba in central Argentina, where he recalled the example of Argentina's saints — who spread the Gospel and tirelessly served peoples in a rugged frontier — while emphasizing the enduring importance of missions.

Over 90 US lawmakers call for Pope Leo to address next Congress in bipartisan letter

Ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, a bipartisan group of more than 90 U.S. lawmakers urged House Speaker Mike Johnson to invite Pope Leo XIV to address Congress, saying the U.S.-born pope's "unique perspective" and "ties to our country" would be "a unifying force" for officials.

ByGina Christian, OSV News
The Leo Chronicles: Brother Leo finds Gabby in Somalia.
The Leo Chronicles

The Leo Chronicles: Finding Gabby

The Leo Chronicles: Brother Leo finds Gabby in Somalia.

ByPat Marrin

Pope Leo meets privately with five Argentine abuse survivors

Pope Leo XIV met privately Nov. 9 with five people abused by clergy or Church institutions in Argentina, listening individually to their experiences during an encounter that lasted more than an hour, the Holy See Press Office said.

ByInes San Martin, OSV News

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Pope draws 2.5 million to Mass in Argentina and tells people with disabilities they are a blessing

Vatican News

Pope Leo arrives in Argentina under the shadow of his predecessor

Vatican News

Pope Leo's vote in US, but not Peru, raises questions about papal identity

EarthBeat

Activists check the vital signs of an inflatable Earth at the COP17 United Nations biodiversity summit in Yerevan, Armenia. (UN Biodiversity/Mike Muzurakis)

Faith leaders resist despair as UN summit shows slow progress on conservation goals

"Frustration is real because we have the science, because we know what we need to do [and] the trajectory that we're on," said Amy Echeverria of the Missionary Society of St. Columban.

The people who participated in the Sept. 26 walk in San Francisco Angulo, El Salvador, called for the intercession of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals, ecology and the environment. (Lissette Lemus)

Religious orders in El Salvador seek to protect community from mega-prison’s pollution

At event tied to Season of Creation, Catholic sisters and Franciscan friars in El Salvador support a rural community fighting water contamination and a landfill near CECOT, which can hold up to 40,000 inmates. 

ByRhina Guidos

At Cadillac Mountain, a missing Wabanaki marker and the fight over what national parks should tell

Some of the signs removed from Acadia were developed over years of partnerships with organizations including Friends of Acadia, the Schoodic Institute and the Native Plant Trust — with consultation from citizens of the Wabanaki Nations.

ByJessie Wardarski, Associated Press
Carolina wren (Wikimedia Commons/Melissa McMasters)
Soul Seeing

In praise of a wild, unfettered God

There is beauty in the fact that we do not serve a God who grants us wishes like a genie, writes Alli Bobzien. Our God is wild and free.

ByAlli Bobzien

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

In midterms, Catholic voters must keep national parks in mind

NCR Voices

When it comes to creation, we need to be more pious

Guest Voices

President Trump is both attacking green energy and helping it

Culture

Saioa Hernández plays the title role in the Puccini opera "Tosca" at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. SeokJong Baek plays her lover, Mario Cavaradossi. (Met Opera/Marty Sohl)

She almost became a nun. Now her voice fills the Metropolitan Opera.

Internationally recognized opera star Saioa Hernández speaks with NCR on vocation, discernment and practicing faith in the public eye.

illustration of donkey and elephant

For post-election season, 2 new Catholic books tackle polarization

 In a time of global unrest, the church has an opportunity to model connection and dialogue. Toward a More Perfect Communion and An Inspired Word in Season offer suggestions.

ByJeannine M. Pitas
Vanessa Redgrave played Sr. Jeanne des Anges in Ken Russell's 1971 film "The Devils," now restored and rereleased. (Warner Bros.)

Mark Kermode on restoration of 'The Devils' and the director's Catholicism

The movie, based on a 1951 Aldous Huxley book, met intense controversy, and it was heavily edited and censored. Now the full version is in theaters, tackling topics of power and corruption between church and state. 

ByZachary Lee
A woman prays in front of a glass-encased reliquary containing a bone from the arm of St. Jude the Apostle at St. Jude Church in Mastic Beach, N.Y., Nov. 27, 2023. (OSV News/Gregory A. Shemitz)
Book Reviews

Catholicism's haunting strangeness warrants celebration, says author

"These things are not just sideshow attractions," said W. Tyler Allen, who wrote A Catechism of the Strange. "They're not just cool little things that make Catholicism creepy and fun. They all point back to the soul."

ByEmma Cieslik

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Descendants and Jesuits find a path toward healing through 'What We Inherit'

Catholic Universities Art Triennial exhibit brings imaginative empathy to Boston

Book Reviews

Rebecca Solnit says an old world is dying

Sr. Lilian Ogbodu, a member of the Daughters of Divine Love Today, serves as a vocation director and works with Nigerian women after their first profession. (John Chukwu)

Q&A with Sr. Lilian Ogbodu, forming the next generation of Catholic sisters in Nigeria

"We always say that the Holy Spirit is the principal formator. We are just instruments trying to understand what the spirit and this person are doing," she said.

A young herder tends livestock in Marsabit, northern Kenya, where pastoralist families depend on livestock for their livelihoods and children may help care for animals. (GSR/Abraham Fayo)

Ahead of COP31, climate disruptions in Africa force children out of school

In drought-stricken northern Kenya and flood-prone areas around Lake Victoria, climate shocks are forcing children out of school. Ahead of COP31, Sr. Maamalifar M. Poreku said, "We have to measure what children lose, not only what buildings lose."

ByDoreen Ajiambo
Sr. Brenda Hernández, of the Daughters of Immaculate Mary of Guadalupe, is the new head of the Office of Development and Holistic Health for Women Religious in Mexico. (GSR photo/Rhina Guidos)

Monday Starter: Sister to lead institute mapping health patterns of nuns in Mexico

Also: NY archdiocese join nuns' lawsuit against assisted suicide; Sisters of Charity of New York 'troubled' by bishops' photo-op with Trump.

ByRhina Guidos
Voices of Sisters

In a world facing burnout, nature invites us to slow down and listen to God

"This wonderful season," writes Sr. Magda Bennásar, "leads us to 'let go of dead leaves' and enter a time of greater interiority and, as a result, of gestation and rest."

By

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time: What it means to be wise, what it means to be foolish

As AI reshapes media landscape, Catholic nuns offer something irreplaceable

Can there be justice without empathy?