Pope Leo XIV gestures as he leads his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican May 13, 2026. (OSV News/Reuters/Vincenzo Livieri)

Pope Leo warns against AI in war, tells students they are 'not an algorithm'

Vatican

"This very spiritual malaise of many young people reminds us that we are not the sum of what we have, nor matter randomly assembled in a mute cosmos," the pope said May 14. "We are a desire, not an algorithm."

The Latest

How a nun revived female monasticism in India's Chaldean Church

They claim to be Benedictine sisters. It is an international scam targeting religious communities.

Helga Leija

Citizenship for undocumented US residents is not charity, but an investment

Mary Fontana

Editors' Choice

A rainbow appears in the distance near an angel grave marker following a thunderstorm at St. Patrick Catholic Cemetery in Neenah, Wisconsin. (CNS/The Compass/Brad Birkholz)

In Focus

Catholic Church slowly takes up mental health ministry to respond to growing needs

Phoenix Bishop John Dolan lost three siblings and an in-law to suicide and has spoken out about the church's need to accompany those suffering from mental illness and their families.

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#1
Catholic diocese fights Trump administration plan to seize pilgrimage site for border wall

The land targeted by the federal government is at the base of Mount Cristo Rey, a mountain and pilgrimage site topped by a 29-foot-tall limestone statue of Jesus Christ.

ByAleja Hertzler-McCain, Religion News Service
Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, celebrates Mass on the sixth day of the "novendiali," nine days of mourning for Pope Francis, at the Altar of the Confession in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican May 1, 2025. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

#2
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Pope Leo XIV waves as he arrives to lead his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican April 29, 2026. (GSR graphic/Olivia Bardo; OSV News photo/Reuters/Remo Casilli)

#3
After one year, nuns see Pope Leo XIV advancing justice in his own way

A year into Leo XIV's papacy, Catholic sisters around the world are celebrating how the first U.S.-born pope is continuing to focus on issues near and dear to them.

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#6
Vatican criticizes conversion therapy, features gay Catholic testimony in 'historic' report

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A destroyed vehicle is seen amid rubble at the site of a strike on a residential building in Tehran, Iran, March 16, 2026, amid the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. (OSV News/WANA via Reuters/Majid Asgaripour)

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What Fr. Walter Ciszek's cause teaches us about sainthood

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"The church does not canonize based on what seems likely or inspiring," writes Fr. Augustine Judd. "She proceeds with great care, relying on what can be clearly established and demonstrated with moral certainty."

Vatican

Pope Leo XIV gestures as he leads his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican May 13, 2026. (OSV News/Reuters/Vincenzo Livieri)

Pope Leo warns against AI in war, tells students they are 'not an algorithm'

"This very spiritual malaise of many young people reminds us that we are not the sum of what we have, nor matter randomly assembled in a mute cosmos," the pope said May 14. "We are a desire, not an algorithm."

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, celebrates Mass on the sixth day of the "novendiali," nine days of mourning for Pope Francis, at the Altar of the Confession in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican May 1, 2025. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

Vatican warns of excommunication for traditionalist group on brink of schism

The Vatican warned that members of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X will incur excommunication if the group follows through with its threat to ordain new bishops without the approval of Rome.

ByJustin McLellan

Vatican continues dialogue with German bishops regarding blessing for same-sex couples, cardinal says

Speaking to journalists in Rome May 6, Cardinal Pietro Parolin was asked if the Vatican intends to impose sanctions on the German bishops after the continued promotion of a handbook for blessing same-sex couples.

ByJunno Arocho Esteves, OSV News

Vatican sending new signals of openness but limitations in outreach to LGBTQ+ Catholics

The Vatican is sending new signals about how it intends to minister to LGBTQ+ Catholics in the Pope Leo XIV era, with signs of openness and limitations after Pope Francis ushered in a notable welcome during his 12-year pontificate.

ByNicole Winfield, Associated Press

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Pope Leo thanks Canary Islands as hantavirus-stricken ship arrives in Tenerife

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EarthBeat

Contractors are using explosives to carve out the side of the landmark Cristo Rey mountain that oversees two countries and three states. (Gaby Velasquez/Puente News Collaborative)

Mount Cristo Rey, in path of Trump's border wall, sits on land of New Mexico diocese

The federal government's planned 1.3-mile wall across Mount Cristo Rey, seen as a holy site where "faith transcends borders," has drawn opposition from environmentalists and the Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Joseph Sikulu, an activist from Tuvalu, talks during a conference aimed at transitioning away from fossil fuels, April 29, 2026, in Santa Marta, Colombia. (AP photo/Ivan Valencia)

Catholics see promise in climate talks among nations on fossil fuel phaseout

After conversations among nearly 60 nations on ways to wean the world from fossil fuels, Catholics who attended the first-of-its-kind summit in Colombia left encouraged by the promise the conversations represented.

ByBrian Roewe
Pope Leo XIV feeds fish at a pond in the Pontifical Gardens of Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Sept. 5, 2025. The pope inaugurated Borgo Laudato Si’ the same day, opening the historic papal residence as a center dedicated to the principles of care for creation and human dignity outlined in Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’. (CNS/Lola Gomez)

One year in, Pope Leo forges ahead with Francis' ecological legacy

Where Francis sounded the alarm, Leo has remained focused on what he calls ecological conversion: a transformation of heart and mind. 

ByChelsea Jordan King

Tribes sue to halt exploratory drilling in Black Hills near sacred ceremonial site

BySarah Raza, Associated Press

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In Love Like a Mother, Elizabeth Berget claims that biblical texts, Christian history, art and women's lived experience are saturated with maternal imagery for God. 

The American impressionist Mary Cassatt refused to idealize the repetitive, underappreciated labor of childcare. In "The Boating Party," the mother's fatigued expression may feel familiar to viewers who are caregivers. (National Gallery of Art)

Exhibit illustrates Mary Cassatt's domestic feminism

The American impressionist is known for domestic themes in both public and private life, but in her depictions, like in the women she paints, there is more than first meets the eye.

ByJean P. Kelly
Conversion Therapy Dropout book cover

In ‘Conversion Therapy Dropout,’ a survivor exposes the discredited practice

'The biggest lesson I had to learn is that God's lack of an answer to my prayers to change me was an answer, because there was nothing about me that needed to change,' said Timothy Schraeder Rodriguez.

ByKathryn Post, Religion News Service
Mary Oliver as a young woman, ca. 1965-1970 (Library of Congress/Mary Oliver Papers, Manuscript Division. ©NW Orchard LLC, used with permission of Bill Reichblum/Molly Malone Cook)

'Saved by the Beauty of the World' — and by the poetry of Mary Oliver

In the upcoming PBS documentary, "Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World," director Sasha Waters pays homage to one of America's most beloved modern poets.

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They claim to be Benedictine sisters. It is an international scam targeting religious communities.

"What unsettles me the most is not the sophistication of the scam itself, " writes Sr. Helga Leija, "but the way it exploits the goodness of religious men and women." 

Daughter of the Eucharistic Covenant Sister Agnes (right) handles paperwork, hospital visits and conversations with local officials for Paramprasad Ashram, a shelter home for abandoned women in Akhnoor, India. (Umar Manzoor Shah)

Indian nuns shelter abandoned women in India's northern region

At Paramprasad Ashram, most of the women are elderly. Some were abandoned at hospitals, and some were rescued from abusers and traffickers. "We are here to give them dignity," says Sister Jonamma, who serves at the home.

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The Ascension of the Lord: We are not left behind

The Ascension is not an invitation to remain still waiting for direction from above. It is a commission to move outward into the world as it is: fractured, beautiful and full of God's hidden presence.

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Sr. Eleanor Rosare walks through a play and therapy room at the Sacred Heart Center in Quezon City, Philippines. The Daughters of St. Mary of Providence run the center, where more than 60 children a week with autism, Down syndrome, ADHD and other developmental conditions receive support, therapy and care. (Oliver Samson)

Sisters in the Philippines accompany children with developmental needs

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