Pope Leo XIV greets the local community during a parish visit to the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Rome, Italy, March 15, 2026. (CNS/Vatican Media)
Vatican News

Pope Leo signals broad listening style through unexpected meetings

Vatican

As he continues to shape his inner circle at the Vatican, Leo appears inclined to bypass traditional channels of information and hear firsthand accounts on the state of the church, even from its critics.

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Paulina Guzik, OSV News

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Donald Trump, at the time the Republican U.S. presidential candidate, embraces former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean Boller, a Catholic, after a rally with supporters in San Diego May 27, 2016. (OSV News/Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)

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MAGA followers have a new enemy: Traditionalist Catholics

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A fresco in the Shrine of La Verna in Italy depicts St. Francis of Assisi's meeting with the sultan of Egypt. (CNS/Octavio Duran)

#1
St. Francis teaches us that to obey Christ is sometimes to disobey the church

Ecclesiastical disobedience is not to be taken lightly nor used as justification for selfish interest. But as Francis of Assisi's life bears witness, there may be times when one has to choose the Gospel above all else.

ByDaniel P. Horan
Pope Leo XIV meets with former classmates who graduated from the lower school of St. Mary of the Assumption in Chicago in 1969 after the general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican March 18, 2026. (CNS/Vatican Media)

#2
Childhood classmates from the United States reunite with Pope Leo

Pope Leo XIV, who graduated from the lower school of St. Mary of the Assumption on the city's South Side in 1969, greeted and reminisced with 10 of his 82 former classmates after the general audience in St. Peter's Square March 18.

ByCarol Glatz, Catholic News Service

#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 calls heads of bishops' conferences to Rome for summit on family

#5
Catholic high school basketball teams follow tradition of breaking racial barriers

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Beyond Chavez: Dolores Huerta and the hidden histories of women's labor

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Little Sisters of St. Francis Sr. Jane Wakahiu (left) speaks as NBC News correspondent Anne Thompson listens at the "Catholic Women's Leadership to Advance the Common Good" panel at Georgetown University March 9. (Georgetown University/Lisa Helfert)

Georgetown panelists on women's leadership in the church: 'We have a lot of work to do'

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Despite the powerful charisms bestowed upon many women, "it is no secret that women leaders face significant obstacles in exercising their God-given gifts within the church," Christine Schenk writes. 

Georgetown panelists on women's leadership in the church: 'We have a lot of work to do'

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Pages from the Anthropic website and the company's logos are displayed on a computer screen in New York on Feb. 26, 2026. (AP/Patrick Sison)

By refusing the Pentagon, Anthropic holds moral line on AI

Guest Voices

When Anthropic refused to renew its $200 million contract with the Department of Defense, what the AI company held were not corporate policy preferences. They were moral absolutes. And the church has already said so.

Vatican

Pope Leo XIV greets the local community during a parish visit to the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Rome, Italy, March 15, 2026. (CNS/Vatican Media)
Vatican News

Pope Leo signals broad listening style through unexpected meetings

As he continues to shape his inner circle at the Vatican, Leo appears inclined to bypass traditional channels of information and hear firsthand accounts on the state of the church, even from its critics.

Vatican News

Pope Leo: Death and pain caused by wars a scandal for entire human family

As the U.S. and Israel-Iran war enters its fourth week, and amid a deep humanitarian crisis throughout the region, Pope Leo XIV appealed during his Sunday Angelus prayer March 22: "Persevere in prayer, so that hostilities may cease and paths of peace may finally open up, based on sincere dialogue and respect for the dignity of every human person."

ByPaulina Guzik, OSV News
The Uraricoera River is pictured in a file photo during a Brazilian government operation against illegal gold mining on Indigenous land in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. (CNS/Reuters/Bruno Kelly)

Platform launches to keep church money out of mining projects

A new initiative invites Catholic organizations to review where their resources are invested and to divest from companies linked to harmful mining practices.

ByJustin McLellan
Pope Leo XIV meets with former classmates who graduated from the lower school of St. Mary of the Assumption in Chicago in 1969 after the general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican March 18, 2026. (CNS/Vatican Media)

Childhood classmates from the United States reunite with Pope Leo

Pope Leo XIV, who graduated from the lower school of St. Mary of the Assumption on the city's South Side in 1969, greeted and reminisced with 10 of his 82 former classmates after the general audience in St. Peter's Square March 18.

ByCarol Glatz, Catholic News Service

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A man walks along the shore as oil tankers and cargo ships line up in the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Khor Fakkan, United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2026. (RNS/AP/Altaf Qadri)

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

The president's energy policy "has left the country unprepared for his war," Thomas Reese writes.

The Uraricoera River is pictured in a file photo during a Brazilian government operation against illegal gold mining on Indigenous land in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. (CNS/Reuters/Bruno Kelly)

Platform launches to keep church money out of mining projects

A new initiative invites Catholic organizations to review where their resources are invested and to divest from companies linked to harmful mining practices.

ByJustin McLellan

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

The transfer of federal forest land in Arizona to a pair of international companies that plan to mine one of the largest copper deposits in North America is complete, but a group of Apache women is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene as a last-ditch effort to stop the project.

BySusan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press

Global South bishops endorse treaty to phase out fossil fuels as 'moral imperative'

The Catholic bishops' conferences of Africa, Asia and Latin America called for the world's governments to "adopt a treaty to stop proliferation and abandon fossil fuels as a moral and political imperative."

ByBrian Roewe

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Culture

Michelangelo's 16th-century fresco "The Last Judgment" in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican (Wikimedia Commons/Burkhard Mücke)

Why Michelangelo's 'Last Judgment' endures

The Last Judgment is a common theme in Christian art. But Michelangelo's dramatic imagery in his Sistine Chapel fresco provokes deeper thought: After all, how does anyone on earth know what the saints do in heaven?

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

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." 

ByJoseph Holmes, Religion Unplugged
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)

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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.

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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.

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Sr. Esther Njoka, a member of the Missionary Congregation of the Evangelizing Sisters of Mary in Kenya, talks about her mission Nov. 15, 2025, in Puerto Padre, Cuba. Njoka said serving a mission is a dream come true, even with some of the challenges, such as food and gas shortages and a small number of practicing Catholics on the island. (GSR photo/Rhina Guidos)

Q&A with Kenyan Sr. Esther Njoka, on missionary life in Cuba

With few vocations to consecrated life in Cuba, the church relies on missionaries like Njoka to help with catechesis and to take the Gospel to places where there's a reluctance to embrace religious beliefs. 

On the second day of the United Nations' Commission on the Status of Women, held at U.N. headquarters in New York, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres met with members of nongovernmental groups. (U.N./Eskinder Debebe)

Monday Starter: UN commission meetings focus on challenges faced by women

Plus, LCWR praises the appointment of a new apostolic nuncio, and Maryknoll issues condemnation of war against Iran.

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A woman is depicted at prayer in an ancient Christian mosaic seen in the Vatican's Pio Cristiano Museum. (Wikimedia Commons/Miguel Hermoso Cuesta)

Advocates for women deacons look to Latin America for hope

Though not an official status, in South America "women's diaconate already exists as a daily service and as a baptismal vocation," said Fr. José Luís Loyola, president of CLAR.

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Back of crucifix silhouetted against sky
Columns

The stubborn hope of resurrection

"Even as we hear the sounds of destruction we must tap into our stubborn hope to assess what are the good bones and begin the revisioning of what we have into what can be," writes Sr. Nancy Sylvester. 

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