Pope Leo XIV releases a dove with community representatives at the conclusion of a peace meeting at St. Joseph Cathedral in Bamenda, Cameroon, April 16, 2026. (CNS/Lola Gomez)

Pope calls out tyrants, corruption amid pause in Cameroon's deadly conflict

Vatican

The pope celebrated his first large Mass in Africa, calling out those who "lay their hands on the African continent to exploit and plunder it."

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Pope Leo XIV sets stage for June consistory with letter to cardinals

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China raises pressure on underground Catholics to join official church, Human Rights Watch finds

David Crary, Associated Press
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Trump's attack on NATO is the worst self-inflicted defeat of his tenure

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Editors' Choice

Pope Leo XIV addresses journalists during the flight heading to Algiers on April 13, 2026. Pope Leo XIV embarks on April 13 on an 11-day visit to Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea for his first major international trip since becoming pontiff in May 2025. (OSV News/Alberto Pizzoli, Reuters)

In Focus

Pope Leo says he has 'no fear' of Trump administration after attack from president

Pope Leo XIV told reporters en route to Algeria that he has "no fear of the Trump administration," hours after President Donald Trump lodged a vicious attack on the pontiff via social media.

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Most Read Stories

Detail of an icon of St. Augustine at Christ the King Cathedral in Superior Wis. (OSV News/The Crosiers/Gene Plaisted)

#1
St. Augustine is key to the difference between Pete Hegseth and Pope Leo

In the Christian tradition, the violent language found in the imprecatory psalms can never be separated from Jesus' command to love one's enemies. Scripture can never, as Peter Hegseth does, be marshaled to sanctify hatred.

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In a joint interview with CBS's Norah O'Donnell on "60 Minutes" April 12, 2026, Cardinals Joseph Tobin of Newark, N.J., Robert McElroy of Washington, and Blase Cupich of Chicago, began by giving their impressions of the first U.S. pope, Pope Leo XIV. (OSV News screenshot/Facebook)

#2
Three cardinals stand with Pope Leo XIV in unprecedented interview

Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, Washington, D.C. Cardinal Robert McElroy and Newark, New Jersey, Cardinal Joseph Tobin forcefully echoed Pope Leo XIV's calls for peace and repeated his, and their own, distress about the Trump administration's anti-immigrant policies.

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Young worshippers with the Shalom Catholic Community attend Mass at San Damiano Mission in Brooklyn, New York, on Easter morning, April 5, 2026. (Courtesy of San Damiano Mission)

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Finding God in the Big Apple: Catholic missionaries reach out to young adults

In Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood, missionaries from the Shalom Catholic Community are working to help revitalize the church in the area. The missionaries, mostly millennials and Gen Z, reach out to people where they are.

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#4
Trump attacks Pope Leo in incendiary social media post

#5
Pentagon-Vatican meeting latest flash point in Trump's clash with religious leaders

#6
Dioceses, parishes take up Pope Leo's call to pray for peace, plan vigils for April 11

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Bishops from around the country gather at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore Nov. 10, 2025, for the opening Mass of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' fall plenary assembly. (OSV News/Catholic Review/Kevin J. Parks)

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Catholic bishops' authority is moral and doctrinal, grounded in continuity of teaching. To judge that authority by political timing is to substitute immediacy for principle and alignment for independence.

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On this week's episode of "The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast," John Dear hosts David Cortright, a leading scholar on war, peace and nonviolent resistance.

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Pope Leo XIV releases a dove with community representatives at the conclusion of a peace meeting at St. Joseph Cathedral in Bamenda, Cameroon, April 16, 2026. (CNS/Lola Gomez)

Pope calls out tyrants, corruption amid pause in Cameroon's deadly conflict

The pope celebrated his first large Mass in Africa, calling out those who "lay their hands on the African continent to exploit and plunder it."

Pope Leo XIV sets stage for June consistory with letter to cardinals

Pope Leo XIV sent a letter to the College of Cardinals thanking them for their participation in the January consistory and preparing the conversation for their next gathering June 26-27 — right before the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul.

ByOSV News
Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero of Rabat, Morocco, speaks during a briefing about the assembly of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican Oct. 17, 2023. (CNS/Lola Gomez)
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During Leo's Algeria visit, North African cardinal says Christians must 'learn how to be a minority'

 "It is a good fortune to be a small church in service of the kingdom of God," said Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero of Rabat, Morocco.

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U.S. Vice President JD Vance speaks during the 53rd annual March for Life rally in Washington Jan. 23, 2026. (OSV News photo/Aaron Schwartz, Reuters)
Vatican News

Vance questions the pope on just war theory hours after Leo honored its founder

The vice president responded to a post on the pope’s X account in which he wrote that God is "never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”

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Indiana bishops put Eucharist at center of call to 'integral ecology' in new pastoral

The letter was commended by Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, who extended Pope Leo XIV's blessing to the bishops.

Sr. Rose Nyondo, the program director for the Community Transformation Programme, and project coordinator Sr. Matilda Mubanga. The program, run by the Daughters of the Redeemer, promotes agricultural productivity in Chibombo and other areas in Zambia. (Derrick Silimina)

Daughters of the Redeemer pilot 'climate-smart' agricultural program in Zambia

In 2022, the Daughters of the Redeemer launched the Community Transformation Programme, which supports five Zambian villages with agricultural mentorship, nutrition programs, and water, sanitation and hygiene activities.

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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.

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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)
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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.

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“Beyond Wellness: How Restoring the Religious Roots of Spiritual Practices Can Heal Us” and author Liz Bucar. (Photo © Liz Linder)

New book explores why the wellness industry has failed spiritual seekers

In 'Beyond Wellness,' religious ethics professor Liz Bucar makes the case for connecting yoga, meditation and other practices to their religious origins.

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

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.

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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.

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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.

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A July 12, 2019, photo shows the UnitedHealthcare headquarters in Minneapolis. The Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary have sued the company over its refusal to consider examining how its rapid growth and vertical integration affect health care in the U.S. (AP/Jim Mone)

Catholic nuns sue UnitedHealth Group, citing harm to health care access

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A roadside billboard welcomes Holy Father Pope Leo XIV to Bamenda, Cameroon, April 14, 2026. (AP/Welba Yamo Pascal)

Nuns in Cameroon hope pope's visit opens path to peace amid fragile ceasefire

After nearly a decade of violence in the Anglophone region of Cameroon, women religious and residents say Pope Leo XIV's visit could help extend a temporary truce and revive hopes for reconciliation.

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A group of children are seen in a village near Nairobi, Kenya, in a 2022 photo. (Dreamstime/Alexey Kuznetsov)
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Lawyer nun works to protect and uplift children's rights in Kenya

Much of Sr. Hedwig Muse's work is focused on training leaders across the Catholic dioceses of Kenya to become children's champions, including in a legal system that often fails them.

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Passengers stranded by the closure of Dubai International Airport await assistance in the airport parking lot in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, March 1, 2026. (AP/Altaf Qadri)

Q&A with Sr. Edith Olaguer on living through six days of war in Dubai

Her flight disrupted by Iran's bombing of Dubai, Sr. Edith Olaguer spent six days not knowing if she might be killed from the missiles that kept falling throughout the city or get home safely.

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