Smoke rises from a village in Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, March 16, 2026, following an Israeli airstrike, amid escalation in aerial attacks between Hezbollah and Israel as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran continues. (OSV News/Reuters/Shir Torem)

War, exodus and hunger: Lebanon's Catholics face a new wave of fear and exhaustion

News

For Lebanon's Catholic communities — many of them concentrated in towns near the Israeli border — the renewed violence has revived fears that echo earlier conflicts in the country's long history of war.

The Latest

Denver's Regis University names woman as new president in historic first for Jesuit-run school

André Escaleira Jr., Denver Catholic, OSV News

Supreme Court to hear arguments in Trump effort to end temporary protections for Haitians

Kate Scanlon, OSV News

'Witness to Hope' conference calls for Catholic response to mass deportations

Gina Christian, OSV News

Editors' Choice

This undated photograph shows the execution chamber where lethal injections were carried out at San Quentin State Prison in California. In 2019, California Gov. Gavin Newsom suspended the state's death penalty. (CNS /Courtesy of California Department of Corrections) (Nov. 16, 2007)

In Focus

A lenten plea to Newsom: Commute California's death sentences

Catholic Mobilizing Network Executive Director Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy calls on him to protect inmates from future policy that could reverse his moratorium on capital punishment.

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Most Read Stories

In a file photo, Ayatollah Seyed Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad Ahmadabadi answers reporters' questions in Rome Oct. 14, 2010, before giving a presentation at the Vatican. Amid war in the Middle East, Damada, a prominent figure within Iran's Shia clerical establishment, wrote a public letter to Leo calling for peace and respect for international law. (CNS/Paul Haring)

#1
An Iranian ayatollah appeals to the pope as war spreads across Middle East

As war spreads across the Middle East following the conflict that erupted Feb. 28 between the United States, Israel and Iran, a senior Iranian cleric has turned to Pope Leo XIV.

ByCamillo Barone

#2
After 900 years, monks of iconic French La Trappe Abbey consider leaving historic monastery

ByOSV News

#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 Leo wants Christians to examine their consciences this Lent — especially if they're waging war

#5
A feminist mom, a Jesuit son and the story of a rekindled Catholic

#6
In wartime, Catholics must stand at the foot of the cross

Opinion

10 key questions Congress must ask about the Iran war

Guest Voices

Holding on to the light: Lessons from a friendship on death row

Guest Voices
President Donald Trump meets with members of the White House Faith Office in the Oval Office in Washington, D.C., March 5, 2026. (Wikimedia Commons/Official White House Photo/Molly Riley)

Armageddon wars and Oval Office prayers: A Catholic response

Guest Voices

When religious language is used to sanctify political power, Christianity risks contradicting its own central symbol, writes Enzo Del Brocco.

How the 2026 Academy Awards was able to pit faith against religion

Guest Voices

In Trump's Iran conflict, it's prosperity gospel vs. the Quran

Guest Voices
This undated photograph shows the execution chamber where lethal injections were carried out at San Quentin State Prison in California. In 2019, California Gov. Gavin Newsom suspended the state's death penalty. (CNS /Courtesy of California Department of Corrections) (Nov. 16, 2007)

A lenten plea to Newsom: Commute California's death sentences

Guest Voices

Catholic Mobilizing Network Executive Director Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy calls on him to protect inmates from future policy that could reverse his moratorium on capital punishment.

Vatican

Pope's upcoming Africa odyssey takes him to a mosque, a prison and the site of a deadly 2021 blast

The Vatican released on Monday details of Pope Leo XIV's upcoming four-nation Africa tour, suggesting Christian-Muslim relations, comforting victims of violence and encouraging the Catholic community in former European colonies will be key themes.

March Madness
The Leo Chronicles

The Leo Chronicles: March Madness

The Leo Chronicles: The pope is not watching basketball, unfortunately.

ByPat Marrin
Pope Leo XIV reads his homily during Mass at the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Rome March 15, 2026, "Laetare" Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent. (CNS/Vatican Media)

Pope Leo condemns depicting war as a 'video game'

The pontiff told an Italian television program that it is up to journalists "to show the face of war and to relate it through the eyes of the victims, so as not to transform it into a video game."

ByJustin McLellan

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

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Vatican News

After renovation, Pope Leo XIV moves into papal apartment eschewed by Pope Francis

Vatican News

Pope Leo wants Christians to examine their consciences this Lent — especially if they're waging war

Pope's Robin Hood wraps almoner's mission and returns to Polish hometown as archbishop

EarthBeat

Chad Eachern, president and CEO of Edmundite Missions, far left, poses after presenting checks Feb. 27, 2026, to people participating in the Selma, Ala.-based Catholic social services agency's farming initiative that helps support small farmers in the South's impoverished Black Belt region. (OSV News photo/courtesy Edmundite Missions)

Black farmers in Deep South see hope in Edmundites' farming aid, grant program

The fledgling Catholic farming program of the Edmundite Misisons has distributed $78,000 to 19 farmers in central Alabama to assist with farming supplies including seeds, piping for irrigation and cold storage.

A team of parishioners cook fish at the annual Lenten fish fry at St. Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church, in St. Louis, March 21, 2023. This year, with the help of a grant from the St. Louis Archdiocese's Laudato Si' Commission, the parish for the first time will compost leftover food and compostable materials in an effort to reduce waste. (St. Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church)

Pass the cod, hold the plastic: St. Louis parishes cut waste at Lenten fish fries

With the help of grants from the St. Louis Archdiocese, Catholics have taken steps to lessen the waste associated with serving hundreds, and in some cases, 1,000 meals in a single night during Lenten fish fries.

ByBrian Roewe
Debris surrounds a damaged home in Three Rivers, Mich., March 7, 2026, following storms and tornado warnings. Powerful storms tore through parts of Michigan and Oklahoma, leaving a trail of destruction that included flattened homes and scattered debris. Volunteers helped residents sift through rubble and begin cleanup as the threat of severe weather lingered across the nation's midsection. (OSV News photo/Rebecca Cook, Reuters)

Chapel left undamaged amid deadly Midwest storms while faith remains strong

Catholic parish and school communities in the Midwest are among those working to clean up after deadly storms and tornadoes tore through a number of states in early March.

ByGina Christian, OSV News
The ExxonMobil Baton Rouge Refinery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, May 15, 2021 (OSV News/Reuters/Kathleen Flynn)

Young Catholic is lead plaintiff in suit challenging EPA's endangerment finding reversal

"It would be nice, I think," Elena Venner said, "for our government to at least acknowledge that we are in this climate crisis and to start by not repealing what we already have."

ByBrian Roewe

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Vatican News

Climate change, crowds prompt maintenance on Michelangelo's 'Last Judgment'

Vietnamese sisters grow organic mushrooms to serve community and fund scholarships

Oil wells on LA Archdiocese land permanently sealed after years of community pressure

Culture

Contestant Dani Evans was pressured by "America's Next Top Model" judges into having a medical procedure to close the gap between her front teeth despite her own desire to leave her smile natural. On "Reality Check," Tyra Banks said she had already "actually apologized" to Evans. (Netflix)

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.

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)

A feminist mom, a Jesuit son and the story of a rekindled Catholic

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.

ByBill Mitchell
Mosaic artist Sister Samuelle in her workshop in France. Samuelle, who accused disgraced priest artist Marko Rupnik of abuse, is now a hermit and the creative lead on "Rebirth," a monumental mosaic dedicated to the victims of spiritual and sexual abuse in the church. (Courtesy of "Rebirth: The Tesserae Symphony")

'Rebirth' art project offers counternarrative for Rupnik accusers, abuse survivors

A monumental mosaic designed by French artist Sister Samuelle aims to help survivors "piece the fragments back together and give them a new face: the face of a new life, or at least a life that can still be lived."

BySarah Mac Donald
Timothée Chalamet stars in a scene from the movie "Marty Supreme." The movie has been nominated for nine Oscars, including three for Chalamet. (OSV News/A24)

Ambition and redemption star in 'Marty Supreme'

Amid Timothée Chalamet's character Marty's lies, hustles, infidelities and callow performativity is the core of Catholic teaching: Redemption is not reserved for the pious nor perfect.

ByJean P. Kelly

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

In Oscar-nominated 'Sirāt,' the journey is literal, spiritual and existential

Book Reviews

NCR Members read: Nonfiction

Comedian channels Mary: 'What if it's breech? What if it's sick? What if it's God?'

Sr. Jean Rose, a member of the Sisters of the Destitute and a medical doctor, treats a tribal woman at the government Community Health Centre in Marayoor, a remote village in the Idukki district of Kerala, southwestern India. (Courtesy of Jean Rose)

Q&A with Sr. Jean Rose, government medical officer in a remote village in India

Sr. Jean Rose, a member of the Sisters of the Destitute, is the first Catholic nun to be appointed as a medical officer in a government hospital in India's Kerala state.

Customers buy marmalades and cakes made by cloistered nuns, at a market at the Reales Alcazares in Seville, Spain, on Dec. 5, 2023. Women's religious communities in Spain are making and selling items, and renting rooms in their monasteries, to generate income. (AP/Laura Leon)

In order to maintain aging monasteries, Spanish nuns are becoming entrepreneurs

Sisters have had to think of new ways to generate income in the face of skyrocketing maintenance costs for their historic buildings, coupled with a decline in people choosing religious vocations. 

ByReligion Unplugged
This pink amethyst with barite and hematite formed naturally in the shape of a heart. It reflects the heart with all its complexity, beauty and fragility. (Julie Vieira)
Columns

Sometimes 'creating a clean heart' is not inspirational; it is overwhelming

What if that Scripture call isn't about scrubbing anything out, but about discovering how God is right there with us?

ByJulie Vieira
Green and black-and-white illustration graphic with photos of a van, pills and the back of a young man's head (GSR graphic/Olivia Bardo; vehicle photo by John Chukwu)

Catholic sisters confront Nigeria's rising drug crisis

At the Mater Christi Human Development and Religious Formation Centre, Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of Christ lead an unconventional frontline response to drug addiction among young Nigerians.

By

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