Giving Day:
Pope Leo XIV, the former Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, waves to the crowds in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican after his election as pope May 8, 2025. (CNS/Lola Gomez)

What we knew then — and what we know now — about history's first US-born pope

Vatican

When white smoke billowed out of the Sistine Chapel last May, NCR's former Vatican correspondent Christopher White was there. White thought it would be Robert Prevost: "His election may have been a surprise, but he isn't."

The Latest

Q&A with Sr. Gladys Dimaku, on the front lines of community healthcare in Lagos

Valentine Benjamin

The first year of Pope Leo's pontificate through the eyes of a Basilian sister

NCR Voices

Leo's Augustinian roots are what the church needs today

Michael Sean Winters

Editors' Choice

The notebook used by NCR Vatican correspondent Justin McLellan during his trip through Africa with the pope laid on top of two programs.

In Focus

Reporter's Notebook: A very literal reporter's notebook from the pope's trip through Africa

NCR's Vatican correspondent Justin McLellan stuck to pen and paper to record his impressions of traveling through North and Central with Pope Leo XIV. 

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Most Read Stories

#1
Pope Leo XIV advances sainthood causes, including Dutch nun who served in Missouri

Pope Leo XIV issued decrees advancing the sainthood causes of five candidates, including a Dutch nun who served in St. Louis in the early 20th century.

ByJunno Arocho Esteves, OSV News
Father Robert P. Boxie III, chaplain at the Sister Thea Bowman Catholic Student Center at Howard University in Washington, and Father Gary R. Studniewski, pastor of Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Washington, are pictured in undated photos.

#2
Pope appoints two auxiliaries for Washington, accepts resignation of Auxiliary Bishop Campbell

Pope Leo XIV has appointed two auxiliary bishops for the Archdiocese of Washington and accepted the resignation of Auxiliary Bishop Roy E. Campbell Jr. of Washington.

ByOSV News
Vatican News

#3
Pope Leo to new priests: Keep church door open, don't be an obstacle

Priests are called each day to leave the doors of the Church open to a "suffering humanity" in need and not "be an obstacle to those who wish to enter," Pope Leo XIV told 10 deacons just before ordaining them to the priesthood.

ByJunno Arocho Esteves, OSV News

#4
Pew: In US and other countries, Catholicism loses more members than it gains

#5
'Saved by the Beauty of the World' — and by the poetry of Mary Oliver

#6
Pope prays with Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally in historic encounter, vows dialogue

Opinion

Leo's Augustinian roots are what the church needs today

NCR Voices

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

Guest Voices
President Donald Trump bows his head during the National Prayer Breakfast Feb. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP/Evan Vucci)

The divinization of Trump is precisely why the Church Fathers wrote the creeds

Guest Voices

Once any embattled leader can be cast as savior, any comeback as resurrection, any survival as divine election, Christianity's central claim — that Christ is the unique mediator — loses its meaning.

Your letters: 'Mother Mary,' just war and Thomas Merton

Letters to the Editor

The 7 deadly sins offer a warning to religious influencers — and their followers

Guest Voices
Pope Leo XIV lights a candle and prays before an image of Our Lady of Lourdes prior to his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican Feb. 11, 2026. (CNS/Lola Gomez)

A grotto for Our Lady, a plant for nuclear weapon parts, and a call to discern

Guest Voices

In Kansas City, the two faces of a construction dynasty — one philanthropic and the other commercial — pose a moral discernment, Tom Fox writes. 

Vatican

Pope Leo XIV, the former Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, waves to the crowds in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican after his election as pope May 8, 2025. (CNS/Lola Gomez)

What we knew then — and what we know now — about history's first US-born pope

When white smoke billowed out of the Sistine Chapel last May, NCR's former Vatican correspondent Christopher White was there. White thought it would be Robert Prevost: "His election may have been a surprise, but he isn't."

Pope Leo XIV meets with Catholic Charities USA leadership, urges mission of compassion

Pope Leo XIV met the leadership of Catholic Charities USA in an audience at the Vatican on May 4, offering words of encouragement to one of the country's largest disaster relief networks as it navigates growing demand for food and basic services to aid the poor in the United States.

ByCourtney Mares, OSV News
In this undated photo, Pope Leo XIV (then Robert Prevost, left) smiles while his mother (back to the camera) cuts a birthday cake in what his brother (right) guessed was the pope's ninth birthday, at the family home in the Chicago suburb of Dolton. (OSV News/Prevost family)

The future Pope Leo XIV grew up amid a changing Chicago

Growing up in Chicago and then attending seminary in Michigan as a young teenager, Robert Prevost would have been aware of change taking place in both his hometown and the church.

ByRone Tempest
The Leo Chronicles

The Leo Chronicles: What makes a just war?

The Leo Chronicles: Brother Leo and Pope Leo discuss what makes a just war or a failure of peace. 

ByPat Marrin

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Rubio plans to visit the Vatican this week as tensions between Trump and the pope rise

Vatican court deadline passes for prosecutors to deposit all evidence in financial trial

In Africa, Pope Leo's quiet papacy came into full view

EarthBeat

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)
Guest Voices

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. 

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

BySarah Raza, Associated Press
A cluster of large, romanesque buildings sits stop a verdant hill
Vatican News

4 asteroids just got named for Pope Leo XIII, Vatican astronomers

The Vatican Observatory announced in an April 29 press release that an asteroid has been named in honor of Pope Leo XIII, who formally reestablished the observatory in 1891.

ByGina Christian, OSV News
A family walks near a Make Polluters Pay demonstration along the Caribbean Sea April 27, 2026, in Santa Marta, Colombia. Protesters were demanding oil companies pay for the energy transition during a nearby conference aimed at transitioning away from fossil fuels. (AP/Ivan Valencia)

An end to the fossil fuel era? Catholic groups hopeful as nations meet in Colombia

As war disrupts global oil supply, more than 50 countries, dubbed a "coalition of the willing," are meeting April 26-29 in Santa Marta, Colombia, for the first Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels.

ByBrian Roewe

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Indigenous coalition continues challenge to mining project on religious liberty grounds

At a Spanish convent, nuns breed rare giant rabbit

EcoVillage sustainable housing finds a place to build with Pittsburgh sisters

Culture

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.

Praying with the spiritual masterwork of Pharoah Sanders

Over 55 years ago, legendary jazz musician Pharoah Sanders recorded a spiritualist masterwork that remains a critical piece of art in 2026.

ByMatthew A. MacDonald
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.

ByElizabeth Hamilton
In A24's psychological thriller "Mother Mary," Anne Hathaway plays a fictional pop star with religious imagery. (A24)

'Mother Mary' film may have uncredited inspiration — and it's not the Mother of God

A24's thriller "Mother Mary" centers a fictional pop star with religious imagery. But electropop duo MOTHERMARY has been making music that centers religious iconography and queerness for years. They spoke to NCR about the film.

ByEmma Cieslik

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

I went to Augusta to watch the Masters. I came home with a spiritual experience.

Jason Berry reflects on journalism career in new book of interviews

Book Reviews

New book offers fresh perspective on work through a Catholic social teaching lens

Sr. Gladys Dimaku, a Sister of the Medical Missionaries of Mary, draws on decades of pastoral, medical and intercultural experience to serve those most in need at St. Teresa Clinic in Lagos, Nigeria. (Courtesy of Gladys Dimaku)

Q&A with Sr. Gladys Dimaku, on the front lines of community healthcare in Lagos

Medical Missionaries of Mary Sr. Gladys Dimaku runs St. Teresa Clinic, a primary healthcare facility in Nigeria where patients receive preventive and curative care with special attention to HIV and tuberculosis.

Pope Leo XIV meets with members of the board of Ending Clergy Abuse, a coalition of survivors and human rights advocates working to end clergy abuse, enforce accountability and promote justice and truth, during an audience in the library of the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican Oct. 20, 2025. Also present is Pedro Salinas, a Peruvian journalist and abuse survivor. (CNS/Vatican Media)
Columns

Sister theologians on abuse, accountability, reform and hope in Leo's pontificate

To mark Pope Leo XIV's first year, Theologians' Corner convenes four sister theologians from around the world to reflect on his efforts to address abuse, strengthen accountability, and advance reform in the church.

By
Chilean flag with footprints walking across (GSR graphic/Olivia Bardo)

Nuns serve Haitians and Venezuelans in Chile as anti-migrant attitudes rise

As Chile's political and social attitudes harden against migration, Catholic sisters accompany Haitian and Venezuelan migrant camps in Curicó.

ByDavid Agren
Ultra-Orthodox Jews pray outside the Cenacle in Mount Zion near Jerusalem's Old City, a hall revered by Christians as the site of Jesus' Last Supper.

Suspect arrested for assault against French nun in Jerusalem

Police in Israel announced the arrest of a man suspected in the assault of a French nun working in Jerusalem as a researcher.

ByJunno Arocho Esteves, OSV News

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Learning about forgiveness in consecrated life

Sisters transform lives of Kenyan children with disabilities

After leaving religious life, Vietnamese women find new vocations