An anti-abortion activist and a supporter of legal abortion square off with megaphones in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington June 24, 2023, the first anniversary the court's 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. (OSV News/Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein)

Sociologist: 'Pro-life,' 'pro-choice' don't capture Americans' abortion attitudes

News

Sociologist Tricia Bruce and her team found that when it comes to abortion attitudes, everyday Americans do not fall neatly into pro-life or pro-choice binaries. Bruce spoke to the National Catholic Reporter.

The Latest

Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time: God's incomprehensible generosity

Sr. Juliet Mousseau

A river teaches me

Joyce Rupp

'Sister Act' and the gift of Blackness in the church

Tulio Huggins, Black Catholic Messenger

Editors' Choice

A sign promoting empathy is seen among protesters at Donald Trump's first presidential inauguration Jan. 20, 2017, in Washington, D.C. (Dreamstime/Arienne Davey)

In Focus

Bishop Barron of Word on Fire fuels debate on empathy's role in society

A prominent Catholic bishop and commentator has waded into the ongoing culture war over empathy and its role in Christianity, siding with conservative influencers who argue that practicing empathy carries great risk.

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Joseph Kelly and his wife, Alina Rudnicka, pose during a hike in the Polish Tatra mountains this summer. (Courtesy of Joseph Kelly)

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Practicing Augustinian spirituality in our marriage has brought unity amid differences

The Rule of St. Augustine makes sense within a monastery or convent. But does it work in marriage? This couple of 40 years says yes.

ByJoseph Kelley
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#2
Restricting the chalice is not tradition — it's a troubling innovation

As a few U.S. dioceses restrict access to the precious blood, they are promoting a "newer vision of Catholicism in which restriction of the fuller sign of the Eucharist has come to signify holiness," Karen E. Park writes. 

ByKaren E. Park
Dominican Sr. Mary Sean Hodges talks with Sylvia Trevino at the offices of the Partnership for Re-Entry Program June 8, 2026, in Los Angeles. (GSR photo/Rhina Guidos)

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LA nun champions second chances for those rebuilding their lives after prison

For 25 years, Dominican Sr. Mary Sean Hodges has helped incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people heal, prepare for reentry and rebuild their lives through a restorative justice ministry rooted in mercy.

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The insatiable spirituality of Andrew Garfield, star of 'The Uprising'

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Pope celebrates his 71st birthday but it's Vatican employees who get the gift

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Victim 0001: Friends recall Father Mychal Judge's 9/11 loss and legacy

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Your letters: An eldercare center in India, San Francisco parish assessments and women deacons

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Bishops from around the United States 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)

Editorial: The church still waits to hear a full confession from the hierarchy

Editorial

Bankruptcy is not enough to "move beyond" the Catholic Church's sex abuse crisis. The clerical/hierarchical culture has yet to square up with the reality of bishops' betrayal of the community at a sacramental level.

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Demonstrators opposed to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, march through the streets during a protest in the Albany Park neighborhood of Chicago June 3, 2026, against immigration enforcement operations by federal agents. (OSV News photo/Jim Vondruska, Reuters)

To protect elections and migrants, Catholics must pray, recall history

Columns

Sr. Christine Schenk Catholics explains how a campaign call organized by Catholics in Communion emphasized the importance of prayer, and how the history of Catholic organizing offers lessons for today. 
 

Vatican

Archbishop Christophe-Zakhia el-Kassis, the Holy See's new permanent observer to the United Nations in New York, poses in an undated photo with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres. (OSV News/Eskinder Debebe, courtesy United Nations)

Hate speech violates command to love one's neighbor, says Vatican's UN diplomat

Hate speech "contradicts the commandment to love one's neighbor," said the Vatican's top diplomat to the United Nations.

Pope Leo XIV greets Silviu Vexler, president of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania, during a ceremony honoring Blessed Iuliu Hossu in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican June 2, 2025. (CNS/Vatican Media)

Vatican document affirms interreligious dialogue as 'journey of hope' for humanity

A new Vatican document, the result of a collaboration among three dicasteries, affirms Vatican II's landmark 1965 teaching on the church's relationship with the Jewish people and those of other faiths.

ByGina Christian, OSV News
Pope Leo XIV waves as he arrives at the Vatican Library on the day of his 71st birthday, Sept. 14, 2026. (AP/Andrew Medichini)

Pope celebrates his 71st birthday but it's Vatican employees who get the gift

The Vatican has published a papal decree repealing 2021 salary cuts that Pope Francis had imposed on many Vatican employees as part of the Holy See's COVID-19 cost-saving measures.

ByNicole Winfield, Associated Press
The Leo Chronicles: A White Sox pope hat for every U.S. seminarian? Leo suggests sending them something else.

The Leo Chronicles: 'Play ball!'

The Leo Chronicles: A White Sox pope hat for every U.S. seminarian? Leo suggests sending them something else.

ByPat Marrin

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Villanova names Vatican cardinal first recipient of Pope Leo sustainability award

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EarthBeat

The Des Moines River is seen at Bentonsport, Iowa. (Dreamstime/Adam Wineke)
Soul Seeing

A river teaches me

Soul Seeing: Beloved Catholic writer Joyce Rupp reflects on the spiritual lessons she received by years of meditating with a river.

An irrigation operation runs amid an onion crop on St. Elizabeth Farm in Momoi village in Lower Subukia, Nakuru County, Kenya. (Shadrack Omuka)

St. Elizabeth Demo Farm a beacon of sustainability in Kenyan nun's rural hometown

Sr. Victorina Wanjiru, a Catholic nun born and raised in Momoi village, manages St. Elizabeth Demo Farm, which teaches locals in the area of her hometown sustainable farming and eco-friendly income activities.

ByShadrack Omuka
A drone view shows children picking through washed-up garbage along the polluted Pasig River in Manila, Philippines on June 5, 2025. (OSV News/Reuters/Eloisa Lopez)
NCR Voices

New Vatican document's use of 'ecological sin' vital to conversion

Thanks to the International Theological Commission, Catholics can "name what is happening on an individual, communal and global level in a way that we couldn't before," Daniel P. Horan writes. 

ByDaniel P. Horan
Sand bars develop along the Rio Grande as stretches of the river begin to dry in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on May 14, 2026. (AP photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

NM archbishop: Politicians must act with 'moral courage' to protect clean water

"We urge our political leaders and decision-makers to act with moral courage," Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester said in a new pastoral letter on the conservation of water, issued Sept. 11.

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Book Reviews

Stephanie Sy-Quia's debut novel paints forbidden love against Vatican II backdrop

Book review: With its story of a romance between a priest and a theology teacher, Stephanie Sy-Quia's critically acclaimed novel, A Private Man, traces themes of inheritance and longing amid radical change.

Maggie Smith as the Reverend Mother and Whoopi Goldberg as Deloris Van Cartier in a still from the 1992 movie "Sister Act." (Newscom/Cover Images via ZUMA Press)

'Sister Act' and the gift of Blackness in the church

The 1992 comedy offers something worth considering: a reflection on what happens when a Black woman brings her culture, gifts and way of worship into a community that doesn't initially know what to do with them.

ByTulio Huggins, Black Catholic Messenger
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With 19 Emmy nods, 'Widow's Bay' gets the link between terror and togetherness

Apple TV's series is among the most critically acclaimed television shows of the year. Rebecca Bratten Weiss says Catholics could learn a few things from it.

ByRebecca Bratten Weiss
Tom Hollander as Treasurer Hales, Woody Norman as King Richard II and Katherine Waterston as The Countess interact in director Paul Greengrass' "The Uprising," which opens in theaters Sept. 11.(Focus Features/Betina La Plante)

Does 'The Uprising' really want us to rise up?

The Peasants' Revolt of 1381 can inspire us to confront the problem of wealth disparity today. So why does Paul Greengrass' new movie feel more like a warning?

ByRobbie Wessel Kroeschell

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Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time: God's incomprehensible generosity

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Will 'nun girl summer' give way to another season of sisters?

Following a summer in which nuns dominated pop culture headlines and social media algorithms, one sister wonders if the trend leads to a much-needed season of synodality.

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Marla Asis is a sociologist with more than 30 years of research experience studying international migration and social transformation, with a special focus on Asia. (Courtesy of Maruja M.B. Asis)

Q&A with sociologist Marla Asis, on nuns reshaping migrant ministry across Asia

Sociologist Marla Asis discusses a Vatican-commissioned report documenting how Catholic sisters across Asia serve migrants, refugees and left-behind families with resourceful, holistic and distinctly Catholic care.

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In Kenya, religious women collaborate to care for aging sisters

The Care for Aging Sisters Association focuses on awareness, training, health insurance policy coverage, pension plans and collaboration with education institutions to transform care for aging  sisters.

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