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Pope Leo doesn't take sides, but teases his loyalty in Villanova-Notre Dame matchup

Justin McLellan

A man holds up a sign as protesters gather in Minneapolis Jan. 8, 2026, at the scene of the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good a day earlier by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. (OSV News/Reuters/Tim Evans)

Spirituality

In Focus

US bishops are at a crossroads as they head into their fall assembly

Following the lead of Pope Leo is the obvious way forward for the U.S. bishops, Michael Sean Winters writes, but he fears the forces of resistance are still in control.

Michael Sean Winters

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Most Read Stories

Archbishop Jeffrey Grob concelebrates Mass with the presbyterate during his installation as the 12th archbishop of the Milwaukee Archdiocese Jan. 14, 2025. (OSV News/Catholic Herald/Andy Gilicinski)

#1
Milwaukee archbishop who prayed with Trump apologizes, says bishops were 'manipulated'

Milwaukee Archbishop Jeffrey Grob expressed "sincere regret" for participating in what he said was "a political photo opportunity" orchestrated by the White House.

ByJeromiah Taylor

Marine One, carrying President Donald Trump, lifts off from the South Lawn at the White House Oct. 22, 2026, in Washington. (AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

#2
White House names 12 bishops who prayed with Trump, defends president's record

The White House identified the 12 Catholic bishops who met and prayed with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office less than two weeks before the midterm elections, while defending his record with Catholic Americans.

ByCamillo Barone

Sr. Nancy Sylvester, of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, asks U.S. Vice President JD Vance a question about immigration during an Oct. 15, 2026, town hall event n Flat Rock, Michigan that aired on CBS Oct. 17. (OSV News screenshot/CBS News YouTube)

#3
My encounter with JD Vance: Can being attentive to a graced moment create change?

Sometimes you find yourself in a situation that turns into a more significant moment than you ever expected. Sr. Nancy Sylvester recalls her exchange with the vice president at a town hall, and what happened next.

BySr. Nancy Sylvester

#4
Editorial: Bishops' prayer for Trump may have been sincere. For Trump, it was pure politics.

#5
Priest in Ecuador, 53, struck and killed by falling crucifix during Mass

#6
In a papal first, Leo votes in US midterms

Opinion

John Dear

Podcast: Pope Leo XIV is calling us to peace, says professor Ken Butigan

Sr. Nancy Sylvester

My encounter with JD Vance: Can being attentive to a graced moment create change?

Michael Sean Winters

US bishops are at a crossroads as they head into their fall assembly

NCR Voices

Following the lead of Pope Leo is the obvious way forward for the U.S. bishops, Michael Sean Winters writes, but he fears the forces of resistance are still in control.

John Dear

Podcast: 'Action is the antidote to a sense of helplessness,' says anti-nuclear leader

John Dolan

Bishop John Dolan: What it means to be human in the age of AI

NCR Staff

Your letters: Synodality in the seminary, Sheen relics, abortion and empathy

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the editor: NCR readers respond to stories about synodal priestly formation, the relics of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, abortion and empathy.

Vatican

Pope Leo XIV offers All Souls' Day Mass in cemetery, encouraging Catholics to pray for the dead

Surrounded by the tombs and monuments of Rome's largest cemetery, Pope Leo XIV offered All Souls' Day Mass Nov. 2, saying prayer for the dead helps lead our loved ones toward full communion with the Lord.

Pope Leo's Latin America trip is a high-stakes homecoming

ByJustin McLellan

ByClaire Giangravé, Religion News Service

Pope Leo doesn't take sides, but teases his loyalty in Villanova-Notre Dame matchup

Pope Leo XIV appears to have fully bounced back from the lung operation that sent him to the hospital less than three weeks ago: On the stage of the Vatican's Paul VI Audience Hall, he dribbled a basketball to the delight of 7,000 fans of Villanova University and the University of Notre Dame.

ByJustin McLellan

Pope Paul VI rides in a Mercedes-Benz 300 d Pullman Landaulet (W189) on his return to Rome from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Jordan in 1964. (RNS/©Mercedes-Benz AG)

Vatican Museum exhibit celebrates almost a century of popemobiles

"The exhibition offers an opportunity to reflect on the remarkable advances in automotive technology, as well as the deeper significance of the journeys undertaken by the Successors of Peter," Pope Leo said in a speech.

In a papal first, Leo votes in US midterms

Villanova and Notre Dame bring college basketball to Rome. Dinner is on the line.

Pope Leo XIV's Argentina visit brings renewed scrutiny of clergy abuse scandals

EarthBeat

The people who participated in the Sept. 26 walk in San Francisco Angulo, El Salvador, called for the intercession of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals, ecology and the environment. (Lissette Lemus)

Religious orders in El Salvador seek to protect community from mega-prison’s pollution

At event tied to Season of Creation, Catholic sisters and Franciscan friars in El Salvador support a rural community fighting water contamination and a landfill near CECOT, which can hold up to 40,000 inmates.

Rhina Guidos

At Cadillac Mountain, a missing Wabanaki marker and the fight over what national parks should tell

Some of the signs removed from Acadia were developed over years of partnerships with organizations including Friends of Acadia, the Schoodic Institute and the Native Plant Trust — with consultation from citizens of the Wabanaki Nations.

ByJessie Wardarski, Associated Press

Carolina wren (Wikimedia Commons/Melissa McMasters)

Soul Seeing

In praise of a wild, unfettered God

There is beauty in the fact that we do not serve a God who grants us wishes like a genie, writes Alli Bobzien. Our God is wild and free.

ByAlli Bobzien

The Teton mountains reflect on Oxbow Bend in Grand Teton National Park in Moran, Wyoming, Aug. 22, 2025. (AP photo/Amber Baesler, File)

In midterms, Catholic voters must keep national parks in mind

Attacks on the National Park Service are just tip of the iceberg of ecological sins, and a specifically Catholic issue.

ByStephanie J. Peddicord

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

NCR Voices

When it comes to creation, we need to be more pious

Sustainability award bearing Pope Leo's name spotlights his own environmental record

BySheila Hodges , Black Catholic Messenger

President Trump is both attacking green energy and helping it

Culture

Vanessa Redgrave played Sr. Jeanne des Anges in Ken Russell's 1971 film "The Devils," now restored and rereleased. (Warner Bros.)

Mark Kermode on restoration of 'The Devils' and the director's Catholicism

The movie, based on a 1951 Aldous Huxley book, met intense controversy, and it was heavily edited and censored. Now the full version is in theaters, tackling topics of power and corruption between church and state.

Zachary Lee

A woman prays in front of a glass-encased reliquary containing a bone from the arm of St. Jude the Apostle at St. Jude Church in Mastic Beach, N.Y., Nov. 27, 2023. (OSV News/Gregory A. Shemitz)

Book Reviews

Catholicism's haunting strangeness warrants celebration, says author

"These things are not just sideshow attractions," said W. Tyler Allen, who wrote A Catechism of the Strange. "They're not just cool little things that make Catholicism creepy and fun. They all point back to the soul."

ByEmma Cieslik

Descendants and Jesuits find a path toward healing through 'What We Inherit'

Bringing long-overlooked stories of enslavement to light, the traveling exhibit "What We Inherit: Truth, Repair, and a Promise to the Future" challenges visitors to reckon with history while embracing the possibility of healing, accountability, and a more hopeful future.

A panel on "Emergency" by Rebecca Solnit hangs on the book shelves of the English and American literature Shakespeare and Co. bookstore, in Paris, France, Nov. 05, 2020. (AP photo/Francois Mori)

Book Reviews

Rebecca Solnit says an old world is dying

Sonit's latest book, The Beginning Comes After the End, probes the scale of change through a trek into moral darkness that ends in a song of hope.

ByJason Berry

Catholic Universities Art Triennial exhibit brings imaginative empathy to Boston

Actor Chris Pratt joins Pope Leo in new documentary about St. Peter's long-lost remains

Rome reporter's new memoir sheds light on why Vatican reform remains tricky

People vote at a church in Detroit during the U.S. presidential election on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024. (OSV News/Reuters/Emily Elconin)

From midterm elections onward, let us give up the word 'hate'

Soon the U.S. midterm elections will be over. The intense campaigning we are experiencing in the coveted Michigan Senate seat will grind to a halt. Angry, negative ads that cast suspicion will cease. But will the hate?

Sr. Nancy Sylvester

An image of St. Toribio Romo González, center, with St. John Paul II above him, is seen among other images laid out on a table at the St. Toribio Romo Church May 6 in the border city of Tijuana, Mexico. (CNS/David Maung)

Passing time with the saints: Who would you spend your day with?

The Life - For All Saints' Day, our panelists chose to spend a day with a saint. Who they chose and what they did yielded some delightful surprises. What saint would you choose?

ByThe Life Panelists

Pilgrims heading to the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida pass a painting of Jesus along the Presidente Dutra Highway in São José dos Campos, Brazil, Oct. 9, 2026. (OSV News/Reuters/Roosevelt Cassio)