Giving Day:
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

Vatican

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.

The Latest

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

The Leo Chronicles

The Leo Chronicles: What makes a just war?

Pat Marrin

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

Matthew Lee, Associated Press

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

Protesters opposed to the death penalty are pictured in a file photo demonstrating outside a Georgia state prison for men in Jackson. (OSV News/Reuters/Tami Chappell)

#1
Justice Dept. adopts firing squads same day Pope Leo backs death penalty abolitionists

Leo expressed his support for Pope Francis' 2018 decision to change authoritative church teaching to say that the death penalty is "inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person." 

ByJustin McLellan

#2
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
Sarah Mullally, left, on March 25, 2026, and Pope Leo XIV on April 13, 2026 (RNS/AP)

#3
Canterbury archbishop to visit pope, a milestone for churches split on women clergy

The first female archbishop of Canterbury will stand shoulder to shoulder and kneel in prayer with the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, which still maintains a male-only priesthood.

ByCatherine Pepinster, Religion News Service

#4
Pope Leo: 'I cannot be in favor of war,' talks migration, same-sex blessings, in press conference

#5
At a Spanish convent, nuns breed rare giant rabbit

#6
Pope appoints two auxiliaries for Washington, accepts resignation of Auxiliary Bishop Campbell

Opinion

3 Marian paintings that frame the past year in church history

Guest Voices

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

Guest Voices
A pen-style illustration shows a person holding what appears to be a smartphone, as a gray bubble emits from the phone to the person's face, against an off-white background. (Unsplash/visuals)

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

Guest Voices

"The problem of social media is not merely religious but human, and because it is a human problem, the church, as an 'expert in humanity,' has ways of understanding and addressing it," writes Cathleen Kaveny.

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

Guest Voices

MAGA split isn't Catholic vs. Protestant: It's a struggle for the church's soul

Guest Voices
Jesuit Fr. Daniel Berrigan, then 85, poses in his New York City apartment in 2006. Berrigan died in 2016 at age 94. (CNS/Todd Plitt)

Podcast: 'War is not itself until it is total war,' Daniel Berrigan wrote

Guest Voices

On this week's episode of "The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast," John Dear reflects on the life, witness and teachings of legendary peacemaker and war resister Jesuit Fr. Daniel Berrigan.

Vatican

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. 

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

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

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Rome and Vatican City this week in a bid to ease rising tensions between President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV over U.S. policies, particularly the Iran war.

ByMatthew Lee, Associated Press
A view of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, March 11, 2020.

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

Vatican prosecutors on Thursday seemingly defied an appeals court order to turn over to the defense all the evidence gathered in the Vatican’s big financial trial, setting the stage for another clash in the long-running case.

ByNicole Winfield, Associated Press

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

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

Vatican News

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

View from the Vatican

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

EarthBeat

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.

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
Members of Apache Stronghold protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington Sept. 11, 2024. An Indigenous coalition filed an updated lawsuit in federal district court on April 22, 2026, their latest attempt to stop a land transfer including their sacred site at Oak Flat, Ariz., from destruction by a copper mining giant.

Indigenous coalition continues challenge to mining project on religious liberty grounds

An Indigenous coalition filed an updated lawsuit in federal district court in Phoenix on April 22, their latest attempt to block a land transfer including their sacred site at Oak Flat, Arizona, and protect the site from destruction by a copper mining giant.

ByKate Scanlon, OSV News
Franciscan Sr. Consuelo Peset Laudeña shows one of the Spanish Giant rabbits the cloistered community breeds at the Convent of St. Anthony of Padua in Central Spain. The rabbits are at risk of extinction. (Lissette Lemus)

At a Spanish convent, nuns breed rare giant rabbit

"We have to protect creation," Sr. Consuelo Peset Laudeña said. "We are Franciscans. St. Francis is the patron saint of veterinarians, and that is the source of the love we feel for the Spanish giant rabbit."

By

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Columns

Nature teaches me to celebrate Earth Day as my birthday

EcoVillage sustainable housing finds a place to build with Pittsburgh sisters

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Culture

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.

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
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
Longtime NCR contributor Jason Berry is pictured with Mississippi politician Charles Evers in 1971. "Conversations with Jason Berry," published by University Press of Mississippi as part of their Literary Conversations series, compiles 23 interviews in which Berry reflects on the forces that have shaped his work. (Courtesy of Jason Berry)

Jason Berry reflects on journalism career in new book of interviews

Jason Berry's goal in writing books about the Catholic clergy abuse scandal was to create "three-dimensional profiles, and a narrative line on people's lives in a clash with injustice and religious power."

ByJason Berry

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

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

Book Reviews

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

Punk rock meets Catholicism in 'Edie Arnold Is a Loser'

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.

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
Cupping hands
Columns

Learning about forgiveness in consecrated life

"In religious life, forgiveness has a concrete face: the sister I share my life with. That makes it more real, but also more demanding," writes Sr. Adriana Perez.

By

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Sisters transform lives of Kenyan children with disabilities

After leaving religious life, Vietnamese women find new vocations

Sisters provide healthcare in Bangladesh's coastal areas despite financial challenges