A rainbow appears in the distance near an angel grave marker following a thunderstorm at St. Patrick Catholic Cemetery in Neenah, Wisconsin. (CNS/The Compass/Brad Birkholz)

Catholic Church slowly takes up mental health ministry to respond to growing needs

Opinion

Phoenix Bishop John Dolan lost three siblings and an in-law to suicide and has spoken out about the church's need to accompany those suffering from mental illness and their families.

The Latest

'Visitation' moment leads to joint gathering of congregations

Indian nuns regain voting right after legal battle

UCA News
Guest Voices

Pope Leo's handling of Trump reveals power of the truth

Enzo Del Brocco

Editors' Choice

Pope Leo XIV waves to those gathered in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican during his weekly general audience May 6, 2026. (CNS/Vatican Media)

In Focus

Mild-mannered Pope Leo prioritizes a prophetic message of unity and peace

In his first year, Pope Leo XIV has sought to turn unity into the foundation for the church's advocacy on issues of peace and justice.

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Most Read Stories

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)

#1
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
Pope Leo XIV waves as he arrives to lead his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican April 29, 2026. (GSR graphic/Olivia Bardo; OSV News photo/Reuters/Remo Casilli)

#2
After one year, nuns see Pope Leo XIV advancing justice in his own way

A year into Leo XIV's papacy, Catholic sisters around the world are celebrating how the first U.S.-born pope is continuing to focus on issues near and dear to them.

ByChris Herlinger, Dan Stockman, Rhina Guidos, Doreen Ajiambo

#3
Leo XIV is the US church's latest gift to Rome

The contribution of American Catholics to the development of the Holy See's ideas are noteworthy: religious liberty and organized labor, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.

ByMichael Sean Winters

#4
Pope Leo XIV comforts 13 priests from southern Lebanon with a surprise video call from Rome

#5
Vatican criticizes conversion therapy, features gay Catholic testimony in 'historic' report

Opinion

Iran conflict shows there is no such thing as a distant war — for anyone

Guest Voices

Pope Leo's handling of Trump reveals power of the truth

Guest Voices
Jesuit Fr. Walter Ciszek, center, is welcomed home in a Mass of Thanksgiving in St. Casimir Catholic Church, Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, following his release from the former Soviet Union, where he was imprisoned and detained for more than 20 years. (Courtesy of Ciszek Society)

What Fr. Walter Ciszek's cause teaches us about sainthood

Guest Voices

"The church does not canonize based on what seems likely or inspiring," writes Fr. Augustine Judd. "She proceeds with great care, relying on what can be clearly established and demonstrated with moral certainty."

Leo's Augustinian roots are what the church needs today

NCR Voices

3 Marian paintings that frame the past year in church history

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.

Vatican

Vatican continues dialogue with German bishops regarding blessing for same-sex couples, cardinal says

Speaking to journalists in Rome May 6, Cardinal Pietro Parolin was asked if the Vatican intends to impose sanctions on the German bishops after the continued promotion of a handbook for blessing same-sex couples.

Vatican sending new signals of openness but limitations in outreach to LGBTQ+ Catholics

The Vatican is sending new signals about how it intends to minister to LGBTQ+ Catholics in the Pope Leo XIV era, with signs of openness and limitations after Pope Francis ushered in a notable welcome during his 12-year pontificate.

ByNicole Winfield, Associated Press

Pope Leo thanks Canary Islands as hantavirus-stricken ship arrives in Tenerife

The pope, who is set to visit Spain in June, said he was looking forward "to seeing all of you next month during my visit to the islands."

ByJunno Arocho Esteves, OSV News
Pope Leo XIV meets with representatives of the world of culture at the Leon XIV Campus of the National University in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, April 21, 2026, on the ninth day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. (AP/Andrew Medichini, file)

A year in, what's on Pope Leo XIV's to-do list? And what has he done so far?

Leo has made some significant decisions so far, and has several challenges looming.

ByNicole Winfield, Associated Press

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Pope Leo marks first anniversary with Marian devotion and prayers for peace

Mild-mannered Pope Leo prioritizes a prophetic message of unity and peace

Pope Leo XIV expected in France this September for Lourdes, Paris visit

EarthBeat

Joseph Sikulu, an activist from Tuvalu, talks during a conference aimed at transitioning away from fossil fuels, April 29, 2026, in Santa Marta, Colombia. (AP photo/Ivan Valencia)

Catholics see promise in climate talks among nations on fossil fuel phaseout

After conversations among nearly 60 nations on ways to wean the world from fossil fuels, Catholics who attended the first-of-its-kind summit in Colombia left encouraged by the promise the conversations represented.

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)

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. 

ByChelsea Jordan King

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

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

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

Indigenous coalition continues challenge to mining project on religious liberty grounds

At a Spanish convent, nuns breed rare giant rabbit

Culture

"Mother" by Joaquín Sorolla, 1895 (Artvee)

For Mother's Day, a new book redeems the holy labor of motherhood

In Love Like a Mother, Elizabeth Berget claims that biblical texts, Christian history, art and women's lived experience are saturated with maternal imagery for God. 

The American impressionist Mary Cassatt refused to idealize the repetitive, underappreciated labor of childcare. In "The Boating Party," the mother's fatigued expression may feel familiar to viewers who are caregivers. (National Gallery of Art)

Exhibit illustrates Mary Cassatt's domestic feminism

The American impressionist is known for domestic themes in both public and private life, but in her depictions, like in the women she paints, there is more than first meets the eye.

ByJean P. Kelly
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.

ByKathryn Post, Religion News Service
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 CASE YOU MISSED IT

Praying with the spiritual masterwork of Pharoah Sanders

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

Jason Berry reflects on journalism career in new book of interviews

Sr. Connie Callista, a member of the Holy Cross Sisters of Chavanod, works with children doing indoor training at Trilokpuri, an enclave in East Delhi, India. (Lissy Maruthanakuzhy)

Q&A with Sr. Connie Callista, helping children grow through art

An NGO program uses stage performance and storytelling to help children gain confidence and advocacy skills to address inequity, marginalization, climate change and social injustice.

Dominican Sr. Carol Gilbert, longtime anti-nuclear activist, is seen on screens at the United Nations General Assembly Hall on May 1, 2026, delivering prepared remarks on the need to support the 1970 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons on behalf of 109 religious groups. (GSR photo/Chris Herlinger)

Nuns join calls for renewed support for anti-nuclear treaty

More than a dozen sister congregations signed onto a public statement to "reaffirm the spirit" of the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty as an "urgent and binding commitment."

ByChris Herlinger
Silhouette of a woman (GSR graphic/Olivia Bardo)

Inside South Africa's femicide crisis, nuns step in to protect vulnerable girls

Catholic sisters in South Africa are protecting girls, accompanying survivors and challenging the culture of violence that turns homes into danger zones.

ByDoreen Ajiambo
A child on a man's shoulders holds an Indian flag in Attari, Punjab, India, Feb. 13, 2025. (Unsplash/Raju Kumar)
Columns

The changing face of India

"Who has infiltrated our freedom?" writes Sr. Dorothy Fernandes. "Is this the same country into which I was born and grew up with the values of Jesus?"  

By

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Sixth Sunday of Easter: A people marked by joy

After one year, nuns see Pope Leo XIV advancing justice in his own way

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