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National Guard troops walk on Columbus Circle plaza in front of Union Station on Aug. 25, 2025. (NCR photo/James V. Grimaldi)
NCR Voices

How I am quietly countering Trump's DC takeover

Opinion

Tom Roberts says we need to do what we can to counter President Trump's inane noise. Along with protests and voting, he suggests occasional, quiet, understanding conversation with citizens who happen to wear military uniforms.

The Latest

Colombia's bishops condemn terrorist attacks that 'rocked the country'

OSV News

ICE detentions in immigration courts prompt alarm from Catholic advocates

Kate Scanlon, OSV News

Outside Newark's 1,100-bed detention center, a weekly prayer service for anxious families

Fiona Murphy, Religion News Service

Editors' Choice

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem Feb. 18, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (OSV News/Ronen Zvulun, Reuters)

In Focus

Editorial: Netanyahu's scorched-earth Gaza takeover plan is a moral crisis

A full Israeli occupation of Gaza would prolong siege, displacement and famine for Palestinians. For Israelis, it would mean a costly, endless military entanglement, heightened insecurity and deepening political and moral isolation.

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Most Read Stories

Pope Leo XIV opens the door to the papal apartment in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican May 11.

#1
Pope Leo to include housemates in Apostolic Palace

 Italian daily newspaper reports that Augustinian friars are expected to join Leo when he moves into the papal apartment so that he can continue the communal life of his religious order.

ByCamillo Barone
Vatican News

#2
Pope's brother, friends in the Chicago area will mark pontiff's 70th birthday

Pope Leo XIV turns 70 on Sept. 14 and some of his closest friends in the Chicago-area will mark the day with him in mind, quietly.

BySimone Orendain, OSV News
Pope Leo XIV gives his homily during Mass on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican June 27, 2025. The pope ordained 32 men from five continents during the Mass (CNS/Lola Gomez)
Guest Voices

#3
Pope Leo XIV's big opportunity: Reform church teachings on sexuality

Leo XIV begins his papacy with a historic opportunity to close the growing gap between what the church teaches about sex and gender, and the lived experiences and values of a majority of U.S. Catholics, writes Tom Fox.

ByThomas C. Fox

#4
After 800 years, St. Francis' 'Canticle of the Creatures' still offers radical vision

#5
The homeless being targeted in DC are the very vision of Jesus in our midst

Opinion

What will it take for American Catholics to embrace nuclear abolition?

How I am quietly countering Trump's DC takeover

NCR Voices

Dr. James Dobson's death ends a life, but not a legacy of lies and harm

"His radio show and books shaped generations and fueled the shame that drove queer people like me into conversion therapy," writes Timothy Schraeder Rodriguez.

Trump has naive views of US immigrant farmworkers

Guest Voices

'We have been preparing for this moment,' says Ken Butigan

Dan and Whitney Belprez of Two Sparrows Farms in Michigan include their four children in farm duties, like milking the cows. (Courtesy of Diocese of Lansing)

Rural Catholics can help the whole church appreciate land as a gift from God

Rural Catholic communities across the U.S. are experiencing a subtle yet significant shift toward environmental stewardship, which echo the moral teachings of Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si'.

Vatican

The Leo Chronicles: With two Leos now at the Vatican, does the church have everything it needs?
The Leo Chronicles

The Leo Chronicles: Two Leos at the Vatican

The Leo Chronicles: With two Leos now at the Vatican, does the church have everything it needs? 

Pope Leo

Pope marks Ukraine's Independence Day with prayers for peace

Marking Ukraine's Independence Day, Pope Leo XIV pledged his prayers for the Ukrainian people in a message to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and encouraged Catholics to respond to Ukrainian religious leaders' request for prayers for peace Aug. 24.

ByCindy Wooden, Catholic News Service
A woman walks past a destroyed home at the site of a Russian airstrike in the Ukrainian village of Sknyliv on the outskirts of Lviv, Aug. 21, 2025. (OSV News photo/Roman Baluk, Reuters)
Vatican News

Pope marks Ukraine's Independence Day with prayers for peace

Pope Leo prayed that God would console the Ukrainian people, "strengthen the injured and grant eternal rest to the departed." Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union on Aug. 24, 1991.

ByCindy Wooden, Catholic News Service
Pope Leo XIV opens the door to the papal apartment in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican May 11.

Pope Leo to include housemates in Apostolic Palace

 Italian daily newspaper reports that Augustinian friars are expected to join Leo when he moves into the papal apartment so that he can continue the communal life of his religious order.

ByCamillo Barone

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Vatican studying possible papal trip to Turkey, Lebanon

Pope calls for fasting and prayer for peace in Middle East and Ukraine as he returns to Vatican

Pope visits mountaintop Marian shrine

EarthBeat

This image and others were discovered Aug. 6 on a field camera by one of the more than 40 volunteer citizen-scientists who help monitor endangered jaguars and ocelots roaming in southern Arizona for the nonprofit University of Arizona Wild Cat Research and Conservation Center in Tucson, Arizona. (Courtesy of the University of Arizona Wild Cat Research and Conservation Center)

Activists decry new border wall's impact on wildlife

The Trump administration is muscling forward with plans to wall off a critical international wildlife corridor, building a barrier along a gap on the U.S.-Mexico border. Catholics join activists worrying about irreparable ecological harm.

Guest Voices

Trump has naive views of US immigrant farmworkers

"Making that American dream a reality involves seeing farmworkers for who they are, I believe: vital members of the body politic who reconnect all Americans to nature through the foods they eat," writes history professor Doug Sackman.

 
ByDoug Sackman, The Conversation
Dan and Whitney Belprez of Two Sparrows Farms in Michigan include their four children in farm duties, like milking the cows. (Courtesy of Diocese of Lansing)

Rural Catholics can help the whole church appreciate land as a gift from God

Rural Catholic communities across the U.S. are experiencing a subtle yet significant shift toward environmental stewardship, which echo the moral teachings of Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si'.

ByFredrick Ssesanga

20 years ago, Katrina hit New Orleans hard; today, the Crescent City is rising with faith and hope

Katrina's impact has been multifaceted on both the city and on the local church.

ByPeter Finney Jr., OSV News

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

With no treaty to control plastics, concern over harm to people and planet grows

Guest Voices

After 800 years, St. Francis' 'Canticle of the Creatures' still offers radical vision

Pope visits mountaintop Marian shrine

Culture

In Seth Worley's "Sketch," a father, son and daughter are reeling from the death of the children's mother. When the girl's sketchbook falls into a mysterious pond and her grief monster drawings come to life, the family must work together to vanquish the creatures that have been unleashed. (Angel Studios)

Seth Worley on directing 'Sketch' and empowering kids to make art out of pain

NCR spoke with Worley about his new movie 'Sketch' and the weighty responsibility of creating stories for children.

Resembling a Miraculous Medal, this pendant was most likely government propaganda aimed at American Catholics according to an explanatory sign at the "Fallout: Atoms for War & Peace" exhibit. (Mary Ann Cejka)

Mary on a mushroom cloud? 'Atoms for Peace' propaganda on display in NYC

The display is at the Poster House in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood until Sept. 7. The posters of the past are windows into history  — and often, uncanny oracles of the present.

ByMary Ann Cejka
The popular Netflix film 'KPop Demon Hunters' centers young women navigating a social spirituality, with themes of shame, vulnerability and acceptance. (Netflix)

'KPop Demon Hunters' and St. Teresa of Avila have a lot in common

While the popular Netflix film "KPop Demon Hunters" does contain the classic humor of anime-style teen media, the story centers young women navigating a social spirituality, with themes of shame, vulnerability and acceptance. 

ByAlli Bobzien
Pope Leo XIV gives a thumbs-up as he rides the popemobile around St. Peter's Square at the Vatican before his weekly general audience Aug. 6, 2025. (CNS/Vatican Media)

2 new books on Pope Leo look in 2 different directions

Kat Armas reviews the two latest books on the new pontiff: Matthew Bunson's Portrait of the First American Pope: Leo XIV and Christopher White's Pope Leo XIV: Inside the Conclave, Dawn of a New Papacy.

ByKat Armas

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

'The End of Quiet' offers a chilling vision of America

Book Reviews

After Gaza, a new Jewish narrative is needed, argues author Peter Beinart

How to recognize 'the things that make for peace'

Consolata Missionary Sisters and Fathers visit a family in Arvaikheer, Mongolia. (Courtesy of Francesca Allasia)
Columns

I was given the gift of Mongolia

A blessed upheaval happens in the missionary's heart if we allow ourselves to be touched by our new reality: the feeling of being upside down, of having to start over, while a deep sense of home grows in the heart.

Artwork says "God is Love."

The Life panelists describe their relationship with God in 1 word

"God is just as present in the silence as in the joy," writes one sister. "He is patient with me, gentle in my struggle and faithful even when I falter."

ByThe Life Panelists
Aeta people work on their farm in Floridablanca, Pampanga, Philippines. (Ricardo M. Guiao)

Sisters help Indigenous Aeta community in the Philippines uplift their lives

The Adorers of the Blood of Christ Sisters' relationship with the Indigenous Aeta people has grown, offering education and assistance in expanding the community's farming businesses.

By
Salesian sisters treat a baby at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Baromari, Sherpur, Bangladesh. According to recent data by UNICEF, more than 100,000 children in Bangladesh died before their fifth birthday in 2023, and almost two-thirds of these deaths occurred within the first 28 days of life. (GSR photo/Stephan Uttom Rozario)

Bangladeshi sisters work to reduce infant mortality in Indigenous communities

The Sisters of Mary Immaculate, who belong to the Salesian Family, operate six clinics in the remote areas of Bangladesh where people are poor and lack basic education.

ByStephan Uttom Rozario

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Transitions in religious life come with challenges and freedom

Colombia's 'rebel nun' has led decades of spiritual resistance against state violence

The Assumption reminds us our bodies are blessings