A memorial is seen July 7 in Tuam, Ireland, where an excavation is underway for the remains of 796 babies at the site of a former mother-and-baby home run on behalf of the Irish government by the Catholic Sisters of Bon Secours. The home closed its doors in 1961. (OSV News/Reuters/Clodagh Kilcoyne)

Search of mass grave begins at site of closed Irish Catholic home for children

News

"The mentality," according to what Catherine Corless has heard people say, was "that these children were 'the sin of the mother.'

The Latest

Department of War quotes Bible on social media. Some link it to Christian nationalism.

Fiona André, Religion News Service

Pope Leo's Augustinian order elects an American superior to lead during papacy of American pope

Associated Press

Rochester bankruptcy settlement establishes $256 million settlement fund for abuse survivors

OSV News

Editors' Choice

Andrea Mattei, holding a cross, arrives with other members of the LGBTQ+ community to attend a vigil prayer in the Church of the Gesu' in central Rome, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

In Focus

'Semi-official' LGBTQ+ Jubilee marks watershed moment at Vatican for long-marginalized Catholics

"Every other group seemed to have a jubilee. During the conclave there was a jubilee for marching bands," Jesuit Fr. James Martin said. "So if marching bands can have a jubilee, why not LGBTQ Catholics?"

Support journalism that matters. 

Your donation to NCR keeps independent Vatican news accessible to all. 

Donate Now

Most Read Stories

Badly divided US bishops' conference needs unifying leadership
NCR Voices

#1
Badly divided US bishops' conference needs unifying leadership

Some are campaigning for Coakley, but NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters hopes the U.S. bishops select a president in the center, someone as publicly committed to fighting abortion as he is to defending immigrants.

ByMichael Sean Winters

#2
Pope's prayer for September: Respecting, protecting God's creation

In the video released by the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network, Leo recites his own prayer linking the 800th anniversary of the Canticle of Creation and the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis' encyclical "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home."

ByCindy Wooden, Catholic News Service
Pope Leo XIV delivers the homily during the canonization Mass of St. Carlo Acutis, a British-born Italian boy who became the first millennial to be made a Catholic saint, and St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sept. 7. (OSV News/Reuters/Guglielmo Mangiapane)

#3
Pope Leo's homily for the canonization Mass for Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati

The new saints "are an invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to squander our lives, but to direct them upwards and make them masterpieces," the pope said.

ByOSV News

#4
Over centuries, Catholic confession has evolved from public confession to private penance

#5
'Nonviolence isn't passive,' world-renowned theologian Stanley Hauerwas says

#6
'Semi-official' LGBTQ+ Jubilee marks watershed moment at Vatican for long-marginalized Catholics

Opinion

'Siempre Adelante': 10 years since Pope Francis' visit to Washington

Guest Voices

Trump is stirring too many pots at once

NCR Voices
Theologian Stanley Hauerwas participates in a symposium on Sept. 17, 2015, at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. (Wikimedia Commons/Benjamin Payne, CC BY-SA 4.0)

'Nonviolence isn't passive,' world-renowned theologian Stanley Hauerwas says

On this week's episode of "The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast," John Dear speaks with world-renowned theologian and ethicist Stanley Hauerwas.

Can Democrats learn to speak like normal people?

Over centuries, Catholic confession has evolved from public confession to private penance

Badly divided US bishops' conference needs unifying leadership

Badly divided US bishops' conference needs unifying leadership

NCR Voices

Some are campaigning for Coakley, but NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters hopes the U.S. bishops select a president in the center, someone as publicly committed to fighting abortion as he is to defending immigrants.

Vatican

Crying out to God can be sign of hope, not crisis of faith, pope says

Crying out to God during moments of extreme trial does not mark a crisis of faith but can reflect an act of total surrender to and enduring trust in God, Pope Leo XIV said.

Pope Leo XIV and Israeli President Isaac Herzog meet in the library of the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican Sept. 4, 2025. (CNS/Vatican Media)

'We need to pray a lot,' pope says after Israeli attack in Qatar

The "whole situation" in the Middle East "is very serious," Pope Leo XIV told reporters after Israel launched an attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar.

ByCindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

Traditionalists rejoice that top US cardinal allowed to celebrate old Latin Mass at St. Peter's

Traditionalist Catholics celebrated news Monday that the Vatican under Pope Leo XIV had given them permission to celebrate the old Latin Mass in St. Peter's Basilica during their upcoming pilgrimage.

ByNicole Winfield, Associated Press

Dialogue, joint aid show world religion is force for good, pope says

"When our dialogue is lived out in actions, a powerful message resounds: that peace, not conflict, is our most cherished dream, and that building this peace is a task we undertake together," Pope Leo XIV said in a message to an interreligious meeting in Bangladesh.

ByCindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

The Leo Chronicles

The Leo Chronicles: Binding ties

Vatican News

Holy See tells nations at UN to end threat of nuclear weapons, even as deterrence

Pope Leo's homily for the canonization Mass for Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati

EarthBeat

A protester holds a slogan as they join the global march to end fossil fuel on Sept. 15, 2023, in Quezon City, Philippines. (AP photo/Aaron Favila)

Catholic networks: Push for profits, power threaten peace, climate justice

The fossil fuel, weapons and financial industries thrive on instability and cronyism, and they obstruct efforts toward climate justice and peace, top leaders of three Catholic networks said.

Pope Leo XIV looks at a horse as he greets farm workers in the papal gardens in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Sept. 5, 2025. The pope inaugurated Borgo Laudato Si' the same day, officially 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)

Legacy of 'green' papal teaching takes root at Vatican ecology center

Pope Leo XIV on Friday, Sept. 5 will inaugurate a new center for integral ecology on Vatican-owned property south of Rome.

ByJustin McLellan
Pope Francis releases a dove outside the Basilica of St. Nicholas after meeting with the leaders of Christian churches in Bari, Italy, July 7, 2018, for an ecumenical day of prayer for peace in the Middle East. Daniel Horan writes that Pope Leo XIV is carrying the late Francis' message forward in his own teaching, urging all people of goodwill to address the war on creation in our hearts and world. (CNS/Paul Haring)

Considering war and peace during the Season of Creation

We might take the Season of Creation as an opportunity not only for an examination of conscience, but also a time to meditate on war and peace in the human community, the cosmic community of creation and even in our own hearts.

ByDaniel P. Horan

All creation gives praise: Seeking God — and wonder — in the cosmos

The fullness and intensity of the Lord of the cosmos — through whom, with whom, and in whom all that is, is — is made present to us under the appearance of simple bread and wine of the altar. Everything that exists serves as the backdrop for that which is most wonderful and surprising of all: God comes to us.

ByLeonard J. DeLorenzo, OSV News

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Guest Voices

Take a treeish point of view on this year's Season of Creation

Pope's prayer for September: Respecting, protecting God's creation

Minnesota family stewards God's land into a rustic retreat for Catholic renewal

Culture

Morgan Spector plays George Russell, an amalgam of Cornelius Vanderbilt and his grandson William in HBO's "The Gilded Age." (HBO/Karolina Wojtasik)

'The Gilded Age' asks us to sympathize with the class that's destroying us

HBO's popular costume drama series "The Gilded Age" asks us to sympathize with people much like those currently running our country into the ground, writes Jim McDermott.

In her new book, Struck Down, Not Destroyed: Keeping the Faith as a Vatican Reporter, America magazine's Colleen Dulle opens up about her own disillusionment with the institutional church throughout her tenure as a reporter – and why and how she's stayed Catholic despite the often devastating disappointments. (Chris Geerdes)
Book Reviews

Q&A with Colleen Dulle on keeping the faith when the church disappoints

In her new book, Colleen Dulle opens up about her disillusionment with the institutional church throughout her tenure as a Vatican reporter — and why and how she has stayed Catholic despite devastating disappointments.

ByOlivia Bardo

In 2025, the 'immortal' Henrietta Lacks is still receiving her due

An October event in Maryland will help cement her remembrance in Maryland medicine—and begin a new chapter of family advocacy.

ByNate Tinner-Williams, Black Catholic Messenger
Mia Threapleton in Wes Anderson’s "The Phoenician Scheme." When her father lures Liesl out of the convent to prepare her to take over the family business, father and daughter must reckon with their wildly opposing views of life, relationships and morality. (Universal Pictures)

The many faces of the movie nun

Cinema tends to reduce female characters to stereotypes, and nuns are not exempt. While some recent films (and a TV show) have upended the stereotype, there are still nun stories we aren't telling.

ByRebecca Bratten Weiss

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

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

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

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

Students Duy Do, David Israel and Leila Jones set up for a podcast as Marianite of Holy Cross Sr. Judith Gomila waits to be interviewed at Loyola University New Orleans on July 23, 2024. (Claire Gallagher)
Columns

A podcast was a different kind of border for this 84-year-old sister to cross

Sr. Judith Gomila made a foray into podcasting with college students, and despite being from different generations, they connected deeply, learning from one another while technicians tinkered with equipment.

The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary administer and raise funding for the Inclusive Development Program, which spearheads environmental protection and climate change mitigation in Zambia. (Courtesy of Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary)

Zambian sisters lament funding hit to African climate programs after USAID shutdown

As climate change resilience programs struggle for funding, Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Sr. Yvonne Nwila worries that the poor in Zambia will suffer more from climate-change-induced food insecurity.

ByTawanda Karombo
From left, Scalabrinian Sr. Carla Luisa Frey Bamberg, Christopher Joseph and Blessed Bucon, colleagues from the Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, after a workshop in Luanda, Angola (Courtesy of Carla Luisa Frey Bamberg)

Q&A with Sr. Carla Luisa Frey Bamberg, tackling human trafficking in Angola

Scalabrinian Sr. Carla Luisa Frey Bamberg is on the front lines of Africa's trafficking crisis, as leader of the Angolan church's Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People.

ByMarko Phiri
Shooting 1 Families and loved ones reunite following a shooting at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis Aug. 27, 2025. A gunman opened fire with a rifle into the church during Mass for Annunciation School's first week of classes, killing two children and wounding 21 people, most of them children. (OSV News/Reuters/Ben Brewer)

Monday Starter: In the wake of shootings, US sisters say, 'We must act'

Plus, LCWR plans pilgrimage to El Salvador and Honduras; sisters named among Lumen Christi award finalists; and the International Union of Superiors General will hold theological forum and Laudato Si' livestream.

ByChris Herlinger

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Feast of the Nativity of Mary celebrates dignity of the girl child in India

Nigerian Catholic nuns fight climate change with faith, farming and trees

Q&A with Sr. Seby Thomas on expressing social challenges through short films