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Sr. Vera Butler, a Sister of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, talks with a resident just returning to his New Orleans neighborhood six months after Hurricane Katrina. The Aug. 29, 2005, storm caused more than 1,392 deaths and caused untold damage in the Gulf Coast, particularly in New Orleans. (CNS/Nancy Wiechec)

After Katrina, I walked New Orleans' streets with sisters primed to rebuild the city

Opinion

Walking with two Presentation Sisters ministering months after Hurricane Katrina, NCR's Carol Zimmermann "was convinced the church here got it right about truly being present to those in need."

The Latest

Pope appoints Filipino-born Fr. Andres "Andy" Ligot as San Jose auxiliary bishop

OSV News

Wisconsin priest arrested for alleged teen sex meetup attempt

Gina Christian, OSV News

Hurricane Katrina 20th anniversary a call to racial equity, justice, say bishops

Gina Christian, OSV News

Editors' Choice

A woman prays in front of a makeshift memorial in Nashville, Tennessee, March 28, by the entrance of the Covenant School the day after a mass shooting. Three adults and three children, all 9 years old, were fatally shot at the school. (OSV News/USA Today Network via Reuters/Mark Zaleski)

In Focus

Editorial: If only someone did something about the murder of three children

Editorial: We are better than having to send our children — our children! — off to school each day, knowing that any person can walk in with an assault weapon and annihilate them.

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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
Pope Leo XIV greets visitors and pilgrims as he arrives in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican for his weekly general audience Aug. 20, 2025. (CNS/Lola Gomez)
NCR Voices

#2
Pope Leo is moving into the papal apartments. Don't overinterpret that decision.

We can hope that the move does not undo one of the signature achievements of Pope Francis: He broke up the court atmosphere that surrounded previous popes, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters. 

ByMichael Sean Winters
First responders block the crime scene following a shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis Aug. 27.

#3
Minneapolis gunman, firing through Catholic church windows, kills 2 children

 Shooting at the opening Mass for Annunciation Catholic School in south Minneapolis, also wounds 17. The assailant died by suicide behind the church, police said. 

ByCamillo Barone

#4
Cardinal Zuppi leads seven-hour prayer, naming every child killed in Holy Land war

#5
Activists decry new border wall's impact on wildlife

#6
After 800 years, St. Francis' 'Canticle of the Creatures' still offers radical vision

Opinion

After Katrina, I walked New Orleans' streets with sisters primed to rebuild the city

It's time for a better English translation of the liturgy

Guest Voices
A priest celebrates the Liturgy of the Eucharist. (Unsplash/Lennon Caranzo)

It's time for a better English translation of the liturgy

Guest Voices

The people of God deserve better than what they are hearing in church today, writes Fr. Thomas Reese.

Your letters: Haitian ministry, climate change and just war theory

Letters to the Editor

When tragedy is weaponized

Detail of the cover of the March 18, 2001, issue of the National Catholic Reporter (NCR file)

In 2001, NCR uncovered internal church reports alleging sexual exploitation of nuns

NCR Voices

NCR reporter John Allen and managing editor Pamela Schaeffer wrote a 2001 article on internal church reports saying some Catholic clergy were exploiting their authority to gain sexual favors from religious women.

Vatican

Vatican News

Pope to inaugurate Borgo Laudato Si' during Season of Creation

Two months after celebrating a new Mass "for the care of creation," Pope Leo XIV will return to Castel Gandolfo to formally inaugurate Borgo Laudato Si', a place of education, ecology and spirituality in the papal summer estate.

Pope pleads with Israel and Hamas to end the violence

"I plead for all hostages to be freed, a permanent ceasefire to be reached, the safe entry of humanitarian aid to be facilitated and humanitarian law to be fully respected," the pope said at the end of his weekly general audience Aug. 27.

ByCindy Wooden, Catholic News Service
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? 

ByPat Marrin
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

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Vatican News

Pope marks Ukraine's Independence Day with prayers for peace

Pope Leo to include housemates in Apostolic Palace

Vatican studying possible papal trip to Turkey, Lebanon

EarthBeat

Vatican official warns of AI’s hidden costs to environment, work and society

Bishop Paul Tighe, a top official at the Vatican's Dicastery for Culture and Education, urged caution around AI's environmental and social costs in his address to the Congress of the European Society for Catholic Theology at Trinity College.

Vatican News

Pope to inaugurate Borgo Laudato Si' during Season of Creation

Two months after celebrating a new Mass "for the care of creation," Pope Leo XIV will return to Castel Gandolfo to formally inaugurate Borgo Laudato Si', a place of education, ecology and spirituality in the papal summer estate.

ByCindy Wooden, Catholic News Service
A woman collects water for washing as floodwaters begin to recede in the aftermath of a 2019 cyclone near Beira, Mozambique. Many climate scientists have associated an increased number of natural disasters and their severity with climate change. (CNS/Reuters/Mike Hutchings)

World court ruling raises Catholic teaching on creation care to legal level

A new advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice says a healthy environment is a foundational human right and nations are required to act on climate change — or face consequences.

ByBrian Roewe
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.

ByAnita Snow

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Guest Voices

Trump has naive views of US immigrant farmworkers

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

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

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'

Julie Tragon, liturgist for the LCWR assembly, raises her hand in praise as CeCe Winans' song "Goodness of God" plays Aug. 15. (GSR photo/Dan Stockman)

Reporter's Notebook: The Spirit moves sisters, and this reporter, to tears

"LCWR assemblies are wonderful," writes national correspondent Dan Stockman, "but they don't usually change your outlook on life. This one, for me at least, did exactly that."

Refugees gather for aid distribution in White Nile State, Sudan, as Catholic sisters coordinate the delivery of essential supplies to families uprooted by war. (Courtesy of Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus)

In war-torn Sudan, Catholic sisters stay behind to serve the forgotten

Without one sister's help, "I would have died," said a 34-year-old mother and refugee receiving care from the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who have stayed in Sudan despite the brutal civil war.

ByDoreen Ajiambo
Sr. Rosario Obiniana speaks during her investiture as the 21st president of St. Scholastica's College, Manila, Philippines, on Sept. 12, 2024. Before assuming the presidency she headed St. Scholastica's College in Tacloban, a city in Central Philippines. (Courtesy of St. Scholastica's College Manila)

Q&A with Sr. Rosario Obiniana, educating the next generation of Filipino leaders

She is the 21st president of St. Scholastica's College Manila in the Philippines, a school renowned for educating Filipino women.

By

LCWR wrap-up: At annual assembly, US sister leaders spend 4 days on hope, surrender

At this year's LCWR annual assembly in Atlanta, U.S. sisters focused on hope, surrender and transformation.

ByDan Stockman

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

I was given the gift of Mongolia

The Life panelists describe their relationship with God in 1 word

Sisters help Indigenous Aeta community in the Philippines uplift their lives