Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman greets a player before the Orange Bowl NCAA College Football Playoff semifinal game against Penn State, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP/Rebecca Blackwell)

Notre Dame's Marcus Freeman sets a first in FBS football national championship

News

Having led the Fighting Irish to victory in the Orange Bowl, Freeman will be the first Black head coach in the national championship game for Division I FBS football — an achievement more than 150 years in the making.

The Latest

Editors' Choice

Focus

A voting sign is posted in front of St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church, a polling location in Hyattsville, Md., on Election Day in 2024. (NCR photo/James Grimaldi)

In Focus

Editorial: The Catholic voter is NCR's Newsmaker of 2024

Given the importance the Catholic electorate has played in the discussion of the outcome of the 2024 national election, the National Catholic Reporter is naming the Catholic voter its Newsmaker of the Year.

Most Read Stories

Pope Francis greets Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego in the library of the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican on Oct. 10, 2024. (CNS/Vatican Media)
Vatican News

#1
Pope Francis taps Cardinal McElroy as Washington's new archbishop

Pope Francis taps Cardinal Robert McElroy as the new archbishop of Washington, D.C. McElroy of San Diego is expected to succeed retiring Cardinal Wilton Gregory, 77, who has led the Washington Archdiocese since 2019.

ByNCR Staff
Francis in wheelchair pictured from behind regarding the nativity scene.
Vatican News

#2
Vatican decides not to put keffiyeh back in Nativity

After receiving backlash from Jewish groups, the Vatican chose to not put the keffiyeh back in its original place on the manger of the Palestinian-made Nativity scene in the Paul VI Hall.

ByClaire Giangravé, Religion News Service
Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego, California, speaks to Catholic News Service before taking possession of his titular church, St. Frumentius, in Rome April 23, 2023. Every cardinal is assigned a titular church in Rome, making him a member of the Rome clergy. (CNS/Chris Warde-Jones)
NCR Voices

#3
Pope Francis picks an advocate for church reform for Washington, DC

Cardinal Robert McElroy is a scholar of American political history and its nexus with Catholic theology. The California native studied at Harvard and Stanford and brings pastoral experience at the San Diego border.

ByMichael Sean Winters

#4
Cardinal McElroy to face challenges in Trump's Washington

#5
A biopic and misuse by Christian nationalists reignite battle for Bonhoeffer

#6
Pope Francis names first ever woman to lead Vatican department

Opinion

The case against Opus Dei

Guest Voices

Christmas cards tell a story of the deeper dimensions of life

NCR Voices
Photos, clockwise from top center: Martin Sheen (CNS/Bob Roller); Bernard Lafayette (Wikimedia Commons); John Dear (Courtesy of John Dear); St. Joseph Sr. Helen Prejean (CNS/Paul Haring); Franciscan Fr. Richard Rohr (CNS/Courtesy of Franciscan Media)

Actor and activist Martin Sheen: The Gospel is personal to me

Listen: "If we don't take the Gospel personally, then it's impersonal. And if it's impersonal, then so what?" Award-winning actor Martin Sheen talks with John Dear on "The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast."

Editorial: McElroy is an antidote to a US capital and church riven by division

Editorial

Your letters: Priests in Palestine, the Catholic voter and Pelosi's stance on Vatican-China relations

Letters to the Editor
The Jouyssance Early Music Ensemble performs "Convidando esta la noche," the closing song for "Spirit Child." (NCR screenshot/YouTube/Matthew Ian Welch)

My next year's Christmas playlist will draw on wonders of Mexico's past

Guest Voices

I couldn't understand all the lyrics — the Spanish was centuries old, and my family lost our Indigenous language long ago. But the 17th-century songs evoked not just the birth of Christ, but the birth of Mexico itself.

Vatican

Francis, the comic strip: Brother Leo asks Francis about the treasures that can be found at the Vatican.
Francis, the comic strip

Francis, the comic strip: Not for sale

Francis, the comic strip: Brother Leo asks Francis about the treasures that can be found at the Vatican.

St. Peter's pictured in sunrise.
Vatican News

Pope appoints three US experts, two of them women, as dicastery members

Pope Francis has named three U.S. experts — two women and an abbot — to be members of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, a position once reserved for cardinals and bishops.

ByCarol Glatz, OSV News
Composite image of Vatican and Pride flags.
Vatican News

Vatican approves document allowing gay men to become priests in Italy

"In the formative process, when referring to homosexual tendencies, it’s also appropriate not to reduce discernment only to this aspect, but, as for every candidate, to grasp its meaning in the global framework of the young person’s personality," the document reads, adding that the goal is for the candidate to know himself and find harmony between his human and priestly vocation.
ByClaire Giangravé, Religion News Service
Pope seated in wheelchair, smiles at baby.
Vatican News

Best gift a child can receive is faith, pope says at baptisms

When children are baptized, their parents and the church are giving them the greatest gift ever: the gift of faith, Pope Francis said before baptizing 21 infants in the Sistine Chapel.

ByCarol Glatz, Catholic News Service

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Vatican News

Biden awards Pope Francis with Presidential Medal of Freedom

Vatican News

Media literacy needed to counter polarization, narrow thinking, pope says

Francis, the comic strip

Francis, the comic strip: Biden goes to Rome

The Swannanoa Christian Church holds its first Sunday service since Hurricane Helene.
Justice

Faith organizations have a complex relationship to disaster relief

Church volunteers feel called by Christ to help those impacted by Helene. For some, that means fulfilling a mandate to alleviate suffering. For others, it also means proselytizing.

Francis at window, hand raised in blessing.
Faith

Pope offers prayers for those impacted by LA wildfires

"I am praying for all of you," Pope Francis said, using his televised Sunday Angelus address to speak directly to the people impacted by the wildfires in Southern California.

ByCindy Wooden, Catholic News Service
Relics seen on altar.
Justice

U.S. sister killed in the Amazon honored at Rome 'new martyrs' shrine

A cross containing dirt stained with the blood of Sister Dorothy Stang, a U.S. member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur shot down in the Amazon 20 years ago, and one of her sweaters were placed Jan. 10 on the altar of the "new martyrs of the Americas" in Rome's Basilica of St. Bartholomew.

ByCindy Wooden, Catholic News Service
Benedictine Srs. Helen Mueting, left, and Barbara Smith harvest green beans from the Benedictine Sisters' garden in Atchison, Kansas, during the summer of 2024. (Courtesy of the Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica)
Viewpoints

When you want to call it quits, find hope for creation in your own small actions

In my work for ecology in my religious community, I can become depressed and want to give up. Why fight a losing battle? But to a small degree, we are acting with hope for creation, and we have seen some progress.

ByHelen Mueting

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Faith

Catholics rally to aid LA wildfire victims

Politics

Catholic climate policy advocates express concern about some Trump proposals

Politics

Climate clashes with Trump could await as Cardinal McElroy heads to DC

Culture

"Saint Catherine of Siena Receiving the Stigmata," an 1513-1515 painting by Domenico Beccafumi (J. Paul Getty Museum, public domain)
Book Reviews

Trans theology is subject of recently released book, 'Glorious Bodies'

In Colby Gordon's first book, Glorious Bodies: Trans Theology and Renaissance Literature," the author's political theology implicates transphobia as a crucial underpinning of colonialism, white supremacy and Christian hegemony.

"Saint Catherine of Siena Receiving the Stigmata," an 1513-1515 painting by Domenico Beccafumi (J. Paul Getty Museum, public domain)
Book Reviews

Trans theology is subject of recently released book, 'Glorious Bodies'

In Colby Gordon's first book, Glorious Bodies: Trans Theology and Renaissance Literature," the author's political theology implicates transphobia as a crucial underpinning of colonialism, white supremacy and Christian hegemony.

ByJeromiah Taylor
Black and white portrait of Borel standing in front of Notre Dame de Pari.

Notre Dame's first concert a 'moment of grace' for young composer of Marian choral piece

After 10 days of solemn reopening Masses, the cathedral's choir La Maîtrise Notre Dame de Paris gave its first sacred music concert in the renovated French Gothic structure Dec. 17. In the audience was a young French composer Lise Borel, who had brought her entire family with her. 

ByOSV News
"The Virgin and Child with Saints Dominic and Aurea, and Patriarchs and Prophets" by Duccio di Buoninsegna, ca. 1312-15 (Michael Centore)

Sienese exhibition at MET illuminates pivotal moment in history of religious painting

A current exhibition at the MET reveals a humanity that will shift people's perception of religious art — and with it their understanding of themselves.

ByMichael Centore

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Book Reviews

Mysticism is the 'fiery core and beating heart' of religion, new book says

In 2024, cinema was all about prayer — whether or not we noticed

Joint Ukrainian-Polish icon painting initiative goes where liturgists fear to tread

Canossian Sr. Grasy Rodrigues discusses a rape case with police personnel at Mandarem, Goa, western India. (Courtesy of Grasy Rodrigues)

Q&A with Sr. Grasy Rodrigues, award-winning anti-trafficking activist

In Goa, India, Canossian Sr. Grasy Rodrigues organizes human trafficking awareness campaigns in hotels, colleges, villages, schools and slums, as well as helps rehabilitate rescued trafficking victims.

U.S. President Joe Biden walks to deliver remarks on the election results and the upcoming presidential transition of power, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington Nov. 7, 2024. His speech took place the day after Republican President-elect Donald Trump was declared to have been elected the 47th president of the United States. (OSV News/Reuters/Elizabeth Frantz)

Monday Starter: St. Joseph Sisters ask Biden to end term with care for immigrants

Also, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton's shrine celebrates the 50th anniversary of her canonization. Network lobby will host a webinar strategizing on responses to Trump's first 100 days, as it names new interim executive director.

ByDan Stockman
Benedictine Srs. Helen Mueting, left, and Barbara Smith harvest green beans from the Benedictine Sisters' garden in Atchison, Kansas, during the summer of 2024. (Courtesy of the Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica)
Viewpoints

When you want to call it quits, find hope for creation in your own small actions

In my work for ecology in my religious community, I can become depressed and want to give up. Why fight a losing battle? But to a small degree, we are acting with hope for creation, and we have seen some progress.

ByHelen Mueting
Children are pictured at Santa Teresita del Niño Jesús, a church-run shelter for potentially trafficked children and unaccompanied minors trying to cross the Haiti-Dominican Republic border. (GSR photo/Chris Herlinger)

At Haitian-Dominican border, shelter protects children vulnerable to human trafficking

The Sisters of St. John the Evangelist combat human trafficking in Haiti through Santa Teresita del Niño Jesús, a shelter for potentially trafficked children and unaccompanied minors trying to cross the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

ByChris Herlinger

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Sisters help educate tribal girls through hostel service in Bangladesh

New year: A time of promise and fulfillment

Medical Mission Sisters in India embrace 'holistic healing mission'

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