Pope Leo XIV, after reciting the Angelus prayer at the Vatican, appeals for peace hours after the U.S. bombed nuclear enrichment facilities in Iran June 22, 2025. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Vatican News

'Stop the tragedy of war,' pope says after US joins war against Iran

Vatican

Just hours after the United States bombed the sites of three nuclear-enrichment facilities in Iran, Pope Leo XVI called the situation in the Middle East "alarming" and said diplomacy was the only responsible way forward.

The Latest

Catholic experts see harms for low-income Americans in bill's Medicaid, SNAP cuts

Kimberley Heatherington, OSV Bews

Pope Leo: No tolerance for abuse of any kind in Catholic Church

Franklin Briceño, Associated Press

Charlotte Diocese reveals liturgical norms still under discussion as TLM limits proceed

Gina Christian, OSV News

Editors' Choice

Focus

Women pray the rosary before Mass in 2018 at Our Lady of Loretto Church in Hempstead, N.Y. (CNS/Gregory A. Shemitz)

In Focus

Study: Nearly half of US adults have ties to Catholicism, even if they don't go to church

One-fifth of U.S. people are Catholic, but nearly half of U.S. adults have some connection to the church, including cultural or former Catholics, or those connected to the church in other ways, a Pew study says.

Most Read Stories

#1
Pope Leo XIV will escape Rome's heat in July by going to papal villa

Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, confirmed Leo would be staying in the Villa Barberini, the former summer residence of the Vatican secretaries of state; Francis turned the former papal palace on the town's main square into a museum, which opened in 2016.

ByCarol Glatz, Catholic News Service
Then-Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Robert Barron addresses the 2015 World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.

#2
MSW apologizes to Bishop Barron, sort of

NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters admits he hurled a throwaway line at Bishop Robert Barron and he is a substantial person. "He deserves more than what reads like a Twitter rant," Winters writes.

ByMichael Sean Winters
Women pray the rosary before Mass in 2018 at Our Lady of Loretto Church in Hempstead, N.Y. (CNS/Gregory A. Shemitz)

#3
Study: Nearly half of US adults have ties to Catholicism, even if they don't go to church

One-fifth of U.S. people are Catholic, but nearly half of U.S. adults have some connection to the church, including cultural or former Catholics, or those connected to the church in other ways, a Pew study says.

ByPatricia Zapor

#4
7 decades of papacy illuminated in new book, 'Jesus Wept'

#5
New pope, new page: Peruvian designer leads makeover of Vatican website

#6
Pope Leo XIV faces major test over Opus Dei reforms

Opinion

Your letters: Working mothers, bishops, synodality and the womens' diaconate

Letters to the Editor

The Supreme Court and transgender rights: Did they get it right?

NCR Voices
Pope Francis celebrates a canonization Mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican in May 2022. (CNS/Paul Haring)

A church grows in Africa, but where are its saints?

For decades, African Catholics have felt their saints have been sidelined. The continent is home to some of the fastest-growing Catholic populations, yet very few modern Africans have been declared saints.

Freedom calling: On Corpus Christi and the feast of Juneteenth

US bishops are willing to whisper to members of Congress but not shout in the streets

Cardinal Cupich at Mass at White Sox stadium

Signs the political tide is turning on immigration

NCR Voices

"The flames of indignation that Trump has whipped up may end up consuming him and his signature campaign to deport millions of our immigrant brothers and sisters," writes NCR's Michael Sean Winters.
 

Vatican

Pope Leo XIV, after reciting the Angelus prayer at the Vatican, appeals for peace hours after the U.S. bombed nuclear enrichment facilities in Iran June 22, 2025. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Vatican News

'Stop the tragedy of war,' pope says after US joins war against Iran

Just hours after the United States bombed the sites of three nuclear-enrichment facilities in Iran, Pope Leo XVI called the situation in the Middle East "alarming" and said diplomacy was the only responsible way forward.

Pope Leo XIV flags AI impact on kids' intellectual and spiritual development

Pope Leo XIV warned Friday that artificial intelligence could negatively impact the intellectual, neurological and spiritual development of young people as he pressed one of the priorities of his young pontificate.

ByNicole Winfield, Associated Press

Innocent people are dying; peace must be sought, pope says

Renewing an appeal for peace, Leo underlined the importance of trying "at all costs to avoid the use of weapons and seek dialogue through diplomatic means" during a brief interview with the Italian state television station, RAI Uno.

ByCarol Glatz

Pope: Resist the 'temptation' of embracing weapons

The world must resist the allure of modern weapons which threaten to give conflicts a ferocity surpassing that of previous wars, Pope Leo XIV said.

ByJustin McLellan, Catholic News Service

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

What US adults think about Pope Leo XIV, according to a new AP-NORC poll

Pope Leo XIV will escape Rome's heat in July by going to papal villa

The Leo Chronicles: A Chicago message

Pope Leo XIV greets María Lía Zervino, a member of the council of the Laudato Si' Movement, and Lorna Gold, executive director, after his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican May 28, 2025. (OSV News photo/Simone Risoluti, Vatican Media/Catholic Press Photo)
Faith

What role will Pope Leo XIV play in the future of Laudato Si' ecological action?

The next phase in the life of Laudato Si', the decade-old encyclical on ecology, will not be defined by its author, Pope Francis, but instead will rely on others across the Catholic Church, including Pope Leo XIV.

A view of the interior of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican (Unsplash/Anna Church)

Vatican presents ongoing plans to further reduce carbon footprint

St. Peter's Basilica and some of its surrounding buildings are working to reduce their environmental impact by becoming more energy efficient and promoting sustainability, based on findings by a scientific committee.

ByCarol Glatz, Catholic News Service
Pope Leo XIV receives a gift during a meeting with bishops from Madagascar visiting Rome for the Holy Year 2025 at the Vatican June 16, 2025. (CNS/Vatican Media)

Pope urges Madagascar's bishops to protect creation as prophetic mission

Pope Leo XIV asked Madagascar's bishops to embrace the care of creation as a central part of their prophetic ministry, calling on them to safeguard the unique ecological beauty and fragility of their homeland.

ByJustin McLellan, Catholic News Service
A file photo shows smoke from the American Electric Power's coal-fired Mountaineer Power Plant along the banks of the Ohio River in New Haven, W.Va. (OSV News/Jim West)
Viewpoints

10 NCR editorials call for climate action from US bishops, ordinary Catholics and beyond

Over the years, NCR has consistently called for climate action — and applauded when it happens. Here are the 10 most recent editorials focused on the climate, environment and Catholic teaching on care for creation.

ByNCR Staff

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Augustinian sisters sustain environment and livelihoods in Mozambique

Politics

Protect life by protecting the oceans, faith groups tell UN conference

Delaware garden of plenty provides food to needy, thanks to Vincentians, parishes

Culture

Jesuit Fr. Timothy Kesicki, president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, speaks at an April 18 "Liturgy of Remembrance, Contrition and Hope" in Gaston Hall on the campus of Georgetown University in Washington. (CNS/Catholic Standard/Jaclyn Lippelmann)
Book Reviews

Acknowledging racism offers healing grace, Fordham theologian's book says

"Institutional reparation can become spiritual, not just material," Michael Mastromatteo writes in his review of Jeannine Hill Fletcher's Grace of the Ghosts: A Theology of Institutional Reparation.

Movie scene of boy with dragon

What's the point of remaking 'How to Train Your Dragon'?

t's the latest in a string of updated live-action films in the last few years. Does the trend indicate a storytelling deficit, a lust for money — or something deeper?

ByElizabeth Hamilton
Mon Mothma (Genevieve O'Reilly) in "Andor," exclusively on Disney+ (©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™)

Star Wars' 'Andor' takes on the American empire

In showing exactly what it takes to resist the ever-growing power of a fascist empire, Disney's "Andor" serves as both a prophetic example — and a desperate warning cry.

ByJohn Grosso
Pope Francis arrives in procession with other bishops during Mass at the Maquehue Airport near Temuco, Chile, Jan. 17, 2018. (CNS/Paul Haring)

7 decades of papacy illuminated in new book, 'Jesus Wept'

Tragedy and hope vie for thematic supremacy in Philip Shenon's newest book, Jesus Wept: Seven Popes and the Battle for the Soul of the Catholic Church, a highly readable, character-driven narrative following seven convulsive decades within the papacy, Vatican and global church.

ByJason Berry

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Mike Flanagan talks about Stephen King, the empathy of horror and 'The Life of Chuck'

2025's summer blockbusters are here, and the nostalgia is strong

'God in the Rubble': Ike Ndolo's musical activism for Gaza

(GSR graphic/Olivia Bardo; photo sources, from left: CNS/Paul Haring, CNS/Vatican Media, CNS file, OSV News/Reuters/Yara Nardi)

Q&A with 2 sister theologians on Francis' theological legacy: Part 2

Theologians Sr. Maeve Heaney and Sr. Maria Cimperman discuss the continuities between Pope Francis and his predecessors, his relationship with liberation theology, and their hopes for Pope Leo XIV.

A picture of a face — believed to be Jesus — appeared on a eucharistic host in the village of Vilakkannur, India, in 2013. (Lismy Parayil)
Columns

Eucharistic miracle in an Indian village invites us to see others as Christ sees them

The miraculous image of Jesus on the host at Vilakkanur seems to whisper a gentle message to all the faithful: "See me in your brothers and sisters. Treat them as you would treat me."

By
(GSR graphic/Olivia Bardo; Pope Francis photo from CNS/Reuters/Guglielmo Mangiapane)

Q&A with 2 sister theologians on Francis' theological legacy: Part 1

As theologians, Srs. Maeve Heaney and Maria Cimperman revisit Pope Francis' pastoral theology, the impact of his ecological encyclical Laudato Si', and his push for a synodal church.

ByChris Herlinger
At Operation Breakthrough in Kansas City, Mo., girls ages 6-8 spend time in a room devoted to encouraging stem education after school hours. Activities range from legos to cooking to teach math and science skills. (GSR photo/Soli Salgado)

Sisters began a day care for Kansas City's working poor. Now, it's a huge operation.

What Srs. Berta Sailer and Corita Bussanmas began as a day care 50 years ago has morphed into Operation Breakthrough, a nonprofit educating underprivileged kids of Kansas City, even after the sisters' deaths.

ByDan Stockman

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Protesting Trump, US sisters hail 'No Kings' events as 'beginning of a movement'

Atrocities of Auschwitz and Birkenau compel us to act with love

Against the tides of war: Vietnamese sisters recall the price of faith and survival