Front-row Vatican coverage:
Patricia Medina cleans her flood-damaged apartment along the 1900 block of South 51st Court in Cicero, Illinois, on July 3, 2023. After the flooding, longtime residents of Cicero and Berwyn started a grassroots community organizing group to respond to the area's environmental concerns. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune/TNS)

Chicago Catholics start environmental justice group in response to flooding, pollution

EarthBeat

Delia Barajas and Carmen Jimenez cite Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si' as inspiration to take action and start Voces Fieles Comunitarias Contra la Opresión (Faithful Community Voices Against Oppression).

The Latest

Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors' new president 'pioneer in his field,' French lawyer says

OSV News

How NYC faith-based food banks, shelters are adapting to ICE fear

Fiona Murphy, Religion News Service

Pope celebrates Mass in parish church with special ties to his Augustinian order

Nicole Winfield, Silvia Stellacci, Associated Press

Editors' Choice

Pope Leo XIV waves after arriving in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, July 6, 2025. (OSV News/CPP/Alessia Giuliani)

In Focus

James Carville says Pope Leo XIV's election brought 'immense amount of joy'

I have, after 80 years, felt something that I never thought I would in this century as a Roman Catholic. I feel optimistic. I feel renewed. I feel bright about the future of the Catholic Church.

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Most Read Stories

Pope Leo XIV addresses the Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod during a meeting at the Vatican on June 26, 2025. (CNS/Vatican Media)
NCR Voices

#1
New Vatican document calls Catholics to move forward together for synodality

The Vatican's new document on implementing synodality acknowledges the energy and enthusiasm experienced by those who have already engaged in the synodal process, but it invites all of us to move forward.

ByMichael Sean Winters
Phil Marcin is shown baptizing his grandson Declan, held by his mom, Maggie and alongside his dad, Phillip, in 2021. (Courtesy of Phil and Linda Marcin)

#2
CORPUS, group for married priests, disbands after 50 years

CORPUS is disbanding, citing the advanced age of its membership and lack of new members. The reform group, an "national association for an inclusive priesthood," officially closed at the end of December 2024.

ByHeidi Schlumpf

#3
Vicar known for LGBTQ+ ministry named Oregon bishop

At age 47, Bishop-designate Thomas Hennen will be the youngest bishop leading a U.S. diocese. Hennen's ministry to LGBTQ+ people has seen mixed reactions about his pastoral approach.

ByAleja Hertzler-McCain, Religion News Service

#4
Gay blessings 'will remain' under Pope Leo, Vatican doctrine chief says

#5
The new Mass 'for the care of creation' is a mixed bag

#6
Pope prays for conversion of those resisting climate action at new Mass

Opinion

Filling in our portrait of Pope Leo XIV, looking for clues to the future

NCR Voices

'Humanity and weapons cannot coexist,' peace activist Art Laffin says

Pope Leo XIV waves after arriving in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, July 6, 2025. (OSV News/CPP/Alessia Giuliani)

James Carville says Pope Leo XIV's election brought 'immense amount of joy'

Guest Voices

I have, after 80 years, felt something that I never thought I would in this century as a Roman Catholic. I feel optimistic. I feel renewed. I feel bright about the future of the Catholic Church.

IRS decision on Johnson Amendment: Another culture war fight signifying nothing

NCR Voices

Should Catholics use ChatGPT? A few things to consider

Guest Voices
Pope Leo XIV holds his crosier as he celebrates Mass for the Care of Creation on the grounds of the Borgo Laudato Si' ecology center in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, July 9, 2025. (CNS/Cristian Gennari, pool)

The new Mass 'for the care of creation' is a mixed bag

NCR Voices

I wonder whether the framing of the liturgy itself in instrumentalizing terms may unintentionally reinscribe problematic views of the relationship between the human and more-than-human world.

Vatican

Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors' new president 'pioneer in his field,' French lawyer says

Archbishop Thibault Verny of Chambéry, France, made international headlines as he succeeded one of the most acclaimed figures of church safeguarding in the world, Cardinal Sean O'Malley — retired archbishop of Boston — in his role as president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. 

Pope celebrates Mass in parish church with special ties to his Augustinian order

Pope Leo XIV called Sunday for "merciful compassion" for the world's poor, victims of tyranny and wars, as he celebrated Mass in a parish church that has special spiritual ties to Leo's own Augustinian religious order

ByNicole Winfield, Silvia Stellacci, Associated Press
Pope Leo

AI must have ethical management, regulation protecting human person, pope says

The message was read aloud by Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, the Vatican representative to U.N. agencies in Geneva, at the AI for Good Summit 2025 being held July 8-11 in Geneva.

ByCarol Glatz, Catholic News Service
Vatican News

Ukraine's Zelenskyy meets with Pope Leo XIV. Both propose the Vatican as site for peace talks.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday and thanked him for the Vatican's efforts to help return children taken by Russia. Both he and Leo suggested the Vatican could host peace talks to end the war.

ByGregorio Borgia, Associated Press

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

The Leo Chronicles: Flag

Vatican News

After 12 years, locals welcome pope back to his summer home

Safeguarding remains a top priority with new appointment, US cardinal says

Patricia Medina cleans her flood-damaged apartment along the 1900 block of South 51st Court in Cicero, Illinois, on July 3, 2023. After the flooding, longtime residents of Cicero and Berwyn started a grassroots community organizing group to respond to the area's environmental concerns. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune/TNS)

Chicago Catholics start environmental justice group in response to flooding, pollution

Delia Barajas and Carmen Jimenez cite Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si' as inspiration to take action and start Voces Fieles Comunitarias Contra la Opresión (Faithful Community Voices Against Oppression).

Pope prays for conversion of those resisting climate action at new Mass

"We must pray for the conversion of many people, inside and outside of the church, who still do not recognize the urgency of caring for our common home," Pope Leo XIV said while celebrating a new formulary of the Mass "for the care of creation."

ByJustin McLellan, Catholic News Service
A 70 kilowatt solar array sits atop of Sacred Heart Catholic School, in Omaha. To help cover a portion of the costs, the Catholic school intends to apply for a federal clean energy tax credit. (Afton Energy)
Politics

Catholic solar projects in peril as GOP bill slashes clean energy tax credits

For religious organizations, loss of the rebates jeopardizes financing options for clean energy projects and is expected to result in millions of dollars less in energy cost savings that could otherwise be reinvested in other church ministries and programs.

ByBrian Roewe

In Texas region prone to catastrophic floods, questions grow about lack of warning

Water rose fast along the Guadalupe River, causing 68 deaths as of Sunday afternoon. Local officials said they couldn’t have seen it coming.

ByPaul Cobler, The Texas Tribune

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Death toll in Texas flash floods nears 70 as sheriff says 11 campers remain missing

San Antonio Archdiocese asks for prayers after dozens perish in severe flooding in Texas

5 things I'm doing to raise creation-keepers in my home

Culture

"Jurassic World Rebirth" is a science fiction tale about the hubris of humanity and our attempts to wrest control of nature away from God. It's also great cinema. (Universal Pictures)

Mad science, survival and wonder: The 'Jurassic' franchise comes home

"Jurassic World Rebirth" is a science fiction tale about the hubris of humanity and our attempts to wrest control of nature away from God. It's also great cinema.

Benicio del Toro plays businessman Zsa-zsa Korda, and Mia Threapleton plays his estranged daughter, a nun named Liesl, in Wes Anderson's "The Phoenician Scheme." (TPS Productions)

Wes Anderson gets spiritual with 'The Phoenician Scheme'

Wes Anderson's new film reminds us that one of life's greatest miracles is the ability for the human heart to change.

ByZachary Lee
In this file photo dated Sept. 7, 1988, director Martin Scorsese, center, poses with the stars of his film, "The Last Temptation of Christ", actors Barbara Hershey, right, who plays Mary Magdalene, and William Dafoe who plays Christ, at the Venice Film Festival. The film released in 1988 in the face of denunciations from religious leaders. (AP photo, File)
Book Reviews

Religion and 1980s pop culture go head-to-head in new book

Paul Elie's exploration of the struggle between art and faith in the 1980s offers valuable insights for anyone seeking clarity on faith in public life today.

ByRebecca Bratten Weiss
Raised Catholic, the musician Corook explores queerness and self-acceptance in their new album, "Committed to a Bit." (NCR screenshot/YouTube/hicorook)

Playfulness is a powerful tool for healing in the music of Corook

Raised Catholic, the musician Corook explores queerness and self-acceptance in their new album, "Committed to a Bit."

ByHojung Lee

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

'It's Dorothy!': The LGBTQ+ community and its beloved 'Wizard of Oz' icon

Book Reviews

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

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

Carmen Jiménez explains to visitors the Comuna 13 cemetery's wall of portraits honoring victims and their mothers. Among them are haunting composite images: half the face is that of a missing son or daughter, the other half their grieving mother — their features fused into a single, powerful symbol of loss and remembrance. (Tracy L. Barnett)

Reporter's Notebook: Walking Medellin's Comuna 13 with Carmen Jiménez

Her younger brother, Guillermo, set off for high school one day in 2002 and never came back. 

Q&A with Sr. Thao Phi, advocate for peace in face of South African xenophobia

An educator and advocate for peace, Phi is committed to confronting discrimination head-on and building bridges among marginalized communities, particularly those of foreign nationals.

ByDoreen Ajiambo
Sr. Rosalyn Muraski, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity, serves as a special interventionist at the San Xavier Mission School on the Tohono O'odham Nation reservation in Tucson, Arizona (Courtesy of Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity)

Sisters' prayerful presence at Tucson mission supports rights and dignity of tribal people

Their ministry includes outreach across the reservation and as assisting migrants in their Pima County community, which received over half a million asylum seekers from 2019 to 2024.

By
A Latin-English edition of the Catholic Church's Code of Canon Law is pictured on a bookshelf.
Columns

My work as a sister canon lawyer integrates faith and analytical thinking

One cleric insisted that even if someone consulted a woman religious who was a canon lawyer, they would still seek confirmation with a priest because they wouldn't be satisfied with a woman's view.

 

By

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Q&A with Sr. Joicy Joy, a lawyer who fights for the rights of tribals in India

My community in Cameroon needed clean water. So I became our advocate.

Reporter's Notebook: Mexico's changing tune on immigration