Crew members from the NGO rescue ship Ocean Viking give lifejackets to migrants on an overcrowded boat in the Mediterranean Sea Oct. 25, 2022. Pope Francis said governments cannot and should not try to stop migration over the Mediterranean, but they must find better, more coordinated ways to handle the movement of people. (CNS photo/Camille Martin Juan/Sos Mediterranee/handout via Reuters)
Guest Voices

This World Day for Migrants, let's join together to create a hopeful future

Opinion

The Catholic community marks the 109th World Day for Migrants and Refugees on Sept. 24. Joan Rosenhauer, executive director of Jesuit Refugee Service/USA, suggests we use the day to focus on helping migrants where we can.

The Latest

Editors' Choice

Focus

illustration of Black boy hovering over church

In Focus

Catholic clergy abuse survivors of color endure compounded trauma

Stories of Catholic clergy abuse survivors of color are largely untold, and church authorities rarely collect victims' racial and ethnic data. One scholar said that leads to disparities that are "just another level of abuse." 

Most Read Stories

Pope Francis greets Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, during a meeting with U.S. bishops from Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas during their "ad limina" visits to the Vatican Jan. 20, 2020. (CNS/Vatican Media)
Vatican News
#1

Bishop Strickland says he will not resign if pope asks. What comes next?

The Catholic Church's canon law leaves firebrand Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, little to no room to resist if Pope Francis demands his resignation, several prominent canon lawyers told NCR.

ByBrian Fraga
Editorial
#2

Editorial: Pope Francis, it's time to release the women deacons report

Before the Synod of Bishops opens Oct. 4, Pope Francis has a duty to finally release the report from his women deacons commission, say the NCR editors. 

ByNCR Editorial Staff
A man wearing bishop's clothes talks to a man wearing a clerical collar. A Swiss guard is visible in the background.
Vatican News
#3

Church teaching a 'treasure' that must be defended, Vatican’s new doctrine chief says

When Pope Francis said he wanted the focus of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to be "something very different" from the dicastery's reputation as a stringent watchdog, he was not saying anything goes, Cardinal-designate Víctor Fernández, the dicastery's new prefect, said in an interview.

ByCindy Wooden, Catholic News Service
#4

'Dear Alana,' hit No. 1 on Apple Podcasts. Are church leaders listening?

#5

The Catholic diaspora: Independent communities as the church's 'research lab'

#6

Where are we getting our values these days?

Opinion

This World Day for Migrants, let's join together to create a hopeful future

Guest Voices

Vladimir Putin, like Stalin before him, is weaponizing food

Guest Voices
Letters to the Editor

Letters to the editor about Jimmy Buffet

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the editor: NCR readers respond to an essay about how Jimmy Buffet's music challenges us to set aside productivity in exchange for rest and renewal, and to see the beauty in the ordinary.

Vladimir Putin, like Stalin before him, is weaponizing food

Guest Voices

All war is a disgrace and failure. The church must embrace nonviolence.

Guest Voices
People watch drones creating a 3D display outside the United Nations Headquarters calling attention to the Amazon rainforest and climate change in New York City Sept. 15. (OSV News/Reuters/Eduardo Munoz)

Considering the spiritual roots of ecophobia amid climate change

NCR Voices

The term "ecophobia" gives us a lens through which to view the human behavior that has harmed the rest of creation, writes Dan Horan. 

Vatican

Pope holds microphone during press conference on plane
Vatican News

Returning from France, pope condemns treatment of migrants as 'hot potatoes'

On his return flight from Marseille, France, the pope decried euthanasia, abortion and war, and he repeated pleas for compassionate thoughts and actions to migrants. 

Pope sits with bishops in front of a large map of the Mediterranean region.
Vatican News

In France, pope slams 'alarmist propaganda' that fuels fears of migrants

Pope Francis on Sept. 23 blasted those who seek to weaponize the issue of migration by "fueling people's fears" through "alarmist propaganda," and called for countries and individuals around the Mediterranean to reexamine their policies and attitudes toward asylum seekers. 

ByChristopher White
A person in a white helmet sprays water into a landscape full of fire and a burned out building
Vatican News

Indiscriminate destruction in Ukraine is a 'crime,' pope says

In a message to an ecumenical meeting at a historic Benedictine abbey in Hungary, Pope Francis said Russia's war on Ukraine is a reminder of what the Second Vatican Council taught: "Any act of war aimed indiscriminately at the destruction of entire cities or of extensive areas along with their population is a crime against God and man himself."

ByCindy Wooden, Catholic News Service
Four children and a young man give Pope Francis gifts while French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne looks on during a brief welcoming ceremony at Marseille International Airport Sept. 22 in Marseille, France. (CNS/Vatican Media)
Vatican News

In France, pope warns of 'crossroads of civilization' over migrant crisis

Amid tensions among European leaders over a new influx of migrants, Pope Francis on Sept. 22 arrived in the French port city of Marseille and warned that civilization is at a crossroads over the continuing migrant crisis.

ByChristopher White

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Vatican News

Vatican shares abuse findings about an Australian bishop with local police

Vatican News

Why Pope Francis' big Vatican meeting next month is so important

Vatican News

Pope names two Chinese bishops to synod; Vatican publishes synod schedule

Planet earth with sun rising on the horizon, from space (Pixabay/Arek Socha)
Viewpoints

Love and compassion: How women can address the climate crisis

If we approach the climate crisis from the place of love, a spiritual perspective, a woman's perspective — a perspective that honors the Earth's body, its biodiversity and its own healing capacity — many more possibilities open up.

Activists mark the start of Climate Week in New York City Sept. 17, 2023, during a demonstration calling for the U.S. government to take action toward ending fossil fuel use in order to reduce the impact of global climate change. (OSV News Photo/Eduardo Munoz, Reuters)
Justice

Catholic groups join sea of protesters in New York march against fossil fuels

In what is thought to have been the largest climate change rally since 2019, an estimated crowd of as many as 75,000 demonstrators from some 700 organizations and activist groups paraded through the streets of New York City Sept. 17 in the "March to End Fossil Fuels."

ByKimberley Heatherington, OSV News
Solar panels are seen on the roof of the Paul VI audience hall at the Vatican in this Dec. 1, 2010, file photo. (CNS/Paul Haring)
Justice

Synod office announces plan to reduce assembly's carbon footprint

The Vatican has secured financial support to generate offsetting carbon credits by sending "efficient cooking stoves and water purification technologies to households, communities and institutions" in Kenya and Nigeria.

 

ByCatholic News Service
Pope Francis speaks with former U.S. President Bill Clinton in a video call during a meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, Sept. 18, 2023. (CNS screengrab/Courtesy Clinton Global Initiative)
Politics

Pope to global leaders: Save children, the planet 'before it's too late'

Kicking off the 2023 Clinton Global Initiative meeting of leaders in New York City Sept. 18, Pope Francis told former U.S. President Bill Clinton and the global community to take action to ensure peace for future generations and stop climate change "before it's too late."

ByJustin McLellan, Catholic News Service

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Justice

In Honduras' Dry Corridor, climate change poses a painful dilemma: Adapt or leave

Politics

Pope Francis and Bill Clinton set discussion on climate change at Clinton Global Initiative

Faith

'We're keeping all in God's mercy,' says bishop as despair mounts amid flooding in Libya

Culture

Michael Peña portrays José Hernández in "A Million Miles Away."

New biopic of migrant worker-turned-astronaut inspires possibility

In "A Million Miles Away," we watch José Hernández go from a childhood spent working beside his family of migrant farmers to becoming one of the few Americans chosen to participate in NASA's space program. 

Jeremy Allen White portrays Carmy in Season 2 of "The Bear." (Courtesy of Hulu)

The hit show 'The Bear' is more Catholic than it realizes

As in "The Bear," we all find ourselves trapped in dark, cramped, dingy places time and again. Those are the pressure cookers of our own spiritual journeys. 

ByEric Clayton
An illustration from Dear Mama God, showing two children looking at an oversized globe
Book Reviews

Theologically rich picture books to nurture a child's faith (and maybe yours, too)

Perhaps this is not just a compilation of books to introduce the vastness of God to a child in your life, but also an invitation for you to look for God with childlike awe and curiosity. 

ByNatalie Alfaro Frazier
Alana Chen died by suicide in 2019. Although church officials deny engaging in "conversion therapy" with her, Alana's mother says representatives of the church encouraged her daughter to suppress her sexual orientation. (Photo courtesy of the family)

'Dear Alana,' hit No. 1 on Apple Podcasts. Are church leaders listening?

In his podcast "Dear Alana," Simon Kent Fung explores Alana Faith Chen's life and death — coming to realize that her story is all-too-relatable for many at the hands of conversion therapy in the Catholic Church. 

ByChris Damian

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Book Reviews

James McBride keeps us guessing in 'The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store'

'Here Lies Love' musical about Imelda Marcos ignores Philippine Catholicism

The oft-missed Catholicism of Jimmy Buffett's music

A statue of Catherine McAuley, founder of the Sisters of Mercy, is seen in Baggot Street, Dublin. (Wikimedia Commons/Spleodrach)

The fourth vow of the Sisters of Mercy

From A Nun's Life podcasts - For Sisters of Mercy, there is one more vow along with poverty, chastity and obedience. In this clip, Mercy Sr. Barb Giehl describes the fourth vow taken in her order.

City Hall of Terre Haute, Indiana. It's famously said that "all politics is local," and I'm seeing this more clearly these days. (Wikimedia Commons/Huw Williams)

Solidarity and subsidiarity call us to engage in local politics

Horizons - I've been reflecting on the interplay between federal and local governments. In many ways, it resembles the interplay between solidarity and subsidiarity in Catholic social teaching. 

By
Sisters pose for a group photo at the conclusion of the June 9-17 retreat at the Institute of Theological Sciences of the Immaculate Virgin Mary in Horodok, Ukraine. (Courtesy of Irena Saszko)

Sisters in Ukraine build bridges at retreat for Eastern and Western rites

In a time when Russia seeks to create divisions, we at the Institute of Theological Sciences of the Immaculate Virgin Mary in Ukraine decided to organize joint retreats for sisters of both Eastern and Western rites.

By
Sr. Karen Burke, left, Sr. Annelle Fitzpatrick, center, are flanked by refugees the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood in Brentwood, New York, have welcomed onto their campus. (GSR photo/Chris Herlinger)

Long Island sisters open their doors, and their hearts, to refugees

Afghan and Ukrainian refugees find a home with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood, New York, bringing "new life to these old walls."

ByChris Herlinger

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Synod participant describes Pope Francis' process as a 'breathing in' for global church

An Indian nun who turned filmmaker and won accolades

How COVID prepared me for this moment in religious life

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