OSV News

On July 25, more than 300 Catholics, clergy, relatives and community supporters gathered in Houston for a Mass to honor Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, with hundreds more joining a prayer procession and candlelight vigil.

"Every technological achievement also confronts humanity with a moral question: not merely what can we do, but what ought we to do?" the pontiff said.

War and environmental destruction are not just political failures, but symptoms of a deep moral crisis in the human heart, Pope Leo XIV said in his message for the 2026 World Day of Prayer for Creation.

Dozens of clergy from the Archdiocese of Bogotá embarked on a five-day pastoral mission to cities in Colombia devastated by the Aug. 10 earthquake.

Behind Sheen's reach stood a largely unknown group of women who opened letters, recorded donations, thanked contributors, and helped transform his words into material support for missionaries and young churches.

The Catholic bishops of Florida issued a staunch defense of their ability to determine policies for Catholic schools after Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sent them a letter demanding that Catholic schools in the Sunshine State adopt religious exemptions to vaccine requirements or risk their ability to participate in the state's school voucher program.

A priest of the Archdiocese of San Antonio who was "found guilty of schism" has been removed from the clerical state and excommunicated, according to the archbishop of the archdiocese.

The pope's appeal came amid reports of violent attacks by Israeli settlers, including in Taybeh, one of the last remaining Christian villages in the West Bank.

The U.S. Supreme Court set Nov. 3 for hearing oral arguments in a case over a clash between Catholic preschools and the state of Colorado over whether those schools can participate in the state's universal preschool program. (OSV News/Reuters/Elizabeth Frantz)

"Mr. Silvia's crimes were heinous and merit severe punishment by the state," the executive director of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote. "Nevertheless, we ask that you spare Mr. Silvia's life."

The pontiff prayed for peace in the Holy Land, and in Ukraine and Russia. He also prayed for Colombia following an earthquake there.

The new Vatican coins are the first in nearly a decade to feature a pope's face since Francis requested in 2017 that his portrait no longer appear on Vatican coins.

Messages of solidarity from bishops' conferences across Latin America poured in as rescue workers race against time to save victims still trapped beneath the rubble in multiple cities across Colombia.

An Illinois Catholic bishop, four Catholic doctors and a Lutheran nursing home have sued the state of Illinois over a new physician-assisted suicide law before it takes effect in September.

In a unanimous decision, Arizona's Supreme Court upheld a broad definition of clergy-penitent privilege July 30. While the case involved the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon church, the ruling has implications for the Catholic Church's defense of the seal of the confessional.

Recent security issue disclosures from major artificial intelligence developers Anthropic and OpenAI point to a need for even greater human oversight of the technology, two Catholic experts told OSV News.

Pope Leo XIV said he was deeply saddened by the loss of life and destruction following a powerful earthquake that struck Colombia, leaving more than 100 dead and dozens of collapsed buildings.

A judge has permitted abuse survivors to pursue the inclusion of Vermont's Catholic parishes and schools in settling claims against the Diocese of Burlington, which has been in bankruptcy proceedings since September 2024.

Pope Leo XIV, who spent more than two decades as a missionary and bishop in Peru before his election, has pointed to the country's modern martyrs as examples of missionary fidelity. 

Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Lawrence Sullivan said he and a priest started talking about the garden memorial about six years ago when he said they had become keenly "aware of the need to address mental health issues."