OSV News

Catholics across the nation are being invited to publicly pray for migrants, with two coast-to-coast days of witness planned amid the Trump administration's continuing crackdown on unauthorized immigration.

The 63-year-old Austrian priest, who has served as apostolic administrator for the Archdiocese of Vienna since January, will succeed Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, who has led the archdiocese since 1995.

When pilgrims gather in St. Peter's Square on Oct. 19 to witness the canonization of Blessed Bartolo Longo, they will see not just the elevation of a new saint, but a story of a radical conversion.

He assured the faithful of the military archdiocese that he "will pursue all legal options to address this grave misstep."

Directed by Ukrainian filmmaker Yaroslav Lodygin, the documentary features on-the-ground, often intensely emotional interviews with Ukrainian Christians from a number of denominations who have been systematically persecuted by Russian occupiers.

Catholics across America have committed themselves to spiritual expeditions not on the well-worn pilgrimage routes of Europe, but in their own communities.

The prelates urged "comprehensive immigration reform that secures our borders while offering a just and merciful pathway for those who are already part of our communities."

The Holy See's diplomat to the United Nations has called for three key priorities in addressing the global crises of poverty, conflict and climate change.

Reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents near St. Jerome Catholic Church in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood on Oct. 12 prompted warnings of caution from its pastor, although a spokesperson for ICE denied the church was targeted, NBC Chicago reported. The news outlet reported that neighbors have resorted to forming human chains to help Catholic migrants fearful of ICE go to and leave Sunday Mass so they could worship and receive the sacraments.

A 17th-century monastery in northern Italy where recently canonized St. Carlo Acutis received his first Communion was in ruins after a massive fire ravaged the historic building.

Asked how Catholics across the world can help, CNEWA regional director Joseph Hazboun said first of all, with prayers "that this truce, this ceasefire, will hold and move forward towards a permanent peace agreement where Gaza will have the opportunity to flourish."

The Vatican said that the five judges named to hear the Marko Rupnik case in a canonical court include women and priests who don't hold jobs in the Vatican bureaucracy.

Historic momentum is felt across the Middle East as thousands gathered Oct. 11 in Tel Aviv, Israel, for the last mass gathering before the hostage release expected to take place Oct. 13, and tens of thousands of Palestinians started to make their way back to their homes in northern Gaza Strip. But those Palestinians have returned to see only mostly rubble left, with Fr. Gabriel Romanelli, the pastor of Gaza City's Catholic parish, saying the entire enclave has experienced a "tsunami" of destruction.

Just remember the children that died there, almost 70,000 civilians died, and to this there is no solution," Cardinal Konrad Krajewski said.

Pope Leo XIV's apostolic exhortation on love for the poor, Dilexi Te ("I Have Loved You"), released by the Vatican Oct. 9, "puts forth the pope's strategic plan for the rolling out of his pontificate," Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami said.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem welcomed "with joy" the announcement of an initial agreement between Hamas and Israel in an Oct. 9 statement, but also stressed the "absolute urgency" for the "immediate" and "unconditional" entry of humanitarian relief and sufficient aid into Gaza.

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, is an $8 billion program that operates on a smaller $150 million contingency fund, and could potentially run out in the event of a long shutdown. 

Pope Leo XIV's first apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te ("I have loved you"), was promulgated Oct. 9, the feast day of St. John Henry Newman. Here are nine things to know about the document.

The body of Fr. Bertoldo Pantaleón Estrada was discovered Oct. 6 in the municipality of Mezcal in Guerrero state, some 150 miles south of Mexico City, according to the Diocese of Chilpancingo-Chilapa.