OSV News

Amid renewed tensions between the Vatican and traditionalist Catholics over the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Leo XIV defended church reform as a legitimate process that adapts to current needs while remaining rooted in authentic tradition.

The highly anticipated text, signed by the pope on May 15 and released May 25, invokes the wisdom of the Church's social teaching as a framework for shaping AI amid rapid technological advances, a fractured global landscape and accelerating threats to human life and dignity.

The Uruguayan bishops' conference said in a May 21 statement that no date had been set for a visit to South America, though sources say a papal trip would likely occur in November or December during the Southern Hemisphere spring.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, archbishop of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, was the principal celebrant and homilist, assisted by military chaplains and priests.

After his episcopal ordination May 16, 2019, Aclan oversaw the Archdiocese of Los Angeles' San Fernando pastoral region until suffering a stroke in August 2022 that required hospitalization and extensive recovery.
 

Scott-Vincent Borba said God "is sending me back out, cleaned up, to be able to proclaim his mercy, to proclaim his goodness, to bring people back to repentance." 

The situation there was already tenuous when the Trump administration shuttered the U.S. Agency for International Development in 2025, and the Iran war added to challenges of aid organizations.

The Josephite priest served as president of the Baltimore-based National Black Catholic Congress from its founding in 1987 until 2017.

Catholic bishops in Uganda have urged the people to remain calm after the government postponed the annual Martyrs Day celebrations, following an Ebola outbreak in the East African region.

The letter came the same day Senate Republicans on the Budget Committee advanced the measure, and the day after it was advanced by the Senate Homeland Security and ‌Governmental Affairs Committee.

Holding placards calling for "justice," "trust" and "peace," religious leaders led hundreds of peace activists, Jews, Muslims, Christians and Druze in a march in Jerusalem May 18, days after thousands of Israeli ultra-nationalists chanting racists slogan clashed with Palestinian residents in the Old City during the annual Jerusalem Day's Flag Parade.

A Philadelphia parish scarred by clergy abuse, with a former priest named as a "serial abuser" in a 2005 grand jury report, has created a memorial to victims and survivors. The outdoor display at St. Cecilia Parish features a granite block inscribed with Scripture, prayer, apology, affirmation and the words of one abuse survivor. Atop the monument sits a votive lantern, ringed with a wreath of flowers.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore submitted a proposed plan for reorganization May 15 in an effort to complete its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, with the goal of equitably compensating victims of child sexual abuse by clergy and others affiliated with the Catholic Church in Maryland.

Bishop Michael Pham of San Diego said the faithful there "stand united in solidarity and prayer with the Muslim community" after a deadly May 18 shooting at a mosque complex in that city killed three adults, including a security guard.

Bolivia's Catholic bishops appealed for dialogue and "humanitarian pauses" during disruptive protests, which have collapsed the highlands of the Andean country and threatened the administration of President Rodrigo Paz. 

In a May 14 statement, Benedictine College in Atchison disclosed that in late April its campus had been "repeatedly leafletted with anonymous flyers from a group calling itself 'Coalition of Catholics Against Jewish Supremacy.'"

St. Zdislava of Lemberk was born around 1220 into a noble Bohemian family. St. John Paul II canonized her in Olomouc on May 21, 1995, citing her life as a model of holiness lived in marriage and family life.

On his return trip to the U.S., Trump on May 15 told reporters that Lai's case was a "tough one."

Sabastian Sawe clinched the London Marathon in record time, becoming the first human to run an official marathon in under two hours. His win also drew attention to the connection between running and faith for Kenyans.

The Milan Archdiocese marked the formal end of the diocesan phase of the sainthood cause of Msgr. Luigi Giussani, founder of the Communion and Liberation movement. His case now advances to the Vatican.