Nation & World

Political prisoners released from Belarus are welcomed at the U.S. Embassy in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sept. 11, 2025. (OSV News photo/Kacper Pempel, Reuters)
Jailed Catholic priests 'used as hostages' in Belarus
The "Cosmic Cliffs" of the Carina Nebula are seen in an image released by NASA July 12, 2022. The image is from data provided by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, a revolutionary apparatus designed to peer through the cosmos to the dawn of the universe. (OSV News photo/NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team, Handout via Reuters)
What the church really teaches about evolution
Pope Leo XIV receives a gift from Sister Vandana Fernandes, superior general of the Ursulines of Mary Immaculate, at the end of an audience in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace Sept. 18, 2025. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Religious obedience is 'act of love' that builds community, pope says
Pope Leo XIV greets a child dressed as the pope as he rides in the popemobile during the weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Sept. 17, 2025. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Relentless effort, quick action are not always the answer, pope says
Pope Leo XIV slices a cake for his 70th birthday Sept. 14, 2025, as cardinals, Vatican officials and ecumenical leaders look on after a prayer service at Rome's Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Thousands of visitors celebrate Pope Leo's birthday in St. Peter's Square 
A visitor waves the flag of China in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican in this file photo from May 22, 2019. (CNS photo/Paul Haring
Pope erects new diocese in China, names new bishop
Two women pray at the new St. Pier Giorgio Frassati Chapel located next to the office of Immaculate Conception Parish in Washington Aug. 22, 2025. The new chapel is named for the new saint who was canonized by Pope Leo XIV on Sept. 7, 2025. St. Pier Giorgio, an Italian young adult who died in 1925, was known for his devotion to the Eucharist and service to those in need. (OSV News photo/Mihoko Owada, Catholic Standard)
New saint has special connection to nation's capital with parish's adoration chapel
Commentator Charlie Kirk appears at a Utah Valley University speaking event in Orem, Utah, Sept. 10, 2025. (OSV News photo/Trent Nelson, The Salt Lake Tribune via Reuters)
Bishops, officials call for prayer after conservative activist Charlie Kirk shot and killed 
Pope Leo XIV greets visitors and pilgrims from the popemobile as he rides around St. Peter's Square at the Vatican before his weekly general audience Sept. 3, 2025. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Add your prayers to this spiritual bouquet for Pope Leo XIV's 70th 
Parishioners participate in a reenactment of the Stations of the Cross at St. John of God Church in Central Islip, N.Y., on Good Friday, April 15, 2022. Most members of the parish trace their ancestral roots to Central America, where the living Way of the Cross is a solemn Holy Week tradition. (OSV News photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)
Search for the true cross
Pope Leo XIV greets visitors and pilgrims from the popemobile under the rain in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican before his weekly general audience Sept. 10, 2025. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Crying out to God can be sign of hope, not crisis of faith, pope says
A hunter's moon rises behind a statue of St. Francis of Assisi on the grounds of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in Champion, Wis., Oct 8, 2022 (OSV News photo/Sam Lucero, CNS)
St. Francis' 'Canticle of the Creatures' at 800 endures as vision of redeemed creation
Polish Army members inspect a damaged house in the municipality of Wyryki, Poland, Sept. 10, 2025, after a drone or similar object struck a residential building according to local authorities, following violations of Polish airspace during a Russian attack on Ukraine. (OSV News photo/Kacper Pempel, Reuters)
Polish prelate calls for peace after 'reckless' Russian drone attack violates country's airspace
Volunteers from the Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle in St. Petersburg, Florida, assemble hygiene bags for the homeless Aug. 24, 2025. (OSV News photo/courtesy of Diocese of St. Petersburg)
Faithful's response to Jubilee Year challenge leaves Florida bishop 'full of gratitude'
Valeria Vargas Valverde, left, reading the universal prayer, and Antonia Salzano, St. Carlo Acutis' mother, are seen Sept. 7, 2025, at the canonization Mass of St. Carlo and St. Pier Giorgio Frassati in a combination photo. Valverde was healed from severe head trauma through the intercession of now-St. Carlo, after her mother prayed at the tomb of the young teen. Her recovery, which her doctors called medically inexplicable, was the second miracle needed for Acutis’ canonization. (OSV News photo/Vatican New
At canonization Mass, two mothers stand out as giants of confidence in God
Ellie Mertens, left, youth minister at Annunciation church in Minneapolis, hugs Ella Bradburn (red shirt) and Isabella Manley, who are members of her youth group, during a prayer service at Academy of Holy Angels in Richfield Aug. 27 to support those affected by a shooting at the church that morning. Mertens was inside Annunciation church at the all-school Mass when the shooting occurred. Bradburn and Manley are students at DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis. (OSV News photo/Dave Hrbacek, The Catholic Spi
School shooting survivor embraces mission to help bring Jesus, healing to Annunciation youth
Fiorella Sacco and her husband, Massimo Mennelli, pose with handmade dolls representing Blessed Carlo Acutis during a pilgrimage in Assisi, Italy, Aug. 21, 2025. Sacco, who is a catechist with her husband, created the dolls with other volunteers at their parish of St. Joseph the Artisan in San Severo, Foggia, Italy. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Buried in Assisi, new saint is 'true disciple' of St. Francis, rector says
Pope Leo XIV meets with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in the library of the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican Sept. 4, 2025. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Pope meets Israeli president, discusses 'tragic' situation in Gaza 
Mary Perez embraces her son, Felix, a first-grade student at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, during an interfaith prayer service at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis Aug. 28, 2025. The previous day, a shooter opened fire through the windows of the church next to the school during an all-school Mass, killing two children and wounding 21 other victims. (OSV News photo/Tim Evans, Reuters)
Helping kids and teens cope with the threat of school violence
Late evening sun illuminates rock formations at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Colo., July 23, 2020. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)
Think you know the 'nones'? Pew study reveals nonreligious adults' nuanced beliefs
This is a screenshot from the GoFundMe page of 12-year-old Sophia Forchas, left in critical condition with head injuries when bullets tore through Annunciation Church in Minneapolis Aug. 27, 2025. Blessing her forehead and both hands with holy water from Lourdes, France, as she lay unconscious in a hospital bed in Minneapolis, Auxiliary Bishop Michael J. Izen of St. Paul and Minneapolis, prayed for her. (OSV News photo/Sophia Forchas, GoFundMe)
Bishop blesses hospitalized 12-year-old Annunciation shooting victim still in critical condition
Gena Heraty, a longtime Irish missionary in Haiti pictured with a child in a 2012 photo, has been freed after nearly a month of captivity, the news agency Agenzia Fides confirmed Sept. 1, 2025. Heraty was among several people -- including a 3-year-old child -- taken in the early hours of Aug. 3 after gunmen breached the Saint-Hélène orphanage in Kenscoff, near Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince. (OSV News photo/courtesy NPH International)
Irish missionary freed after monthlong kidnapping in Haiti amid worsening gang violence
Father Dennis Zehren, pastor of Annunciation Church in Minneapolis, becomes emotional as he speaks to the media alongside Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda Aug. 30, 2025, about the recent shooting at the church. The shooter opened fire through the windows of the school's church and struck children attending Mass Aug. 27 during the first week of school, killing two and wounding 21 others. (OSV News photo/Tim Evans, Reuters)
Annunciation pastor calls first parish Mass after church shooting a 'humble beginning'
Pope Leo XIV blesses his Augustinian confreres and their meal as he joins them for dinner Sept. 1, 2025, in a hall of the Italian attorney general's office next to the Basilica of St. Augustine in Rome. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Pope to his Augustinian confreres: Listen, be humble, promote unity
After climbing the podcast charts with "Rosary in a Year," Father Mark-Mary Ames of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal recently released "Eight Promises of God: Discovering Hope Through the Beatitudes," a book published by Ascension that he hopes will encourage people to see "the beauty and the gift that the Lord offers us in the beatitudes." Father Ames is pictured in an undated photo. (OSV News photo/courtesy Ascension)
Friar behind 'Rosary in a Year' explores Jesus Christ's 'blueprint' in the beatitudes
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