Nation & World

Pope Leo XIV prayed for world leaders to "abandon projects of death" in a video message released by the Vatican on March 5, 2026, calling on people around the world to pray for peace. (OSV News screenshot/Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network)
Pope Leo XIV prays for leaders to 'abandon projects of death' in peace prayer video
Iranian Christians take part in the New Year prayer service at a church in Tehran Jan. 1, 2025. (OSV News photo/Majid Asgaripour, WANA via Reuters)
Iran's exiled Christians watch events unfolding across Middle East with hope and fear
Notre Dame alumni coach Lou Holtz speaks to his team before the start of the Notre Dame Japan Bowl football game against Japan in Tokyo July 25, 2009. Holtz, a legendary college football coach and devout Catholic who led the University of Notre Dame to the 1988 National Championship, died March 4, 2026, at age 89. (OSV News photo/Issei Kato, Reuters)
Beloved Notre Dame coaching legend Lou Holtz remembered for 'building men, not just players'
Pope Leo XIV smiles as he speaks to visitors during his general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican March 4, 2026. Pope Leo met two sociologists on March 5 who have co-written a book on Catholics who attend the traditional Latin Mass in the United States, to be published in November. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Pope Leo XIV meets with authors of book on Latin Mass in US
Pope Leo XIV, with regional representatives of synod teams, listens to and answers questions from participants in the Jubilee of Synodal Teams and Participatory Bodies in the Vatican audience hall Oct. 24, 2025. The final reports for two Synod on Synodality study groups, on formation for the priesthood and on navigating the Church's presence in digital spaces, were released on March 3, 2026. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Vatican synod study group proposes creation of pontifical commission for new technologies
Young choir members pray during a Mass at Dublin's St. Mary's Pro Cathedral Nov. 14, 2025, marking the bicentenary of the church's dedication in 1825 and the feast of the city's patron, St. Laurence O'Toole. The same day Pope Leo XIV officially designated the pro-cathedral as the Dublin Archdiocese's cathedral, ending its 200-year status as a temporary (pro) church. Speaking at a book launch in Dublin in mid-February 2026, Bishop Niall Coll of Raphinoe said young Catholics born after 1995 want doctrinal cla
Young Catholics want doctrinal clarity, not adaptability, Irish bishop says
Pope Leo XIV greets Norwegian Bishop Erik Varden of Trondheim after the bishop led the final day of the Roman Curia's annual Lenten retreat in the Pauline Chapel at the Vatican Feb. 27, 2026. The Norwegian bishop was chosen by Pope Leo to preach at the Feb. 22-27 Lenten retreat, which reflected on the theme, "Illuminated by a Hidden Glory." (OSV News photo/Simone Risoluti, Vatican Media)
Pope Leo XIV concludes retreat urging Church to live the Gospel worthily
Pope Leo XIV greets women during a pastoral visit to the Church of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the working-class neighborhood of Quarticciolo in Rome March 1, 2026. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
In the face of the mystery of evil, Christians must be signs of hope, pope says
An explosion caused by a projectile impact after Iran launched missiles into Israel following Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 28, 2026. (OSV News photo/Gideon Markowicz, Reuters)
Catholic clergy call for prayer, peace after US-Israel attacks on Iran, retaliatory strikes
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is pictured in an undated portrait. Archbishop Coakley echoed Pope Leo XIV's call for deescalation and dialogue in the Middle East March 1, 2026, following the joint Feb. 28 attacks by the U.S. and Israel on Iran killing that nation's longtime supreme leader, 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (OSV News photo/Archdiocese of Oklahoma City)
USCCB president: Prayer, diplomacy needed in Middle East to avert 'tragedy of immense proportions'
A woman prays during Ash Wednesday Mass at St. Germaine Catholic Church in Prescott Valley, Ariz., Feb. 18, 2026. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)
Here are 12 new resources to encounter Christ this Lent 2026
Pope Leo XIV poses with the Executive Committee of the Spanish bishops' conference during a private audience at the Vatican Nov. 17, 2025. With the Vatican confirming Pope Leo XIV's trip to Spain in June 2026, plans for the upcoming visit are full steam ahead, the organizer of the visit said. (OSV News photo/Vatican media via CPP)
Pope Leo's visit to Spain could spark a much-needed 'spiritual revival'
Jack Amer poses with a pastry in his cafe Patisserie in the Old City of Jerusalem Feb. 10, 2026. (OSV News photo/courtesy Debbie Hill)
Inviting pilgrims back is more than business, it's family history, Holy Land shop owners say
Firefighters work at the site of a residential building damaged during Russian drone and missile strikes in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 22, 2026. (OSV News photo/Valentyn Ogirenko, Reuters)
Bishops: Ukrainians 'resist, trust, pray' as Russia's full-scale invasion turns 4
Crystal Martinez and Victoria Diaz are pictured in an undated combination giving Lenten testimonies. (OSV News photo/courtesy of Vicente Del Real and Iskali)
How young Latino Catholics are renewing the Church this Lent
Pilgrims from the Marche region of Italy enter the Lower Church of the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, Italy, Feb. 22, 2026, to visit the relics of St. Francis on display for veneration. (OSV News photo/Courtney Mares)
St. Francis' relics open to public for first extended veneration in 800 years
Pope Leo XIV listens as a young woman reads remarks during a pastoral visit to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in central Rome Feb. 22, 2026. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
God offers new possibilities, not prohibitions, with his invitation to love, pope says
A burned bus is seen Feb. 22, 2026, at the site of a highway in Santa Rita Tlahuapan, Mexico, that connects Mexico City with the state of Puebla. Members of organized crime in several states put up roadblocks and carried out arson attacks after a military operation in which Mexican drug lord Nemesio Oseguera, known as "El Mencho," was killed in Tapalpa in Mexico's Jalisco state. (OSV News photo/Paola Garcia, Reuters)
Bishops urge prudence, prayer, invoke Guadalupe's protection as violence erupts in Mexico
Virginia Medellin, right, a parishioner at Mary Immaculate Church in Pacoima, attends the opening ceremony of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles' Religious Education Congress on Feb. 20, 2026. Medellin said she first started attending RECongress in 1964. (OSV News photo/Isabel Cacho, courtesy Archdiocese of Los Angeles)
Find comfort, strength in Eucharist, pope tells attendees at LA Religious Education Congress
Scalabrini Father Leandro Fossá, left, Claretian Father Paul Keller and Sister Alicia Gutierrez, a member of the Society of Helpers, begin the walk toward the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Ill., on Ash Wednesday Feb. 18, 2026. Under a preliminary injunction, they were allowed to enter with Communion and ashes. (OSV News photo/Simone Orendain)
Pastoral care is finally allowed inside Chicago-area ICE facility
A statue of the Risen Christ on top of the facade of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican is seen in a Nov. 13, 2024, photo. (CNS photo/Pablo Esparza)
Easter evidence: Why Jesus' resurrection is trusted as true 
Pope Leo XIV blesses faithful at the end of the weekly general audience, in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Feb. 18, 2026. (OSV News photo/Remo Casilli, Reuters)
Pope Leo XIV on Ash Wednesday: Ask the Lord for the gift of true conversion this Lent
The Rev. Jesse Jackson speaking at a news conference in London Aug. 14, 1986. Rev. Jackson, a towering civil rights icon who battled alongside the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., negotiated global hostage releases, and shamed corporations for their lack of corporate diversity and failure to support voting rights, died at age 84 Feb. 17, 2026. (OSV News photo/Peter Skingley, Reuters)
Rev. Jesse Jackson dies at 84; Catholic leaders praise civil rights leader's work for justice
Pope Leo XIV and former U.S. President Barack Obama are pictured in a combination photo. Obama said in a YouTube interview posted Feb. 14, 2026, that he wants to meet the American pontiff. (OSV News photo/CNS/Lola Gomez/Jim Young, Reuters)
The No. 1 person former President Obama most wants to meet? It's Pope Leo XIV
Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, sprinkles ashes on the had of another cardinal during Ash Wednesday Mass at the Basilica of Santa Sabina in Rome in this file photo from March 5, 2025. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
From Foreheads to Crowns: How Ash Wednesday looks different worldwide
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