Nation & World

A Catholic family is pictured in a file photo sharing a laugh at their farm in Epworth, Iowa. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)
Tips to strengthen your domestic church in 2026
Jeff Helgeson poses with Bernard Hebda, who is holding the crosier Helgeson found in a scrapyard, during their May 30, 2025, meeting at the Archdiocesan Catholic Center in St. Paul. Finding the crosier has drawn Helgeson into a journey back to the Catholic Church of his youth. (OSV News photo/courtesy Paul Lovino)
Wisconsin man's Catholic faith revived after finding bishop's crosier in scrapyard
A project of the Holy Trinity Church, under preparation since fall 2024, in the central Czech Republic's industrial town of Neratovice is seen on an undated photo of the project. The Archdiocese of Prague has welcomed pre-Christmas plans to build a major new parish church using 3D printing technology, after architects insisted the method would slash costs and offer exceptional decorative and acoustic possibilities. (OSV News photo/courtesy Holy Trinity parish)
Czech archdiocese welcomes pioneering '3D church'
Participants of the Taizé community meeting are seen in front of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on an undated photograph. More than 10,000 young Christians from across Europe joined thousands of young French people in Paris Dec. 28-Jan. 1, 2025, to take part in the European meeting of the Taizé community, which is held every year in a different European city around the New Year. (OSV News photo/courtesy Taizé community)
Ten thousand young Christians gather in Paris for Taizé's European New Year meeting
Schoolchildren from St. Mary's Catholic School in Papiri, Nigeria, arrive at the Niger State Government House Dec. 8, 2025, after being freed from captivity following their abduction by gunmen Nov. 21. (OSV News photo/Marvellous Durowaiye, Reuters)
From Nigeria to Belarus, 2025 marks a grim year for religious freedom
Pope Leo XIV greets a child from the popemobile as he rides around St. Peter's Square at the Vatican before his weekly general audience Dec. 31, 2025. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Take time to review the past year with God, pope suggests
Cardinal James M. Harvey, archpriest of Rome's Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls stands in front of the basilica's Holy Door after solemnly closing it Dec. 28, 2025, as the Jubilee Year drew to a close. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
As Holy Doors close, cardinals emphasize God's arms are always open
Jillian Whisnant, principal of Christ the King Church in Little Rock, Ark., and associate pastor Father Emmanuel "Manny" Torres poses Dec. 9, 2025, before Father Torres’ kidney transplant with Whisnant's donated kidney. Father Torres got a phone call in early September that he had been hoping for years -- they found the match needed for his kidney transplant. (OSV News photo/Katie Zakrzewski, Arkansas Catholic)
Priest gets kidney from principal - and love, support, prayers from parishes, students
Artist Christopher Santer poses for a photo at his studio in St. Paul, Minn., Nov. 10, 2025. As a professional artist and a Catholic high school art teacher, he still does landscapes and architecture, but he is most sought after for his sacred artwork. (OSV News photo/Dianne Towalski, The Central Minnesota Catholic)
Artist's 'Magnificat' has brought joy, hope to Jubilee pilgrims in Diocese of St. Cloud
Pope Leo XIV greets visitors in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican as they gather to pray the Angelus prayer on the feast of the Holy Family, Dec. 28, 2025. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Families fostering Gospel values provide hope in dark world, pope says
Pope Leo XIV celebrates Christmas morning Mass in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican Dec. 25, 2025. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Open your hearts to baby Jesus and one another, pope says on Christmas
A file photo shows people visiting the Nativity scene in St. Peter's Square after Christmas Eve Mass at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
At Home with Jesus
An art workshop ran by Pawel Dusza and organized for the occassion of World Day of the Poor is seen on an undated photograph in the Betlejem ("Bethlehem") community in Jaworzno, Poland. Betlejem community for the homeless and people in need was funded in 1996 by Polish diocesan priest Father Miroslaw Tosza, who says it brings back dignity of those in need by showing they also have a lot of things to share with the world, such as artistic and handcraft talents. (OSV News photo/courtesy Betlejem community)
A dream of Bethlehem community: A house for the poor in village where St. Francis staged first Nativity
Pope Leo XIV greets a child after his after his annual pre-Christmas meeting with Vatican employees and their families in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican Dec. 22, 2025. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Pope thanks priests, encourages them to share responsibilities with laity
Pilgrims hold up figurines of the Christ Child as Pope Francis leads the Angelus from the window of his studio overlooking St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Dec 15, 2019. (CNS photo/Vatican Media) See POPE-ANGELUS-BAMBINELLI Dec. 16, 2019.
Pray for peace in front of the Nativity scene, pope asks children
Sean Astin, Elijah Wood, Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd star in a scene from J.R.R. Tolkien's epic adventure "The Lord of the Rings." (OSV News photo courtesy New Line Cinema)
Celebrate Christmas like a Hobbit
 David Henrie, actor and brand ambassador for Cross Catholic Outreach, poses for a photo during an interview with Catholic News Service near St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Dec. 18, 2025. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Catholic actor finds Christmas joy in helping US charity
Archbishop Ronald A. Hicks and New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan smile during a news conference at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City Dec. 18, 2025, after Pope Leo XIV accepted the resignation of Cardinal Dolan, and appointed Archbishop Hicks as his successor. Archbishop Hicks was previously the bishop of Joliet, Ill. (OSV News photo/Brendan McDermid, Reuters)
Pope accepts resignation of Cardinal Dolan; names Bishop Hicks of Joliet, Ill., as successor
The Silent Night Chapel, which is in the town of Oberndorf in the Austrian state of Salzburg, is a monument to the Christmas carol "Silent Night." The chapel stands on the site of the former St. Nicholas Church, where on Christmas Eve in 1818 the carol was performed for the first time. (OSV News photo/courtesy www.stillenacht.com)
Born in hardship, sung in hope: the quiet, powerful origins of 'Silent Night'
Hattie Halter, alias Cindy-Lou Who, center, poses in an undated photo with her third-grade classmates at St. Joseph School in Knoxville, Tenn. They are standing next to a Grinch-themed Christmas tree she and her classmates created for the Fantasy of Trees benefit Nov. 26-30 for East Tennessee Children's Hospital and its pediatric cancer-treatment program. Hattie, who was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia when she was 9 months old, is now cancer free seven years later. (OSV News photo/courtesy Kathy Rank
Fundraiser by cancer survivor, third-grade classmates brings Christmas joy to school, community
Pope Leo XIV greets a child from the popemobile as he rides around St. Peter's Square at the Vatican before his weekly general audience Dec. 17, 2025. In his message for World Peace Day, the pope encouraged everyone to contribute to peace by being kind. "Goodness is disarming. Perhaps this is why God became a child," he wrote. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Pope urges people to protect, cultivate even smallest signs of peace, hope
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, seen in a file photo, as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, sent a letter to leaders of the Jewish community in the United States, expressing the Catholic Church's prayerful solidarity with the Jewish community following a Dec. 14, 2025, terror attack on Jewish beachgoers in Australia. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)
USCCB president expresses church's solidarity with Jewish community
A drone view shows a flooded neighborhood in Burlington, Wash., Dec. 12, 2025, as an atmospheric river brings rain and flooding to the Pacific Northwest. The catastrophic flooding forced thousands of people to evacuate. (OSV News photo/David Ryder, Reuters)
Parishes clean up damage, help those displaced by floods in Western Washington state
Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, right, welcomes Ales Bialiatski, a political prisoner released from Belarus, as he arrives at the U.S. embassy in Vilnius, Lithuania Dec. 13, 2025. Bialiatski is a Catholic and the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. (OSV News photo/Ints Kalnins, Reuters)
Belarus' Catholic Nobel laureate says his freedom is 'truly a miracle from God'
Jimmy Lai's wife, Teresa Lai, and son Lai Shun Yan arrive at the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts building in Hong Kong, China, Dec. 15, 2025, for the verdict in the trial of Jimmy Lai, a prominent Hong Kong Catholic, philanthropist and media mogul. Three government-vetted judges found Lai, 78, guilty of conspiring with others to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiracy to publish seditious articles. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.(OSV News photo/Lam Yik, Reuters)
Hong Kong's Jimmy Lai convicted in 'farce' national security trial
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