Nation & World

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
A man receives a blessing during an outdoor Mass Nov. 1, 2025, held outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Ill. U.S. District Judge Robert W. Gettleman in Chicago granted a preliminary injunction Feb. 12 that allows clergy, religious and Catholic social justice advocates to enter the ICE facility on Ash Wednesday Feb. 18 to offer ashes and holy Communion to detained Catholics. (OSV News photo/Leah Millis, Reuters)
Federal judge orders Catholic group be let into ICE facility on Ash Wednesday
Pope Leo XIV chats with children before posing for a group photo during his pastoral visit to the Parish of Santa Maria Regina Pacis in Ostia Lido, Italy, Feb. 15, 2026. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
A true parish welcomes everyone, spreads respect, harmony, pope says
This undated photo series depicts Minnesota artist Sheryl Moran's process painting a portrait of Pope Leo XIV that was installed at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. (OSV News photo/courtesy Sheryl Moran)
Minn. artist prays daily for Pope Leo XIV after painting his portrait for U.S. seminary in Rome
Dome at the University of Notre Dame
Bishop Rhoades calls on Notre Dame to reverse new director's appointment over abortion advocacy
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)
Pope Leo XIV explains why Catholics fast during Lent
A photo of earth from space with visible lights
AI literacy: A digital examen for the soul
Pope Francis meets with Cuban bishops during their 2017 "ad limina" visit to the Vatican. The bishops of Cuba have postponed their planned "ad limina" visit to Rome Feb. 16-20, 2026, after government authorities announced that airlines could no longer refuel due to U.S. tariff threats against countries supplying oil to the island nation. (CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano)
Cuban bishops postpone 'ad limina' visit amid fuel shortage crisis
Pope Leo XIV greets a child in the Lourdes Grotto at the Vatican Gardens on the World Day of the Sick Feb. 11, 2026. (OSV News photo/Simone Risoluti, Vatican Media)
Pope Leo XIV prays at Vatican's Lourdes grotto on World Day of the Sick
Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori reflects on the ministry of priests during Mass for the Archdiocese of Baltimore day of prayer, celebration of service and remembrance Nov. 18, 2024, at St. Joseph Church in Cockeysville, Md. In a Feb. 9, 2026, pastoral letter, Archbishop Lori urged Catholics to approach public life with synodal listening and civic virtue, drawing on Blessed Michael McGivney's example of serving immigrant families. (OSV News photo/Kevin J. Parks, Catholic Review)
In pastoral letter, Baltimore archbishop calls for renewed political culture
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