Nation & World

Ally Nelson, who lost everything in her home, is consoled by Jonelle Brooks in Clarksville, Tenn., Dec. 10, 2023, after a tornado swept through the town. Tennessee officials are assessing the damage after tornadoes and strong thunderstorms roared across the state Dec. 9, leaving at least six people dead, dozens injured, multiple buildings destroyed and power outages. (OSV News photo/Kevin Wurm, Reuters)
Tennessee tornadoes strike nearly to the day of 2021 deadly storm
Len Vanden Bos, chaplain of the Buffalo Bills, is pictured in an undated photo praying with a player. While an Orchard Park-based Catholic priest frequently leads Saturday-evening Masses for the Catholics on the team, Vanden Bos - a nondenominational Christian - is entrusted with the task of providing pastoral care for the team on a daily basis. (OSV News photo/courtesy Len Vanden Bos)
Backed by Catholic clergy, Buffalo Bills chaplain provides rare full-time pastoral care
An Oct. 19, 2023, photo shows Father Allen Kuss, pastor of St. Patrick Patrick in Edina, Minn., and Don Keller, a retired medical illustrator, standing in front of the diorama they created of Bethlehem that includes a Nativity scene. Their approach was to show a busy and bustling city of Bethlehem that would have been filled with many people at the time of Christ's birth. The diorama opened for public display in St. Patrick Church Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, and will be on view through F
Diorama places Nativity scene amid a busy, bustling Bethlehem at time of Jesus' birth
Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minn., then chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, gives a presentation on the National Eucharistic Revival and the 2024 National Eucharistic Congress speaks during a Nov. 15, 2023, session of the fall general assembly of the USCCB in Baltimore. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)
Bishop hopes to see 'hearts set on fire' with Eucharistic love at 2024 congress
St. John Paul II smiles during a 1980 visit to Paris in this file photo. Relics of the Polish saint have been permanently enshrined in St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church in Kyiv, Ukraine. (OSV News photo/Giancarlo Giuliani, CPP)
Kyiv parish enshrines St. John Paul II relics as sign of 'strength to endure' persecution
The Christmas tree is lighted in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Dec. 9, 2023. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Pope marks 800th anniversary of Nativity scene, asks prayers for Holy Land
Country music star Craig Morgan, a parishioner of St. Christopher Church in Dickson, Tenn., is pictured in an undated publicity photo. Morgan, who joined the Catholic Church in 2017, a year after his wife and two sons joined the church, recently spoke with the Tennessee Register, Nashville's diocesan newspaper, about his faith journey, his newly released extended-play album and his decision to reenlist in the Army Reserve. Previously, he spent nearly 18 years on active duty and in reservist service from 198
Country star Craig Morgan shares his journey of faith to becoming Catholic
A firefighter salutes Mary after placing a wreath of flowers on a statue near the Spanish Steps in Rome Dec. 8, 2023, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Pope Francis was to pray at the statue later in the day, continuing the papal tradition of visiting the Spanish Steps on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Pope asks Mary to watch over Ukrainians, Palestinians, Israelis
A police officer is seen in a screenshot with his weapon drawn as students with their hands up evacuate the campus following a shooting at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas Dec. 6, 2023. A gunman who opened fire on the campus, killing three people and wounding a fourth before being shot dead by police, was a professor who unsuccessfully sought a job at the school, a law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press. (OSV News photo/Instagram, ryaananthonyyy vi
Las Vegas archbishop is 'holding close' victims of university mass shooting
Hunger Games Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
"The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" Review
A woman is pictured in a file photo holding a newborn at Holy Land Family Hospital of Bethlehem in the West Bank. The hospital, located just 1,500 steps from the birthplace of Christ, is confronting significant challenges amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip 45 miles away. (OSV News photo/courtesy HFH Foundation)
Hospital close to Christ's birthplace in Bethlehem struggles to operate amid war
Giovanni Russo, head of the Penitentiary Administration Department of the Italian Ministry of Justice, speaks at a news conference on social initiatives being undertaken by St. Peter's Basilica in preparation for the Holy Year 2025 at the Vatican Dec. 5, 2023. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Faith and forgiveness: Holy Year is 'also for the incarcerated'
The Catholic university's board of trustees announced Dec. 4 that Holy Cross Father Robert A. Dowd has been named Notre Dame's 18th president, effective July 1.
Univ. of Notre Dame names Father Robert Dowd its new president
Pope Francis signs the Interfaith Statement on Climate Change in his Vatican residence Dec. 3, 2023. The pope had been scheduled to sign the document at the Faith Pavilion at COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, but was forced to cancel the trip because of a bronchial infection. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Humanity must build alliances supporting peace, creation, pope says
A lantern is lit with a flame from the Peace Light during a ceremony at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, N.Y., Dec. 3, 2023. After its arrival on Austria Airlines, the Peace Light, a continuous flame originating in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, it will be taken across North America by a network of drivers formed by the Boy Scouts and volunteers will transfer the flame as a sign of "peace, harmony, and unity among all people of the world." (OSV News photo/Alicia Venter, The Tablet)
Message of Peace Light, now in US, seen as more urgent amid Israel-Hamas war
Participants speak during a theology conference on religious expressions in popular culture at the headquarters of the Latin American bishops' council, known as CELAM, in Bogotá, Colombia, Nov. 27, 2023. (CNS photo/Justin McLellan)
Conference puts pope's call for 'outgoing theology' into action
Sandra Day O'Connor is sworn in as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice by Chief Justice Warren Burger as her husband, John O'Connor, looks on in Washington Sept. 25, 1981. The first woman on the Supreme Court, she retired in 2006. O'Connor died Dec. 1, 2023, the high court said. She was 93. (OSV News photo/U.S. National Archives handout via Reuters)
Sandra Day O'Connor, first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, dies at 93
Wish film
'Wish' Review
Alhaja Bola Usman, a Muslim woman who is a retired Nigerian Customs officer, and Sister Agatha Chikelue, a member of the Congregation of Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy, pictured in an undated photo, are building a movement of women of faith to stand up against violence and search for peaceful coexistence in Nigeria. (OSV News photo/Sister Agatha Chikelue)
Women break stereotypes to encourage interreligious dialogue in violence-torn Nigeria
Miss Nicaragua Sheynnis Palacios points her finger upward after being crowned Miss Universe during the 72nd Miss Universe pageant in San Salvador, El Salvador, Nov. 18, 2023. (OSV News photo/Jose Cabezas, Reuters)
Nicaraguan Catholic Miss Universe wins hearts of fellow countrymen oppressed by the regime 
Clergymen into the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Kiev, Ukraine, June 5, 2017. The cathedral and its curia buildings sustained damage during a massive Nov. 25, 2023, drone attack by Russian forces on Kyiv. (OSV News photo/Valentyn Ogirenko, Reuters)
Russian drone damages Kyiv Catholic cathedral
Hadas, second from left, and Ofer Kalderon, second from right, pose in an undated family photo in Kibbutz Nir Oz, Israel, with their four children, from left, Sahar, now 16; Rotem, 19; Erez, 12; and Gaia, 21. Sahar and Erez along with their father were taken hostage by Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, and Hadar has received no word of their fate. They were not in any of the three groups released by Hamas Nov. 24-26. Her mother and niece have been reported murdered in Gaza. (OSV News photo/courtesy Hadas Kalderon) Editor
For most families with loved ones still held by Hamas, the painful wait continues
Pope Francis, who is recovering from pulmonary inflammation, shakes hands with Paraguay's President Santiago Peña Palacios at the end of their meeting in the Domus Sanctae Marthae at the Vatican Nov. 27, 2023. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Pope's health improving; he keeps some appointments
God, Mary, cherubs and a Carmelite saint seem to do a cosmic dance in this 17th-century Genoese painting. It's part of the "Faith, Beauty and Devotion" exhibit of 30 paintings from Italian and Flemish masters on display at the Belen Jesuit Preparatory School in Miami until Dec. 10, 2023. (OSV News photo/courtesy Belen Jesuit Preparatory School)
Exhibit of masterworks at Catholic school's art gallery shows how 'beauty is part of faith'
Pope Francis meets relatives of hostages taken by Hamas militants from Israel Oct. 7 in his residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae, at the Vatican Nov. 22, 2023. Members of the delegation carried posters of their loved ones. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Pope holds separate meetings with Israelis, Palestinians at Vatican
More