Nation & World

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
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
 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
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'
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
Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee pauses during a news conference in Providence Dec. 14, 2025, following a mass shooting at Brown University. Bishop Bruce A. Lewandowski of Providence offered prayers for "all affected by this tragedy" in the wake of a Dec. 13 shooting at Brown University that left two students dead and nine others injured. (OSV News photo/Kylie Cooper, Reuters)
Rhode Island Catholic bishop offers prayers in wake of shooting at Brown University
This is a still from the recently released documentary "Trailblazers of Faith: The Legacy of African American Catholics" from the Black and Indian Mission Office in Washington. It tells the story of how African American Catholics have been able to embrace their faith without abandoning their own culture. (OSV News photo/courtesy Black and Indian Mission Office)
Films tell story of African American Catholics' legacy, church's ministry to Native Americans
Pope Leo XIV arrives in procession for his Mass for the Jubilee of Prisoners in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican Dec. 14, 2025. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
God wants all people to be saved, pope says at Jubilee of Prisoners
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
Sister Nelida Molina, of the Eudist Servants of the 11th Hour, talks with inmates during a visit to the La Mesa State Penitentiary on Dec. 1, 2025, in Tijuana, Mexico. Later that morning Mass was celebrated on the birthday of Mother Antonia Brenner, founder of the order, which does ministry and social work in the prison, as well as work with cancer and HIV/AIDS patients and the poor. Twelve years after her death at age 86, members of her religious community are launching an effort to canonize Mother Antonia
Sainthood effort begins for Mother Antonia, the nun who chose to bring Gospel behind bars
Sister María Celina Mota Campos moves toward a sculpture for the blind at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City Nov. 6, 2025. Sister María Celina, of the Order of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament, lost her sight to macular degeneration about 11 years ago, but said she's learned to see Our Lady of Guadalupe with her heart instead of her eyes. (OSV News photo/Rhina Guidos, GSR)
For sister who can't see, sculpture in Mexico allows her to venerate Our Lady of Guadalupe via touch
Father Gary Graf, pastor of Our Lady of the Heights Parish in the Chicago suburb of Chicago Heights arrives near the Ohio state line during his 50-day pilgrimage on foot from Chicago to New York to highlight the upheaval immigrant families are experiencing under the current immigration crackdown. Edgerton, Ohio, Oct. 16, 2025. (OSV News photo/courtesy Olivia Erbach)
Chicago priest concludes 57-day walking pilgrimage to New York for immigrants' plight 
Father Jud Duplenticy (Josh O'Connor), and Msgr. Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin) star in a scene from the movie "Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery." The OSV News classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. (OSV News photo/John Wilson, courtesy Netflix)
Meet the Catholic priest who helped make the new 'Knives Out' Netflix movie
Pope Leo XIV incenses an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe during Mass on her feast day in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican Dec. 12, 2025. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
On Guadalupe feast day, pope prays leaders shun lies, hatred, division, disrespect for life
People attend a candlelight vigil outside the Sen. John H. Hughes Office Building in downtown Syracuse, N.Y., Dec. 4, 2025, to speak out against a controversial bill that, should it become law, would allow physicians to assist terminally ill adults as young as age 18 to die by suicide. (OSV News photo/Tami S. Scott, The Catholic Sun)
Candlelight vigils urge New York governor to veto physician-assisted suicide bill
On Nov. 29, 2025, the rector of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Msgr. Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, blessed this large nativity scene featuring 150 figurines from Provence, and on the same day the Christmas market opened at the cathedral square. It brings together French artisans and creators. In the evening, the illuminated facade of Notre Dame lights up a square joyfully occupied by musicians and singers, where tastings of typical French regional cuisine delight everyone. (OSV News photo/courtesy Notre Dame Cath
More than 11 million have visited Notre Dame since its reopening
Pope Leo XIV waves to visitors gathered in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican for the recitation of the Angelus prayer Dec. 7, 2025. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Advent call is to cooperate in building a kingdom of peace, pope says
A young woman walks past a memorial outside Annunciation Church in Minneapolis Aug. 30, 2025, which is a home to an elementary school and was the scene of a shooting. The shooter opened fire with a rifle 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)
3 months after fatal shooting, Minneapolis church is restored for worship
A file photo shows an activist against the death penalty protesting along a road outside the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., Jan. 12, 2021. On Dec. 3, 2025, a coalition of more than 50 organizations from across the country announced the formation of a new alliance called the U.S. Campaign to End the Death Penalty to unite behind a national strategy to end capital punishment in the United States. (OSV News photo/Bryan Woolston, Reuters)
New coalition aims to end capital punishment as executions increase but public support wanes
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