Franciscan Media

News & Commentary

A file photo shows the gold-covered Dome of the Rock at the Temple Mount complex is seen in this overview of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. (OSV News photo/Debbie Hill)

As war nears two-year mark, Catholic leaders head to Holy Land

September 5, 2025
As the Israel-Hamas war nears the two-year mark, Catholic leaders have headed to Jerusalem, the Palestinian West Bank and Israel on a pastoral visit.
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Gena Heraty, a longtime Irish missionary in Haiti pictured with a child in a 2012 photo, has been freed after nearly a month of captivity, the news agency Agenzia Fides confirmed Sept. 1, 2025. Heraty was among several people -- including a 3-year-old child -- taken in the early hours of Aug. 3 after gunmen breached the Saint-Hélène orphanage in Kenscoff, near Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince. (OSV News photo/courtesy NPH International)

Irish missionary freed after monthlong kidnapping in Haiti

September 4, 2025
(OSV News) — A longtime Irish missionary in Haiti has been freed after nearly a month of captivity. Gena Heraty, who has been working in Haiti for 30 years, was freed along with the other hostages captured Aug. 3 after ...
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Loyola Ramblers fans hold up a poster of Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, longtime chaplain of the men's basketball team, after the team defeated the Kansas State Wildcats in the championship game of the South regional of the 2018 NCAA Tournament in Atlanta. On Aug. 21, 2025, Sister Jean celebrated her 106th birthday. (OSV News photo/Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports via Reuters)

From Final Four fame to 106: Sister Jean still cheering Loyola on

September 3, 2025
It's been more than seven years since Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt became a household name virtually overnight.
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Pope Leo XIV holds the St. Augustine Medal, which was presented to him by Augustinian Father Robert P. Hagan, prior of the order's U.S. Province of St. Thomas of Villanova, during a meeting July 18, 2025, at Villa Barberini in Castel Gandolfo, Italy. The pope recorded a video message of thanks, which was played in Philadelphia Aug. 28, 2025. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Pope talks about what Saint Augustine has taught him

September 2, 2025
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — “So much of who I am I owe to the spirit and the teachings of Saint Augustine,” Pope Leo XIV told his Augustinian confreres and their benefactors who were celebrating the saint’s feast day in Philadelphia. As Cardinal ...
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Figurines with computers and smartphones are seen in front of the words "AI Artificial Intelligence" in this Feb. 19, 2024, illustration. (OSV News illustration/Dado Ruvic, Reuters)

As US celebrates Labor Day, how AI should–and should not–be used at work

September 1, 2025
The dignity of workers must be protected amid the growing use of artificial intelligence in the workplace, the chairman of the U.S. bishops' domestic policy committee said in an Aug. 29 statement for Labor Day, Sept. 1.
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A memorial honoring shooting victims sits outside the Annunciation Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Parents of children killed in Minneapolis Catholic school shooting speak out

August 29, 2025
8-year-old Fletcher Merkel "loved his family, friends, fishing, cooking and any sport that he was allowed to play" and the hole left in his family's hearts by his death will never be filled, his father remarked at an Aug. 28 ...
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A priest pauses near the crime scene following a shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis Aug. 27, 2025.

Archbishop Hebda after Catholic school shooting: We ask for prayers, action

August 28, 2025
Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda told media Aug. 27 that prayers offered from around the United States and world, including from Pope Leo XIV, have been "a source of hope" following that morning's mass shooting during Mass at Annunciation Catholic School ...
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