Franciscan Media

News & Commentary

Mourners gather for the funeral of members of the Abu Dalal family in Nuseirat, in central Gaza Strip, Oct. 29, 2025, who were killed in an overnight Israeli strike on their home, according to medics. (OSV News photo/Mahmoud Issa, Reuters)

With Gaza situation fragile, Christian’s presence in Holy Land ‘threatened’

October 31, 2025
In the Gaza Strip, the fragile calm following the Oct. 13 Israel-Hamas peace deal has brought little relief to the enclave's small Christian community.
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Pope Francis caresses the cheek of a woman whose hand was amputated in the violence that continues to plague the eastern part of Congo. The pope met victims of violence Feb. 1, 2023, at the apostolic nunciature in Kinshasa. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Victims of violence in Congo share their grief with pope

February 2, 2023
Pope Francis had planned to go to Goma in the violence-torn North Kivu province, but increased fighting forced him to cancel the trip to the East to protect the crowds that would gather to see him.
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Mothers are pictured in a file photo at a home in Silver Spring, Md. Activists at the Catholic Social Ministry Gathering Jan. 30, 2023 discussed how to be pro-woman, pro-worker and pro-family. (OSV News photo/CNS file, Bob Roller)

Affordable child care key component of post-Roe response, advocates say

February 1, 2023
Affordable child care must be a core component of a post-Roe response from the Church, advocates at the Catholic Social Ministry Gathering said on Jan. 30.
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People who fled fighting in South Sudan are seen in a file photo walking at sunset on arrival at Bidi Bidi refugee camp near the border with South Sudan, in Yumbe, Uganda. (OSV News photo/James Akena, Reuters)

‘He is the only hope we have,’ say refugees in South Sudan about pope’s visit

January 31, 2023
Pope Francis is taking off for the African continent Jan. 31 for a historic and long-awaited apostolic trip to Congo and South Sudan, countries longing for peace and stability.
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Israeli security personnel work at a scene where a suspected incident of shooting attack took place, police spokesman said, just outside Jerusalem's Old City Jan. 28, 2023. Jerusalem spiraled into a weekend of violence as seven Israelis were killed Jan. 27 at a synagogue after prayers and another shooting the next day left two Israelis injured just outside of the Old City in the Palestinian village of Silwan where Jewish settlers have established themselves and an archaeological site. (OSV News photo/Ammar Awad, Reuters)

Christian quarter targeted as Jerusalem spirals into weekend of violence

January 30, 2023
Following a rampage of a radical Jewish gang in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City on the evening of Jan. 26, the Assembly of the Catholic Ordinaries in the Holy Land called on political and religious authorities to bring ...
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In interview, pope says criticism is annoying, but can be helpful

January 26, 2023
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Public criticism by cardinals and bishops is annoying — “like a rash that bothers you a bit,” Pope Francis said — but differences need to be aired and criticism can be helpful, he told the Associated ...
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Monterey Park shooting a ‘gut punch’ for L.A.’s Chinese Catholics

January 25, 2023
LOS ANGELES (OSV News) — Local Chinese Catholics celebrating the start of the Lunar New Year at Chinatown’s Catholic parish also prayed for the victims of the mass shooting in nearby Monterey Park the night of Jan. 21. “We pray ...
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