News & Commentary

Pope Francis waves to a crowd of well-wishers at Rome's Gemelli hospital before returning to the Vatican March 23, 2025, after 38 days of treatment at the hospital.

Pope returns to Vatican after long hospitalization

OSV News March 24, 2025

Immediately before leaving Rome's Gemelli hospital after more than five weeks of treatment for breathing difficulties, double pneumonia and infections, Pope Francis greeted hundreds of people who gathered outside the hospital March 23.

A group of Russian pilgrims prays during a rosary led by Archbishop Paolo Pezzi of Moscow, near a statue of St. John Paul II outside Rome's Gemelli Hospital .

Pope’s chest X-ray confirms his improvement, doctors say

OSV News March 13, 2025

Pope Francis' condition continues to be stable and a chest X-ray "confirmed the improvements recorded in the previous days," his doctors said, but without saying his double pneumonia had cleared up completely.

4 in 5 USAID projects now canceled, with State Department overseeing the rest

OSV News March 12, 2025

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said March 10 that just 18% of programs of the now-shuttered U.S. Agency for International Development will remain intact, and those will now fall under his purview at the State Department.

Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, is seen on a video screen leading the rosary for Pope Francis at the Vatican March 10, 2025.

Pope out of danger but to remain in hospital

OSV News March 11, 2025

Pope Francis is no longer considered in imminent danger from his lung infection, but he will remain in Rome's Gemelli hospital for several more days to continue receiving medical treatment, the Vatican said.

A view of the entrance to the South Carolina Department of Corrections. Death row inmate Brad Sigmon is scheduled to be executed on March 7, 2025, by firing squad method at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina.

South Carolina carries out execution by firing squad

OSV News March 10, 2025

As South Carolina prepared to carry out the first execution by firing squad in the U.S. since 2010, Catholic activists against the death penalty had sought clemency from that state's governor.