News & Commentary

A student tries out the Blessed Carlo Acutis virtual reality experience at the Purpose Fest 2025 in Sydney July 2. Hundreds clamored in Sydney to be the first in the world to step into the groundbreaking virtual reality journey that transports attendees into the life and spiritual legacy of the young Blessed Carlo, who will be canonized Sept. 7 at the Vatican. (OSV News photo/Giovanni Portelli, courtesy The Catholic Weekly)

Into the mystery: How virtual reality is reimagining Catholic evangelization

OSV News July 21, 2025

The experience begins with a luminous church window framing a radiant image of Blessed Carlo Acutis hovering inches before your face.

a group of people in scrubs and masks performing an operation

Lebanon’s hospitals are on the front lines amid ongoing violence of war

OSV News November 26, 2024

BEIRUT (OSV News) — In Lebanon, hospitals and the health care sector have become the front and center of attention—and an imminent target—following the most recent bout of violence due to heavy clashes in southern Lebanon between Israeli troops and Hezbollah ...

Migrants are detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents in Sunland Park, N.M., Oct. 24, 2024, after they crossed into the United States from Mexico. (OSV News photo/Jose Luis Gonzalez, Reuters)

Catholic groups advocate for immigrants amid new administration, Congress

OSV News November 22, 2024

Catholic organizations have reiterated their "solidarity with immigrants" and shared what the first 100 days of a second Trump administration may bring on immigration policy.

A Roman collar is seen on display at the International Religious Products and Services Exhibition in Bologna, Italy, Feb. 13, 2024. (CNS photo/Justin McLellan)

Survivor advocates call for universal ‘zero tolerance’ of clerical abuse

OSV News November 21, 2024

A watchdog group in the U.S. is applauding calls to make "zero tolerance" for clerical abuse the rule for the worldwide Church.

Indianapolis Archbishop Charles C. Thompson offers an opening prayer at a rally Nov. 17, 2024, on the grounds of the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis to call on Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb to halt the execution of Joseph Corcoran scheduled for Dec. 18. It would be the first execution in the state in more than a decade. The rally was sponsored by the Indiana Abolition Coalition. Activists pushing President Joe Biden to commute existing federal death sentences during his final months in office hope that if he does that, his action could be "the beginning of the end" of the death penalty at the federal and state levels. (OSV News photo/Sean Gallagher, The Criterion)

Report examines ‘persistent racial disparities’ in federal death penalty use

OSV News November 20, 2024

A new report by the Death Penalty Information Center examined what it called persistent racial disparities in federal death penalty prosecutions.

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike as displaced Palestinians make their way to flee areas in the eastern part of Khan Younis following an Israeli evacuation order, amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip Oct. 7, 2024. (OSV News photo/Hatem Khaled, Reuters)

Pope calls for investigation of possible genocide in Gaza

OSV News November 19, 2024

Pope Francis said the international community should investigate whether Israel's military actions in Gaza constitute genocide.

A bird flies over the statue of the Risen Christ on top of the facade of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican during Pope Francis' weekly general audience Nov. 13, 2024. The motto of a U.S. youth ministry called the Dead Theologians Society is "mortuum mundo, vivum in Christo" ("dead to the world, alive in Christ,"), which echoes St. Paul's call in Romans 6:11 to be completely transformed in accord with Christ's death and resurrection. (CNS photo/Pablo Esparza)

Dead Theologians Society brings new life to youth ministry

OSV News November 18, 2024

A youth ministry founded by a former rock drummer is sounding the call to grow closer to Christ by imitating the lives of the saints, and by praying for the souls in purgatory.