News & Commentary

Thousands of young Poles make their way through the streets of Czestochowa, Poland, July 19, 2025, singing and praying as they approached the Jasna Góra Marian shrine. This year's annual pilgrimage and camp marked the 25th anniversary of the Foundation "Dzielo Nowego Tysiaclecia" (Work of the New Millennium), a vibrant "living memorial" to St. John Paul II, supporting talented youth from underprivileged backgrounds. (OSV News photo/courtesy Sara Janikowska, Work of the New Millennium)

Poland’s memorial to St. John Paul II marks 25 years of transforming lives

OSV News July 25, 2025

Thousands of young Poles made their way through the streets of Częstochowa July 19, singing and praying as they approached the Jasna Góra Marian shrine.

A combination picture shows undated handout images of hostages Ori Danino, Carmel Gat, Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, and Almog Sarusi, were kidnapped by Hamas during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. Their bodies were found underground in the Rafah area of the Gaza Strip Sept. 1, 2024, and returned to Israel, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Pope calls for cease-fire as young Israeli-American found dead in Gaza tunnel along with 5 other hostages

OSV News September 3, 2024

In what was a devastating Sunday morning for hostage families, Israel said Sept. 1 that it had recovered the bodies of six hostages in Gaza, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose parents became outspoken global advocates for all hostages to ...

Police officers stand near the burned wreckage of a bus Aug. 9, 2022, that was set on fire by members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel following the detention of one of its leaders by Mexican federal forces in Zapopan in the Mexican state of Jalisco. (OSV News photo/Fernando Carranza, Reuters)

Guatemala cardinal: Drug cartels wield ‘total power’ on border with Mexico

OSV News August 30, 2024

Cardinal Álvaro Ramazzini of Huehuetenango, Guatemala, has warned that drug cartels control the border between Mexico and Guatemala, provoking spasms of violence which have sent hundreds of Mexicans fleeing into his diocese.

A group of protestors stand outside the Shrine of Our Lady of Valverde in the southern Italian city of Enna Aug. 22, 2024, to protest the local clergy’s role in covering up clerical sexual abuse. Among those present was Antonio Messina, center-right, who was 16 when Father Giuseppe Rugolo, a priest of the Diocese of Piazza Armerina, abused him. Father Rugolo was convicted March 5 on charges of aggravated sexual assault against Messina and another unnamed victim and sentenced to more than four years in prison. (OSV News photo/courtesy Antonio Messina)

Catholics in Southern Italian diocese protest abuse cover up

OSV News August 29, 2024

Catholics in the Southern Italian city of Enna, Sicily, protested the local church's role in covering up sexual abuse after a court recently ruled that the diocesan bishop sought to protect a priest accused of having abused several minors as a ...

A file photo shows Nigerian security personnel standing by a burnt building after violence in the town of Adikpo in Nigeria's Benue State. In an Aug. 23, 2024, statement, the US-based Catholic Medical Association called for the release of 20 Catholic medical school students kidnapped Aug. 15 in east-central Nigeria. (OSV News photo/George Esiri, Reuters)

Catholic doctors condemn kidnapping of Nigerian medical students

OSV News August 28, 2024

Catholic health care professionals have condemned the Aug. 15 kidnapping of 20 Catholic medical students in Nigeria.

A student completes a math assessment on her computer in her Broward County, Fla., home May 29, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. (OSV News photo/Maria Alejandra Cardona, Reuters)

Educators: Special needs, disabilities on the rise, thanks to screen time, pandemic

OSV News August 27, 2024

Two key educators associated with Head Start of Miami-Dade County in Southern Florida and Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami worry about an uptick in youngsters with specific developmental disabilities and special needs.