Franciscan Media

News & Commentary

Bishop Alberto Rojas of San Bernardino, Calif., the main celebrant, distributes Communion to a detainee during a Mass on the grounds of the ICE Processing Center near Adelanto, Calif., Dec. 10, 2025. Attendees said the Mass, which took place in the Mojave Desert, was deeply emotional for both the bishops and the roughly 300 detainees present.

California bishops celebrate ‘very powerful’ Mass for detainees in ICE facility

December 19, 2025
A group of seven California bishops celebrated Mass at the ICE Processing Center outside the town of Adelanto in the Mojave Desert on December 10, providing communion to the roughly 300 detainees present.
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A woman holds a sign during "A Rally for SNAP" on the steps of the Massachusetts Statehouse in Boston Oct. 28, 2025, ahead of the expected Nov. 1 suspension of SNAP food assistance benefits because of the ongoing U.S. government shutdown.

After judge’s order, Trump administration to issue partial SNAP payments

November 4, 2025
The Trump administration has indicated that it will not appeal court orders directing it to pay SNAP benefits, but that it will only issue partial payments in November.
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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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A handout photograph, shot in January 2024, shows women and babies at the Zamzam displacement camp, close to el-Fasher in North Darfur, Sudan. (OSV News photo/Mohamed Zakaria, MSF handout via Reuters) Editors: THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT

With thousands trapped in Sudan, Catholic leaders amplify calls to end war

October 30, 2025
As a paramilitary group announced the capture of el-Fasher, the besieged capital of Sudan's North Darfur state, Catholic Church leaders amplified calls for the protection of "forgotten" civilians.
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A person poses with a dose of Novavax Nuvaxovid COVID-19 vaccine in this illustration photo taken in Schwenksville, Pa., Oct. 2, 2025. (OSV News photo/Hannah Beier, Reuters)

Despite policy changes, COVID-19 vaccines may hold promising new uses

October 29, 2025
Amid policy changes governing their use, and as research suggests promising new uses for messenger RNA, or mRNA, vaccine technology, COVID-19 vaccines have become available ahead of cold and flu season.
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Vatican | Photo by Caleb Miller on Unsplash

How Doctors of the Church Are Chosen

October 28, 2025
(OSV News) — With Pope Leo XIV set to proclaim of St. John Henry Newman as a doctor of the church Nov. 1, let’s consider what criterion is used to make this decision, whether a layperson could be named a doctor ...
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Lakota riders arrive at the government building where they will meet Brad Upton, descendant of the commander of the Wounded Knee massacre on the Cheyenne River reservation in Eagle Butte, S.D., Nov. 6, 2019. Bishop Scott E. Bullock of Rapid City, S.D., and the state's Jesuits, have condemned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's decision to retain the Medal of Honor for the U.S. soldiers that massacred 300 Lakota people at Wounded Knee in 1890. (OSV News photo/Stephanie Keith, Reuters)

Bishop, Jesuits reject Hegseth decision to honor soldiers who massacred Lakota

October 27, 2025
A South Dakota bishop and a Jesuit community in that state have countered a recent decision by the nation’s top defense official to retain awards for soldiers who killed hundreds of Indigenous civilians in a late 19th-century attack.
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