News & Commentary

Blessed Carlo Acutis stands near his computer in a scene from a stop-motion animation Lego-Carlo Acutis film made by three brothers in County Limerick, Ireland, and released in mind-May 2025 on their YouTube channel, Fiontar Floinn. To the right in the background is a photo of Carlo (1996-2006).

Inspired by millennial soon-to-be-saint, Irish teens create animated Lego-Carlo Acutis film

In rural Limerick, three teenage brothers are turning Lego into a tool for evangelization as Blessed Carlo Acutis continues to inspire a new generation of digital evangelists.
Read More →
Ariel view shows the Transfiguration Cathedral in Odesa, Ukraine, damaged

Russian missile destroys Transfiguration Cathedral’s central altar in Odesa 

(OSV News) — A Russian attack on a key Ukrainian port city has partially destroyed a historic Ukrainian Orthodox cathedral and UNESCO World Heritage site, prompting international outrage and pledges to rebuild. Amid a July 23 nighttime attack by Russia ...
Read More →
SPARSE CONGREGATION AT MARYLAND CHURCH

New poll on declining faith should prompt greater witness, experts say

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — A new survey indicates belief in spiritual entities continues to decline in the U.S. — and evangelization leaders say the data is a call for Catholics to examine their own witness to their faith. Poll results ...
Read More →
Pope Francis greets Archbishop Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla of Juba, South Sudan, as the pontiff celebrates Mass at the John Garang Mausoleum in Juba Feb. 5, 2023. The pope announced during his July 9 Angelus that Archbishop Ameyu Mulla will become a cardinal. (OSV News photo/Catholic Press Photo/Vatican Media)

Cardinal-designate from South Sudan seen as peacemaker in ethnic conflicts

When the next consistory convenes at the Vatican on Sept. 30, a South Sudanese archbishop -- whose installation met stiff resistance -- will be among the 21 recipients of the red hat.
Read More →
A child's bicycle, seen in a still image from video, lies on a lawn as a police office walks down a residential street in Baltimore July 2, 2023, after a mass shooting at a Fourth of July holiday weekend block party. Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore asked for prayers for the victims after the mass shooting left two dead and injured more than two dozen others, most of whom were teens. (OSV News photo/Reuters)

Archdiocese of Baltimore’s Grief Ministry helps families affected by mass shootings

The Archdiocese of Baltimore's Grief Ministry is working to help the families affected by the July 2 mass shooting in the South Baltimore community of Brooklyn that claimed the lives of 20-year-old Kylis Fagbemi and 18-year-old Aaliyah Gonzalez.
Read More →
A rosary is pictured hanging from a machine gun in an undated file photo as Ukrainian soldiers stand at their positions near the Ukrainian town of Pervomaysk. Dorian Kernytsky, a Philadelphia-area Ukrainian Catholic, has been making hundreds of rugged, stainless steel rosaries for troops in Ukraine, hoping to provide solace amid the horrors of the current war with Russia. (OSV News photo/Gleb Garanich, Reuters)

Biden discusses war, humanitarian concerns in Ukraine with papal envoy

President Joe Biden met with Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, Pope Francis' special envoy to seek a peaceful resolution to the ongoing war in Ukraine on July 18.
Read More →
Crime scene tape is seen in a file photo. Father Stephen Ugwu, the pastor of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Melville, La., is stable and recovering following a July 13, 2023, attack with a machete at his church campus. The priest is at a hospital being treated for lacerations to his head and body. (OSV news photo/Baz Ratner, Reuters)

Louisiana priest in stable condition after machete attack

A priest in Melville, Louisiana, is stable and recovering following a July 13 attack with a machete at his church campus.
Read More →