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

OSV News 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.

The Gift of Perfect Joy

Susan Hines-Brigger December 6, 2023

Happiness and joy. Those are two words that get tossed around quite a bit at this time of year and certainly with good reason. The birth of Christ is definitely something to celebrate.

Portraits of six African Americans who are sainthood candidates are displayed in the lobby of the Catholic Center in Baltimore in November 2023 for Black Catholic History Month.

Group Visits Vatican Officials, Advocates for Canonization of Black Catholics

OSV News December 5, 2023

When three members of St. Ann Parish in East Baltimore sat down with leaders of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican in late October to advocate for sainthood for six Black potential saints from the United ...

Brian Terrell, who lives on a Catholic Worker farm in Maloy, Iowa, and Martha Hennessy, granddaughter of Catholic Worker co-founder Dorothy Day, carry a banner in New York City during a march to abolish nuclear weapons Nov. 28, 2023. Catholic Worker and Pax Christi members were among the participants. The event coincided with the second Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons taking place at U.N. headquarters in New York City Nov. 27-Dec. 1. (OSV News photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)

Nuclear disarmament a ‘pro-life issue,’ warns archbishop

OSV News December 4, 2023

The threat from nuclear weapons is as great now as ever, and their destructive power is more immediate than climate change, said Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico, at a Nov. 29 Mass in Manhattan that remembered ...

Pope planning to withdraw Cardinal Burke’s Vatican salary, sources say

OSV News November 30, 2023

Pope Francis told the prefects of Vatican dicasteries that he saw no reason for the Vatican to continue giving U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke a monthly salary and questioned why the Vatican should be providing him with a free apartment ...

Pope cancels Dubai trip although Vatican says his health is improving

OSV News November 29, 2023

"With great regret," Pope Francis has accepted his doctors' advice to not travel to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Dec. 1-3 and is looking at alternative ways the Vatican can participate in the U.N. Climate Change Conference, the director of ...