OSV News

In a statement published Feb. 24, the bishops said that during a Nov. 17 audience, the pope spoke with them about "the risks of subjecting faith to ideologies without mentioning any specific group."

Two prominent Catholic cardinals have expressed their profound concern and sorrow over a recently announced decision by the Society of St. Pius X — which rejects the authority of the Second Vatican Council — to ordain bishops this summer without papal approval.

On the fourth anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Catholic bishops of the U.S. said "the people of God resist, trust, and pray" despite the "countless deaths and millions of casualties" the brutal conflict has claimed in 12 years of warfare.
 

The German bishops' conference announced that it has elected Bishop Heiner Wilmer of Hildesheim as its next president.

The statement from 20 U.S. prelates called for the restoration of asylum in the immigration system, particularly at the border, and an end to intimidation and fear tactics in enforcement efforts.

The Lenten season is a reminder that Christians are called to bear witness to Christ through authentic witness, not self-righteous indignation, Norwegian Trappist Bishop Erik Varden told the pope and Vatican officials.

Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, and the secretary for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, delivered a lecture at Holy Cross College on what he described as a "crisis of immense proportions."

"Like the popes and bishops speaking up to protect God's creation, our Catholic faith calls all of us to bring our values to public life, too," Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski of St. Louis writes.

Pope Leo XIV has renewed his "heartfelt appeal" for an "immediate ceasefire" in Russia's war against Ukraine and again urged dialogue "be strengthened to pave the way toward peace."

Mexican bishops called on the faithful to follow safety protocols as violence broke out in several states following the military's killing of a powerful cartel boss.

 "To give a true homily is to share faith," and artificial intelligence "will never be able to share faith," the pope said.

The cardinal Dolan said he "had a little tête-à-tête" with Vance sometime after "he suggested that bishops in the United States were pro-immigrant because we were making money."

The Trump administration's effort to remove a slavery exhibit at a national historic site in Philadelphia distorts history, while eroding racial justice and healing, several Black Catholic leaders told OSV News.

Peter Dai Bui, who as a young boy escaped religious and political oppression in his native Vietnam following the country's fall to Communism, was ordained a bishop Feb. 17 and installed in the office of auxiliary for the Diocese of Phoenix in a joyful ceremony witnessed by all but two of his large family who emigrated with him.

By July 2025, the U.S. Agency for International Development — established in 1961, and which in 2024 provided $187 million in humanitarian funding to Ghana — effectively ceased to exist, with 85% of its programs cut. The result was that many in-country aid organizations also ceased operations. But not CRS.

In his Feb. 19 address to participants of the religious congregation's General Chapter, the pope said that authority in religious life should serve as a means of "animating common life" centered on Christ, while "avoiding any form of control that does not respect the dignity and freedom of persons."

The St. Raphael Academy community in Pawtucket has joined other area high schools in mourning the deadly tragedy that rocked a series of hockey games underway Feb. 16 at a local arena, where a group of its players were gathered to play.

Why do so many people make an extra effort to get to church on Ash Wednesday — the first of Lent's 40 days — when it is not a holy day of obligation, and they are not required to receive ashes?

The Holy See "will not participate" in President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace" for Gaza, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's secretary of state, said Feb. 17, citing "points that leave us somewhat perplexed."