OSV News

Attacks on the Catholic Church in Nicaragua have fallen in 2025, but a report on church persecution in the Central American county attributes the decline to few priests and religious reporting the crimes and harassment committed against them and church property.

The fullness and intensity of the Lord of the cosmos — through whom, with whom, and in whom all that is, is — is made present to us under the appearance of simple bread and wine of the altar. Everything that exists serves as the backdrop for that which is most wonderful and surprising of all: God comes to us.

A longtime Irish missionary in Haiti has been freed after nearly a month of captivity. Gena Heraty, who has been working in Haiti for 30 years, was freed along with the other hostages captured Aug. 3 after gunmen breached the Saint-Hélène orphanage in Kenscoff, near Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince.

Molly Zimmerman understands that pumping porta-potties, grooming trails and coordinating hundreds of volunteers isn't how everyone is called to cultivate their God-given gifts, but it's how she has been called — hesitantly and full of worry, at times — to cultivate hers.

Parish celebrates the first weekend Mass -- a "humble beginning," the pastor called it -- since the attack Aug. 27 that killed two elementary school students, wounded 15 others and three adults.

"The community that was there put aside differences and helped one another," said Bishop Kevin Kenney.

 The publication noted the pontiff's link to Leo XIII, whose 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum "railed against the new machine-driven economic systems converting workers into commodities."

Ligot, 59, comes from Laoag City, Philippines. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 14, 1992, for the Diocese of Laoag and was incardinated into the Diocese of San Jose on March 30, 2004.

A Wisconsin priest who headed up his diocese's Office of Worship has been arrested for allegedly seeking to meet up for sex with someone whom he believed was an underage teen girl.

The 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina marks a call to "renew our commitment to racial equity and justice in every sector of public life," said two U.S. Catholic bishops.

A pastoral reflection on immigration from the Iowa Catholic bishops aims to present church teaching in a way that "transcends" political rhetoric and "fear and false narratives" about the issue often found in secular and social media, Bishop Dennis Walsh of Davenport said.

A security expert told OSV News that parishes and churches can take several key steps to reduce the threat of attacks such as the deadly Aug. 27 shooting during a school Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis.

Bishop Paul Tighe, a top official at the Vatican's Dicastery for Culture and Education, urged caution around AI's environmental and social costs in his address to the Congress of the European Society for Catholic Theology at Trinity College.

Trump's comments came amid his federalization of the police force in the nation's capital and after he activated the National Guard in what he called an effort to combat crime in Washington.

As the Trump administration seeks to implement its hardline immigration policies, it has increased enforcement actions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in immigration courts, prompting alarm from Catholic immigration advocates.

Before the attack, Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa said prayer is not "a magic formula that solves problems," but rather a means of transforming hearts to reject violence and hatred, and embrace fraternity, mutual respect and goodness.

Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, expressed concern Aug. 22 about "safeguarding human dignity" of detainees after the state's governor announced plans for a migrant detention center dubbed "Cornhusker Clink."

"Even as we pray for the repose of the souls of the victims and for the consolation of their survivors, we urge you to spare Mr. Windom's life," their letter said. "Every human life, given by God, is sacred."

Katrina's impact has been multifaceted on both the city and on the local church.