OSV News

An active shooter at Villanova University reported late afternoon Aug. 21 was a "cruel hoax," a university official said less than two hours after the initial scare that led to a campus lockdown.

As the Trump administration seeks to end Russia's multiyear war on Ukraine, Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians continue, said Metropolitan Archbishop Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia.

Other ICE detention centers like Alligator Alcatraz have been under consideration for other locations, including in North Florida, Indiana and Nebraska.

Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille, France, said his visit to the Holy Land was intended as a gesture of solidarity with the local Christian community and a demonstration of support for "all the friends of peace."

Six pro-life activists, a majority of them Catholics including two recently pardoned by President Donald Trump, are now facing state charges for a July 31 Red Rose Rescue abortion clinic "rescue" in Upland, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, that temporarily disrupted its activities.

This year the mission of Holy Trinity Parish in Washington to "accompany one another in Christ" took on a new focus and a new urgency. After a Mass earlier this year, parishioners at the Jesuit parish in Washington's Georgetown neighborhood held a meeting to discuss the impact of the new Trump administration's policies.

Pope Leo XIV turns 70 on Sept. 14 and some of his closest friends in the Chicago-area will mark the day with him in mind, quietly.

A tourist itinerary connecting dozens of landmarks associated with Pope Leo XIV's decades-long mission in Peru was launched in July by the South American country's government, in a joint effort with the church and the tourism industry to draw national and international visitors.

Metropolitan Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia said, "the truth is that we are in the Lord's hands and His truth will prevail."

"Unnecessary raids, mass detentions, and family separations betray the values of our nation and the Gospel," Kansas bishops wrote in a joint pastoral letter on immigration.

Some immigrant religious workers are facing legal limbo, and Catholic advocates are pushing the Trump administration to address the backlog in their visa category.

Nicaragua's ruling Sandinista regime has seized a prominent Catholic school, claiming without proof that it had operated a "torture" center during past protests and renaming the education facility for a slain partisan.

"Members of the German bishops' conference and Central Committee of German Catholics have adopted a guide for pastoral workers on blessing couples not married in church — they've recommended diocesan bishops proceed in accordance with its spirit," explained Matthias Kopp, spokesman for the German bishops.

Since it was created in 1980, more than 3 million refugees have been welcomed to America through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, known as USRAP. That changed on Jan. 20 of this year when President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled, "Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program."

Every corner bears the marks of a deepening humanitarian catastrophe: gaunt faces of children, long lines at makeshift aid points, and parents who have nothing left to give but words of comfort and prayer.

A Canadian court has ruled a Canadian diocesan priest can continue his civil suit against fellow Basilian Fr. Thomas Rosica and the Basilian Fathers of Toronto, with the plaintiff, Fr. Michael Bechard, seeking damages for alleged sexual abuse by Rosica.

Before the service, a new bell donated by U.S. Catholics rang out for the first time in one of the two bell towers of Urakami Cathedral, replacing a bell that had been destroyed in the bombing.

In this Jubilee Year, the CCCB deems it appropriate for creditors to cancel debts "that oppress and hold back integral human development."

The pontiff is viewed more favorably across party lines, although "consistent with the ideological differences in his ratings, he is liked better by Democrats than Republicans."