(ANALYSIS) On June 21, 2025, Alex Sobel, a member of the U.K. Parliament, delivered a letter to Pope Leo XIV after a special audience for members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), in the Hall of Benediction, the Vatican, calling upon him to stand up for Jimmy Lai, who has been imprisoned by Hong Kong authorities since December 2020.
Read MoreWhile only 20% of U.S. adults currently identify as Catholic by religion, millions more hold cultural, familial or historical ties to the church. Among those who identify as Catholic by religion, levels of observance differ. Only 13% reported never or rarely engaging in any of the faith’s core practices. The vast majority — 74% — fall somewhere in between, the report said.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Compared to Europe, where many sainthood causes benefit from institutional support, funding and access to the Vatican, Africa faces unique challenges. Canonization is a complex and costly process. It requires documentation, verification of miracles and years of advocacy. Local dioceses may lack the resources to keep these causes moving forward. In the end, many African Catholics feel like their voices and stories have been left on the margins.
Read MoreThe canonizations of the two young saints — one from the early 20th century, the other the first 21st-century saint — have been greatly anticipated due to the great devotion among the faithful.
Read More(OPINION) We are all curious to see how Pope Leo XIV will engage with the Trump administration. The Chicago Archdiocese’s upcoming celebration of the pope, an American-Peruvian dual citizen, stands in contrast to the military parade being hosted in Washington, D.C. on the same day. At the same time, the Catholic Church has seen empires rise and fall.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Leo’s elevation broke the longstanding rule of thumb that no American, as a citizen of a superpower, could or even should become pope. But that did not trouble the College of Cardinals in May, and leading up to his election Cardinal Robert Prevost felt free to critique current American policies.
(ANALYSIS) So far, Pope Leo XIV has not addressed ongoing debates about restrictions on use of the Tridentine Mass, often called the “traditional Latin Mass.” Bishops around the world have been pulled into these battles after the 2021 release of the Pope Francis apostolic letter “Traditionis Custodes (Guardians of Tradition).”
Read MoreBerlin faces growing intolerance of immigrants and their religions, especially Muslim Arabs from countries like Turkey and Syria. right-wing extremist political parties like the Alternative for Germany echo Nazi talking points and pine for a homogenous, white and Christian society. History, however, shows that such a time never existed.
Read More(REVIEW) “The Ritual” is a movie you’ve seen many times before. But the story is clearly powerful enough that it is worth retelling. Hopefully, filmmakers will start figuring out how to tell these stories in new and different ways. In the meantime, we have movies like “The Ritual” and can always rewatch a classic such as “The Exorcist” again.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Houses of worship need social enterprise now more than ever. Churches, synagogues and other houses of worship are facing a dire situation. Up to 100,000 U.S. houses of worship may close over the next decade. The percentage of Americans belonging to a faith institution has plummeted from 70% to 47% over one generation with no sign of abating.
Read MoreHow will Leo’s formative three decades in the United States before life in Peru and Rome shape his church of 1.4 billion souls? Yes, the cardinals must be thinking an American could solve the Holy See’s $98 million annual deficit, severely underfunded pensions, and declining donations. They may also hope his solid administrative experience might tame the curia, the Vatican’s notoriously Italianate “deep state.”
Read MoreTexas Rangers slugger Jake Burger’s return to form coincided with the election of a fellow Midwesterner as the first U.S.-born pope. Faith is ingrained in the devout Catholic athlete and his family.
Read MoreZachariah Fufeyin, a priest hailing from the Catholic Diocese of Bomadi in southern Nigeria, had only one mission when he started livestock farming at Our Lady of the Waters Farm in November 2019: To help the poor and provide animal protein to low-income families.
Read MoreThe U.S. Supreme Court could not find five votes for either side in an appeal that would have established the first state-supported religious charter school in the nation. The 4-4 split — made possible by Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s recusal — allowed to stand the lower court’s decision that it would be unconstitutional for St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School in Oklahoma City to be established with public funds.
Read MoreSuper-intelligent computers that go bad isn’t a new concept, as fans of the “Terminator” franchise know all to well. However, when I think about digital evil, I remember the haunting voice of the HAL 9000 supercomputer in 1968 sci-fi classic “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Think about this: That was a voice that Sir Anthony Hopkins heard in his head as he prepared to play the brilliant serial killer Hannibal Lecter in “The Silence of the Lambs.”
Read MoreWith the fisherman's ring and the lambswool pallium over his shoulders, these links to John Paul II helped Leo XIV stress the need for unity and core Catholic traditions. Nonetheless, he faces painful challenges even while calling for unity.
Read More(ANALYSIS) During his time in the South American nation, Pope Leo XIV lived alongside his parishioners through a bloody civil war, a decade-long dictatorship and an unstable post-dictatorship period that has so far led to three former presidents being handed prison sentences.
Read MoreIn India, caste oppression is a persistent and insidious reality that continues to affect millions, even in communities that formally reject caste divisions. The Christian community, which upholds the belief in equality before God, is not exempt from this social inequality. Dalit Christians, in particular, face discrimination and exclusion — even within church spaces. However, a growing number of Dalit Christians are challenging this oppression.
Read MoreTwo years after gaining political independence from Britain in 1980, Zimbabwe plunged into another dark era. The government sanctioned a military operation named “Gukurahundi,” which means “the early rain which washes away the chaff before the spring rains.” More than 20,000 civilians were murdered in the 1980s — and now churches are being called on to help with the reckoning.
Read MoreMany Christian families reported living in fear — facing threats of social boycott, electricity cuts and verbal abuse. Some have left their villages or publicly disavowed their faith to avoid conflict. Others now live with the trauma of having been denied the chance to grieve with dignity. In cases where women were disrobed or attacked during mourning, the abuse was not only communal but gendered.
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