For the first time since its reopening in December 2024, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris marked the feast of the Assumption with a solemn outdoor procession.
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Firefighters saved the historic cathedral in Cordoba, Spain, Aug. 8, after flames and smoke were seen billowing from the iconic mosque-turned-church.
Thousands of young Poles made their way through the streets of Czestochowa July 19, singing and praying as they approached the Jasna Góra Marian shrine.
Amid the destruction witnessed during their July 18–20 pastoral visit to Gaza, following the Israeli shelling of the Holy Family Parish church compound that killed three people and injured 10, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III said they found something more enduring — “the dignity of the human spirit.”
As he prepared to leave his position as Franciscan custos of the Holy Land after nine years of service, Father Francesco Patton told OSV News that the time he has spent in the Holy Land as the superior of all Franciscans in the Middle East and the guardian of Catholic holy places in the region has been the most “important formative” experience of his life, and has “pushed him to dream” of a world without borders.
Sub-Saharan Africa has replaced Europe as the locus for the world’s Christians, due to both higher birthrates and Western Europe’s “widespread Christian disaffiliation” — with Christians declining as a share of the world’s population due to adherents leaving the faith, according to new research by the Pew Research Center.
The Council of Nicaea 1,700 years ago recognized that Christian unity had to be based on a common faith and should be demonstrated by a common celebration of Easter, the most sacred feast of the Christian year, said speakers at a Rome conference.
In a compelling address to the Sydney Catholic Business Network, Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney revealed that a “second spring” of Catholic faith is underway across Sydney and beyond, challenging popular narratives of religious decline.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople said he hopes Pope Leo XIV will “be a dear brother and collaborator … for the rapprochement of our churches, for the unity of the whole Christian family, and for the benefit of all of humankind.”
Catholic groups are welcoming Pope Leo XIV — the second pope from the Americas, and the first U.S.-born pontiff — who was elected May 8, the second day of the papal conclave.