OSV News

A late-night hostage-exchange agreement has been reached between Israel and Hamas Nov. 21, and church leaders hope it will lead to end to the war.

The president of the Spanish bishops' conference has appealed for calm following mass protests against the planned release of jailed Catalan separatists under a deal with the new socialist-led government.

Upstart presidential candidate Javier Milei, who attacked Pope Francis as "filthy leftist," overwhelmingly won Argentina's presidential election on a radical libertarian platform of dollarizing the economy and shrinking the state in a country beset by recurring economic crises and triple-digit inflation.

Former first lady Rosalynn Carter passed away Nov. 19 at her home in Plains, Georgia, according to a statement from The Carter Center.

Proposals from the Synod on Synodality can be judged by whether they call men and women to holiness, as the church does more work "to ensure a genuinely Catholic understanding of synodality, inclusion and discernment," Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney has written.

Less than two weeks after the United Auto Workers secured historic concessions from the nation's "Big Three" automakers, another prominent union can claim a significant victory: the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

The president of the Polish bishops' conference has bitterly criticized demands for liberal change by the church in neighboring Germany and urged the pope not to allow them to dominate the Rome Synod on Synodality.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's anti-Catholic persecution is part of a broader trend of threats to democracy around the globe, experts on a Georgetown University panel said Nov. 14.

Ahead of COP28, the U.N. climate change conference, Catholic leaders in Africa called for decisive action against climate change, as churches and agencies moved to aid people affected by floods.

A closer look at the largest survey of U.S. Catholic priests in 50 years has revealed "a major shift in how priests view themselves and their priesthood," said researchers.

The Supreme Court appeared poised to uphold a federal law prohibiting those under domestic violence restraining orders from owning firearms during Nov. 7 oral arguments in United States v. Rahimi, a case challenging the constitutionality of a federal ban on firearms possession by those under domestic violence restraining orders.

Ohio voters on Nov. 7 approved Issue 1, a measure that will codify abortion access in the state's constitution. The loss marks another electoral defeat for anti-abortion ballot measures in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The Stockton Police Department was investigating whether a hate crime was behind an act of vandalism that left white paint streaked across the front doors of the 81-year-old Cathedral of the Annunciation in Stockton.

The Archdiocese of Mobile said it is "relieved" that a priest who fled his pastoral assignment this summer has returned to the U.S., as the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office announced its investigation into the priest has been closed with no charges filed.

An ecclesial movement has just admitted its former U.S. leader has been credibly accused of sexual and psychological abuse against young adults and minors over more than two decades.

The United Auto Workers labor strike against the "Big Three" car producers -- Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, whose 14 automotive brands include Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep -- has ended with a series of contracts experts say emphasizes the importance of unions in Catholic social teaching, especially for achieving family wages through collective action.

If Russian President Vladimir Putin prevails in his invasion of Ukraine, religious freedom in the country would be curtailed, Ukrainian faith leaders said at a recent event at the United States Institute of Peace.

Awake Milwaukee, an independent nonprofit that works to heal sexual abuse in both the Milwaukee Archdiocese and the Catholic Church as a whole, has chosen several patron saints as guides on the journey to recovery.

It took 10 months for the Vatican to reopen Fr. Marko Rupnik's case -- from the first reports on the case of Slovenian mosaic artist in December 2022 and the first alleged victims' testimonies at that time, to dismissal of the priest from the Jesuit order in July, to public outrage after his incardination into a Slovenian diocese.

Catholic Charities USA, the organization dedicated to carrying out the domestic humanitarian work of the Catholic Church in the United States, responded Oct. 31 to "disturbing" recent remarks by a social media influencer threatening its staff.