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The Messina College campus, located on the Brookline Campus of Boston College (Courtesy of Messina College/Boston College)

Classes start soon in new Boston College program for 1st-generation, low-income students

News

Messina College, a new two-year, associate's degree program of Boston College, is designed for first-generation, low-income students. The new college's dean says the effort "brings us back to our roots as an institution."

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Focus

Pope Francis greets people as he rides the popemobile around St. Peter's Square at the Vatican April 25. Francis sent a brief letter to Drachma Parents April 30, responding to their criticism of a Vatican document that condemned gender theory and gender-affirming surgeries. Their original letter to Francis was dated April 23. (CNS/Lola Gomez)

In Focus

Pope responds with 'open heart' to Vatican document criticism from parents of LGBTQ children

Pope Francis has written to a group of parents of LGBTQ persons, responding to their criticism of a Vatican document that condemned gender theory and gender-affirming surgeries. He told them he received their critique with an "open heart."

Most Read Stories

(Unsplash/Alice Donovan Rouse)
Guest Voices

#1
Catholic students, theologians, ministers write an open letter to Pope Francis

"We love this church, we love our Catholic faith," but "personally, professionally and ministerially, we are concerned with Dignitas Infinita's statements on gender theory and sex change," they write.

By
Pope Francis greets people as he rides the popemobile around St. Peter's Square at the Vatican April 25. Francis sent a brief letter to Drachma Parents April 30, responding to their criticism of a Vatican document that condemned gender theory and gender-affirming surgeries. Their original letter to Francis was dated April 23. (CNS/Lola Gomez)
Vatican News

#2
Pope responds with 'open heart' to Vatican document criticism from parents of LGBTQ children

Pope Francis has written to a group of parents of LGBTQ persons, responding to their criticism of a Vatican document that condemned gender theory and gender-affirming surgeries. He told them he received their critique with an "open heart."

ByChristopher White
Pope Francis speaks to members of the Italian Catholic Action lay association gathered in St. Peter's Square during a meeting at the Vatican April 25, 2024. (CNS/Lola Gomez)
Vatican News

#3
Pope asks lay Catholics to prepare for synod's 'prophetic' stage

The most important outcome of the current Synod of Bishops on synodality is the synodal process itself and not the hot-button topics discussed, Pope Francis said.

ByJustin McLellan, Catholic News Service

#4
'It's a different time': Relations between US sisters, Vatican have changed radically

#5
With the red heifer ceremony, God purifies the people through the earth

#6
Candace Owens converts to Catholicism

Opinion

What would JFK think of Catholics and today's US politics?

Guest Voices

In Ukraine, life during wartime takes a spiritual toll

Guest Voices
Palestinians inspect the site of Israeli airstrike on a house, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 24, 2024. (OSV News/Reuters/Mohammed Salem)

Despair in the Holy Land

Guest Voices

We have to persevere for peace and have hope because the alternative is too terrible to imagine, writes Jesuit Fr. Thomas Reese.

The problems with criticisms of 'Dignitas Infinita'

NCR Voices

The rise and fall of 'Father Justin' highlights Catholic sexism

Guest Voices
Bishop Robert Barron, founder of the Catholic media apostolate Word on Fire, arrives at St. John the Evangelist Co-Cathedral in Rochester, Minnesota, July 29, 2022, where he was installed as the ninth bishop of the Winona-Rochester Diocese. (CNS/Courtesy of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries/Clare LoCoco)

Bishop Barron's Word on Fire is too thin-skinned for its own good

NCR Voices

Asking Commonweal to retract a passage in an article Word on Fire didn't like raises a larger issue: that a diocesan bishop, armed with a personal media empire, thinks it is appropriate to stifle public discussion.

Vatican

Enormous image of divine mercy, flanked by smaller canvases of St. Faustina and clerical sponsor, hang above altar while Mass is celebrated.
Vatican News

Vatican to publish updated norms for investigating alleged apparitions

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith will publish its new norms for the discernment of apparitions and other supernatural phenomena May 17, the Vatican press office said.

Everyone loves the pope.
Francis, the comic strip

Francis, the comic strip

Francis, the comic strip: "See everything, ignore a lot, change a little."

ByPat Marrin
Pope Francis kisses a gold reliquary while seated.
Vatican News

Pope urges reparation to the Sacred Heart, including for abuse crisis

The spiritual practice of reparation "may be somewhat forgotten or wrongly judged obsolete" today, but it is essential for the promotion of justice and healing, including on behalf of those who have suffered abuse in the church, Pope Francis said.

ByCindy Wooden, Catholic News Service
Pope pictured from behind, in front of him is audience hall filled with priests.
Vatican News

Pope calls pastors to be 'missionaries of synodality'

Pope Francis signed a letter on synodality in the presence of parish priests and urged them to be "missionaries of synodality," said several of the priests present.

ByCindy Wooden, Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Vatican News

Jordan's king promises pope Christian holy sites will be protected

Francis, the comic strip

Francis, the comic strip

Vatican News

Fear is the great nemesis of faith, pope says at general audience

Conflagration rages up hillside.
Faith

How ‘apocalypse’ became a secular as well as religious idea

By tracing what events the media describe as “apocalyptic,” we can gain insight into our changing fears about potential catastrophes. 

Cows are pictured in a file photo grazing on a farm just outside Postville, Iowa. For the past 100 years, Catholic Rural Life, based in St. Paul, Minn., has ministered to Catholics who live and work in a rural setting. (OSV News photo/CNS file, Bob Roller)
Faith

Catholic Rural Life marks a century and plans to sow seeds for another 100 years

For the past 100 years, Catholic Rural Life has ministered to Catholics who live and work in a rural setting. The St. Paul-based national organization receives support from 80 dioceses. It now has members in 45 states.

ByOSV News
A church official distributes trees to rows of people.
Faith

Inspired by Laudato Si', Catholics in Bangladesh work to protect environment

Bangladesh's tiny Catholic community is responding to environmental degradation in the country with conservation efforts by groups who have been inspired by Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si'. 

By
Sr. Susan Francois speaks April 22 in New York at a hearing held by environmental leaders to examine Citigroup's record on environmental racism.
Justice

Catholic sisters urge Citigroup to assess climate, human rights policies

A shareholder's resolution led by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace calls for Citigroup to examine its efforts to respect the human rights of Indigenous people in the projects it finances and invests in. 

ByDan Stockman

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Faith

Pittsburgh parish creation care group hosts Earth Day fair

Faith

Kenyan archbishop appeals for humanitarian aid as floods devastate the country

Viewpoints

The Vatican should do more to influence UN climate action

Culture

Sophie Nélisse, left, as Irena Gut in a scene from "Irena's Vow" (Courtesy of Quiver Distribution)

New film 'Irena's Vow' highlights the bravery of a historical Catholic figure

Louise Archambault's film "Irena's Vow" tells the true story of Irena Gut, a devout Polish Catholic who risked her life by hiding 12 Jews in the basement of a Nazi major's residence where she was a housekeeper. 

Jedi Master Yoda listens in a scene from the movie "Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones." (CNS/Lucasfilm)

Jedi heresy on Star Wars Day: Wrong, Yoda was

"Do or do not," Yoda said in "The Empire Strikes Back." "There is no 'try.' " But what does the Gospel have to say?

ByMark Piper
The Heeler family in the Disney+ show "Bluey" includes parents Bandit and Chilli, and daughters Bluey and Bingo.

What 'Bluey' teaches us about times of spiritual desolation

What St. Ignatius of Loyola insists — and what Bluey's father, Bandit Heeler displays — is that when in a state of spiritual desolation, making a rash decision is never the answer. 

ByEric Clayton
A reader holds folded hands on top of an open Bible that lays on a wooden surface. (Unsplash/Jametlene Reskp)
Book Reviews

'The Hero and the Whore' invites us to consider the lens we bring to the Bible

The Hero and the Whore: Reclaiming Healing and Liberation through the Stories of Sexual Exploitation in the Bible asks readers to shed the patriarchal lens through which most of us have read and studied the Bible.

ByNatalie Alfaro Frazier

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Why you might have heard Paul Simon’s ‘The Sound of Silence’ at Spanish Mass

Book Reviews

New book takes readers 'On Retreat With Pope Francis'

Regina King stands out in uneven biopic about political trailblazer Shirley Chisholm

Mary Magdalene anointing the feet of Christ is depicted in a stained-glass window at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Greenlawn, New York. (OSV News/Gregory A. Shemitz)

Understanding the Easter mysteries we just celebrated

As I reflected on Easter, I realized that the death of Christ would be in vain if we did not practice what he taught us by his exemplary living. His actions during Holy Week demonstrate how we should live with each other.

Daughter of Charity Sr. Anne Marie Lamoureux, right, welcomes guests at the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, Maryland. A dream of Lamoureux’s grew into Seeds of Hope, a program that offers retreats to those marginalized by society. (Courtesy of the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton)

Q&A with Sr. Anne Marie Lamoureux, on inviting marginalized people on retreat

Sr. Anne Marie Lamoureux helped create Seeds of Hope, a program at the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton that offers retreats for people on society's margins — addicts, the homeless, the poor and isolated.

By
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio's "The Incredulity of Saint Thomas" (circa 1604) shows the moment the apostle Thomas came to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

What Doubting Thomas can teach us about not knowing

"Sometimes I wish for a more obvious God, who brings only good things into my life and saves me from pain and trial and erases my wounds," writes Sr. Stephanie Peirolo. "I know it is more complex than that."
 

By
Light shines through small window into dark church.

Whatever our ministry or role, we are each 'the miracle of an original'

The Life - This month, we ask our panelists: "When we stop doing, we ask ourselves, who are we? When you are not working in your ministry, who are you?" 

ByThe Life Panelists

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Media Council of Kenya honors GSR's Doreen Ajiambo

Monday Starter: Sisters join other Catholics in letter to stop US weapons to Israel

GSR en español: One year of reaching sisters in Latin America

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