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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

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

Vatican

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."

The Latest

Editors' Choice

Focus

A sign is pictured in a file photo at a homeless encampment in Seattle. (OSV News/Reuters/David Ryder)

In Focus

The Francis Effect podcast: SCOTUS and homelessness; pop culture roundup; Sr. Elizabeth Johnson

Listen: Heidi, Father Daniel and David talk about media they've been consuming lately, as well as a recent Supreme Court case that might affect care for the homeless. Then Heidi interviews Sr. Elizabeth Johnson.

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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 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

#2
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
Protestors assemble outside stone church with pride flags

#3
Catholic priest resigns from Michigan church following protests over his criticism of a gay author

ByThe Associated Press

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

#5
Candace Owens converts to Catholicism

#6
With the red heifer ceremony, God purifies the people through the earth

Opinion

They arrested us. I hope it brings an end to nuclear weapons.

Guest Voices

Editorial: Finally, (some) US dioceses are taking the pope's climate message seriously

Editorial
Jason Blakely is pictured in a screenshot from a video about his book Lost in Ideology: Interpreting Modern Political Life (NCR screenshot/YouTube/Jason W Blakely)

Blakely's book on ideology bristles with insights

NCR Voices

We all use ideologies in one way or another to make sense of our world, and we need to find ways to discuss that world with people who possess different ideological reference points, writes Michael Sean Winters.

Vatican's own gender ideology makes 'Dignitas Infinita' incoherent

Guest Voices

Your Letters: Women's ordination, church growth, Louisiana excommunication, and live-streamed Mass

Letters to the Editor
A sign is pictured in a file photo at a homeless encampment in Seattle. (OSV News/Reuters/David Ryder)

The Francis Effect podcast: SCOTUS and homelessness; pop culture roundup; Sr. Elizabeth Johnson

Listen: Heidi, Father Daniel and David talk about media they've been consuming lately, as well as a recent Supreme Court case that might affect care for the homeless. Then Heidi interviews Sr. Elizabeth Johnson.

Vatican

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

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."

Group of priest sit around table, along with sister, smiling and talking.
Vatican News

Global group of pastors looks at parishes, synodality and mission

"Tradition comes alive in the art of creatively transmitting the messages entrusted to us. We must transmit them in new translations into a living, intelligible language," Father Tomáš Halík, a Czech theologian, told the priests. "To be faithful to tradition is not to be resistant to change."

ByCindy Wooden, Catholic News Service
Francis, the comic strip: Gabby reminds Francis and Brother Leo of the suffering in Africa.
Francis, the comic strip

Francis, the comic strip

Francis, the comic strip: Gabby reminds Francis and Brother Leo of the suffering in Africa.

ByPat Marrin
Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, speaks during an immigration conference at The Catholic University of America in Washington April 11, 2024. (OSV News/Catholic University of America/Patrick Ryan)
Vatican News

Bishop Seitz expresses 'grave concern' over scapegoating of migrants in 2024 election

Listen: In this episode of The Vatican Briefing, a leading Catholic bishop on the U.S.-Mexico border expresses "grave concern" that the 2024 presidential race could lead to further demonization of migrants seeking to enter the country.

ByJoshua J. McElwee, Christopher White

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Vatican News

Vatican announces papal visit to Verona, Italy

Vatican News

Pope visits Venice to speak to the artists and inmates behind the Biennale's must-see prison show

Vatican News

Pope will join G7 discussion on AI

A woman walks past couches in the Kamuchiri village of Mai Mahiu in central Kenya's Nakuru County April 29, 2024, after heavy flash floods wiped out several homes when a dam burst, following heavy rains. (OSV News photo/Thomas Mukoya, Reuters)
Faith

Kenyan archbishop appeals for humanitarian aid as floods devastate the country

Amid severe floods in Kenya, rescue operations were continuing April 29 as the death toll surpassed 120 people due to excessive rains and floods linked to the continuing El Nino phenomenon in East Africa. Archbishop Anthony Muheria of Nyeri appealed for humanitarian support to aid thousands of displaced people.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, is seen in this screen grab reading Pope Francis' speech for the inauguration of the Faith Pavilion at COP28, the U.N. Climate Change Conference, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Dec. 3.
Viewpoints

The Vatican should do more to influence UN climate action

Paris Agreement pledges alone won't reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Vatican can respond with an initiative based on the work of the Laudato Si' Action Platform and the competencies of Catholic universities. 

ByGriffin Thompson
Red heifer and white buffalo (Left: Dreamstime/Bbsimpson; right: Dreamstime/Kenny Tong)
Viewpoints

Black Elk, White Buffalo Woman and the mystery of the red heifer ceremony

The red heifer ceremony flows out of our deepest human spiritual instincts. Rituals that combine land, power and wholeness, where mystery is greater than clarity. Lakota Catholic spirituality helps us to understand.

ByDamian Costello
A miniature of a red heifer is seen in the lower margin illustrating a liturgical poem in Hebrew for Shabbat Parah, 1349. (Picryl)
Viewpoints

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

The red heifer has been in the news, with rumors that the ancient ceremony from Scripture will be revived. Like the wild ox, this sacrifice emphasizes power and life, and works to restore wholeness to the community.

ByDamian Costello

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Justice

How clean water and faith go hand in hand

Justice

Brazil's bishops alarmed over growing number of land disputes under Lula's government

Faith

Lexington Diocese, in heart of coal country, commits to net-zero emissions

Culture

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. 

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
Black and white concert photo

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

‘The Sound of Silence’ version of the ‘Our Father’ has been widespread throughout Latin America and U.S. Latino communities for the last few decades.

ByAleja Hertzler-McCain, Religion News Service
Pope Francis prays during the Good Friday Liturgy of the Lord's Passion in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican March 29. (CNS/Vatican Media)
Book Reviews

New book takes readers 'On Retreat With Pope Francis'

Book review: In First Belong to God: On Retreat With Pope Francis, Austen Ivereigh offers a retreat based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and delivering a compelling summary of Pope Francis' theology.

ByMaryanne Hannan

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

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

Book Reviews

'Righting the American Dream' spotlights lingering damage of Reagan presidency

Book Reviews

Rabbi finds hope, comfort in new book by his friend, Pope Francis

Sr. Teresita Weind

Sr. Teresita Weind, tireless advocate for Black sisters, dies at 81

 Sr. Teresita Weind was a founding member of the National Black Sisters' Conference, served on its board and many committees, and represented the conference on the board of the National Office of Black Catholics.
 

Magda Bennásar, second from the right, with members of the the Community of Magdala (Courtesy of Magda Bennásar)

My experience with Global Sisters Report

It was through Global Sisters Report and its columnists that I discovered an alternative path, for which I am deeply grateful.

By
Sr. Josephine Huynh Thi Ly (center) and another nun inject a patient at the Central Hospital in Hue in April 2023.

Q & A with Sr. Josephine Huynh Thi Ly, serving HIV/AIDS patients with love and respect

St. Paul de Chartres Sr. Josephine Huynh Thi Ly has been offering medical care and emotional support to people with HIV/AIDS at the state-run Central Hospital in Hue since 1997.

ByJoachim Pham
Dan Stockman, national correspondent for Global Sisters Report, stands with Missionary Servants of the Divine Spirit sisters in Michigan in 2015.

The deep honor of telling the stories of sisters

 These 10 years have flown by. If the next 10 are in any way as rich and fulfilling, I will have had a most amazing career, indeed, writes GSR national correspondent Dan Stockman. 

ByDan Stockman

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

With GSR, I've taken a leap into celebrating God's creative presence

Latin America religious urged to continue 'prophetic' 65-year history

The Easter Exsultet is a call for liberation in India's Catholic Church

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