St. John Henry Newman — the 19th-century theologian, intellectual and preacher who journeyed from Anglicanism to Catholicism, powerfully shaping religious thought in both faith traditions — will be named a doctor of the church by Pope Leo XIV, the Vatican announced July 31.
Pope Leo XIV met with a top Russian Orthodox cleric July 26, the first such visit from Moscow since the papal election, and one that comes amid strained relations with Rome due to Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine. In his July 27 Angelus message, Pope Leo XIV appealed to leaders with power to end wars to start peace talks; he also welcomed all the young people who arrived in Rome for the Jubilee of Youth, which has included a first-class relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis and special events for digital missionaries and influencers. His Wednesday general audience, given in St. Peter’s Square, noted how social media has contributed to society’s ills, and that we need to ask the Lord to heal our ways of communicating to be more effective and to avoid wounding others.
A federal judge on July 28 ruled Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide must continue to be reimbursed for Medicaid funding, indefinitely blocking a provision in President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda that would strip those funds for one year.
This summer marks 50 years of the Steubenville Conferences, a series of Catholic gatherings that have shaped generations of teens and adults in their faith, deeply impacting parishes, dioceses and apostolates across the U.S.
As the world marks the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago, Cardinal Robert W. McElroy of Washington, Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Seattle and Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico, will travel to Japan on a “Pilgrimage of Peace.”
On July 27, Word on Fire founder Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, received the 2025 Josef Pieper Prize from the Josef Pieper Foundation in Münster, Germany. Instituted in 2004, the prize is conferred every five years for outstanding works upholding Christian anthropology.
“We should never get used to violence or lose our respect for the sacredness of human life,” said Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, following a deadly shooting in that city that claimed four lives at a midtown Manhattan skyscraper just blocks from St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
How do you handle a curmudgeon in religious life? That’s the question Conventual Franciscan Father Michael Heine tackled with both humor and heart at the Conference of Major Superiors of Men National Assembly, held July 21–24 in Baltimore.
Thousands of pilgrims scaled Ireland’s holy mountain, Croagh Patrick — where St. Patrick is reputed to have spent 40 days fasting in the fifth century — for the traditional “Reek Sunday” pilgrimage on July 27.
The Catholic Church in Poland is grappling with a shocking tragedy: A diocesan priest has confessed to the brutal July 24 murder of a homeless man.
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