Pope sets Aug. 22 as day to pray, fast for peace in Ukraine, Holy Land August 20, 2025By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, Feature, News, Vatican, War in Ukraine, World News Pope Leo XIV asked Catholics to observe Aug. 22 as a day of prayer and fasting for peace and justice, particularly in Ukraine and in the Holy Land.
For Gazans, the deep silence of hunger has replaced noise of daily life August 13, 2025By Diaa Ostaz OSV News Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, Disaster Relief, Feature, News, World News The streets of Gaza are quieter than they used to be — not because peace has returned. The deep silence of hunger has replaced the noise of daily life.
Radio Interview: The situation in Gaza with Catholic Near East Welfare Association August 11, 2025By Catholic Review Staff Catholic Review Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, CR Radio, Feature, Local News, News, Radio Interview In this episode of Catholic Review Radio, Editor Christopher Gunty talks with Joseph Hazboun, regional director for Catholic Near East Welfare Association, a pontifical mission. Hazboun says the situation in the Gaza Strip is unspeakably tragic.
Ambassadors call attention to starving Israeli hostages, Gazan civilians August 7, 2025By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, News, Vatican, World News Pope Leo XIV, like Pope Francis before him, consistently has called on Hamas to release the hostages it kidnapped in Israel almost two years ago and has pleaded with Israel to allow the delivery of more humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.
Children of Abraham: Let us find another way to peace August 6, 2025By Elizabeth Scalia OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Conflict in the Middle East These brothers, Arabs and Jews alike, must face the fact that as they spill each other’s blood and destroy their own family they’re perpetuating the age-old curse of rootless dispossession down the decades. They must admit their culpability for miseries, past and present.
Lebanese Catholic clergy commemorate Beirut port explosion victims five years later August 4, 2025By Dale Gavlak OSV News Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, News, World News Lebanon’s Catholic clergy celebrated a commemorative Mass and held a vigil in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, remembering those who perished five years earlier, on Aug. 4, 2020, in the catastrophic Beirut port explosion.
Pope Leo stands with youth in Gaza, Ukraine, calls for dialogue, not war August 4, 2025By Junno Arocho Esteves Catholic News Service Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, News, Vatican, War in Ukraine, World News, Youth Ministry In a message of solidarity and peace, Pope Leo XIV said the Catholic Church stands with young people suffering in war-torn areas, including Gaza and Ukraine.
Against the odds, CRS has delivered aid to 1.7 million in Gaza since 2023 August 1, 2025By Gina Christian OSV News Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, Disaster Relief, Feature, News, World News Despite daunting odds, Catholic Relief Services and its on-the-ground partners have managed to deliver aid to 1.7 million people in Gaza since 2023, according to new data.
IDF says Gaza Holy Family Parish hit was errant mortar round that veered off course July 23, 2025By Judith Sudilovsky OSV News Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, News, World News An Israel Defense Forces investigation concluded that the strike on the Holy Family Parish compound on July 17 was the result of an accidental mortar round that veered off course during “operational activity” by IDF troops in the area of Gaza City, the IDF said in a July 23 statement.
Peace by force is a ‘troubling’ idea, Iran cardinal says July 23, 2025By Junno Arocho Esteves OSV News Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, News, World News The recent 12-day war between Israel and Iran has brought about fear and anxiety in the country and tested the faith of its small Catholic community, said Belgian Cardinal Dominique Mathieu of Tehran-Isfahan.
U.S. to withdraw, again, from UNESCO over Palestine and UN development goals July 23, 2025By Kate Scanlon OSV News Filed Under: Arts & Culture, Conflict in the Middle East, News, World News The Trump administration on July 22 said the United States would withdraw from the United Nations’ cultural agency UNESCO, a group that has partnered with the Holy See on human development and cultural heritage projects.
Christ is not absent from Gaza, but crucified in the wounded, patriarchs say after visit July 22, 2025By Judith Sudilovsky OSV News Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, News, World News 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.”
