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.
Judge blocks defunding of some, but not all, Planned Parenthood groups July 23, 2025By Kate Scanlon OSV News Filed Under: Feature, News, Respect Life, World News A federal judge on July 21 extended an order blocking enforcement of a provision in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which President Donald Trump signed into law July 4, that would have stopped Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid payments for a year.
Catholic Church mourns deaths in Bangladesh military plane crash July 23, 2025By Stephan Uttom Rozario OSV News Filed Under: News, World News In Bangladesh, grief and shock gripped the capital, Dhaka, after a military jet crashed into Milestone School and College on July 21, killing at least 31 and injuring more than 170.
Former Irish bishop’s remains removed from cathedral amid abuse allegations July 23, 2025By Sarah Mac Donald OSV News Filed Under: Child & Youth Protection, News, World News The remains of former Bishop Eamonn Casey of Galway, who resigned from office in 1992 after it was revealed he had fathered a child in 1974, have been removed from their burial place in Galway Cathedral in the wake of a number of allegations of child abuse that came to light in 2024.
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.”
Syrian Christian leaders say Islamist government can’t protect them or Druze July 22, 2025By Dale Gavlak OSV News Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, News, World News Syrian Christian leaders say they cannot trust the Islamist-led Syrian government of Ahmed al-Sharaa to provide the safety they need after a week of deadly clashes that claimed the lives of 1,000 people in the southern region of Sweida and urged international protection.
Kidnapped Nigerian priest who served in Alaska freed July 22, 2025By Gina Christian OSV News Filed Under: Missions, News, Religious Freedom, World News A Nigerian priest kidnapped by Boko Haram in June has been released, OSV News has learned.
Archbishop Wenski leads Knights on Bikes to pray rosary at Alligator Alcatraz July 21, 2025By Gina Christian OSV News Filed Under: Immigration and Migration, Knights of Columbus, News, World News Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami and some 25 Knights of Columbus saddled up their motorcycles to pray a rosary at the entrance of Alligator Alcatraz, the controversial migrant detention center recently opened in the Florida Everglades.
Poland’s government clashes with bishops over migration remarks while cardinal urges a shift in language July 21, 2025By Katarzyna Szalajko OSV News Filed Under: Immigration and Migration, News, World News Cardinal Grzegorz Rys of Lódz spoke up after two retired bishops sparked outrage with their migration and border policy remarks at the Marian shrine of Jasna Góra earlier in July.
Patriarch’s visit hailed ‘a miracle,’ while parishioners in Gaza feel horror, desperation July 21, 2025By Judith Sudilovsky OSV News Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, News, World News Parishioners of Gaza’s Holy Family Church are feeling “horror” and almost a sense of “desperation” after an Israeli tank shell struck the church, killing three elderly people sheltering there and injuring 10, said regional director of the Jerusalem office of Catholic Near East Welfare Association, or CNEWA, Joseph Hazboun.
Pope celebrates Apollo 11 anniversary with peek at the heavens, call to astronaut July 21, 2025By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service Filed Under: News, Vatican, World News Peering at the sunlit skies through a Vatican-owned space telescope and calling the last surviving member of the Apollo 11 spaceflight mission was how Pope Leo XIV celebrated the anniversary of the first crewed moon landing.
