The Second Vatican Council, which after three years of dialogue and document drafting closed on Dec. 8, 1965, changed the face of the church, and opened it to the modern world.

A newly released Vatican commission report on the issue of women deacons ultimately shows the profound theological mystery of Christ’s relationship to the church, as well as the rediscovery of the long-dormant diaconate itself, experts told OSV News.

As Pope Leo XIV was wrapping up his first apostolic trip to Turkey and Lebanon recently, the world was moved by the sight of a young Lebanese woman crying and hugging the pontiff as he was meeting with victims of the deadly 2020 Beirut port explosion.

Pope Leo XIV asked Canadian singer Michael Bublé and other artists to do their very best when performing a Christmas concert for the poor.

The Holy See’s diplomatic mission to the United Nations called for an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine “not at some undefined moment in the future, but right now.”

A commission set up by Pope Francis to study women deacons has voted against the possibility of ordaining women deacons while also supporting more study on the issue.

Pope Leo XIV’s childhood home just outside of Chicago has been declared a historic landmark.

Spending time with Catholics, other Christian leaders and top Muslim clerics in Turkey Nov. 27-Nov. 30 and Lebanon Nov. 30-Dec. 2, the pope made formal speeches about how believing in God as the father of all means recognizing one another as brothers and sisters.

On the second leg of his apostolic journey that took him to Lebanon, Pope Leo XIV prayed at the tomb of St. Charbel on Dec. 1.

At the end of his first foreign trip as pope, a trip focused on dialogue, Pope Leo XIV said the examples of friendship and respect he had seen could be a helpful example for people in North America and Europe, too.