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.

God never gives up on anyone, even when the person betrays God’s love, Pope Leo XIV said.

Attacks on Christian churches in the U.S. last year totaled 415 — down from 485 in 2023 — although they are “significantly higher” than totals recorded from 2018 to 2022, according to a new report from the Washington-based Family Research Council.

About a decade after the Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, overturning state laws defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman, the justices have been directly asked to overturn the ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

The Spanish bishops’ conference was criticized by the head of Spain’s far-right VOX party after the church expressed religious concerns following a local council’s measure that would effectively ban Muslims from holding religious events in certain areas.

Japanese Catholics were joined by four U.S. prelates — two cardinals and two archbishops — and by Catholic university leaders and students from the United States who were participating in a “Pilgrimage of Peace” to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the bombings and to pray together for peace and for a world without nuclear weapons.

President Donald Trump said Aug. 11 he will place the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Department “under direct federal control,” activate the National Guard, and “get rid of the slums” in what he called an effort to combat crime in Washington.

The National Park Service announced Aug. 4 that it will restore and reinstall a statue of a senior Confederate officer in the nation’s capital that was toppled during riots following the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

Ukrainian child advocate Mykola Kuleba is pleading for the Vatican’s assistance, after publicly highlighting what he said was one of several databases used by Russian occupation officials to market abducted Ukrainian children to Russian foster and adoption families.

Archbishop José Luis Escobar Alas of San Salvador issued a pair of petitions for lawmakers during a Mass celebrated for the feast of the Divine Savior, observed in the country to commemorate the Transfiguration. Both petitions ventured into the realm of politics.