The Catholic University of America, the national university founded by the U.S. bishops, announced that Taylor Black, director of AI & Venture Ecosystems in the Office of the Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft, has been named founding director of a new interdisciplinary institute on artificial intelligence and emerging technologies.

Depending on the context, the concept of pronatalism — encouraging people to have children, or the promotion of childbearing — can either be cause to celebrate the critical role of the family in society; a techno-elitist vision of a future populated by humans engineered for specific traits; or a cringe-worthy expression of anti-immigrant nativism.

For members of religious orders, obedience is “an act of love” and a powerful witness to the world of how gestures of selflessness are needed to build true community, Pope Leo said.

Bishop Timothy C. Senior of Harrisburg said he was “deeply saddened” by a shooting in rural Pennsylvania that claimed the lives of three police officers and injured two others.

An independent United Nations inquiry commission has concluded Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, but a “serious weakness” in the U.N.’s Security Council could prevent taking action in accord with the Genocide Convention, said Father Elias D. Mallon, special assistant to the president of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association-Pontifical Mission.

French Christians are reeling after the brutal murder of Ashur Sarnaya, a 45-year-old disabled Iraqi Chaldean Catholic, stabbed in the throat outside his Lyon apartment.

Pope Leo XIV turned 70 on Sept. 14, and more than 2 million prayers and works from 72 countries around the world were offered for him for the occasion through an OSV News-organized initiative, making up one very special “spiritual birthday bouquet” of prayer, love and support.

Human rights campaigners have accused the Belarus government of using imprisoned Catholic priests as “hostages,” as a Polish Carmelite became the latest detained for alleged espionage.

Pope Leo XIV said a proposal to create an AI-version of him so people could have a virtual audience with the pope pretty much horrified him.

Clerical sexual abuse continues to be “a real crisis,” one that the Catholic Church still must learn to deal with, particularly in improving the way it helps survivors while also ensuring the rights of the accused are respected, Pope Leo XIV said.