Peace and nuclear disarmament begin in the heart, said the head of the nation’s Catholic bishops.

The Trump administration said Aug. 1 it would revoke its predecessor’s policy rule that included abortion as a covered health benefit for veterans and their dependents, and return to a policy of fully excluding abortion and abortion-counseling.

The Archdiocese of Miami celebrated the first Mass for detainees at “Alligator Alcatraz,” the Trump administration’s controversial immigrant detention center in the Florida Everglades.

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.

As emergency workers searched for survivors and tried to recuperate the bodies of the dead, Pope Leo XIV offered his prayers for people impacted by the latest shipwreck of a migrant boat off the coast of Yemen.

With Pope Leo XIV prioritizing the issue of artificial intelligence, one expert warned OSV News that generative AI poses serious — and largely unaddressed — threats to child safety, by accelerating the creation and distribution of child sex abuse material, or CSAM.

After beginning the vigil with prayers, the pope engaged in a dialogue with several young people who asked him three questions.

The fullness of life depends on how much one joyfully welcomes and shares in life while also living with a constant yearning for those things that only come from God, Pope Leo XIV told young people.

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.

While the Catholic Church has consistently voiced major ethical concerns over in vitro fertilization, or IVF, there are now many additional ethical issues to address as modern science continues to explore areas of human reproduction, including with the creation of “three parent” embryos in an effort to prevent mitochondrial disease.