The Trump administration’s recent decision to withdraw the U.S. from the United Nations’ cultural agency comes just weeks ahead of a Catholic UNESCO World Heritage site anniversary celebration — and the exit stands to erode historic preservation efforts more broadly, experts told OSV News.

Volunteers watching over the relics of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati gently placed items from the faithful on top of his casket to make a third-class relic for the visitors to the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, near Rome’s Pantheon, one afternoon during the Jubilee of Youth.

Along one of Rome’s busiest streets, Via del Corso, traffic moves slowly as hundreds of pilgrims crisscross traffic on foot to get to their destination.

A criminal case against a popular evangelist and exorcist was dismissed July 30.

Despite daunting odds, Catholic Relief Services and its on-the-ground partners have managed to deliver aid to 1.7 million people in Gaza since 2023, according to new data.

Pope paves way for St. John Henry Newman to be formally named doctor of the church

A decades-long fight for justice in Brazil may be nearing a historic verdict. A judge is expected to rule soon on whether German automaker Volkswagen is guilty of using slave labor at a cattle ranch it owned in the Amazon rainforest during the 1970s. A Catholic priest first denounced the alleged crimes against workers and tirelessly fought for justice.

Rome’s historic Risorgimento Square, built in the 19th century in honor of the unification of Italy, has always been a gateway to Vatican City with countless pilgrims, tourists, and locals passing through it on their way to St. Peter’s Basilica.

As the world marks the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — and as renewed nuclear threats emerge in current conflicts — several U.S. Catholic bishops will travel to Japan on a “Pilgrimage of Peace.”

The enthusiastic joy of young people, who love Jesus and want all wars to stop, will be heard to the ends of the earth, Pope Leo XIV said, welcoming tens of thousands of cheering young men and women to Rome for their Jubilee.