Heated rivalries among soccer fans bubbled to the surface in the lead-up to the World Cup Final that ultimately saw Spain clinch a 1-0 victory over Argentina in an intense match. Yet for Christians in Gaza, the final game was a much-needed moment of joy and a reprieve from the hardship and suffering of war.

Catholics from every inhabited continent gathered in Castel Gandolfo July 19 as Pope Leo XIV led the Angelus prayer from the papal summer palace in the small Italian hill town, where the pope reflected on how the kingdom of God grows through “the little things of daily life.”

Nobel laureates called Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas” a “clarion call” and “a giant step forward” for the prevention of AI-driven nuclear warfare as they gathered in Rome July 16 to sign a declaration urging a global treaty banning artificial intelligence from nuclear launch systems.

As the July 19 World Cup final approaches, players from two historically Catholic nations can count not only on the prayers of their fans, but also on a rich web of Catholic threads surrounding the showdown between Spain and Argentina.

Catholics and immigrant advocacy groups have expressed solidarity and offered prayers in the aftermath of two fatal shootings by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers within less than a week.

France’s bishops are strongly criticizing a “radical choice” made by French lawmakers to legalize “assisted dying.”

Twin earthquakes in Venezuela have left nearly 5,000 people dead, according to government officials, triggering a massive mobilization of humanitarian aid organizations.

During his July 15 confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche took questions from senators on issues ranging from objections to the way the Department of Justice handled the release of the Epstein files to the way it has approached state challenges to a policy permitting distribution of mifepristone by mail.

In late October, a little more than a month after Archbishop Fulton Sheen is to become “blessed,” the sixth beatification on American soil will take place — this time of five Franciscan martyrs who died in 1597 in the Georgia seedbed of American Catholicism.

When Pope Leo XIV sat down to lunch with people experiencing homelessness and poverty at Castel Gandolfo this month, he offered a model that one Catholic organization says any parish can follow.