An Israel Defense Forces investigation concluded that the strike on the Holy Family Parish compound on July 17 was the result of an accidental mortar round that veered off course during “operational activity” by IDF troops in the area of Gaza City, the IDF said in a July 23 statement.

Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, delivered a statement at the general debate of the U.N. Economic and Social Council’s High-Level Political Forum July 22, the same day that the Trump administration said the U.S. would withdraw from the United Nations’ cultural agency UNESCO.

The recent 12-day war between Israel and Iran has brought about fear and anxiety in the country and tested the faith of its small Catholic community, said Belgian Cardinal Dominique Mathieu of Tehran-Isfahan.

The Trump administration on July 22 said the United States would withdraw from the United Nations’ cultural agency UNESCO, a group that has partnered with the Holy See on human development and cultural heritage projects.

A federal judge on July 21 extended an order blocking enforcement of a provision in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which President Donald Trump signed into law July 4, that would have stopped Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid payments for a year.

In Bangladesh, grief and shock gripped the capital, Dhaka, after a military jet crashed into Milestone School and College on July 21, killing at least 31 and injuring more than 170.

The remains of former Bishop Eamonn Casey of Galway, who resigned from office in 1992 after it was revealed he had fathered a child in 1974, have been removed from their burial place in Galway Cathedral in the wake of a number of allegations of child abuse that came to light in 2024.

Amid the destruction witnessed during their July 18–20 pastoral visit to Gaza, following the Israeli shelling of the Holy Family Parish church compound that killed three people and injured 10, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III said they found something more enduring — “the dignity of the human spirit.”

Syrian Christian leaders say they cannot trust the Islamist-led Syrian government of Ahmed al-Sharaa to provide the safety they need after a week of deadly clashes that claimed the lives of 1,000 people in the southern region of Sweida and urged international protection.

A Nigerian priest kidnapped by Boko Haram in June has been released, OSV News has learned.