With a new school year on the horizon, OSV News asked John DeJak, director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Catholic Education, to provide an overview of Catholic education in America. As a former teacher and administrator who has served in both diocesan and independent schools since the late 1990s, DeJak is uniquely positioned to assess the state of the nation’s approximately 5,800 Catholic schools, which educate nearly 1.7 million students. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

A priest of the Archdiocese of San Antonio who was “found guilty of schism” has been removed from the clerical state and excommunicated, according to the archbishop of the archdiocese.

Pope Leo XIV sent condolences to the families of the victims of a tragic ferry accident in Zimbabwe that has killed over 90 people.

Warning against increased violence in the West Bank, Pope Leo XIV urged world leaders to decisively pursue an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Pope Leo XIV conveyed his solidarity with the people of Indonesia after a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck the country’s eastern coast, triggering a tsunami warning and leaving thousands displaced in the aftermath.

Christians are called to reflect Mary’s authentic beauty, which is revealed through a life of enduring love rather than worldly aesthetic standards, Pope Leo XIV said.

The world must no longer look at the plight of migrants, especially children, as a problem to be managed or quantified, but as a call to protect human rights and dignity, Pope Leo XIV said.

Numismatists take note. The Vatican City State Mint has issued a new set of coins to mark Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate and the Jubilee Year of St. Francis of Assisi.

A surprise new album from The Hillbilly Thomists — a band of Dominican friars whose music regularly hits the Billboard bluegrass charts — invites listeners to encounter God in a special way.

Pope Leo XIV sent a donation of 100,000 euros (approximately $115,321) for humanitarian relief efforts in Colombia, which is still reeling in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake early this week.