Clergy are leading the way in their awareness and knowledge about keeping children safe in church and related environments, according to new research led by Australian Catholic University.

As young people across the globe feel increasingly adrift and overlooked, Catholic religious orders and agencies must redouble their efforts to help young people stay in school, learn a trade and find a decent job, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis signed a letter on synodality in the presence of parish priests and urged them to be “missionaries of synodality,” said several of the priests present.

Benedictine College welcomed 19 young men and women into the Catholic Church on Divine Mercy Sunday, 17 of whom were student athletes.

Holly Taylor Coolman, assistant professor of theology at Providence College and adoptive mother of five, recognizes the many challenges and recently spoke with OSV News’ Charlie Camosy about her new book “Parenting: the Complex and Beautiful Vocation of Raising Children.”

Pope Francis said that some universities are “too liberal” and do not place enough emphasis on forming their students into whole people.

Jockey Keith Asmussen calls on his Catholic faith daily as he competes in the high-stakes world of horse racing, and the sport’s stage gets no bigger than the one he will be on May 4, when he rides in his first Kentucky Derby.

Recently, Columbia University in New York has become the epicenter of U.S. college protests and encampments demanding an end to U.S. support of Israel, now at war with Hamas following that group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on approximately 22 locations in Israel.

Pope Francis received assurances from Jordan’s King Abdullah II that Christian and Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem will be protected amid the Israel-Hamas war.

The prophetic voices of religious leaders working to foster peace and reconciliation in the Holy Land have been largely absent as the war in Gaza rages on, a Jerusalem-based cardinal said.