With the first anniversary of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine just days away, the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church spoke about gratitude and powerlessness in the face of a “blind, absurd, sacrilegious war.”

On Ash Wednesday, Feb. 22, faithful across the country are being asked to donate to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe.

The Archdiocese of New York has announced that 12 of its Catholic schools will close at the end of the 2022-23 academic year and four others will be merged into two schools due to the schools’ financial outlook.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s unexpected Feb. 20 visit to Kyiv, calmly walking alongside Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as air raid sirens wailed in the capital, is being hailed as a surprise and a signal to the world, Ukrainian Catholic leaders told OSV News.

A 65-year-old Hispanic man was taken into custody the morning of Feb. 20 by Los Angeles County sheriff deputies as the prime suspect in the murder of Auxiliary Bishop David G. O’Connell of Los Angeles.

Persecution has led to people spreading — not forgetting — the Gospel to the many places they go, Pope Francis said.

Catholics need to ask themselves whether their communities are a “concrete sign of unity and love” or simply a group of people who happen to live near each other or, worse, a collection of folks ranked according to wealth, Pope Francis said.

Catholic experts are expressing concern after a recent Pew Research Center survey found that only 35 percent of U.S. Catholic parents say that it is extremely or very important to them that their children grow up to hold similar religious beliefs.

Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop David G. O’Connell, a native of Ireland who spent most of his four decades as a priest ministering in LA’s inner city, has died. He was 69.

Catholics have a responsibility to address rising threats to democratic norms in civic and social life, panelists said at a Feb. 16 event hosted by Georgetown University’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life.