Daily Readings

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said unidentified Lebanese Christian villages asked Israel to annex them.“Christian villages in Lebanon, some of them have actually asked to be annexed to Israel, because we protect them against the Hezbollah, Hezbollah fanatics who want to kill them, and we do the same things with Christians everywhere,” Netanyahu said during ... read more

Despite a summer heat wave, about 500 Catholics from Pakistan’s Punjab province traveled to the ancient city of Taxila to mark the feast of St. Thomas the Apostle at a site long associated with the apostle’s mission in the Indian subcontinent.The faithful from St. Francis Xavier Parish in Gujranwala arrived in eight buses on July ... read more

VATICAN CITY — A Vatican meeting of bishops in October will focus on divorce and separation, among other family-related issues, according to the preparatory document published Monday.The gathering of presidents of the world’s bishops’ conferences will be a forum to discuss the application today of Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis’ controversial 2016 apostolic exhortation on marriage ... read more

Pope Leo XIV sent his blessing to Slovakia’s national pilgrimage in Nitra, where Cardinal Ladislav Nemet urged the faithful to reflect on their Christian roots and bear witness to the faith as tens of thousands marked the feast of Sts. Cyril and Methodius across Slovakia and the Czech Republic.The feast, July 5, is a public ... read more

The Church celebrates the Optional Memorial of St. Maria Goretti (1890-1902). St. Maria was born near Ancona (Italy), the daughter of a poor peasant family. Maria was well known to her neighbors for her cheerfulness and piety. When she was twelve she was a victim of assault. She preferred to die rather than to lose ... read more

From Today's Gospel: "I give praise to you, Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one ... read more

Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass Saturday on the island of Lampedusa, warning that migrants who have died crossing the Mediterranean are “victims both of decisions that were made and of decisions that were not made.”In his homily at the Arena sports field July 4, the pope cited the Gospel parable of the Good Samaritan, saying ... read more

The United States celebrates Independence Day, the national celebration of our Nation's independence, the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The Church in the United States of America incorporates this observance into the liturgy with a special Mass asking for peace, justice and truth. As we celebrate let ... read more

More than 200 women banded together to advocate for access to abortion pill reversal in response to California officials targeting the practice.In abortion pill reversal, a patient who no longer desires abortion takes the hormone progesterone to save the life of her child after she has taken the first chemical abortion pill. In recent years, ... read more

As the United States prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary, the nation’s founding offers a reminder that one of the beneficiaries of the American Revolution was a religious minority once viewed with deep suspicion: Catholics.Long before the First Amendment guaranteed the free exercise of religion, in many of Britain’s American colonies, Catholics were barred from ... read more

The Feast of St. Thomas, the Apostle, who at first did not believe, has become for the Church one of the first witnesses to her faith. She is fond of appealing to his testimony and frequently puts in our mouths those simple words whereby he expressed the fervour of his regained faith: "My Lord and ... read more

Catholic leaders from Poland and Ukraine have issued a rare joint appeal for reconciliation between their nations, urging both peoples to reject hostility, embrace forgiveness, and preserve the Christian bonds that unite them despite growing political and historical tensions.The statement, released June 29 from Rome and Kyiv, was signed by Cardinals Mykola Bychok, Konrad Krajewski, ... read more

ABUJA, Nigeria — A new six-year study released by the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA) is challenging long-held assumptions about the drivers of violence in Nigeria and the religious identity of its victims, with Christians bearing the larger burden.Released on June 30, the report, “Killings and Abductions in Nigeria (2020–2025),” analyzes violence recorded ... read more

Appearing before the European Parliament’s Committee on Petitions on June 23, French activist Charlène Bernard, who had launched a petition on maternity protection, recounted the ordeal that led her to undergo a forced abortion.Bernard’s petition asks whether European institutions and member states are doing enough to protect women who wish to continue their pregnancies when ... read more

The Roman Martyrology commemorates Sts. Processus and Martinian whose bodies lie in a chapel at St. Peter's in Rome. During the time when Sts. Peter and Paul were prisoners in the Mamertine, legend says that these two jailors together with forty others were converted through the prayers and miracles of the holy apostles. They were ... read more