World News

Jihadist fighters set fire to seven Nigerian villages on February 18, killing dozens, Agence France-Presse reported. “The current situation of kidnappings and violence is worsening, and those responsible are acting with impunity due to the government’s slow response,” Bishop Anselm Pendo Lawani of Ilorin said in an interview with Vatican News. Bishop ... read more

In its annual message for the month of Ramadan, the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue called on Muslims not to “yield to despair or to violence,” but instead strive to restore “peace to our broken world.” ... read more

In a reflection on Pope Leo XIV’s Lenten message, the lay prefect of the Dicastery for Communication spoke of the need to fast from what he called the “bulimia” of careless and hurtful words. “We rarely think of fasting as renouncing excessive words, verbal violence, the confusion of speaking without listening,” said Paolo ... read more

The Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation and the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education are among the sponsors of an exhibit in Pordenone, Italy, in honor of the upcoming 100th anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s birth. The exhibit, “Ricordando Benedetto XVI: Verso il centenario della nascita” (Remembering Benedict XVI: Toward the centenary of his ... read more

In his catechetical homily for the opening of Holy and Great Lent, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople reflected on asceticism. “Asceticism is not a matter of self-willed choices and subjective particularities, but of submission to the rule and the ‘catholic experience’ of the Church,” said the Ecumenical Patriarch, who holds a primacy of honor ... read more

Letters to the editor: NCR readers respond to articles about President Donald Trump, Diane Keaton and the new film "Moses the Black." ... read more

"People are staying much longer at the shelter, in some cases up to nine months," said Fr. Francisco Javier Bueno Guillén of the Ciudad Juárez Diocese, who serves as director general of a diocese-operated migrant shelter. ... read more

 "If Catholic institutions choose to open the digital collection basket, they should do so with eyes open, norms in place and the moral tradition of the church firmly in hand," writes Fernando Laguarda. ... read more

Not only had I just revealed myself as a rube to my staff (and my Gen X embarrassment was palpable), but I was bereft with disillusionment. I had really — really — wanted that reel to be real. ... read more

In an unusual but not unprecedented move, Pope Leo XIV transferred a diocesan bishop in Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast, map) to another diocese and named him an auxiliary bishop there. ... read more

The Prefecture of the Papal Household announced on February 19 that Pope Leo XIV will make six pastoral visits within Italy between May and August. ... read more

Andrea Tornielli, editorial director of the Dicastery for Communication, published an editorial, “Our sin and the burden of a world that is in flames,” in which he reflected on Pope Leo’s Ash Wednesday homily and applied it to international crises. “As we receive ashes on our heads, we are called to an examination ... read more

Pope Leo XIV met with priests of the Diocese of Rome on February 19 and encouraged them to rekindle the fire of the Spirit within them. ... read more

In brief remarks addressed to Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Baldassare Reina alluded to “growing difficulties and a cultural climate that seems to want to put God aside.” ... read more

Thus says the Lord GOD:Cry out full-throated and unsparingly,lift up your voice like a trumpet blast;Tell my people their wickedness,and the house of Jacob their sins.They seek me day after day,and desire to know my ways,Like a nation that has done what is justand not abandoned the law of their God;They ask me to declare ... read more