Male athletes dismiss lawsuit against NH women’s sports law

From Muslim Refugee to Catholic Priest and Other Beautiful Conversion Stories

Alma Recinas

This 41-year-old man has been a Catholic priest for a few weeks now. He was ordained at St. Hedwig’s Cathedral in Berlin by Archbishop Heiner Koch. This makes him a true exception in Germany: apparently, there are no other Catholic priests in the entire country with a similar background.

“Vatican Bank” Announces New CEO for 2026

ZENIT Staff

Gian Franco Mammì will conclude his term upon reaching the mandatory retirement age

Queen of England Meets with a Group of Catholic Nuns Fighting Human Trafficking

ZENIT Staff

Less than one year after their historic meeting during the State Visit to the Holy See, Catholic Sisters met again with Her Majesty The Queen Camilla at Clarence House to share the impact of their global work, particularly in support of vulnerable women and girls.

Pair of Mediums Desecrate the Basilica of El Pilar, the Cathedral, and Another Church in Zaragoza, Spain

ZENIT Staff

Crude spiritualists engage in offensive behavior by posting videos on Instagram filmed inside Catholic churches, claiming to detect «spirits» and even using a pendulum to, according to them, measure «energies» at the site where the Virgin Mary appeared.

Male athletes dismiss lawsuit against NH women’s sports law, Trump executive orders protecting female athletes

ZENIT Staff

Two male students are suing the state of New Hampshire over its law that protects women’s sports. The ACLU has added two executive orders protecting girls and children from gender ideology, signed by President Donald Trump, to the lawsuit, making it the first legal challenge against the executive orders.

Federal court allows Michigan pro-life orgs to hire, insure employees according to beliefs

ZENIT Staff

Right to Life of Michigan and Pregnancy Resource Center Grand Rapids are suing Michigan after it amended its employment law to redefine “sex” discrimination to include “the termination of a pregnancy,” forcing the pro-life organizations to hire employees who don’t agree with their mission.

A young Kenyan diocese faces a test of authority as its bishop suspends nearly one in six priests

ZENIT Staff

The underlying dispute also touches on a perennial problem in Church governance: reform can be necessary and still generate resistance. A bishop seeking to impose greater transparency may encounter suspicion from those who fear excessive centralization

Cardinal Zuppi’s New Visit to Ukraine: The Pope’s Special Envoy Visits Russian Prisoners, Many of Whom Are Catholic

ZENIT Staff

On July 14, Zuppi, the Archbishop of Bologna and president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, began a four-day visit to Ukraine by travelling to Zakhid-1, a detention facility in the Lviv region, accompanied by the Apostolic Nuncio, Visvaldas Kulbokas, and Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See, Andrii Yurash

New website about new Mass and World Day of Prayer for Creation

ZENIT Staff

The website features the liturgical texts and various pastoral ideas to enrich the eucharistic celebrations, while also providing formation resources to understand the importance of this ecumenical observance and the practicalities about how to celebrate the new Mass.

Pakistan: 12 years on and still no justice for young couple burnt alive in a brick kiln

John Pontifex

Reacting to the court’s ruling, Bishop Shukardin, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Pakistan, said: «Shahzad and his wife, Shama, who was pregnant, were thrown into the fire alive. In the end, what is the result of all these efforts towards justice?

Arkansas Surges to the Top of America’s Religious Liberty Ranking as States Compete to Strengthen Legal Protections

ZENIT Staff

The index places Arkansas 63 percentage points above New York, which ranked last with a score of 26 percent. New York returned to the bottom position for the first time since 2022, replacing West Virginia.

Order of Preachers Launches Renewed Official Website

ZENIT Staff

The renewed op.org is not only a website but a service to communion and mission. It helps the Order speak with greater clarity, share its resources more generously, promote vocations more effectively, and make visible the many ways Dominicans continue to preach the Truth for the salvation of souls.

Amnesty International UK apologizes for calling Christian groups ‘anti-rights’

Nigeria, Nicaragua, Syria, India cited in index of rising Christian persecution

Religious nationalism, state control, terrorism, authoritarianism, and limits on women are among drivers of rising persecution globally, the International Christian Concern (ICC) report said.

Pope Leo XIV accepts resignation of Peruvian bishop accused of sexual abuse

Bishop Antonio Santarsiero Rosa denied accusations of sexual abuse that surfaced in April. He submitted his resignation as bishop when he turned 75 in June and the pope accepted it as of July 15.

Amnesty International UK apologizes for calling Christian groups ‘anti-rights’

“We regret that this briefing was uploaded to our website without going through the established internal review processes,” Amnesty International UK said.

On Our Lady of Mount Carmel feast, former Spanish soccer star’s Marian devotion still inspires

Thirteen years ago, former Spanish soccer star David Silva thanked the Blessed Mother after Spain won the 2010 World Cup.

“Generational Sin” and the Days of Darkness

What happens when you turn a Saint into a scapegoat?

By Dawn Beutner on Jul 17, 2026 04:00 am
Everyone knows what a scapegoat is, but few realize that the word comes from the Bible. In Leviticus 16:20-22, Moses told his brother Aaron to take a live goat, lay his hands on the goat’s [...]
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Dignitatis Humanae and Social Kingship, Part Two

By Larry Chapp on Jul 17, 2026 04:00 am
In Part One of this essay on Dignitatis Humanae, I made the argument, following Tracey Rowland and Russel Hittinger, that DH should be read minimalistically as a simple affirmation that no person should be forcibly [...]
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Nigeria, Nicaragua, Syria, India cited in index of rising Christian persecution

By Tessa Gervasini on Jul 16, 2026 01:53 pm
Religious nationalism, state control, terrorism, authoritarianism, and limits on women are among drivers of rising persecution globally, the International Christian Concern (ICC) report said. [...]
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Our Lady of the Mountain That Is Christ

By Donald Jacob Uitvlugt on Jul 16, 2026 01:04 pm
Today (July 16) the Church observes the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. While an optional memorial on the general Roman calendar, both branches of the Carmelite family — the ancient observance and the [...]
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“Generational Sin” and the Days of Darkness

By John Clark on Jul 16, 2026 12:00 pm
There is no such thing as “generational sin.” That sentence may shock some readers who have aligned themselves with well-known Catholic writers and priests who argue to the contrary. The “generational sin” concept is most [...]
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Saint Francis of Assisi was more than just a lover of birds

By Dawn Beutner on Jul 16, 2026 08:00 am
It only took 653 days. Pope Gregory IX declared Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone to be a saint on July 16, 1228, even though “Il Poverello”, the little poor man of Assisi, had only been [...]
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Why the Center Cannot Hold

By Deacon David H. Delaney, Ph.D. on Jul 16, 2026 04:00 am
Christendom and the moral order of nations G. K. Chesterton once remarked that “it is impossible to have a nation without Christendom; as it is impossible to have a citizen without a city.”1 At first glance [...]
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Bishop Paprocki: Eucharistic revival calls Catholics to worthy reception of Communion

By Katherine Matt on Jul 15, 2026 08:23 pm
Four years after the National Eucharistic Revival began, Bishop Thomas Paprocki says Catholics must unite belief in Christ’s real presence with moral life and worthy Communion. [...]
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The Heavenward Schism of the SSPX

By Matthew Becklo on Jul 15, 2026 03:02 pm
In second-century Phrygia, a group of spiritual Catholics—the Montanists—claimed a greater authority than the institutional Church. Montanus and his two prophetesses said they had new and direct revelations from God: The end was nigh, and [...]
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World Cup blues, of a sort

By George Weigel on Jul 15, 2026 04:00 am
CRACOW. I usually find the quadrennial FIFA World Cup aggravating for the five reasons enumerated below, plus one other: my students here in the Tertio Millennio Seminar on the Free Society are sometimes so obsessed with the [...]
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Extra, extra! New and views for Wednesday, July 15, 2026

By CWR Staff on Jul 15, 2026 03:00 am
Magnificent Humanity, Poor Economics (Law & Liberty): “Magnifica Humanitas could address contemporary questions more effectively if it had sounder economics.” “Blame the Rooster for the Sunrise”: The post hoc fallacy at the heart of the [...]
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Four key insights from Magnifica Humanitas

By Dr. R. Jared Staudt on Jul 14, 2026 03:42 pm
St. Augustine uses the image of two cities to define the central conflict that runs throughout history between the self-love that constitutes the City of Man and the divine love that forms the City of [...]
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Saint Kateri Tekakwitha’s path to holiness

By Dawn Beutner on Jul 14, 2026 10:00 am
Saint Camillus de Lellis founded a religious order that cares for the sick all over the world. But in the United States, his feast day is translated to another date so that Americans can honor [...]
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Book chronicles visits to all 94 basilicas in the United States

By Jim Graves on Jul 14, 2026 04:00 am
Grady Connolly, founder of Social Thomist, a social media agency working online with prominent Catholics to evangelize and shape the culture, has been visiting basilicas. Almost a hundred of them. In his book, Basilicas: A [...]
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Chicago Archdiocese investigates sex abuse accusation against activist priest

By Kate Quiñones on Jul 13, 2026 05:40 pm
The Archdiocese of Chicago has withdrawn Father Michael Pfleger from ministry to review an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor in an instance that allegedly occurred more than 30 years ago. [...]
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Small Catholic liberal arts colleges are doomed. Unless…

By Dr. Randall B. Smith on Jul 13, 2026 05:39 pm
Since March 2020, over 70 public and private nonprofit colleges and universities have closed entirely, with nearly 50 more merging with other institutions. This development alone might come as relatively good news for the institutions [...]
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Papal nuncio to Great Britain: A visit from Pope Leo is ‘likely’

By Victoria Cardiel on Jul 13, 2026 09:57 am
The apostolic nuncio to Great Britain, Archbishop Miguel Maury, has been in the Vatican's diplomatic service for nearly four decades. [...]
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The mind of Christ and the limits of human logic

By James V. Schall, S.J. on Jul 12, 2026 08:00 pm
Editor’s note: This “Sojourns With Schall” column was originally posted on July 11, 2012.  ——————– “The hymn to Christ, or, more commonly, the ‘Christological hymn’ (Philippians 2:4-9) is a hymn in which all attention is [...]
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On the fragile margins of existence: A review of Little House on the Prairie

By Nick Olszyk on Jul 12, 2026 02:10 pm
Distribution Service: Netflix FCC Rating: TV-PG Reel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars I was vaguely aware of the Little House book series as a child, but it was for girls, and I was expected to read Hardy [...]
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The joys, sufferings, and spiritual fruits of the marriage of Louis and Zelie Martin

By Dawn Beutner on Jul 12, 2026 10:00 am
While Saint Thérèse of Lisieux seemed to live an ordinary life in a middle-class French family, her autobiography is far from ordinary. The Story of a Soul has inspired millions of Catholics to recognize that, [...]
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Opinion: Overthinking the Pledge of Allegiance

By Gene M. Van Son on Jul 12, 2026 04:32 am
A recent article by Kenneth Craycraft, here at Catholic World Report, asked the question: “Should Catholics say the Pledge of Allegiance?” It suggested that Catholics need to think about what they are saying when they [...]
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American Babylon: Place of Grace and Exile

By David Paul Deavel on Jul 11, 2026 06:43 pm
This month, Americans celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding. Many Catholics who love both God and country will resonate with the words of Fr. Richard John Neuhaus in his last book. In it, [...]
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The Incarnate Word draws upon creation to reveal salvation and the Kingdom

By Carl E. Olson on Jul 11, 2026 02:00 pm
Readings: • Isa 55:10-11 • Psa 65:10, 11, 12-13, 14 • Rom 8:18-23 • Matt 13:1-23 This Sunday’s readings each refer, in some way, to creation and the natural world. And each also reveals something [...]
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The original vision and attraction of Saint Benedict

By Peter M.J. Stravinskas on Jul 11, 2026 04:00 am
St. Benedict is honored today in the revised Roman calendar, while his feast is kept on March 21 (the date of his death) in the earlier calendar and among Benedictines, who also keep this date [...]
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Faithful to a Special Vocation: The Case of Rémi Brague

By Paul Seaton on Jul 10, 2026 08:38 pm
I am intrigued by Catholics living out their vocations. When I come across someone who is, I pay attention. I do so to see God at work and to glean lessons and encouragement for myself. [...]
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