32 people are murdered every day in Nigeria just for being Christians

The Vatican Museums announce that Michelangelo’s Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel will be restored in 2026

ZENIT Staff

For three months, scaffolding will cover the entire altar wall of the Sistine Chapel, supporting a dozen platforms where up to twelve specialists can work simultaneously

UN Child Rights Committee Promotes Abortion, Undermines Parental Rights in New General Comment

ZENIT Staff

The Committee on the Rights of the Child is the treaty body monitoring countries’ compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is the UN human rights treaty ratified by the most nations—only the United States has not ratified it.

ZENIT’s Interview with Cardinal François Bustillo: «Being A Cardinal Is Above All A Responsibility of Communion»

aolvera

Interview with the Bishop of Ajaccio, Corsica, who was created Cardinal at the same Consistory as the then Cardinal Prevost

What does it mean to be a “sign of contradiction”? Pope Leo XIV explains it

ZENIT Staff

Address on the occasion of the Angelus prayer on Sunday, August 17, 2025

Pope Leo XIV gives his pontifical miter to Chiclayo in Peru

Enrique Villegas

The gesture was more than ceremonial. For many in Chiclayo, it was a reminder that the new pope—born Robert Francis Prevost in the United States but ordained to pastoral life in Peru—remains closely tied to the community where he lived and ministered for decades before becoming bishop and later rising to the papacy.

Meeting the World to Convert the World

ZENIT Staff

The Council called the Church to convert the modern world. How? By offering Jesus Christ as the icon of a genuine humanism and the sacramental Church as the icon of authentic human community.

U.S. to Destroy $10 Million in Contraceptives

ZENIT Staff

Tammy Bruce, State Department spokesman said the sale of such contraceptives and abortifacients would violate U.S. policy that forbids U.S. financial support for abortion overseas. She also said the material could be used “in a kind of forced sterilization framework that some nations do apply” that the U.S. cannot contribute to.

US Human Rights Report Leaves Out LGBTs

ZENIT Staff

The Washington Post wrote that this year’s “draft reports examined by the Post contain no reference to gender-based violence or violence against LGBTQ+ (sic) people.”

Questions about liturgy: Churches Named for ‘St. Mary’

ZENIT Staff

Those Marian feasts which have no fixed date in the calendar can be celebrated on the feast of the Holy Name of Mary on September 12.

The Pope’s first homily dedicated to the Virgin Mary on the Feast of the Assumption

ZENIT Staff

Homily of Pope Leo XIV on the occasion of the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary

The 7th shrine dedicated to Mary, mother of persecuted Christians, will open in Iraq

ZENIT Staff

The new shrine will stand within the recently built Church of St. Ephrem, its focal point an icon delivered this August by Father Benedict Kiely, founder of the Vermont-based charity Nasarean.org.

Nicaraguan dictatorship attacks the Church once again and expropriates school owned by nuns

Enrique Villegas

After a government decree, the school has been renamed the “Bismarck Martínez Educational Center,” in honor of a Sandinista militant killed during the 2018 anti-government protests

Research reveals that 270 million human beings have died because of in vitro fertilization

Tim Daniels

A recent academic analysis, published in the journal «Fertility and Sterility», has brought fresh attention to this ethical fault line. It estimates that for every child born through IVF, many more embryos — each a distinct human life in the earliest stage — are eliminated. Conservative projections suggest that since 1978, the number of embryos lost directly through IVF procedures could exceed 270 million

Mob of Hindu extremists attack priests, nuns, and catechists in India

ZENIT Staff

This violence, the bishops argue in their August 8 statement, is part of “a disturbing pattern of hostility toward the Christian minority in India.” They call it “a blatant violation of constitutional rights and human dignity” and urge Odisha’s government to swiftly prosecute the perpetrators

Islam kills: 32 people are murdered every day in Nigeria just for being Christians, according to new research

Elizabeth Owens

The report, released on August 10, attributes the violence to roughly 22 jihadist factions embedded across the country. Their stated aim, according to Intersociety’s chairman Emeka Umeagbalasi, is nothing less than the eradication of Christianity from Nigeria within the next half-century—a chilling ambition reminiscent of the 19th-century Fulani jihad that forged the Sokoto Caliphate

Pope Leo XIV’s doctoral thesis to be published in October 2025

Jorge Enrique Mújica

The dissertation situates the local prior not merely as an administrator but as a spiritual anchor for his community, with the Eucharistic liturgy at the heart of communal life. It emphasizes the common good of the Church, the value of consultation alongside hierarchical authority, and the mutual respect due to the varied gifts within the Body of Christ

Jewish state of Israel expels Catholic priest from its territory “for reasons of national security”

ZENIT Staff

According to an expulsion order reviewed by ZENIT, the decision was justified on unspecified grounds of “national security.” The document stated that the priest would be removed “as soon as possible” and, until then, held in a designated location

British police arrest Catholic priest for publicly supporting the Palestinian cause

ZENIT Staff

The arrests came in the wake of the UK government’s June 2025 decision to proscribe the organisation under terrorism legislation, a move that has polarised public opinion and drawn criticism from across the religious spectrum.

The Association of Hebrew Catholics is born in the Holy Land: we tell you what it is and what it does

ZENIT Staff

While the association will not establish parishes or administer sacraments — duties already handled by the Vicariate of St. James under the Latin Patriarchate — it intends to focus on cultural and spiritual formation

Bishop of Santa Fe reinstated to the presbytery a man who left the priesthood and was married to another man

ZENIT Staff

Archbishop’s Controversial Reinstatement of Formerly Partnered Priest Raises Questions in Santa Fe