OSV News

A new report shows a continued decrease in the number of permanent vocations to consecrated life in the U.S. — but key factors such as family life, devotional practices, Catholic education and personal encouragement can positively impact those numbers.

Six nuns from the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Anne were kidnapped Jan. 19 while traveling on a bus in the country's capital, Port-au-Prince, according to the Haitian Conference of Religious.

As the nation marks National Human Trafficking Awareness Day Jan. 11, women religious in the U.S. are combating modern slavery with prayer and education.

As part of the ongoing safeguarding reform in the church in France, Conférence des Religieux et Religieuses de France adopted an official charter to guarantee better governance within communities and avoid potential abuse of authority.

While religion was not originally an issue linked to conflicts in the country, deeply rooted religious hostility has in recent decades created a divide between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation.

Three orders of women religious were honored for their long ministry of education, pastoral outreach and witness to the Gospel.

The City Council passed a resolution Oct. 30 honoring the Oblate Sisters of Providence for their 194 years of service. The resolution, supported by the Archdiocese of Baltimore, was presented on the 191st anniversary of the death of Oblate Sr. Anthony Duchemin.

In many ways, Sr. Norma Pimentel, a Missionary of Jesus, has become the face of the Catholic response to migrants in the Rio Grande Valley, where she leads Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Brownsville.

The abbot president of the Benedictines' Solesmes Congregation in France came to Vermont to give the abbatial blessing to the first abbess of the newly designated Immaculate Heart of Mary Abbey in Westfield.

"This whole synodal approach is really consistent with the deepest spiritual traditions within the church. How did they work out what to do at the First Council of Jerusalem?"

In these times of violence and hatred around the world, following St. Thérèse of Lisieux's confidence is crucial to the world regaining balance, said the bishop of Lisieux as the month of October, the busiest one in the French northern Normandy town of the saint known as the "Little Flower," comes to a close.

"It was an image that will be very difficult to erase." Mother María del Pilar Llerena Vargas recalls the pain of watching the funeral of Christians killed in a blast at a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza.

Nearly 30,000 pilgrims flocked to Lisieux for the so-called Theresian feasts, celebrated Sept. 30-Oct. 8 in France's northern Normandy region, where the famous French saint, born Jan. 2, 1873, lived and died.

Catholic activists called on Congress to ensure funding for migrant services is protected in upcoming appropriations bills at a Sept. 13 event near the U.S. Capitol.

On a day when history was made 60 years earlier with the March on Washington, Fr. Robert Boxie III, the Catholic chaplain at Howard University in the nation's capital, noted that the campus ministry program there was making history of its own, with the blessing and dedication of its new Sister Thea Bowman Catholic Student Center.

After a diocesan investigation and lawsuits, a community of cloistered Carmelite nuns in Arlington, Texas, said they no longer recognize the authority of Bishop Michael F. Olson of Fort Worth. 

Catholic Extension has announced seven finalists for its 2023-2024 Lumen Christi Award, and two of those named told OSV News they're both surprised and encouraged.

Religious orders have grown herbs throughout the centuries, and careful mixing of medical plants was a well-kept secret for many. Now, Dominican sisters in Poland want to revive the tradition started by their community's foundress, even though 10 years ago, herb mixing was the last thing they were thinking of doing.

For years, the ministries of Catholic religious sisters — working tirelessly and often invisibly — have left their mark on Appalachia's rural communities, sharing the love of Jesus Christ by their witness and service to the people who call "the Mountains" their home.