OSV News

Pope Leo XIV has named Sr. Alessandra Smerilli prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the Vatican announced June 30, making her the latest woman elevated to lead a major Vatican office under the new pontificate.

The relics of the French nun to whom Christ revealed his Sacred Heart will be available for public veneration in the U.S. at a number of locations, as the nation — newly consecrated to the Sacred Heart — marks its 250th anniversary.

The Department of Justice has moved to become a co-plaintiff in a lawsuit against New York state filed by the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, who operate a 42-bed palliative care program for the dying poor.

The nun grew up on a farm outside Waterville, New York, a destination for hops picking for making beer. She founded the Parish Visitors in New York City in 1920. On June 18, Pope Leo XIV declared her venerable.

The relics of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, the French Visitation sister who experienced visions of Jesus revealing his Sacred Heart, will be present with the U.S. bishops in Orlando, Florida, when they consecrate the United States to Jesus' Sacred Heart June 11.

In a May 8 email to supporters, the Eudist Servants of the 11th Hour said Sr. Mary Francis had been informed by a mobile home park management company that she was an "unlawful occupant" at a property in the Ocean Bluffs Mobile Home Estates community.

Sr. Nadir Santos da Silva, 45, a member of the Carmelite Sisters Messengers of the Holy Spirit, was swept into deeper water May 11 near Catania while helping another nun who could not swim.

Police in Israel announced the arrest of a man suspected in the assault of a French nun working in Jerusalem as a researcher.

Pope Leo XIV issued decrees advancing the sainthood causes of five candidates, including a Dutch nun who served in St. Louis in the early 20th century.

Thousands of pilgrims are expected to gather in June in the Lithuanian capital for the sixth World Apostolic Congress on Mercy, or WACOM, a five-day event that has previously been held in cities such as Rome, Kraków, Bogota and Manila.

Sr. Amelia Hueller went to Chile as an exchange student at 16. There the images of the Virgin Mary she encountered began to tug at her heart. 

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Croatian Vincentian Sr. Nina Benedikta Krapic as the deputy director of the Holy See Press Office.

Servant of God Thea Bowman was a beacon for the Church to embrace more authentically the essence of what it means to be Catholic, Bishop Joseph Kopacz told Massgoers at the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle in Jackson.
 

A congregation of Catholic women religious is lamenting the downfall of an acclaimed nursing home it once operated, after severe neglect and endangerment of residents by the current owners prompted Ohio state officials to intervene.

In a revolutionary year, the spirited celebration of America's 250th anniversary throughout 2026, the national shrine dedicated to the first U.S.-born saint is aiming to help patriotic revelers discover the place of "Mother Seton" among the pantheon of iconic nation-builders.

Following the liberation of all the children and staff abducted from St. Mary's School in the Nigerian town of Papiri, the Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles, who manage the school, have expressed deep gratitude for the support received during the trying period.

The onetime Beverly Hills resident became a nun at age 50, and for more than three decades devoted her life to serving not only those behind bars, but also others on the outside who were poor, sick and vulnerable.

Dominican Sr. María Lucía Caram Padilla was awarded the Order of Princess Olga, III class, by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for her efforts in providing humanitarian aid since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The figures underscore the significance of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, observed Nov. 25. The day also launched the 16-day UNITE campaign, which ends Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day.

While visiting St. Francis Xavier Church in the New York borough of Manhattan, Corinna Laughlin, the director of liturgy for St. James Cathedral in Seattle, saw a series of 12 icons hung along a wall, including one of St. Kateri Tekakwitha. Members of the Archdiocese of Seattle and St. James Cathedral were already planning to mount an icon of St. Kateri in the cathedral, and through Laughlin's discovery, they unexpectedly found their artist on the other side of the country: Patricia Brintle.