OSV News

"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.

Mercy Sr. Arlene Semesky was killed in a two-vehicle crash July 16 in Pennsylvania that also involved three other congregation members.

Sr. Josephine Garrett describes her new podcast, "Hope Stories with Black Catholics" as "making a space to gather a bunch of Black Catholics to shine light on their stories." 

Catholics in Portugal hope World Youth Day in Lisbon Aug. 1-6 will help spread devotion to Sr. Lucia dos Santos, who was one of the three little shepherd children who witnessed the apparitions of Mary in Fátima in 1917.

July 6 is the 50th anniversary of the miraculous events from Mary now known as "Our Lady of Akita" and her messages to a Japanese novice, Sr. Agnes Sasagawa of the Handmaids of the Eucharist.

On June 30, Texas judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Carmelite nuns against Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson. That same day, police announced they had closed their investigation without recommending criminal charges.

Cyclone Yaku's path through Peru's northern region in March was so destructive that its direct effects — such as the destruction of homes by floods and landslides — and indirect effects — especially an unprecedented outbreak of dengue fever — are still being felt today.

The Holy See has declared Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth to be "pontifical commissary" of the Monastery of Saint Joseph of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns, according to a decree from the dicastery for religious life, dated May 31, 2023 and published on the website of the Diocese of Fort Worth. Olson "will assume his office upon communication" of the decree, it said.

During an April 28 exhumation, the body of Sr. Wilhelmina Lancaster — foundress of the Benedictine Sisters of Mary, Queen of the Apostles — was shown to be little changed since her May 2019 death at age 95.

Michelle Hillaert, an author and motivational speaker who has spent more than 25 years working in technology and communications fields, has been named executive director of the GIVEN Institute.

A native of the ancient city of Mukachevo in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia region, Sr. Teodora Kopyn arrived in the United States in 2013 to join her fellow Basilians at their Jesus, Lover of Humanity Province in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania.

"I stand on the shoulders of giants. ... Vocations grow; they don't just happen," said Sr. Mary Francis Bard, a member of the Sisters of the Holy Family, in an April 23 reflection for the National Day of Prayer for Black Vocations.

The Christophers, a New York-based nonprofit Catholic communications organization, recently announced the appointment to its board of directors of Pauline Sr. Nancy Usselmann. Usselmann currently heads her order's Center for Media Studies in Los Angeles.