The scene will always be my favorite Olympic moment, a moment that wasn’t captured by a television camera or a sports reporter. The moment happened during the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, shortly after the women’s soccer team of the United States earned the gold medal with a riveting, intense 1-0 victory over the team from Brazil.

The Catholic Church teaches that any act of violence against another person denies their God‑given dignity. Violence treats a person not as someone worthy of love, but as an object to control.

We are again approaching the Lenten season, where as people of faith we observe the penitential practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Lent begins on Wednesday, Feb. 18, this year and concludes on Holy Thursday, April 2, leading into the Easter Triduum.

What if we focused on the smallest of details? The striped shades of pink on the imperfectly beautiful petals The solitary bee deep inside the rose quietly collecting pollen The colorless water droplets reflecting the glowing sunshine

Zach Zarembinski was 18 when he suffered a massive brain bleed during a high school football game, was rushed to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minn., and placed in a coma. Nine days later, 16-year-old Isabelle Richard arrived at the adjacent children’s hospital on the same campus after a near-fatal car crash left her in a coma.

Para conmemorar el aniversario número 1,700 del Concilio Ecuménico de Nicea, en el que se formuló el credo que lleva el nombre de esa ciudad y que recitamos los domingos durante la misa, el papa León XIV escribió una carta apostólica titulada “In Unitate Fidei” (“Sobre la unidad de la fe”).

To commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, which began the formulation of the Nicene Creed that we recite during Mass on Sundays, Pope Leo XIV has written an apostolic letter “In Unitate Fidei” (“On the Unity of Faith”).

During his first Sunday Angelus address for 2026, Pope Leo XIV offered an insight into the hope that Jesus made possible by his Incarnation.

There are some coincidences in time that are attention getters. This year, we have one such: Christian Lent begins the same day as Islam’s Ramadan.

Those of us who are sports fans to any degree have been there. We might have been in a large stadium watching our favorite college or professional team play. Maybe we were in a school gym, parking lot or at a football field for a child’s CYO game. Or we might simply have been sitting on a couch at home following a big game on TV.

In the spirit of synodality, successful planning requires broad consultation and teamwork. It requires a profound sense of openness to the guidance of the Holy Spirit—as this is manifested both through the rich history of the Church in this region and in the present circumstances. —Archbishop Charles C. Thompson

Dec. 10, 2025, marked the 100th anniversary of the Blessed Mother’s request for the Five First Saturdays Devotion in reparation for blasphemies against her Immaculate Heart.

While the word “synodality” can be off-putting to some, at its heart this topic of the current and most recent Synod of Bishops on synodality connects closely with the mission and ministry of evangelization.

It has been nearly four years since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision returned the issue of abortion from the federal to the state level.

I’m from central Indiana, so I don’t pretend to be an expert on cold weather like those of you from Alaska, North Dakota, Minnesota. But I do know this: Indiana weather can turn on a dime.

Eleven doctors of the Church were active in ministry in the fourth century, nearly 30% of the 38 people given that special title.

We ended the Christmas season with the feast of the Baptism of the Lord on Jan. 11. Now the Church calendar has returned us to Ordinary Time, the days currently between the end of the Christmas season and the beginning of Lent.

I have thought a great deal about and studied the concept of human dignity throughout my lifetime. But I was recently immersed in a situation where the concept of human dignity came face-to-face with reality.

The older I get, the more I crave a practical spirituality—one tied to dirty dishes not pristine libraries, one that recognizes hungry bellies along with hungry hearts.

The Book of Genesis tells us that the Creator God was pleased with his creation and that he entrusted Adam and Eve with a serious responsibility to care for everything that God had made.