Trump’s campaign of killing people at sea

 

‘Simply Murder’

Trump’s campaign of killing people at sea

Dominic Preziosi

May 27, 2026

Donald Trump

International

Politics

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U.S. President Donald Trump holds a meeting in the Situation Room at the White House in Washington June 21, 2025 (OSV News photo/The White House/Handout via Reuters).

Now that his appeals have been denied, former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte faces trial for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court. Duterte is charged with killing alleged drug addicts and dealers during his terms as mayor of Davao City and as president from 2016 to 2022—about six thousand people, though some estimates put the total closer to thirty thousand. Duterte dispatched police death squads to carry out his campaign of extrajudicial executions, which was condemned at the time by rights groups around the world and by Catholic leaders in the Philippines, who called it a “reign of terror.” Duterte once bragged of having stabbed someone to death, and while president said he would “be happy to slaughter” three million drug addicts in the country if he could.

 

Spanish PM hails Leo as ‘moral compass’ ahead of visit

Bess Twiston Davies

01 June 2026, The Tablet

Pedro Sánchez has defined himself as ‘an atheist plain and simple’.

La Moncloa - Gobierno de España

Leo is due to become the first pope to address the Spanish legislature, but 60 groups represented by the Europa Laica or Secular Europe association have protested against the plan.  

Pedro Sánchez, the self-declared atheist prime minister of Spain, said Pope Leo XIV is “a moral compass” in the fight against injustice after meeting him in the Vatican.

After a 45-minute audience with the Pope on 27 May ahead of his visit to Spain on 6-12 June, Sánchez said the Pope was always “on the side of the weakest”. He said Leo represents “common sense in the face of injustice and the law of the jungle”.

With encyclical, Pope Leo reminds us of what we're forgetting — how to be human

 

Guest Voices

Opinion

With encyclical, Pope Leo reminds us of what we're forgetting — how to be human

Daniel J. Daly  ncr

The successor to Francis looks at things in different ways.

 

A ‘Leonine’ Version of Synodality?

The successor to Francis looks at things in different ways.

Massimo Faggioli

May 29, 2026

Pope Leo XIV

Synodality

Theology

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Pope Leo XIV speaks with the College of Cardinals in the New Synod Hall at the Vatican May 10, 2025, during his first formal address to the college since his election (CNS photo/Vatican Media).

From an institutional point of view, the most consequential, long-term legacy left by Pope Francis to his successor is synodality. While Paul VI had conceived and instituted the Bishops’ Synod in 1965, it was not for “synodality” as we think of it now, but was rather an expression of episcopal collegiality between the bishops and the pope. With Francis, the Synod became the culmination of a long process of ecclesial discernment in the sensus fidei, through the contribution of nonepiscopal members of the Church as voting members of the Synod. Since his election, Pope Leo XIV has sent multiple signals about continuing the synodal journey. Now, as his pontificate enters its second year, it embarks on an important phase in defining a “Leonine” version of synodality, something distinct from Francis’s.

Will the church conform to its own teaching?

 

NCR Voices

Opinion

Will the church conform to its own teaching?

Michael Sean Winters

In first major European trip, pope's Spain visit to touch on polarization, migration

 

In first major European trip, pope's Spain visit to touch on polarization, migration

Vatican

• ncr

  Justin McLellan

LEO TAKES UP THEME OF VATICAN II AND LITURGY

 

LEO TAKES UP THEME OF VATICAN II AND LITURGY

In what is sure to be a closely watched series of catechesis, Pope Leo took up today another document from the Second Vatican Council in his general audiences dedicated to the event, This May 20 he began reflecting on the Council's document on liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium. READ MORE...

THE CLERICAL FILES: EXPOSING THE POWER OF HOLY PRIVILEGE

 

THE CLERICAL FILES: EXPOSING THE POWER OF HOLY PRIVILEGE

The toxic reality of survivors having to plead their cases before the same celibate men who make, interpret and enforce Church law creates a system of silence and complicity. Toxic theology and statutes in the Code of Canon Law that promote and perpetuate the ‘holy privilege,’ which leads to a dysfunctional Church, must be recognized, condemned, and eliminated. READ MORE...