Thursday, September 24, 2026

The Catholic Church’s culture problem is closer to home than Pope Leo thinks

(RNS) — Two women now head major Vatican offices, and a third will soon. But the altar rail tells another story about their progress in the church.

https://religionnews.com/2026/09/15/the-catholic-churchs-culture-problem-is-closer-to-home-than-pope-leo-thinks/

Pope Leo’s trip to France won’t be a victory lap—and that’s a good thing.

Vatican Dispatch

Pope Leo’s trip to France won’t be a victory lap—and that’s a good thing.

by Colleen Dulle September 23, 202

Pope Leo XIV greets people at the beginning of his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Sept. 23, 2026. Credit: CNS photo/Vatican Media.

When Pope Leo XIV lands in Paris on Friday, Sept. 25, welcomed by French President Emmanuel Macron and given military honors (albeit scaled back at the pope’s request), the atmosphere will likely be jubilant. This should be particularly true for Mr. Macron, who has finally been granted his longstanding wish of a papal visit before the end of his term.

The pope will arrive for a four-day trip through Paris, Lourdes and Metz studded with high-profile political speeches and massive outdoor liturgies, all set against the backdrop of a Catholic Church that has seen an unprecedented increase in conversions since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Churches must help protect election integrity and restore faith in democracy

September 23, 2026

Churches must help protect election integrity and restore faith in democracy

Thomas Reese, Religion News Service ncr

Wednesday, September 23, 2026

A ‘Pope Leo effect’ might be driving Latino vocations to the priesthood

Dispatches

A ‘Pope Leo effect’ might be driving Latino vocations to the priesthood

by J.D. Long García September 22, 2026

Father Luis Garcia smiles as he greets a child during a Mass of ordination to the priesthood at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Houston June 4, 2022. Credit: OSV News photo/James Ramos, Texas Catholic Herald

About a year and a half ago, the vocations office of the Archdiocese of Las Vegas started getting a lot more phone calls.

“I remember telling my assistant, ‘What’s going on, where are all these people coming from?’” said Father Miguel Corral, vocations director and vicar for clergy for the archdiocese. “That’s when it dawned on all of us—the Leo effect.”

U.S. Vice President JD Vance waves as he arrives to deliver the commencement address for the graduating class of the United States Air Force Academy (OSV News photo/Matt Rourke, Reuters).

On September 1, the vice president of the United States sat down with an Evangelical podcaster and discussed the end of the world in the tone of a man working through a policy question. The podcaster is Bryce Crawford, a twenty-two-year-old who grew up in Georgia and now preaches on the streets of Los Angeles. He founded the ministry Jesus in the Streets and hosts The Bryce Crawford Podcast, which this spring sat near the top of Spotify’s religion-and-spirituality chart. He has 1.1 million subscribers on YouTube and more than seven million followers across TikTok and Instagram, most of them teenagers and people in their twenties. In the podcast interview, J. D. Vance told him that he had become fascinated by eschatology at the age of ten or eleven. Vance said that he would not be shocked to learn that the Antichrist is already walking among us. He added that, in the meantime, he tries to do as much of God’s work as he can. Then came the sentence that traveled around the world: “If that leads to the end times, okay, and if that leads to…us building a better world that thrives and survives for a very long time after I’m gone, that’s great too.”