Two children and the shooter have been killed and up to 17 people injured during a shooting at a Catholic school in the US state of Minneapolis, according to latest reports.

The shooting took place at Annunciation Catholic School during a school morning Mass for students, aged from kindergarten to eighth grade (an approximate age range of 5 or 6 up to age 13 or 14), held at the school's adjacent Annunciation Church, the BBC reports. The Mass was being celebrated to mark the first week back at school following the summer break.

Jesus promised believers that they would experience a fountain of Living Water welling up in them, giving eternal life, and the Holy Spirit has ever since being filling the Catholic Church with a wide variety of reservoirs to hold that Living Water in different configurations of spirituality.

As Pope Benedict XVI, the former Cardinal Ratzinger brought his Benedictine roots to the papacy. As a Jesuit himself, Pope Francis brought the charisms of the Society of Jesus, while Pope Leo XIV has brought the priorities of the Augustinians.

The Vatican has announced the publication of the first book by Pope Leo XIV, a collection of his earliest addresses since becoming Pope.

Compiled under the title Let There Be Peace! Words to the Church and to the World, the 160-page volume, released by Libreria Editrice Vaticana and priced at €15, will be available from 27 August in Italian, English and Spanish.

The rapid advance of artificial intelligence (AI) technology twinned with its application to IVF (in vitro fertilisation) could lead to a dystopian situation in which thousands of embryos are used in a single round of treatment.

Amounting to a modern form of infanticide at a “potentially industrial scale”, the use of assisted reproductive technology procedures bolstered by AI is being influenced by the resurgence of pre-Christian pagan cultural practises, warns Charles Camosy, a teacher of bioethics and moral theology at the Catholic University of America.

Pope Leo XIV has written to Volodymyr Zelensky to mark Ukraine’s Independence Day and to express his views on the more than three-year-long conflict that has been raging since Russia's invasion in February 2022.

“With a heart wounded by the violence that ravages your land, I address you on this day of your national feast,” the Pope wrote to the Ukrainian president on 24 August. The pontiff assured Zelensky of prayers for “those wounded in body, for those bereaved by the death of a loved one, and for those deprived of their homes”.

Women aged 35 and older who are undergoing IVF treatment could conceive successfully and give birth to a baby more quickly through the implementation of genetic screening of embryos, according to a recent medical trial in the UK.

The study by researchers at King’s College London university, King’s College Hospital and King’s Fertility has found that “preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy” (PGT-A) – a test that checks embryos for the correct number of chromosomes – appeared to help participants become pregnant in fewer embryo transfers, reports LBC News.

“The Pilgrim Church” is one of those mysterious, allusively beautiful phrases that moves in and out of a Catholic layperson’s consciousness. But one, I must admit, that I never dwelt on until my own brief experience of pilgrimage this summer when I walked part of the Camino de Santiago.

The idea is implicit in the Old Testament typology of nomads and pastoralists, sojourners and tent-dwellers, though less goal-oriented until the New Testament. Perhaps the clearest formulation is St Augustine’s description of the Church as peregrinato, sometimes translated as “wayfarer”, “stranger” and sometimes, tellingly, “migrant”. It also informs the Spanish word for a pilgrim, peregrino, and usually along the Camino de Santiago.

Archaeologists have discovered an artifact that offers "proof" of an enduring Christian monastic presence 1,400 years ago on a small island in the Persian Gulf.

A plaster cross moulded on a plaque was found at an archaeological site on Sir Bani Yas, an island about 110 miles southwest of Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, reports Crux, the Rome-based Catholic news agency.

Pope Leo XIV is considering Lebanon for his first journey abroad, a visit that would call for peace and dialogue in the Middle East.

Archbishop Paul Sayah, vicar general of the Maronite Patriarchate, told the BBC that the Vatican is “studying” the trip but waiting for official dates. His remarks echoed those of Cardinal Béchara Boutros Raï, who told Al-Arabiya that the pope “will visit Lebanon” between now and December, though final confirmation rests with Rome.

His Eminence Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke was warmly received in a private audience by Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican this morning, 22 August 2025.

The Holy See Press Office confirmed that among the dignitaries granted a private audience today was Cardinal Burke. Although no details of the conversation have been made public, the meeting is widely regarded as highly significant.

Frank Caprio, the Providence judge hailed as “America’s nicest judge,” has died aged 87.

On 20 August, after a battle with pancreatic cancer, his family confirmed the news in a statement on his official Facebook page: “Beloved for his compassion, humility, and unwavering belief in the goodness of people, Judge Caprio touched the lives of millions through his work in the courtroom and beyond. His warmth, humour, and kindness left an indelible mark on all who knew him.”

Governor Dan McKee ordered flags in Rhode Island to be flown at half-staff until Caprio’s interment, asking residents also to lower their own flags out of respect.

“The Next 15 Years Will Be Hell Before We Get To Heaven” is the title of a recent "Diary of a CEO" episode featuring Google’s former Chief Business Officer, Mo Gawdat. An intriguing, if not unsettling, title for a conversation covering what we can expect over the forthcoming years of AI development.

True to his word, Gawdat lists a number of significant threats that may lie on the horizon: the emergence of artificial general intelligence (AGI) within the next couple of years, which paired with rapid advancements in robotics, could bring an end to the vast majority of jobs; and the radical concentration of power dictated by whoever reaches AGI first. All this, Gawdat suggests, will likely result in 15 years of dystopia as human leaders seek to bend this newfound power to their will. More war. More suffering. More chaos.

It’s estimated that the SSPX Jubilee pilgrimage has seen around 8,000 participants parading through the Vatican today, according to reports from Rome.

The Vatican’s official Jubilee 2025 calendar listed a pilgrimage by the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X (SSPX), with the occasion marking a rare moment of visible accord following long-running tensions between SSPX and the Vatican.

A federal judge in Philadelphia has dealt a fresh legal blow to the Little Sisters of the Poor. The ruling reignites a dispute over contraception mandates that has spanned more than a decade and twice reached the United States Supreme Court.

On 13 August 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled in favour of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, striking down a “religious conscience” rule from Donald Trump’s first term that granted the Little Sisters and other religious organisations exemptions from the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive requirements. The court declared the exemptions “arbitrary [and] capricious” under the Administrative Procedure Act and vacated them “in their entirety”.

In a developing story, a Church bookkeeper stands accused of having stolen more than 1.5 million dollars from a parish in New Jersey.

The Church of St Leo the Great is alleging that Joseph Manzi, its former finance director, took the funds over a period of several years. The Church said in its 8 August filing that “Manzi utilised St Leo’s business credit card accounts to pay for tickets to sporting events; personal vehicles; construction projects on his personal home; landscaping; gift cards; expenses related to his daughter’s wedding; his own personal taxes; meals and cigars; among other things.”

Michael Voris has alleged that a priest from Indiana’s University of Notre Dame made serious sexual advances towards him in the summer of 1981. He has also further alleged that the university covered up the incident to protect the cleric.

Voris made the comments on a relatively recently established YouTube account called “SoulsAndLiberty” and under the name “Gary Michael Voris”, which describes itself as “devoted Catholics working together to protect our American Constitutional, Democratic Republic”. The account features various videos covering religious and cultural themes.

As it happened, a week ago or so, I was sitting in the well-upholstered and elegant library of St Jean Baptiste Church in Manhattan, in the Upper East Side, with Fr Carlos Martins. I was able to ask him about the difficulties the last eight months had posed since he had to pause his ministry after having had what proved, as expected, to be unfounded accusations

I was in New York to plan a dramatic and rather exciting programme called Reclaiming Christendom that he and I, with one or two other colleagues, are planning to put together for launching later this year. But like everything else, it has had to be paused until the false charges were dropped and he was restored to his ministry.

Madonna has called on Pope Leo XIV to visit Gaza in order to "bring your light to the children before it's too late".

The US pop star, considered one of the most successful female solo acts of all time and who was born and raised as a Catholic, shared her plea on Instagram.

"Most Holy Father, please go to Gaza and bring your light to the children before it's too late. As a mother, I cannot bear to watch their suffering. The children of the world belong to everyone."

Pope Leo XIV has returned to Castel Gandolfo, the papal residence where he spent over two weeks for his summer holiday.

After arriving for what appears a short mini-break, he briefly spoke to reporters about different conflicts taking place in the world, reports the Rome-based Catholic news agency Crux.

He addressed the war in Ukraine, emphasizing that the countries involved “must always seek a ceasefire”, with his comments coming ahead of US President Donald Trump due to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska this Friday to discuss potentially ending the war.

US President Donald Trump has announced that this year's Kennedy Center honours will include the action film star Sylvester Stallone, one of Hollywood’s best-known Catholics.

In a break with tradition, the US president will also host the award ceremony this December in Washington, DC, an event that is regarded as bestowing "one of the country's highest recognitions of artists", reports the BBC.