OSV News Showcase | October 11, 2024

OSV News Showcase | October 11, 2024

What do an archdiocese and philanthropists teaming up to develop unused buildings for affordable housing, a Hurricane Milton relief fund, a column on liturgical living as adults and a profile on a Latina youth minister have in common?

Aside from all being published this week at OSV News, in each of them one can read echoes of Jesus’ “come, follow me” that’s in this Sunday’s gospel reading. May we — with God’s grace — respond to this call.

Below are a few more stories we published this week — keep an eye out for more on our public website osvnews.com and on social media @OSVNews.

Megan Marley

Digital Editor

P.S.: Enjoy reading this roundup? Sign up to receive our emails here.


QUESTION CORNER: I have heard some priests refer to “non-sacramental” marriages on the annulment question. I presume these are civil marriages. Is it so? Or do these marriages become “non-sacramental” due to the various other faults in the couple’s status?


The U.S. Supreme Court Oct. 7 began its new term Oct. 7, which is scheduled to include cases involving school policies regarding students who identify as transgender, the regulation of so-called “ghost guns,” the death penalty and whether adults can be required to provide their IDs as age verification to access pornographic websites. 

STATE SUPREME COURT: “Georgia Supreme Court reinstates six-week abortion ban” 


A new book accused Opus Dei of dealing in human trafficking, forced labor as well as financial malfeasance by members who held powerful positions in a prominent Spanish bank. The organization says it never hid facts from the writer and chose full transparency, only for the author to decide to follow “his own narrative” instead of facts.


Three years after a landmark French clerical sexual abuse report was published, a member of the commission that released it told OSV News the testimonies he heard had a great impact on him and that he remains in touch with those affected, helping them move forward. 

CNS ROME: “Doctrine dicastery overturns Vatican ruling in priest laicization case


The March for Life Education and Defense Fund Oct. 10 unveiled the theme for its upcoming event: “Every Life: Why We March.” The 52nd annual March for Life is scheduled for Jan. 24, just days after the winner of the 2024 presidential election will be inaugurated, and comes amid what the group’s president Jeanne Mancini described as a time of “confusion and erroneous messaging” about abortion. 


HOLY LAND: In a year filled with the “turmoil of hatred and violence,” it has been very important to keep the “spiritual life of the Christian community,” as well as his own, “alive,” Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa said. “Remaining attached to my spiritual roots was very important,” the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem said Oct. 4, ahead of the year mark of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught on southern Israeli communities that left 1,200 people murdered and 250 taken hostage in the Gaza Strip.


SYNOD: The goal of the second meeting of the Synod on Synodality underway at the Vatican is understanding and exercising synodality in the church, rather than immediately resolving specific issues, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ synodality expert said.

CHARITY: “Pope sends $67,000 to Gaza parish, with $35,000 raised in one day from synod delegates


God works in mysterious ways, but the Holy Father is even more mysterious, Cardinal-designate Mykola Bychok, eparch of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Australia and Oceania, told The Catholic Weekly on the day of his appointment. On Oct. 6, Pope Francis announced he would create 21 new cardinals Dec. 8, including a 99-year-old former nuncio.

CNS ROME: “Statistically speaking: How pope’s choices change College of Cardinals


What was the impact of dockworkers at ports from Maine to Texas going on strike? The standoff was shortlived but risked new shortages. An estimated 45,000 dockworkers at 36 East and Gulf Coast ports walked off the job at 12:01 a.m. ET on Oct. 1 — for the first time in nearly 50 years. 


Ahead of World Mission Sunday Oct. 20, Hallow, the acclaimed prayer app, and the Pontifical Mission Societies USA are uniting to offer a global novena to St. Thérèse of Lisieux, patroness of the missions. 

ROSARY: “Faith of children, power of prayer combine in million-strong rosary


MOVIE REVIEW: Touching wartime drama in which an elderly artist (Helen Mirren), anxious to reform the bullying ways of her student grandson (Bryce Gheisar), recounts to him her travails as a young Jewish schoolgirl (Ariella Glaser) in occupied France. The OSV News classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. 


Ecclesiastical melodrama centers on the deann of the college of cardinals who, in the wake of the sudden death of a fictional pope, organizes the gathering of the title. The film gets canon law wrong, implicitly slanders Benedict XVI and traffics in sordid secrets of varying plausibility in the lead-up to a climactic revelation that many will find offensively exploitative, others merely loopy. Elevates the pieties of the current zeitgeist over eternal truths in a way that warrants viewer caution. The OSV News classification is L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG — parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

Offering prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary