SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello, I'm Maggie Murray of OSV News, and this is your OSV Newscast for Tuesday, August 25th, 2026. Let's catch you up on the Catholic News of the Day. Here we go. Pope Leo XIV welcomed a group of Spanish pilgrims to the Vatican yesterday with a message about where Christ can be found, in the faces of society's most vulnerable. Speaking to the Marcedetto Federation, a Spanish non-governmental organization supporting people with cerebral palsy and intellectual disabilities, the Pope thanked members for their work and urged them to discover, in the face of each person, Jesus Christ himself. Their mission, he said, gives witness to the gospel call to serve Christ and the vulnerable. Being able to recognize, in the lives of the weakest and most vulnerable, the gaze of Christ that challenges us is something that helps us grow as a human and Christian society, Poplio said. Founded in 1980, Marcedetto now serves more than 2,600 people, and members traveled from Toledo to Rome on pilgrimage, marking 45 years of the Federation's mission. The Pope praised the group as a model of solidarity, human dignity, and inclusion, and entrusted them to Mary's protection in their moments of greatest difficulty. The Vatican's chief diplomat arrived in Moscow yesterday for a four-day visit focused on dialogue, at a moment of significant tension in international relations. Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican's Secretary for Relations with States, is scheduled to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, a senior advisor to President Vladimir Putin, and Metropolitan Anthony of Voloklamsk of the Russian Orthodox Church. He is not scheduled to meet Putin himself. The timing is notable. The visit coincides with European leaders gathering in Kiev to mark Ukraine's 35th anniversary of independence and demonstrate solidarity with the country. In times like these, nations learn how important it is to have allies by your side, Ukrainian foreign minister Andriy Sibia said. During his stay, Archbishop Gallagher will also celebrate Mass at Moscow's Catholic Cathedral and meet with Catholic bishops, clergy, and religious. The Vatican said the trip reflects the Holy See's determination to keep channels of dialogue open and follows the Archbishop's July visit to Ukraine, where he met with President Volodymyr Zelensky. An idea that sat untouched in a journal for nearly a decade has finally become a published novel, and it offers readers a rare window into the daily rhythms of monastic life. Father Thomas Esposito, a monk of Our Lady of Dallas Cistercian Abbey in Irving, Texas, has published Blue Miles, a monastic novel, through the Ignatius Press. He first conceived the project while on Rome's Aventine Hill, wondering what it would be like to follow a single monk through a single day, and jotted chapter ideas down before setting the project aside. The finished novel follows Padre Samuel O'Malley, an elderly Cistercian monk at the fictional Presentation Abbey, from Matins to Compline. Father Esposito says the story isn't based on any particular person or monastery, but draws on his own experience of religious life and the history of his order. And it doesn't shy away from difficulty, chronicling both the joys of ministering and teaching and the deep melancholy of loneliness, the agony of addiction, and the complexity of recovery. The perception that science and religion are fundamentally at odds. Jesuit father Robert Spitzer, president of the Magist Center and host of EWTN's Father Spitzer's Universe, spoke with OSV News about Science, Reason, and Faith, Catholic study Bible, published this summer by our Sunday Visitor. The project arrives at a pointed moment. A 2025 Pew Research Center survey found the top reason former Catholics in the U.S. leave the church is that they simply stopped believing its teachings. Father Spitzer hopes readers will come to see science and faith as complementary rather than contradictory. They bring two different perspectives that bring out the fullness of God's mind, God's heart, God's beautiful aesthetic sense, God's morality and conscience, he said. You put the two together, and you're going to get just the most amazing vision of the mind and heart of God. Dublin saw the steepest drop at nearly 40%, while Elfin was the only diocese to record growth. Still, the report offers one note of continuity. Most self-identified Catholic parents in Ireland continue to baptize their children. And that's your OSV Newscast for today. I'm Maggie Murray of OSV News. Check out the show notes for direct links to the stories in this episode. Be sure to subscribe to this podcast, follow us on social media, and bookmark osvnews.com. Thanks so much for listening and God bless. This has been an OSV News production. To learn more, visit osvnews.com.