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Hello, I'm Gina Christian, and you're listening to our OSV newscast for Wednesday, November 4th, 2026. Today we mark the feast of St. Charles Borromeo, a 16th-century cardinal and bishop. He's a patron of cardinals and bishops, and also of seminarians, catechists, and catechumens. He was quite young when he was made cardinal and archbishop of Milan, and he participated in the latter portion of the Council of Trent, dedicating himself to church reform. He ministered to the sick amid a devastating plague, and he exhorted clergy and religious to draw on the strength of prayer, saying, souls are one on one's knees. St. Charles Borromeo, pray for us. Now let's catch you up on the Catholic news of the day, and here we go. Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress November 3rd in a landslide midterm election, according to multiple projections, with significant ramifications for the final years of the Trump administration and its policies. In major flips for Democrats, the party picked up Senate seats in Texas, South Carolina, Kansas, and Iowa. Democratic candidates also won races in key swing states, including North Carolina, Ohio, Georgia, and Michigan. At press time November 3rd, Senate races in Mississippi and Alaska were still too close to call. Democrats were also projected to win an 81-seat majority in the U.S. House, with estimates of 258 Democratic seats and 177 Republican seats. Initial exit polling suggested that voters disapproved of Trump's job performance, including on several key issues, the economy, corruption, the Iran war, artificial intelligence, and his hardline immigration enforcement policies. The magnitude of Republicans' defeats in the House and Senate races across the country exceeded many initial estimates, with multiple analysts casting the results as the beginning of the end of the Trump era in U.S. politics. The historic midterm elections were also the first in which a sitting pontiff, Pope Leo XIV, who's a U.S. citizen as well as a citizen of Peru, cast a ballot. Prior to the election, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops broadly encouraged eligible Catholics to vote, pointing to forming consciences for faithful citizenship for the discernment of the faithful. Voters in four states considered ballot measures related to abortion policy in the November 3rd election, with only one state rejecting a measure to expand access to the procedure, and the others approving proposals to codify a right to an abortion or rejecting further limits. Voters in Idaho rejected a ballot measure that would have established abortion as a state right, but voters in Nevada and Virginia approved similar measures. Lila Rose, president and founder of Live Action, said in a November 4th statement that the results of this election bring serious challenges to the fight for life, but also tremendous victory in Idaho, where voters rejected an extreme abortion measure and preserved protections for pre-born children. Rose noted that voters in Virginia and Nevada approved sweeping pro-abortion amendments, while Missouri voters rejected an effort to restore protections for pre-born children. And she continued, These are devastating setbacks for innocent children who deserve the protection of the law. We will continue working to defend every child whose life is threatened by abortion. The results of the ballot measures came in the same election cycle that saw Democrats win control of both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives by wide margins. Pope Leo XIV's November 8th to 11th visit to Argentina will be the first papal trip to that country in nearly 40 years. The legacy of his predecessor, the Argentinian-born Pope Francis, remains both beloved and debated in his homeland. The Pope arrives in what Buenos Aires Archbishop Jorge Ignacio Garcia Cuerva has called a wounded Argentina, a divided Argentina, amid persistent political polarization, economic uncertainty, and high expectations that he can offer a message of unity. The Pope's schedule includes meetings with President Javier Millet and government leaders, a mass in Buenos Aires that's expected to draw more than 1.5 million people, visits to a disability center and a prison, and a stop in Córdoba before concluding at the Basilica of Our Lady of Lujan, the country's national Marian Shrine. A recent survey found poverty is the top issue Argentines hope Pope Leo will address. The Vatican also announced Pope Leo will hold private meetings with abuse survivors during his South American journey, a significant gesture in a country where calls for accountability remain strong. Church and civil leaders hope the visit can help bridge divisions. Father Lucas Garcia, rector of the Lujan Shrine, said, in an Argentina that often experiences divisions, differences, and difficulty encountering one another, the Virgin remains a point of unity. Catholics marked All Souls Day on November 2nd, and in Philadelphia, several of the faithful gathered at a Philadelphia cemetery to mourn pre-born children killed by notorious abortionist Kermit Gosnell. Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Coffey of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services told OSV News, We're here today to remember those babies, the victims of Dr. Gosnell, that they are not forgotten. The Archbishop was on hand for a November 2nd Memorial Mass and subsequent graveside prayer service for 47 babies found in Gosnell's West Philadelphia Clinic in 2010. For retired detective James Wood, who had discovered the baby's body stored in a freezer at the clinic, the occasion, which was his first visit to the grave, was both special and surreal, he said. Participants also prayed for the soul of Gosnell, who died back in March at the age of 85, while incarcerated in a Huntington, Pennsylvania correctional facility, where he was serving multiple sentences for first-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, and drug charges. Sixteen years after discovering the bodies of the children, Wood, who throughout his law enforcement career has drawn on his deeply held Catholic faith, reflected on what he would tell the deceased children today. He said, I would say I'm sorry for what happened to you. I wish your parents would have made a different decision. I would tell them, you can come and help us as angels to change things in this world that we live in today. And finally, Blessed Stanley Rother, recognized as the first U.S. born priest and martyr beatified by the Catholic Church, is the subject of a new exhibit at the Museum of the Bible in Washington. The exhibit is titled Blessed Stanley Rother, Ordinary Man, Extraordinary Shepherd. It opened on October 17th and it runs through October 1st, 2027. At an opening reception on November 1st, which was both All Saints Day and the International Day of Prayer for Persecuted Christians, speakers invited the 75 or so guests to befriend the Shepherd Who Didn't Run as an intercessor and a contemporary witness to the often perilous ministry of evangelization and solidarity. Blessed Rother's martyrdom remains current in a world where practicing the faith can literally be deadly. Aid to the Church in Need, an international papal charity supporting persecuted and suffering Christian communities worldwide, reported on October 27th that conditions for Christians worsened in almost 56% of 18 countries examined over the past two years. None of them recorded an overall improvement. Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, who was also president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said, like the Good Shepherd himself, Blessed Rother didn't respond to violence with violence. Rather, said the Archbishop, the martyred Oklahoma priest faced violent opposition in Guatemala. His parishioners were kidnapped, disappeared, and murdered. And his response was always to teach the gospel. And that's your OSV Newscast for today. I'm Gina Christian. Check out the show notes for a link to our website. That's where you can find the stories in this episode. As always, please do make sure to subscribe to this podcast, follow us on social media, and bookmark osvnews.com. A shout out to all of our listeners around the world. Please keep checking in. Hokleo, we're praying for you as you get ready for your South American trip. Thanks so much for listening and God bless.

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