OSV News

1 I had the chance to visit the set of “The Chosen” while the cast and crew were filming scenes of the seventh and final season. Jonathan Roumie, who portrays Jesus, was preparing to film a scene at the empty tomb, with prosthetic nail marks on his hands. As I spoke with Jonathan and members of the production crew, I sensed a bittersweetness on the set. After years of filming, traveling, creating and telling the story of Jesus and his Apostles, they were nearing the end of a remarkable chapter.

3 (OSV News) — Catholic education leaders are applauding proposed regulations for the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit, which incentivizes private contributions to K-12 scholarships benefiting students in public, charter or private schools, including religious. On Oct. 1, the U.S. Treasury Department and the IRS jointly announced the proposed regulations for the program (also known as the Education Freedom Tax Credit), which was enacted in 2025 and is set to launch Jan. 1.

4 Elizabeth Dias is a very good writer, and if you can get behind the paywall at the New York Times, try to read her lengthy piece about religious scholars meeting with Anthropic to discuss whether they could help instill morality into Artificial Intelligence.

7 During Nebraska’s long struggle to end the death penalty, a weekly protest was held outside the governor’s mansion. Norma was an elderly woman who had long opposed the death penalty. As she grew frail, she still went faithfully, rain or shine, to the corner where protestors gathered. No longer able to stand up for long periods, Norma protested from a chair.

288 (OSV News) — After Tennessee officials failed in their Sept. 30 attempt to execute death row inmate Christa Gail Pike for a 1995 murder, a number of faith leaders, including Tennessee’s Catholic bishops, have called for her sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment. The state’s Gov. Bill Lee also halted the one remaining execution for the rest of the year pending an investigation, he said.

5 (OSV News) — Catholic bishops in Africa expressed solidarity and closeness to Archbishop Alick Banda of Lusaka, Zambia, and the Zambian bishops conference, following the prelate’s arrest over a car gift. Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, archbishop of Kinshasa, Congo, and president of the Symposium of the Episcopal Conferences in Africa and Madagascar, or SECAM, said the organization had learned with “great concern” of the recent proceedings and investigations involving the archbishop.

9 Written by John Touhey, Jersey Catholic NEWARK, N.J. (OSV News) — Nearly 50 years after Blessed Fulton J. Sheen celebrated a Lenten Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, a man who made a special audio recording of it recently shared a digital copy of it with Father Matthew Gonzalez, the cathedral’s current rector. Then-Archbishop Sheen was living in retirement in New York City at the time.

4 (OSV News) — Catholics in Greenland are regarding a new security agreement with a mixture of relief and concern, while remaining committed to the call of the Gospel, said the island’s only Catholic parish priest. On Sept. 22, the U.S., Denmark and Greenland signed an agreement amending the 1951 document that authorized the U.S. to create military bases in semiautonomous Greenland, which along with the Faroe Islands and the European nation of Denmark forms the Kingdom of Denmark.

3 VATICAN CITY (OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV prayed the rosary with hundreds of children and their families at the Lourdes grotto in the Vatican Gardens Oct. 1 after the pope invited Catholics to pray the rosary throughout the month of October for peace in the world. “Tonight and in these coming days, we are not alone in prayer. Across the globe, one million children are praying with us,” Pope Leo told the children.

6 WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the creation of a new “Office of Religious Affairs” during a speech Sept. 30 on Pentagon policy. Hegseth — who uses the moniker “secretary of war” since Trump signed an executive order last year adding the “Department of War” as a secondary, ceremonial title for the Department of Defense — announced the new office during a speech at U.S. Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.