For Christian actor Chris Pratt, the conversation began with prayer. During an October 20 appearance on NBC’s “TODAY,” Pratt opened up about his private meeting with Pope Leo XIV and the questions he brought to their brief conversation. “He’s awesome. He’s great,” Pratt said when asked about the Holy Father. After the interviewer, Carson Daly, noted that the pope seemed “very American,” Pratt responded warmly. “Yeah. Yeah, he’s an American dude. It was amazing,” he said. “I think he’s a fantastic man.” Pratt said he had the opportunity for a private audience with Pope Leo XIV and spoke with him for half an hour. When Daly asked what he said during that encounter, the actor described two questions: one about praying for the Holy Father, and another about sharing Christ’s love while remaining faithful to the Gospel. “I asked him how I could pray for him, and then I asked him a question about sort of grace on the fringes and how do you bring love to people while also sticking to the words of the Gospel.” Pratt said. “And he just gave me the most amazing answers.” Read more: churchpop.com/chris-pratt-re…

Not everything that seems spiritual is compatible with the Catholic faith. Catholic influencer Damián Rodríguez warns about six popular beliefs that, although they may seem closely related to Christianity, are incompatible with the Church’s teachings. In a video posted on his social media accounts, Rodríguez explains that we can often adopt New Age ideas or fall into superstition without realizing it. That is why a deeper understanding of our faith is essential to distinguishing beliefs and practices that are incompatible with it. Here are the six beliefs that, although they may seem right, do not align with the Catholic faith: churchpop.com/do-you-practic…

How does a family navigate the heartbreaking loss of a nine-year-old child without falling into despair? For Laura and her husband, the answer lay in the remarkable faith, humor, and boundless imagination of their young son, Francisco. To those who loved him, Francisco was a boy filled with joy and a profound fascination with the cosmos. His eyes were constantly fixed on the stars, dreaming of galaxies far beyond our own. But in May 2023, his family’s world was shattered when Francisco received a devastating medical diagnosis. It began with a subtle change in his vision. After noticing minor difficulties during a routine day, medical evaluations revealed every parent’s worst nightmare: Francisco was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), a rare and aggressive pediatric brain tumor. Because of the tumor’s location in the brainstem, DIPG presents an agonizing reality for families — it is inoperable, and modern medicine can only do so much to slow its progression. Suddenly, Laura and her husband found themselves facing a road marked by profound grief and anguish. Yet, from the very beginning of his diagnosis, Francisco chose a path that astonished everyone around him. Rather than letting fear or sadness consume his days, he met his illness with humor, patience, and a deep, childlike trust in God, all helped along by some very special chats. He and his mother began having what they called “heaven talks,” excitedly imagining eternal life, as Laura Fredrickson explained: “Everything about Francisco was so animated by an idea of what’s next. He just became more and more excited about the things he was going to get to experience.” Continue reading the full story: churchpop.com/a-secret-space…

Long before Vice President JD Vance was received into the Catholic Church in 2019, his spiritual journey took a dramatic, quiet turn along a winding mountain pass between eastern Kentucky and North Carolina. A young Marine preparing to deploy to Iraq, he was grieving the loss of his beloved grandmother — Mawmaw, the matriarch who had raised him. Driving back toward his military base, his car hit a curve in the road and began spinning out of control toward the edge of a mountain drop-off. “It's one of these roads where there is no — you know, you go off the side of the mountain and you're probably not going to make it,” Vance told Raymond Arroyo in an interview that aired Oct. 22 on EWTN’s The World Over. “And just like right at that point where I'm like, ‘All right, I'm about to go over the side of the mountain,’ the car just comes to a completely restful stop. Like God put His hand on that car and made it stop.” To Vance, the moment carried an undeniable weight: churchpop.com/how-a-near-cra…

How does a family navigate the heartbreaking loss of a nine-year-old child without falling into despair? For Laura and her husband, the answer lay in the remarkable faith, humor, and boundless imagination of their young son, Francisco. To those who loved him, Francisco was a boy filled with joy and a profound fascination with the cosmos. His eyes were constantly fixed on the stars, dreaming of galaxies far beyond our own. But in May 2023, his family’s world was shattered when Francisco received a devastating medical diagnosis. It began with a subtle change in his vision. After noticing minor difficulties during a routine day, medical evaluations revealed every parent’s worst nightmare: Francisco was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), a rare and aggressive pediatric brain tumor. Because of the tumor’s location in the brainstem, DIPG presents an agonizing reality for families — it is inoperable, and modern medicine can only do so much to slow its progression. Suddenly, Laura and her husband found themselves facing a road marked by profound grief and anguish.  Yet, from the very beginning of his diagnosis, Francisco chose a path that astonished everyone around him. Rather than letting fear or sadness consume his days, he met his illness with humor, patience, and a deep, childlike trust in God, all helped along by some very special chats.  Read more at Churchpop.com! ✍🏻 Alyssa Murphy 📹: Laura Fredrickson

Hundreds of pilgrims pray at St. John Paul II’s tomb in the Chapel of St. Sebastian inside St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City. On October 22, we celebrate his feast day, marking the anniversary of the inaugural Mass of his pontificate in 1978. St. John Paul II, pray for us! 🙏 Leave your prayer intentions in the comments.

Our Catholic faith is intertwined with pop culture in all aspects of life. From fashion to movies to comic books! Matt Murdock who is the comic book hero Daredevil was raised Irish-Catholic by nuns in a Hell's Kitchen orphanage in New York. His storylines frequently center on guilt, confession, church visits, and his moral refusal to kill. Kurt Wagner, one of the iconic X-Men known as Nightcrawler, is a devout Bavarian mutant who frequently prays the rosary in German and seeks refuge in churches. But we aren’t talking about Catholic characters made up in the mind of Stan Lee, we’re talking about real life Catholic heroes whose lives were adapted into Marvel comics in the height of the comic book era, the American 1980s - where you had a lot of hairspray, a lot of leg warmers, a lot of neon and a lot of comics: churchpop.com/catholic-saint…

A priest escorted his younger sister on one of the most special days of her life: her coronation as her school’s Homecoming Queen. Proud of her, he shared the moment on social media with a funny comment that quickly went viral. Father Max Gallegos, a Catholic priest from Birmingham, Alabama, posted a message celebrating the milestone with his younger sister, Kelly. “I had the privilege of walking my baby sister down the 50 yard line as she was acknowledged the 2026 Fort Payne High School Homecoming Queen! I love you and am so incredibly proud of you.” The priest shared photos of himself and his sister walking across the 50 yard line of the football field. Kelly wore a black dress, a crown and a sash, and carried a bouquet of flowers as she was recognized as homecoming queen. But his message did not end there. With a good dose of humor, Father Max added one final line: “But, I have to say, my dress is better!” Read more: churchpop.com/a-priest-escor…

The death of Father Patricio, who died while celebrating Mass, has prompted many expressions of grief, but also mocking comments on social media. In response, several Catholics have spoken out to call for respect in the face of death and the grief of others. Father Patricio Alfredo Sánchez Molinari, a 53-year-old Redemptorist priest, died on Saturday, October 17, 2026, while celebrating the Eucharist at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Guayaquil, Ecuador. During the service, a large wooden cross positioned behind the altar came loose and fell onto the priest. The accident shocked worshippers in attendance and those watching Mass online. A call for respect amid mockery on social media As images of the accident spread, some people responded with mockery. In response, Father Ricardo Rivera Gutiérrez published a message expressing sorrow over these comments and reminding readers that a person’s death should never become a laughing matter. More: churchpop.com/a-priests-deat…

“One day, ready or not, you are going to die…” With these direct, inescapable words, Catholic priests in Chicago are inviting the faithful to pause and confront a true reality that modern culture goes to great lengths to ignore. “For millennia, the Church has reminded us of this inescapable reality. This world is not our final home. We are made for something greater, and what we do in this life has consequences for the next.” But with our Catholic understanding of memento mori, a call to remember our own death, we are invited to navigate this universal mystery with spiritual courage rather than dread. “Throughout the ages, these truths have found rich, even beautiful expressions in the liturgical life of the Church. Few works give more powerful expression to this mystery than Mozart’s Requiem, a masterpiece of sacred music, filled with profound sorrow and dramatic force, yet sustained by the hope and promise of eternal life.” Drawing from this rich heritage, the upcoming Novena seeks to prepare the human heart for what lies beyond this earthly pilgrimage, helping the faithful to contemplate their own mortality through the reassuring beauty of Catholic tradition: churchpop.com/one-day-ready-…

Across the country, a quiet revolution is taking place in parish pews: thousands of young people are turning away from modern secular culture in search of a profound, timeless encounter with the sacred. Addressing this cultural shift on the Napa Institute’s Shepherd’s Circle Priest Podcast, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco explained why the decade-old strategy of making the Church “look like the world” has ultimately failed — and what is actually drawing young souls back to the faith. Known for his courageous public witness — from performing exorcisms at sites of desecrated statues to founding the Benedict XVI Institute to elevate sacred music — Archbishop Cordileone directly challenged the lingering post-conciliar notion that the Church must constantly modernize to stay appealing. “This was a phrase we heard a lot: ‘Church has to catch up to the world and be more like the world because that's where the people are at so it can be relatable,’” Archbishop Cordileone recalled. “But as it turns out, we make ourselves irrelevant when we do that.” Read more: churchpop.com/archbishop-cor…

A brief encounter with the Holy Father in December of last year became a source of strength for a young Ukrainian girl fighting cancer. Now, she has returned to thank him and share a special gift. Thirteen-year-old Varvara from Ukraine was the last person to say goodbye to Pope Leo XIV before he left the hospital on Saturday after being treated for lung cancer. As he headed to his car to return to the Vatican, she shared a moving message: she had been treated for cancer and recovered. Varvara had briefly met the Holy Father on December 31st, before going to the hospital for cancer treatment. During their latest encounter this past weekend, she told him that their earlier meeting “gave her the strength to overcome the illness I have now beaten.” She also brought him some deeply personal gifts: the photograph of when they first met and a small, stuffed pope doll that she made for him to accompany the pope during his recovery. She shared how she had a doll just like him named Basik who had accompanied her throughout her hospital stay. Varvara explained that the doll had been her friend during treatment, when she had none. “He is the only friend I have had since the beginning of the war.” Read more at Churchpop.com! ✍🏻 Claudette Jerez 📹: Vatican Media

Pray for Oregon! After a tragic senseless act of violence that claimed the lives of 5 people--including 3 young students--at Silver Rail Elementary School on Oct. 15, the entire community of Bend, Oregon is in mourning today. We learned during a press conference yesterday that a 16-year old boy had forced his way into the school, firing bullets to get passed the locked doors. He killed 3 students, one 5-year old, 8, and 11-year old, alongside a teacher before he was killed after a bystander had witnessed him walking into the building with a gun. Two people are still in critical condition including a teacher and a 7-year old student. One teacher, Sheil Smith, witnessed the teen approaching and hurried to get her students in one corner of the classroom. She told CNN she saw her students turn to God: “Some kids were praying, some kids were consoling other kids." Read more at Churchpop.com! ✍🏻 Alyssa Murphy

Since Pope Leo was admitted to the hospital for the removal of a cancerous nodule from his lung, Gemelli has become a site for the faithful from around the world to hold vigil for the Holy Father, whose room is on the 10th floor. And even with the news that the Pope is recovering well from his surgery, the prayers haven’t stopped coming. Nor have Catholics, who have been gathering outside the hospital to pray for his full recovery. 📹: Abby Strelow

Oh, bother… we’re a little starstruck! Catholic voice actor Jim Cummings, the beloved voice of Winnie the Pooh for over 40 years, commented on our post celebrating Pooh’s 100th birthday! What a sweet surprise! Almost as sweet as honey...

Long before social media influencers or modern disruptors, St. Teresa of Ávila was turning the world upside down. Canonized in 1622 alongside heavyweight saints like Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, Teresa went on to become the very first female Doctor of the Church. This Carmelite nun was a bold and deeply passionate reformer who refused to settle for a lukewarm life — and if you think ‘mindfulness’ is something new — check out her take on the interior life! If you’re looking to level up your spiritual journey, here are 5 takeaways from St. Teresa of Ávila to take with you on your way: churchpop.com/st-teresa-of-a…