1. Home ›
  2. Global Catholic Research

Global Catholic Research

  1. Pope Leo Addresses the Faithful a Day After Leaving the Hospital

    October 18, 2026

    “Though we are all eager for more information about his prognosis and possible treatments, the Angelus is not the time to impart that information,” said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a historian at University of Notre Dame.

  2. Pope Leo Praises Europe's Democracy, diverging once again from Trump

    September 28, 2026

    “He always frames his messages universally,” said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a historian at the University of Notre Dame and director of the Global Catholic Research Initiative. He is not seeking “to correct or condemn."

  3. Fulton Sheen, Catholic media star, will be beatified in St Louis Thursday

    September 22, 2026

    “The heavy lifting in a canonization happens before” a miracle, said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a history professor at the University of Notre Dame who has studied American saints. “That’s when you gather all the evidence, and you have to weigh everything the saint ever said or did or wrote.”

  4. These Catholic sisters want to start an order for clergy abuse survivors

    July 22, 2026

    University of Notre Dame historian Kathleen Cummings says religious sisters have dedicated their lives for centuries to helping vulnerable people. They've served everywhere from battlefields to inner city schools. "What we're seeing here is really just a modern manifestation of that, a group of women who recognize a need in the church and want to dedicate their lives to fulfilling it, and to not do that part-time, to make that their entire life."

  5. Pope Leo pays tribute to the missionary patron saint of migrants: “They ask us for help.” [Italian only]

    June 21, 2026

    Kathleen Sprows Cummings wrote in the New York newspaper : “The most profound lesson of the first American pontiff may be that our interdependent world has become, in Cabrini’s words, ‘too small’ for outdated fantasies of American exceptionalism.”

  6. A Big Moment for American Catholics Is Coming

    June 17, 2026

    Kathleen Sprows Cummings directs the Global Catholic Research Initiative at the University of Notre Dame.

  7. Why the AI encyclical isn’t just hot air

    May 26, 2026

    “Rerum novarum” also coincided with the Vatican’s support for worker activism on the other side of the Atlantic. Many Catholics in the U.S. at the time were immigrants, who often worked in jobs such as coal mining and steelwork that had become more grueling due to industrialization, according to Notre Dame American studies professor Kathleen Sprows Cummings.

  8. Leo XIV Is the First Pope From the U.S. He’s Making That an Asset.

    May 06, 2026

    In the United States, Leo’s background makes him more relevant, according to Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a historian at the University of Notre Dame. Americans “are paying more attention because he’s one of our own,” she said.

  9. Did Pope Leo find his voice in Africa? Or did the world finally hear him?

    April 20, 2026

    Kathleen Sprows Cummings, director of the Global Catholic Research Initiative at the University of Notre Dame, said Leo has consistently operated “on a higher plane” but American Catholics are used to church discussion of morality in the context of sexuality, gender and abortion, and it’s jarring to process foreign policy through a moral lens. “So JD Vance can say the pope should stick to morality,” she said, “but war and peace are ancient moral issues.”

  10. Notre Dame Professor Discusses President Trump's Criticism of Pope Leo XIV

    April 15, 2026

    Kathleen Sprows Cummings, professor of American studies and history and director of the Global Catholic Research Initiative at the University of Notre Dame, discusses President Donald Trump's criticism of Pope Leo XIV with BBC News.

  11. In Leo, Trump Faces a Different Kind of Papal Opponent

    April 14, 2026

    “Where you’re from matters,” said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a history professor who specializes in Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame. “He’s got friends, he’s got siblings in the United States. He understands American politics. He knows Republicans and Democrats.”

  12. In reversal of nation's anti-Catholic past, Pope Leo defends US ideals against Trump

    April 14, 2026

    OPINION | By Kathleen Sprows Cummings, professor of history and director of the Global Catholic Research Initiative at the University of Notre Dame and author of “A Saint of Our Own: How the Quest for a Holy Hero Helped Catholics Become American.”

     

  13. Many US Catholics are dismayed by Trump’s unprecedented broadside at the first American pope

    April 14, 2026

    “This is unprecedented criticism of a Pope from a US president,” David Campbell, a political science professor at the University of Notre Dame, said via email. Looking far back into world history, Trump’s attempt to “strong-arm Pope Leo” isn’t anything new, said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a professor of American Studies and History at Notre Dame.

  14. On First Trip Abroad, Pope Leo Echoed Francis’s Message, Not His Style

    December 03, 2025

    “He’s not emotive or telling you what he feels all the time,” said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a history professor who specializes in Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame. But “he’s able to be fully present to people.” With Francis, “there was a self-consciousness,” said Ms. Cummings. “What he was doing was going to get attention. It didn’t mean that it was false,” she added. But “Pope Leo doesn’t seem to care about that.”

  15. Notre Dame Professor discusses Papal Conclave 2025 on MSNBC

    May 11, 2025

    Kathleen Sprows Cummings, professor of American studies and history at Notre Dame, discusses the potential pope frontrunners with MSNBC prior to the beginning of the Conclave. Cummings describes Cardinal Robert Prevost as a "dark horse" candidate and explains that an American pontiff would be a long shot, but after four ballots he was announced as Pope Leo XIV.