Vatican News

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, announced that the Holy See “will not participate in the Board of Peace," promoted by the U.S. president to address Gaza and other conflicts.

The Vatican will open new parts of St. Peter’s — including the full terrace — and roll out a “SmartPass” digital entry system as it marks the basilica’s 400th anniversary.

The brief Ash Wednesday walk between two hilltop basilicas marks the start of Lent in Rome.

The Church should engage with universities about how to take “an ethical approach” to the dignity of unborn life, the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life said.

Pope Leo XIV has eliminated the Pontifical Committee for World Children’s Day, transferring the committee’s functions to the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza was the focus of a day of the arts at the Lateran Apostolic Palace on Feb. 14, drawing attention to the ongoing suffering of residents in the Gaza Strip.

Tyler J. VanderWeele, a Catholic, is an epidemiologist and director of the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University.

Pope Francis moved the prelature’s Vatican oversight from the office for bishops to that of clergy, triggering an ongoing review and rewrite of its governing norms.

The pope told the Pontifical Academy for Life it is hypocritical to call health a universal value while ignoring policies that drive disparities.

Father Fermín González Melado, who was recently named a “chaplain of His Holiness” by Pope Leo XIV, explains the qualifications and purpose of bestowing this honorary title.

Pope Leo XIV will preside over the traditional Ash Wednesday procession and Mass on Feb. 18 on Rome’s Aventine Hill, an important place of Christian pilgrimage for more than 1,500 years.

The pontiff urged “coherence between faith and life” and persistent prayer for peace.

In his catechesis before the Angelus, Leo said Jesus fulfills the Law by calling Christians beyond minimal righteousness to great love.

David Ryan, a 61-year-old Irishman who suffered sexual abuse as a teenager, shared his story face-to-face with Pope Leo XIV, the first time the pope met with a victim individually.

A popular summer destination for tourists, Ostia will be the first of five parishes where the pope, as bishop of Rome, will celebrate Mass on Sundays in February and March.

Pope Leo XIV urges Catholics to listen more closely to God and others — and to “disarm” their language by fasting from words that wound — in his message for Lent 2026.

The country’s growing economic and social instability prompts request to delay meeting with Pope Leo XIV.

The Vatican’s doctrinal office told a traditionalist group that consecrating bishops without a papal mandate would mean a “decisive rupture” of communion.

Two indexes with 50 companies each that adhere to Catholic social teachings were announced by the Vatican Bank in order to promote ethical Catholic investing.

The 2033 Jubilee will commemorate the bimillennium of the Redemption but the main ecumenical obstacle is the rift between the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate and the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Pope Leo XIV appointed Archbishop James Checchio coadjutor archbishop of New Orleans in September 2025 to automatically succeed the 76-year-old Archbishop Gregory Aymond upon his retirement.

Pope Leo XIV spoke about sacred Scripture during his weekly audience with pilgrims in the Vatican.

“I will not forget you” (Isaiah 49:15) is the theme chosen by Pope Leo XIV for the sixth World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly, which this year will take place on Sunday, July 26.

Vatican aid is headed to hard-hit areas including Fastiv and Kyiv, with distribution organized through parish networks.

Pope Leo XIV approved the new statutes of the Pontifical International Marian Academy, founded to promote and coordinate Mariological and Marian studies worldwide.

In his Angelus catechesis, the pope said true joy is found in communion with Christ and lived through concrete acts of charity.

The pontiff is expected to travel to Africa in April, visit Peru later this year, and make a summer stop in Spain.

The country’s bishops will travel to Rome from Feb. 16–20 to present to Pope Leo XIV “the vicissitudes, sorrows, joys, and hopes of the Church in Cuba.”

In a message for the Church’s Feb. 8 World Day of Prayer and Awareness against Human Trafficking, the pope warns that conflict and inequality fuel exploitation.

Pope Leo XIV and Sant’Egidio Community founder Andrea Riccardi discussed the role Christians and the Church are called to play in promoting peace in the midst of various world conflicts.

“We talked about the importance of chastity, how it heals and strengthens and restores the person," said Courage International Executive Director Father Brian Gannon.

The pontiff warned that profit, doping, and fanaticism can distort sport’s deeper human purpose.

The pontiff said Christians grow closer when they deepen their shared faith in Christ, “the ultimate source of our peace.”

The pontiff told organizers of a Vatican-backed initiative that global crises are still leaving many children in extreme poverty.

Planned consecrations could trigger automatic excommunication and deepen rupture with Rome.

Trappist Bishop Erik Varden of Trondheim will preach the week of spiritual exercises, with two daily meditations beginning Feb. 22.

The Vatican has published the schedule of liturgies that Pope Leo XIV will celebrate in February, March, and the beginning of April, which includes the start of Lent, Holy Week, and Easter.

At his general audience, Pope Leo XIV appealed for renewed nuclear arms-control efforts and asked Catholics to proclaim the Gospel in ways that speak to people’s real lives.

Pope Leo XIV’s prayer intention for the month of February is for children with incurable diseases.

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Sister Raffaella Petrini as a member of the Commission for Reserved Matters, which is responsible for awarding financial contracts in confidential areas of the Vatican.

From Feb. 4–8, the Catholic Church will mobilize with a series of activities in Rome in support of human dignity and peace.

The English saint, proclaimed a doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIV in November 2025, is honored every Oct. 9.

The pontiff urged consecrated men and women to witness to God’s presence in a world where faith and daily life often drift apart.

Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi, the retired archbishop of L’Aquila, succeeds Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the retired archbishop of Vienna.

“I told him about the abuse,” David Ryan said. “I did get a feeling of being listened to and being understood.”

The plan threatens to harden a decades-old split between the traditionalist group and the Vatican.

The pontiff echoed Cuban bishops’ call for “sincere and effective” talks after Washington announced new measures tightening economic pressure on the island.

Since 2012, the Vatican has entrusted the wooden cross designed and created by British artist Jon Cornwall to dioceses hosting the summer and winter Olympics.

Leo met with members of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, the pontifical organization that publishes the pope’s monthly prayer intention videos.

There is already a small café serving coffee, drinks, and gelato on the roof of the historic church.