Vatican News

Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Oct 7, 2025 / 11:58 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV called Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, an act of terrorism that cannot be tolerated and lamented the large number of Palestinian lives lost during “a painful two years.”

Addressing a group of journalists just outside his Castel Gandolfo residence, Villa Barberini, on Oct. 7, the pope said: “Two years ago it was a terroristic attack. ... more than 200 people killed.”

“We really need to think hard about how much hatred there is in the world and start with ourselves, asking why it exists and what we can do about it,” he added. “Then, in two years, 60,000–67,000 Palestinians have been killed. It really makes you think about how much violence there is and how good it is to promote peace.”

Leo answered questions from journalists as he left Castel Gandolfo to return to the Vatican. He has spent every Tuesday at the papal retreat, located 18 miles south of Rome, since Sept. 9.

“It is certain that we cannot accept groups that cause terrorism; we must always reject this style of hatred in the world,” the pope said, noting as well that antisemitism is also on the rise.

He pointed out that he has asked the Church to pray in a special way for peace during the month of October.

“We must respect the dignity of everyone. This is the message of the Church,” he said.

The pope declined to answer a question about ICE raids in Chicago. “I prefer not to comment at this time about choices made, about political choices, in the United States,” he said.

In the three-and-a-half minute exchange with journalists, Leo also commented briefly on his first international trip to Nov. 27–Dec. 2, announced by the Vatican on Tuesday.

The visit to the historic site of Nicaea in Turkey for the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea will be a “historic moment,” he said, “but it is not to look back, it is to move forward.”

He called it a moment “of unity in the faith for all Christians” and pointed out that his predecessor, Francis, was hoping to make the trip to Turkey himself. 

In Lebanon, there will be “the opportunity to proclaim once again the message of peace in the Middle East, in a country that has suffered so much,” Leo said.

“Pope Francis wanted to go there too,” the pontiff added, “he wanted to reach out to the people who are living after the explosion, after all they have suffered. We will try to bring this message of peace and hope.”

Looking ahead to the Oct. 9 release of his first apostolic exhortation, , which will be on the topic of poverty, Leo said, “that is the message of the Gospel.”

“Ultimately, whatever the pope says or announces must always be rooted in the Gospel. That is what we want to try to do,” he said.

Vatican City, Oct 7, 2025 / 07:08 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV will visit Turkey and Lebanon in the first apostolic journey of his pontificate, to take place from Nov. 27 to Dec. 2, the Vatican announced Tuesday.

Holy See Press Office Director Matteo Bruni said the pope accepted the invitations of the “Head of State and Ecclesiastical Authorities” of both countries in an Oct. 7 statement released by the Vatican.

During the six-day papal trip, the Holy Father will visit the Turkish city of Iznek to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, an ecumenical milestone in Church history that led to the formulation of the Nicene Creed.

According to a media release published by the Ecumenical Patriarchate on Tuesday, Pope Leo will undertake a joint pilgrimage with Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople to Nicaea on Nov. 28 before spending two days in the Phanar, the headquarters of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul, where he and Bartholomew will celebrate the feast day of St. Andrew the Apostle on Nov. 30.

Leo will be the fifth pope to visit Turkey. Early in his pontificate, Pope Francis visited the Middle Eastern nation in 2014 to strengthen the Church’s interreligious dialogue with Orthodox and Muslim leaders.

The last papal visit to Lebanon was made by Pope Benedict XVI from Sept. 14–16, 2012, more than one year after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war.

The Assembly of the Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops in Lebanon issued a statement on Tuesday expressing their gratitude to Pope Leo for his “fatherly love and special concern” for the Lebanese people.

“We receive this historic event with great joy and renewed hope, praying this apostolic visit may bring Lebanon peace and stability, and that it may be a sign of unity for all Lebanese Christians and Muslims alike, in this delicate phase of our nation’s history,” the statement read.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said the pope’s visit will deepen the “unwavering trust” between Lebanon and the Vatican and a sign of peace in a country of diverse religions and cultures.

“All Lebanese — Christians and Muslims alike, from every sect and community — are preparing to receive him with sincere joy and rare national unity that reflects the true image of Lebanon,” Aoun said on Tuesday.

“Lebanon — its leadership and its people — looks to this visit with great hope at a time when challenges are growing on every level,” he added.

According to a 2024 UNHCR (U.N. refugee agency) report, Lebanon hosts the largest number of refugees per capita and per square kilometer in the world, including approximately 1.5 million Syrian refugees.

Vatican City, Oct 6, 2025 / 16:43 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV joined the Australian community for evening prayer at Domus Australia Catholic Chapel in Rome on Monday.

Before praying vespers with approximately 150 people, the Holy Father blessed a restored painting of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii that was gifted to the chapel by soon-to-be saint Bartolo Longo.

“Indeed, this devotion to our Blessed Mother holds a special place in my heart, so I am also happy to share this occasion with the Australian community,” the Holy Father said in a short homily.

“It is my hope that this image … will inspire an ever greater devotion to her among the residents of the Domus and those who visit as pilgrims, as well as the members of the local community,” he added.

In light of the Church’s jubilee year dedicated to the theological virtue of hope, Leo encouraged those praying with him on Monday to be inspired by the example of the Mother of God.

“Mary embodied that virtue through her trust that God would fulfill his promises,” he said. “This hope, in turn, gave her the strength and courage to spend her life willingly for the sake of the Gospel and abandon herself entirely to God’s will.”

In his homily, the Holy Father emphasized the significance for “daily fidelity” to God even though “we do not know what the future holds.”

“God never delays; we are the ones who have to learn to trust, even if it requires patience and perseverance. God’s timing is always perfect,” he said.

“God always comes to save and liberate us,” he added.

Turning to the writings of St. Augustine, Leo said the early Church Father reminds Christians that God’s plan and purpose for each person is salvation and eternal life. 

“God created us without us, but he will not save us without us,” he said, quoting St. Augustine. “Thus, we are called to cooperate with him by living out a life of grace as his sons and daughters, making our own contribution to the plan of salvation.”

Moreover, the Holy Father said God did not “come simply to redeem us from slavery to sin” but to become children of God and “free our hearts” to accept his love. 

“God our Father ‘chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world … he destined us in love to be his sons and daughters through Jesus Christ,’” he said, citing a passage of St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians.

Before concluding vespers, Leo entrusted the Australian community living in Rome to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

“As you venerate Our Lady of Pompeii at the Domus Australia, it is my prayer that you also will be strengthened by the Holy Spirit in your own service to the Lord and his Church, and that you may bear much fruit, fruit that will last,” he said.

Vatican City, Oct 6, 2025 / 12:24 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Monday met with leaders of the Knights of Columbus, whom he thanked for their generosity to the Vatican and their dedicated service to local communities in the United States. 

He also expressed his “profound gratitude” for the Knights’ funding of the restorations of Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s baldacchino and monument of the Chair of St. Peter in St. Peter’s Basilica, . 

Such contributions are “a visible sign of your continued devotion to the vicar of Christ,” the pontiff said, addressing members of the board of directors and their families in the Apostolic Palace’s Hall of the Consistory. 

“Throughout its history, the order has supported the charitable work of the Roman pontiff in a variety of ways, including through the ‘Vicarius Christi’ Fund, which allows him to express solidarity with the poor and most vulnerable throughout the world,” Leo continued.  

The pope noted that local Knights councils “seek to bring the compassion and love of the Lord into your local communities, including through your efforts to uphold the sanctity of human life in all of its stages, to assist victims of war and natural disasters, andalso to support priestly vocations.”  

The Knights of Columbus is a lay Catholic men’s organization with more than 2.1 million members worldwide. It was founded by Blessed Michael McGivney in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1882. 

The pope also to the Knights of Columbus during their 143rd Supreme Convention in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 5. On July 4, Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly and Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore met Pope Leo for the first time in a private audience at the Vatican.

Vatican City, Oct 6, 2025 / 09:35 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has permitted the Holy See’s main financial body to use financial institutions outside the Vatican for its investment activities, reversing Pope Francis’ 2022 instruction to move all funds to the so-called Vatican bank.

, published Monday, Leo said the Vatican’s asset management body, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See , should generally use the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR) — better known as the Vatican bank — for its investment activities, unless the competent bodies “deem it more efficient or convenient to use financial intermediaries established in other countries.”

The pope said he consulted experts and evaluated recommendations from the Council for the Economy for the rescript, called (“Shared Responsibility”).

Pope Francis in August 2022 had ordered the Holy See and connected entities to move all financial assets and solely into the IOR in the wake of controversy over investments by the Secretariat of State.

The papal rescript was Francis’ interpretation of Article 219, paragraph 3 of , the constitution of the Roman Curia promulgated in March 2022, which says “the execution [of APSA’s management of real estate and moveable assets] is carried out through the Institute for the Works of Religion.”

In Leo’s rescript, which repeals his predecessor’s, the investment activities must also from the Vatican’s investment oversight committee, established in 2022 and chaired by Cardinal Kevin Farrell.

“Co-responsibility in communiois one of the principles of service of the Roman Curia, as desired by Pope Francis and established in the apostolic constitution of March 19, 2022,” the pontiff wrote.

“This shared responsibility, which also concerns the curial institutions responsible for the Holy See’s financial investment activities, requires that existing provisions be consolidated and the roles and responsibilities of each institution be clearly defined, enabling everyone to converge in a dynamic of mutual collaboration,” he said. 

Vatican City, Oct 6, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Long before cloud servers and computers, medieval Catholic monks preserved the intellectual inheritance of the ancient world by handwriting Greek and Latin manuscripts. Centuries later, the Vatican Library and other Catholic institutions in Rome are turning to new technologies, including digitization, robotics, and artificial intelligence (AI), to ensure that patrimony endures.  

The Vatican Apostolic Library, formally founded in the 15th century, is digitizing about 80,000 handwritten manuscripts, part of a collection that also includes 2 million books, 100,000 archival documents, and hundreds of thousands of coins, medals, and graphics.  

“People often think of the Vatican Library as a dusty old place, but actually it has tended to be sort of on the cutting edge,” Timothy Janz, the library’s former vice prefect and now “Scriptor Graecus,” told CNA.

To underscore his point, Janz pointed to one of the many Renaissance frescoes on the walls of the Vatican Library’s Sistine Hall depicting books stored upright on open shelves — a novelty at a time when volumes were usually laid flat. 

“Being a public library at all was something unusual in the 16th century,” he said, adding that Pope Nicholas V first described in a letter in 1451 his desire for a library “for the common convenience of scholars.” 

The Vatican Library’s mission, Janz said, has always been twofold — “to make works available to readers and also to keep them for future readers.” Digitization, then, is “a new way of doing what the founder actually wanted the library to be for, to make these works available.” 

The Vatican’s digitization efforts are focused on their one-of-a-kind historic manuscript collection as well as some of its oldest books, incunabula books printed during the earliest period of typography before 1500.

One of the oldest manuscripts in the Vatican collection is the “Hanna Papyrus,” which is from the third century A.D., which has already been digitized, as has the fourth-century “Codex Vaticanus,” one of the earliest complete manuscripts of the Bible in Greek. The digitization project began in 2012 and has so far put about 30,000 manuscripts online. 

The vision is “to have a real digital library that is really usable and user-friendly,” Janz said. 

Elsewhere in Rome, other historic Catholic institutions are going even more high tech.  

At the Alexandria Digitization Hub in Rome’s historic center, a robotic scanner turns the fragile pages of centuries-old books from the Pontifical Gregorian University’s library collection at a rate of up to 2,500 pages per hour. Within minutes, the texts — some that had only been accessible to scholars traveling to Rome — can be searched, translated, and even fed into an artificial intelligence model trained to reflect Catholic teaching. 

The initiative is led by Matthew Sanders, CEO of a Catholic technology firm called , which is using robotics and AI to digitize Catholic collections in some of Rome’s historic pontifical universities and institutes. 

The project began when the rector of the Pontifical Oriental Institute asked whether its 200,000-volume library on Eastern Catholic and Orthodox traditions could be made accessible to scholars in the Middle East, Africa, and India without requiring travel to Rome. The request was simple: digitize the books, make them readable on any device, and allow them to be instantly translated. 

Since then, the Alexandria Digitization Hub’s workload has grown. Longbeard is currently working to digitize the historic collections of the Salesian Pontifical University and the Pontifical Gregorian University and plans to work with the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Venerable English College, as well as several religious orders, to digitize some or all of their collections. 

Digitized works can be folded into a growing Catholic dataset, training Longbeard’s AI systems such as Magisterium AI and an upcoming Catholic-specific language model, Ephrem. Institutions can choose to make their texts public or keep them private. Scholars can search across collections, generate summaries, or trace an AI-generated answer back to its source. 

The system also enables translation through Vulgate AI. Sanders recounted stumbling upon an untranslated papal document on St. Thomas More: “I never knew this existed. It was in Latin. It hadn’t been translated. We ingested it through Vulgate, and suddenly I was able to read it.”

“When you actually go to the hub and see a book being scanned, and an hour later that work is available to anyone in the world to query in any language — that’s when you realize what this really means,” he said.

For now, the Vatican Library is taking a more cautious approach to artificial intelligence and robotics. Janz explained why he believes manuscripts in particular require a human touch rather than automation.

For scholars, he said, “the reason this manuscript is interesting is because in this specific place, it has a word which is different from other manuscripts — maybe it’s just one letter that changes it from a word into a different word,” Janz explained. “It’s that little difference that makes this book so valuable.” This type of work requires 100% accuracy, he added. Even if automated AI transcription reaches “99.9% accuracy … it’s basically useless.” 

Sanders said he “wholeheartedly” agrees that for “the deep, meticulous work of textual criticism, the original manuscript is the ultimate authority, and a human expert is irreplaceable,” but he added that “to limit the role of AI to mere transcription is to miss its revolutionary potential.”

“AI, even with a 99.9% accuracy rate, transforms these silent collections into a dynamic, queryable database of human knowledge,” he said. “It allows a researcher to ask, ‘Show me all 15th-century manuscripts that discuss trade with the Ottoman Empire,’ and get instantaneous results from collections across the globe. It can identify patterns and conceptual links that were previously undiscoverable. The AI finds the needles in the haystack; the scholar is then free to perform the exacting analysis on the invaluable originals.”

For the Vatican Library, the digitization effort has also been integrated into its conservation efforts of these historic texts. “Every manuscript that goes to the scanners first goes to our conservation workshop and is thoroughly examined to make sure that ... it can stand the strain of being digitized,” Janz said. “When the digitization is done, it goes back to the conservation workshop again, and they check to see if anything has changed.”

“We’ve discovered many manuscripts that needed to be fixed, needed conservation work as a result of going through each and every one and looking at it,” he said.

Still, the Vatican Library is not ignoring AI altogether. It is developing a project to catalog illustrations from medieval manuscripts, making images searchable by theme. In partnership with Japanese researchers, it is also training machine learning models to transcribe medieval Greek handwriting. “It will make mistakes and we tell it what the mistakes are … maybe eventually it will get to a point where it can do things reliably,” Janz said.

In the future, Janz said he would love to see technology make it possible to have transcriptions of all of their manuscripts in the historic languages available for scholars.

As for AI, he remains cautious. “I think we’re pretty open to it. I think we shared the same concerns about AI that everyone else has.”

Inside the Vatican Library’s Sistine Hall, an ornate series of frescoes traces the long history of libraries and learning: Moses receiving the Law, the library of Alexandria, the apostles recording the Gospels. Sanders sees his AI project as continuing in the mission of ensuring that the wisdom from the past is “shared as broadly as possible.”

“If we are going to progress as a civilization, we have to learn from those who came before us,” he said. “Part of this project is making sure their reflections and insights are available today.”

Vatican City, Oct 5, 2025 / 07:50 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday condemned the resurgence of antisemitic hatred and appealed for renewed commitment to peace in the Middle East while also assuring prayers for victims of a devastating earthquake in the Philippines.

“I express my concern about the rise of antisemitic hatred in the world, as unfortunately we saw with the terrorist attack in Manchester a few days ago,” the pope said from St. Peter’s Square before leading the Angelus prayer. He added that he “continue[s] to be saddened by the immense suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza.”

The pope said that “in the dramatic situation in the Middle East, some significant steps forward have been taken in peace negotiations,” and he urged all leaders “to commit themselves to this path, to bring about a ceasefire, and to release the hostages.” He also invited the faithful “to remain united in prayer, so that the ongoing efforts may put an end to the war and lead us towards a just and lasting peace.”

Turning to the Philippines, where a strong earthquake struck the central region on Sept. 30, Pope Leo expressed closeness “to the dear Filipino people” and said he prays “for those who are most severely affected by the consequences of the earthquake.”

“Faced with any danger,” he added, “let us remain united and supportive in our trust in God and in the intercession of our Blessed Mother.”

The pope invited Catholics to join spiritually with those gathered at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii for the traditional supplication held each October.

“In this month of October, as we contemplate with Mary the mysteries of Christ Our Savior, let us deepen our prayer for peace: a prayer that becomes concrete solidarity with those people tormented by war,” he said. “Thank you to the many children around the world who have committed themselves to praying the rosary for this intention. You have our heartfelt thanks!”

Pope Leo also greeted participants in the jubilee for missionaries and migrants, thanking them for their witness.

“The Church is entirely missionary and is one great people journeying towards the kingdom of God,” he said. “But no one should be forced to flee, nor exploited or mistreated, because of their situation as foreigners or people in need! Human dignity must always come first.”

Earlier that morning, the pope celebrated Mass for the Jubilee of the Missionary World and the Jubilee of Migrants in St. Peter’s Square, inviting Catholics to renew their missionary vocation through compassion and welcome.

“Today we celebrate the jubilee of the missions and of migrants,” he began. “This is a wonderful opportunity to rekindle in ourselves the awareness of our missionary vocation, which arises from the desire to bring the joy and consolation of the Gospel to everyone, especially those who are experiencing difficult and painful situations.”

Recalling the prophet Habakkuk’s lament — “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?” — the pope said that faith transforms lives and “makes of them an instrument of the salvation that even today God wishes to bring about in the world.”

True faith, he said, “does not impose itself by means of power and in extraordinary ways” but “carries within it the strength of God’s love that opens the way to salvation.”

Pope Leo said the missionary calling today means responding to suffering close at hand as well as far away.

“If for a long time we have associated with mission the word ‘depart’ … today the frontiers of the missions are no longer geographical, because poverty, suffering, and the desire for a greater hope have made their way to us,” he said.

“Those boats which hope to catch sight of a safe port, and those eyes filled with anguish and hope seeking to reach the shore, cannot and must not find the coldness of indifference or the stigma of discrimination!” he warned. “Mission is not so much about ‘departing’ but instead ‘remaining’ in order to proclaim Christ through hospitality and welcome, compassion and solidarity.”

The pope encouraged renewed cooperation among churches, noting that migration from the Global South can “renew the face of the Church and sustain a Christianity that is more open, more alive, and more dynamic.” He also called for “new missionary effort by laity, religious, and priests who will offer their service in missionary lands,” especially in Europe.

Concluding, Pope Leo offered his blessing “to the local clergy of the particular churches, to missionaries and those discerning a vocation,” and told migrants: “Know that you are always welcome!”

Throughout his homily and his Angelus address, Pope Leo returned to a single message: faith expressed in prayer, compassion, and hospitality remains the seed of peace — whether in war-torn regions, along migration routes, or in the hearts of those who choose to welcome others.

Vatican City, Oct 5, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Sister Norma Pimentel is known as “the immigrants’ nun.” For over a decade, she has directed the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley (CCRGV) Humanitarian Respite Center, a humanitarian aid center located in McAllen, Texas, on the border with Mexico. From there, she has provided assistance to people who arrive in the United States seeking asylum.

According to Pimentel, the increase in arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to expel immigrants who lack legal status in the country has unleashed a climate of fear in communities.

“People are extremely afraid ... they know that nowhere is safe, they pick you up anywhere, and you can’t even go to the supermarket because raids are taking place everywhere,” the religious explained.

Last year, the center received a legal request from the Texas attorney general’s office to compel a CCRGV representative to sit for a deposition regarding its immigrant assistance efforts, although the case was subsequently.

Pimentel said the sense of widespread fear has also spread to other residents of the Rio Grande Valley. Many now think: “If I help him, maybe something will happen to me too,” she told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, shortly after participating in the Oct. 2 “Refugees and Migrants in Our Common Home” conference with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican.

The initiative, part of the Jubilee of Migrants, is the first global meeting promoted by the Vatican to bring together religious institutions, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and experts dedicated to addressing the challenges of migratory flows.

At the meeting, the pontiff asked all of the participants to promote “” to address the “urgent challenges” of migration.

“The Holy Father strongly affirms that immigrants are human beings who must be recognized and treated with dignity. Therefore, you can’t say you’re pro-life if you don’t defend the lives of human beings and immigrants,” Pimentel pointed out.

Every so often, dozens of exhausted people knock on her door, their bodies reflecting the consequences of a hellish journey. Most travel hundreds of miles on foot to reach the U.S.-Mexico border.

Pimentel, a sister of the Missionaries of Jesus, who works side by side with the bishop of Brownsville, Daniel Flores, always greets them with a warm welcome: “We are right on the border, there with the immigrants, with the migrant families, who are truly part of our Church.”

“We are very versed in how to be present, how to speak and encourage people to be good neighbors, to help each other, to not feel afraid that the government won’t allow us to live our religion, our faith, and to be present to help people when they need it,” she explained.

The most important thing is “that they don’t feel abandoned and alone” and that they realize that, despite the growing hostility, “they do matter in this life.”

This total commitment is born from the conviction that every person who suffers bears the face of Christ. In any case, Pimentel doesn’t hide the fact that she sometimes feels overwhelmed. “We don’t have enough resources,” she lamented.

She’s also convinced that giving these migrants a face and sharing the horror stories they endure is the best antidote to society being fed up with immigrants: “When I see a crying child who comes up to me and says, ‘Help me,’ with tears streaming down his face, [I want] to be able to share that with other people. That way, people can feel that pain, the cries of that child or that mother who is scared and afraid of how to protect her children.”

That’s why she never misses an opportunity to make known the pain of these people because “when you get close to a human being who is suffering, your heart connects and you change.”

CNA Staff, Oct 4, 2025 / 14:39 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Oct. 4 signed the first apostolic exhortation of his pontificate, the text of which is expected to be released next week.

The Vatican that Leo signed the exhortation (“I Have Loved You”) in the library of the Apostolic Palace. The Holy See did not reveal the text of the document, which it said will be presented on Oct. 9 by the Holy See Press Office.

The focus of the document was also not officially announced, though it is reportedly expected to focus on the poor. It was signed on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi.

The signing of the document took place in the presence of Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, substitute for general affairs of the Secretariat of State, the Vatican said.

CNA Staff, Oct 4, 2025 / 13:05 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Saturday attended the swearing-in of the Swiss Guard at the Vatican, the first time a pope has attended the pomp-filled ceremony since the pontificate of Pope Paul VI in 1968.

The event took place in the Vatican’s San Damaso Courtyard. The Holy Father was joined by a crowd of spectators watching as the 27 new members were sworn in to the ranks of the papal guard.

The swearing-in ceremony, when the new guards promise to protect the pope, if necessary with their lives, was postponed from the traditional date of May 6 due to the conclave that saw Leo elected.

The pope at the Apostolic Palace on Oct. 3, ahead of the swearing-in ceremony.

“From the first steps of my pontificate, dear Swiss Guards, I have been able to count on your faithful service,” the pope said on Oct. 3.

“The successor of Peter can fulfill his mission in service to the Church and the world in the certainty that you are watching over his safety,” he added.

He encouraged the new guards to draw inspiration from the stories of the first Christian martyrs in Rome to deepen their relationships with Jesus and to cultivate their interior lives “amid the frenzy of our society.”

ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 3, 2025 / 15:08 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Friday said that old age is both a gift and a challenge, and in response the Catholic Church is called to develop missionary pastoral care that involves the elderly as witnesses of hope.

On Oct. 3, the pontiff received at the Vatican Apostolic Palace participants in the Second International Congress on Pastoral Care of the Elderly, organized by the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life.

In , Leo XIV emphasized that the theme of the meeting, “Your Elders Shall Dream Dreams,” taken from the book of the prophet Joel, contains words dear to his predecessor, Pope Francis, who often spoke “of the need for an alliance between young and old.”

The pontiff explained that in this biblical passage, “the prophet announces the universal outpouring of the Holy Spirit, who creates unity among generations and distributes different gifts to each person.” He also lamented that today, “relationships between generations are often marked by divisions and conflicts that pit them against each other.”

Specifically, he referred to two criticisms: that the elderly “do not leave room for young people in the workforce” or that they are “consuming too many economic and social resources to the detriment of other generations, as if longevity were a fault.”

In this regard, Leo XIV expressed his conviction that “the elderly are a gift, a blessing to be welcomed,” and that longevity “is one of the signs of hope in our time, everywhere in the world.”

At the same time, the pontiff emphasized that this is “a challenge, because the growing number of elderly people is an unprecedented historical phenomenon that calls us to discern and understand the reality in new ways.”

In this sense, in the face of the current mentality that “tends to value existence if it produces wealth or success, if it exercises power or authority, forgetting that the human being is always a limited creature with needs,” Pope Leo XIV emphasized that the fragility that appears in the elderly is “hidden or removed by those who cultivate worldly illusions, so as not to have before their eyes the image of what we will inevitably become.”

However, he added, “it is healthy to realize that aging is part of the marvel of creation,” as he expressed during the Jubilee of Youth last August.

The pope invited people to stop being ashamed of human weakness so that “we will in fact be led to ask for help from our brothers and sisters and from God, who watches over all his creatures as a Father.”

“The Church is called to offer times and tools for understanding old age, so that we can live it in a Christian way, without pretending to remain forever young and without letting ourselves be overcome by discouragement,” continued the pope, who recommended the catechesis Pope Francis dedicated to this topic as “very valuable.”

Pope Leo XIV valued the presence of older people who, once their working life is over, “have the opportunity to enjoy an increasingly long period of good health, economic well-being and more free time” and who are often “the ones who attend Mass assiduously and lead parish activities, such as catechesis and various forms of pastoral service.”

“It is important to find an appropriate language and opportunities for them, involving them not as passive recipients of evangelization but as active subjects, and to respond together with them, and not in their place, to the questions that life and the Gospel pose to us,” he added.

Coming from different life experiences and relationships with the faith, the pontiff noted: “For all of them, the pastoral care of the elderly must be evangelizing and missionary, because the Church is always called to proclaim Jesus Christ the Savior to every man and woman, at every age and stage of life.”

This involves, first and foremost, bringing “them the good news of the Lord’s tenderness, to overcome, together with them, the darkness of loneliness, the great enemy of the lives of the elderly” in a missionary task that “challenges all of us, our parishes, and, in a particular way, young people, who can become witnesses of closeness and mutual listening to those who are further along in their lives.”

“In other cases, missionary evangelization will help older people to encounter the Lord and his word. With advancing age, in fact, many people begin to question the meaning of existence, creating an opportunity to seek an authentic relationship with God and to deepen their vocation to holiness,” the pontiff noted.

Finally, Leo XIV recalled that “proclaiming the Gospel is the primary task of our pastoral ministry: By involving older people in this missionary dynamic, they too will be witnesses of hope, especially through their wisdom, devotion, and experience.”

Vatican City, Oct 3, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

The Swiss Guards, who have protected popes for the last five centuries, now have a new uniform.

The mostly wool uniform is the recreation of a historic military dress for use at galas and other important dinners and will not replace the iconic red, orange, and blue “grand gala” uniforms for which the guards are famous.

The Swiss-made garments were paid for by a benefactor and cost 2,000 euros (around $2,300) apiece. According to Swiss Guard Commander Christoph Graf, they represent “a link between the present and the past.”

The 135 guards in the world’s smallest but oldest army will don the new uniforms for the first time at a dinner the night before the Oct. 4 ceremony to swear in this year’s recruits.

The swearing-in ceremony, when the new guards promise to protect the pope, if necessary with their lives, was postponed from the traditional date of May 6 due to the timing of the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV, who is expected to attend.

The May 6 date marks the 1527 battle known as the Sack of Rome, when 147 guards lost their lives defending Pope Clement VII from the army of the mutinous Holy Roman Empire. It is the most significant and deadly event in the history of the Pontifical Swiss Guard, which was established by Pope Julius II in 1506 and is responsible for Vatican security together with the Vatican gendarmes.

The new dress uniform presented Thursday is an update of one used from the late 1800s until 1976. In 2015, the Swiss Guards reintroduced a version of the same uniform, but the latest interpretation, according to Graf, “is more faithful to our tradition.”

The pope met the recruits and their families at the Apostolic Palace on Oct. 3, ahead of the swearing-in ceremony.

“From the first steps of my pontificate, dear Swiss Guards, I have been able to count on your faithful service,” he said. “The successor of Peter can fulfill his mission in service to the Church and the world in the certainty that you are watching over his safety.”

He encouraged the new guards to draw inspiration from the stories of the first Christian martyrs in Rome to deepen their relationships with Jesus and to cultivate their interior lives “amid the frenzy of our society.”

Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter, who will attend the ceremony, also had a private audience with Pope Leo on the morning of Oct. 3.

The ceremony in the San Damaso Courtyard of the Vatican on Oct. 4 will be preceded by Mass. The day before there will also be a prayer service and an award banquet. The two days’ events will be attended by representatives of the Swiss army, Swiss government, and Swiss bishops’ conference. Former guards, and family and friends of the new recruits, will also participate.

Press officer and guard Eliah Cinotti said 4,000 people are expected to attend the ceremony, during which recruits take an oath “to faithfully, loyally, and honorably serve the reigning pontiff and his legitimate successors, to devote myself to them with all my strength, sacrificing, if necessary, even my life in their defense.”

During the hourlong event, punctuated by music and drumming from the Pontifical Swiss Guard Band, each new guard places his left hand on the flag of the Swiss Guard while raising his right hand with three fingers open as a sign of his faith in the Holy Trinity.

He then proclaims in a loud voice: “I, Halberdier [name], swear to observe faithfully, loyally, and honorably all that at this moment was read to me. May God and our patron saints assist me!”

Cinotti told journalists this week that 27 new guards in 2025 is an “OK” number, but they are continuously working to recruit more — including by visiting Swiss military bases and attending job fairs.

When it comes to papal security, since the election of Pope Leo, the guards have noticed “an increase in objects being thrown” at the pope, he said, and “it bothers us a bit.”

But, Cinotti added, though it “is very difficult to anticipate the throwing of an object,” guards are trained to spot potentially dangerous items, most of which are confiscated at security before entering St. Peter’s Square.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has also been an increase in what he called “incivility,” including isolated security threats mostly from people under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

“Our weapon is the word,” he said, emphasizing that guards work to avoid ever needing to use deadly force, though he acknowledged, “without giving away all our secrets,” that they are also armed.

The biggest challenge for a recruit, Cinotti said, is to “set aside his life and dedicate himself to a cause greater than himself.”

Dario, 25, is one of the new guards who will take the oath to protect the pope on Oct. 4. The Swiss Guards declined to give the full name of the recruit citing security reasons.

Now, six months into his service, he called it an “amazing experience.”

Dario, who started just a few weeks before Pope Francis’ death, said that with the conclave and a jubilee year, it has been a very intense time for the Pontifical Swiss Guard.

“What we have experienced this year, other guards haven’t experienced in their whole service time,” he said.

“What surprised me the most was the effect of the pope on the people, seeing people overwhelmed with feelings when they see him,” Dario, whose father also served as a Swiss Guard, told CNA. “And you just stand there, protect the pope, but you see how much respect he gets from the people.”

Vatican City, Oct 2, 2025 / 11:10 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV said a “culture of reconciliation” is necessary to support more than 100 million people affected by migration and displacement across the world during his Thursday meeting with participants attending the Oct. 1–3 Migrants and Refugees in Our Common Home summit in Rome.

“Just as spoke of the culture of encounter as the antidote for the globalization of indifference, we must work to confront the globalization of powerlessness by fostering a culture of reconciliation,” Leo told summit participants gathered inside the Vatican’s Clementine Hall.

“In this particular way of encountering others, we ‘meet one another by healing our wounds, forgiving each other for the evil we have done and also that we have not done, but whose effects we bear,’” he said, quoting his predecessor.

“This requires patience, a willingness to listen, the ability to identify with the pain of others and the recognition that we have the same dreams and the same hopes,” he continued.

Speaking to approximately 200 people from 40 countries taking part in the three-day conference, the Holy Father encouraged participants to create “action plans” based on the four core pillars of “teaching, research, service, and advocacy” to alleviate the sufferings of those impacted by migration and displacement.

During the meeting, the Holy Father emphasized the need for concrete “gestures and policies of reconciliation,” particularly in “lands where there are deep-seated wounds from long-standing conflicts.”

“I pray that your efforts may bring about new ideas and approaches in this regard, seeking always to put the dignity of every human person at the center of any solution,” he said. 

The international summit, organized by Villanova University’s Mother Cabrini Institute on Immigration, aims to bring together educational institutions, nongovernmental organizations, and local groups through a three-year initiative to sustainably respond to the needs of vulnerable communities.     

In light of the Jubilee of Migrants and the Jubilee of Missions taking place over the Oct. 4-5 weekend, the Holy Father asked summit participants to integrate two themes in their action plans: “reconciliation and hope.”

“In formulating your action plans, it is also important to remember that migrants and refugees can be privileged witnesses of hope through their resilience and through theirtrust in God,” he said.

“I encourage you to lift up such examples of hope in the communities of those whom you serve,” he added. “In this way, they can be an inspiration for others and assist in developing ways to address the challenges that they have faced in their own lives.”

The Migrants and Refugees in Our Common Home summit is supported by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and Dicastery for Culture and Education.

ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 1, 2025 / 16:05 pm (CNA).

Late Tuesday, Pope Leo XIV answered several questions from journalists at Villa Barberini, the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo, where he addressed various issues.

Asked about the plan proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump to resolve the crisis in Gaza, the pontiff : “We hope they accept it. So far, it seems to be a realistic proposal.”

“It’s important, nonetheless, that there be a ceasefire and the release of the hostages. But there are elements there that I think are very interesting, and I hope Hamas will accept it within the established time frame,” he added.

Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sept. 29 that they have agreed on a plan to end the war, although it is unknown whether Hamas will accept the terms. The 20-point plan seeks to halt the war between Israel and Hamas through a temporary governing body in Gaza, headed by Trump and also including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The plan does not require population displacement and calls for an immediate end to hostilities if both sides agree. It also demands that the remaining hostages be released within 72 hours of Israel’s acceptance of the agreement. Trump assured that Israel would have the “full support” of the United States to defeat Hamas if the armed group rejects the proposal.

The Holy Father also referred to the arrival on the coast of Gaza of vessels from the Global Sumud Flotilla, sent with humanitarian aid and with the purpose of breaking the naval blockade imposed by Israel, despite warnings from the Israeli government, which has demanded the suspension of the mission.

“It’s very difficult. There’s a desire to respond to a true humanitarian emergency, but there are many elements [involved] there, and all sides are saying that we hope there will be no violence and that people will be respected. That’s very important,” he noted.

Vatican City, Oct 1, 2025 / 15:05 pm (CNA).

The Holy See’s secretary for relations with states, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, decried that attacks on Christians have intensified in recent years and accused the international community of “turning a blind eye.”

“The data show that Christians are the most persecuted religious group worldwide, and yet the international community seems to be turning a blind eye to their plight,” the English archbishop declared during to the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly.

“Christians across the world are subjected to severe persecution, including physical violence, imprisonment, forced displacement, and martyrdom,” he added.

The Vatican diplomat noted that more than 360 million Christians live in areas where they experience high levels of persecution or discrimination, “with attacks on churches, homes, and communities intensifying in recent years.”

In his address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the archbishop emphasized defending life from practices such as abortion and euthanasia.

In his speech, he insisted that the right to life, from conception to its natural end, is a “fundamental prerequisite for the exercise of all other rights” and condemned “the illegitimacy of every form of procured abortion and of euthanasia.”

The Vatican diplomat criticized what he called a “culture of death” and called for international resources to be allocated to protecting life and supporting those in difficult situations so they can make life-affirming choices.

In particular, he emphasized the need to “enable those mothers to give birth to the child in their womb” and to “ease the burden of human suffering during illness through adequate health and palliative care.”

The archbishop also warned of the risks of a conception of freedom disconnected from objective and universal truth: “When freedom shuts out even the most obvious evidence of an objective and universal truth, which is the foundation of personal and social life, then the person ends up by his subjective and changeable opinion or interest.”

Gallagher stated that this vision of freedom leads to a “serious distortion” of life in society. “At that point, everything becomes negotiable and open to bargaining, even the first of the fundamental rights, the right to life,” he stated.

The representative of the Holy See also addressed the practice of surrogacy, highlighting it as another threat to human dignity: “Another issue that endangers the inviolable dignity of human beings by reducing them to mere products is the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child. The Holy See renews its call for an international ban of this deplorable practice.”

Gallagher also denounced the fact that in a world marked by “unprecedented wealth and technological advancement,” millions of people “still lack access to basic necessities.”

“The persistence of extreme poverty, particularly in regions afflicted by conflict, climate change, and systemic inequality, demands immediate and collective action,” he stated.

Similarly, Gallagher called for the cancellation of the foreign debt of the poorest countries, emphasizing that these financial burdens “trap nations in poverty and must be canceled as a matter of justice.”

In this context, he said the Holy See urges the international community to “prioritize integral human development in a spirit of solidarity, ensuring that economic policies and development programs place the human person at their core and foster not only material well-being but also spiritual and social growth.”

In the words of the Vatican diplomat, the poor must be seen “not as a problem but as people who can become the principal builders of a new and more human future for everyone.”

Rome Newsroom, Oct 1, 2025 / 14:05 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV encouraged the world to unify around care for the planet as he took the stage at a climate justice conference headlined by actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger outside of Rome on Wednesday.

“We are one family, with one Father, who makes the sun to rise and sends rain on everyone (Mt 5:45),” Leo said Oct. 1 at a conference center in Castel Gandolfo, Italy. “We inhabit the same planet and must care for it together. I therefore renew my strong appeal for unity around integral ecology and for peace!”

The pontiff and Schwarzenegger addressed the opening day of the Oct. 1–3 “” conference, held at a center near the papal villa of Castel Gandolfo.

Speakers at the gathering, promoted by the Laudato Si’ Movement in collaboration with international organizations, will include bishops, heads of international organizations, Indigenous leaders, climate and biodiversity experts, and representatives of civil society.

In remarks before the pope’s speech, Schwarzenegger cited the Catholic Church’s 1.4 billion members, 400,000 priests, and 200,000 churches as a “power … involved in our movement, in our environmental movement to terminate pollution.”

“And of course, I’m very honored to be here, because I am next to an action hero,” he added, gesturing toward Pope Leo. “The reason I call him an action hero is because as soon as he became pope, he ordered the Vatican to put solar panels on the buildings. This will be one of the first states to be carbon neutral. Let’s give him a big, big hand for this action.”

The “Terminator” actor suggested more people talk about the problem of pollution over “climate change” as an easier concept for people to understand: “We have to talk to the heart so people understand it.”

“I have a very clear vision that we can [terminate pollution] together,” he added.

The pope, in comments before his prepared remarks, said “there is indeed an action hero with us today, it’s all of you.”

In his message, Leo praised Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical as a source of inspiration and dialogue that has prompted action to care for our common home.

“As with every anniversary of this nature, we remember the past with gratitude, but we also ask ourselves what remains to be done,” he said.

The pontiff said that in the 10 years since the publication of , the focus has moved from studying the encyclical to putting it into practice.

“What must be done now to ensure that caring for our common home and listening to the cry of the earth and the poor do not appear as mere passing trends or, worse still, are seen and felt as divisive issues?” he asked.

Pope Leo’s speech also emphasized a need for spiritual renewal.

“The challenges identified in are in fact even more relevant today than they were 10 years ago,” he said. “These challenges are of a social and political nature, but first and foremost of a spiritual nature: They call for conversion.”

He encouraged people to grow in relationship with God, others, nature, and themselves, because “we cannot love God, whom we cannot see, while despising his creatures. Nor can we call ourselves disciples of Jesus Christ without participating in his outlook on creation and his care for all that is fragile and wounded.”

The pope expressed the hope that upcoming international summits at the United Nations, such as the 2025 Climate Change Conference (COP 30), the 53rd Plenary Session of the Committee on World Food Security, and the 2026 Water Conference, “will listen to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor, families, Indigenous peoples, involuntary migrants, and believers throughout the world.”

He encouraged everyone, from young adults and parents to politicians, to do their part to find solutions to educational, cultural, and spiritual challenges. “There is no room for indifference or resignation,” he underlined.

Vatican City, Oct 1, 2025 / 09:30 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV said he will not interfere in the court case of Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the former deputy Vatican secretary of state convicted of embezzlement, aggravated fraud, and abuse of office.

In response to a journalist who asked the pontiff about the “Becciu trial” on Tuesday evening outside Castel Gandolfo, Leo said “the trial must go forward” and that “he has no intention of interfering” in the legal proceedings underway.  

The pope’s comments were made about one week after the commencement of Becciu’s hearing before the Vatican Court of Appeal on Sept. 22, nearly two years after his conviction by the Vatican City State criminal court.

In December 2023, after a two-and-a-half-year trial, the Italian cardinal and former deputy Vatican secretary of state was convicted, alongside eight other defendants, of financial malfeasance. 

Becciu, the first cardinal to be tried by the Vatican tribunal, was dealt a five-and-a-half-year prison sentence, an 8,000 euro (about $9,400) fine, and a permanent disqualification from holding public office.

The other defendants who were also tried and found guilty were also given a variety of sentences. Five of those defendants — Raffaele Mincione, Enrico Crasso, Gianluigi Torzi, Fabrizio Tirabassi, and Cecilia Marogna — also received prison sentences of varying length.

The former Vatican deputy secretary of state has consistently protested his innocence, maintaining that he acted with papal approval or authority when he invested money or issued payments using Vatican funds.

The Vatican realized a $200 million loss following a highly speculative real estate deal in London’s Sloane Avenue negotiated by the Vatican Secretariat of State in 2014 while Becciu was in office.

The cardinal was also found guilty of making at least 125,000 euros (about $148,000) in unauthorized payments to his brother’s charity in Sardinia as well as approving more than 500,000 euros (about $590,000) be paid to geopolitical expert Marogna who, instead of using it for intelligence and a humanitarian mission to help free a kidnapped religious sister in Mali, was accused of spending the funds on luxury goods and travel.

Last October, the Vatican released its reasons for convicting Becciu, stating he was involved in the illicit use of Holy See funds despite having no “profit-making purpose” and stressing that the trial was fair.

Vatican City, Oct 1, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday expressed his concern over the recent violent clashes between law enforcement and young protesters in Madagascar, which have left several dead and around 100 injured. 

Following the catechesis at the general audience on Oct. 1, the pontiff said: “Let us pray to the Lord that all forms of violence may always be avoided and that the constant pursuit of social harmony may be fostered through the promotion of justice and the common good.”

Madagascar is experiencing a serious social and political crisis following a series of mass protests that have left at least 22 dead and more than 100 injured. The demonstrations, led mostly by young people, erupted in the capital, Antananarivo, due to prolonged power and water outages that have affected the population for weeks. The protests quickly spread to other cities such as Mahajanga, Fenoarivo, and Diego Suárez, reflecting widespread discontent with the government of President Andry Rajoelina.

At the end of his public audience, Leo also recalled the Oct. 1 feast day of “St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, doctor of the Church and patron saint of missions.”

“May her example encourage each of us to follow Jesus on the path of life, bearing joyful witness to the Gospel everywhere,” he said.

Before the audience in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo stopped to bless an Italian-made replica of the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, in France, crafted entirely out of wheat stalks.

In his spiritual message at the audience, Pope Leo spoke about the Church’s mission to communicate the joy of the Resurrection without exerting power over others.

“This is the heart of the mission of the Church: not to administer power over others but to communicate the joy of those who are loved precisely when they did not deserve it,” he said.

He reminded Christians of their responsibility “to be instruments of reconciliation in the world.”

The pontiff dedicated his catechesis this week to the Resurrection and to Christ’s appearance afterward to the disciples in the Upper Room.

The risen Christ’s appearance, Leo said, “is not a bombastic triumph, nor is it revenge or retaliation against his enemies. It is a wonderful testimony to how love is capable of rising again after a great defeat in order to continue its unstoppable journey.”

The pope described how Christ appears to the apostles with meekness, demonstrating “the joy of a love greater than any wound and stronger than any betrayal.”

Appearing in the upper room, Jesus does not force his friends, the apostles, to accept the reality of his resurrection, he said. “His only desire is to return to communion with them, helping them to overcome the sense of guilt.”

Leo noted that it could be considered strange that Christ displayed his wounds to those who had disowned and abandoned him: “Why not hide those signs of pain and avoid reopening the wound of shame?”

The reason, he continued, is because Jesus is fully reconciled with what he has suffered. He has no resentment, he holds no grudges. “The wounds serve not to reproach but to confirm a love stronger than any infidelity.”

“They are the proof that, even in the moment of our failure, God did not retreat. He did not give up on us,” he added.

He invited Catholics to follow Jesus’ example and to not give in to the temptations of revenge or retaliation. “When we get up again after a trauma caused by others, often the first reaction is anger, the desire to make someone pay for what we have suffered. The Risen One does not react in this way,” said.

Another temptation after betrayal, the pontiff said, is to “mask our wounds out of pride, or for fear of appearing weak. We say, ‘it doesn’t matter,’ ‘it is all in the past,’ but we are not truly at peace with the betrayals that have wounded us.”

“At times we prefer to hide our effort to forgive so as not to appear vulnerable and to risk suffering again,” he added. “Jesus does not. He offers his wounds as a guarantee of forgiveness. And he shows that the Resurrection is not the erasure of the past but its transfiguration into a hope of mercy.”

CNA Staff, Oct 1, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV’s prayer intention for the month of October is for collaboration between different religious traditions.

In a video released Sept. 30, the Holy Father asked the faithful to “pray that believers in different religious traditions might work together to defend and promote peace, justice, and human fraternity.”

In the video, Pope Leo recites an original prayer written specifically for this month’s prayer intention.

Here is Pope Leo’s full prayer:

Lord Jesus,

You, who in diversity are one

and look lovingly at every person,

help us to recognize ourselves as brothers and sisters,

called to live, pray, work, and dream together.

We live in a world full of beauty,

but also wounded by deep divisions.

Sometimes religions, instead of uniting us,

become a cause of confrontation.

Give us your Spirit to purify our hearts,

so that we may recognize what unites us

and, from there, learn again how to listen

and collaborate without destroying.

May the concrete examples of peace,

justice, and fraternity in religions

inspire us to believe that it is possible to live

and work together, beyond our differences.

May religions not be used as weapons or walls,

but rather lived as bridges and prophecy:

making the dream of the common good credible,

accompanying life, sustaining hope,

and being the yeast of unity in a fragmented world.

Amen.

The video prayer intention is promoted by the , which raises awareness of monthly papal prayer intentions.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 30, 2025 / 18:22 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday said the U.S. Department of Defense secretary’s way of speaking about war is “worrying.”

Addressing an audience of military brass summoned to Virginia, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Sept. 30 urged senior officers to lead with an eye on more “lethality.” President Donald Trump this month signed an executive order changing the department’s name to Department of War, although it has not been officially changed by Congress.

Asked about the secretary’s meeting with the generals and comments about readiness for war, Pope Leo said: “This way of speaking is worrying, because it shows each time an increase in tensions — this vocabulary, even shifting from ‘Minister of Defense’ to ‘Minister of War.’ Let’s hope it is only a way of speaking. Certainly, they have a style of government where they want to show strength, to put pressure, and we hope it works, but that there will not be war. One must always work for peace.”

The Chicago-born Pope Leo spoke to reporters as he was leaving the papal villa of Castel Gandolfo near Rome, where in recent weeks he has made it a practice to spend Tuesdays before returning to the Vatican.

The pope’s comments were translated from Italian.

The Defense Department did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 30, 2025 / 13:45 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV responded with a father’s heart to a 21-year-old Roman medical student who asked him “What does the future hold for us?” and “What can young people do to aspire to a better world, when there is so much injustice, tragedy, and war today?”

Veronica, whose dream is to be a doctor, wrote a letter to Leo XIV asking him these and other questions. She pointed out to him that all the current problems make it seem “impossible to live in peace,” according to the September issue of .

After encouraging Veronica to fulfill her dream of serving “the weakest and most unfortunate,” the Holy Father noted that her “questions are those on the hearts of many of your contemporaries. It is true that we live in difficult times: Evil seems to overwhelm our lives, wars claim more innocent victims.”

“But all this must not make us lose hope for a better world. As I have already said, quoting St. Augustine: ‘Let us live well, and the times will be good. We are the times.’ Likewise, the times will be good if we are good!” Leo continued.

“For this to happen, we must place our hope once again in the Lord Jesus. It is he who has stirred in your heart the desire to make of your life something great,” the pope emphasized.

“It is he who will give you the strength to improve yourself and the society around you so that the times we live in may be truly good,” the pontiff continued.

Recalling the 2025 Jubilee of Youth, which brought together 1 million people in Rome, Pope Leo XIV repeated “the invitation I made to you and to all the young people who came to Tor Vergata: ‘Cultivate your friendship with Jesus.’ It’s worth it. You can be sure.”

The Holy Father then asked Veronica to keep him “in the loop about your studies and your inner journey. I bless you from my heart.”

Vatican City, Sep 30, 2025 / 12:26 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV will celebrate Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Day morning, Dec. 25 — a custom dating to the pontificate of St. John Paul II.

The Vatican announced Tuesday Pope Leo’s Mass schedule for Nov. 1 through the end of the Christmas season in January 2026.

The addition of Christmas Mass During the Day, before the urbi et orbi blessing, is accompanied by a new hour for the celebration of the papal Christmas Mass During the Night on Dec. 24.

Leo has moved the celebration of the Christmas Eve Mass from 7:30 p.m. local time, as it was celebrated by Pope Francis, to 10 p.m. The midnight Mass has not been celebrated at midnight at the Vatican since John Paul II’s pontificate.

The relatively young and healthy Leo has presided over a large number of Masses and other prayer services during the first months of his pontificate.

Here is Pope Leo XIV’s Mass schedule for November, December, and the beginning of January:

in St. Peter’s Square: Mass and during the Jubilee of the World of Education on the solemnity of All Saints

in St. Peter’s Basilica: Mass for the soul of Pope Francis and the cardinals and bishops who died in the past year

in the Basilica of St. John Lateran: Mass for the feast of the dedication of the basilica

in St. Peter’s Basilica: Mass for the Jubilee of the Poor on the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

in St. Peter’s Square: Mass for the Jubilee of Choirs and Choristers on the solemnity of Christ the King

in Piazza di Spagna in Rome: act of veneration to the Immaculate Conception on the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

in St. Peter’s Basilica: Mass for the memorial of Our Lady of Guadalupe

in St. Peter’s Basilica: Mass for the Jubilee of Prisoners on the third Sunday of Advent

in St. Peter’s Basilica: Mass During the Night for the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

in St. Peter’s Basilica: Mass during the Day for the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

in St. Peter’s Basilica: urbi et orbi blessing from the central loggia of the basilica

in St. Peter’s Basilica: first vespers and Te Deum in thanksgiving for the past year

in St. Peter’s Basilica: Mass for the World Day of Peace on the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God

in St. Peter’s Basilica: Mass and the closing of the Holy Door and the Jubilee Year 2025 on the solemnity of Epiphany

in the Sistine Chapel: Mass and the baptism of several babies on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord

Vatican City, Sep 29, 2025 / 14:52 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Monday said European institutions need “people who know how to live a healthy secularism” while urging recognition that religion has value both on a personal and social level.

“When the religious dimension is authentic and well cultivated, it can greatly enrich interpersonal relationships and help people live in community and society. And how important it is today to emphasize the value and importance of human relationships!” he noted.

Leo XIV made his remarks on Sept. 29 when receiving at the Vatican the . The objective of this structure, an initiative of the European People’s Party (EPP) , is to promote dialogue between different cultures, religions, philosophical beliefs, and nondenominational communities within Europe.

The pope also emphasized that participation in interreligious dialogue, by its very nature, “recognizes that religion has value both on a personal level and in the social sphere.”

“Being men and women of dialogue means remaining deeply rooted in the Gospel and the values ​​derived from it and, at the same time, cultivating openness, listening, and dialogue with those from other contexts, always placing the human person, human dignity, and our relational and communal nature at the center,” the pope explained in his address.

The Holy Father emphasized that promoting dialogue between cultures and religions is a “fundamental objective for a Christian politician” and cited as examples Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer, and Alcide De Gasperi, considered the founding fathers of what eventually became the European Union, who also lived their faith as a sociopolitical commitment.

Thus, he urged the cultivation of a style of thought and action that affirms the value of religion, while “preserving its distinction — not separation or confusion — with respect to the political sphere.”

Vatican City, Sep 29, 2025 / 10:50 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has put a spotlight on the risks of artificial intelligence in his choice of theme for next year’s World Day of Social Communications, as the Vatican emphasizes the important role of Catholics in media and AI literacy.

The pope’s choice of theme for the 60th World Day of Social Communications 2026, published Monday, is “Preserving Human Voices and Faces.” The day is celebrated every year on Jan. 24, the feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalists and writers.

The Vatican’s explanatory note emphasizes the risks of AI, including that it “can generate engaging but misleading, manipulative, and harmful information, replicate biases and stereotypes from its training data, and amplify disinformation through simulation of human voices and faces.”

The theme of the World Day of Social Communications was released as the Vatican’s communication department is struggling false images and videos of Pope Leo XIV saying and doing things he did not say or do.

Pope Leo XIV signaled at the beginning of his pontificate that the challenge of AI would be a significant theme of his teaching.

The Vatican announcement on Monday urged the introduction of media and artificial intelligence literacy into educational systems to combat the risk of misinformation.

“As Catholics we can and should give our contribution, so that people — especially youth — acquire the capacity of critical thinking and grow in the freedom of the spirit,” the document says.

The Vatican message underlines that “public communication requires human judgment, not just data patterns.”

“The challenge is to ensure that humanity remains the guiding agent,” it says. “The future of communication must be one where machines serve as tools that connect and facilitate human lives rather than erode the human voice.”

Vatican City, Sep 28, 2025 / 07:15 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday entrusted the ministry of catechist to 39 men and women in St. Peter’s Square, personally handing each one a crucifix as a sign of their mission during the Jubilee of Catechists.

The candidates, representing several countries, were called by name and responded “Here I am” before receiving the crucifix. The rite took place during a Mass that highlighted both the vocation of teaching the faith and the Church’s universal call to hand it on.

Among those commissioned was , an American mother of eight who has lived in the United Arab Emirates since 1995. For two decades she has served as director of Christian formation in the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia. “There is a lot of joy in my work because I get to talk about Jesus all day,” she told reporters ahead of the jubilee, noting that Catholic churches in Abu Dhabi are “packed all the time.”

The Jubilee of Catechists is one of several thematic celebrations taking place during the Holy Year 2025, which has as its central theme hope. More than 20,000 pilgrims from 115 countries traveled to Rome for the weekend gathering, which included a prayer vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica and pilgrimages to the Holy Door before Sunday’s Mass.

Preaching in his on the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the pope said that “the words of Jesus convey to us how God sees the world, at every moment and in every place.” He warned that the passage remains “very relevant today” as “at the doorstep of today’s opulence stands the misery of entire peoples, ravaged by war and exploitation.”

The pope reminded the catechists that their ministry is rooted in witness: “The name of your ministry comes from the Greek verb ‘katēchein,’ which means ‘to teach aloud, to make resound.’ This means that the catechist is a person of the word — a word that he or she pronounces with his or her own life. Just as we learned our mother tongue, so too the proclamation of the faith cannot be delegated to someone else; it happens where we live, above all in our homes, around the family table.”

Leo also described the catechism as a “travel guidebook” that protects believers from “individualism and discord” because it expresses the faith of the entire Church. He urged Christians not to fall into greed and indifference, saying the “many ‘Lazaruses’ of today remind us of Jesus’ words” and serve as a catechesis of conversion, forgiveness, and hope.

Vatican City, Sep 28, 2025 / 06:25 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV announced on Sunday that he will proclaim St. John Henry Newman a doctor of the Church on Nov. 1, the solemnity of All Saints.

“I will confer the title of doctor of the Church on St. John Henry Newman, who gave a decisive contribution to the renewal of theology and to understanding Christian doctrine in its development, in the context of the Jubilee of the World of Education,” the pope said after celebrating Mass for the Jubilee of Catechists in St. Peter’s Square.

With the proclamation, will become the 38th doctor of the Church, joining a select group of saints recognized for their enduring contribution to Catholic theology and spirituality. He is especially noted for his insights on the development of doctrine and the role of conscience.

A 19th-century English theologian, Newman was first a renowned Anglican priest before entering the Catholic Church in 1845 under the guidance of Blessed Dominic Barberi. Ordained a Catholic priest two years later, he founded the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in England and was created a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII in 1879.

Vatican City, Sep 27, 2025 / 13:30 pm (CNA).

Bishop Giovanni Paccosi of San Miniato announced Sept. 27 that Pope Leo XIV has named Father Marco Billeri, a priest of the Italian diocese, as his second personal secretary.

Billeri, ordained in 2016, continued his studies in Rome where he earned a doctorate in canon law. He has served as a judge at the Ecclesiastical Tribunal of Tuscany, defender of the bond at the diocesan tribunals of San Miniato and Volterra, episcopal master of ceremonies, and secretary of the presbyteral council. Until now he has been associate pastor of the Parish of Sts. Stephen and Martin in San Miniato Basso.

In a statement, Paccosi called the appointment “a great gift” for the diocese. He recalled receiving a personal phone call from the pope the previous week asking his consent to release Billeri for this new mission.

“I felt both joy and a sense of vertigo, thinking that Father Marco will now be at the heart of the Church of Christ,” the bishop said. He invited the faithful to pray for Billeri and for the diocese, noting that closer ties with the pope and the universal Church should strengthen awareness of their own mission.

Billeri will work alongside the pope’s first personal secretary, Peruvian Father Edgard Iván Rimaycuna Inga.

Vatican City, Sep 27, 2025 / 09:50 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has chosen as the theme for World Day of the Sick 2026: “The Compassion of the Samaritan: Loving by Bearing the Pain of Others.”

The theme focuses on the Gospel figure of the Good Samaritan, “who shows love by taking care of the wounded and abandoned man on the road,” according to issued by the Holy See. 

The Vatican said the theme is meant to emphasize an essential aspect of love of neighbor, one requiring concrete gestures of closeness while being capable of assuming the fragility and suffering of others, particularly those who experience illness accompanied by poverty, isolation, or loneliness.

The Holy See also recalled that today, Christ, the “Good Samaritan,” continues to draw close to wounded humanity and, through the sacraments of the Church, pours out “the oil of consolation and the wine of hope.” 

In this way, he “[inspires] actions and gestures of help and closeness for those who live in conditions of fragility due to illness,” the Holy See said. 

The upcoming World Day of the Sick will take place on Feb. 11, 2026. 

Vatican City, Sep 27, 2025 / 07:30 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV marked the Jubilee of Catechists on Saturday, urging practitioners of the Church’s lay teaching ministry to hand on the faith in a way that helps others encounter Christ personally, rooted in humility and hope.

In his general catechesis, the pope spoke to all the faithful: “God reveals himself to those who are simple and humble of heart because they are open to receiving him,” he said.

Leo recalled the election of St. Ambrose as bishop of Milan, chosen by popular acclaim while still preparing for baptism. “It was also docility that led Ambrose to respond to that call, trusting in the grace of God,” he said.

Christians today, he added, are likewise invited “to become childlike. Whether we are parents, students, or catechists; businesspeople, priests, or religious, we are all called to live our Christian faith authentically by humbly following the Lord’s inspirations.”

The Jubilee of Catechists is one of a series of themed celebrations during the Holy Year 2025, which centers on the theme of hope. Each gathering highlights how different vocations and ministries can bear witness to the renewal of the Church and the world. This weekend, more than 20,000 pilgrims from 115 countries have come to Rome for the celebration dedicated to catechists.

The jubilee opened Friday evening with a prayer vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica following a day of pilgrimages to the Holy Door. It will conclude Sunday morning with a Mass in St. Peter’s Square at 10 a.m., during which the pope will confer the lay ministry of catechist on 39 men and women. Among them is Catherine Miles-Flynn, an American mother of eight serving in the Arabian Peninsula, .

At the end of the Saturday audience, the pope offered a special word to catechists: “As you instruct others in the faith, keep in mind the importance of teaching them to cultivate a relationship with Jesus. May his love revive in all of us the hope that does not disappoint.”

London, England, Sep 26, 2025 / 19:01 pm (CNA).

King Charles III and Queen Camilla will be making their first state visit to the Vatican in late October, Buckingham Palace has announced.

The palace said in a Sept. 27 statement that the king and queen “will join His Holiness Pope Leo XIV in celebrating the 2025 Jubilee Year,” which, it noted, is a “special time” for the Catholic Church, “traditionally marked every 25 years.”

The palace also said the visit would “celebrate the ecumenical work by the Church of England and the Catholic Church, reflecting the jubilee year’s theme of walking together as ‘Pilgrims of Hope.’”

The king and queen last visited the Holy See on April 9 this year when they had a private meeting with Pope Francis at his Casa Santa Marta residence just 12 days before he died.

Francis reportedly during the 20-minute audience, which coincided with Charles and Camilla’s 20th wedding anniversary. Camilla is divorced from her first husband, Andrew Parker-Bowles, a Catholic who is still living.

That audience was meant to be a state visit, but that was not possible due to Francis’ ill health. The British royals were also making a state visit to Italy at the time.

State visits to the Vatican by the British monarch are, like their secular equivalents, more formal occasions than private visits, emphasizing ecumenical as well as diplomatic relations with full formal recognition of the pope’s dual role as head of state and religious leader. A private audience, by contrast, focuses more on spiritual and personal relationships with fewer formalities and no official state status.

British monarchs have made several state visits to the Holy See in modern history: King Edward VII met Pope Leo XIII in April 1903, followed by Queen Elizabeth II in October 1980, where she met Pope John Paul II. She made another state visit to John Paul II in 2000. Elizabeth also made two non-state visits, to Pope John XXIII in May 1961 and Pope Francis in April 2014.

Charles has been a frequent visitor to the Vatican, making five visits as the Prince of Wales in total, beginning in April 1985 when he met Pope John Paul II and again in April 2005 when he attended his funeral.

He visited Benedict XVI in April 2009 and April 2017, both times accompanied by Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall, and lastly in October 2019 for the canonization of St. John Henry Newman. Charles also met and accompanied Pope St. John Paul II in Canterbury in 1982, the first ever papal visit to the U.K.

King Charles has shown a keen interest in the life and works of St. John Henry Newman, and earlier this month became the first monarch to in Birmingham, the priestly community Newman established there in 1848. He said during that visit that he was hoping it would “not be too long” before he met Pope Leo.

Buckingham Palace said further details of their majesties’ state visit to the Vatican “will be announced in due course.”

It is possible that it might coincide with the formal proclamation of St. John Henry Newman as the 38th doctor of the Church, which the Vatican in July. The Vatican has yet to confirm when that might take place.

Asked if it might time with the proclamation, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said this evening that he “did not have much to share at this time.”

Vatican City, Sep 26, 2025 / 16:58 pm (CNA).

An American mother of eight who has spent nearly 30 years in the Arabian Peninsula helping form Catholics in their faith will receive the ministry of catechist from Pope Leo XIV this weekend during the Vatican’s Jubilee of Catechists.

Catherine Miles-Flynn, who has served as director of Christian formation for the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia for two decades, said there is “a lot of joy” in her work in Abu Dhabi, where she gets to “talk about Jesus all day.”

The Jubilee of Catechists, running Sept. 26–28, has drawn more than 20,000 Catholics from 115 countries to Rome. 

In a press conference Friday at EWTN’s Vatican bureau, she described the vitality of Catholic life in Abu Dhabi, where “churches are packed all the time,” including at daily Masses. “For an evening Mass on a Wednesday, you would have to get there early to get a seat.”

In St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Abu Dhabi, Masses are offered in Arabic, English, French, Malayalam, Urdu, Tamil, Konkani, German, Italian, Korean, Ukrainian, and other languages for its 100,000 expatriate parishioners.

“People are very hungry to understand more about their faith,” she said. 

Miles-Flynn, who has lived in the United Arab Emirates with her husband since 1995, will be among 39 Catholic men and women upon whom Pope Leo XIV will formally confer the lay ministry of catechist crucifix during a Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday morning. 

Pope Francis established the lay ministry of catechist in 2021 as a lifelong vocation of teaching the faith. Catechists from Brazil, India, Mozambique, South Korea, England, and other countries will receive the ministry from the pope on Sunday along with a crucifix as a sign of their mission. 

The American mother said she accepts the ministry “with humility and gratitude.”

“For me, it means a lot … because I will do this on behalf of all of these more than 3,600 catechists [in the UAE] from … at least 80 different nationalities,” she said.

The vicariate, which covers the UAE, Oman, and Yemen, has fewer than 100 priests but nearly 3,800 catechists. “And we need a lot more catechists,” Miles-Flynn added, citing the demand for more faith formation programs “from womb to tomb.”

She recalled her first Christmas in Abu Dhabi when Muslims outside a mosque next to the church greeted worshippers with “Merry Christmas.” She also noted how during Pope Francis’ 2019 visit, authorities canceled schools so Emirati families could attend the papal Mass. The mosque near her parish is now named Mary, Mother of Jesus Mosque.

Bishop Paolo Martinelli, apostolic vicar of Southern Arabia, also highlighted the challenges facing Catholics in the region. In the UAE and Oman, he said, “we have the freedom to celebrate Masses and to have catechism … we are free to communicate faith with our people.” 

But in Yemen, he said, after 10 years of civil war and the murder of four Missionaries of Charity, “the situation is very, very delicate.”

Martinelli described the UAE church as “very unique” because it is made up of about 1 million Catholics from dozens of countries. “Never we can take for granted faith. Always we have the task to deepen our faith,” he said.

“When I meet our catechists, I always say to them, you are pillars of our church,” the bishop added.  

“Parents, first of all, have the first task to communicate faith to the new generations,” he said. Speaking of catechists, he said there is a “long tradition in the church to have people dedicated for helping families in the communication of faith.”

Vatican City, Sep 26, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Italian Archbishop Filippo Iannone as prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Bishops, a department the pope himself once led.

The appointment, announced Sept. 26, marks Leo’s first selection of a head of a major Vatican office since his election in May.

Leo chose Iannone, a respected Italian canon lawyer and the Vatican’s top legislator, to fill the post he himself held as then-Cardinal Robert Prevost from 2023 until becoming pope.

Iannone, 67, will officially assume his new responsibilities Oct. 15. As the prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, he will play a key role in the selection process for diocesan bishops and in the evaluation of abuse allegations against bishops.

The ultimate decision in appointing bishops rests with the pope, and he is free to select anyone he chooses. Usually, the pope’s representative in a country, the apostolic nuncio, passes on recommendations and documentation to the Vatican. The Dicastery for Bishops then discusses the appointment in a further process and takes a vote. On being presented with the recommendations, the pope makes the final decision.

Alongside Iannone, Pope Leo confirmed Brazilian Bishop Ilson de Jesus Montanari for a five-year term as secretary of the dicastery and extended the mandate of Monsignor Ivan Kovač of Bosnia and Herzegovina as undersecretary.

In addition to leading the bishops’ office, Iannone will take over as president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, which manages relations between the Vatican and Latin American episcopal conferences.

A Carmelite and an experienced canon lawyer, Iannone currently serves as the prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Legislative Texts, making him the Holy See’s top legislator. 

Pope Francis named him president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts in 2018, promoting him over the office’s secretary in an unusual move. He became prefect of the newly reorganized dicastery in 2022.

In that role, Iannone was instrumental in revising Church law, including of , a framework for investigating abuse, to include lay Catholic leaders. 

Born in Naples on Dec. 13, 1957, Iannone entered the Carmelite order in 1976 and was ordained a priest in 1982. He taught canon law in Naples before being named auxiliary bishop of his native archdiocese by Pope John Paul II in 2001. 

Benedict XVI named him bishop of the Italian Diocese of Sora-Cassino-Aquino-Pontecorvo in 2009 and later vicegerent of the Diocese of Rome, the fallout of a major hospital corruption scandal and was responsible for the reorganization of ecclesiastical courts.

Iannone is also a member of two for the Synod on Synodality, examining the judicial role of bishops and methods for shared discernment on controversial doctrinal, pastoral, and ethical issues.

After the death of Pope Francis, all of the heads of Vatican dicasteries technically lost their jobs with Pope Leo XIV only confirming them provisionally. Iannone’s appointment now leaves another important vacancy for the pope to fill in the Roman Curia.

Vatican City, Sep 25, 2025 / 09:57 am (CNA).

Did you hear what Pope Leo XIV said about Charlie Kirk or President Donald Trump? What about his thoughts on the Rapture or whether it’s OK to be cremated? 

These are just a few of the topics the pontiff has appeared to speak about at length in videos popping up every day on social media. The problem is the videos are not real, and the Vatican is struggling to fight their spread.

The Vatican’s communications team said it has reported hundreds of accounts, mostly on YouTube, posting fake, AI-created videos — called deepfakes — of Pope Leo since the start of his pontificate. But it’s an uphill battle with new accounts, videos, and images appearing as quickly as others are removed.

“We are witnessing the exponential proliferation of a series of YouTube channels with fake videos, all similar to one another, some speaking in the voice of Leo XIV, others in that of his translators, still others in the third person. All use artificial intelligence to make the pope say things he never said,” the Dicastery for Communication said in a statement to CNA.

A search for “Pope Leo” on YouTube turned up dozens of fake videos of the Holy Father purportedly making statements that range from the plausible, such as reflections on the Eucharist, to the unlikely, such as the announcement of his resignation.

Most of the videos have received no more than a few hundred views, but some of the deepfakes have started to go viral. A 25-minute video claiming the pope has broken his silence on garnered over 445,000 views in the first seven days after it was posted.

One of after Leo’s election appeared to show the pope reading a statement denouncing colonialism and praising Burkina Faso’s interim president, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, a military leader who came to power in a 2022 coup. CNA and the official Vatican News outlet ran to warn readers about the false information. The 36-minute video, posted shortly after the pope’s election in May, received at least a million views before YouTube terminated the account that posted it.

The term “deepfake,” coined less than a decade ago, refers to videos, photos, or audio recordings altered to show people doing or saying things they have never said or done. 

Leo, of course, is not the first pope to have his likeness altered in videos. In 2015, the TV host Ellen Degeneres on her show of Pope Francis pulling a white cloth out from under the candles on an altar. A still image of Francis sporting a longline went viral in 2023.

With technology quickly advancing to produce ever more realistic images, innocent viewers can be forgiven for mistaking fiction for fact.

Pope Leo himself recently noted an example of such confusion. In an interview with journalist Elise Ann Allen, the pope recalled his surprise when an acquaintance asked him with concern if he was all right. AI-generated photographs of the pope appearing to fall down a flight of stairs outside St. Peter’s Basilica had circulated on the internet in June. The images, which caught the attention of the , were “so good that they thought it was me,” Leo said. 

The Vatican’s communications team warned about the proliferation of deepfakes in its in August and invited readers to report suspicious posts and videos to the dicastery.

“Unfortunately, our dicastery receives dozens of reports every day about fake accounts that use the pope’s image and voice in a very realistic way, increasingly using artificial intelligence to make the pope say words he never uttered, to portray him in situations he never actually found himself in,” the newsletter said.

“Much of our time is spent reporting, silencing, and requesting the removal of these accounts,” the message continued. “Given the sheer volume of fake material, it is impossible to publicly refute each and every one of them.”

The dicastery’s statement to CNA said that the Vatican is not only reporting fake accounts to their platforms but also is “working to raise our audience’s awareness of this new phenomenon. We believe it is essential to invest in media literacy.” 

The Vatican also reminded readers to rely on official sources, such as the Vatican’s own websites, to check quotes: “If it is not there, it is most probably a fake.”

Vatican City, Sep 24, 2025 / 15:27 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV addressed a message to the approximately 300 exorcist priests who came together Sept. 15–20 for the 15th International Gathering of the International Association of Exorcists (IAE) at the Fraterna Domus House of Spirituality in Sacrofano, near Rome.

The Holy Father expressed his appreciation for the priests who dedicate themselves to the “delicate and necessary ministry of the exorcist.” The pontiff urged them to carry it out “both as a ministry of liberation and as a ministry of consolation.”

In a message signed by Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the pope also exhorted pastors to provide spiritual support to the faithful who are suffering.

Pope Leo emphasized the need to “support the faithful truly possessed by the evil one with prayer and the invocation of Christ’s effective presence, so that through the sacramental of exorcism the Lord may grant victory over Satan.”

The pope’s words were read at the opening of the event — held every two years — by Father Francesco Bamonte, vice president of the IAE and moderator of the conference. 

During the presentations, Monsignor Karel Orlita, president of the IAE and exorcist for the Diocese of Brno in the Czech Republic, highlighted the beauty of the ecclesial communion in which this ministry, firmly rooted in the Gospel, is embedded, and underlined the importance of the ongoing formation that the association promotes in Italy and abroad.

He also recalled the official approval of the new IAE statutes by the Dicastery for the Clergy on March 25 as a sign of support for the mission of the association, which recently surpassed 1,000 members.

During the conference, topics of great theological and practical relevance were addressed, the organizers stated in a .

During his address, the undersecretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Bishop Aurelio García Macías, presented a review of the Rite of Exorcisms, including types of extraordinary diabolical action, the role of the exorcist, the richness of the signs, and the correction of errors, always emphasizing the centrality of Christ in the rite.

Cardinal Arthur Roche, prefect of the dicastery, celebrated the opening Mass of the conference, highlighting the Church’s support for the faithful suffering from the action of the devil.

Father Gabriele Amorth, founder and first president of the IAE, who died nine years ago, was also remembered.

Vatican City, Sep 24, 2025 / 07:24 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV renewed the Holy See’s support for a two-state solution in the Holy Land and voiced concern over rising tensions in Ukraine, speaking with reporters Tuesday before returning from Castel Gandolfo to the Vatican.

“The Holy See has supported the two-state solution for many years,” the pope recalled, pointing out that the Vatican formally recognized Palestine in 2015 with the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement. “The Holy See recognized the two-state solution some time ago. That is clear: We must seek a path that respects all peoples.”

Asked whether broader international recognition of Palestine might help, he said: “It could help, but right now there is no real willingness to listen on the part of the other side; dialogue is broken.”

The pope confirmed that he had spoken by phone the same day with the Catholic parish in Gaza. “Thank God, the parish is fine, although the incursions are getting closer and closer... This afternoon I got in touch with them,” he said.

On Ukraine, he cautioned: “Someone is seeking an escalation. It’s getting more and more dangerous. I continue to insist on the need to lay down arms, halt military advances, and return to the negotiating table.” He stressed the importance of European unity, saying: “If Europe were truly united, I believe it could do a lot.”

Pressed on whether rearmament in Europe is necessary, the pope declined to weigh in directly: “These are political matters, also influenced by external pressure on Europe. I prefer not to comment.”

Regarding Vatican diplomacy, he explained: “We are in constant dialogue with ambassadors. We also try to speak with heads of state when they come, always seeking a solution.”

At his weekly general audience on Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV called on Catholics around the world to dedicate October to praying the rosary for peace.

“Dear brothers and sisters, the month of October is now approaching, and in the Church it is dedicated in a special way to the holy rosary. Therefore, I invite everyone, every day of the coming month, to pray the rosary for peace: personally, in the family, in the community,” he said.

The pope asked Vatican employees to join in this prayer daily at 7 p.m. in St. Peter’s Basilica. He also announced that on Saturday, Oct. 11, at 6 p.m., he will lead a rosary in St. Peter’s Square during the vigil for the Jubilee of Marian Spirituality, marking as well the anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council.

Continuing his catechesis for the Jubilee of 2025 on the theme “Jesus Christ Our Hope,” the pope reflected on the mystery of Holy Saturday and Christ’s descent into the realm of the dead.

“Today, again, we will look at the mystery of Holy Saturday. It is the day of the paschal mystery in which everything seems immobile and silent, while in reality an invisible action of salvation is being fulfilled: Christ descends into the realm of the dead to bring the news of the Resurrection to all those who were in the darkness and in the shadow of death,” he said.

“This event, which the liturgy and tradition have handed down to us, represents the most profound and radical gesture of God’s love for humanity,” the pope said. “Indeed, it is not enough to say or to believe that Jesus died for us: It is necessary to recognize that the fidelity of his love sought us out where we ourselves were lost, where only the power of a light capable of penetrating the realm of darkness can reach.”

He noted that Christ’s descent is not just a past event but one that touches every believer today: “The underworld is not only the condition of the dead but also of those who live death as a result of evil and sin. It is also the daily hell of loneliness, shame, abandonment, and the struggle of life. Christ enters into all these dark realities to bear witness to the love of the Father. Not to judge, but to set free. Not to blame, but to save.”

The pope concluded: “Dear brothers and sisters, to descend, for God, is not a defeat but the fulfillment of his love. It is not a failure but the way by which he shows that no place is too far away, no heart is too closed, no tomb too tightly sealed for his love. This consoles us, this sustains us. And if at times we seem to have hit rock bottom, let us remember: that is the place from which God is able to begin a new creation.”

Vatican City, Sep 23, 2025 / 14:42 pm (CNA).

Catholic artist Hsieh Sheng-Min’s colorful art, currently featured in an exhibition near the Vatican, draws inspiration from traditional Chinese woodblock printing and blends Eastern cultural motifs with biblical scenes.

“As a Catholic, I study the Bible. When I come across passages in the Bible that move me, I seek to create art inspired by them,” Hsieh said in an interview with CNA.

“I also ask priests about their interpretations of Scripture. I try to find in the Bible the passages that can be visualized — the ones that touch me — and then I attempt to create from them.”

The art exhibition, hosted by the Embassy of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the Holy See, opened at the Pontifical Urbaniana University on Sept. 18. It includes around 30 original pieces, including some specifically created for the 2025 Jubilee. Cardinal Silvano Maria Tomasi, the pontifical delegate of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, and other Vatican officials attended the opening.

Hsieh, a professor of digital media design at Asia University in Taiwan, said his art draws on what he calls “Taiwanese Biblical Iconography,” a genre he said exemplifies how Christianity can take root in different cultural traditions. 

“We learn from others, because when we look back to the Ming dynasty, when Matteo Ricci and the missionaries first came to China, they immediately adopted Chinese clothing and learned the Chinese language, hoping that the Church could spread more widely,” he said. “In the same way, in Taiwan, I also use Taiwanese elements, hoping that most people in Taiwan will understand that this Western religion can, in fact, be integrated with Taiwanese traditions.” 

Among the works on display is a Chinese-style depiction of the Sermon on the Mount. “I am deeply moved by the Beatitudes found in the Gospel, the so-called Sermon on the Mount, because here Jesus identifies eight types of people as blessed,” Hsieh said. “The East also places great emphasis on blessings. Thus, we transformed the Eight Immortals of Eastern mythology — eight divine beings — into the eight figures of the Beatitudes. This truly represents a distinctly Chinese approach to spiritual interpretation.”

“This also represents the continuity of the Church’s tradition — from the earliest times of Peter, through later figures such as Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi — a single unbroken line of inheritance, which is also the tradition of the Church,” he added.

Another piece depicts the Virgin Mary in an Eastern style surrounded by scenes from the joyful mysteries of the rosary.

“Scripture verses are written directly into the artwork” in Chinese characters, Hsieh explained.  

Other works show Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey and as the Good Shepherd.  

Hsieh’s work is inspired by traditional woodblock printmaking. He begins with brush outlines, layering colors one by one, and then digitally assembles and enlarges the images. He said he hopes that viewers will see in his art the “blessing that comes from the grace of God.” 

“This exhibition reminds me that art itself is a form of prayer, a form of pilgrimage,” he said. 

Taiwanese Ambassador to the Holy See Anthony C.Y. Ho praised Hsieh’s work at the opening, saying it “reveals not only his personal faith as a Catholic but also his deep love for his homeland.”

The exhibition remains on display at the Taiwanese Embassy to the Holy See, just steps from St. Peter’s Basilica.

National Catholic Register, Sep 22, 2025 / 17:51 pm (CNA).

The appeal hearing for Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the former deputy Vatican secretary of state who was in December 2023 of embezzlement, aggravated fraud, and abuse of office, began on Monday.

Heard by a six-judge Vatican Court of Appeal, the appeal is expected to revisit both factual and procedural objections from the first trial, including evidence, court transcripts, and all submissions from both Becciu’s defense and the Vatican prosecution.

After the so-called “Trial of the Century” lasting two and a half years, Becciu, 77, was convicted of financial malfeasance and sentenced to five years and six months in prison. He was also handed a fine of 8,000 euros (about $9,400) and permanently disqualified from holding public office.

The cardinal’s appeal will be heard alongside those of eight other defendants who were also tried, found guilty, and given a variety of sentences. Five of those defendants — Raffaele Mincione, Enrico Crasso, Gianluigi Torzi, Fabrizio Tirabassi, and Cecilia Marogna — also received prison sentences of varying length.

Becciu was the first cardinal to be tried by a Vatican tribunal and has remained free pending the outcome of his appeal. Despite initially claiming he was eligible to vote in the May conclave, he decided to his participation for the “good of the Church” and out of “obedience” to Pope Francis.

The Vatican court said the cardinal’s conviction was based on “” that he was investing Vatican money in a highly speculative real estate deal in London’s Sloane Avenue with “total disregard” for Vatican policies. Due to the way the deal was structured and restructured, it ended up losing the Vatican more than $200 million. The Italian cardinal was deputy Vatican secretary of state at the time when the secretariat began negotiating the property deal using the secretariat’s funds in 2014.

The cardinal was also found guilty of making at least 125,000 euros (about $148,000) in unauthorized payments to his brother’s charity in Sardinia as well as funneling more than 500,000 euros (about $590,000) from Vatican funds to geopolitical expert Marogna who, instead of using it for intelligence and a humanitarian mission to help free a kidnapped religious sister in Mali, was accused of spending the funds on luxury goods and travel.

Becciu has consistently , maintaining that he acted with papal approval or authority. He has insisted that donations were for humanitarian or ecclesial purposes and that there was procedural misconduct during the investigation and trial.

He has stressed that his office as “sostituto” (deputy in the secretariat of state) required acting on papal trust and this role gave him broad discretion for diplomatic and humanitarian missions, such as the ransom effort to free the kidnapped religious sister.

The cardinal has insisted the money sent to the Sardinian charity was requested by the local bishop for social projects, remained in diocesan coffers, and was not used for personal or family benefit. Regarding Marogna, Becciu has claimed that all payments were for legitimate diplomatic and security services, not for improper or private ends.

Arguing for his defense, his lawyers have said that included permitting secret wiretaps and warrantless detentions, and that witnesses were coached by Vatican police, undermining fair-trial guarantees.

Becciu also has alleged new evidence of with Vatican prosecutors, reiterating a claim of being “framed” by a campaign built on falsehoods and media pressure — claims that have been

He has also said he was from the outset and that key exculpatory evidence was ignored or overlooked at trial — accusations the Vatican tribunal dismissed. His defense intends to challenge both the factual findings and legal procedures in his appeal.

Last October, the Vatican released its reasons for Becciu, stating he was involved in the illicit use of Holy See funds despite having no “profit-making purpose” and stressing that the trial was fair.

Commenting on the court’s 800-page judgment in an in L’Osservatore Romano, Andrea Tornielli, Vatican Media’s editorial director, reasserted the judgment’s assessment of a fair trial. He added that the trial’s outcome showed the need for prelates and those in charge of Vatican finances to be held accountable for their actions.

Although Tornielli did not name Becciu, the cardinal criticized the editorial for its “vaguely moralistic tone” and again protested his innocence. He acknowledged that the sums involving the London property were “enormous” but insisted they were not without precedent and had the “approval of the superior at the time,” namely the head of the Vatican’s administrative office, Monsignor Alberto Perlasca, who, as a star witness in the trial, avoided prosecution.

As in the trial, Becciu was accused of seeking to shift responsibility to others, including Pope Francis, whom he said knew all about the London property deal, although the has never been fully known.

Vatican City, Sep 22, 2025 / 14:09 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV revealed in since being elected pontiff that it’s going to be “very difficult to discover the presence of God” in artificial intelligence (AI), noting that he recently refused a proposal to create an avatar of himself.

He pointed to the loss of humanity in the digital realm and warned that “extremely wealthy” people are investing in AI and “totally ignoring the value of human beings and humanity.”

“The danger is that the digital world will follow its own path and we will become pawns, or be brushed aside,” he warned.

“I think the Church needs to speak out in this regard,” he stated.

During the interview, held on July 10 at Villa Barberini, the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo, and published on Sept. 18 in the Spanish-language book “Leo XIV: Citizen of the World, Missionary of the 21st Century,” Pope Leo made it clear that the Church “is not against technological advances,” but the “incredible pace” at which the technology is developing is “worrying.”

“In the world of medicine, great things have happened thanks to AI, and in other fields as well,” he said in the book. “However, there is a danger in this, because you end up creating a false world and then you ask yourself: What is the truth?”

However, he noted the problems created by AI fabrications in an era plagued by deepfakes (AI-created images, videos, or audio recordings) and even spoke of a personal case in which he was the victim of a fake video.

“In these few short three months as pope, one day, talking to someone, [the person] asked me: ‘Are you OK?’ And I said: ‘Yes, I’m fine. Why do you ask?’ ‘Well, you fell down a flight of stairs.’ I said: ‘No, I didn’t fall,’ but there was a video somewhere where they had created this artificial pope, me, falling down a flight of stairs as I was walking, and apparently it was so good that they thought it was me,” he said.

The Holy Father warned of the “great challenge” of fake news because “the temptation is for people to believe it, and they believe it because there seems to be a need in some people to receive it.” 

“Why are all these people consuming this fake news? Something is going on there. People want to believe in conspiracies, people want to seek out all these false things, and that is very destructive,” he added.

Similarly, he also revealed that someone recently asked him for permission to create an artificial version of himself, so “that anyone could go to a website and have a personal audience with ‘the pope,’ and this pope created by artificial intelligence would give them answers to their questions. I said, ‘I’m not going to authorize that.’ If there’s anyone who shouldn’t be represented by an avatar, it seems to me, it’s the pope,” he emphasized.

Vatican City, Sep 22, 2025 / 09:05 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Monday praised women religious throughout history, saying they “did not hesitate to take risks and confront problems in order to embrace [God’s] plans and respond ‘yes’ to his call.”

The pope met Sept. 22 with Discalced Carmelite nuns from the Holy Land along with participants in the general chapters of three women’s congregations: the Sisters of St. Catherine VM, the Salesian Missionaries of Mary Immaculate, and the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres.

Taking his inspiration from the Book of Proverbs — “A strong woman who can find? She is far more precious than jewels” — the Holy Father said: “I believe your histories offer an answer to that question; in them, God found not one but many strong and courageous women.”

During the gathering in the Consistory Hall of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, Pope Leo XIV recalled the witness of Regina Protmann, foundress of the Sisters of St. Catherine VM; Maria Gertrude of the Precious Blood, foundress of the Salesian Missionaries of Mary Immaculate; Marie-Anne de Tilly, co-foundress with Father Louis Chauvet of the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres; and St. Teresa of Ávila, reformer of Carmel and doctor of the Church.

“They were committed to planting and strengthening in the hearts of their brothers and sisters that same kingdom of Christ they firstly experienced within themselves and to spreading it throughout the world,” he said.

The pope stressed that these women “paved the way for many others who, like you, have followed Christ in his poverty, chastity, and obedience, carrying on his work, sometimes even to the point of martyrdom.”

He continued: “We are speaking of extraordinary women who went forth as missionaries in difficult times. They stooped down to care for those suffering moral and material misery, reaching the most neglected areas of society. To remain close to those in need, they accepted the risk of losing their lives, even to the point of dying as victims of brutal violence in times of war.”

Quoting the Liturgy of the Hours, the pope recalled: “With fasts her body she subdued, but filled her soul with prayer’s sweet food: in other worlds she tastes the bliss.”

He said: “The strength to remain faithful in both areas comes from the same source: Christ. The Church’s experience over millennia teaches that the means by which we draw on the richness of his grace include asceticism, prayer, the sacraments, intimacy with God, his Word, and the things of heaven.”

“Perhaps some people in our overly immanentist world might dismiss this as a type of ‘spiritualism,’ but such a view is easily refuted by the testimony of what your congregations have accomplished over the centuries and continue to do today. Indeed, it is only through the strength that comes from God that all this has been possible. After all, we experience this truth every day: Our work is in the Lord’s hands, and we are only small and inadequate instruments, or ‘unworthy servants,’ as the Gospel says. Yet, if we entrust ourselves to him and remain united with him, great things can happen, precisely through our poverty.”

The pope urged the sisters to remain faithful to this legacy. “Dear sisters, this is the legacy you have received, and it is what makes your presence here so meaningful. Even today, in fact, there is a need for generous women.”

He offered a special greeting to the Discalced Carmelite Sisters of the Holy Land, calling their mission “important, through your vigilant and silent presence in places sadly torn apart by hatred and violence, through your witness of trusting abandonment to God, and through your constant entreaties for peace.”

“We all accompany you with our prayers and, through you, draw close to those who suffer,” he added.

Finally, Pope Leo thanked all women religious around the world: “Thank you to all of you, Sisters, for the good you do in so many countries and diverse contexts around the world. I bless you from my heart and remember you in my prayers to the Lord.”

Vatican City, Sep 21, 2025 / 14:24 pm (CNA).

United States Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. spoke about the role that mercy can play in the legal system during an event at the Vatican on Saturday.

The Sept. 20 discussion at the Vatican’s judicial headquarters was organized by the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See, the U.S. bishops’ conference, and the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization. The event was part of the Jubilee of Justice, part of the Church’s yearlong Jubilee of Hope.

Earlier in the day, Alito, a Catholic, greeted Pope Leo XIV following an audience for the Jubilee of Workers of Justice in St. Peter’s Square.

During a one-hour afternoon conversation with Monsignor Laurence Spiteri, an American priest and retired judge on the Vatican’s appeals court for marriage cases, Alito shared his perspective on how a legal system can provide for mercy.

“Justice is what everyone has a right to, it is what they are due … Mercy is something that we don’t necessarily merit,” Alito said. “The complete reconciliation of those two things, I think, is a mystery that we can only dimly, perhaps, perceive in this world.”

The 75-year-old Alito, who has served on the Supreme Court since 2006, said: “Mercy should be built into the laws … the authority to make the laws rests with Congress and Congress should build in mercy when it enacts laws.”

“The responsibility of the executive [branch], headed by the president, is to enforce the law,” he continued. “But the enforcement of the law often involves a measure of discretion and someone who has discretion to enforce the law should enforce the law with mercy. Judges have to follow the law. Sometimes the law is framed in a way that allows the judge to exercise mercy,” for example, in criminal sentencing.

“A legal system, of course, is supposed to promote justice, and in human terms, completely reconciling mercy with justice is probably impossible. I think probably only God can do that,” he said.

The audience at Alito’s talk included Vatican officials, including Cardinal Raymond Burke, former prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, and Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, secretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Legislative Texts.

Catholic lawyers on pilgrimage to Rome for the Jubilee of Justice were also in attendance for the discussion, held in a chamber of the Cancelleria, a 16th-century building in the center of Rome that is home to the Holy See’s three tribunals: the Apostolic Penitentiary, the Apostolic Signatura, and the Roman Rota.

Vatican City, Sep 21, 2025 / 10:34 am (CNA).

Those who really love the people living on the Gaza Strip will work to achieve peace in the Holy Land, Pope Leo XIV said Sunday in his Angelus message.

The pontiff expressed his closeness to all those “suffering in that tormented land” after leading the Marian prayer from a window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter’s Square on Sept. 21.

Leo also thanked the Catholic associations who are helping the people of the Gaza Strip: “Together with you and with the pastors of the churches in the Holy Land, I repeat: There is no future based on violence, forced exile, or revenge. The people need peace; those who truly love them work for peace,” he said.

In his message before the Angelus, which he leads weekly on Sundays, Pope Leo reflected on the use of material goods and “how we administer the most previous good of all, our very life.”

In a parable in the Gospel of Luke, a steward who has only sought his own profit must give a report to his master of how he has managed his master’s property.

The Holy Father explained that, like the steward in the parable, “we are not the masters of our lives or of the goods we enjoy; everything has been given to us as a gift by the Lord, who has entrusted this to our care, our freedom, and our responsibility.”

“One day,” he continued, “we will be called to give an account of how we have managed ourselves, our possessions, and the earth’s resources — before both God and humankind, before society, and especially before those who will come after us.”

In the parable, the steward realizes his mistake, so before he loses his job, he renounces the part of people’s debts that would go to him — giving up the profit but gaining friendships instead.

“The parable invites us to ask ourselves: How are we managing the material goods, the resources of the earth, and our very lives that God has entrusted to us?” Leo said. 

We can choose selfishness, putting wealth and ourselves before all else, becoming isolated and spreading “the poison of competition,” he said, or “we can recognize everything we have as a gift from God, to be managed and used as an instrument for sharing — to create networks of friendship and solidarity, to work for the common good, and to build a world that is more just, equitable, and fraternal.”

In the morning, Pope Leo celebrated a Mass at the Parish Church of St. Anne in the Vatican, which, he pointed out in his homily, is in a special location “on the border” of the Vatican.

“Almost all those entering and leaving Vatican City pass by St. Anne’s,” he said. “Some pass for work, some as guests or pilgrims, some in a hurry, some with trepidation or serenity. May everyone experience that here are doors and hearts open to prayer, to listening, and to charity.”

He pointed out that the Gospel of the day challenges us to examine our relationship with the Lord and with others.

“Jesus presents a stark alternative between God and wealth, asking us to take a clear and consistent position,” he said, because, “‘no servant can serve two masters,’ therefore ‘you cannot serve both God and wealth.’”

“This is not a contingent choice,” Leo underlined. “We need to decide on a true lifestyle. It’s about choosing where to place our heart, clarifying whom we sincerely love, whom we serve with dedication, and what is truly our good.”

The pope also spoke about nations and wealth, and said: “The Church prays that leaders of nations may be freed from the temptation to use wealth against humanity, transforming it into weapons that destroy peoples and monopolies that humiliate workers.”

“Those who serve God become free from wealth, but those who serve wealth remain its slaves,” the Holy Father emphasized. “Those who seek justice transform wealth into the common good; those who seek domination transform the common good into the prey of their own greed.”

Vatican City, Sep 21, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The beatification cause of Venerable Francis-Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan is receiving renewed attention from the Vatican 50 years after he was first imprisoned by the communist government of Vietnam, according to the cardinal’s sister.

Elisabeth Nguyen Thi Thu Hong, Van Thuan’s youngest sister and one of two surviving siblings, told CNA that the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints is encouraging Catholics to revive their efforts toward the cause as it launches devoted to the Vietnamese cardinal, whose meditations on hope and forgiveness have inspired Catholics for decades.

The next stage in the canonization process “is up to the faithful … to pray to God through the intercession of the cardinal to get an approved miracle,” Nguyen said during a visit to Rome this week.

An official at the dicastery for saints confirmed to CNA the department is working on Van Thuan’s cause and reiterated the importance of a verified miracle for the process to proceed.

Van Thuan — declared venerable, the step before beatification, in 2017 — was a prisoner of the communist government of Vietnam for 13 years, spending nine of those in solitary confinement. His spiritual messages, smuggled out during his imprisonment, were collected and published in the book “The Road of Hope: A Gospel from Prison.”

After he was freed, Van Thuan was forced to leave his home country, spending his final years in Rome where he served at the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. In 2001, Pope John Paul II made Van Thuan a cardinal.

Van Thuan was diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer soon after, but four months before his death on Sept. 16, 2002, he made a final visit to Australia to see his family for his mother’s 100th birthday.

Nguyen, the youngest of Van Thuan’s nine siblings, has written about her brother’s witness in the book “,” coauthored by Father Stefaan Lecleir and published by Ignatius Press in April.

After writing the book, Nguyen said she was glad to contribute to the glory of God through sharing her brother’s life: “Especially in these recent times in our society when there’s so much anger and not accepting to forgive … I decided to write with Father Lecleir about the fact that [Van Thuan’s] message is really to forgive and hope in God through God’s love.”

Nguyen attended a Mass at her brother’s tomb at the Basilica of Santa Maria della Scala in Rome on Sept. 16, the anniversary of his death. The Mass also marked 50 years since his arrest and his composition of the spiritual messages that became “The Road of Hope” — immortalized in a newly-discovered photo of the Vietnamese cardinal from 1975.

The photo, which shows Van Thuan writing at a table in 1975, was taken by a man who served at the house where the bishop was under house arrest in communist Vietnam. A friend of Nguyen found it hanging on a family’s kitchen wall in Vietnam.

Nguyen, who was a baby when Van Thuan was ordained a priest, said for her he was “more than a brother; he was like a mini dad.”

She shared some of her memories of her older brother, including the influence his clandestine letters had on her life and faith journey.

“For a long time, I never wanted to write [about Van Thuan] because it’s going back to some darker times,” Nguyen said. 

She described Van Thuan as a very attentive son and sibling who always made time to visit his family or to write during his long imprisonment and subsequent exile.

Following the Vietnam War and the North Vietnamese Army’s invasion of South Vietnam, Van Thuan’s parents and most of his siblings fled to Australia, Canada, and the U.S. 

In a postcard he sent to his parents in Australia in 1982, Van Thuan wrote to inform them of the recent death of two of their relatives in Vietnam. He added: “I am in good health. I pray for you and mom each day. This year, our village, Phú Cam, celebrates 300 years of becoming a Catholic village. Let’s pray a lot for each other.”

As a young man, Van Thuan would help watch over his baby sister, Elisabeth. As she grew up, she cared for his pet guinea pigs and birds. Nguyen recalled the loving guidance her priest-brother gave during her school years.

Growing up during the Vietnam War made Nguyen cynical about the goodness of God, she said, and in her young adulthood, she “turned away from the Church because I said, ‘God is love, but look at all of this atrocity and death in the family, and the whole country is really in pieces.’”

But her older brother, more than two decades her senior, was instrumental in her return to belief in the Catholic faith, she explained — starting with when she was finishing her master’s degree in philosophy at Sydney University in Australia in 1974.

Her master’s thesis was on the existentialist philosophers, such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. Van Thuan read the thesis to give her feedback, at her request. Because he was visiting Australia for a meeting with bishops, they had a chance to meet to discuss it.

“He said, ‘So you found the way for life now? Are you happy?’” Nguyen recalled. “And I burst out crying, because I said, ‘No, I’m not.’ I said, ‘I’m still searching, but what am I going to do now? I’m done with the thesis, I can’t go back now.’ He said, ‘No, professors accept freedom of thought. You can go and tell them, ‘I thought I really believed in this, but now that I’ve written it, did all the research, I’m not happy.’”

“He never condemned me or was judgmental,” she noted.

The following year, the Vatican named Van Thuan, already the bishop of Nha Trang for eight years, archbishop coadjutor of what was then known as Saigon. Shortly afterward, Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese Army and in August, Van Thuan was arrested by the communist government.

In 1979, he was transferred from a reeducation camp to house arrest, which is when he began to write messages on the back of page-a-day calendar leaves and sneak them out through a local boy, Nguyen told CNA.

Nguyen was captivated by the strength of faith she encountered in her brother’s letters. He “wrote a meditation on the logic of the cross, and that really, really [moved] me,” she said. 

She was struck that he seemed to have met Jesus so deeply. “I need to find out what that’s like, to be able to meet God like him,” she thought. “That’s the one who changed my diapers, that’s the one who took me to the candy store.”

Vatican City, Sep 20, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).

Forgiveness is fundamental to the virtue of justice, Pope Leo XIV said to thousands of legal professionals gathered in Rome for the Jubilee of Workers of Justice on Saturday.

“It is the power of forgiveness, which is proper to the commandment of love, that emerges as a constitutive element of a justice capable of combining the supernatural with the human,” the pope said in St. Peter’s Square on Sept. 20.

Leo, who has a doctorate in Church law, explained that the evangelical virtue of justice is not a distraction from human justice but “questions and redesigns it: It provokes it to go even further, because it pushes it towards the search for reconciliation.”

“Evil, in fact, must not only be punished but also repaired, and to this end, a profound gaze toward the good of individuals and the common good is necessary,” he urged Church and civil lawyers, judges, and others who work in the legal environment.

“This is an arduous task, but not impossible for those who, aware that they are performing a more demanding service than others, are committed to leading an irreproachable life,” the pope added.

An estimated 20,000 people from 100 countries took part in the Jubilee of Workers of Justice, part of the yearlong Jubilee of Hope, including a large number of pilgrims from the United States and Canada. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was also in attendance.

Joshua McCaig, a lawyer and founding president of the Catholic Bar Association, traveled to Rome for the jubilee with a delegation of over 50 legal professionals from the U.S.

He told EWTN News he hopes the event “will be an opportunity for us all to reflect on what more we can do for the common good.”

“The Catholic Church brings resources, brings hope, brings community, brings values that are instilled in the teachings of Jesus Christ to help all individuals — but also those in the legal profession — further develop an understanding of how this world should be and the role we should play in it,” he said.

Before the audience with the pope, Archbishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, secretary of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, gave a lecture on the theme of “Iustitia Imago Dei: The Operator of Justice, Instrument of Hope.”

“Those who administer justice in the Church must also be pastors. … They must respect justice, but they are pastors who must also watch over the good of souls,” Arrieta told EWTN News this week.

In his message, Pope Leo emphasized that the function of justice “is indispensable both for the orderly development of society and as a cardinal virtue that inspires and guides the conscience of every man and woman.”

“Striving for justice, therefore, requires being able to love it as a reality that can only be achieved through constant attention, radical disinterest, and assiduous discernment,” he said.

He noted that the Jubilee of Workers of Justice is a chance to also reflect on an overlooked aspect of justice, the reality that many countries and people “hunger and thirst for justice” because their living conditions are gravely unjust and inhuman.

The pontiff cited St. Augustine, calling the saint’s words “timeless truths” to apply to the current international situation.

“‘Without justice,’” the pope quoted, “‘the state cannot be administered; it is impossible to have law in a state where there is no true justice. An act performed according to law is certainly performed according to justice, and it is impossible to perform an act according to law that is performed against justice ... A state where there is no justice is not a state. Justice is, in fact, the virtue that distributes to each his due. Therefore, it is not human justice that takes man away from the true God.’”

“May the challenging words of St. Augustine inspire each of us to always express the exercise of justice in the service of the people to the best of our ability, with our gaze turned to God, so as to fully respect justice, law, and the dignity of persons,” Leo said.

CNA Staff, Sep 20, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

A documentary on Father Marko Rupnik’s alleged abuse of consecrated women, the personal fallout for two of his alleged victims, and what happened when the claims became public decades later premiered at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this month.

“Nuns vs. The Vatican” includes the detailed stories of Gloria Branciani, Mirjam Kovac, and Klara (identified only by her first name), three former members of the Loyola Community in Slovenia in the 1980s and early 1990s, when Rupnik, a co-founder of the community, is accused of having committed sexual, psychological, and spiritual abuse against dozens of women religious.

Through the stories of Branciani and Klara, the film, which premiered Sept. 6, argues that Rupnik’s alleged abuse was inextricably linked to his religious art. It also claims he was protected in the Catholic Church, in which he shot to stardom in the 1990s, and interviews experts who say the Vatican’s response has been inadequate.

Branciani was part of the Ignatius Loyola Community in Slovenia, which was co-founded by Rupnik in the 1980s. In the documentary, she recalls how Rupnik allegedly groomed and then sexually and psychologically abused her in the early ’90s and how the abuse was intricately connected with the creation of his art. 

According to Branciani, her complaints about Rupnik went unanswered, she was punished by the community’s mother superior at the time, Ivanka Hosta, and forced out of religious life by Father Tomáš Špidlík, a Czech cardinal and Jesuit who died in 2010. Špidlík, who was close to Rupnik and the priest’s art and spirituality center in Rome, the Centro Aletti, allegedly wrote the resignation letter on her behalf.

In addition to testimony from the alleged victims and their lawyer, it includes the voices of journalists, psychologists, and other abuse experts, including Barbara Dorris, a former director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), who was sexually abused by a priest between the ages of 6 and 13.

Dorris and Laura Sgrò, a lawyer for some of Rupnik’s alleged victims, are highly critical of the Church hierarchy’s response to clerical sexual abuse throughout the documentary.

No one from the Vatican participated in the documentary. The film said requests for comment from Rupnik and the former head of the Loyola Community, Hosta, were ignored.

Sarah Pearson, a spokesperson for SNAP, said in a statement to CNA that “SNAP is proud of the legacy of Barbara Dorris, a longtime leader and tireless advocate for the 1 in 3 nuns who experience sexual abuse by priests.”

Pearson continued: “The case of Jesuit priest Father Marko Rupnik illustrates this catastrophe with tragic clarity. Despite overwhelming reports of abuse, Rupnik was shielded for years — kept in ministry through the Vatican’s intervention under Pope Francis. Only after prolonged public outrage was he finally subjected to a canonical process.”

Italian Lorena Luciano directed the film. It was produced by Filippo Piscopo. “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” star Mariska Hargitay is among the documentary’s executive producers.

A spokesperson for “Nuns vs. The Vatican” told CNA the documentary will continue to be shown at film festivals in North America, and they are working on getting a screening at the Vatican.

“We are also waiting to see whether Pope Leo will push for the ecclesiastical trial against Rupnik to happen in the fall,” a spokesperson for the production company added.

Earlier this year, the Vatican removed artwork by Rupnik from its official websites. Digital images of the Slovenian priest’s sacred art, which were frequently used by Vatican News to illustrate articles of the Church’s liturgical feast days, are no longer found on the digital news service.

The changes to the Vatican News and the Dicastery for Communication websites came soon after Pope Leo XIV met with members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors on June 5.

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 19, 2025 / 15:31 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Thursday highlighted the value of the vow of obedience in institutes of religious life as “a school of freedom in love” that lays the foundations of fidelity beyond “the ‘feelings’ of the moment.”

During a Sept. 18 meeting with participants in the general chapters and assemblies of various congregations and institutes, on “some unifying characteristics” of the legacy of the founders of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, the Society of Mary (Marists), the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate Conception, and the Ursulines of Mary Immaculate.

First, he emphasized the importance of community life “as a place of sanctification and a source of inspiration, witness, and strength in your apostolate.”

In this regard, Leo XIV explained to those present that “it is no coincidence that the Holy Spirit inspired those who preceded you to join the sisters and brothers whom Providence placed on their path, so that goodness would multiply and grow through the communion of good people. This was the case at the beginning of your foundations and throughout the centuries, and the same continues to take place today.”

Second, Leo XIV emphasized the value of “obedience as an act of love” in the context of religious consecration.

Drawing on the words of St. Augustine, he recalled that obedience is the daughter of charity: “I do not trust what is stuck in the soil unless I can see what’s hanging from the branches. You have charity, do you? Show me its fruit. Let me see obedience,” the saint of Hippo said.

Leo XIV admitted that “talking about obedience is not very fashionable today,” because it is considered to involve a renunciation of one’s own freedom.

“But that is not the case,” he affirmed before explaining that “obedience, in its deepest meaning of active and generous listening to others, is a great act of love by which we accept dying to ourselves so that our brothers and sisters may grow and live.”

“When it is professed and lived with faith, obedience reveals a luminous path of self-giving that can help the world rediscover the value of sacrifice, the capacity for lasting relationships, and the maturity in community that goes beyond the “feelings” of the moment by establishing itself in fidelity. Obedience is a school of freedom in love,” he explained.

The third characteristic highlighted by the pontiff is related to “being attentive to the signs of the times,” which he defined as “an open and perceptive gaze toward the real demands of our brothers and sisters,” without which the present congregations would not have existed.

“Your founders were capable of observing, evaluating, loving, and then setting out, even at the risk of great suffering and failure, to serve the real needs of their brothers and sisters, recognizing the voice of God in the poverty of their neighbors,” the pontiff noted, encouraging the participants “to move forward in the living memory of those courageous beginnings” to identify their potential, “perhaps still unexplored, in order to put them to good use in the service of the ‘here and now.’”

In his parting words to the religious, Leo XIV praised the hidden work they do: “Dear friends, I know how much good you do every day in so many parts of the world — good that is often unseen by human eyes but not by God’s! I thank you and bless you from my heart, encouraging you to continue your mission with faith and generosity.”

Vatican City, Sep 19, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Friday said the Church and public institutions need to better support families in social and political life.

“Public institutions and the Church have a responsibility to seek ways to promote dialogue and strengthen the elements in society that favor family life and the education of its members,” the pontiff said Sept. 19 in reference to the encyclical letter of St. John Paul II.

“In this context,” he continued, “we can understand the family as a gift and a task. It is crucial to foster the co-responsibility and protagonism of families in social, political, and cultural life, promoting their valuable contribution to the community.”

Leo addressed the participants of a Sept. 17–19 Rome meeting on the future of the family during an audience in the Hall of the Consistory in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace.

The Rome gathering used a synodal method “to listen, discern, and imitate processes of cultural and structural transformation in response to the challenges faced by families in the peripheries, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean, in dialogue with other regions of the world,” according to organizers.

“Living synodality in the family requires ‘walking together,’ sharing sorrows and joys, dialoguing respectfully and sincerely among all its members, learning to listen to one another and to make important family decisions together,” the pope told meeting participants.

Referencing Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation , he said threats to the dignity of the family today include “problems related to poverty, lack of work and access to health care, abuse of the most vulnerable, migration, and war.”

“In every child, in every wife or husband, God entrusts us with his Son, his Mother, as he did with St. Joseph, so that together with them we may be the foundation, the leaven, and the witness of God’s love among men,” the Holy Father said.

The Jubilee of Hope, he noted, includes an invitation to think about the roots of one’s faith as received from parents and grandparents: “The persevering prayer of our grandmothers as they prayed the rosary, their simple, humble, and honest lives which, like leaven, sustained so many families and communities.”

The family is called “to be a domestic Church and a home where the fire of the Holy Spirit burns, spreading its warmth, contributing its gifts and experiences for the common good, and calling everyone to live in hope,” he said.

The “Jubilee and Synodal Meeting for Hopeful Discernment on the Future of Life and the Family” was organized by the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, the Latin American Episcopal Council, the Pontifical Academy for Life, and the  John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences.

“Through this Jubilee and Synodal Meeting, the Church wishes to renew its commitment to defending life and the family, building bridges of fraternity and hope for the new generations,” organizers said in a press release.

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 19, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The Jubilee of Justice, to be celebrated Saturday, Sept. 20, will bring together some 15,000 pilgrims from around the world, necessitating the relocation of the events to St. Peter’s Square.

This is the first time in the history of jubilees that a single event is dedicated to those who, performing various functions, are involved “in the world of secular, canonical, ecclesiastical justice, the Vatican City State, and the Roman Curia, as judges, prosecutors, magistrates, lawyers, legal practitioners, and administrative staff,” along with their families, according to the Holy See Press Office.

Registered participants will come from approximately 100 countries around the world, with the largest delegations coming from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, France, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Australia, Nigeria, Peru, and the Philippines.

Among the pilgrims will be representatives of important legal institutions, from the law schools of various pontifical universities or those affiliated with various Catholic institutions, and from professional associations and official entities.

The presence of representatives from Italy’s Ministry of Justice, the Constitutional Court, the Superior Council of the Judiciary, and the Supreme Court of Cassation has been confirmed, as have representatives from the Confederation of Catholic Jurists of France and the Supreme Courts of the United States, Brazil, Colombia, and Spain.

Likewise, there will be representatives from the Vatican Judiciary, the Court of Accounts, the presidency of the Italian Council of State, the International Union of Catholic Jurists, and the Union of Italian Catholic Jurists, among other entities.

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, will welcome pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square and present the“” prepared by Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, secretary of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, on the theme “Iustitia Imago Dei: The Worker of Justice, Instrument of Hope.”

Pilgrims will have access to simultaneous translation through the Vatican Vox app, which is available for free download. 

At noon Rome time, Pope Leo XIV will hold the jubilee audience and address his remarks specifically to those working in the justice system. Following these events, pilgrims will proceed to the Holy Door of the papal basilica.

As part of the Jubilee of Justice, an evening event will be held at the Chancellery Palace in Rome featuring a colloquium with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, organized by the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See.

Rome’s Palazzo Altemps will host another event organized by the French Embassy to the Holy See and the Pious Establishments of France in Rome and Loreto, led  by French priest Patrick Valdrini, a professor at the Pontifical Lateran University.

Vatican City, Sep 18, 2025 / 10:08 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV, in his first interview since his election, signaled he may be open to future changes to the Vatican’s controversial deal with China, saying that he is in dialogue with persecuted Chinese Catholics as he weighs the future of Vatican policy toward Beijing.

The interview, conducted in English in July and published Thursday in a new Spanish-language biography, provides the clearest view yet of the 70-year-old American pope’s priorities in global politics and Vatican diplomacy, including how he sees the Church engaging with the Trump administration, the war in Gaza, and the defense of human dignity.

On China, Pope Leo said he is listening to “a significant group of Chinese Catholics who for many years have lived some kind of oppression or difficulty in living their faith freely” as he tries to get “a clearer understanding of how the Church can continue the Church’s mission.”

“I would say that in the short term, I will continue the policy that the Holy See has followed for some years now … I’m also in ongoing dialogue with a number of people, Chinese, on both sides of some of the issues that are there,” he said.

As the first pope ever to have visited mainland China, Leo, who traveled there years before his election, said he draws on his experiences with “government as well as religious leaders and laypeople.”

Leo’s comments indicate openness to a possible shift from the status quo on China since 2018, when the Holy See signed a power-sharing agreement with Beijing on the appointment of bishops. The agreement was renewed under Francis three times in the past seven years despite objections from human rights activists and reports of increased persecution of the so-called underground Church in China, which rejects government control.

“It’s a very difficult situation. In the long term, I don’t pretend to say this is what I will and will not do,” he said.

Pope Leo XIV also spoke about President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Elon Musk, while insisting that he does not want to take part in political battles. 

“I don’t plan to get involved in partisan politics. That’s not what the Church is about. But I’m not afraid to raise issues that I think are real Gospel issues, that hopefully people on both sides of the aisle, as we say, will be able to listen to,” he said. 

The Chicago-born pope suggested that his background gives him an advantage in dealing with other Americans, including members of the Church. Referring to relations between the Vatican and U.S. Catholic bishops, he said: “The fact that I am American means, among other things, people can’t say, like they did about Francis, ‘He doesn’t understand the United States.’” Under his predecessor Pope Francis, the U.S. bishops’ conference clashed with the Vatican over the bishops’ designation of abortion as the “preeminent priority” of their public policy agenda. 

Leo said he would not hesitate to meet with Trump if the opportunity arose and said he has already spoken with Vance “about human dignity and how important that is for all people, wherever you’re born, and hopefully to find ways to respect human beings and the way we treat them in the policies and choices we make.” 

“Obviously, there’s some things going on in the States that are of concern,” Leo added. 

Applauding Pope Francis’ letter to U.S. bishops earlier this year criticizing the Trump administration’s policy on deportation of immigrants, he said: “I was very happy to see how the American bishops picked that up, and some of them were courageous enough to go with that. I think that approach, in general, is a better approach, that I would engage with the bishops primarily.” 

“The United States is a power player on the world level, we have to recognize that, and sometimes decisions are made more based on economics than on human dignity and human support,” Leo said. “But [we have to] continue to challenge and to raise some questions and to see the best way to do that.” 

“Especially about questions of human dignity, of promoting peace in the world, which [Trump] at times has made clear he wants to do, in those efforts I would want to support him,” he said. 

Pope Leo XIV also mentioned Elon Musk, reserving some of his sharpest words for economic disparities and the potential “crisis” that could result from the rise of artificial intelligence. 

“One … very significant [factor] is the continuously wider gap between the income levels of the working class and the money that the wealthiest receive,” he said. CEOs once earned a few times more than workers, but today “the last figure I saw, it’s 600 times more.” 

He pointed to reports that “Elon Musk is going to be the first trillionaire in the world,” warning: “If that is the only thing that has value anymore, then we’re in big trouble.” 

Leo also cautioned that artificial intelligence could cause a “crisis” because of its potential to accelerate shifts in the labor force. “If we automate the whole world and only a few people have the means with which to more than just survive, but to live well, have meaningful life, there’s a big problem, a huge problem coming down the line.” 

Pope Leo weighed in on the debate over whether Israel’s campaign in Gaza constitutes genocide, with the pope noting that “the word genocide is being thrown around more and more.” 

“Officially, the Holy See does not believe that we can make any declaration at this time about that,” he said. “There’s a very technical definition about what genocide might be, but more and more people are raising the issue, including two human rights groups in Israel have made that statement.”

Leo emphasized the importance of getting humanitarian aid, medical assistance, and food to people in Gaza, noting that the U.S. is “obviously the most significant third party that can place pressure on Israel.”

On Ukraine, Leo confirmed the Vatican had offered to host peace talks, though the offer was not accepted. “The Holy See, since the war began, has made great efforts to maintain a position that, as difficult as it might be, [is not] one side or the other, but truly neutral,” he said.

He also suggested that the Vatican might be able to help end a schism within the Orthodox world, between the patriarchs of Moscow and Constantinople, arising from disagreements over Orthodox Church leadership in Ukraine.

“If the bishop of Rome can help build bridges … I think there is certainly challenges in that, but a great service to be offered because ultimately, we do all believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and Our Savior.” 

Leo acknowledged the declining role of the United Nations and the shift to bilateral dialogue in international relations. “It seems to be generally recognized that the United Nations, at least at this moment in time, has lost its ability to bring people together on multilateral kinds of issues,” he said. 

He also pointed to polarization worldwide, citing a “loss of a higher sense of what human life is about.” 

“The value of human life, the value of society, of the family … if we lose the sense of those values, what matters anymore?” he asked. “You oftentimes find people questioning: What is this all about and what is the meaning of life, and why should we be doing this?” 

The interview appears in the Spanish-language book “León XIV: ciudadano del mundo, misionero del siglo XXI” (“Leo XIV: Citizen of the World, Missionary of the XXI Century”), a biography by Crux correspondent Elise Ann Allen, published on Sept. 18 in Spanish by Penguin Peru. English and Portuguese editions are expected in 2026. 

In the book, Pope Leo, a longtime missionary in Peru before he was pope, underlines that the Church’s primary mission remains spiritual, not political. 

“My role is announcing the good news, preaching the Gospel,” he said. “I don’t see my primary role as trying to be the solver of the world’s problems. I don’t see my role as that at all, really, although I think that the Church has a voice, a message that needs to continue to be preached, to be spoken and spoken loudly.” 

Vatican City, Sep 18, 2025 / 08:30 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV said his primary role as leader of the Church is confirming Catholics in their faith and sharing the Gospel with the world, not resolving global crises.

Speaking to Crux senior correspondent Elise Ann Allen in the first sit-down interview of his pontificate, Leo also said he was “trying not to continue to polarize or promote polarization in the Church.”

Leo’s first formal interview as pope took place as part of the biography “Leo XIV: Citizen of the World, Missionary of the 21st Century,” by Allen, out now in Spanish and next year in English.

“I don’t see my primary role as trying to be the solver of the world’s problems. I don’t see my role as that at all, really, although I think that the Church has a voice, a message that needs to continue to be preached, to be spoken and spoken loudly,” he said.

In the extensive interview, the first U.S.-born pontiff explained how he plans to tackle divisive issues in the Church, including his approach to LGBT debates, the possibility of women deacons, synodality, and the Traditional Latin Mass.

Leo said he is aware that the Church’s teaching on sexual morality is a highly polarizing topic, and though he welcomes everyone in the Church, he does not intend to make changes — at least not anytime soon.

Signaling his intention to be in continuity with Francis’ open approach, he said “everyone’s invited in, but I don’t invite a person in because they are or are not of any specific identity.”

“People want the Church doctrine to change, want attitudes to change. I think we have to change attitudes before we even think about changing what the Church says about any given question,” he said. 

“I find it highly unlikely, certainly in the near future, that the Church’s doctrine in terms of what the Church teaches about sexuality, what the Church teaches about marriage, [will change],” he said.

“The individuals will be accepted and received,” the pontiff added, reiterating the importance of respecting and accepting people who make different choices in their lives.

“I’ve already spoken about marriage, as did Pope Francis when he was pope, about a family being a man and a woman in solemn commitment, blessed in the sacrament of marriage,” he continued. 

The “role of the family in society, which has at times suffered in recent decades, once again has to be recognized, strengthened,” Leo said. 

He also criticized the publication of rituals blessing “people who love one another” in countries in Northern Europe, saying they violate Pope Francis’ directives in , which gave permission for nonliturgical blessings of same-sex couples. 

“I think that the Church’s teaching will continue as it is, and that’s what I have to say about that for right now,” he said. 

Another change the pope said he will not be making at the moment is allowing the ordination of women deacons.

“I hope to continue in the footsteps of Francis, including in appointing women to some leadership roles at different levels in the Church’s life,” he explained. “I think there are some previous questions that have to be asked. … Why would we talk about ordaining women to the diaconate if the diaconate itself is not yet properly understood and properly developed and promoted within the Church?”

He noted that there is a study group, in the context of the Synod on Synodality, specifically to examine the question of ministries in the Church, including a potential women’s diaconate.

“Perhaps there are a lot of things that have to be looked at and developed at this time before we can ever really come around to asking the other questions. … We’ll walk with that and see what comes,” he said.

Leo described synodality, Francis’ program for wider consultation on Church governance and teaching beyond the hierarchy, as “an attitude, an openness, a willingness to understand” and a process “of dialogue and respect for one another” that could take different forms.

“I think there’s great hope if we can continue to build on the experience of the past couple years and find ways of being Church together,” he noted. “Not to try and transform the Church into some kind of democratic government, which if we look at many countries around the world today, democracy is not necessarily a perfect solution to everything.”

He expressed throughout the interview his willingness to sit down with, and hear out, anyone’s point of view, including proponents of the Traditional Latin Mass — though he has not made up his mind about how to resolve tensions over its celebration.

“It’s become the kind of issue that’s so polarized that people aren’t willing to listen to one another, oftentimes. … That’s a problem in itself. It means we’re into ideology now, we’re no longer into the experience of Church communion. That’s one of the issues on the agenda,” he said.

“Between the Tridentine Mass and the Vatican II Mass, the Mass of Paul VI, I’m not sure where that’s going to go. It’s obviously very complicated,” he added. “It’s become a political tool, and that’s very unfortunate.”

He noted there would be an opportunity soon to speak with people advocating what he called the Tridentine rite of the Mass, a possible reference to an annual pilgrimage of Latin Mass devotees to take place in Rome at the end of October.

Leo said another issue on the forefront of his agenda is internal Vatican relations. He lamented that currently, the dicasteries work in a very “isolated manner.”

He praised the renewed focus on evangelization in Pope Francis’ reform of the Roman Curia through the apostolic constitution , but said there is still more work to be done.

“The lack of dialogue, of instruments of communication, between the different dicasteries has at times been of great limitation and harm to the government of the Church,” he said. 

“So, I think that there is an issue there, of, someone used the expression ‘a silo mentality.’ … We have to find a way to bring people together to talk about that.”

One of the issues the Curia has on its plate is the clerical sexual abuse crisis. Pope Leo said while it remains unresolved, it cannot be the Church’s sole focus.

It is a challenge to balance providing help and justice for victims with respect for the rights of the accused, he said. “We’re in kind of a bind there.”

Leo put the issue of clerical sexual abuse into the context of his views on the wider role of the Church in the world: “We can’t make the whole Church focus exclusively on this issue, because that would not be an authentic response to what the world is looking for in terms of the need for the mission of the Church.”

The pontiff said this approach to the Church’s mission would also influence his interaction with Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists. He said it’s important to have respect for those with different beliefs, but “I believe very strongly in Jesus Christ and believe that that’s my priority, because I’m the bishop of Rome and successor of Peter, and the pope needs to help people understand, especially Christians, Catholics, that this is who we are. And I think that’s a beautiful mission.”

During encounters with representatives of other religions, he said, “I’m not afraid to say I believe in Jesus Christ and that he died on the cross and rose from the dead, and that we together are called to share that message.”

He also expressed satisfaction over what he perceives to be an improvement in relations with the Jewish community. Under Francis, the relationship had suffered following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas and Israel’s subsequent war on Gaza based on the pope’s strong support of Palestine.

“I may be too presumptuous,” Leo said, “but I daresay that already in the first couple of months, the relationship with the Jewish community as such has improved a bit.” 

CNA Staff, Sep 18, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV downplayed concerns of the ongoing financial crisis at the Vatican in a recent interview, arguing that “things are going to be OK” regarding the Holy See’s finances even as more work is needed. 

The Holy Father made the remarks as part of a wide-ranging interview with Crux senior correspondent Elise Ann Allen. The interview appears in Allen’s biography on the pontiff, “Leo XIV: Citizen of the World, Missionary of the 21st Century,” published in Spanish on Sept. 18. An English version of the book will be published in early 2026. 

Allen asked Leo about the financial situation of the Vatican, noting that the pope has previously indicated that the crisis is “not as bad as it’s sometimes been made out to be.” The Holy See’s pension fund has been facing a major shortfall after years of budget deficits. 

Admitting that the Vatican has to “continue to work” to address the issue, Leo told Allen: “I’m not losing sleep over it.” 

The Holy Father noted that the pandemic helped drive serious shortfalls in the Vatican’s budget when the worldwide health crisis closed the Vatican Museums, a major source of the Holy See’s revenue.

But travel has increased in recent years, he said. “There are more tourists in Rome this year. There are things going on that have made a significant turnaround in some of the issues that have been causes of concern in the past.”

The pope suggested that the various departments and initiatives at the Vatican need to cooperate to ensure the flow of financial resources there.

“Everything that I might have in this pocket doesn’t always get over to that pocket, and we have to learn to work together in a positive way also within the Holy See, within the Vatican,” he told Allen.

Part of the problem, he argued, is that the Vatican has “oftentimes given the wrong message” about the Holy See’s fiduciary state.

Bad messaging, he said, “doesn’t inspire people” to support the Vatican financially; rather, the pope argued, it leads them to conclude: “‘I’ll keep my money, because if you’re not going to administer properly, why should I give you more money?’”

Leo said that after studying the issue at length — including before he became pope — he is convinced that “things are going to be OK,” though he said improvements to the Vatican’s financial policies will continue. 

“[W]e do have to continue the process of reform that Francis began,” he said.