By Courtney Mares ROME (OSV News) – Pope Leo XIV will make the first apostolic journey to South America of his pontificate Nov. 6-17, visiting 10 cities in Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, the Vatican has announced. The trip will take him from one of Latin America’s least religious countries to the homeland of the late Pope Francis before culminating in Pope Leo’s return to Peru, where he served as an Augustinian missionary and later bishop of Chiclayo. It will be his first return to the continent since his election as pope.
Pope Leo XIV waves to the crowd as he boards the papal plane at Bamenda International Airport in Cameroon April 16, 2026, en route to in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The Vatican announced Aug. 5 that Pope Leo will visit 10 cities in South America during his apostolic journey to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru Nov. 6-17. (OSV News photo/Guglielmo Mangiapane, Reuters)
Here is a look at the cities that Pope Leo will visit:
Uruguay (Nov. 6-8) The pope’s first stop will be Uruguay, where Christians only make up 44% of the population, the lowest percentage in Latin America, according to the Pew Research Center.
Montevideo Montevideo is Uruguay’s capital and largest city. It is home to the National Shrine of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the historic Montevideo Metropolitan Cathedral.
Paysandú Paysandú, a cultural and economic hub on Uruguay’s western border with Argentina, was founded in 1772 by a priest, Policarpo Sandú, and Christianized Indigenous families. The city is home to the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, known for its large pipe organ.
Florida The Uruguay visit will likely conclude in Florida, home to the National Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Thirty-Three, the patroness of Uruguay. A yearly pilgrimage is held every second Sunday of November, which falls this year on Nov. 8. The basilica preserves an 18th-century Guaraní image of the Virgin Mary before which 33 of Uruguayans prayed before fighting for independence.
St. John Paul II consecrated the shrine during his 1988 visit, the last papal trip to Uruguay. “Almost 40 years ago, we experienced the unforgettable visit of St. John Paul II. Now we welcome Pope Leo with enormous anticipation. It is a joy for the Church, but also for all of Uruguay,” Cardinal Daniel Sturla of Montevideo said.
Argentina (Nov. 8-11) The second leg of the trip will be Argentina, the homeland of Pope Francis, who served as archbishop of Buenos Aires before becoming pope, but never returned during his pontificate. About 58% of adults in Argentina identify as Catholic, according to Pew.
Buenos Aires In Buenos Aires, the pope will likely meet President Javier Milei, who welcomed the announced visit as “an event of enormous spiritual and institutional significance for our country and for all Argentines.”
The capital is also home to the Basilica of Our Lady of Mercy, where the tomb of Argentina’s first female saint, known as Mama Antula, is located.
Córdoba Córdoba, Argentina’s second-largest city, is known for its Spanish colonial architecture. Its historic Manzana Jesuítica, “Jesuit Block,” includes one of South America’s oldest universities and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Luján Luján is home to the Shrine of Our Lady of Luján, patroness of Argentina and one of the country’s leading pilgrimage sites. As archbishop of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis led pilgrimages there, while St. John Paul celebrated Mass at the shrine during his 1982 visit and consecrated Argentina to Our Lady of Luján.
Peru (Nov. 11-17) The final and longest portion of the trip will bring Pope Leo back to Peru, where he first arrived as an Augustinian missionary in 1985. He was appointed apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo in 2014 before becoming its bishop. He obtained Peruvian citizenship in 2015 before being transferred to the Vatican in 2023.
Lima Lima is Peru’s capital and largest city. The city is home to the Basilica and Convent of Our Lady of the Rosary, also known as the Convent of Santo Domingo, where St. Rose of Lima and St. Martin de Porres are buried. Keiko Fujimori, whose victory in Peru’s presidential election was declared July 4, is expected to welcome the pope to the country.
Chiclayo Chiclayo is expected to be one of the most closely watched stops of the trip because of the pope’s ties to the local church. Pope Leo served as bishop of the diocese from 2015 to 2023.
Cusco Pope Leo will also visit Cusco, the former capital of the Inca Empire. One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the Western Hemisphere, Cusco remains one of Peru’s foremost cultural centers in the Andes with an average elevation of 11,150 feet.
Pucallpa The pope will not leave Peru without stopping in Pucallpa, a city on the Ucayali River in the Amazonian rainforest that has long served as a center for Catholic missionary outreach in Peru’s rainforest.
The Diocese of Chiclayo celebrated the Vatican’s announcement saying that the pope’s visit will bring “a message of faith, hope, and closeness to millions of Peruvians.”
“It will be a historic visit that will unite us as a people and as a Church,” the diocese said in a social media post.
This is the logo for Pope Leo XIV’s Sept. 25-28, 2026, apostolic journey to France. With the motto “That the world may have life,” the pope’s first visit to France will include stops in Paris, Lourdes and Metz and a private meeting with victims of abuse in the Church. The logo features a stained-glass window, a cross and a dove carrying an olive branch, symbolizing the Church’s unity, the apostolic and liturgical dimensions of the visit, and peace. (OSV News photo/courtesy Pope in France)
By Paulina Guzik PARIS (OSV News) – Pope Leo XIV will make a four-day apostolic journey to France Sept. 25-28, with a program that stretches from the Élysée Palace and UNESCO in Paris to the Marian shrine of Lourdes and a final stop in Metz, and it will include a private meeting with victims of abuse in the Church, the Vatican has confirmed.
The Holy See Press Office released the detailed schedule Aug. 7, along with a statement to journalists saying, “During his upcoming Apostolic Journey to France, Pope Leo XIV will meet privately with several victims of abuse in the Church. The victims themselves will be involved in preparing for this event. Further details may be provided later.”
The motto of the trip, “That the world may have life,” can be clearly read through the prism of a recent vote made by French lawmakers to legalize “assisted dying,” a move that French bishops called a “radical choice.”
He will also meet catechumens and newly baptized Catholics and celebrate Mass at Place de la Concorde. In Lourdes, Pope Leo will pray at the Marian shrine, meet bishops, the sick and religious sisters, and celebrate Sunday Mass. The final stop in Metz will focus on peace, European unity and the legacy of Catholic statesman Robert Schuman.
The French bishops’ conference and the Vatican also unveiled the official logo and motto for the visit: “That the world may have life” (John 6:51), a theme that will most likely frame the pope’s message amid debates on assisted dying in the country.
As France prepares to welcome Pope Leo for the first papal visit in 18 years, Church leaders asked for prayers as amid “logistical challenges and financial considerations, the visit of Pope Leo is “first and foremost a spiritual event,” the bishops said on the official website of the apostolic journey.
“The bishops of France invite all the faithful to pray for the arrival of Pope Leo XIV on the Feast of the Assumption,” on Aug. 15. “Let us entrust to the Lord this apostolic journey and the fruits it will bear for the Church and our country.”
(Paulina Guzik is international editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @Guzik_Paulina)
White Sox fans smile while wearing “pope hats” at an Aug. 11, 2026, baseball game at Rate Field in Chicago. The White Sox game paid tribute to Pope Leo XIV, a native of Dolton, Ill., with a first pitch thrown by a nun, a performance by the ChiTown Popes, and a fifth inning “sign of peace” while taking on the Cincinnati Reds. (OSV News photo/courtesy of the Chicago White Sox)
NATION CHICAGO (OSV News) – White Sox baseball fans sporting custom-designed black and gold mitre-style hats celebrated Pope Leo XIV, a fellow Sox fan, at a pope-themed game in Chicago Aug. 11. Dominican Sister Mary Jo Sobieck of Springfield, Illinois, threw the first pitch, and fans shook hands with the “sign of peace,” led by the Chicago Archdiocese’s Father Tom Hurley, during the fifth inning at Rate Field, home of Pope Leo’s favorite baseball team. White Sox management handed out “pope hats” to over 38,000 fans who showed up at the third game in a series against the Cincinnati Reds. The promo project started out as a fan giveaway for the first 2,500 tickets, which sold quickly and it added another fast-selling 500. Management expanded the promo to the full stadium capacity and the tickets flew. “The place was capacity,” Richard King, a diehard Sox fan and Knight of Columbus who watched the game on TV, told OSV News, adding he thought having Catholicism so openly on display was “great” and would raise more interest in the Catholic faith. The game also featured its own familiar penitential rite for Sox fans, as the Reds rallied in the 10th inning to beat the White Sox 5-4, giving Cincinnati a lead in the three-game series that concludes Aug. 13. Pope Leo, a Chicago native who grew up in Dolton, Illinois, a south suburb, has been pictured sporting a White Sox baseball cap at the Vatican, and has received multiple Sox-themed presents since his election as pontiff in May 2025.
CANTON, Ohio (OSV News) – Rhoda Wise, an Ohio laywoman, wife, adoptive mother, Catholic convert and mystic, has taken a step closer to possible sainthood. The Diocese of Youngstown announced July 7 that the official “positio” on Wise has been submitted to the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. The comprehensive document examines her life of virtue and alleged miracles. The dicastery’s theological and historical commissions will investigate her heroic virtues and could recommend that the pope declare her venerable. Wise was born into a Protestant family in 1888 and endured significant hardships, including infertility, the death of one of her adopted daughters and a husband struggling with alcoholism and unemployment. She later experienced visions of Jesus and St. Thérèse of Lisieux, known as the “Little Flower,” and was associated with the stigmata and hundreds of reported healings. Among those who attributed a healing to Wise was Mother Angelica, founder of EWTN. She said Wise prayed with her during a novena to St. Thérèse, after which a painful stomach condition was healed. As Wise’s reputation for holiness spread, many visitors came to speak with her and pray outside of her house. She died in 1948, and her former home in Canton continues to be a place of pilgrimage.
VATICAN VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Leo XIV urged Catholics to gather in person for Sunday Mass and called for working conditions that allow people to attend, saying Sunday is “the foundation and kernel of the whole liturgical year.” “To sanctify Sunday, it is essential to celebrate the Eucharist,” the pope said at his Aug. 12 general audience in St. Peter’s Basilica. “In this regard, I urge everyone to seek the best possible conditions so that even those who are unable to take time off work on Sundays may take part in Holy Mass.” Continuing his series on the documents of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Leo reflected on ‘Sacrosanctum Concilium,’ the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. The liturgical year is not a static representation of past events, but an ongoing encounter with Christ, he said. At its core is Easter, when Christ rose from the dead, and for that reason, the pope said, it is “essential for the faithful to sanctify the Lord’s Day by gathering to celebrate the Eucharist.”
VATICAN CITY (OSV News) – The Vatican announced Aug. 11 that Pope Leo XIV’s message for the 2027 World Day of Peace will focus on “disarming technology” and the moral responsibility of political leaders. The theme will be “Disarming Technology, Serving Peace. Politics as Preventive Responsibility,” according to the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. “His Holiness wishes to draw attention to the moral responsibility of those called to serve in the public sphere, and he urges all people to uphold the dignity of the human person and to contribute to the building of peace, beginning by ‘disarming technology,’” the dicastery said. The message will draw on Pope Leo’s encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas” and warn about risks of entrusting military decisions to artificial intelligence. The announcement comes after Nobel laureates, inspired by the pope’s encyclical, gathered in Rome July 16 to sign a declaration urging a global treaty banning artificial intelligence from nuclear launch systems. The Jan. 1 observance, which is the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, will be the 60th World Day of Peace, a tradition begun by Pope Paul VI.
WORLD AMMAN, Jordan (OSV News) – Jordan is officially preparing for a major milestone in Christian history: the 2,000th anniversary of the Baptism of Jesus Christ at Bethany Beyond the Jordan, also known as Al-Maghtas. A $120 million development project is underway adjacent to the UNESCO World Heritage site along the Jordan River. The initiative features a new Baptism museum, a dedicated pilgrim and visitor village, and ecological walking trails designed to support environmental conservation. The sacred site marks the beginning of Christ’s public ministry and holds a unique place in modern Church history as the only location visited by four popes: St. Paul VI, St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis. Millions of Christian pilgrims are expected to journey to Jordan by 2030 for this historic commemoration of faith, unity, and Christian heritage.
PELPLIN, Poland (OSV News) – Two previously unknown sermons by St. Augustine have been identified in a 12th-century manuscript preserved at the diocesan library in Pelplin, Poland, after nearly two years of research by scholars from Germany and Austria. The sermons, which address Saul’s encounter with the Medium of Endor in the Book of Samuel, will be published in a critical edition by the end of 2026. Researchers authenticated the texts through extensive philological, linguistic, liturgical and theological analysis. The manuscript, copied at the Cistercian abbey of Bad Doberan, reached Pelplin in the Middle Ages through monastic connections. Scholars say the sermons provide fresh insight into St. Augustine’s preaching and his willingness to consider multiple faithful interpretations of difficult biblical passages rather than insisting on a single explanation. “He presents several possible interpretations, refrains from making a final judgment, and allows his listeners to draw their own conclusions,” said Paul Nebauer, a member of the Bad Doberan Monastery Association, who has spent years tracing medieval manuscripts from the former Cistercian abbey. The sermons also highlight Augustine’s emphasis on God’s mercy, suggesting Saul may have repented after hearing Samuel’s prophecy. The discovery underscores the importance of preserving historic Church libraries and manuscript collections.
LAMPEDUSA, ITALY – Pope Leo XIV traveled to the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa July 4, laying a wreath at the graves of migrants who drowned trying to reach Europe and celebrating an open-air Mass in which he called on Catholics to be Good Samaritans offering compassion to those who suffer attempting make the perilous journey by sea.
“I have not come to give speeches, but to celebrate the Eucharist, the supreme sign of Christ’s presence among us. Jesus’ gesture of breaking bread to give himself gives meaning and strength to our daily acts of assistance and sharing,” Pope Leo told the crowd before offering Mass in a field overlooking Lampedusa’s main port.
Pope Leo XIV blesses a plaque at Molo Favaloro in Lampedusa, Italy, and dedicates the pier to Pope Francis as he visits the island, a key entry point for migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea, during a pastoral trip July 4, 2026. (OSV News photo/Reuters, Remo Casilli)
“Yes, this is a place where gestures speak more than words,” he added. “But gestures, to be human, require a heart. This is why we have gathered here: to draw from Christ the love that only He can give us, so that the world of today and tomorrow may be more human, for everyone.”
Lampedusa has for years been one of the main gateways to Europe for migrants crossing the Mediterranean from Tunisia and Libya, a journey that has claimed thousands of lives.
In April, the Italian coast guard recovered 19 bodies and rescued 58 people after intercepting a distressed dinghy about 80 nautical miles south of Lampedusa, according to the Associated Press. Last August, a boat carrying nearly 100 migrants capsized in international waters near the island, killing at least 26 people.
During his homily, Pope Leo described the seas surrounding Lampedusa as “as dangerous as the one that led down from Jerusalem to Jericho” in Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan in the Gospel of Luke.
“Here you have seen not just one, but thousands of human beings fallen into the hands of robbers who have taken everything from them, beat them brutally and walked away, leaving them half-dead,” he said. “The sea has claimed the lives of others … we feel their presence, which challenges us no less than that of those who have landed in need of attention and aid.”
The pope landed on the island, which sits closer to the coast of North Africa than to mainland Italy, just before 9 a.m. His first stop was a cemetery, where he laid a floral wreath on the tombs of migrants who died at sea. The pope then visited the “Porta d’Europa,” or “Gateway to Europe,” a monument on the island, where he walked hand in hand with migrant children on the windy summer day.
About 14,000 migrants arrived on Italy’s shores in the first six months of 2026, according to the UNHR. Nearly 60% of that number arrived in Lampedusa, which is only about 8 square miles in size.
While walking along the island’s rocky coastline, the wind blew the pope’s zucchetto off his head, which his personal secretary Msgr. Edgard Rimaycuna quickly retrieved.
From there, the pope traveled to the Favaloro Pier, where he blessed a plaque dedicating the pier to the late Pope Francis and greeted a group of migrants accompanied by the Red Cross before celebrating the Mass with about 4,000 people in attendance.
“I have come to thank you, brothers and sisters of Lampedusa, for the solidarity that so many of you have shown,” the pope told the crowd at the Mass. “The miracle of compassion … is an inner revolution that brings forth within us God’s ‘heart’ and broadens our thoughts, hearts and lives.”
Among those present at the papal Mass was 24-year-old Giuseppe Capizzi, who traveled eight hours on an overnight ferry with about 70 other people from his parish of St. Francis in Cancicatti, Sicily, to attend Mass with the pope.
“I’ve been looking forward to this day for a long time, and I’m absolutely thrilled,” Capizzi told OSV News.
Father Mikolaj Dobosz from Warsaw, Poland, traveled even farther to be present at the Mass.
The Polish priest, who has devoted the past few years to welcoming Ukrainian refugee mothers and children at his parish, said that he felt this was an important moment to pray with the pope for migrants and for people who are suffering.
“We work in Poland a lot with migrants, not from Africa or (the) Middle East, but from Ukraine mainly. I work with kids from Ukraine, and I’m really happy to pray with the pope for the people who are suffering,” Father Dobosz said.
One of the few Americans in the crowd for the papal Mass on U.S. Independence Day was Father Daniel Groody, a professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame and a member of the Vatican Dicastery for Integral Human Development.
“Pope Leo, especially now on the Fourth of July, is signaling what true freedom is about. True freedom is about the capacity to love,” Father Groody told OSV News.
“I think he’s continuing the tradition of the Church that has always recognized that everybody is created in the image and likeness of God, and that he really wants to bring out the dignity that’s often diminished in today’s society.”
Pope Leo’s visit comes 13 years after Pope Francis visited Lampedusa in July 2013, drawing attention to the island by choosing it as the destination of his first trip outside Rome after his election as pope, as a gesture of solidarity with migrants smuggled from North Africa.
During his visit, Pope Francis celebrated Mass on an altar built from the wood of wrecked migrant boats and condemned what he called the “globalization of indifference” toward people risking their lives to reach Europe.
Migration has remained a concern for Pope Leo since his May 2025 election. In June, he met with migrants and local aid organizations in Spain’s Canary Islands, another major entry point for people crossing from Africa, where he called on governments to establish legal and safe pathways for migration, strengthen rescue and assistance efforts, while also speaking of the “right not to have to migrate,” or the right of people to remain in their homelands free of hunger, war, persecution and violence.
“It’s just a great expression that Pope Leo, at the beginning of his pontificate, really has decided to come here to Lampedusa, as Pope Francis did, to recognize the Church must always be on the margins,” Father Groody said.
“The Church must always be accompanying those who are struggling to live a more dignified life and to really highlight the importance of the connection between faith and justice that’s really integral to our faith.”
Salvatore Sortino, who directs the International Organization for Migration’s coordination office for the Mediterranean, said that even as overall crossing numbers have declined since Pope Francis’ visit, the proportion of migrants who die at sea or fall victim to accidents during the journey has risen.
On Lampedusa, the IOM works with Italian authorities and humanitarian partners throughout the reception and assistance process, identifying trafficking victims and other vulnerable migrants so they can be referred to appropriate authorities and transferred to suitable facilities on the Italian mainland.
“The importance of search-and-rescue operations remains a central element of protection in the Mediterranean,” Sortino told Vatican Radio. “But opening legal pathways is eventually the real answer.”
Pope Leo’s Lampedusa visit came a day after the pope delivered a virtual address to a gathering at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, which awarded him its 2026 Liberty Medal for advancing religious liberty and freedom of conscience, in which he spoke passionately about the importance of the “right to life” from the moment of conception to natural death.
In his homily in Lampedusa, the Pope Leo said that Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan “tells us that love is always rooted in freedom, and freedom lies in the decisions we make.”
He said that “before any intellectual consideration or ideological conviction, the encounter with those who lie before us, stripped of everything, calls us to be close to them.”
“There are also those who choose not to be a neighbor,” the pope commented, adding, “it is time to recognize and affirm that religious affiliation must never become a reason for discrimination, as if faith had boundaries rather than being a universal call to salvation.”
“There is no love of God without love of neighbor, and there is no neighbor if I do not draw near. To pause, to be moved, to bend down, to weep before another’s pain – as Jesus did – means entering into the dynamic of love, the very movement in which God has revealed himself,” Pope Leo said.
An image of Our Lady of Portosalvo, Italian for “Our Lady of Safe Harbor,” to whom Lampedusa’s historic Marian shrine is dedicated, stood near the altar throughout the Mass.
“St. Augustine liked to describe human life as a voyage across a stormy sea and one’s destiny as a safe and secure harbor,” Pope Leo said. “In God we all have a safe haven, and every Christian community is called to be a reflection of it on earth.”
(Courtney Mares is Vatican editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @catholicourtney.)
Pope Leo XIV stands before the blessing and inauguration of the Tower of Jesus Christ at the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia during Pope Leo XIV’s apostolic journey in Barcelona, Spain, June 10, 2026. (OSV News photo/Simone Risoluti, Vatican News)
NATION ORLANDO, Fla. (OSV News) – In preparation for the 500th anniversary of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s appearance to St. Juan Diego in five years, the dioceses of the U.S. will be participating in the Intercontinental Guadalupan Novena. Bishop Oscar Cantú of San Jose, California, chairman of the bishops’ Subcommittee on Hispanic/Latino Affairs, addressed his fellow bishops June 11 during their spring plenary, sharing that one theologian had referred to Our Lady of Guadalupe as the “Queen of Marian Apparitions.” Franciscan Father Stefano Cecchin, president of the Pontifical International Marian Academy, told the bishop during a conference in Mexico City earlier this year that other apparitions talked about the rosary, repentance or unity of the family. “But the message in Guadalupe included an entire array of theological messages that included ecclesiology, Christology, the role of the laity, the role of the hierarchy, enculturation,” Bishop Cantú recalled Father Cecchin telling him. Four years ago, the Mexican Episcopal Conference began a “Novena of Years” in anticipation of the quincentennial, and they have invited all dioceses throughout the Americas to join them for the remaining five years leading to the quincentennial.
SAN ANTONIO (OSV News) – As the NBA Finals spotlight the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks, an unexpected group has captured national attention: the Salesian Sisters of St. John Bosco in San Antonio. Dubbed the “Spurs Nuns,” the sisters have gone viral during the Spurs’ playoff run, appearing courtside, offering prayers and enthusiastically cheering for their hometown team. But Sister Bernadette Mota says the attention remains secondary to the community’s mission. Speaking with OSV News, she emphasized that the sisters’ primary calling is serving young people and those in need, not basketball fame. For the Salesian Sisters, as national media attention to them has grown, they have welcomed the spotlight, seeing it as an opportunity to highlight their ministries and the needs of the young people they serve.
VATICAN VATICAN CITY (OSV News) – Pope Leo XIV told Catholic university leaders on June 3 that they have a responsibility to instill in their students a passion for “not only intellectual truth, but the truth that is Christ himself.” Speaking with university presidents, rectors, senior administrators and faculty leaders from U.S. colleges who are currently taking part in the 2026 Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities Rome Seminar, the pope underlined that the importance of forming students in “the sound doctrine entrusted to the Church that will serve as a true and lasting foundation not only for their lives, but the future of the nation.” “Unless Catholic education instills in students a true passion for the truth – and not only intellectual truth, but the truth that is Christ himself – we can hardly expect people to be willing to put forth the effort required to recognize truth and adapt one’s life accordingly,” he said. Pope Leo also highlighted two major challenges facing Catholic education: the fragmentation of knowledge and the growing influence of artificial intelligence, pointing to lessons from his recent encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.”
VATICAN CITY (OSV News) – Pope Leo XIV on June 1 praised Venerable Fulton J. Sheen as “a light of faith, hope, and love” whose pioneering radio and television broadcasts brought the Gospel to millions of Americans, including the pope himself as a child. Speaking to members of the Pontifical Mission Societies at the Vatican, Pope Leo said it was providential that Archbishop Sheen will be beatified Sept. 24 in St. Louis during the centennial year of the mission societies he once led. “I myself am a witness of his evangelization when I was growing up,” the pope said. “Archbishop Sheen was a light of faith, hope, and love that shone through the radio and television media for decades,” Pope Leo said. “His broadcasts touched millions with the hope of the Gospel and his initiatives and efforts resulted in enormous spiritual and material aid to the Churches in areas of first evangelization,” he added. Born in Illinois in 1895, Sheen became one of the most influential Catholic communicators in U.S. history through NBC radio’s “The Catholic Hour” and the television program “Life Is Worth Living.” He also spent 16 years leading the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, one of the four Pontifical Mission Societies, raising significant support for missions worldwide.
WORLD BARCELONA, Spain (OSV News) – Pope Leo XIV blessed the newly completed Tower of Jesus Christ at Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia basilica June 10, inaugurating the crowning spire that makes the iconic church the tallest Catholic church the world and urging people to lift their gaze to Christ “who alone reveals to us the truth about God and the truth about ourselves.” Pope Leo offered Mass inside the basilica and formally inaugurated the Tower of Jesus Christ, which stands at more than 564 feet, before a crowd of thousands gathered inside and around the Sagrada Familia. “By looking at Christ, we can see the world with renewed eyes: the tower of the cross then becomes a banner of charity, for God loves us in this way, transforming an instrument of death into a sign of hope,” the pope said. Spain’s King Felipe VI welcomed the pope upon his arrival at the basilica. Before Mass, Pope Leo descended to the basilica’s crypt to pray at the tomb of Antoni Gaudí, the visionary Catalan architect who devoted 43 years of his life to the design and construction of the basilica before his death in 1926 at age 73. The papal Mass fell on the 100th anniversary of Gaudí’s death. Known as “God’s architect,” Gaudí’s cause for canonization advanced last year when Pope Francis declared him venerable in April 2025. Pope Leo paid tribute to the visionary builder in his homily, reflecting on Gaudí’s intent to narrate the mysteries of Christ’s life through stone and light.
PARIS (OSV News) – Pope Leo XIV’s upcoming visit to France is taking shape, with French Church leaders releasing new details about the Sept. 25–28 apostolic journey and expressing hopes that it will inspire the same enthusiasm seen during the pope’s recent visit to Spain. The trip will begin in Paris, where Pope Leo is scheduled to pray vespers at Notre Dame Cathedral, marking the first papal visit since the cathedral reopened following the 2019 fire. He will also visit UNESCO and join a large youth prayer vigil before celebrating an outdoor Mass in the French capital. The pope will then travel to the Marian shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, where he will celebrate Mass near the grotto where Our Lady appeared to St. Bernadette. The visit will conclude in Metz, a city linked to Franco-German reconciliation and the legacy of Robert Schuman, the founding father of the European Union. French bishops say the visit is above all a spiritual opportunity for renewal and missionary outreach. Final details of the papal itinerary are expected from the Holy See in the coming weeks.
By OSV News Pope Leo XIV concluded his first trip to Africa April 23, capping a four-country visit marked by urgent calls for peace, direct engagement with conflict zones and a backdrop of international political tension.
Traveling April 13–23 through Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea, the pope met civil and religious leaders, celebrated public Masses and encouraged Catholics to remain steadfast witnesses to the Gospel.
His visit brought him into regions scarred by violence, including Cameroon’s separatist conflict, while also addressing inequality and corruption in Angola, promoting interreligious dialogue in Algeria and a just society in Equatorial Guinea.
PLeo XIV looks on as dancers perform as he attends a meeting with young people and families at Bata Stadium in Equatorial Guinea April 22, 2026. (OSV News photo/Guglielmo Mangiapane, Reuters)
– Algeria – Pope Leo’s 11-day trip began with an unexpected controversy after U.S. President Donald Trump criticized him in a late-night April 12 post on Truth Social.
Trump called the pope “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy,” accusing him of believing “it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.” The remarks followed the pope’s criticism of the Iran war and his repeated calls for peace.
Journalists aboard the papal flight quickly pressed for a response.
“I have no fear, neither of the Trump administration nor of speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do,” Pope Leo said.
“We are not politicians,” he added. “We are not looking to make foreign policy … but I do believe in the message of the Gospel: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ is the message that the world needs to hear today.”
The remarks sparked backlash from religious and political leaders, but the pope declined to escalate tensions.
“I don’t want to get into a debate,” he said, emphasizing that his mission is to proclaim peace.
“I don’t think that the message of the Gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people are doing.”
Despite the dispute, Pope Leo struck a positive tone before landing, saying he was “very happy to visit the land of St. Augustine again.”
In Algiers, he visited the Great Mosque, calling the encounter a sign “that we can learn to respect one another, live in harmony and build a world of peace.”
Later, at the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa overlooking the Mediterranean, he honored Algeria’s Christian martyrs and highlighted interreligious dialogue in the Muslim-majority nation.
The basilica, he said, is a “sign of our desire for peace and unity,” symbolizing “a Church of living stones, where communion between Christians and Muslims takes shape.”
On April 14, the pope traveled to Annaba, near the ruins of ancient Hippo Regius, where St. Augustine spent his final years. The visit held personal significance; Pope Leo has often described himself as “a son of Augustine.”
Celebrating Mass at the Basilica of St. Augustine, he urged Christians to follow the saint’s example, “fervently seeking the truth and serving Christ with ardent faith.”
“Be heirs to this tradition, bearing witness through fraternal charity … as a hope of salvation for the world,” he said.
Addressing Algeria’s small Christian community, he praised their quiet witness.
“Your presence in this country is like incense,” he said. “A glowing grain that spreads fragrance because it gives glory to the Lord and joy and comfort to so many.”
– Cameroon – During his flight to Cameroon, Pope Leo reflected on Algeria as “a special blessing,” noting that St. Augustine’s life offers a vision of unity and respect across differences.
That message carried into Cameroon, a country scarred by separatist violence. Addressing authorities in Yaoundé, the pope acknowledged the suffering caused by conflict in the English-speaking northwest and southwest regions.
Since 2017, fighting between separatist militias and government forces has killed more than 6,500 people and displaced over 500,000.
“Lives have been lost, families displaced, children deprived of schooling and young people no longer see a future,” he said. “Behind the numbers are the faces, stories and shattered hopes of real people.”
Days before his arrival, separatist groups declared a three-day ceasefire to allow safe travel during the visit.
The highlight of the April 15–18 stop was the pope’s visit to Bamenda, in the heart of the conflict zone. Addressing Catholics at St. Joseph’s Cathedral, the pope was met with enthusiasm after declaring, “I am here to proclaim peace.”
After hearing testimony from local residents – including a chief imam who described a deadly attack on a mosque – the pope strongly condemned violence carried out in God’s name.
“But woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain,” he said, warning against dragging what is sacred “into darkness and filth.”
Celebrating Mass for 20,000 people at Bamenda’s airport, he urged hope rooted in faith.
“This is the moment to change, to transform the story of this country,” he said. “The time has come, today and not tomorrow.”
He called on Cameroonians to “restore the mosaic of unity” by embracing the country’s diversity.
On April 17, he celebrated Mass in Douala for an estimated 120,000 faithful, urging Africans to share God’s love by feeding the hungry and offering spiritual nourishment.
Though the visit brought hope, media coverage continued to frame the trip through the lens of tensions with Trump – something the pope later addressed directly.
– Angola – While the pope’s warning to those who use God to justify violence resonated with suffering Cameroonians in Bamenda, several media outlets ran headlines insinuating that Pope Leo was making an indirect dig at Trump.
En route to Angola, Pope Leo clarified that his remarks in Cameroon had been prepared weeks earlier and were not directed at the U.S. president.
“My speeches were written well before the president ever commented,” he said. “It is not in my interest to debate,” adding “there has been a certain narrative that has not been accurate in all its aspects.”
Arriving in Luanda, he shifted focus to Angola’s challenges and the Church’s role in offering hope. Home to more than 20 million Catholics, Angola has deep Christian roots but continues to struggle with inequality, corruption and the legacy of a civil war that claimed up to 800,000 lives.
Addressing government leaders, the pope urged them to prioritize the common good.
“Place the common good before every particular interest,” he said. “Never confuse your own part with the whole.”
He warned that the people have suffered when power is abused.
“They bear the scars not only of material exploitation, but also of the presumption of imposing an idea upon others,” he said.
On April 19, Pope Leo celebrated Mass for about 100,000 faithful in Kilamba. Reflecting on the Gospel story of the road to Emmaus, he cautioned against despair in societies marked by prolonged suffering.
“When one is long immersed in a history characterized by pain, one can risk losing hope and remaining paralyzed by discouragement,” he said.
Afterward, he traveled to the Sanctuary of Mama Muxima, southern Africa’s most visited Catholic shrine, where tens of thousands had gathered – many camping for days in intense heat.
Calling the shrine a place where “the heart of the Church” is alive, he noted its enduring role in Angola’s spiritual life.
“For centuries, many have prayed here in joy and sorrow,” he said. “Mama Muxima has quietly kept the heart of the Church alive and beating.”
On April 20, the pope flew east to Saurimo, near Angola’s largest diamond mine. There, he visited a nursing home housing 74 elderly residents, many rejected by their families due to superstitious beliefs.
“The care of the weakest is a sign of the quality of a nation’s social life,” he said. “The elderly must not only be assisted, but listened to, because they preserve the wisdom of a people.”
Celebrating Mass for tens of thousands, he also addressed exploitation linked to the diamond industry.
“How often the hope of many is frustrated by violence, exploited by the overbearing and defrauded by the rich,” he said.
“We were not born to become slaves,” he added. “Every form of oppression, violence and dishonesty negates the resurrection of Christ, the supreme gift of our freedom.”
– Equatorial Guinea – The final leg of Pope Leo’s 11-day journey took him to Equatorial Guinea. Upon landing on the island of Malabo, the pope was welcomed by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has ruled the oil-rich Central African nation since seizing power in a 1979 coup and is widely regarded as one of the world’s most authoritarian leaders.
Pope Leo XIV prays in front of a statue of Mary and the Christ Child as he celebrates the final Mass of his apostolic journey to Africa at Malabo Stadium in Equatorial Guinea April 23, 2026. (OSV News photo/Matteo Pernaselci, Vatican Media)
Nevertheless, in his address to the country’s civil authorities, the pope appealed for justice and ethical governance in a country long criticized for corruption and human rights abuses.
Drawing from St. Augustine’s classic work “The City of God,” Pope Leo noted that the “city of God” is characterized by love, especially for the poor, while the “earthly city … is centered upon the proud love of self, on the lust for power and worldly glory that leads to destruction.”
“Every human being can benefit from the ancient realization of living on earth as a pilgrim,” he said. “It is essential to discern the difference between that which lasts and that which passes, remaining free from the pursuit of unjust wealth and the illusion of dominion.”
Celebrating Mass April 22 at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in the eastern city of Mongomo, the second-largest Catholic Church in Africa, the pope renewed his call to the country’s leaders and citizens to prioritize the common good.
“May the Lord help you to become a society in which everyone, each according to their respective responsibilities, works ever more fully to serve the common good rather than private interests, bridging the gap between the privileged and the disadvantaged,” he said.
In his final Mass in Malabo Stadium April 23, Pope Leo offered a word of hope to the country’s Catholics, urging them to seek strength, justice and hope from the Gospel and the sacraments.
Encouraging the faithful to “joyfully proclaim” that “Christ is everything for us,” Pope Leo reminded Christians that in Jesus, “we find the fullness of life and meaning.”
“Our problems do not disappear in the Lord’s presence, but they are illuminated,” he said. “Just as every cross finds redemption in Jesus, so too the story of our lives finds its meaning in the Gospel.”
As the Mass concluded, the pope bid farewell to the African continent, saying that his visit was “an invaluable treasure of faith, hope, and charity.”
Highlighting the continent’s significance, the pope said that “today, Africa is called to contribute significantly to the holiness and missionary character of the Christian people.”
“I entrust this intention to the intercession of the Virgin Mary, to whom I commend myself wholeheartedly, as well as your families, your communities, your nation, and all the peoples of Africa,” the pope said.
Pope Leo XIV greets people as he arrives at the Pontifical Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeii near Naples, Italy, before celebrating Mass in the piazza outside May 8, 2026, on the first anniversary of his election as the first American pontiff. He visited 400 sick and disabled people inside the shrine. (OSV News photo/Mario Tomassetti, Vatican Media)
NATION WASHINGTON (OSV News) – President Donald Trump on May 5 continued his series of social media and verbal attacks on Pope Leo XIV, accusing him in a radio interview of “endangering” Catholics through his opposition to the Iran war. Trump claimed in an interview that aired May 5 with Hugh Hewitt, a conservative talk radio host, that “the pope would rather talk about the fact that it’s okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.” Trump has repeatedly claimed that the U.S.-born Pope Leo supports Iran having nuclear weapons; however, the pontiff never made any such statement and has consistently called for the rejection of nuclear weapons. The president accused the pontiff of “endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people” by opposing the war with Iran. Pope Leo has been a staunch critic of war generally, including those initiated by the U.S. and Israel against Iran on Feb. 28. In comments May 5 to journalists in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Pope Leo said that ever since his election, “I said, ‘Peace be with you,’ and the Church’s mission is to preach the Gospel, to preach peace.” He said, “If anyone wishes to criticize me for proclaiming the Gospel, let them do so with the truth. The Church has spoken out for years against all nuclear weapons, so there is no doubt about this, and I simply hope to be heard for the sake of the Word of God.”
CHICAGO (OSV News) – A lighthearted story about a customer service call from Pope Leo XIV is drawing widespread attention and offering many Catholics a glimpse of the pope’s ordinary side. Augustinian Father Tom McCarthy, the incoming provincial superior of the Midwest Augustinians, said he has been surprised by the reaction since sharing the anecdote at an April 29 gathering for fathers and sons at Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in Naperville, outside Chicago. According to Father McCarthy, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost – now Pope Leo XIV – called his Chicago bank several months after his election to update his phone number and account information. After answering multiple security questions, the pope was reportedly told the changes could not be made unless he appeared at the bank in person. Father McCarthy said Pope Leo explained that would be difficult because he was “out of town.” When he finally added, “Would it matter if I tell you I’m Pope Leo?” the customer service representative hung up on him. The issue was later resolved after a fellow Augustinian contacted the bank president, who agreed to make the change rather than risk losing “the account of the pope.”
VATICAN POMPEII, Italy (OSV News) – Pope Leo XIV marked the first anniversary of his election May 8 with a pilgrimage to the Marian Shrine of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in Pompeii, entrusting his pontificate to the Virgin Mary. Celebrating Mass before an estimated 20,000 people, the pope recalled that his election in 2025 coincided with the feast of Our Lady of Pompeii. “I therefore had to come here to place my ministry under the protection of the Blessed Virgin,” he said. The Augustinian pope’s first year included international trips, canonizations and Jubilee events. In his homily, Pope Leo spoke at length about the importance of the rosary and urged Catholics to place their hope in Christ. “Brothers and sisters, no earthly power will save the world, but only the divine power of love,” he said. Pope Leo also honored St. Bartolo Longo, the former Satanist turned saint who founded the Marian shrine and its charitable works for orphans and prisoners’ children. The pope closed with a renewed appeal for peace amid ongoing global conflicts. He was scheduled to continue his pastoral visit with a trip to the nearby city of Naples before returning to Rome by helicopter in the evening.
The site of Marian apparitions in 1877 in Gietrzwald, Poland, is seen in a 2022 photo. Two young visionaries reported the Virgin Mary appeared to them some 160 times over the course of two months. The Marian sanctuary in the Polish village of Gietrzwald is the only Vatican-recognized apparition site in the country. (OSV News photo/Paulina Guzik)
WORLD WARSAW, Poland (OSV News) – A Marian sanctuary in Gietrzwald – often called the “Polish Lourdes” – could soon draw global attention, as Pope Leo XIV has been invited to visit the site where the Virgin Mary reportedly appeared about 160 times. As the Church enters May, the Marian month, preparations are underway for the 150th anniversary of the 1877 apparitions. Polish bishops and President Karol Nawrocki have extended the papal invitation, raising hopes of a major pilgrimage moment. The apparitions, experienced by two young girls, are among the most intense in Church history – and Poland’s only Vatican-recognized Marian apparition site. Unlike Lourdes or Fatima, they included extended conversations with Mary. “That’s a unique aspect,” filmmaker Jan Sobierajski said. The message from Mary centered on prayer and conversion: “Pray the rosary every day,” Sister Anna Wojciechowska said, adding Mary’s assurance: “Do not be afraid, for I will always be with you.” The story of Gietrzwald is inseparable from the two young visionaries at its center: Barbara Samulowska and Justyna Szafrynska. Both were children – Samulowska was just 12 years old – when they reported seeing the Virgin Mary. In March, the Church recognized the heroic virtues of Sister Barbara, granting her the title venerable and advancing her sainthood cause.
DEBEL, Lebanon (OSV News) – A photo showing an Israeli soldier appearing to desecrate a statue of the Virgin Mary in Lebanon has sparked renewed outrage over anti-Christian incidents tied to the ongoing regional conflict. The image, shared online May 6, appears to show an Israel Defense Forces soldier holding a cigarette to the mouth of a Marian statue. IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani condemned the act, saying the soldier’s behavior “completely deviates from the values expected” of military personnel. He said the incident, reportedly photographed weeks earlier in the Lebanese village of Debel, is under investigation. The controversy follows another recent incident in the same area in which a soldier was photographed striking a statue of Jesus with the blunt side of an axe. Poland’s foreign ministry sharply criticized the latest episode, saying such actions offend Christians’ religious sentiments and undermine peace efforts in the Middle East. The incident also comes days after an Israeli settler was charged in the assault of a French nun near the Cenacle in Jerusalem, traditionally revered as the site of the Last Supper.
A view of Earth, partially hidden by the moon, is photographed through the Orion spacecraft window at 6:40 p.m. EDT (22:40 GMT) April 6, 2026, just four minutes before the Orion spacecraft and its crew went behind the moon and lost contact with Earth for 40 minutes before emerging on the other side during the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the moon. (OSV News photo/NASA handout via Reuters)
NATION HOUSTON (OSV News) – As the astronauts of NASA’s first crewed lunar flyby in half a century reached their closest approach to the moon, the team’s pilot reminded the Earth of Jesus Christ’s command to love both God and neighbor. “As we get close to the nearest point to the moon and farthest point from Earth, … I would like to remind you of one of the most important mysteries there on Earth, and that’s love,” said astronaut Victor Glover, pilot of the Artemis II mission, speaking to ground control April 6 from aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft Integrity. “Christ said, in response to what was the greatest command, that it was to love God with all you are,” said Glover. “And he also, being a great teacher, said the second is equal to it. And that is to love your neighbor as yourself.” The call for unity by Glover, who has spoken publicly about his Christian faith, took on an immediate urgency as the crew faced a 40-minute communication lapse with ground control April 6, when the spacecraft passed behind the moon, blocking signals. Moments before the loss of signal – which ended as scheduled, with the crew safely emerging on a homeward bound trajectory – Glover said, “As we prepare to go out of radio communication … to all of you down there on Earth and around Earth, we love you from the moon.”
VATICAN CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (OSV News) – Pope Leo XIV asked all people of goodwill to search always for peace and not violence, in a tacit rebuke of President Donald Trump’s threat that a “whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran does not make a deal by 8 p.m. EDT on April 7. Without naming Trump, Pope Leo called the threat “truly unacceptable,” addressing it as a moral question that affects the good of an entire people. He added that he wanted to remind all involved that “attacks on civilian infrastructure is against international law.” Such attacks, he added, are a sign of “the hatred, the division and the destruction that the human being is capable of.” “And we all want to work for peace, people want peace,” Pope Leo said. “I would invite the citizens of all the countries involved to contact the authorities, political leaders, congressmen, to, ask them, tell them to work for peace and to reject war.” Earlier April 7, in a post on his social media website, Truth Social, Trump said, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.” Pope Leo said that due to the Iran war, which “many people have said is an unjust war,” there is “a worldwide economic crisis, energy crisis,” and a “situation in the Middle East of great instability, which is only provoking more hatred throughout the world.” He said, “Let’s talk, let’s look for solutions in a peaceful way.”
WORLD LOURDES, France (OSV News) – After 17 years at the helm of Lourdes’ medical investigations, Italian American physician Alessandro de Franciscis retired as head of the sanctuary’s Office of Medical Observations. He will be succeeded by Italian surgeon Giada Monami, who will become the first woman to hold the post. Appointed in 2009 as the first non-French chief physician, de Franciscis oversaw the rigorous evaluation of reported healings at the Marian shrine. “Our role as doctors is solely to determine whether a person has been cured, and whether that cure is unexplained given the current state of scientific knowledge,” he said, noting that the Church alone judges miracles. Since 1883, tens of thousands of healings have been reported at Lourdes, but only a fraction undergo detailed review. Strict criteria require verified diagnosis, sudden and lasting recovery, and extensive follow-up. Of roughly 8,000 recorded cases since 1858, just 72 have been recognized as miracles. De Franciscis, the bureau’s 15th physician, said five miracles were confirmed during his tenure.
By Gina Christian (OSV News) – Catholics across the Middle East are reeling with shock and sorrow, and responding with prayer, amid joint strikes Israeli and U.S. forces launched on Iran Feb. 28, plunging the region into war.
The U.S. and Israel revealed that Iran’s supreme leader, 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is among the country’s senior leaders killed in the initial assault, which targeted Tehran and cities across Iran.
U.S. President Donald Trump described the attacks as part of “major combat operations” to overthrow Iran’s regime in order to “defend the American people.”
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz announced the Feb. 28 “preemptive strike” against Iran, with a state of emergency declared across Israel.
Iran has retaliated with counterstrikes, targeting Israel and several U.S.-interest locations across a number of Middle East nations.
Casualties on all sides – including countries caught in the crossfire – are still being assessed amid the ongoing exchanges.
Iran’s foreign minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, claimed that a girls’ school in Minab was bombed in the U.S.-Israeli air assault and showed a photo.
“Dozens of innocent children have been murdered at this site alone,” he said. “These crimes against the Iranian People will not go unanswered.”
U.N. Secretary General António Guterres begged “all parties to return immediately to the negotiating table,” warning “the alternative is a potential wider conflict with grave consequences for civilians and regional stability.”
On March 1, Pope Leo XVI spoke out in the Sunday Angelus at St. Peter’s Square telling the warring parties they had a “moral responsibility” to end the fighting and return to diplomacy before the violence led to an “irreparable abyss.”
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, warned, “We are faced with the possibility of a tragedy of immense proportions.”
Bishop Aldo Berardi, apostolic vicar of northern Arabia issued a Feb. 28 statement on Facebook, urging the faithful “to remain calm, united in prayer, and attentive to the safety of everyone.”
“Please follow carefully the instructions of civil authorities and take all necessary precautions,” said Bishop Berardi.
“Let us remain united in faith and charity, caring especially for the elderly, the sick, and the vulnerable,” said Bishop Berardi. “May Our Lady of Arabia, our mother, watch over us all.”
Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar M. Warda of Irbil, Iraq, told OSV News March 2 he “could see the whole scene” of nearby missile attacks by Iran on a U.S. military base near the Irbil airport.
“The missiles … the noise and the bombing,” he said. “You can imagine the fear and horror.”
“Prayer is the only hope we have,” he said.
In Israel, Benedictine Father Nikodemus Schnabel – abbot of Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion in the heart of Jerusalem and of Tabgha, the community’s priory on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee – sheltered with some 60 pilgrims at Tabgha, the revered site of Jesus Christ’s multiplication of the loaves and fishes.
“It was always in the air that … something could happen,” he explained.
He said their international group had been in the shelter for two hours, describing the time – which video obtained by OSV News showed the pilgrims praying and singing – as unifying amid the attacks.
“It was a good experience. We don’t know each other, but then we sing songs in different languages. We pray together,” he explained.
He said the experience was an example of Benedictine hospitality.
“Very often I say, ‘I want that our two monasteries are two islands of hope in an ocean of suffering,’” said Father Schnabel. “And this was exactly the feeling. We were also today an island of hope in an ocean of suffering.”
Jesuit Father John Paul, rector of the Tantur Ecumenical Institute – located between Bethlehem and Jerusalem – told OSV News he believed “Jerusalem is not a target area.”
The priest, whose institute is staffed by both Palestinians and Israelis, pointed to the sorrow evoked by the strikes, which follow the Israel-Hamas war and ongoing tensions between Israel and Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
“Overall, with local Palestinians” there is “a feeling of real sadness – my guess is with Israelis as well,” said Father John Paul.
Father Schnabel said the pilgrims at Tagbha were praying for all affected.
“We pray for the others … So let’s pray for the people in Iran. Let’s pray for the people in Israel. Let’s pray for the people in Palestine. Let’s pray for the people in the region who are facing this situation,” he said.
(Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Paulina Guzik, international editor of OSV News, contributed to this report.)
NATION SACRAMENTO, Calif. (OSV News) – St. Mary Parish School in Sacramento averted a possible mass shooting during an Ash Wednesday school liturgy, thanks to the quick intervention of an off-duty law enforcement officer and school parent who detained an armed former student attempting to enter the church. The suspect, 20-year-old Brian Richard Girardot Jr., now faces a federal charge of possessing a firearm within a school zone. School principal Amy Hale credits parent volunteers serving as safety monitors for preventing what could have been a tragedy. The Feb. 18 incident comes some six months after the deadly shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis during a school liturgy. A police search of Girardot’s car and home turned up several more weapons and a profanity-laced suicide note that named three relatives as the reason for his potential attack. “Thanks to the vigilance and professionalism of our parent volunteers, our children remained safely inside the church for the duration of Mass and a potential crisis was averted,” Hale said in a Feb. 18 statement posted to the school’s Facebook page. “No students came into contact with the man, and were unaware of the situation happening outside. After Mass the children were escorted back to class.”
WASHINGTON (OSV News) – A number of violent extremist groups, led by minors and young adults, are increasingly targeting kids online – in some cases, with deadly results. And as federal officials, counterterrorism experts and child advocates sound the alarm, parents need to take action amid the “growing problem,” a scholar at a Catholic university told OSV News. “There is a naive view of the dangers that are currently online,” said Mary Graw Leary, professor of law at the Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America. Leary, a former federal prosecutor and an expert on technology and victimization, said that despite ongoing efforts to protect children and youth in the digital space, “we see law enforcement issuing more and more warnings” – especially about 764, a loosely affiliated network of online communities that prey on vulnerable youth. The group coerces them to produce sexually explicit material, and then blackmailing them to harm themselves as well as others, even beloved family pets. Deemed a terrorist organization by Canada, 764 is gaining increased scrutiny by U.S. federal and state authorities. Leary said that while children and vulnerable persons have throughout history been at risk of abuse and exploitation, groups such as 764 show that “the internet provides access to large groups of victims” for predators. Leary said the internet and such deviant subgroups “provide affinity and normalization” for the worst of human behavior. “We’ve got people supporting each other’s perverse, violent proclivities in a way that we didn’t see before,” she said. “These channels are fueling this in a way that didn’t exist.”
VATICAN ROME (CNS) – Pope Leo XIV will travel to six countries over the next four months, including a 10-day tour of Africa and trips to Monaco and Spain, the Vatican announced Feb. 25. His first stop will be Monaco on March 28 – the first papal visit there in the modern era. Then, from April 13 to 23, he’ll travel to Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea, marking his first visit to Africa as pope. The Vatican said peace and care for the poor will be key themes of the trip. In Algeria, he hopes to visit sites linked to St. Augustine and to “continue the conversation of dialogue, of building bridges between the Christian world and the Muslim world.” And, in Cameroon, he’ll enter a region scarred by separatist violence. In June, Pope Leo heads to Spain, where he is expected to inaugurate the tallest tower of Barcelona’s Sagrada Família and visit the Canary Islands. With expected stops in Tenerife and Gran Canaria, the Canary Islands visit could draw attention to the migration issue. The Atlantic archipelago, situated off the northwest coast of Africa, is one of Europe’s main entry points for migrants crossing from Africa.
ROME (OSV News) – A Synod on Synodality study group has recommended the creation of a new “Pontifical Commission for Digital Culture and New Technologies” in the first of 15 synod study group reports expected in the coming weeks. The Vatican published the first two final reports from its Synod on Synodality study groups on March 3. The first report contains recommendations on navigating the Church’s presence in digital spaces. The second report focuses on guidelines for the formation of future priests and includes a call for more women to play a role in aiding the formation of seminarians for the priesthood. The report also lists 26 real world examples of “best practices” from seminaries around the world. Among those highlighted: a program in eight U.S. dioceses focused on healing wounds caused by the excessive use of technology and family breakdown, centered on an eight-day silent retreat and a small-group chastity program; and a Nigerian seminary that requires seminarians to perform all maintenance work and cleaning of their seminary building to “experience the dignity of human labor.” The General Secretariat of the Synod will publish 13 more study group final reports, according to its website.
This is a poster from “No Priests Left,” a short-film documentary series produced by “A Faith Under Siege” that documents the persecution of Catholics in Russian-occupied Ukraine. (OSV News photo/courtesy A Faith Under Siege)
WORLD WASHINGTON (OSV News) – As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine reaches the four-year mark, the recently released documentary “No Priests Left,” available on YouTube, shows the ravages of the aggression on Ukraine’s Catholic communities. In the occupied regions, Russian officials have driven out all Catholic clergy. Torture, imprisonment, and killing of clergy by Russian forces has been documented, with some 700 houses of worship damaged or destroyed. Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest Father Oleksandr Bohomaz, who appears in the film, described the repression of the Church in eastern Ukraine after Russian forces launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. “Priests and pastors were arrested. They were interrogated. They were beaten. They were held in … torture chambers,” said Father Bohomaz, who was forcibly deported from Russian-occupied Melitopol in December 2022. Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of the Archeparchy of Philadelphia, who appears in the film, told OSV News that “global, particularly American, awareness, prayer and action are crucial” to prevent further atrocities. He encouraged “all bishops and priests” to show “No Priests Left” to the faithful. Everyone who does see the film “cannot but be mobilized to prayer and action,” he said. Archbishop Gudziak stressed that it was crucial “as human beings and as Christians” for people of goodwill “to see what has happened, to realize the biblical nature of this war, and to do everything we can spiritually, socially, or politically to help the innocent victims.”
