The new group consists of 16 priests, one religious sister, and seven laypeople. The commissionʼs other six members will serve a second term. Among the new appointees are Argentine priests Fabricio Leonel Forcat and Jorge Alejandro Scampini, both professors at the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina.

Sources at the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith told EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, that the commission will be divided into two thematic subcommissions.

The first will study Church tradition, a central question in Catholic theology and in understanding how the faith has been handed down through the centuries.

According to the sources, this subcommission will seek to “clarify what Tradition with a capital T is, where it is found, how it is determined that something belongs to Tradition, and so forth.”

To accomplish this, it will draw on biblical, patristic, historical, philosophical, and even scientific contributions.

It will also examine the development of magisterial reflection on the subject.

"It will seek to thoughtfully assimilate what the various pontiffs, from Paul VI to Magnifica Humanitas, have clarified on the matter," the sources added.

Faith and culture

A second subcommission will focus on the cultural forms through which the faith is transmitted — that is, how the Churchʼs living tradition is expressed and passed on through different cultures.

“It will study that living Tradition that runs through the manifestations of faith of the People of God in their various cultural forms,” the dicastery sources said.

This work will include an in-depth examination of issues such as inculturation, popular piety, and the various forms of language through which the Christian faith is expressed and communicated in different cultural contexts.

“The topics chosen emerge from dialogue between the president of the commission [Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith] and the pope,” the sources explained.

Established by St. Paul VI in 1969 and affiliated with the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the International Theological Commission is tasked with assisting the Holy See in studying doctrinal questions of particular importance.

Its members, internationally recognized theologians from around the world, are appointed by the pope at the recommendation of the dicasteryʼs prefect.

What is Church tradition?

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 78), tradition is the living transmission of the Gospel accomplished in the Holy Spirit. It is distinct from sacred Scripture, although closely connected to it.

Through tradition, “the Church, in her doctrine, life and worship, perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes” (Dei Verbum, 8).

This tradition receives the word of God entrusted by Christ and the Holy Spirit to the apostles and hands it on in its entirety to their successors, so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, explain, and spread it through their preaching (Catechism, No. 81).

Specifically, this refers to apostolic tradition, which transmits what the apostles received from Jesus' teachings and example and what they learned through the Holy Spirit. It is distinct from particular ecclesial traditions, which can vary according to place and historical period (Catechism, No. 83).

This story was first published by EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

“I went there as an evangelizer, but I in turn was evangelized,” Barron told EWTN News in Rome on Oct. 19, speaking of her time in Africa.

“I learned so much from the people in Tanzania about how they see God, how they relate to God. And I, in turn, was able to share [my perspective],” she said.

Barron, the latest woman to be named a superior of a Vatican office, also spoke about women’s role in Church leadership and the possibility of their ordination as priests.

The Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) is a worldwide network of four missionary bodies — the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, the Society of the Holy Childhood, the Society of St. Peter the Apostle, and the Missionary Union.

An official instrument of the Holy See, PMS supports the Church’s missionary activity around the world. An annual offering taken up in Catholic churches on World Mission Sunday, observed on the third Sunday of October, supports its work. In 2026, World Mission Sunday was observed on Oct. 18.

Barron said when she was a missionary in Tanzania, she cherished the spiritual support of her parish in rural County Donegal, which would pray for her every Sunday as a missionary abroad.

“World Mission Sunday is a day when every parish, every diocese in the world thinks of all those missionaries and prays,” she explained. “Of course, there’s the material support also. But first and foremost, [what’s important is] that spiritual connection, that universality of our Church, where we’re actually connecting with each other around the world.”

As she takes up her new roles in the Vatican on Jan. 4, 2027, Barron said that same spiritual connection of the Church with missionaries remains important to her.

“The priority for me … is very much about the missionary spirit,” Barron said, underlining the Second Vatican Council’s emphasis on the missionary vocation of members of the Church.

“Everyone is called to mission by virtue of their baptism … and weʼre slowly growing into that realization,” she said.

Women’s leadership in the Church

Barron is the first woman to be president of the Pontifical Mission Societies, but she said she sees her appointment to such a position to be less about raising the profile of women, as being “for the Church … for all of us.”

Leadership roles in the institutional Church used to be limited to ordained men, members of the “hierarchical Church,” she said. “And now gradually thereʼs an awareness that, yes, there are other dimensions of the Church that also are gifted … And I think itʼs for all of us. … For me, it’s never been a man-woman thing. Itʼs [that] weʼre all in this together as witnesses to God who created us all in Godʼs own image.”

Barron said she appreciates the willingness of Pope Francis and now Pope Leo to consider a person’s overall capability for a role — outside of whether or not he is a cleric.

“Itʼs beginning to use the giftedness of all the baptized for the good of Godʼs mission,” she said.

Views on women’s ordination

Barron has served since 2018 as congregational leader of her order, the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles. She was also president of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), which represents approximately 600,000 religious sisters in 80 countries, from 2023 to 2025.

In that role, she participated in the two monthlong assemblies of the Synod on Synodality at the Vatican in October 2023 and 2024.

In 2024, during a press conference following synod discussions, Barron addressed the question of women who experience “a call to priesthood.”

“I think we have to look at the question very much from … the Spirit. ‘Is the Spirit calling women?’ Because some women do sense a call to priesthood or diaconate,” she said on Oct. 7, 2024.

St. John Paul II, in the 1994 apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, stated that all Catholics must “definitively” follow the Church’s teaching on a male-only priesthood.

Pope Francis also repeated John Paul II’s declarations on the issue during his pontificate, saying in 2013 that on the ordination of women “the Church has spoken and says, ‘No.’ … That is closed, that door.”

Speaking to EWTN News this week, Barron expressed the same views she espoused in 2024 — underlining the importance of being open to where the Holy Spirit guides the Church on the issue.

“Who am I to say whether the door is open or closed [to women priests]?” Barron said.

“Women today may hear the call to priesthood. Some of the great women saints heard that call also,” she said. “So for me, itʼs how do we within Church facilitate that discernment?”

The sister said she thinks the Church could do more to accompany women who feel called to the priesthood.

“What do we do as a Church to accompany that discernment to see if, yes, this is what the Spirit is calling the entire Church to or not at this point?” she said. Then, “in the discernment, thereʼs always a choice at the end. Itʼs either yes or no.”

Barron cited a line from the final document of the Synod on Synodality, published in October 2024, which says: “What comes from the Holy Spirit cannot be stopped.”

“So I think even though … there have been moments where we’ve been told we canʼt talk about this at all, itʼs over … it comes back and it comes back,” she said. “So I think the Spirit will guide us even if we say we canʼt talk about it now. I think at another moment itʼll probably come up again.”

“And I think the Spirit will guide us to when and if the time is right,” to consider allowing women’s ordination, she said.

Francis X. Rocca contributed to this report.

Every Tuesday, the youth group of the Rome chapter of the order and other volunteers gather near St. Peterʼs Square to provide food to the homeless. The young professionals and students ranging from 20 to 30 years old dedicate one evening a week of their busy lives to help those less fortunate.

The youth organization is simple: a group of around 10-15 young people meet at 8:30 p.m. in Piazza della Città Leonina, say a short prayer, and walk around the corner to St. Peter’s Square and Via della Conciliazione, the main thoroughfare leading to St. Peter’s Basilica, to offer “brodo” (broth), coffee, a piece of fruit, and snacks — accompanied by a smile — to those in need. The food is provided by the volunteers and distributed in and around the square, where recipients can choose what they want to receive.

The head of the youth group, Luigi Salvaggi, told EWTN News that “faith and prayer lead us to put ourselves in the background.”

It is “a moral but deeply concrete duty [to serve the poor], which is fundamental both for our lives as believers and for the good of society,” he said.

‘Faith and prayer lead us to put ourselves in the background’

The youth who take part by donating their time highlight their love for the poor —  a love that demands action.

Salvaggi said “the goal of the youth group is … to communicate the spirit of the Order [of Malta], helping people understand the profound reasons that drive our work.”

The Sovereign Order of Malta is one of the oldest institutions of Western and Christian civilization. Founded as a religious order of the Catholic Church in 1113, its origins trace back to the hospitals during the Crusades in the Holy Land. Since its foundation, it has been dedicated to serving people in need from diverse faiths: Muslim, Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and others.

According to its website, the Order of Malta is active in 130 countries, caring for people in need through medical, social, and humanitarian work. Across the world, the Order of Malta is dedicated to the preservation of human dignity and the care of all those in need, regardless of their origin or religion.

Influenced by his parents, Salvaggi learned from a young age that “our charitable work has a profound religious vocation.” He said the reason he decided “to actively commit myself to charitable work is precisely this strong bond between prayer and action.”

As Pope Leo XIV pointed out in Dilexi Te: “This is not a matter of mere human kindness but a revelation: contact with those who are lowly and powerless is a fundamental way of encountering the Lord of history. In the poor, he continues to speak to us.”

A sentiment shared by all the volunteers is the practice not only of service and duty but also of encounter with those in need. “In our own small way,” Salvaggi added, “it is enough for us to be sincere and act because we believe in what we do.”

During Thursday’s call with Putin, Leo XIV requested a humanitarian ceasefire in Oleshky, a city in Ukraine’s Kherson region that has been facing a prolonged humanitarian crisis. Moscow, however, has blamed Kyiv for the situation, according to a Kremlin statement issued after the conversation.

The humanitarian ceasefire was also discussed during Monday’s call with Zelenskyy.

According to a statement from the Holy See Press Office, “In the course of the conversation, the Holy Father recalled the grave situation in the city of Oleshky, in the Kherson region, and made reference to the request for a humanitarian ceasefire that he had presented to the President of the Russian Federation.”

The statement continued: “His Holiness expressed the hope that cooperation between both parties will allow for the delivery of food and medical aid, and for the voluntary and safe evacuation of the civilian population.”

“Finally, the Holy Father reaffirmed the commitment of the Holy See to promoting dialogue and peace,” the statement said.

The telephone conversation with the Ukrainian president marks another step in a diplomatic effort involving Kyiv, Moscow, and the Holy See that began with visits by Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the pope’s special envoy, first to Kyiv and then to Moscow.

During Zuppi’s visit to Ukraine in June, the cardinal was asked whether the pope would be willing to advocate for humanitarian assistance for residents of Kherson and Oleshky.

Leo XIV agreed, and Zuppi conveyed the pope’s willingness to intervene on the humanitarian issue during his Sept. 28–30 visit to Moscow.

While Vatican News issued a report following Zuppi’s visit to Ukraine, no similar communication was released after the cardinal’s trip to Russia.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, said the telephone conversation with Putin resulted from the pope’s desire for dialogue. “It was the Holy Father who took the initiative to plead the cause of this besieged city,” Parolin told reporters on Friday.

Russian sources, however, have noted that Putin was particularly interested in holding a second conversation with the pope following their first exchange in June 2025.

Monday’s call marked the third telephone conversation between Leo XIV and Zelenskyy since the beginning of the pontificate. The two leaders have also met three times in person.

This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

These appointments, announced by the Vatican on Monday, are members of an advisory body to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. They will not be required to relocate to Rome but periodically assist the dicastery in examining major theological questions and may publish study documents.

Members of the commission, who can number no more than 30, serve a five-year term that the pope may choose to renew.

2 theologians, both formed by Notre Dame and Boston College

Both Anatolios and Coolman are affiliated with Boston College and Notre Dame through their doctoral work or teaching careers.

Anatolios is a married Melkite Catholic priest who has served as the John A. O’Brien professor of theology at Notre Dame since 2015. He received his doctorate from Boston College in 1996 and taught theology at the college before leaving for Notre Dame.

Also an ecumenist, he has taught and published on several early Christian theologians, including Sts. Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, and Athanasius, focusing on how patristic theology engages contemporary theology.

Anatolios, in a statement to EWTN News, thanked the pope for the appointment and praised him for his Christocentric focus.

“I am honored and humbled by this appointment,” Anatolios said. “Pope Leo has already set forth, in various explicit and implicit ways, a Christocentric agenda and vision for engaging the urgent challenges and sufferings of our current world.”

“I look forward to working with the other esteemed theologians of the commission in fulfilling this agenda and entering more deeply into this vision,” he added.

Coolman, who received his doctorate in Church history from Notre Dame in 2001, has taught theology at Boston College since 2005.

“This is truly a surprising and humbling appointment, but I look forward to serving the Church in this capacity to the best of my ability in the days ahead,” Coolman said in a statement to EWTN News.

Latest Notre Dame appointments to the Vatican

The appointments of Anatolios and Coolman reflect a broader trend of Vatican appointments affiliated with Notre Dame this year.

In March, Pope Leo XIV appointed Father Daniel Gerard Groody, CSC, vice president and associate provost for undergraduate education at the University of Notre Dame, to the Vatican’s Dicastery for Integral Human Development.

In August, the pope appointed two more Notre Dame professors to that same dicastery: Father Emmanuel Katongole, a professor of theology and peace studies, and Clemens Sedmak, a professor of social ethics and director of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies. Leo also appointed Kathryn Koch, a Notre Dame graduate and member of its board of trustees.

In September, John Cavadini, a professor of patristic theology at Notre Dame, was named the winner of the 2026 Ratzinger Prize. He served on the International Theological Commission from 2009 to 2014.

“Pétros Ení — Discovering the Origins” was produced by AF Films in collaboration with Vatican Media and the Fabric of St. Peter to mark the 400th anniversary of the consecration of St. Peter’s Basilica, which took place on Nov. 18, 1626.

Taking viewers into areas rarely seen by the general public, the film journeys back in time all the way to the Roman necropolis, which has been preserved beneath St. Peter’s Basilica.

The documentary brings together documents from the Archives of the Fabric of St. Peter, contributions from Pietro Zander (one of the leading experts on the Vatican Necropolis), images and audio recordings of the popes, and archival footage from renowned epigrapher Margherita Guarducci.

Pope Leo appears in the final scenes to talk more about the figure of St. Peter and the significance of his tomb’s presence beneath the famous basilica.

Pratt, who is best known for his roles in “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Jurassic World,” speaks publicly of his Christian faith and is married to a practicing Catholic. According to Vatican News, he said the experience of making this film deeply moved him and helped him “define my faith.”

“What I would like audiences to understand about Peter after watching this documentary is that he was an imperfect man,” Pratt said. “He was a weak man. He was a human being. And I believe we are all broken, imperfect, and weak. But his strength lies in the grace of Jesus and his faith in God. With that strength, through grace and faith, you can be incredibly strong.”

He added: “It was an incredible honor to collaborate with Pope Leo and the Vatican on this project. The story of St. Peter is foundational to the Christian faith, and I am deeply grateful for the trust and access I was given to bring his legacy to the screen.”

“Pétros Ení” — which refers to a Greek inscription that means “Peter is here” and is found near the apostle’s burial grounds — is scheduled to start its theatrical debut in February 2027, during the first few weeks of Lent.

Hallow Studios will be in charge of U.S. and Canada distribution, Bosco Films will handle the distribution in Spain, and Cinépolis +Que Cine will oversee its theatrical release in Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia.

“When I first saw this film it changed my life. I think it is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. It is an honor to get to partner together on it,” Alex Jones, Hallow CEO and co-founder, said in a statement. “And the fact that it is led by one of our core Hallow partners in Chris and features such a powerful reflection from Pope Leo is just truly extraordinary.”

Watch the first trailer for “Pétros Ení — Discovering the Origins,” released Oct. 16, below.

The pontiff returned to the Vatican on Saturday, four days after surgery to remove a cancerous lung nodule. The same day, Dr. Stefano Margaritora, who operated on Pope Leo on Oct. 13 at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, cleared the pope to proceed with his apostolic journey to South America in November.

The next day, Oct. 18, Leo resumed praying the Sunday Angelus from the window of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.

“Having overcome this delicate phase, as you know, I will now gradually resume my activities, always with Godʼs help and your prayers,” the pope said in his Angelus address.

Brother surprised that pope’s South America trip will proceed

Louis Prevost, one of Pope Leo XIV’s brothers, expressed surprise in a Sunday interview with Fox News that Margaritora had cleared the pope’s trip.

“I thought maybe theyʼd postpone that,” Prevost said.

Prevost, who is receiving treatment for multiple myeloma, a form of cancer, also expressed surprise that Leo had been diagnosed with lung cancer, which had never occurred in the family.

“He was the first with the lung cancer, which came out of the blue. Nobody else had that in our family that Iʼm aware of,” Prevost said.

Prevost also shared that he and the pope had talked every day during his hospitalization.

“Every time I talked to him or texted him [during his hospitalization], he was answering,” Prevost said. “So, I know other than during the operation and in his brief, quick recovery, he was incommunicado. But since then, almost anytime I reach out to him, he is right there.”

“When we get on the phone or talk, we give each other crap, you know?” Prevost said. “We tell jokes; some are off color.”

Asked how he could give the pope crap, he replied: “You tell him he’s being stupid.”

The pontiff thanked “all those who have prayed for me in recent days” and expressed “particular gratitude to the doctors, nurses, and all the staff of the Gemelli University Hospital,” where he was treated.

“This experience has made me feel a special closeness to all those who are going through illness and experiencing poor health,” Leo said.

“Having overcome this delicate phase, as you know, I will now gradually resume my activities, always with Godʼs help and your prayers.”

The pope did not mention his planned trip to three countries in South America, scheduled for next month. The Vatican has announced no changes in that plan. The Vatican said last week that Leo had canceled all private audiences through Tuesday, Oct. 20.

Sunday was the first time the Holy Father had spoken publicly since the operation. The appearance was eagerly awaited by Catholics around the world, who had anxiously followed each new official Vatican bulletin on his medical condition in recent days.

According to the official Vatican News outlet, 15,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square despite a morning of cloudy skies and intermittent rain in Rome. They were eager to see the pope recovering from surgery and to express their affection for him the day after his release from the hospital.

At 3:30 p.m. Saturday, the pontiff left Rome’s Gemelli Hospital following his first hospitalization since the beginning of his pontificate, during which surgeons removed a malignant tumor from his right lung. Leo XIV appeared to be in good condition and walked with a steady gait, greeting several patients without showing signs of fatigue.

Smiling, the pope stopped to shake hands and speak with patients in the hospital corridors. About 15 minutes after leaving the hospital, the car carrying him entered Vatican City through the Perugino Gate.

For now, the pontiff will remain in Rome rather than travel to Castel Gandolfo, where he usually spends periods of rest.

A response that exposes hypocrisy

During his reflection before the Angelus prayer, the pontiff discussed one of Jesus’ best-known teachings: “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Leo explained the context in which Jesus originally spoke the words, amid what the evangelist Matthew describes as “a situation of hostility towards Jesus.”

“The Pharisees gather together to see how they might catch him in his words,” the pope said, quoting the Gospel account. “They decide to send some people to question him on a controversial matter: ‘Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?’”

According to Leo XIV, “The Teacher’s response is astute, for it allows him to avoid the trap and exposes the hypocrisy of those who seek to put him to the test.”

The Gospel recounts how Jesus asks to see the coin used to pay the tax, a denarius. After receiving it, he delivers the familiar teaching: “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

“In Jesus, we contemplate a God who is not afraid of history but comes instead to dwell within it. His kingdom does not abolish human roles and responsibilities,” the pontiff explained.

He emphasized, however, that Godʼs kingdom “does, however, call us to live without compromise, free from selfish ambitions and unjust motives, seeking above all the kingdom of God and his righteousness.”

Being truthful and free to do good

In this context, Leo XIV drew attention to the fact that Jesus’ questioners praised him despite their hostile intentions.

“In this regard, it is striking that those same people praise Jesus, even though their intentions are far from good,” he observed.

The pope recalled the words with which they addressed Jesus: “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality.”

Drawing on this passage, Leo XIV invited the faithful to reflect on what it means to live an authentic Christian life.

“Dear friends, this is precisely what it means to ‘give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s’: to be truthful, free from servile fear or hypocrisy, free to do good,” he said.

“Let us pray to the Lord to help us live in this way. And let us entrust ourselves to the intercession of the Virgin Mary.”

This story was updated at 6:20 a.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026, to include the pope’s remarks following the Angelus.

This story was first published by EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

The rosary was held on the grounds of the Pontifical Urban University on Oct. 17, the eve of this year’s World Mission Sunday on Oct. 18.

Led by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, dean of the College of Cardinals and grand chancellor of the university, the rosary was recited in 13 languages across five mysteries representing Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe, and Oceania.

The occasion also marked the 75th anniversary of the rosary event’s establishment by Blessed Fulton J. Sheen, who was U.S. national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies from 1950 to 1966.

Sister Mary Teresa Barron, recently appointed president of the Pontifical Mission Societies, was not present during the rosary.

Several participants in the rosary explained how the faithful can support the Church’s missionaries beyond financial contributions.

Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu, who serves as a secretary at the Dicastery for Evangelization, urged a focus on the word of God.

“I am always a bit wary about monetizing mission,” Nwachukwu said to EWTN News. “So, I do not want to begin with money; I want to begin with the word, because mission is all about bringing the word of the Lord to the ends of the earth.”

At the same time, Nwachukwu indicated that supporting missionaries also means providing “the means to bring the Gospel to various places.” That support, he said, involves money.

“[Today] is also an occasion to tell people: Please, be generous to missionaries,” Nwachukwu said.

Monsignor Thomas George Schluep, who also serves at the Dicastery for Evangelization, cited Pope Leo XIV’s message for World Mission Sunday as a reminder that unity in Christ precedes material support.

“Pope Leo, in his message for this 100th anniversary of World Mission Sunday, reminds us that we first must be one in Christ,” Schluep told EWTN News. “Our baptism calls us to be missionaries: to share that love with our families, our friends, our co-workers.”

Memories of missionaries, Pope Leo’s return from the hospital

Participants also shared personal anecdotes about missionaries and their impact on their faith journey.

Schluep shared his memory of Father Gerard Hammond, an American Maryknoll missionary priest known for his decades of humanitarian work in North and South Korea.

“I met him in Korea, where he had been serving since 1960 when he was ordained and sent on mission. He was celebrated by thousands of people in South Korea for bringing the faith to them over the course of 65 years,” Schluep said.

“In North Korea he could not speak of Christ, but his “apostolate of presence” and love for those suffering from tuberculosis was itself evangelization. He taught me a lot about the importance of being present to people, exactly where they are at in their lives, no matter the personal cost.”

Around the time the rosary was taking place, Pope Leo XIV returned to the Vatican after being hospitalized for surgery Oct. 13 at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital. Nwachukwu expressed happiness at the pope’s return and said he hoped that “the Lord will keep him quite long among us.”

“We are all praying for him. We love the pope, and we love what he is doing.”

The contributions of Americans

Schluep, an American from Pittsburgh, also noted the significant contributions of Americans, such Sheen, to missionary work through the Pontifical Mission Societies.

“The American contribution to the missions historically has been enormous,” Schluep noted.

“It was a great joy to see Fulton Sheen beatified, who did so much to evangelize the United States, but also who traveled personally to so many missions around the world and did so much to raise funds for those missions.”

Schluep said he hoped the example of Pope Leo XIV, the first U.S.-born pope, would encourage renewed American support.

“The fact that the Holy Father understands American culture and missionary life in Peru can help him in his particular guidance for us, but now he is the pope of the entire world, and he calls us to think also of the entire world and not just our country, our families, and especially ourselves,” Schluep said.

In an interview with Vatican News following the Holy Father’s Oct. 17 discharge from the Gemelli Hospital, Dr. Stefano Margaritora, who operated on Pope Leo on Oct. 13, said he expects Leo will be fully recovered and in shape to travel within the next “10 days or so.”

Calling him “an ideal patient,” Margaritora said that upon his discharge from the hospital Leo “was in entirely satisfactory clinical condition” with completely normal blood test results and heart function.

“The lung’s re-expansion after surgery is proceeding according to the usual timetable,” and “overall, his condition is good,” Margaritora added.

The surgeon indicated that the Holy Father’s lung adenocarcinoma was discovered during routine abdominal examinations, which underscores the importance of regular preventive checkups.

“In the Holy Father’s case, he had no respiratory symptoms and felt perfectly well,” the doctor noted.

The pope has “put his heart and soul” into his recovery, Margaritora said. “His determination to recover quickly has been effective in every respect” and “truly commendable,” he pointed out.

Illustrating the point, the doctor noted that on the second day after the operation, the medical staff found him arranging the chairs in the chapel himself. “Holy Father, we can do that,” Margaritora recounted. But Leo replied: “It doesn’t matter. I can do it, so I will.”

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The 71-year-old pope had been admitted last Tuesday and underwent surgery just hours later to remove the lower lobe of his right lung. The procedure, which lasted about an hour and a half, was performed using a video-assisted technique, while an intraoperative histological examination confirmed a diagnosis of pulmonary adenocarcinoma.

His discharge from the hospital was announced by the pontiff’s attending physician, Dr. Luigi Carbone, and the surgeon who performed the operation, Professor Stefano Margaritora.

As he left, the pope greeted the faithful gathered along the barriers. Daniele Franco, chairman of the board of the Gemelli University Hospital Foundation, was also there to welcome the pontiff upon his exit.

Before getting into the car, Leo greeted several members of the faithful who presented him with gifts. The pope did not stay in the papal suite on the hospitalʼs 10th floor, as it was undergoing renovation, but rather in adjacent rooms on the same floor.

Yesterday, the first postoperative images of the pope were released, showing Leo XIV presiding over Mass in a room at the Policlinico hospital that had been specially set up for the celebration. Beside the pope was his personal secretary, Monsignor Edgard Iván Rimaycuna Inga.

Around noon on Saturday, Oct. 17, the pope also celebrated Mass before leaving the Roman hospital, the Holy See Press Office reported.

In the days following the surgery, Leo XIV has resumed his work, meeting at the hospital on various occasions with Archbishop Paolo Rudelli, substitute for general affairs of the Secretariat of State; Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, dean of the College of Cardinals; and Cardinal Baldassare Reina, vicar general of His Holiness for the Diocese of Rome.

On Friday, the press office also reported on a telephone conversation between the pope and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Sunday morning at noon, the pope will appear at the window of his study in the Apostolic Palace for the customary recitation of the Angelus. It was only last Sunday that Leo XIV himself, at the conclusion of the Angelus prayer, announced the news of his imminent hospitalization and the associated surgery.

This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

According to the Fides report, the total number of priests rose from 406,996 to 407,421, representing an increase of 425 compared with the previous year. The Vatican agency noted that the data comes from the Statistical Yearbook of the Church and is current as of Dec. 31, 2024.

Africa recorded the largest increase with 1,676 more priests, followed by Asia with 1,065. The Americas also reversed the previous yearʼs downward trend, adding 199 priests.

In contrast, Europe lost 2,483 priests over the course of the year, while Oceania recorded a decrease of 32.

The overall increase is attributed to the growth in the number of diocesan priests, which reached 279,238, an increase of 496 compared with the previous count. Meanwhile, the number of religious order priests fell by 71, standing at 128,183.

Despite the increase in the number of priests, the number of Catholics per priest also rose, reaching 3,491 — an increase of 38 compared with the previous year. The average number of inhabitants per priest also climbed, reaching 16,104.

At 1.4 billion, Catholics are 18% of global population

Fides statistics further indicated that the global Catholic population reached 1,422,144,000 as of June 30, 2024, an increase of 16.69 million over the previous year. Based on these figures, Catholics represent 17.8% of the worldʼs population.

Africa saw the largest growth in the number of Catholics, with an increase of 7.58 million, followed by the Americas, with a rise of nearly 7 million. Asia added 968,000, Europe 911,000, and Oceania 239,000.

Number of seminarians worldwide decreases

While the number of priests is rising, the number of seminarians is decreasing. The number of major seminarians stood at 103,604 worldwide, a decrease of 2,891 from the previous year.

Africa was the only continent to record growth, with 786 additional seminarians, whereas Asia saw a decline of 2,733, Europe 701, the Americas 227, and Oceania 16.

The number of minor seminarians also decreased, falling to 94,041, which is 980 fewer than in the previous count. Africa reversed the previous yearʼs trend, adding 132, while Oceania recorded an increase of 20. In contrast, Europe lost 872, Asia 182, and the Americas 78.

Catholic Church’s educational and charitable work

Fides also compiles figures on the Churchʼs educational work around the world. Globally, the Church administers 75,448 kindergartens with over 7.4 million pupils; 103,666 primary schools attended by more than 36.3 million students; and 51,810 secondary schools with over 20.3 million students.

Joining them are nearly 2.7 million students in higher education centers and more than 4 million in university institutions affiliated with the Catholic Church.

In its healthcare and social assistance work, the Church manages 101,110 facilities worldwide. These include 5,397 hospitals, 13,646 dispensaries, 16,263 homes for the elderly, the chronically ill, and people with disabilities, 8,138 orphanages, 10,624 marriage counseling centers, and 3,194 social education or rehabilitation centers.

This story was first published by EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

The pope’s personal physician Dr. Luigi Carbone and surgeon Dr. Stefano Margaritora said Oct. 17 that “based on the blood tests and chest X-ray performed this morning, and after evaluating his clinical condition, the Holy Father has been deemed fit to be discharged.”

The Vatican also announced that Leo would celebrate Mass at the hospital on Saturday before being discharged and lead his Angelus at the Vatican on Sunday.

Leo announced during his Sunday Angelus on Oct. 11 that he would undergo surgery to remove a lung nodule. Doctors confirmed a diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma after his surgery at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Oct. 13.

Since his surgery and hospitalization, doctors and the Vatican have confirmed that the pontiff’s postoperative recovery is “progressing normally.” On Friday, the Vatican released photos of the pope celebrating Mass at the hospital, the first photos since his hospitalization.

According to a Holy See statement, the pope expressed concern about Oleshky in the Kherson region, a city in the Russian-occupied portion of Ukraine where a severe humanitarian crisis is underway and where, according to the United Nations, 1,700 people are trapped in what have become ghost towns because of ongoing attacks. The pope sought a truce to enable the arrival of food and medical aid and the voluntary and safe evacuation of the population, and he reaffirmed the Holy Seeʼs commitment to dialogue and peace.

The conversation with the Russian president is the pope’s first reported direct communication with a head of state since undergoing lung cancer surgery Oct. 13. The statement issued by the Holy See Press Office was brief. It said: "Today, His Holiness Pope Leo XIV spoke by telephone with His Excellency Mr Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation.”

Besides calling for a ceasefire, the statement concluded by reaffirming “the Holy See’s commitment to promoting dialogue and peace.”

A Kremlin statement was more detailed. It said that, while expressing his sincere wishes for the popeʼs health and speedy recovery following his recent surgery, Putin emphasized “the importance of Russian-Vatican cooperation in promoting shared spiritual and moral values and protecting Christians and Christian holy sites in various regions of the world.” Both sides reaffirmed their interest in continuing dialogue between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.

The Kremlin also said that, during an exchange of views on Ukraine, “Vladimir Putin thanked the pope for his willingness to contribute to resolving the conflict and for his ongoing humanitarian efforts.”

In addition, the Kremlin stated that, in response to the popeʼs concern for civilians in the Russian-held city of Oleshky in the Kherson region, Putin provided what it described as a detailed explanation of the responsibility of the Kyiv government for the areaʼs humanitarian situation. It added that Putin supported the Vaticanʼs intention to help create the conditions necessary to ensure public safety and organize the delivery of essential supplies. According to the Kremlin, cooperation toward that goal was agreed upon.

The Kremlin described the conversation as “constructive and conducted in a spirit of mutual respect.”

Pope initiated call, Parolin says

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, told reporters it was Pope Leo who initiated the Oct. 16 phone call with Putin, according to the SIR news agency of the Italian bishops' conference. Parolin said he hopes that, in response to the popeʼs request, Putin will agree to implement the humanitarian measures. He added that Putinʼs willingness to take the call could be a positive sign.

The call followed visits in August to Russia by Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher and later by Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the popeʼs envoy for humanitarian affairs.

A source familiar with the organization of the Oct. 16 meeting said the conversation had been planned during Zuppiʼs trip to Russia at the end of September. This date coincided with the popeʼs hospital stay.

Leo XIV had previously spoken with Putin by telephone on June 4, 2025. According to Vatican News, that conversation focused on matters of mutual interest, with particular attention given to the war in Ukraine and prospects for peace. During the call, the pope urged Russia to make “a gesture fostering peace” and stressed “the importance of dialogue in establishing positive contacts between the parties and seeking solutions to the conflict.”

Putin visited the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican three times for meetings with Pope Francis.

This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

This story was updated at 4:10 p.m. ET on Oct. 16, 2026, to include comments from the Vatican secretary of state.

“It is a terrible offense against human dignity to prevent bread from reaching any person or to destroy the means by which it is produced,” the pontiff wrote in a message published for World Food Day.

Still recovering from surgery at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, Leo addressed his message to Qu Dongyu, director general of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). World Food Day, celebrated every year on Oct. 16 to highlight world hunger, also marks the organization’s founding in 1945.

‘World hunger remains due to lack of charity’

In his message, Leo lamented the challenge of world hunger and questioned how some can speak of technological innovation while food shortages persist.

“Hunger cannot be considered a statistical anomaly, for it is caused mainly by a lack of political will and collective charity,” Leo said.

“Today, people speak of innovation with great confidence,” Leo said. “However, this term is often used only in reference to the development of devices and algorithms, or the optimization of performance merely for the sake of financial gain.”

A new global food order

According to FAO’s annual report for 2025, an estimated 645 million people worldwide experienced hunger, mainly distributed across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. According to the same report, 35.5 million children were severely malnourished, and war remained the “primary driver of acute food insecurity and malnutrition.”

Leo also said that food shortages should never be “used as a weapon of war” and encouraged the United Nations to work toward a “new global food order” in which technology ensures food for all.

“Regular access to safe, adequate and sufficient food, in keeping with the dignity of every person, is a basic human right,” the pope wrote.

“A new global food order is essential — one in which technological innovation is unconditionally subordinated to respect for God-given human dignity and the universal common good.”

The pope’s remarks on world hunger follow his June visit to the headquarters of the World Food Programme in Rome, where he emphasized the need to focus on humanity to combat hunger worldwide.

In two photographs released by the Vatican, the first since his hospitalization, the Holy Father can be seen standing and wearing the green liturgical vestments used during this period of the liturgical year.

In one image, he appears with his hands joined in prayer; the other was taken during the consecration and shows the popeʼs secretary at his right side.

Vatican sources said that the pope distributed Communion during the Eucharistic celebration. In previous days, the Vatican had specified that the pontiff had only concelebrated Mass with his collaborators.

Members of the hospital’s medical and nursing staff, and gendarmes responsible for the pope’s security, were also present at the pope’s Mass on Friday.

“In his homily, the pope thanked all healthcare personnel — doctors, nurses and nursing assistants — for the work they carry out every day caring for the sick and for those in fragile conditions, and in particular for everything they have done and continue to do for him,” the statement released by the Holy See Press Office said.

In the medical bulletin released Friday, Oct. 16, the Vatican also confirmed that the pontiffʼs clinical condition continues to improve.

The statement published by the Holy See and prepared by the popeʼs personal physician, Luigi Carbone, and the surgeon who performed the operation, Stefano Margaritora, notes that the Holy Father “underwent blood tests and a chest X-ray, the results of which confirmed the steady improvement in his overall condition.”

Respiratory physiotherapy sessions also continued. The doctors further specified that his “favorable postoperative recovery allows him to carry out his normal daily activities with complete autonomy.”

Vatican sources also indicated that the pope will publicly lead the Angelus on Sunday, although it has not yet been determined whether it will be from the hospital or the Vatican.

All appointments on Leo XIV’s schedule through Oct. 20 have been canceled, though the Vatican has not ruled out the possibility that he could be discharged before then. For now, doctors have not changed the timeline for his release from the hospital, which is expected to be next Tuesday.

Letters from children hospitalized at Gemelli

On Friday, the pope also received several letters in his hospital room from young patients receiving treatment in the pediatric oncology department of the same hospital. In them, the children share their personal experiences and assure him of their prayers.

Among the letter writers was Angelo, a 7-year-old boy who has been hospitalized for 36 days and who found in writing a way to reach out to the pontiff.

The child, from Taurisano in the Italian province of Lecce, explained in his letter that he is also hospitalized on the 10th floor and has undergone head surgery. “My mom and I pray for you every night,” he wrote, before wishing him “a speedy recovery.” He included a drawing featuring a large yellow sun and several birds flying over a meadow.

‘Faith moves mountains’

Maria Graziela, the mother of Eleonora, also wanted to send a message of hope. Her daughter, who was treated in the hospitalʼs neurosurgery and oncology units, has now recovered.

“Faith moves mountains,” her mother wrote, expressing her conviction that “God has heard our prayers.” In her letter she added: “Pope Leo, our prayers are for you. May God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the guardian angels always protect you.”

‘It is difficult to depend on others’

The letter from Giorgia, an 18-year-old young woman, explained how illness transformed her way of understanding life. Passionate about travel and accustomed to relying on herself, she acknowledged that “it has been difficult to go from depending solely on my own strength to having to depend on others.”

However, the experience had also allowed her to discover the value of the care she has received, the love of her family and friends, and a new vocation. “If there is one thing I want to do in life, it is save other peopleʼs lives. I want to be like the doctors who are saving mine,” she said.

She concluded her letter by promising that “I pray to God that we may both be healed, and I ask you to pray with me,” and expressing her confidence that “better days will come.” The young woman ended by assuring Pope Leo that “we are united in prayer, for ourselves and for all those who are going through the same situation.”

This story was first published by EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Parolin, as reported by Ansa.it, spoke on the sidelines of the launch of the Iraqi Embassy to the Holy See in Rome, marking 60 years of diplomatic relations between the two sovereign states.

The pontiff was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Tuesday for surgery to remove a lung nodule. Since his surgery, his doctors and the Vatican have confirmed that his postoperative recovery “is progressing normally.”

Parolin, who praised the pope for his “great serenity” on Monday, told reporters on Thursday that he imagined Leo’s Latin America trip would proceed but that it now depends on his doctors.

“[The trip] will depend on how things go,” Parolin said. “Let us wait until he leaves the hospital and, based on what the doctors tell us, see whether he will be able to travel. We must wait.”

Parolin also said that while predictions for the future of Leo’s pontificate were premature, his condition upon returning may require him to adjust his papacy.

“Based on all these elements, the pope will also adjust his pontificate if it becomes necessary to do so,” Parolin said.

“We need to see when he returns, in what condition he returns, and what the doctors will say.”

The pope’s postoperative recovery is expected to last one week, allowing him to resume audiences on Oct. 20.

“As you know, I have been unable to be among you during these days,” Pope Leo wrote in the Oct. 14 message to clergy members and Catholics. “I thank you warmly for your prayers and for the work you have done together. Your sharing of experiences and attentive listening are indeed a gift to the whole Church.”

The pope’s message was read at the conclusion of the conference “10 Years After Amoris Laetitia: Proclaiming the Gospel with Families Today,” a meeting examining the legacy of the apostolic exhortation and how to strengthen family participation in the Churchʼs mission.

“Entrusting each of you to the protection of the Holy Family of Nazareth, I ask you please to pray for me, as I pray for you,” he wrote.

The pope encouraged participants to bring the meetingʼs insights back to their bishops' conferences and dioceses, continue proclaiming the Gospel with families, and ensure families remain active participants in the life and mission of local Churches.

Leo’s homily delivered

At the closing Mass for the conference, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, dean of the College of Cardinals, delivered a homily prepared by Pope Leo XIV saying: “The world has no future without strong families open to the gift of children and attentive to their education and growth.”

Families and faith communities should accompany people facing hardship with compassion rather than condemnation, the pope’s homily said.

“Those who are more vulnerable, or who are experiencing difficult circumstances and moments of crisis, will also find support and encouragement, surrounded by affection and shielded from judgment and prejudice. Let us remember that ‘as wounded as the family may be, it can always grow beginning with love,’” Tagle said, delivering the homily prepared by Pope Leo.

The Acton Institute, a faith-based think tank promoting free markets and limited government, held the “Communicating Truth in an Age of AI” convivium: a conversation among representatives of Catholic media and secular academia about the challenges AI poses to the communications industry.

Andreas Thonhauser, vice president and chief global officer at EWTN, and Jenn Lindsay, a communications professor at Rome’s John Cabot University and CEO of So Fare Films, led the discussion.

Among those present was Yurash Andrii Vasyliovych, the Ukrainian ambassador to the Holy See.

Truth in the modern media era

Among the topics considered at the conference was the challenge of distinguishing truthful news from false information. In his opening remarks, Thonhauser, who joined EWTN in 2021, described the challenge as “cutting through the noise.”

“In the age of AI, communication is truth, which is not so easy when we think about it, about how much noise is already out there, and AI is a wonderful instrument to create even more of that kind of communication and to add to the noise,” Thonhauser said.

“AI might become a challenge for us, who are also the audience who are the recipients of communication,” Thonhauser added.

Lindsay said truth-telling is central to storytelling in film, even amid AI manipulation.

“Truth already has an odd status in documentary storytelling,” Lindsay said in her opening remarks. “In fact, it is the definition of documentary storytelling: the creative treatment of actuality.”

“We are already dealing with many layers of strategy and manipulation. AI intensifies the questioning of that, but it is nothing new.”

Optimism or pessimism in AI-driven future?

Another concern discussed at the conference was whether one ought to be optimistic or pessimistic in the age of AI.

Lindsay, who has taught at John Cabot since 2018, said she thought the world was “in a safer place” as individuals increasingly choose not to use AI to avoid effort, particularly students.

“I feel that we are in a safer place,” Lindsay said. “A year ago, I was super pessimistic because, as a university professor, the rate of cheating and plagiarism [with AI] was sky-high. I am happy to report that it is going down; it seems like its popularity is cooling with the younger ones.”

Thonhauser, in response, acknowledged AI’s many benefits for global development while noting that the human experience will still matter, citing Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas.

“AI is remarkable, and it is helping us greatly also in our work,” Thonhauser said. “I do agree with Pope Leo that it is not neutral, but what is ever neutral? It is up to us to regulate this so that it is helpful for the human being as such and for the future.”

“I really see that it will be important that the human element remains in communication and helps to guide us through what is relevant, what is meaningful, and ultimately also what is true.”

The bulletin, prepared by the pontiff’s personal physician, Luigi Carbone, and the surgeon who performed the operation, Stefano Margaritora, highlights that Leo XIV’s postoperative progress on the second day after surgery has been positive.

“The chest X-ray showed a good recovery of the operated lung,” the statement said.

The Vatican also reported that the Holy Father underwent routine follow-up examinations, including blood tests and a chest X-ray, “the results of which were normal.”

“He independently carried out his daily activities. The physical therapy session included full motor activity,” the medical note added.

Overall, “the postoperative course continues to progress regularly,” the physicians explained.

Earlier Thursday, the Vatican had already reported that Leo XIV spent a “good” second night at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, where he remains hospitalized after undergoing surgery Tuesday to remove a pulmonary adenocarcinoma.

Also on Thursday, like the previous evening, the pontiff was able to spend a few minutes in the temporary chapel set up at the hospital to concelebrate Mass with one of his collaborators, according to Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, speaking to journalists.

Bruni also said that the pope has continued working during his recovery. In fact, he received Archbishop Paolo Rudelli, deputy for general affairs of the Secretariat of State, this afternoon, according to Vatican sources.

As a sign that the Vatican’s ordinary activity continues despite the pontiff’s recovery, the Holy See on Thursday announced two new bishop appointments, signed by Leo XIV from the hospital.

They include the appointment of Italian priest Father Paolo Andreolli as bishop of Ponta de Pedras, Brazil, and Father Ignazio Ding Zuyao, “whom the Holy Father appointed bishop of Haimen (Jiangsu Province, China) on Aug. 24, 2026, after approving his candidacy within the framework of the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China.”

The Vatican is expected to soon announce whether the pope will preside over the public Angelus prayer from Gemelli Hospital on Sunday, as some of his predecessors did during periods of hospitalization.

Regarding the international trip the pontiff is scheduled to make to Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru from Nov. 6–17, Bruni referred to comments Leo XIV made during last Sunday’s Angelus address, when he announced that he would undergo surgery for a lung nodule.

The pope made explicit reference to his upcoming trip to Peru while greeting members of the Brotherhood of the Lord of Miracles present in St. Peter’s Square.

“Thank you for your prayers for the pastoral visit that I will make to Peru,” he said.

At that time, it was not yet publicly known that the pontiff was suffering from pulmonary adenocarcinoma. The diagnosis was confirmed following surgery, during which the lower right lobe of his lung was removed.

Prayers for the pope

Following the call to pray for the pope’s recovery, the Vicariate of Rome has confirmed that this Sunday a special intention for the Holy Father will be offered in all the parishes of the Diocese of Rome during Mass. The initiative reflects the communion of the Church of Rome with its bishop and the spiritual support being offered to Leo XIV during this period of convalescence.

This atmosphere of prayer will be accompanied by another gesture of closeness later tonight. At 8 p.m. Rome time, Cardinal Angelo Comastri will lead a rosary invoking Mary Undoer of Knots at the Pontifical Parish of St. Anne in the Vatican.

This story was first published by EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Zuyao is the ninth Chinese bishop consecrated under Pope Leo XIV following procedures established by the provisional agreement between China and the Holy See governing bishop appointments. The pontiff appointed Zuyao bishop of Haimen on Aug. 24, having approved his candidacy under the agreement.

Zuyao’s consecration, announced by the Vatican on Thursday, also highlights a pattern in which the Vatican does not announce episcopal consecrations in China until the day they occur. He is also the 19th bishop to be selected under the Vatican-China deal.

However, some of the Chinese bishops Leo appointed were not immediately recognized by the Chinese government. Two of the bishops had already been consecrated and were part of the so-called underground Church — the Catholic community not officially recognized by Chinese authorities. The communist government later recognized both, thereby regularizing their ecclesiastical and civil status.

A decade of pastoral work

Zuyao was born in August 1986 in Qidong, Jiangsu Province, and was ordained to the priesthood on Oct. 27, 2011.

From 2001-2004, he studied at the Jiangsu Section of the Sheshan Seminary in Shanghai. He later attended Beijing Theological Seminary to study theology and philosophy and earned a bachelor’s degree.

After Zuyao’s ordination in 2011, he served as pastor in Haimenzhen, Linjiang, and Caojiazhen, all in the Diocese of Haimen. From 2023, he served as pastor of Qingnian Donglu Parish in Nantong until his appointment as a bishop.

The meeting marked the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia and discussion focused on the legacy of that controversial document.

As organizers announced on Monday, since Leo XIV could not “listen” to the assembly of bishops and lay experts as he had originally planned, he said he would review the documentation and conclusions of the meeting following his convalescence. What happens next will then be up to him.

“I will read the fruits of your work and discussions, and offer my reflections in due course,” the pope said in a brief message to participants read on Oct. 14.

The Oct. 7–14 meeting — whose participants were mainly the presidents of the world’s bishops’ conferences — was organized in the same style as recent Synod on Synodality assemblies. Bishops and experts introduced the themes with speeches on the topic at hand, and small-group discussions alternated with plenary sessions.

While the themes for each session and keynotes have been made available online, plenary sessions and open interventions were held behind closed doors, and participants — abiding by Pope Leo’s call for “discretion and confidentiality” in his opening address — have declined to elaborate on the opinions expressed on various issues, especially the most controversial: the reception of holy Communion by divorced and civilly remarried Catholics.

The dominant discussion about Amoris Laetitia in the immediate aftermath of its publication and in the decade that followed was about the document’s “chapter 8,” about “irregular” relationships, and a footnote interpreted by some as giving access to Communion to divorced and civilly remarried people after a process of pastoral accompaniment and discernment.

Debate over Amoris Laetitia intensified after the bishops of the Buenos Aires Pastoral Region interpreted the document as allowing, following a process of accompanied pastoral discernment, access to the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist for some Catholics who are divorced and civilly remarried.

Chapter 8 and ‘irregular situations‘

This topic was among those discussed at the meeting on Oct. 12, which focused on accompanying families in the difficulties of life.

Cardinal Kevin Farrell, whose Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life co-organized the gathering with the synod office, opened discussions on Oct. 12 urging participants to truthfully share their lived experience “avoiding any spirit of controversy.”

Jesuit Father Giacomo Costa, a consulter of the synod office and a meeting organizer, did not go into detail about what was said during a briefing for journalists Oct. 14 but described discussing “sensitive issues on which there are still differing perspectives and assessments.”

The environment, he added, was “constructive” and people clearly desired to listen before judging: “The approach is not one of opposition,” Costa said. “Of course, there are also different emphases and sensibilities.”

He said participants shared stories about how people were able to reexamine their lives in the light of the Gospel and take steps toward conversion.

This led, the priest continued, “to an emphasis on the importance of formation — of forming consciences — and of … continuing to deepen this relationship between pastoral experience and theological reflection.”

Julie Hanlon Rubio, a professor of Christian Social Ethics at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley, California, made one of the most explicit references to the controversial passages of Amoris Laetitia in her speech the same day.

“Though the document is best remembered for the controversial Chapter 8,” she said, “it also offered a positive vision of marriage designed to correct the abstraction and negativity that many still associate with Church teaching and a praxis of accompaniment that has yet to be fully realized.”

Quoting from the exhortation, paragraphs 296 and 297, she said: “Francis told us, ‘No one can be condemned forever! It is not the logic of the Gospel!’ and this logic should be extended to ‘everyone.’”

In a footnote to this part, she wrote: “Today this surely includes divorced persons, single parent families, blended families, cohabiting couples, and persons identifying as LGBTQ.”

Continuity in Church teaching

But Pope Leo himself appeared to have had a different agenda for discussions — choosing to move beyond the idea of listening and welcoming to focus more on how the Church can concretely help young people in today’s society enter into the sacrament in the first place.

He also pointed out continuity in the Church’s teaching on marriage and the family from St. Paul VI to Pope Francis.

The first day of the meeting both the Holy Father and Dominican Sister Helen Alford, who was entrusted with the assembly’s opening meditation, argued that Amoris Laetitia was consistent with the Church teaching and practice that came before it.

Like an earlier document on the family by St. John Paul II, Amoris Laetitia was an innovative response to the challenge of following the moral law “when social situations are turbulent and changing quickly,” Alford said.

Pope Leo’s opening remarks also underlined the reality of marriage today and that “a growing distance has emerged between the ways in which sex and intimacy are lived and the Christian vision of marriage.”

“Young people continue to long for love, fidelity, and belonging, yet many find it difficult to embrace how such a vision of love can take shape in their own lives or to believe that a lifelong commitment is the condition for reaching what they desire,” the pontiff continued.

Though he could not celebrate the meeting’s closing Mass on Oct. 14 as planned, Pope Leo’s prepared homily was read by substitute celebrant Cardinal Luis Tagle.

The pope’s homily recalled the love of the Lord, saying that “is the love that Amoris Laetitia invites us to make the foundation of our families” and inviting Catholics to teach young people preparing for marriage about the importance of the virtues, especially chastity.

“Marriage preparation programs conscientiously developed for this purpose in parishes and pastoral areas are commendable. Yet such courses alone are insufficient, for they must be preceded and supported by an education in love that accompanies a person’s growth from childhood,” he said.

“The values of openness to life and respect for life, from conception to natural death, are also rooted in this charity, which is fundamental to our existence and to our life together as human beings,” the pontiff added, recalling that “Pope Francis stressed that ‘no union that is temporary or closed to the transmission of life can ensure the future of society’ (Amoris Laetitia, 52).”

“The world has no future without strong families open to the gift of children and attentive to their education and growth.”

The medical report released by the Vatican was signed by his personal physician, Dr. Luigi Carbone, and Dr. Stefano Margaritora, the surgeon who led the operation.

The bulletin said the Holy Father underwent scheduled “blood tests and a chest X-ray” Wednesday morning.

“The results confirm a normal postoperative course: The values are within the expected range for the type of surgery performed,” the doctors said.

The bulletin also highlighted progress in his physical recovery.

“The Holy Father underwent respiratory physiotherapy and began walking around his room,” the doctors reported, referring to an activity considered essential to recovery after lung surgery.

The physicians also said the pontiff had resumed his normal diet.

“Recovery is proceeding as expected,” they said in the bulletin released by the Holy See, easing concerns that arose late Tuesday when the Vatican confirmed the cancer diagnosis.

A histological examination confirmed that the pope had pulmonary adenocarcinoma.

The first encouraging news came early Wednesday morning, following an anxious night. In a brief statement, the Vatican confirmed that the pope had spent a “peaceful night” and was continuing to recover from anesthesia in his room on the 10th floor of Romeʼs Gemelli Hospital.

A few hours later came confirmation that, despite his hospitalization, Leo remains able to carry out his responsibilities governing the Church.

At noon, the Holy See announced that the pontiff had accepted the resignation of Archbishop Bernard Bober from the pastoral governance of the Archdiocese of Košice, Slovakia, and appointed Auxiliary Bishop Marek Forgáč of the same archdiocese as his successor.

He also appointed Bishop Wellington de Queiroz Vieira as the new metropolitan archbishop of Cuiabá, Brazil, transferring him from the Diocese of Cristalândia.

The popeʼs clinical progress will determine the course of his treatment over the coming weeks. Doctors continue to monitor his postoperative recovery closely before making decisions about the next stages of treatment and his schedule in the coming days.

For now, all his scheduled engagements remain canceled through next Tuesday.

Among the upcoming events awaiting confirmation is the Angelus on Sunday, Oct. 18. If his medical condition permits, the pope could lead the prayer from the hospital, a gesture that would be seen as an encouraging sign of his recovery.

Members of the popeʼs closest entourage, known in Vatican terminology as the papal household, remain at his side. They include his two personal secretaries, Peruvian Father Edgard Iván Rimaycuna Inga and Italian Father Marco Billeri.

A blessing from heaven

Meanwhile, Gemelli Hospital continues to receive expressions of affection and solidarity from faithful who have come from around the world.

Among them is Gina, a native of Lima, Peru, who was praying before the imposing statue of St. John Paul II in the courtyard of the Rome hospital.

For the past two years, she has cared for her husband, who has Parkinsonʼs disease. He is currently hospitalized at Gemelli after developing an infection.

For Gina, being in the same hospital as the pope is more than a coincidence. She considers it a “blessing from heaven” that helps her endure her suffering.

“It gives me strength to think that my husband is suffering as a patient just a few yards from the Holy Father. I know his suffering is not in vain because we offer it to God,” she told EWTN News.

For Gina, the circumstances have strengthened her faith and hope.

“That has given me more strength and more hope. Knowing that the pope is here helps me keep going,” she said.

She happened to return from Peru, where she had traveled to visit family, on Oct. 11, after leaving Rome on Aug. 28. Her return coincided with the news of the pontiffʼs impending surgery.

“My mother called me the next day and asked how my husband was doing. When I told her that the pope was in the same hospital, she burst into tears: ‘Blessed be God, blessed be God,’” Gina recalled.

She also described the excitement building in Peru ahead of Leoʼs planned visit.

“Choirs, folk groups, and many local residents are organizing to celebrate his arrival. Heʼs going to see the children he baptized, the children who have grown up and are now adults. People adore him,” she said.

Gina said she cannot imagine the pontiff having to cancel his planned trip to Latin America.

For now, however, the messages coming from the Vatican have been encouraging.

Holy See Press Office director Matteo Bruni emphasized that the tumor was “at an early stage” and that the nodule removed was “circumscribed and localized.”

The statement released after the operation used the term “radicality” to indicate that doctors believe the lesion was completely removed.

Specialists also believe that the loss of a lung lobe should not have significant consequences for the daily life of a patient in Leoʼs physical condition.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Oct. 14, Bruni referred to the popeʼs “desire” to proceed with his trip scheduled for early November.

“We have heard the popeʼs words about the trip, and therefore his intention, his desire, and also the fact that ... he wants to go,” the Vatican spokesman said.

This story was first published by EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

From punch to penance

According to an account by Father Lawrence G. Lovasik, SVD, published in EWTN’s library, Peregrine was born in 1260 in Forlì, Italy. He was the only son of a wealthy family, and as a young man he sided with the city’s anti-papal faction.

When St. Philip Benizi of the Servants of Mary (the Servites) came to Forlì to preach peace on behalf of Pope Martin IV, he was met with insults, rocks, and clubs. Peregrine struck him in the face. Philip answered by offering the other cheek and praying for the young man.

Moved, Peregrine ran after the departing friar. He begged forgiveness on his knees and promised to change his life. According to the traditional account, the Virgin Mary later appeared to him in Forlì’s cathedral and told him: “Go to Siena. There you will find the devout men who call themselves my servants. Join them.”

Peregrine received the Servite habit in 1292. It was said that for 30 years he never sat down. In 1322, his superiors sent him to found a Servite house in his hometown of Forlì, where he became known as a preacher and a readily available confessor.

The night before the amputation

Later in life, Peregrine developed a painful cancerous wound on his foot. Lovasik writes that its “gangrenous stench” was so foul that others kept away. Surgeons decided to amputate.

Peregrine spent the night before the operation in prayer before an image of the crucified Christ and fell asleep there. In a dream, Christ seemed to reach down from the cross and touch his diseased foot. When he awoke, he was healed. The account says the doctors could no longer find any trace of the disease.

Peregrine died in 1345 at about 80 years of age. He was beatified in 1609, and Pope Benedict XIII canonized him in 1726. His feast is celebrated May 1. His body rests in the Basilica of San Pellegrino Laziosi in Forlì. Devotion to him has spread far beyond Italy, including to the National Shrine of St. Peregrine at Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica in Chicago, the city where Leo was born.

Lovasik’s booklet includes several prayers, and EWTN offers a novena to St. Peregrine.

“The Holy Father underwent thoracic surgery as scheduled. To ensure the radical removal of the tumor, the lower lobe of the right lung was removed using a video-assisted technique. An intraoperative histological examination confirmed the diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma, as suspected from preoperative tests,” the Holy See Press Office said in a statement concerning the operation performed Tuesday afternoon at Romeʼs Agostino Gemelli University Hospital.

“The Holy Father was in the operating room for approximately three hours, while the procedure itself lasted about 90 minutes,” the statement continued. “The operation was successful, and there were no complications. After surgery, the pope regained consciousness normally and, following a brief period of observation, returned to his room on the 10th floor.”

The statement was prepared by Dr. Luigi Carbone, the popeʼs personal physician, and Professor Stefano Margaritora, who performed the operation.

In addition to Margaritora, the surgical team included Professor Elisa Meacci and Drs. Maria Teresa Congedo and Leonardo Petracca Ciaravella. The anesthesiology team consisted of Professor Massimo Antonelli and Drs. Giovanni Punzo and Giuseppe Bello.

Further postoperative tests, including a histological examination, are expected in the coming days. Doctors have not discussed chemotherapy or similar treatments at this stage.

Leo XIV is being accompanied at the hospital by his two secretaries, the religious sisters who assist him, and his personal physician.

Further updates on the pontiffʼs health could be released Wednesday.

This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

An extended hospital stay for one of the most important leaders in the world may raise the question: Who exactly runs the Vatican wh

en a pope is hospitalized or unable to perform his normal duties?

Matthew Bunson, vice president and editorial director of EWTN News and the author of numerous books on Catholicism including “Encyclopedia of Catholic History,” told EWTN News in 2025 after then-Pope Francis was hospitalized that in such cases, “the machinery of state tends to keep functioning.”

Andreas Widmer, an associate professor of practice in entrepreneurship at The Catholic University of America’s Busch School of Business and former Swiss Guard at the Vatican, likewise said much of the Vatican’s administration continues even when the pope is sick.

“Things keep going. He is kept apprised by [Vatican officials],” said Widmer, who served as a Swiss Guard under Pope John Paul II in the 1980s and who regularly returns to the Vatican to work with the guard.

Pope Leo is expected to be hospitalized for just a week. But in some cases, popes have addressed the possible need for resignations in the event of serious health crises.

Pope Paul VI in 1965 wrote a letter to the dean of the College of Cardinals stating that, in the event of his incapacitation while in office, he should be considered resigned. (Pope Paul ultimately lived another 13 years and died while in office.)

In 2022, Pope Francis revealed that in the first year of his pontificate he had signed his resignation and given it to then-Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, to be invoked if he was medically incapacitated and unable to carry out his duties. (“I don’t know who Cardinal Bertone gave it to, but I gave it to him when he was secretary of state,” the late pope joked at the time.)

In his biography published in 2024, Francis said he considered the Petrine ministry to be “for life” and saw no conditions for resignation, barring serious physical impairment.

Widmer argued that popes are not given to leaving such matters unresolved one way or the other. “A pope is not going to leave this to chance. They take their responsibility very seriously,” he said.

The Vatican said on Oct. 13 that the pope’s surgery was completed successfully. Yet in the event of a pope’s death, Bunson said, much of the immediate administration of the Vatican falls to the camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church — one of the few officials of the Vatican who does not immediately lose his job upon a pope’s death.

The camerlengo’s roles include certifying the pope’s death and overseeing the functions of the interregnum.

“It’s his job to certify the death of the reigning pope and to make sure the wishes of the pope are respected,” Bunson explained. “Then the cardinals are summoned to Rome,” after which a new pope is eventually elected.

Also retaining his title in the event of a pope’s death is the head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, the dicastery for which the chief role is the forgiveness of sins.

That official “always keeps his job,” Bunson said, “because there must always be the opportunity for God’s loving mercy.”

A second key official is the almoner of his holiness, the cardinal in charge of papal charity and care for the poor. It was Pope Francis who decreed that the almoner should keep his post, a reflection of Francis’ concern for the forgotten and most vulnerable.

This story was first published on Feb. 26, 2025, and was updated on Oct. 13, 2026.

St. Bernardine of Siena, known as “the Apostle of Italy” for his efforts to revive the countryʼs Catholic faith in the 1400s, was known to have overcome a weak voice and severe respiratory/throat issues early in his life, while also caring for plague victims and the hospitalized.

Born to upper-class parents in the Italian republic of Siena during 1380, Bernardine Albizeschi soon suffered misfortune when he lost his mother at the age of 3 and his father four years later. His aunt Diana cared for him afterward, teaching him to seek consolation and security by trusting in God.

Even at a young age, Bernardine demonstrated a remarkable concern for the poor as an outgrowth of his love for God. Having become accustomed to fasting, he preferred at times to go without any food in order to help someone in greater need. From the ages of 11 to 17 he focused on his studies, developing the eloquence and dedication that would serve his future work as an evangelist.

Before becoming a preacher, however, Bernardine spent several years ministering to the sick and dying. He enrolled in a religious association that served at a hospital in the town of Scala and applied himself to this work from 1397 to 1400.

During that time, a severe plague broke out in Siena, causing a crisis that would eventually lead to the young man taking charge of the entire hospital. Inside its walls, up to 20 people were dying each day from an illness that also killed many of the hospital workers. The staff was decimated and new victims were coming in constantly.

Bernardine persuaded 12 young men to help him continue the work of the hospital, which he took over for a period of four months. Although the plague did not infect him, the exhausting work left him weak and he contracted a different sickness that kept him in bed for four months.

After recovering, he spent over a year caring for his aunt Bartholomaea before her death. Then the 22-year-old Bernardine moved to a small house outside the city, where he began to discern Godʼs will for his future through prayer and fasting.

He eventually chose to join the Franciscans of the Strict Observance in 1403, embracing an austere life focused on poverty and humility. During this time, while praying before a crucifix, Bernardine heard Christ say to him: “My son, behold me hanging upon a cross. If you love me, or desire to imitate me, be also fastened naked to your cross and follow me. Thus you will assuredly find me.”

After Bernardine was ordained a priest, his superiors commissioned him to preach as a missionary to the Italians who were falling away from their Catholic faith. The Dominican evangelist St. Vincent Ferrer, just before leaving Italy, preached a sermon in which he predicted that one of his listeners would continue his work among the Italians — a prophecy Bernardine heard in person and went on to fulfill.

Bernardineʼs personal devotion to God, which amazed even the strict Franciscans, made his preaching extremely effective. He moved his hearers to abandon their vices, turn back to God, and make peace with one another. He promoted devotion to the name of Jesus as a simple and effective means of recalling Godʼs love at all times.

When other priests consulted him for advice, Bernardine gave them a simple rule: “In all your actions, seek in the first place the kingdom of God and his glory. Direct all you do purely to his honor. Persevere in brotherly charity, and practice first all that you desire to teach others.”

“By this means,” he said, “the Holy Spirit will be your master and will give you such wisdom and such a tongue that no adversary will be able to stand against you.”

Bernardineʼs own life attested to this source of strength in the face of trials. He patiently suffered an accusation of heresy — which Pope Martin V judged to be false — and refused to abandon his bold preaching when a nobleman threatened him with death.

But Bernardine was also widely admired throughout Italy, and he was offered the office of a bishop on three occasions. Each time, however, he turned down the position, choosing to fulfill the prediction of St. Vincent Ferrer through his missionary work. Bernardine preached throughout most of Italy several times over, and even managed to reconcile members of its warring political factions.

Later in his life, Bernardine served for five years as the vicar general for his Franciscan order and revived the practice of its strict rule of life. Then in 1444, 40 years after he first entered religious life, Bernardine became sick while traveling. He continued to preach, but soon lost his strength and his voice.

He died on May 20, 1444, and only six years later, in 1450, Pope Nicholas V canonized him a saint.

This story was first published on May 15, 2011, and was updated Oct. 13, 2026.

Carbone was among the doctors who welcomed Leo XIV when he arrived at the hospital in an armored Ford sedan.

Carbone has professional ties to the Agostino Gemelli University Hospital, one of Italy’s leading medical centers and the hospital traditionally used to treat popes. His career has been particularly associated with emergency medicine and emergency services, fields in which rapid diagnosis and the ability to intervene immediately are essential.

He currently serves as director of the Vatican City State’s Directorate of Health and Hygiene, the agency responsible for providing medical care not only to the pope but also to employees and residents of the tiny state.

The directorate operates medical facilities and diagnostic equipment that allow for regular checkups, specialized examinations, and the coordination of medical care when necessary.

A role rooted in centuries of tradition

Carbone’s position recalls the historic role of the “archiatra pontificio,” or personal physician to the pope. Although the traditional title is no longer formally used, the Italian doctor performs similar functions as one of the principal officials responsible for the pontiff’s health, coordinating the work of the physicians, nurses, and specialists who care for him.

His duties include ensuring continuity of treatment, arranging medical procedures when necessary, and coordinating healthcare resources according to the pope’s needs.

It is a particularly delicate responsibility because it requires balancing clinical care with the demands of the Petrine ministry.

Accompanying the pope on apostolic journeys

The papal physician’s responsibilities extend beyond the Vatican. Carbone regularly accompanies Leo XIV on international apostolic journeys, working with nursing staff to oversee medical preparations for each trip.

Before each journey, factors such as travel time, the intensity of the schedule, and the availability of medical facilities in the countries being visited are assessed.

The papal aircraft also carries medical equipment that allows health checks to be performed and provides for a response to possible emergencies until the pontiff can be transferred to a specialized hospital.

Such planning requires constant coordination with local healthcare systems, as well as considerable discretion, to ensure that any medical emergency can be addressed without disrupting the pope’s pastoral and institutional commitments.

The connection to Gemelli Hospital

Carbone’s presence takes on particular significance at Gemelli Hospital, which has served for decades as the principal medical center for popes.

The relationship between the Rome hospital and the papacy was strengthened especially during the pontificate of St. John Paul II, who was hospitalized there on several occasions.

When a pope is hospitalized, his regular medical team works alongside Gemelli specialists to ensure continuity of care and facilitate the exchange of clinical information.

This arrangement reflects the evolution of papal healthcare, which has shifted from relying primarily on physicians attached to the Apostolic Palace to drawing on the resources of major, highly specialized hospitals.

This story was first published by EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

The surprise announcement Sunday, Oct. 11, stunned hundreds of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Angelus prayer.

By speaking directly about his health, the pontiff departed from a long-standing Vatican practice of limiting information about papal illnesses and medical treatment.

Traditionally, the health of popes has been shrouded in considerable secrecy. For decades, illnesses and hospitalizations were disclosed only in limited terms and sometimes incompletely.

In 1992, for example, St. John Paul II announced that he would enter the hospital for medical tests but did not explain why. Only three days later did the Vatican disclose that he had undergone surgery to remove a benign tumor from his colon.

Under Pope Francis, a greater degree of openness began to emerge. During his various hospitalizations, the Holy See issued medical bulletins about his condition and, in some cases, arranged briefings by the doctors treating him.

Even troubling details of the Argentine pontiff’s hospitalizations were disclosed, including respiratory crises during his final illness before his death in 2025.

Nevertheless, the information continued to come primarily through official Vatican channels rather than directly from the pope himself.

In earlier decades, secrecy surrounding papal health had contributed to controversies such as the death of John Paul I in 1978. The limited information released after his death, just 33 days after his election, fueled years of questions and speculation about the circumstances.

Against that historical background, Leo XIV’s decision to announce his own upcoming surgery represents a significant departure from tradition.

Senior cardinals interviewed by EWTN News described the disclosure as a shift in how the Vatican communicates about the health of the pope.

Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect emeritus of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, linked the decision to the spirit of fraternity promoted in Pope Francis’ encyclical Fratelli Tutti.

“In the spirit of Fratelli Tutti, it is a sign of fraternity to share your illness with those who care for you,” Czerny said.

“And to say that the whole world cares for Pope Leo is not an exaggeration; it’s a fact. So I see his openness or transparency as an expression of both humility and truth.”

Czerny emphasized that the concern and prayers prompted by the announcement reflected the communion of the Church and the wider human family with the successor of Peter.

“Now, every feeling of concern, every hopeful prayer of whatever kind, is the human family expressing communion with an esteemed leader and father who we know loves us,” he said.

“May God bless Pope Leo and bring him back to us, healthy as ever!”

Czerny is scheduled to receive the first Pope Leo XIV Sustainability Medal on Tuesday afternoon at Borgo Laudato Si’, located on the grounds of the papal villas at Castel Gandolfo. The pope had been expected to attend the ceremony, but his participation was canceled.

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, said hearing the news directly from the pope had provoked a mixture of painful surprise, fear, and fraternal affection, along with a sense of closeness and honesty.

“Hearing the news directly from the pope caused me painful surprise, fear, fraternal affection, but at the same time a sense of intimacy, closeness, openness without masks, of great honesty toward us,” Fernández said.

“It is impossible not to feel personally involved when you hear the pope tell his truth in that way, acknowledge the frailty of his flesh and at the same time his serene confidence,” he added.

Fernández said that, paradoxically, the troubling news had deepened the sense of communion within the Church.

“Mysteriously, bad news thus becomes a deeply felt expression of ecclesial communion and affection for that father who unites us,” he said. “I experienced a powerful sense of how valuable it is for the Church to have that father.”

Cardinal Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, archbishop of Tokyo and president of Caritas Internationalis, offered a firsthand account of the pope’s condition after meeting with him Monday, Oct. 12.

The audience, Kikuchi explained, had been arranged long in advance as part of the annual meeting in which the president and secretary-general of Caritas Internationalis report on the organization’s activities to the pope.

“Holy Father was as usual and calm with no sign of sickness,” Kikuchi told EWTN News.

“He assured me that this is a minor operation and he feels nothing wrong with his body, and he said he had decided to go for the operation as soon as possible not to change his plan of [the] Latin America pastoral visit.”

The pope is scheduled to travel to South America Nov. 6–17.

Kikuchi said he also joked with Leo XIV about the wisdom of publicly announcing the surgery.

“I told him jokingly that his decision to make it public was prudent to prevent speculation of [the] public who would be next pope. For this he smiled,” the cardinal recalled.

“But I really believe so that he made really a prudent decision to avoid any speculation or gossiping,” Kikuchi added.

The cardinal’s account suggests that Leo XIV’s decision to disclose his medical condition was intended not only to inform the faithful but also to forestall rumors about the future of the papacy.

For the cardinals who spoke to EWTN News, the announcement marks a notable change in Vatican communications, with the pope choosing to speak openly about his vulnerability while expressing confidence about his treatment and his plans to continue his ministry.

This story was first published by EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

The film “Lead Kindly Light: The Story of Saint John Henry Newman” premiered at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome on Oct. 9, marking the first celebration of his feast day since Pope Leo XIV declared him the 38th doctor of the Church in 2025.

The movie, produced by Lumine Studios in Brazil, features places significant to Newman’s life, including his childhood home in London, the University of Oxford, and Rome, where he studied for the Catholic priesthood after converting from Anglicanism.

The movie is available in English on the Catholic media website Formed.

‘A story of conversion and great personal sacrifice’

Father Hermann Geissler, FSO, director of the International Centre of Newman Friends in Rome, described the movie as a demonstration of faith and the significant personal sacrifices that would mark Newman’s life.

“It is a documentary film where we visit all of the places where Newman lived, doing interviews,” Geissler told EWTN News, “and where we are telling the story of Newman and reading parts of Newmanʼs letters. It is a wonderful film that shows the great faith of Newman, the sacrifice that his conversion cost, and the coherence of his life and thought.”

A doctor and patron for Catholic education

Pope Francis canonized Newman along with four others in 2019, after Pope Benedict XVI beatified him in Birmingham, England, in 2010.

In 2025, Pope Leo XIV declared Newman a doctor of the Church and a co-patron of Catholic education alongside St. Thomas Aquinas. In his homily, the pontiff cited Newman’s famous hymn “Lead, Kindly Light” to highlight the need for education to inspire hope.

“The task of education is precisely to offer this Kindly Light to those who might otherwise remain imprisoned by the particularly insidious shadows of pessimism and fear,” Leo said. “For this reason, I would like to say to you: Let us disarm the false reasons for resignation and powerlessness, and let us share the great reasons for hope in today’s world.”

In February, the Vatican established Newman’s feast day as Oct. 9 in the General Roman Calendar.

Acutis’ journey to sainthood has unfolded alongside the lives of the last four popes, each of whom has marked a different chapter in the teenager’s short life and legacy.

Carlo went on pilgrimage to see John Paul II, offered up his suffering from cancer for Benedict XVI, and was later beatified during the pontificate of Pope Francis. Finally, Pope Leo XIV canonized him, along with Pier Giorgio Frassati, on Sept. 7, 2025, making him the first millennial to ever be made a saint.

A childhood inspired by John Paul II

Born in 1991 during the pontificate of John Paul II, Carlo Acutis grew up at a time when the Polish pontiff was inspiring millions with his travels and teaching. It was Carlo’s Polish nanny, herself devoted to the pope, who helped cultivate Carlo’s early faith.

In October 2000, the Acutis family traveled to Rome to attend a landmark moment of the Great Jubilee: Pope John Paul II’s act of entrusting the new millennium to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Standing in St. Peter’s Square, the then-9-year-old Carlo witnessed a crowd united in prayer, gathered beneath Bernini’s colonnade and in front of a statue of Our Lady of Fátima.

“The Church today, through the voice of the successor of Peter, in union with so many pastors assembled here from every corner of the world, seeks refuge in your motherly protection and trustingly begs your intercession as she faces the challenges which lie hidden in the future,” John Paul II prayed to Our Lady.

Offering his suffering for Benedict XVI

When white smoke emerged from the Sistine Chapel in April 2005, 13-year-old Carlo Acutis watched closely as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI. According to his mother, Carlo was “fascinated” by Benedict XVI.

The following year, Carlo was diagnosed with leukemia. Before he died of cancer in October 2006, he offered up his suffering for Benedict XVI, saying: “I offer all the suffering I will have to endure to the Lord for the pope and for the Church, in order not to go through purgatory and to go straight to heaven.”

Beatification under Pope Francis

Pope Francis declared Carlo Acutis’ heroic virtue in 2018 and recognized the two miracles attributed to Carlo’s intercession that made possible his beatification and canonization.

Francis frequently cited Carlo as a model for youth in the digital age. In Christus Vivit, his apostolic exhortation to young people, Francis wrote that Carlo’s life stood as a witness against the temptation of “self-absorption, isolation, and empty pleasure” in the digital world.

“His witness indicates to today’s young people that true happiness is found by putting God in first place and serving him in our brothers and sisters, especially the least,” Pope Francis said the day after Carlo’s beatification in 2020.

Pope Francis had been scheduled to preside over Carlo’s canonization on April 27, 2025, during a jubilee event expected to draw 80,000 teenagers to Rome. Instead, with Francis’ death on April 21, 2025, Carlo’s canonization awaited a new date until a new pope was elected.

Carlo Acutis and Pope Leo XIV: A witness to young people

Carlo Acutis’ canonization on Sept. 7, 2025, was one of the first major acts of Leo XIV following his election to the papacy in May 2025. In his homily at the canonization, the pontiff hailed Acutis and Frassati as models for youth seeking holiness.

“Dear friends, Sts. Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis are an invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to squander our lives, but to direct them upwards and make them masterpieces,” Leo said.

Their example, the pope explained, is the “type of witness we are called to follow, in order to enjoy life to the full and meet the Lord in the feast of heaven.”

Ishmael Adibuah contributed to this report.

This story was first published on April 27, 2025. It was updated on Oct. 12, 2026.

The conference, “A Healing Presence: The Church’s Call to Mental Health Ministry,” held in Rome from Oct. 9–10, responded to Pope Leo XIV’s October prayer intention for mental health. Organized by the International Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers, the conference also coincided with World Mental Health Day on Oct. 10.

The conference was also under the patronage of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Among those present were Bishop Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, Bishop John Dolan of Phoenix, and Deacon Ed Shoener, a founding member of the International Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers.

‘The Church is a safe space, not a replacement for psychologists’

Among the themes discussed at the conference was the Church as a place where individuals can seek spiritual remedies for their mental health challenges.

Shoener clarified that the Church and those dedicated to mental health ministry complement medical professionals rather than replace them.

“Our goal is that someday, when someone faces a mental health challenge, the first place they think to turn is the Catholic Church as a safe space, Shoener told EWTN News. “We are not psychologists or psychiatrists providing medical care; rather, we provide the spiritual and social support that is so often missing due to stigma, discrimination, and fear.”

“We work closely with professionals because faith and science must go together,” he added.

Shoener also shared the personal tragedy of his daughter’s 2016 suicide, which prompted him to help establish the International Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers in hopes that others with similar challenges would be heard.

“Katie had bipolar disorder, lived with it for 10 years, went to college, had friends, and did not fit the stereotypes people often have about mental illness. Sadly, she died by suicide in 2016,” Shoener said.

“Her obituary went viral because we clearly stated that she had a mental illness, was not defined by it, and was a beautiful child of God.”

Speaking about the stigmatization of mental health in the wider culture and the Church, he also cited several reasons for it.

“In the U.S., we often avoid talking about it because we fear it makes us look weak or inadequate, potentially jeopardizing our success or employment. What brought me into this ministry was that overwhelming response from people longing for the Church to comfort them rather than push them aside,” Shoener said.

An epidemic hidden by happiness in Sweden

One participant, Samuelle Falk, discussed opportunities for the Church to minister to those with mental health challenges, particularly in her native Sweden, which is noted for its high Happiness Index.

“To the outside world, Sweden often appears as a model of security and comfort; we even rank fourth in the 2025 World Happiness Report,” Falk said. “Yet, beneath this surface of prosperity, we are facing a profound crisis of youth mental health, driven by a silent epidemic of loneliness.”

“Yet, I believe God has been using this inner suffering to lead a generation back to himself. The Catholic Church in Sweden is experiencing a clear influx of new members. The Church does not stand on the sidelines of the youth mental health crisis; she stands right in the middle of it,” Falk added.

Falk, a psychiatrist in training, began working in mental health ministry with the Diocese of Stockholm. Reflecting on her experience, she spoke of the unique offering the Church can give young people seeking help.

“The Church offers what medicine cannot: a home for the soul, a framework of meaning, and a sense of true belonging,” Falk told EWTN News. “Where youth are increasingly isolated behind digital screens, the Church offers a physical and present community. We proclaim the one truth the secular world cannot offer: Your worth does not lie in your achievements but in being unconditionally loved by God. We remind them that they are never walking alone.”

The appointment also includes the positions of vicar general for Vatican City and president of the Fabric of St. Peter, the body responsible for the conservation of the basilica.

Viola thus leaves the Secretariat of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, a position he had held since 2021. To succeed him, the pope appointed Bishop Aurelio García Macías, until now undersecretary of the same organization.

Born on Oct. 4, 1965, in Biella, in northern Italy, Viola belongs to the Order of Friars Minor. He was ordained a priest in 1993 and holds a doctorate in Sacred Liturgy from the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of Sant’Anselmo in Rome.

Before arriving at the Roman Curia, he carried out much of his ministry in Assisi. Between 1999 and 2005 he was custodian of the convent and the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels at the Porziuncola. He also headed Caritas of Assisi between 2008 and 2014.

Pope Francis appointed him bishop of Tortona in 2014. Seven years later, in May 2021, he called him to Rome to join the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments as secretary.

New secretary of the Dicastery for Divine Worship

The second appointment falls to García, a Spanish priest who has worked in the dicastery since 2015 and who until now served as undersecretary.

Born on March 28, 1965, in Pollos, in the Spanish province of Valladolid, he was ordained a priest in 1992 for that archdiocese. He studied philosophy at the University of Salamanca and obtained a doctorate in liturgy from the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of Sant’Anselmo in Rome.

Before joining the Vatican, he was diocesan delegate for liturgy and rector of the seminary of Valladolid.

In the Roman Curia he began as an official of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. In 2016 he became head of office and, in May 2021, Pope Francis appointed him undersecretary. He received episcopal ordination on July 11 of that year.

As secretary, García will work alongside the prefect of the dicastery, Cardinal Arthur Roche, on matters related to the liturgy and the discipline of the sacraments. Among the responsibilities of the body are the promotion and regulation of the liturgy of the Latin Church and the application of the norms governing liturgical celebrations.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

The Holy See Press Office made the announcement on Monday, one day after the pontiff said, during his Sunday Angelus, that he would undergo surgery to remove a nodule from one of his lungs.

The nodule, he explained in his Angelus address, was found during a routine medical checkup and prompted his doctors to advise him to have it surgically removed.

“The doctors believe it is advisable to operate. I have decided to undergo surgery to remove it, following their advice,” Leo said in his address.

According to Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, who spoke to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, the pontiff is expected to remain hospitalized for about one week at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, where he will continue his recovery after the operation.

Due to the pope’s upcoming hospitalization and recovery, he will no longer celebrate the closing Mass of the meeting “10 Years After Amoris Laetitia: Proclaiming the Gospel with Families Today.” Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the dean of the College of Cardinals, will replace him as the celebrant for the closing Mass.

Additionally, according to one of the organizers, Father Giacomo Costa, SJ, the conference’s concluding summary will no longer be published on Wednesday night. Costa told journalists Oct. 12 that the pope would like to have time following his hospitalization to read the document and possibly add his own response before making it public.

A press briefing on the night of Oct. 14 marking the conclusion of the conference will still take place at the Holy See Press Office as scheduled.

In his post, the pontiff stated: “The death penalty is inadmissible because it attacks the inviolability and dignity of the person.”

He emphasized that the protection of society and the application of justice can be guaranteed without resorting to capital punishment. In this regard, he said that “the common good can be protected and the requirements of justice can be safeguarded without resorting to capital punishment: effective penitentiary systems have already been developed that protect citizens and, at the same time, do not entirely deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.”

The message concluded with the hashtag #NoDeathPenalty, used in international campaigns promoting the abolition of the death penalty worldwide.

The Holy Father made this statement one day after the secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, criticized the planned public execution in the United States of Nidal Hasan, according to Vatican News.

Parolin stated on Oct. 9 that plans to broadcast the execution live are unacceptable. “It is truly incomprehensible that anyone would want to resort to this method in this day and age,” he noted.

“I do not know for what purpose. It is certainly unacceptable to turn death into a spectacle. However guilty the person may be, there are other ways.”

He emphasized that the death penalty “does not serve as a deterrent.”

That same day, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Paul Coakley, expressed his “shock and great sorrow” and urged that the decision be reconsidered.

Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding another 32 at Fort Hood in November 2009, and a military court sentenced him to death in 2013. The Pentagon announced on Thursday that his execution by firing squad is scheduled for Dec. 3, although new legal proceedings could delay it.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

In the United States, Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, said the prelates would join “the faithful and all people of good will in praying for his good health.” He also prayed for those who will perform the operation: “May the hand of Pope Leo’s surgeons be guided by the divine physician, Jesus Christ.”

Archbishop Ronald Hicks of New York joined the prayers as he finished a weeklong pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago in Spain. “I join with the bishops, priests, faithful, and all people of good will of the Archdiocese of New York in praying for our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, as he prepares for his surgery later this week,” he wrote. He also asked Jesus, “the divine physician,” to care for the pope and guide “the hands of his surgeons, nurses, and other health professionals.”

Prayers from Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru

Cardinal Daniel Sturla, archbishop of Montevideo, Uruguay, also wrote about the news. Uruguay is one of the countries expecting Pope Leo XIV on his upcoming visit to Latin America. “Let us pray for his speedy recovery and continue with greater spirit the preparation for his visit to our land,” he wrote.

In Peru, which also expects the pope later this year, the Archdiocese of Lima entrusted his health to the Lord of Miracles, a devotion that draws millions of Peruvians each year. “We ask the Lord of Miracles for his speedy recovery,” the archdiocese said on social media.

The Peruvian bishops’ conference issued a message titled “United in Prayer for the Health of the Holy Father Leo XIV.” It noted the “serenity and humility” with which the pope shared the news and asked that his health be entrusted to the Lord of Miracles.

“Lifting to God, Lord of life and source of all health, our supplications that he strengthen him and grant him the health that the fulfillment of his mission requires,” the Peruvian bishops said. They also urged communities, families, and the faithful to place the Holy Father under the maternal protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, so that in the fullness of his strength he may continue his mission in service of the Church and all humanity, as a messenger of peace and hope and a witness of unity, fraternity, and encounter among all peoples.

The Argentinian bishops said in a statement: “We ask the Lord to grant him strength and peace at this time, that the operation may go well, and that he may make a swift and full recovery.”

Prayers from Spain

The Spanish bishops’ conference also invited prayer for the pope. Its president, Archbishop Luis Argüello, asked “the whole Spanish Church — dioceses, institutes of consecrated life, communities and lay associations, all members of the People of God, and our fellow citizens — to pray for the health of our beloved Pope Leo XIV.”

The conference’s secretary-general, Bishop Francisco César García Magán, recalled the welcome Leo XIV received on his recent visit to Spain and said the faithful can now show him their closeness in another way: “Now we show it by uniting in prayer.”

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Prayers from Poland, Great Britain, Malta

Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda, the president of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, issued an appeal to the Polish people, asking them to “pray for the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, asking God for a successful operation and a speedy recovery.”

Bishop John Keenan on behalf of the Scottish bishops’ conference said: “We invite Catholics across Scotland, and all people of goodwill, to join us in praying for Pope Leo, for the medical team caring for him, and for a successful operation and a full and speedy recovery.”

Archbishop Richard Moth of Westminster and the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales assured Leo of the prayers of the faithful.

“We pray that following the procedure and a period of recovery, he will soon be restored to health,” Moth wrote.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna, archbishop of Malta and adjunct secretary of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote on X: “The Church in Malta is united in prayer for the Holy Father, wishing him well for the surgery he will be undergoing.”

Leo XIV asks for prayer

The pope announced the operation after Sunday’s Angelus. Doctors found a nodule on one of his lungs and recommended removing it. In sharing the news, Leo asked the faithful to accompany him spiritually in the coming days: “I entrust myself to your prayer.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

He confirmed at the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday that the lesion was caught early and is well localized. “The doctors consider it advisable to intervene. I have decided to have the operation to remove it, following their advice,” he said.

Many are asking how nodules are found, how they are evaluated, and what leads doctors to recommend removing them.

The condition, commonly called a “spot on the lung,” shows up on imaging as a white opacity against normal lung tissue and is generally up to 30 millimeters in diameter.

Dr. Bruno Vincenzi, head of the oncology service at the Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital in Rome, told ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, that a nodule can be found because a patient has symptoms that lead to tests.

“A persistent cough that has just appeared, expectoration — that is, producing phlegm with traces of blood — or chest pain can be reasons the patient undergoes studies,” he said.

He added that these findings are now increasingly accidental. Patients may be scanned before an operation or a hospital stay, or as part of a screening program, especially if they are older or have been smokers.

Asked why a doctor would recommend surgery, as in the pope’s case, Vincenzi said certain features on the images can raise concern. Spiculated margins — irregular or jagged — can suggest a more worrying lesion and make removal advisable. Well-defined margins, perhaps with calcifications inside, more often suggest a benign nodule.

Dr. Elmer Huerta, a Peruvian oncologist based in the United States and the first Latin American president of the American Cancer Society, said the operation the pope is expected to have is usually done with minimally invasive techniques. “The old thoracotomies, which meant opening the chest, are no longer done. What is done now is minimally invasive robotic surgery, in which a half-centimeter opening is made between the ribs, the robot is introduced, and the operation is done with that,” he said.

Huerta said it is not yet possible to say how long the pope will need to recover fully, because the specific features of the nodule, and therefore the exact extent of the surgery, are not public. Depending on what is found, doctors may remove a wedge of lung that includes the nodule, a segment, or a whole lobe. That will determine the recovery.

On how soon the pope can resume his usual commitments, Huerta said it depends on the extent of the operation. A wedge removal is simpler, and he could fly in two or three weeks and make his planned trip to Latin America. Removing a lobe would be more complicated. The key is the nature of the nodule, which has not been made public.

Huerta also stressed that most lung nodules are not cancerous. A 2022 study found that 95% are benign and only 5% are cancer. Cancerous nodules have certain features on X-rays, CT scans, and PET exams.

Vincenzi said a histological analysis is needed to determine what a nodule is. When a nodule is removed because its features suggest a suspicious lesion, the pathologist’s final examination of the cells can give a clear indication of whether it is benign or malignant.

Both experts declined to speculate on the pope’s case without precise clinical details. Vincenzi said it is better to stop at the diagnostic stage, because saying more risks creating needless reassurance or needless worry. Huerta said the same thing he tells his patients: go step by step.

The hospitalization planned for this week will force the pope to cancel all commitments on those days, Vatican press office director Matteo Bruni told ACI Prensa. Among them is the closing Mass of an international meeting on the family, held for the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, which Leo XIV was to preside over on Wednesday with the presidents of episcopal conferences gathered at the Vatican.

In principle, the surgery would not affect the trip to South America planned for Nov. 6–17, judging by the pope’s own words at the Angelus. Greeting members of the Brotherhood of the Lord of Miracles in St. Peter’s Square, he said: “Thank you for your prayer for the pastoral visit I will make to Peru.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Speaking to the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square after the Angelus prayer on Oct. 11, the pontiff personally disclosed his medical condition, explaining that the nodule had been discovered at a very early stage.

“Dear brothers and sisters, recently, during some medical examinations, doctors found a well-defined nodule in one of my lungs. It was detected at a very early stage and is well localized,” he said.

Leo XIV said doctors had recommended surgery to remove the nodule and that he had decided to follow their advice.

“The doctors believe it is advisable to operate. I have decided to undergo surgery to remove it, following their advice,” he said.

The pope also confirmed that the operation has already been scheduled and will take place in the coming days. He did not provide further details about the exact date or the surgical procedure.

“The operation has already been scheduled for the coming days. I thank you for your spiritual closeness and entrust myself to your prayers,” he said.

According to Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, who spoke to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, the pope’s surgery is scheduled for early this week, although an exact date has not yet been announced.

Bruni also said the pontiff is expected to remain hospitalized for approximately one week at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, where he will continue his recovery following the operation.

President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, offered and asked for prayers for the pope in a statement: “This morning, the Holy Father announced he will undergo surgery for a lung nodule in the coming days. The bishops of the United States join with the faithful and all people of good will in praying for his good health. May the hand of Pope Leo’s surgeons be guided by the divine physician Jesus Christ. Please find a moment today, as I will, to offer a prayer for Pope Leo and his care team.”

The pope’s hospitalization will require him to cancel all engagements scheduled for the coming days.

Among them is the closing Mass of an international meeting on the family marking the 10th anniversary of the publication of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia. The pope had been scheduled to preside at the Mass on Wednesday, with the presidents of bishops’ conferences gathered at the Vatican.

However, the pope’s upcoming surgery is not expected, at least for now, to prevent his planned trip to South America from Nov. 6–17, judging by the pontiff’s own remarks during the Angelus.

Leo XIV explicitly referred to his upcoming visit to Peru while greeting members of the Brotherhood of the Lord of Miracles gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

“Thank you for your prayers for the pastoral visit I will make to Peru,” he said.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Those are among the questions being addressed at an international gathering on the family at the Vatican, taking place behind closed doors through Oct. 14 with the participation of presidents of bishops' conferences from around the world.

Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, said in his presentation Friday, Oct. 9, that in his country, and possibly many others, “the concept of a necessary link between sexual activity and procreation, and the importance of this in Christian marriage is no longer widely understood or accepted.”

To illustrate the problem, he cited the observations of a religious education director in Western Australia who is married and has teenage children.

“Many of our young people have inherited cultural assumptions about sexuality that differ substantially from those of the Church — they may understand the Church’s position, but they do not find it easy to embrace,” the educator told him.

Costelloe said this reflects a tension between Church teaching and prevailing cultural attitudes, reinforced by social media, entertainment, peer culture, and online influencers, which frequently promote relationships that prioritize “personal fulfillment, autonomy, and immediate happiness over permanence, sacrifice, and covenant.”

Moral failures of Church leaders

Compounding the problem, Costelloe said, many young people have experienced painful circumstances, including broken marriages in their own families, domestic violence, inequality between men and women, and the moral failures of Church leaders whose credibility has been damaged.

“We are competing with many other approaches to the meaning of marriage,” he acknowledged.

Despite these difficulties, the archbishop emphasized that many young people continue to seek lasting relationships that bring out their best qualities and provide a solid foundation for a meaningful future.

He called for supporting these aspirations and accompanying young people as they seek to build stable relationships.

At the same time, Costelloe observed, the prevalence of divorce and failed relationships has led many young people to question “whether lifelong commitment is possible or even desirable.”

In this context, he emphasized the importance of the example provided by stable marriages and families.

As one married couple told him: “The most persuasive argument for Christian marriage is often a married couple living it well.”

Costelloe suggested that parishes and dioceses should find ways to make such examples more visible, including through marriage preparation programs and Catholic schools.

He also advocated presenting the Churchʼs teaching on marital intimacy positively, as an ideal worth pursuing rather than merely a set of rules and prohibitions.

Understanding why young people reject marriage

Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life, warned participants that marriage rates are declining worldwide, both for civil marriages and those celebrated in the Church.

“We cannot ignore the fact that the number of marriages is currently declining throughout the world, both civil marriages and marriages celebrated in the Church,” he said. “We will seek to interpret this phenomenon, taking into account whether its causes are the same everywhere.”

The gathering marks the 10th anniversary of Amoris Laetitia, the apostolic exhortation published by Pope Francis in 2016 following two synods marked by intense debate over the Churchʼs pastoral approach to families.

The documentʼs proposals for accompanying newlyweds and couples experiencing marital difficulties were partly overshadowed by controversy over its implications for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics.

Bishops from the Buenos Aires pastoral region interpreted the document as permitting some divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist following a process of accompanied pastoral discernment, including in circumstances in which a person believes that abstaining from sexual relations would cause further harm to children of the new union.

In 2023, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith confirmed that this interpretation forms part of the authentic magisterium, having been published in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, the Holy Seeʼs official record.

Farrell noted that priests are not alone in worrying about young peopleʼs reluctance to marry. Many Christian parents share that concern as they watch their children struggle with loneliness and uncertainty about lifelong commitments.

“Pastors are not alone in facing this concern. It is felt first and foremost by the many Christian parents whose children suffer from loneliness, remain hesitant to make a lasting commitment, or categorically reject the path that their parents themselves had embraced with joy,” he said.

Among the factors contributing to this trend, Farrell cited divorce, different forms of cohabitation, and prevailing cultural attitudes.

“But at a deeper level, we might ask whether God has perhaps ceased to speak to the hearts of young people, stirring in them a desire for marriage,” he said.

The cardinal said participants would look for signs of hope and consider initiatives, individuals, and circumstances that could open new paths toward marriage.

“We will also consider how attentive our communities are to the witness of those who, despite everything, choose marriage — whether early in life or later on — and how their experience can help us understand and present the vocation to marriage more effectively.”

What are young people seeking when they speak of love?

Auxiliary Bishop Stephen Fernandes of Bombay, India, argued that the Churchʼs central challenge is not simply to ask why young people are reluctant to marry but to understand what they are seeking in relationships.

“The challenge before the Church, therefore, is not to begin by asking why young people are failing to accept marriage, but rather what are they seeking when they speak about love, freedom, dignity, and their future,” he said.

Fernandes explained that young people experience relationships in a cultural environment very different from that of previous generations.

“The culture of immediacy and continual choice can enter their experience of intimacy, while marriage requires patience, presence, forgiveness, and perseverance,” he observed.

He also pointed to economic insecurity as a significant obstacle to marriage, citing employment difficulties, housing costs, migration, and social instability.

“For some, therefore, postponing marriage is not simply a rejection of marriage. It can reflect a crisis of confidence in the possibility of building a stable and enduring life with another person,” he said.

Fernandes stressed that many young people have not abandoned the desire for lasting love, even if they increasingly doubt that it is attainable.

“Young people have not ceased to thirst for love. What has weakened for many is confidence that love can endure,” he said.

He urged the Church to listen more carefully to young peopleʼs experiences and to present marriage not simply as an obligation or social institution but as a vocation grounded in freedom, fidelity, and mutual self-giving.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

The conference, titled “The Splendor of the Human Person: Safeguarding Fertility, Healing Infertility,” will be held Oct. 16–18 at the Rome campus of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart.

According to the Vatican, the Holy Father will inaugurate the event during an audience at the Vatican following a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, archbishop of Bologna and president of the Italian Episcopal Conference.

The congress will mark the 25th anniversary of the International Scientific Institute Paul VI (ISI), which conducts research on human fertility and infertility in support of responsible procreation, as well as the 50th anniversary of the Center for Natural Fertility Regulation.

The initiative is being promoted by the ISI-Paul VI Foundation, the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, the Toniolo Institute of Higher Studies, and the Agostino Gemelli University Hospital Foundation, along with other academic and cultural institutions linked to the Church.

Following the audience with Pope Leo XIV, the congress will officially begin at the university auditorium with an opening address by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, on “the dignity and beauty of procreation in the Church’s magisterium.”

Organizers have structured the program around four main themes: “The Transmission of Life Between Society and Science,” “The Fertility Roadmap for Couples,” “Preconception Health and the Prevention of Infertility,” and “Safeguarding the Human Person Amid Hypertechnology and the Culture of Waste.”

In addition to academic presentations, the event will feature scientific and interdisciplinary panels aimed at sharing clinical research, medical experience, and testimonies from health professionals, married couples, and parents.

Participants will reflect on the causes of infertility, therapeutic approaches compatible with Christian ethics, and ways to foster a culture that values human life from conception.

The congress is intended to continue the teaching of St. Paul VI on human fertility and responsible procreation, later developed by St. John Paul II. According to the organizers, the event seeks to highlight the importance of protecting fertility and accompanying married couples who face difficulties conceiving, while encouraging integration between scientific research, medical care, and a Christian anthropological vision.

The concluding session will be led by Bishop Claudio Giuliodori, president of the ISI Foundation and general ecclesiastical assistant of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, and Professor Tullio Ghi, director of the Obstetrics and Obstetric Pathology Unit at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

The Vatican announced Tagle’s appointment on Oct. 9. In the same announcement, Pope Leo XIV approved Tagle’s election one day earlier, on Oct. 8, and accepted Re’s resignation that day.

According to canon law, the cardinal dean is elected from among the cardinal bishops (12 cardinal-bishops as of October 2026). Among the dean’s responsibilities is to summon the cardinals to Rome on the pope’s behalf, particularly for a papal conclave. However, he has no governing authority over them.

After Leo XIV’s election to the papacy, all curial officials automatically lost their positions. However, Leo confirmed Re as dean and Argentine cardinal Leonardo Sandri as vice-dean, a position Sandri still holds.

Pope Francis approved Re in 2020 as dean of the college while setting a new five-year term of service for deans with the possibility of renewal. Previously, the position of dean, considered “first among equals,” was a lifetime appointment.

Re, 92, was made a cardinal by St. John Paul II in 2001 and has worked in the Roman Curia since 1963. He officiated the 2013 conclave, which elected Pope Francis, as the most senior cardinal-bishop.

Tagle, 69, has served as the pro-prefect for the Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches of the Dicastery for Evangelization since 2019. Before his appointment to the Roman Curia, he served as archbishop of Manila from 2011–2020.

Tagle has also been appointed as papal legate to several milestone Church events, including in the United States. He was appointed legate to the 10th National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis in July 2024 and to the beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen in St. Louis in September 2026.

Before being elected pope in 2025, Leo XIV, then-Cardinal Robert Prevost, was chosen by Francis as the titular cardinal-bishop of Albano. Soon after his election, the pontiff assigned his former cardinal title to Tagle, and Tagle formally took possession of the see in October of the same year.

The second and most recent of these miracles was lifesaving. During her fifth pregnancy, Melissa Villalobos, a lawyer from Chicago, suffered severe internal bleeding caused by a partial placental abruption — a condition that seriously endangered both her life and that of her unborn child.

The day it happened, Villalobos, alone at home and without the strength to call for help, turned to prayer. “Please, Cardinal Newman, stop the bleeding,” she said with difficulty. As she later recounted: “Just as I finished those words, the bleeding stopped, and I noticed in the bathroom the strongest scent of roses in my life. When it stopped, I asked, ‘Cardinal Newman, did you do this?’ and the scent returned a second time. I knew it was him.”

That same afternoon, the doctors confirmed what they could not explain: The tear in the placenta had disappeared. Months later, Villalobos gave birth to a perfectly healthy baby girl, whom she named Gemma.

Five years later, Gemma and her entire family participated in the canonization ceremony for Newman officiated by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square on Oct. 13, 2019.

For Sister Kathleen Dietz, FSO, a renowned specialist on St. John Henry Newman, the healing of the pregnant woman should be seen as a “sign of the times” when “the culture of death permeates everything.”

“He performed this miracle for the sake of life, not only the life of the young mother but also that of her child. It’s very significant,” she told ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News.

Unexplained healing of a debilitating spinal disorder

The first miracle attributed to Newman’s intercession was on behalf of American deacon Jack Sullivan, who was suffering from a severe degenerative spinal cord disease that had left him almost paralyzed.

In great pain and with little hope of recovery, he prayed for Newman’s intercession. According to his own testimony, on Aug. 15, 2001, he experienced a sudden and complete recovery, which allowed him to walk unaided and shortly afterward to be ordained a permanent deacon.

The Congregation for the Causes of Saints officially recognized the healing as scientifically inexplicable, and on July 3, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI officially announced that it constituted a genuine miracle. It led to Newman’s beatification on Sept. 19, 2010, in Birmingham, England, the city where the saint lived for much of his ministry.

Sullivan served as deacon and read the Gospel at the Mass celebrated by Benedict in Rednal, England, very near Newman’s burial site.

Sullivan, who has the only first-class relic of Newman outside the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in England, has given numerous presentations with it and has held healing prayer services.

Dietz — who has collaborated on various studies on the spirituality and legacy of St. John Henry Newman — emphasized that miracles authenticate Newman’s holiness and reflect his ongoing mission within the Church.

“Miracles show that Newman continues to have a role as an example and intercessor. He will soon be named a doctor of the Church and thus will also be a teacher of truth,” she noted at the time.

Inspiration for daily life

For the religious, Newman can inspire the faithful in their daily lives with a faith “lived in everyday circumstances.”

Dietz cited Newman’s 1856 work “A Short Road to Perfection” in which he points out that to be saints, “we need nothing more than to fulfill the ordinary duties of the day well.”

“It’s not a matter of heroic or extraordinary feats but of performing the actions of each day with rectitude and consistency: getting up on time, dedicating one’s first thoughts to God, visiting the Blessed Sacrament, praying the Angelus and the rosary, keeping one’s thoughts in order, examining oneself daily, and going to bed at a reasonable hour. If this is done consistently, one is already on the path to perfection,” the saint counseled.

Joy: An essential Christian virtue

Dietz emphasized that Newman saw joy as an essential Christian virtue, even in the midst of sadness, and that his example can guide believers to live their faith in a “practical, tangible, and consistent” way in daily life.

For Dietz, Newman’s life and miracles remind us that holiness is not an unattainable ideal but a “reality accessible to all” through faithfulness to small daily acts and trust in God’s providence.

“His teaching combines theological depth with pastoral application, showing how a saint can be a model and guide for the contemporary Church and for every believer in their daily life,” she explained.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

The “Viva Cristo Rey! Centenary of the Cristero Epic” began Oct. 7 at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome and continues through Oct. 9. The Cristero War began in 1926, and scholars examined its martyrs' legacy and church-state relations across Latin America.

Among those present were the Mexican ambassador to the Holy See, Alberto Medardo Barranco Chavarría; Rodrigo Guerra Lopez, secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America; and Italian Catholic politician and intellectual Rocco Buttiglione.

La Cristiada: A just war?

The Cristero War in Mexico lasted from 1926-1929, during which armed Catholics, known as the Cristeros, resisted the government’s fierce anticlerical laws. According to estimates from the Mexican Bishops’ Conference, more than 200,000 people were killed for defending the faith against persecution, producing martyrs such as St. José Sánchez del Río and Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro.

Amid these figures, debates have arisen about the movement’s legacy in light of the violence committed by members of the Cristeros in retaliation against anticlerical laws.

Buttiglione, who withdrew as Italyʼs nominee to the European Commission in 2004 after lawmakers objected to comments rooted in his Catholic beliefs about marriage, defended their actions as courageous despite their mistakes.

“We honor the courage of a people who fought and shed their blood for the freedom to live their faith,” Buttiglione said in his speech. “We are not afraid to acknowledge the mistakes and even the culpability of Catholics who lived through this immense tragedy. But they cannot condemn a people rebelling to defend the right to religious freedom.”

Conversely, Guerra described the Cristero movement to EWTN News as “complex” and cited Pope Leo XIV’s teaching on a “disarmed and disarming peace.”

“I believe that the Cristero movement was a complex movement,” Guerra told EWTN News. “It was neither entirely white nor entirely black. Those who lived Christianity and the faith, guided by Pope Leo XIV’s conviction for a disarmed and disarming peace, even if they did not use that language, are today recognized as martyrs and blesseds, and let’s hope many saints in the future.”

Church and state in Latin America

During the conference, scholars also examined the relationship between the Church and secular governments before and after the Cristero War.

In 1929, the war ended with the so-called “Agreements” between the Mexican bishops and President Emilio Portes Gil. The Cristeros laid down their arms after the agreements, but many, according to Franco-Mexican historian Jean Meyer, were still martyred afterward.

Barranco Chavarría told EWTN News that the characterization of the state’s stance against the Church is false.

“There is an interpretation that no longer corresponds to the current government of Mexico. It was always said that the government was trying to silence the Cristeros issue, that it was trying to minimize it. The truth is that no,” Barranco Chavarría told EWTN News.

Guerra added that their relationship was shaped by laicism, the doctrine of separation between church and state.

“Laicism has been very harmful in the history of Mexico,” Guerra told EWTN News. “We continue fighting against that disease, but we need to learn every day how the right to religious liberty is promoted joyfully.”

A potential visit from Pope Leo to Mexico?

The last pontiff to visit Mexico was Pope Francis in 2016.

Barranco Chavarría expressed hope for a future visit from Pope Leo XIV, also noting the visit of Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin in August, during which he said the pope is “very eager to come to Mexico.”

“The pope received an official invitation on the day of his inauguration,” Barranco Chavarría told EWTN News. “During a phone call with the Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum, the pope said he was strongly interested in visiting Mexico for the 500th anniversary of the Virgin of Guadalupe’s apparitions in 2031. We hope that next year, around October or November, this dream of the Mexicans can finally become a reality.”

Guerra added about his visit: “We hope that the pope will reinvigorate a new presence of Christian inspiration in public life, which we need so much in our Latin American countries, especially at times when extreme ideologies of the left or the right seem to tear the fabric of our societies.”

Celebrating the Eucharist in St. Peter’s Basilica, the pope emphasized the mission of pontifical universities, the importance of critical thinking in the life of faith, and the need to connect academic study with the experiences of ordinary people, especially the poor.

Reflecting on St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, Leo said that intellectual inquiry is essential to both faith and mission.

The apostle’s words, he explained, are “an appeal to reason, memory, and critical thinking.”

“In every age, there is no shortage of false teachers who exploit the religious sentiments of many believers for their own interests, often pushing them to radicalize certain aspects of the teaching they have received at the expense of the whole — the whole, which is Christ and his Gospel,” the pope warned.

He encouraged students and professors to regard their academic work as a service to the Church and to the search for truth.

“Dear friends, consider study as a service to faith and truth: for your own good and for the good of so many brothers and sisters for whom the Lord gave his life,” he said.

Reason and the willingness to ask questions, guided by Scripture and Church tradition, are indispensable to Christian faith, Leo continued.

The Church, he said, has “both the desire and the responsibility to safeguard the integrity of the treasure of revelation and to develop, within diverse contexts, a prayerful understanding of it, scholarly reflection, cultural mediation, and practical application.”

The pope also addressed the relationship between human intelligence and technology, drawing a distinction between the accumulation of information and the deeper understanding that comes from personal experience.

“The mind must not simply compile data — as an algorithm now does more quickly than we can — but recall lived experiences, which contain depths of meaning that only the human soul can recognize, and connect more deeply with the goodness of these experiences,” he said.

Academic routines, ambition, and rivalries can distract people from the spiritual foundations of their work, leaving them exhausted, divided, and unhappy, Leo cautioned.

“We must therefore return to the heart. That is where it all began; the beginning to which we can always return,” he said.

“Dearest friends, guard your hearts. Whether you are students, researchers, or teachers, guard your hearts, so that every stage of life and every responsibility may be lived ‘with the Spirit.’”

The pope also emphasized the importance of friendships formed during university studies, particularly those grounded in a common search for truth in Christ.

He urged the academic community to remain connected to the wider Church and attentive to the concerns of ordinary believers.

“Remain rooted in the people of God, value its ’sensus fidei,’ and be open to its questions. And do not forget the poor, who are sometimes that persistent friend who comes knocking during the night,” he said.

The relationship between scholarship and everyday life, Leo explained, is fundamental to the Christian understanding of the Incarnation.

“Bring life into your studies and your studies into life, following the logic of the Incarnation, apart from which revelation falls silent,” he said.

“Indeed, the further we stray from the complete reality that the Son of God took on and lived with infinite love, the less we will have to say and the fewer opportunities we will have to understand.”

The pope reminded his listeners that many people lack the educational opportunities available to students at Rome’s pontifical universities.

“Let us open the door; let us not shut ourselves off,” he said.

Referring to his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, Leo called for cooperation in building a society in which God can dwell with humanity in peace.

He noted that the fragmentation of knowledge and the impact of new technologies on the human mind present challenges requiring careful reflection.

Quoting the encyclical, he said that “a genuinely healthy attitude is needed, requiring rhythms that incorporate silence, in-depth study, reading, and judicious analysis, for without these elements inner freedom may be compromised.”

Theology, he added, has an important contribution to make in addressing those challenges and bringing different fields of knowledge into dialogue.

Rome’s ecclesiastical institutions have a particular responsibility in this regard because of their service to the universal Church and their role as meeting places for students and scholars from different cultures and traditions.

The pope concluded by encouraging students to take full advantage of the international character of the pontifical universities and to form lasting relationships across cultural and geographic boundaries.

“Look around you at university: The world is seated in your classrooms. Studying alongside you are people from Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe, and Oceania,” he said.

“Do not limit yourselves to simply sitting next to one another: Get to know one another, talk to one another, listen to one another, share your experiences of the Church, pray together, share moments of leisure, and forge friendships that will last a lifetime.”

Leo ended his homily by entrusting the new academic year to the intercession of Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom, and invoking the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

According to the Holy See Press Office, the Irish religious sister will assume her new responsibilities on Jan. 4, 2027.

Barron, superior general of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of the Apostles, will take on one of the most significant leadership positions in the Church’s missionary activity. As president of the Pontifical Mission Societies, she will coordinate and promote missionary cooperation among local Churches throughout the world, particularly in regions where the Church is growing and facing significant pastoral challenges.

In 2024, during a press conference following Synod on Synodality discussions, Barron, then president of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), which represents approximately 600,000 religious sisters in 80 countries, addressed the question of women who experience “a call to priesthood.”

While discussion of women deacons is often framed in terms of whether women can be ordained in the Church today, Barron argued that the issue should also be approached from another perspective.

“I think we have to look at the question very much from … the Spirit. ‘Is the Spirit calling women?’ Because some women do sense a call to priesthood or diaconate,” she said on Oct. 7, 2024.

Barron also said that, “even if at the moment we may not be looking at ordained ministry” for women, discussion on the issue should continue.

The Irish religious sister further emphasized that opportunities for women to assume positions of governance in the Church continue to depend in large part on cultural factors. She said women are able to take on broader leadership roles in some societies, while doing so remains more difficult in others because of cultural realities.

“I think we have to look at broader than just can or can we not from a theological or a canonical point of view, but in terms of the spirit calling to ministry today and in terms … of the needs of mission today,” she said.

Barron concluded by calling for continued reflection on the issue: “Are those calls there and can we continue the discussion? I think thatʼs what we would be asking at this point in time. Can we continue the discussion in relation to that?”

ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, attempted to contact Barron for clarification regarding her views but did not receive a response by publication time.

Missionary work in Africa

Born in Donegal, Ireland, on Nov. 7, 1968, Barron has academic training in public administration and international development. She earned a masterʼs degree in health administration from Dublinʼs Institute of Public Administration and a masterʼs degree in international development from the Kimmage Development Studies Centre.

Since 2018, she has served as superior general of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of the Apostles, a congregation dedicated to evangelization and missionary service, especially in several African countries.

Her leadership experience also includes prominent roles in international organizations connected to consecrated life and missionary activity. From 2022 to 2025, she served as president of the Service of Documentation and Study on Global Mission (SEDOS), and from 2023 to 2025 she led the UISG, the international organization representing superiors general of womenʼs religious congregations worldwide.

Growing presence of women in Vatican leadership

Barron becomes one of the highest-ranking women in the Roman Curia and the first woman to lead the pontifical missionary network operating in more than 120 countries.

Her appointment is part of a series of appointments by Pope Leo XIV that have strengthened the trend of placing women in senior Vatican leadership positions.

The popeʼs first major appointment of a woman came on May 22, 2025, when he named Sister Tiziana Merletti secretary of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

The presence of women in leadership roles continued to expand on April 1, 2026, when Paola Fanelli was appointed director of human resources for the Holy See.

Another significant appointment came on June 2, 2026, when Leo XIV named María Montserrat Alvarado, currently president and chief operating officer of EWTN News, prefect of the Dicastery for Communication. The Mexican-American journalist and scholar is scheduled to become, on Nov. 1, the first woman to lead the department responsible for coordinating the Holy Seeʼs communications system, including Vatican News, Vatican Radio, LʼOsservatore Romano, and Vatican digital platforms.

On June 30, the pope also appointed Salesian Sister Alessandra Smerilli, 51, as prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. Smerilli, a professor of political economy, had served as secretary of the dicastery since 2021 and was already the first woman to reach that level within the department.

Pope Leo XIV received representatives of the Association of Vatican Lay Workers and the Women in the Vatican Association on Monday. During the meeting, he said that “the presence of women” in the Vatican “is a valuable asset that must be increasingly recognized and appreciated.”

The pope added that women “bring not only a special sensitivity toward people and relationships but also the full range of human, professional, and intellectual talents inherent in the female experience and perspective.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

"The more united we are in Christ, the better able we will be to carry out together the mission that he entrusts to us," the pope wrote. “This spirituality constitutes the daily expression of missionary discipleship."

Leo himself served for years in Peru as an Augustinian missionary priest and bishop, and has often called on Catholics “to proclaim the Gospel without fear, to be missionaries.”

Pope Pius XI established World Mission Day in 1926, following the publication of his landmark encyclical Rerum Ecclesiae, which promoted the idea that supporting missions was the responsibility of all Catholics.

The centennial observance will be marked by Masses all over the world, with the pontiff celebrating the canonization of seven blesseds on Oct. 19 in St. Peter’s Basilica.

In his message, the pope highlighted historical figures of faith, including Blessed Pauline Marie Jaricot, who established the Association of the Living Rosary 200 years ago to mobilize prayer and support for missionaries.

The pope urged the faithful to draw inspiration from the zeal of St. Therese of the Child Jesus. Until death and beyond, she declared that she would continue her mission: “I shall desire in heaven the same thing as I do now on earth: to love Jesus and to make him loved.”

“If unity is the condition of mission, love is its essence,” the pope wrote. “Let us commit to contributing to the great mission of evangelization — which is a work of love.”

“The wisdom of the people of God reaches us through our common faith, which enlightens all families, including situations marked by difficulties, loneliness, and at times even apparent failure,” the pope said in his opening address to the gathering, being held in the Paul VI Audience Hall and scheduled to conclude Oct. 14.

The closed-door assembly, which is not open to journalists, is expected to produce a synthesis document without doctrinal authority that will later be presented to the pope.

The meeting is part of the synodal evaluation assemblies proposed at the conclusion of the 2021-2024 Synod on Synodality process.

Ten years after the two synods on the family and the widespread debate sparked by Amoris Laetitia, 154 bishops and cardinals, 53 priests and lay faithful, and 11 invited families began a series of meetings Wednesday aimed at assessing the current situation and evaluating the reception of Pope Francis’ 2016 apostolic exhortation on the family.

The document generated significant debate after its publication because it opened the possibility, in certain cases, for some divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist.

The pope made no direct reference to that issue during his address, which he delivered in English following a time of prayer.

Leo XIV said the lives of families pose to the Church “questions that deserve to be faced with courage” and highlighted several situations that concern him.

“In many contexts, a growing distance has emerged between the ways in which sex and intimacy are lived and the Christian vision of marriage,” he said.

“Young people continue to long for love, fidelity, and belonging, yet many find it difficult to embrace how such a vision of love can take shape in their own lives or to believe that a lifelong commitment is the condition for reaching what they desire,” he continued.

“Economic insecurity, migration, violence, loneliness, and other forms of emotional fragility also shape the choices people make and the possibilities they can imagine for their future,” he added.

‘What are people truly seeking?’

Focusing on contemporary challenges, the pope encouraged bishops to listen to families and stressed that the Church still has much to learn from them.

In that context, he posed a series of questions that he said should accompany the meetingʼs work, which is being conducted according to the synodal method and conceived as a space for listening and discernment.

“What are people truly seeking beneath these cultural changes? What do their joys and hopes, griefs and anxieties reveal to us? Where do our pastoral language and practices succeed in opening a path, and where do they fail to touch people’s hearts or assist their efforts to do what is good? What is the lived experience of families teaching us — an experience from which we have not yet fully learned? What can we offer as formation for healthy and holy family life? In particular, what can we learn from parents as they seek to accompany their children and young people in such contexts?”

‘Fragility deserves special attention’

The Holy Father also emphasized that “fragility deserves special attention” because it can “profoundly shape the way people see themselves, their future, and even their relationship with God and with the Church.”

“We all know the gap between the good we desire and what we are able to live. We need grace, forgiveness, and new beginnings to accomplish God’s will, and we learn that fidelity is itself a grace to be received and a path to be gradually renewed, often through trial,” he said.

He added that recognizing this “shared challenge” should shape the way members of the Church accompany families. He then posed additional questions to participants.

“What kind of Church, then, do people encounter precisely when they are most fragile? Do our communities help them discover that they still have a place, a responsibility, and gifts to offer? Can the truth we proclaim be encountered through the patience, closeness, and mercy of our pastoral presence? How can we announce to them the fullness of the Gospel’s teaching about the family?”

The pope urged participants to give these questions the attention they deserve.

“The Holy Spirit often speaks through the very situations that challenge us and enlightens us that we may discover how God’s mercy and the salvific grace of Christ can reach our families today, particularly in their weakness and resilience, in their hopes and disappointments, in their longing for communion and their search for meaning,” he said.

In the final portion of his address, Leo XIV called for the meeting’s work to unfold in a spirit of authentic “evangelical freedom” and encouraged participants to share honestly both the joys and challenges experienced in their local Churches.

Confidentiality requested

The pope also underscored the importance of prayer during the gathering and expressed hope that the meeting would help develop a shared assessment of the past decade of family ministry in the Church.

Finally, he asked all participants to exercise “discretion” and preserve “the confidentiality that this time of listening and discernment requires.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Like an earlier document on the family by St. John Paul II, Amoris Laetitia was an innovative response to the challenge of following the moral law “when social situations are turbulent and changing quickly,” Alford said.

Amoris Laetitia sparked intense debate following its publication in 2016, especially after the bishops of the Buenos Aires Pastoral Region interpreted it as allowing, following a process of accompanied pastoral discernment, access to the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist for some Catholics who are divorced and civilly remarried “when a person judges that he or she would fall into a further fault by harming the children of the new union.”

In 2023, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith confirmed that this interpretation forms part of the authentic magisterium after being incorporated into the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, the Holy See’s official bulletin.

Earlier this year, Pope Leo called the presidents of bishops’ conferences and heads of Eastern Churches, together with some married couples and theological experts, to spend a week at the Vatican in “synodal discernment” on families and the challenges they face today, including “abandonment, separation, and divorce,” in the light of Amoris Laetitia.

The ‘law of gradualness’

Alford’s address on the first day of the Oct. 7–14 meeting of bishops followed an opening prayer and a speech by Pope Leo XIV, who also said there is continuity in the teaching on marriage from Pope John Paul I through Pope Francis.

Like Leo, Alford, too, connected the two recent apostolic exhortations on the family: St. John Paul II’s Familiaris Consortio and Pope Francis’ Amoris Laetitia.

They both, she said, include the idea of the “law of gradualness.” In Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis said John Paul II proposed it “in the knowledge that the human being ‘knows, loves, and accomplishes moral good by different stages of growth.’”

Alford, quoting Pope Francis, said that “this is not a ‘gradualness of law’ but rather a gradualness in the prudential exercise of free acts on the part of subjects who are not in a position to understand, appreciate, or fully carry out the objective demands of the law. For the law is itself a gift of God which points out the way, a gift for everyone without exception; it can be followed with the help of grace.”

Both popes, the sister said, “are concerned to maintain the ideal, ‘law [which] is a gift of God which points out the way,’ as well as to recognize that many are not able to fully ‘understand, appreciate, or … carry out the objective demands of the law.”

She pointed out that 35 years separates Familiaris Consortio and Amoris Laetitia, during which time the lived situation of Christian families has seen many developments.

“As in other cases, such as in the social teaching of the Church, when social situations are turbulent and changing quickly, it can be necessary to find new ways of putting together both the ‘objective demands of the law’ (AL, 295) and the ‘law of gradualness’ (FC, 34) that many experience in trying to enter into it. Both Familiaris Consortio and Amoris Laetitia try to do this in their different historical contexts,” she said.

“Let us not forget,” the sister added, “that St. Thomas Aquinas and all the tradition that goes back to him would say that the law of God reaches its greatest expression in the new law, the law of the Gospel: the grace of Jesus.”

The purpose of the meeting

“In this meeting … we are called to proclaim the Gospel both of and to families,” the Dominican sister said. “It implies that the family is integral to the proclamation of the Gospel. The family both actively proclaims the Gospel and is in need of receiving the proclamation of the Gospel.”

Alford said the stress and brokenness often present in family life and marriage are an opportunity for greater holiness and trust in God. In order to unite their suffering with Christ’s, families need to hear the good news of the Gospel.

“Many families in situations of suffering and need could derive great help in facing their trials from hearing the good news proclaimed to them, receiving the new perspective the Gospel gives us on life and, thereby, the grace of the sacraments,” she said. “The very stresses, tensions, and brokenness in family life can be borne with more fortitude and with the hope that they can be worked through by uniting them to the sufferings of Christ.”

“As Pope Francis says, ‘In the darkest hours of a family’s life, union with Jesus in his abandonment can help avoid a breakup,’” she said, quoting from Amoris Laetitia No. 317.

“The beauty of the vocation to marriage is to be found through and with and in its fragility, not least because weakness can reawaken trust in God, and trust in God awakens the desire for holiness,” Alford said. “This, in a nutshell, is the Gospel of and to the family that we are talking about.”

Helping young people choose marriage

Alford’s talk also touched on the relational gaze of Jesus and its importance for recognizing and “seeing” the relationships that make up our lives, which are not visible like physical objects, yet, like the air we breathe, are really there.

She also spoke about the importance of helping young people enter into marriage with the proper outlook and tools to confront its difficulties.

“In the highly unstable world we live in today, if we are going to help young people have the courage to enter into marriage, and to give them the capacity to cope with the stresses they are going to meet, they will need to ‘see’ their relationships and think about their marriage and family life in a relational way,” she said.

“Social love, as a reflection of the Trinity, is what truly unifies the spiritual meaning of the family and its mission to others, for it makes present the kerygma in all its communal imperatives,” she added, quoting from Amoris Laetitia No. 324.

She encouraged the meeting’s participants to “search for ways to encourage young people to take up the great challenge of marriage and family life, embracing it in the full knowledge that they will experience great fragility as part of the process of realizing its beauty, and that in that fragility, they will find new and unexpected sources of God’s grace and experience a desire for holiness that is their very own.”

“Let us join Jesus in calling them to rise to the challenge, like Jesus called the Samaritan woman, of proclaiming the Gospel to others, precisely in the recognition of their fragility, so as to call others to join them in trusting in God’s grace and in experiencing the Christian desire for holiness,” Alford said.

Bishop Louis Tylka of Peoria, accompanied by Monsignor Jason Gray, executive director of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation, met with the Holy Father in a private audience Oct. 5.

The audience followed the long-awaited beatification of Sheen, a pioneer of Catholic radio and television whose cause for sainthood was championed by his home diocese in central Illinois. The encounter carried added significance given that both Pope Leo XIV and Blessed Fulton Sheen trace their roots to the state of Illinois.

Following the audience, Tylka highlighted the deep spiritual connection and Church tradition tied to the gift.

“It was a profound joy and privilege to meet with our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, and to present him with a relic of Blessed Fulton J. Sheen on behalf of the Diocese of Peoria and all those who have prayed for and supported Archbishop Sheen’s cause,” Tylka said.

“There is a beautiful tradition in the Catholic Church of presenting the Holy Father with the relics of the saints and blesseds, and this particular moment carried special meaning for me. Pope Leo XIV has spoken of Archbishop Sheen on several occasions and has expressed his appreciation for Archbishop Sheen’s extraordinary witness of faith, his ability to proclaim the Gospel through the means of communication available in his time, and his missionary heart. In the days surrounding the beatification, the Holy Father again pointed to Archbishop Sheen as an example of finding new ways to spread the Gospel.”

Gray underscored the historic resonance of placing the relic of the Illinois-born preacher into the hands of an American pope.

“I am deeply grateful for the Holy Father’s interest in Blessed Fulton Sheen and for his support that allowed us to celebrate this long-awaited beatification,” Gray said.

“To place a relic of this son of the Diocese of Peoria into the hands of the first American pope, both of whom are from Illinois, was an especially moving moment. My hope is that this relic will serve as a reminder of who Fulton Sheen was and of the mission he embraced so completely: to bring Jesus Christ to the world. The Holy Father’s own interest in Archbishop Sheen reminds us that his witness continues to speak to the Church today and challenges all of us to proclaim the Gospel with the same conviction and joy.”

The presentation of the relic stands as a lasting symbol of Blessed Fulton Sheen’s legacy as a master communicator, whose impact continues to resonate across the universal Church from his native Illinois to the Vatican.

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, the sister partner of EWTN News, and has been adapted by EWTN News.