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.

The pontiff held a private audience on Oct. 7 at the Vatican with the Louisiana chapter of the patrons during their pilgrimage to Rome. The Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums, founded in 1983, is an international group of benefactors who fund the conservation and restoration of the Vatican’s art collections.

Leo, in his remarks, thanked them for their collaboration and support for the Vatican Museums and invited them to create spaces of beauty in a world where technology is often preferred.

“In an age dominated by technology, in which efficiency and profit often take precedence, it is so important that we continue to cultivate a spirit of contemplation and allow time and space for beauty,” Leo said.

He also added that fostering this attitude would “greatly help humanity, especially young people, not only to discover the ability of art to uplift and reveal the depths of the human spirit.”

“Ultimately,” Leo added, “contemplation presents a marvelous opportunity to encounter the God who is beauty, whom St. Augustine described as ever-ancient and ever-new.”

Leo’s recent comments on classical art

Leo’s remarks followed his address during a private audience with artists on Oct. 2 in which he explained the difference between authentic art and art created by artificial intelligence (AI).

“There is an ontological difference — even before an aesthetic one — between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of the human, whereas ‘authentic culture and art preserve this spark,’” Leo said, quoting from his encyclical on AI, Magnifica Humanitas.

“It is certainly not by watering down the content or softening the demands that Christianity can be made attractive,” he recalled on Wednesday, citing the address he delivered to the plenary assembly of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Section on Fundamental Questions Regarding Evangelization in the World, on May 28.

During the general audience held in St. Peter’s Square on Oct. 7, the pontiff resumed his catechetical series dedicated to the texts of the Second Vatican Council, following last week’s pause, when he reflected on his apostolic journey to France.

Leo thus continued his catechesis on the conciliar constitution Gaudium et Spes. In particular, he focused his reflection on Chapter 4 of the first part of the document, which is devoted to the Church’s mission in the contemporary world.

“It is the task of the whole people of God, especially pastors and theologians, to discern what in the cultures of our time is worthy of consideration, always taking the word of God and the tradition of the Church as the supreme criteria for discernment. This requires a balanced mind, free from cultural trends, capable of viewing the world in a positive light whilst remaining steadfast in preserving and presenting the Gospel message in its entirety,” he said.

We ‘cannot accept the oppression of the weak’

Before thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square, Leo XIV reflected on the vocation of the lay faithful in the world and recalled that Vatican II fostered a new awareness of the responsibility of all the baptized in the Church’s mission.

Referring to the concrete demands of the Christian faith, Leo XIV said that, by worshipping Christ, “the believer cannot accept the oppression of the weak and the poor, nor the unjust structures that perpetuate conditions of dependence and injustice.”

“The social doctrine of the Church guides the actions of Christians, who collaborate with all people of goodwill in promoting the common good,” he added.

The principal settings for this evangelizing mission, the Holy Father recalled, are the family and the workplace, though it extends to every sphere of life.

The Church’s purpose is not political

The pontiff also made clear that the Church’s purpose is not political in nature but consists rather in bearing witness to faith and charity.

“The council fathers remind us that the Church’s mission is fulfilled also in contributing to the construction of the earthly city. However, her methods and aims are not primarily of a political order; rather, they consist in bearing witness to faith and charity, together with commitment for justice, peace, and fraternity,” he said.

The Church’s ‘first mission’

Leo XIV further explained that the Second Vatican Council reminds us that the Church is neither “above” nor “beside” the world but is, as it were, grafted into it.

In this sense, he emphasized that the Church “journeys through history in the midst of peoples and cultures,” though its “first mission” remains “to help people be attentive to the profound questions of life: those concerning our origin and our destiny, as well as those concerning the meaning of love and suffering.”

“The logic of profit at all costs and the manipulation of information risk exerting undue pressure on people to conform to a lifestyle centered on the consumption of material goods, but our hearts are made to look upwards,” he said.

Consistency between the ‘faith we profess and our lives’

Leo then recalled that proclaiming the Gospel requires consistency of life on the part of believers. To carry out the Church’s evangelizing mission effectively, the pontiff said, “it is necessary for every baptized person to commit to cooperating with the grace of the Holy Spirit, so that their faith may be living and expressed in consistent behavior.”

In this context, he recalled that the council fathers stated that the discrepancy between professed faith and daily life “deserves to be counted among the more serious errors of our age.”

The importance of the rosary

During his greetings to Italian-speaking faithful after the catechesis, the pope recalled the Oct. 7 liturgical memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary and emphasized the importance of this traditional Marian prayer, noting that it is “greatly cherished in the Church’s tradition.”

The Holy Father stressed that Mary is a “sure refuge amid the difficulties of life.” The memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, celebrated each year on Oct. 7, recalls the special protection of the Virgin Mary over the Church and encourages devotion to the holy rosary as a path of contemplation, conversion, and the strengthening of faith.

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 pontiff sent a message to Holy Family Church in Gaza, near the Rimal neighborhood of western Gaza City, where Israeli airstrikes killed five civilians and wounded many others on Oct. 3. Among the victims, now buried, were two Orthodox women: Maysa Khader Ibrahim Abu Daoud and her daughter, Mary Hafez Michel Najjar.

According to Vatican News, Leo addressed the message to Father Gabriel Romanelli, the parish priest of Holy Family Church. Pope Francis also regularly wrote letters and made phone calls to Romanelli, expressing closeness to the parish and to Gaza victims until his death in 2025.

In his letter, Leo lamented the casualties among those affected by new airstrikes amid the continuation of the war.

“How long, O Lord?” Leo wrote in his letter.

“Since learning the painful news of the deaths of Maysa and Mary, I have been praying to God for them, for their families, and for the entire community of Gaza,” he added. “Thank you for accompanying the parish and so many people who wish to live in peace.”

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, also expressed his closeness to those affected by the recent attacks and his hope that hostilities will eventually end.

A profound relationship with Pope Francis

For approximately 19 months before his death, Francis maintained regular contact with Holy Family Church, the only Catholic church in the Gaza Strip.

Romanelli recalled to EWTN News that on April 19, two days before dying on April 21, Francis made a phone call to Romanelli.

“He told us he was praying for us, blessed us, and thanked us for our prayers on his behalf,” Romanelli said to EWTN News.

“We hope that his appeals won’t be ignored: that the bombing will stop, that this war will end, that the hostages will be released, and that humanitarian aid will reach those who are suffering.”

The pope celebrated Mass at the Lourdes Grotto in the Vatican Gardens in honor of the force’s patron, St. Michael the Archangel.

He described the gendarmes’ work as “a way of being laborers in the Lord’s vineyard,” stressing that their responsibilities extend beyond safeguarding buildings, grounds, and entrances to caring for people.

“One quality that stands out when we meet you is precisely this care: It is beautiful to see how you regard others not as problems to be solved but as people to be respected and protected,” he said.

Reflecting on the parable of the wicked tenants in Matthew 21:33-43, the pope said the gendarmes should understand that “what we receive is a responsibility to be safeguarded with humility and dedication, to be carried out with discretion and a sense of duty.”

“You know well that authority, in the light of the Gospel, is expressed above all in the ability to protect, listen, and accompany, with balance, firmness, and respect,” he added.

Just as the vineyard owner’s son stands at the center of the parable, Leo urged the gendarmes to place Jesus at the center of their lives.

“Before being gendarmes, you are men called to follow him. From him we learn strength that knows how to become gentleness, vigilance born of trust, authority that walks alongside humility, and the courage to intervene with a merciful heart,” he said.

The pope also reflected on the second reading, from St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, which urges believers to bring their needs to God in prayer rather than give in to anxiety.

The gendarmes’ work, he said, would bring “quiet days and difficult days,” moments requiring quick decisions, and situations that cause fatigue and worry.

But prayer offers a way to bear those burdens.

“A gendarme does not carry everything alone: He prays, knows how to entrust himself to God, and knows how to find again in God the peace that allows him to act with clarity and a serene heart,” Leo said.

Those who protect others need hearts and minds “formed in goodness,” he said, because they “must first safeguard within themselves truth, justice, goodness, and respect. Protecting others requires a heart guarded by the Lord.”

“Your work certainly requires you to be vigilant, but today’s word invites you to something even deeper: to watch carefully over yourselves as well,” the pope added.

He urged the gendarmes to guard their hearts against becoming hardened, keeping them “always docile to God and attentive to others.”

He also called on them to safeguard their consciences and their bonds of fraternity. A group becomes a community, he said, when “its members care for one another and learn to walk together, supporting one another with simplicity and love.”

Leo concluded by thanking the gendarmes’ families for the sacrifices that make their service possible.

“This year, too, I conclude with a thought of affection and gratitude for your families. To parents, wives, children, and fiancées: Thank you! You know the sacrifices, the absences, the schedules, the worries, and also the burden of a service that is not always seen,” 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.

Edited with commentary by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the project gathers material meant to be shared posthumously.

This is not the late pope’s first foray into personal literature; he previously released “Hope,” becoming the first living pope to publish an autobiography.

Known for his accessibility to journalists, Francis gave more than 70 book-length interviews during his pontificate, making this new collection an intriguing counterpart to his public voice.

The publication follows in the footsteps of St. John XXIII, whose spiritual diary was famously published posthumously as “Journal of a Soul.” Similarly to that classic work, Francis’ diary captures his deeply human side — revealing how he navigated trials, carried the burdens of leadership, and sought God in daily silence.

As preparations gather momentum for World Youth Day in Seoul in 2027, the meeting provided an occasion to celebrate how the Church in Korea has grown into a dynamic land of missionaries.

The pope emphasized that the Korean Church’s vibrant growth rests firmly on the testimony of its martyrs. Through relentless persecution, devastating wars, crippling poverty, and national partition, Korean Catholics have continuously overcome incredible hardship.

"The Korean people have demonstrated throughout history an extraordinary strength of character,” Leo remarked.

The pope said it was a powerful testament to God’s grace that the faithful kept “the ability to go through the ordeal without losing hope and without letting suffering harden the heart.”

Drawing pastoral inspiration from history, Leo highlighted the tireless witness of Venerable Thomas Choe Yang-Eop. Known for walking endless miles across Korea to connect remote, hidden villages and bring them the light of the Gospel, Father Choe serves as an enduring model for modern ministry, the pope said.

The pope urged the assembled clergy to imitate Choe’s zeal: “In our time we have much need for men and women who have the courage to do good even when it costs them.”

Recognizing the diverse dioceses and backgrounds represented among the clergy, the pope called for a renewed commitment to synodality. By listening to one another and moving past regional differences, priests embody a unified Church walking together on the same path through Christ, he said.

Finally, looking ahead to hosting the world’s Catholic youth in 2027, the pope reminded the clergy to ground all their preparations in constant prayer, seeking the intercession of St. Andrew Kim Taegon, patron of Korean clergy.

“Young people from all over the world will arrive in a land where the Gospel has grown through the testimony of the martyrs,” Leo said.

The pontiff held a private audience on Monday with a delegation of the Vatican Lay Employees Association and the Women in the Vatican Association. The groups are the only two labor associations in Vatican City State, with the Vatican Lay Employees Association having been founded in 1979 and the Women in the Vatican Association in 2016.

‘Keep attention on human work, not AI developments’

In his remarks, Leo emphasized the dignity of human work in an age when AI developments can change how work is valued and performed.

“In the face of todayʼs challenges in the world of work, especially those posed by developments in artificial intelligence, it is more important than ever to keep attention focused on the irreplaceable centrality of the human person and the inalienable dignity of work,” Leo said.

Drawing from his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, Leo explained that work is not merely a tool but a requirement for personal fulfillment.

“Work is not a simple tool,” Leo said.

“It is a requirement inscribed in the human condition, an ordinary path toward maturity, development, and personal fulfillment,” the pope added.

The pope invited his audience to foster dialogue and noted in particular women’s contributions in this regard.

“The presence of women is a richness that must be increasingly recognized and valued,” the pope said. “Their expertise, discernment, creativity, and practicality enhance the life of institutions and contribute to a broader perspective on reality and the problems encountered.”

From Oct. 1–5, the U.S.-born pontiff held private audiences with six U.S. bishops and is scheduled to meet with three U.S. cardinals in a Vatican conference marking the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical Amoris Laetitia, to be held from Oct. 7–14.

On Oct. 5, Leo met separately with four U.S. bishops, including the USCCB president, Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, and the vice president, Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas. They will represent the USCCB at the meeting “Ten Years After Amoris Lætitia: Proclaiming the Gospel with Families Today.”

Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, met with Leo on Oct. 1. The evangelist and founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries also served as a keynote speaker at a conference at the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See in Rome on Sept. 30, where he described Catholicism as deeply aligned with American ideals. He also ordained 18 deacons for the Pontifical North American College at St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 1, the same day as his private audience with the pontiff.

Three U.S. cardinals will also join Coakley and Flores on the U.S. delegation. Cardinals Blase Cupich of Chicago, Robert McElroy of Washington, D.C., and Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, will be present at the meeting as the only three U.S. cardinals who are diocesan bishops.

Leo XIV also met with Bishop Louis Tylka of Peoria, Illinois, 11 days after the bishop participated in the beatification of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, also of Peoria. Tylka also announced the first-ever parish named after Sheen in Peoria on Sept. 26.

Tylka said he presented the pope with a relic of Sheen.

“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,” Tylka said in a statement.

The pope also met with Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle and Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami. As required by canon law, Wenski submitted his resignation to the pope upon reaching his 75th birthday in October 2025.

This story was updated at 1:43 p.m. ET on Oct. 5, 2026, to include a statement from Bishop Louis Tylka of Peoria, Illinois.

Introducing the Angelus before pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square, the pope noted that the Gospel recounts how Christ came to bring salvation but was rejected by those who should have welcomed him.

“The Son of God sent into the world is rejected by the very people who should have welcomed him with open arms. The One who came to bring salvation is condemned; the One who wishes to give life is put to death,” the pope said.

While such realities lead Christians to reflect on “the many cruelties that plague the world and the history of peoples,” he added, “Christ’s teaching reveals the ever-greater mercy of his Father.”

Despite humanityʼs rejection of God, Leo emphasized that divine providence continues to guide history toward redemption.

“This is how the Almighty guides history, coming to our aid in all our falls: God never discards our lives!” he said.

Drawing on the Gospel image of the vineyard, the pope said the Church is entrusted to Christians' care and can be built up or damaged by their choices.

On the eighth centenary of St. Francis’ death, Leo highlighted the saintʼs role in renewing the Church after Christ called him to “repair” it.

“Inspired by the Crucified One, Francis first and foremost built his own life upon the foundation of Christ, sharing in his poverty, joy, and sufferings, even to the point of receiving the mystical sign of the stigmata,” the pope said.

The saint, he continued, “repaired the Church by virtue of his faith in the Lord Jesus, healing the rifts of discord through the witness of fraternal love.”

Leo said the Franciscan spiritual legacy remains alive today.

“The charism of St. Francis continues to bear fruit even today,” he said. “This is attested to, not only by the great and vibrant Franciscan family but also by the many gifts that his spiritual legacy bestows upon the people of God.”

As Catholics celebrate the Franciscan Jubilee Year, the pope encouraged the faithful to persevere in prayer for peace and to work actively for reconciliation among nations.

After praying the Angelus, Leo renewed his appeal for peace during the month of October, highlighting the “A Million Children Praying the Rosary” initiative organized by Aid to the Church in Need from Oct. 1–7.

“I wholeheartedly thank all the boys and girls who are joining in this prayer in so many parts of the world,” he said. “Let us all follow their example, invoking the intercession of the Virgin Mary so that peoples may be freed from the scourge of war.”

The pope asked in particular for prayers for the Holy Land and for innocent victims of violence.

Leo also announced a Vatican gathering marking the 10th anniversary of Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on marriage and family life. The meeting will bring together the heads of the Eastern Catholic Churches and the presidents of bishops’ conferences from around the world.

“It will be a time of synodal discernment for identifying the steps to be taken in order to proclaim the Gospel today among families and the younger generations,” he said.

The pope entrusted both the meeting and families worldwide to the prayers of the faithful, describing families as “a sign of hope and an inestimable treasure for the Church and for society.”

He concluded by greeting participants in celebrations marking the 800th anniversary of St. Francis’ death, including commemorations held in Assisi attended by Italy’s highest civil authorities.

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.

Gambetti will leave his post as the archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, where he has served for the past five years after being appointed by Pope Francis in 2021.

He will take over the position in Chieti-Vasto from current Archbishop Bruno Forte, who has served there since 2004. Forte turned 77 in August, making him two years past the customary retirement age for prelates.

In a statement after the announcement, Forte described Gambetti’s appointment as “a special sign of the Lord’s benevolence.”

“I am certain that [Gambetti] — rich in both academic background and pastoral experience — will give new impetus to the care of the faithful and the work of evangelization, efforts that have been sustained in recent years through the collaboration of so many,” Forte said.

The outgoing archbishop said he would retire to Naples, Italy, his hometown, where he would pray for both Gambetti and the Church.

Born in Castel San Pietro Terme, Italy, Gambetti took his final vows with the Order of Friars Minor Conventual in 1998 and was ordained to the priesthood on Jan. 8, 2000.

He has served various leadership roles in his order in Italy and also served as the episcopal vicar of the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Umbria.

Pope Francis named him a cardinal in 2020; he was consecrated a bishop the same year. The late Holy Father also named him a member of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State in 2021.

There, after defending the inalienable dignity of those who are suffering from illness or infirmity, he strongly criticized a trend toward the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide under the guise of “false compassion.”

“It is impossible to regard causing death as something normal. What is legal is not necessarily moral,” he said to loud applause from those listening.

Immediately following his speech, Leo broke from his schedule to go into the crowd and greet the sick and disabled, many of whom had waited hours in the hot sun to take part in the meeting.

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He also took time to bless a few people as he approached the Accueil Notre-Dame (Notre-Dame Home), a residential accommodation classified as a healthcare facility that hosts sick, disabled, and frail pilgrims to Lourdes.

Olivia Hamelin, a girl with the rare genetic neurological condition CDKL5 deficiency disorder, was among those Leo blessed.

“Seeing the pope bless Olivia was truly a moment of grace,” Olivia’s father, Alexandre Hamelin, told EWTN News afterward.

After Leo blessed Olivia, her father embraced her with a look of pure joy and happiness.

“The fact that he blessed Olivia, in a special way gives us so much strength and hope for her future. This pope radiates kindness and grace. I am certain he will leave a lasting mark on the history of the Church,” Hamelin said.

It was 3-year-old Olivia’s first time in Lourdes, alongside her parents, Alexandre and Bérénice, and her siblings, 5-year-old Alba and 6-month-old Raphaël.

Raphaël was also blessed by Pope Leo in Lourdes.

The family traveled almost four hours by car from their home in Périgueux, a town in southwestern France, to Lourdes for Leo’s visit.

“For us, it was important to come to Lourdes to see the pope and hear his message of peace. It is a true sign of hope for our children,” Hamelin said.

CDKL5 deficiency disorder affects brain development and causes severe epilepsy. Those with this condition can have difficulty with movement and speech, alongside other challenges.

Hamelin said when they learned Olivia’s condition is not degenerative, it brought him and his family “enormous relief.”

“Since then, our sole goal has been for Olivia to have the most beautiful and happiest life possible. Of course, we live with her disability, but we try not to let it limit us, especially in everything we do as a family,” he said.

While his family had faith before the trial of Olivia’s illness, now, he said, it has “an even more important place in our lives.”

“It helps us keep moving forward, maintain trust, and not lose hope, even in the more difficult moments,” he said. “Above all, we are convinced that Olivia is a blessing in our lives. We believe that the Lord entrusted her to us and that, through her, he also brings us an abundance of beautiful gifts.”

The father noted how Olivia is teaching many people around her, even beyond their family.

For their oldest daughter, Alba, growing up with Olivia teaches her consideration for others, patience, kindness, and acceptance of differences, he said.

“These are beautiful values that Olivia passes on to her simply through her presence,” Hamelin noted.

“Olivia profoundly touches the people around her. She creates deep connections and brings a very special joy wherever she goes,” he said. “In the end, where some might see only the difficulties associated with her disability, we also see all the beauty she brings into our lives and into the lives of others. That, too, is what nourishes our hope and our faith.”

These families will present to more than 150 bishops the challenges they encounter in passing on the faith in increasingly secularized societies.

The meeting is being organized on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Amoris Laetitia, the postsynodal apostolic exhortation published by Pope Francis in 2016.

The document sparked intense debate, 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.

According to the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life, participants in the meeting will include the heads of the 15 Eastern Catholic Churches “sui iuris” (14 represented by their patriarchs or highest authorities and one by a delegate), the presidents of the world’s 115 bishops’ conferences (those of Peru, Paraguay, Turkey, and Ethiopia will send delegates), two representatives of bishops from territories without a bishops’ conference, and 22 participants specially chosen by the Holy Father.

In addition, 67 other people will attend, including members of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life, the General Secretariat of the Synod, and 26 experts and 16 facilitators.

Not an evaluation of Amoris Laetitia

During a presentation of the gathering at the Vatican, Gabriella Gambino, undersecretary of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life since 2017, a laywoman, mother of five, and doctor of bioethics, emphasized that “this is not about evaluating a text but about deepening our understanding of the family and pastoral realities that have received and interpreted this document in different ways, just as the life of the Church is diverse in the various places around the world where it is present and rooted in the one Gospel.”

“The central point on which we must focus our attention is that the Church’s goal is not to see texts applied mechanically and uniformly in every reality, because each one has characteristics that are very different from the others,” she said.

She stated that the central question of the meeting is: “How is the faith transmitted today? How is faith passed on in families today, and how do families contribute to building up the Church?”

“Without families, the Church cannot renew its Christian roots. It is in families that children are born, where faith and values are transmitted, for better or worse, and where vocations arise,” she explained.

To illustrate the scale of the ongoing religious changes, Gambino offered several statistics. In Poland, religious marriages celebrated over the last five years have declined by 45%. In Australia, they have fallen from 88% in 1970 to 16% in 2024. In her view, these are signs that, in different contexts, highlight the urgency of better accompanying couples in their decision to marry and providing stronger support for the transmission of faith within the family.

Orietta Rachele Grazioli, a tenured professor of canon law and comparative family law at the Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences, and vice coordinator of the expert group, explained that the “methodology chosen by the Holy Father for this gathering is centered on two key words that complement one another: listening and discernment.”

5 major themes

The gathering will be structured around five major themes related to marriage, family life, and the transmission of the faith. Reflection will begin with “Families Today: Reality, Beauty, and Challenges,” dedicated to analyzing the current situation of the family, and will continue with “Young People and the Discovery of the Vocation to Marriage,” “Married Life: The First Years of Marriage, a Decisive Time,” and “In Life’s Difficulties: Accompanying and Supporting,” which will address the accompaniment of engaged and married couples at different stages of their journey.

The meeting will conclude with the theme “Christian Families as Subjects of the Church’s Mission,” focused on the evangelizing role of families and their contribution to ecclesial life.

Father Giacomo Costa, a consultant to the General Secretariat of the Synod, said that “the question is not what Amoris Laetitia says but what we have learned by trying to live it.”

He also recalled that the goal identified by Pope Leo XIV, who will be present at both the opening and closing of the gathering, is “to advance in mutual listening toward a synodal discernment about the steps we must take today to proclaim the Gospel with families. The composition of the assembly itself reflects this objective.”

Before the start of the proceedings, an introductory meditation will be given by Sister Helen Alford, president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. Each morning will be structured around three types of speeches: family testimonies, contributions from bishops, and reflections from experts.

‘The goal is not to eliminate differences’

“The goal is not to eliminate differences. We do not want to arrive at an artificial consensus,” Costa said. Each day will include a report summarizing the discussions, which will serve as the basis for extensive dialogue and debate sessions in the afternoon. He made clear, however, that “this is not a new synod on the family but a process guided by the synodal method, one that consciously draws upon the experience of the synods and other forums of the Church.”

Regarding the expected outcomes of the gathering, Costa insisted that “nothing has been predetermined.” A final summary will be prepared at the conclusion of the assembly, but no concluding document will be published. The text will be reviewed by a commission tasked with verifying that it faithfully reflects what emerged during the working sessions.

Afterward, the presidents of bishops’ conferences will be invited to promote initiatives in their local Churches aimed at opening new pastoral paths and further developing the proposals that emerge from the gathering.

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 Church needs you,” the pontiff said at the Oct. 2 encounter at the Vatican. “This is especially true in this age of artificial intelligence, in which we urgently need to distinguish human art from what is produced by machines.”

“There is an ontological difference — even before an aesthetic one — between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of the human, whereas ‘authentic culture and art preserve this spark,’” Leo said, quoting from his encyclical on AI, Magnifica Humanitas.

The pope said this is the reason why the Catholic Church wishes to renew its alliance with artists and cultural institutions.

Leo’s address to artists and curators in the Apostolic Palace was part of a meeting on “The Art of Possibility: Weaving Together,” organized by the Dicastery for Culture and Education.

The pope pointed to St. Augustine and his testimony of the “restlessness of the human heart in search of truth.”

“Art, when it is authentic, is also animated by this restlessness. For this reason, the Church has never considered art to be merely decorative. Instead, for the Church, art nurtures the fundamental posture of listening, through which we can learn about humanity’s aspirations and wounds, our thirst for beauty, justice and peace, and our search for meaning,” he said.

In the age of search engines and their endless, instantaneous answers that only “give us what we already want,” art is different, he noted.

Art “does not proceed by indexing but by inquiry,” the pontiff said. “Indeed, its inquiry is a focused attention that is not satisfied with the mere sum of facts, for it never ceases to dig deeper, seeking the thread that unites them. Your art, when it resists homogenization, when it draws our gaze, when it compels us to pause before that which cannot be consumed, is a form of cultural and spiritual regeneration.”

Leo cited the homily of his predecessor St. Paul VI from a Mass with artists in 1964.

“St. Paul VI spoke words that remain a landmark for the Church’s relationship with artists: ‘We need you,’ he said. ‘Our ministry needs your collaboration. For, as you know, our ministry is to preach and to make the world of the spirit, of the invisible, of the ineffable, of God, accessible and understandable — indeed, inspiring. And in this task, which translates the invisible world into accessible, intelligible forms, you are masters,’” Pope Leo quoted.

The Oct. 1 celebration came after approximately seven years of rigorous spiritual, academic, and pastoral formation, marking a pivotal step for the men in the journey toward becoming fully ordained Catholic priests.

Transitional deacons are in their final stage of ministry as seminarians before their priestly ordination. For each candidate, the milestone signifies a lifelong commitment to humble service, preaching the Gospel, and assisting at the altar as they step into their ultimate calling as shepherds of the faith.

Reflecting on the weight and grace of the moment, candidate Nicholas Vande Hey of Green Bay, Wisconsin, told EWTN News that he “feels humbled and I feel hungry at the same time ... for what [the Lord is] going to do in the future.” Vande Hey is joined by peers representing dioceses across the United States, all of whom have spent years preparing in the heart of the Church.

In his homily, Barron, founder of the Catholic ministry Word on Fire, reminded the candidates of their fundamental and seminal role as preachers of the word.

Drawing on sacred tradition, he emphasized that the young deacons must bear Christ’s mission in mind as they complete their studies in Rome and prepare to take what they learned back home to their local parishes.

Christ himself said, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church,” Barron said.

The bishop went on to say that “when Christ’s words resonate through you to his people, things change. Hearts are set on fire.”

Graham Fassero of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia, on the eve of his ordination, said: “Rome has been able to give me this habit of thinking as a pilgrim, and I would love to bring some glimmer of that to the people back home too.”

For new deacon Brendan Finnegan of the Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut, this ordination is “a fulfillment” as he continues to “learn to be a man in service,” leaning on his experiences in Rome to effectively govern and sanctify the people of his parish.

As the 18 men complete their final year of preparation, they carry with them the unique grace of having been ordained in the spiritual center of the universal Church.

Barron closed his homily with this phrase: “Believe what you read. Teach what you believe. Practice what you preach.”

According to a source from the dicastery with direct knowledge of its content, who confirmed the information to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, the text “addresses various paths and different possibilities to encourage reflection within each diocese on the difficulties and new opportunities we have for transmitting faith in Jesus Christ to our brothers and sisters.”

Venite ad Me, which means “Come to Me” in Latin, responds to a request made by Pope Francis and embraced by Leo XIV, aimed at stimulating debate and reflection within the Catholic community.

“Given that in many parts of the world the faith is transmitted with increasing difficulty, the question is how we can successfully pass on the faith to others in the world in which we live,” the same source added.

In preparing the document, the Vatican consulted bishops’ conferences from around the world. According to the Vatican source, 70% of them responded.

“This gives the text a strongly universal character that reflects a wide variety of concerns and contexts regarding the transmission of the faith,” the source noted.

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.

“Melancholy, bad character, confusion of senses — today, we understand that behind these old labels lies a deep, silent suffering not only of those affected by mental disorders but also of their loved ones and their communities,” Pope Leo said in a video released Oct. 1 on X.

He added: “We live in a world full of tensions, and even as solutions grow so does the number of people in crisis. This October, let us pray for the mental health ministry — an urgent and ever more needed service in our Church and in the world.”

In the full video shared on the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network website, Pope Leo recites an original prayer written specifically for this month’s prayer intention:

“God of life,

You know the innermost depths of our hearts —

the light and shadows within us,

the silent wounds that sometimes no one sees.

Today we bring before you our brothers and sisters

who struggle with challenges to their mental health,

who suffer in solitude with anxiety, depression, or any other mental illness.

You call them by name, with tenderness,

and in you they find dignity and hope.

Forgive us for the times we have looked the other way,

feeding the stigma and discrimination of persons with mental illnesses.

May your Church be an open house,

a safe space where everyone has a place —

a community that accompanies and never excludes,

that listens without judging and draws near without fear.

We pray to you, Lord, for those who care:

professionals, family members, volunteers —

men and women who, with patience and love,

build bridges of understanding and comfort.

Give them strength and compassion to sustain others.

Send your Spirit upon us,

that we may learn to welcome and integrate care for mental health

into the life and ministry of our communities and of the whole Church,

and thus become a living sign of your mercy,

which never abandons and always restores.

Amen.”

“Pray with the Pope” is accessible on the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network website and its digital platforms.

The Oct. 1 event marked the beginning of a week of prayer for the initiative “One Million Children Praying the Rosary,” promoted by the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need.

The Holy Father greeted the children at the beginning. He thanked them and encouraged them to be good at home, in their families, at school, in catechism classes, and in sports, because peace also grows in this way.

“I am truly happy to be with you! And you, children, tell me: Are you happy to have come? Good, that makes me happy too. Above all, because this evening we have gathered together to be with the two people who love us more than anyone else. Who are they? The Lord Jesus and his mother, Mary, who never leave us alone and who are always close to us,” Pope Leo said in his address before the rosary.

“We love them too, don’t we?” he added. “Shall we tell them? Let’s try. Let us repeat together: ‘I love you, Jesus. I love you, Mary.’ Yes, we love you, Jesus and Mary, and this evening we ask you for a special gift: peace for all the children of the world, especially those who live where there is war, in so many countries across the earth.”

“We do this through the prayer of the holy rosary, which is a simple prayer that everyone can pray,” the pope affectionately emphasized to the children.

He noted that “in a little while we will light candles, and we will reflect on Jesus in some important moments of his life … These are moments in which he gave us wonderful gifts that we must never forget, and for this we want to thank him.

Calling on the children to repeat with him, he said: “Let us do that together as well, once again. Let us all say: ‘Thank you, Jesus!’ And let us ask him with confidence, all united: ‘Give us peace!’”

For the pope, the children’s rosary initiative represents “50 million Hail Marys rising to heaven from every corner of the world and in every language on earth, asking for peace, and joining together like one immense rosary garland, embracing and drawing together all the continents, races, and nations of the planet.”

Upon his arrival for the rosary, the pope also presented a small bouquet of flowers to Our Lady. It was a simple gesture carried out together with a child at the replica grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes in the Vatican Gardens.

For the first time this year, the prayer campaign will take place over the course of an entire week, from Oct. 1–7, allowing dioceses, parishes, schools, communities, and families across different continents to participate in the prayer for peace and unity.

Similar initiatives are already being prepared in other countries, such as Bolivia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and many other places marked by war, poverty, or instability.

The 2026 campaign is inspired by the message of Fátima: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”

The rosary was led by the children through readings, songs, and brief reflections on countries affected by war. The Hail Mary was also recited in several languages.

In this year’s invitation to participants, Cardinal Kurt Koch, international president of Aid to the Church in Need and prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, recalled that Mary’s Immaculate Heart represents a life completely open to the Holy Spirit and presents Mary as a model of faith, love, and prayer.

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.

“The ecological challenge of our time is, in fact, more urgent than ever. On the one hand, we are witnessing the uncontrolled consumption of resources; on the other, the management and disposal of enormous quantities of waste are becoming increasingly problematic,” he cautioned on Oct. 1.

Leo XIV also recalled that, for Christians, care for creation is part of a moral responsibility.

“As Christians, we cannot resign ourselves to accepting the throwaway culture; rather, we are called to make wise use of creation,” he stressed.

“To avoid considering every used object as mere waste, it is necessary to change our behavior and commit ourselves to taking a different path. In essence, this means overcoming the consumerist model and moving toward a productive system capable of preserving the limited goods of our planet,” the pontiff said.

Leo XIV praised the company’s work in the field of recycling, an activity that, in his view, “demonstrates that it is possible to commit ourselves in this direction.”

As part of its collaboration on environmental sustainability and the circular economy, the Hera Group donated to Vatican City State in April a fully electric truck with a range of 60 kilometers (about 37 miles), which is used to collect waste within Vatican territory.

“The work you carry out, including here in the Vatican, bears witness to the fact that the culture of waste can be successfully opposed by a culture of care. This culture is not limited simply to objects and products but extends from them to human labor, and from labor to persons. For it is we who inhabit the world and who, through our decisions and behavior, live in it as a gift from God,” he said from the Apostolic Palace.

The Holy Father also thanked the company for its commitment to environmental protection: “I am grateful for the work you do in seeking to contribute to the care of our common home, and I encourage you to continue in this commitment.”

The pope also cited Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’, which states that “the model of recycling and circular production is a good path for ensuring a sustainable environment for future generations.”

“It is important to set an example of consistency: The Church must be the first to put into practice what she herself proclaims,” he added.

“Through our synergy, we will be able to make the home we all share ever more beautiful and welcoming,” Leo concluded.

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.

Specifically, the document supports changes to canons concerning the ability of lay faithful to exercise “offices, roles, and ministries within the Church for which they are qualified and competent, including in the realm of ecclesiastical governance.”

The text, originally drafted in Italian and also available in English, is not binding and must now be examined by Pope Leo XIV. It is one of the reports prepared by the 10 study groups created by Pope Francis in 2024 as part of the Synod on Synodality. These groups are dissolved once their work has been completed and published.

The commission tasked with studying the reforms was coordinated by Archbishop Filippo Iannone, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, and included prominent experts in canon law.

Its members included Jesuit Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda; Dutch canon lawyer Myriam Wijlens; Monsignor Matteo Visioli, referendary of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura; Monsignor Giacomo Incitti, professor at the Pontifical Urbaniana University; Hungarian canonist Péter Szabó; Father Alphonse Borras; Professor José San José Prisco, dean of the Faculty of Canon Law at the Pontifical University of Salamanca; Father Benedict Ndubueze Ejeh, dean of the St. Pius X Faculty of Canon Law in Venice, Italy; and Italian Father Gianluca Merlini, secretary of the commission.

A limited but significant reform

The commission considers that a “profound reform of the canonical legal system” is not necessary in order to implement the ideas that emerged from the synodal process.

According to the report, “the Church’s current legal system already provides adequate provisions for greater recognition and designation of lay persons to assume roles and functions of ecclesial co-responsibility together with the pastors.” Nevertheless, it acknowledges that these provisions are “often overlooked” and, in some cases, “require greater normative affirmation to be more practical and effective.”

For this reason, the proposals seek to adapt certain aspects of canon law to the conclusions of the synod, especially regarding the participation of laypeople in the Church’s mission.

The document also insists that the synodal process “does not diminish the decision-making authority of the bishop, the college of bishops, or the pope, but integrates the contribution of the People of God, giving the synodal act a truly communal character.”

Among the canons examined are Canons 204, 208, and 212, which affirm the equal dignity of all the baptized and their right to participate in the life of the Church; Canons 228 and 230, which regulate the possibility of laypeople exercising ecclesiastical offices and ministries; Canon 145, concerning ecclesiastical offices; and Canon 275, which promotes collaboration between clergy and laity.

Papal infallibility under review

Also studied were Canons 476 and 483, related to certain functions of governance and administration in dioceses; Canon 1112, which under specific circumstances allows a layperson to validly assist at the celebration of marriages; Canons 1421 and 1425, concerning lay participation in ecclesiastical tribunals; and Canon 749, which regulates the exercise of the infallible magisterium of the Catholic Church.

Should the proposals advance, it would not be the first time the Vatican has examined reformulating the understanding of papal infallibility. In June 2024, a study by the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, titled “The Bishop of Rome,” collected suggestions for adapting the exercise of Petrine primacy in light of the fruits of decades of ecumenical dialogue.

Greater weight for laity and religious

Among the most significant proposals is the revision of several canons to strengthen the synodal dimension of particular councils, diocesan synods, and pastoral councils.

One of the most notable changes would affect Canon 443, with the goal of making possible “the participation of all members of the People of God ... in a proportion equal to that of the ‘ex officio’ members” in particular councils.

The proposal goes beyond expanding the presence of lay faithful and men and women religious. It also calls for removing the Latin word “tantum” (“only”), which currently limits their participation to “a consultative vote” in various ecclesial bodies.

This restriction appears in several canons of the code, including Canons 443 and 444 concerning particular councils; Canon 466 regarding the diocesan synod; and Canons 500, 514, and 536, which regulate the presbyteral council, diocesan pastoral council, and parish pastoral council, respectively.

If approved, these bodies would no longer be structured solely according to a consultative logic but would move toward stronger forms of power in decision-making.

Greater autonomy for bishops’ conferences

The proposals also seek to strengthen the role of bishops’ conferences and promote greater decentralization. Among the suggested changes is a revision of Canon 440, Paragraph 1, to establish a “ten-year frequency” for the celebration of particular councils. The aim is to encourage their regular convocation and restore a more significant role for them in the life of the Church.

Likewise, the commission proposes modifying Canon 1112 to eliminate the need for intervention by the Holy See when a bishops’ conference authorizes laymen and laywomen to assist at marriages under the circumstances foreseen by law.

The reforms also include adjustments to Canon 403, Paragraph 1, to provide a clearer definition of the nature and mission of auxiliary bishops within the pastoral governance of dioceses.

Similarly, a modification to Canon 450, Paragraph 3, is proposed to allow retired bishops to serve on commissions of bishops’ conferences, thereby making use of their pastoral and governance experience after they have stepped down from leading a diocese.

Accountability in episcopal governance

The third section of the report emphasizes that the “widest possible” participation of the baptized requires institutional mediation, especially within the local Church, and describes participatory bodies as “primary places of participation,” where the faithful contribute according to their “canonical condition, charisms, ministries, and competencies.”

Another of the report’s most significant developments is the addition of a new paragraph to Canon 391 inspired by the synod’s final document. The proposal explicitly introduces the principle of “accountability and evaluation” into the exercise of episcopal governance.

If approved, the change would represent a significant step toward greater transparency in the administration of dioceses by strengthening the obligation to explain and justify pastoral and administrative decisions within the processes of Church governance.

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.

With this theme, the Vatican will invite people “to reflect on Christ’s compassionate gaze as a way of overcoming the superficiality of relationships,” Vatican News reported.

In a statement released Tuesday, Sept. 29, the Vatican warned that the so-called “attention economy,” in its struggle “for a few moments of interest amid the rapid and endless flow of content,” is transforming “not only our cognitive abilities but also the depth of our interpersonal communication.”

The reflection comes at a particularly significant moment for communicators, as social media and digital platforms reward speed, immediate emotion, and controversy while listening and thoughtful analysis are often pushed aside. Faced with this reality, the Vatican proposes an authentic “conversion of our gaze.”

“We are called to a conversion of our gaze: to look again, with attention and with love. Only in this way will we be able to see the world, others, and even ourselves, as Christ sees us: called by name and loved,” the message states.

The Vatican’s proposal maintains that “our communication changes when our gaze chooses to encounter others rather than judge them.”

The message also identifies some of the cultural consequences of hyperconnectivity. “The lack of genuine attention, fueled by digital culture, has accustomed us to a routine of rapid reactions, to superficial relationships, and to the ease with which we label and reject others,” the document warns.

As a response, the Vatican proposes recovering the deeper meaning of attention, understood not as a communication technique but as an attitude of openness toward others and toward the truth. “Yet attention is a precious form of generosity: the word ‘attention’ comes from ‘ad-tendere’ — to reach out toward the other and toward the truth.”

For Christian communicators, this attitude finds its model in Christ. The text recalls that “Christian communication can rediscover attention as both a gift and a way of seeing — the gaze of Jesus, who saw and allowed himself to be touched.”

In this way, the message challenges a widely accepted logic within today’s digital ecosystem: the idea that attention is a commodity. The Vatican offers a different perspective. “Communicating is not about capturing attention, nor about selling it, but about safeguarding it as a precious resource for relationships,” the statement says.

Therefore, in an environment marked by clickbait and an overabundance of content, the Vatican encourages the development of a genuine “hygiene of attention,” capable of protecting the human capacity to perceive reality in depth.

“To communicate in the age of ‘clickbait,’ we are called to ‘pay attention’ and to rediscover a genuinely healthy attention (cf. Magnifica Humanitas 146),” the text states.

Finally, the message recalls that authentic communication engages the whole person. It is not limited to words or platforms; it requires an interior disposition to encounter others genuinely.

“Communication is not just about words, it involves the entire person and asks us to look, hear and feel again in order to answer Christ’s call,” the statement concludes.

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 evangelist and founder of Word on Fire Ministries delivered the keynote address at the “America at 250” event at the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See in Rome on Sept. 30. The embassy sponsored the event, and U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Brian Burch was present.

Catholicism and America: A shared but tense history

In his speech, Barron praised the relationship between the Catholic Church and the U.S. while acknowledging tense moments in their shared history.

“I speak to you today as both a proud American and a proud bishop of the Catholic Church,” Barron said. “I stand with those who see no essential or fundamental tension between these two identities. To be sure, Catholicism and America have had a somewhat rocky relationship over the past two and a half centuries, and their rapport has been variously interpreted.”

Burch, speaking to EWTN News on the sidelines, described this tension as indicative of a unique moment in U.S. history, particularly with the first U.S.-born pope, Leo XIV.

“You have this extraordinary confluence of circumstances where you have an American pope, and you have a president and an administration filled with many Catholics,” Burch said. “The American experiment itself has a lot of common ground with the Churchʼs teaching and social doctrine.”

Catholic praise for America’s commitment to human rights

Barron said the U.S. founders drew on a mix of sources and that their ideas shouldn’t be reduced to modern secular philosophy alone. St. John Paul II explained rights differently, he said.

“During his first trip to the U.S. as pope in 1979, John Paul praised our country for its commitments to human rights, defined in a theological rather than Hobbesian way,” Barron said. “Instead of grounding rights in individual desire, John Paul II grounds them in human dignity.”

Speaking to EWTN News on the sidelines, Barron also described his involvement with the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which is tasked with defending religious freedom, as a Catholic bishop.

“Well, Iʼve just started on that commission. I spent a year with the national commission that President Trump established, but this one was established by Congress many years ago. We just had our first meetings by Zoom because I was here in Rome,” Barron explained.

“Itʼs a watchdog group to keep an eye on violations of religious liberty.”

Barron will ordain 18 deacons for the Pontifical North American College at St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 1.

Brian Schumacher contributed to this report.

Monsignor Anthony Ekpo, assessor for general affairs of the Secretariat of State and president of the Financial Security Committee, spoke at a conference at Rome’s Luiss University on Sept. 29. According to Vatican News, the event marked 15 years since Pope Benedict XVI introduced anti-money-laundering legislation at the Vatican in late 2010.

Ekpo, in his remarks, stressed that ongoing financial reform at the Vatican is necessary to confront new technologies used in financial crime that may threaten it.

“The next 15 years will bring risks that would have been difficult to imagine in 2010: increasingly complex financial technologies, instantaneous cross-border transactions, activities involving virtual assets, artificial intelligence, and new forms of financial crime,” Ekpo said.

In 2010, Italian authorities seized 23 million euros from accounts linked to the Vatican bank during an anti-money-laundering investigation and later returned the funds. In response, Pope Benedict established the Supervisory and Financial Information Authority (ASIF), a Vatican institution to prevent money laundering.

Ekpo highlighted the context in which Benedict implemented anti-money-laundering legislation and noted the progress made by Popes Francis and Leo XIV, who approved a new ASIF statute in June.

“Today, 15 years on, we can recognize significant progress,” Ekpo said.

“A culture of financial integrity has gradually developed through the patient work of legislators, regulatory and supervisory authorities, financial intelligence experts, law enforcement agencies, judges, and institutions.”

“Carlo Acutis: The Young Saint” premiered at the Vatican Film Library on Sept. 29. The documentary, featuring never-before-seen footage of Acutis’ life and family, also marks the 20th anniversary of his death from leukemia in 2006.

From home videos to photos of his pilgrimages to sites such as Rome, Milan, and Fátima, the film, according to a press release, will convey the impact of Carlo’s message and his relatable holiness.

The documentary will be shown in Italian theaters from Oct. 15–21 before premiering in Europe and then in North America in February 2027.

‘Carlo still works miracles in a world no longer interested in God’

Among those present at the Vatican for the screening was Carlo’s mother, Antonia Salzano Acutis. Speaking to EWTN News on the sidelines after the screening, she reflected on the impact of Carlo’s 2025 canonization. Antonia described his legacy as proving that God exists in a world where he is often forgotten.

“In todayʼs world, it almost seems as if faith has become something obsolete: People are distant, technology is idolized to the extreme, as though people no longer care about God,” she told EWTN News. “Carlo, on the other hand, calls us back to eternal life and reminds us of the truth that God exists.”

She also spoke on the comfort of seeing the impact of her son’s intercession worldwide, particularly after his death 20 years ago.

“Carlo used to say, 'We will all climb Golgotha sooner or later, wonʼt we?’ But he also said that a good life isnʼt necessarily a long life; it is a life where one truly manages to put God first,” she recounted.

“Many parents unfortunately lose their children, because some go earlier and some go later. But seeing everything happening now is certainly a powerful witness to my own faith, because I can genuinely see how the Lord works through Carlo.”

Pope Leo XIV canonized Carlo Acutis together with Pier Giorgio Frassati on Sept. 7, 2025.

“I Am With You,” an EWTN special documentary about Carlo’s life, is available to watch online.

“[Silence] is particularly important in a world characterized by speed, where everything must be immediately visible and every void must be filled in a hurry,” Leo said.

The pontiff made these remarks during a private audience with a delegation from the International Commission of Dominican Contemplative Nuns on Sept. 30.

In June, Leo declared Sister Maria Petra Giordano venerable. An Italian Dominican nun, Giordano was selected to help revise the constitutions of Dominican nuns after the Second Vatican Council.

‘Silence helps people hear God’s voice’

In his address, Leo encouraged the sisters to remain faithful to their charism of silent contemplation and become more attentive to themselves, the outside world, and God.

“In this regard, your constitutions call for diligent observance of a fundamental value of cloistered life: silence,” Leo said.

“Keeping silence is an act of the will that engages the whole person and helps to cultivate solid relationships, because they are animated by the Word of God,” he added.

He also praised the silent witness as a “precious” service to the Church.

An uncertain future for vocations

Like his audience to a delegation from the Federation of Capuchin Poor Clare Nuns of Italy on Sept. 21, the pope addressed their declining vocations.

“Your experience… also leads you to encounter situations of difficulty: aging communities, deaths outnumbering new vocations, a decline in working capacity with consequent financial problems,” Leo remarked.

The pope then encouraged the nuns to adapt to current needs by listening to the Spirit rather than merely trying to survive.

“I invite you not to ask yourselves so much how to maintain structures that are becoming empty. Rather, listen to what the Spirit is asking of the Dominican contemplative life today,” the pope said.

“It is precisely Notre-Dame, with the tragedy it has endured, that can symbolically shed light on this entire apostolic journey, offering a perspective that I would summarize in one word: rebirth,” the pope said during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

Leo recalled that the cathedral, devastated by fire seven years ago and once thought to be mortally wounded, has been rebuilt and is now “more splendid than ever.”

He said its restoration demonstrated what can be achieved through collaboration among the Church, the state, public institutions, and civil society.

“This approach made it possible to make the most of both the generosity of benefactors and the expertise of professionals and skilled workers,” he said.

The pope added that such cooperation for the common good should become the norm for institutions, political and social forces, and those with civic and economic responsibilities.

Firm commitment to preventing abuse

The pope also recalled his private meeting during the trip with seven victims of clerical abuse and reaffirmed the Church’s commitment to listening to survivors, accompanying them as they seek healing, and preventing future abuse.

“In this context I met some people who were victims of abuse, and I asked them to help me express to other victims too my own wish, and that of the whole Church, to listen to them and walk alongside them as they seek healing, acknowledging the pain inflicted upon their lives and working to prevent abuse,” he said.

The meeting took place Sunday at the bishop’s residence in Lourdes and lasted about two hours. Leo also spoke privately with each participant.

The Church is made of people, not stones

The Holy Father reflected on the prayer vigil he celebrated with thousands of young people at the Stade de France, describing it as a powerful sign of vitality in the Church.

“The Church, which is not made up of stones or cement but of people who love Jesus Christ because they have been loved by him,” he said.

Leo spoke of a “new French generation,” new not only in terms of age but, as he said, “even more so in spirit, in the freedom of heart and faith.”

“Young people who sang and shouted, but who also remained silent, listening. Attentive and emotional faces, which revealed hearts yearning for truth and love,” he said.

“To them I said with joy: ‘You are the saints of France!’ The vigil was a great sign of hope.”

He also highlighted the remarkable and growing number of young people and adults seeking baptism, calling it a beautiful “surprise” from God and a sign of renewal within the Church.

Lourdes and the ‘civilization of love’

Recalling his visit to Lourdes, the pope emphasized the message of hope offered to pilgrims, especially those suffering physically or spiritually.

“In Lourdes, the Lord, through the maternal care of the Virgin Mary, conveys to everyone, pilgrims and especially those who are sick in body and spirit, a message of hope and rebirth,” he said.

The pope also strongly defended the dignity of every human life, particularly in situations of profound vulnerability.

“Every human life, in whatever condition, even in the most extreme frailty, retains its inviolable dignity and deserves to be cared for, accompanied, and relieved of suffering with human compassion and with the aid of the means offered by science,” he said.

For that reason, he added, Lourdes represents for the entire world “a sanctuary of the civilization of love.”

Europe, dialogue, and peace

The final stage of Leo’s trip took him to Metz, a city in a region ravaged by World War II and closely associated with Robert Schuman, one of the principal architects of European integration.

The pope compared the reconstruction of Notre-Dame with Europe’s rebirth after World War II. He noted that the European project arose from principles of democracy, solidarity, and fraternity among peoples that owe much to the continent’s Christian roots.

He also highlighted his meeting with representatives of various religious traditions, who read and signed the “Metz Appeal” for dialogue and peace in his presence.

‘That the world may have life’

The pope concluded by recalling that the theme of his pastoral visit was “Pour que le monde ait la vie” (“That the World May Have Life”), drawn from John 6:51.

He said the words of Jesus encapsulate Christ’s mission of salvation and expressed the Gospel meaning of every encounter during the journey.

Leo ended by praying that the visit would bear “abundant and lasting fruit.”

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 reached this conclusion following a canonical process and has ordered the religious family, which has been under Vatican intervention for more than seven years and without self-governance, to undertake a path of renewal.

The decision was communicated during a meeting in Rome on Sept. 14 involving the pontifical delegates overseeing the menʼs and womenʼs branches of the congregation, provincial superiors of both institutes, and representatives of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. The decision was made public Tuesday and had also been posted on the IVEʼs website last week.

According to a Vatican statement, both the Special Criminal Tribunal of First Instance and the Court of Appeal, established by the Churchʼs competent authority, “reached moral certainty regarding the responsibility of Fr. Carlos Miguel Buela, founder of the two institutes, for committing an offense against the Sixth Commandment, perpetrated with violence against several persons,” in accordance with Canon 1395 §2 of the Code of Canon Law.

The Vatican said the clarification seeks “to restore the truth as an act of justice toward those persons who have been harmed by the founderʼs behavior.”

Reexamining the charism and purifying the institution

The statement framed the decision within the broader renewal process currently underway in both the Institute of the Incarnate Word and the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará, which remain under Vatican oversight.

The Vatican stressed the need to pursue a process of “re-reading the charism and reviewing, renewing and purifying the spirituality, formation and apostolic activity proper to each institute, distinguishing between the gift of the Holy Spirit granted for the building up of the Church and the limitations or personal actions of the founder.”

The goal, the statement said, is to distinguish the charism received for the service of the Church from the personal conduct and shortcomings of Buela, whose legacy has long been overshadowed by allegations of sexual abuse, manipulation, and serious failures in governance.

A step toward renewal

The Vaticanʼs measures amount to what is effectively a process of institutional renewal. The effort bears similarities to the path undertaken by the Holy See with the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi after the confirmation of abuses and crimes committed by their founder, Marcial Maciel.

The initiative has the support of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life, headed by Sister Simona Brambilla, as well as the two pontifical delegates originally appointed by Pope Francis and later confirmed by Pope Leo XIV: Bishop José Antonio Satué of Teruel and Albarracín, Spain, for the menʼs branch and Sister Clara Echarte for the womenʼs branch.

Presence in 45 countries

The Religious Family of the Incarnate Word is present in 45 countries and includes more than 3,000 members, including priests, religious sisters, and lay members of its Third Secular Order. Founded in Argentina in 1984, it experienced rapid international growth in the decades that followed.

However, just 11 years after its founding, the Holy See began intervening in the congregation amid allegations of sexual abuse against Buela and other concerns involving the exercise of authority and community life. Since then, various pontifical commissioners and delegates have sought to address the situation.

A major milestone came in December 2016, when the Diocese of San Rafael in Argentina publicly announced that the Vatican had found Buela guilty of “improper behavior with adults.” In a statement read at the time during a press conference, the diocese said allegations had emerged involving “sexual actions affecting religious and seminarians of the institute.”

In 2019, Spanish Cardinal Santos Abril y Castelló was appointed pontifical commissioner. He imposed restrictions on the congregationʼs expansion and publicly denounced the internal resistance he encountered during his mission.

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.

Parolin addressed the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly in New York on Sept. 26 at the opening of its 81st session. The U.N. chose “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation: A United Nations that delivers for All” as the theme for this year’s assembly.

Parolin quoted Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, which he said “emphasized that ‘there is an urgent need to shift from the ‘culture of power’ to a genuine ‘culture of negotiation,’ in which dialogue and diplomacy become the standard means of resolving conflicts.’”

Parolin said that nations have a right to self-defense, but not as a pretext for arming themselves, especially with nuclear or autonomous weapons.

“No true peace is possible without genuine common resolve for disarmament; the legitimate right of every people to provide for its own defense must not degenerate into a race to massive rearmament,” Parolin said.

Parolin’s remarks uphold the stance of the Holy See and of Pope Leo XIV regarding nuclear disarmament. In May, Pope Leo XIV rejected United States President Donald Trump’s claim that he supported nuclear weapons.

In July, Leo wrote a foreword to the book “Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift,” citing American singer Bob Dylan, who criticized the manufacture of nuclear bombs during the Cold War.

Pope Leo XIV appointed Zuppi to lead a Vatican delegation to Russia from Sept. 28–30 to advocate for the release of Ukrainian prisoners amid the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war.

According to Vatican News, this will be Zuppi’s third visit to Russia on behalf of the pope to advance the Vaticanʼs humanitarian peace efforts. Pope Francis appointed him as peace envoy in 2023 and 2024.

The Holy See’s plea for Ukrainian victims of the war

Zuppi explained that his visit to Russia on behalf of the Holy See aims to support efforts regarding prisoners of war and children separated from their families. He also said his mission reflects the concern of Pope Francis and now Pope Leo for those affected by the conflict.

“All of this is part of the humanitarian mission entrusted to me initially by Pope Francis and subsequently confirmed by Pope Leo XIV,” the cardinal said to the Russian news agency Tass. “We are assessing all the requests coming from both the Ukrainian and Russian sides, within the framework of the dialogue already initiated.”

“We wish to develop this dialogue further, aware of the suffering caused by the war, and we seek to contribute to bringing it to an end,” he added.

Recent Vatican efforts for peace in Ukraine

Zuppi’s recent trip to Russia follows that of Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states and international organizations. Gallagher visited the country from Aug. 25–28 to meet with senior Russian officials to discuss a peaceful resolution to the war.

Zuppi also visited Ukraine in July 2025, during which he visited the Russian prisoners of war held there.

From there he traveled to the Metz Cathedral — a towering Gothic structure dedicated to St. Stephen and nicknamed “the Good Lord’s lantern” for its large expanse of stained glass — where he celebrated Mass before 35,000 people both inside and outside the cathedral, according to the Vatican. He returned to Rome in the evening.

Here is a look at his day in photos:

“If someone were to ask me, am I in panic mode, no I’m not, I sleep at night. I do think the concerns raised by many experts in AI should be taken seriously,” the pope told reporters accompanying him on his flight to Rome from Metz, France, Sept. 28.

“I don’t think that is fake news, as some have said, to try and cause … financial or some other kind of benefit,” he added.

A former safety researcher at the AI company Anthropic warned earlier this month that he believes the technology’s rapid advancement could mean there’s a more than 10% chance that AI could “could kill all humans” within a decade.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei responded by calling on the AI industry to slow down the pace of advanced model development to address risks, and other industry leaders publicly supported his call.

That drew criticism of Amodei from President Donald Trump, who dismissed dire scenarios and said restrictions on AI development in the U.S. would benefit China. The two men dined together on Sunday in an apparent attempt to address their differences.

The pope’s encyclical on AI, Magnifica Humanitas, published just four months ago, included a broad call for regulation of the technology.

In recent months, concerns have grown over AI’s risks of creating advanced cyberattacks and autonomous agents that will get past human control and threaten humanity.

Pope Leo told journalists on Monday that the Vatican has organized its own commission on AI, both to coordinate its own use of the technology and to “continue to promote dialogue, study, investigation to find ways to make sure that AI doesn’t get to a point where it destroys humanity.”

“But we have to keep working. We can’t just sit back and pretend nothing is going to happen,” he said.

Leo was returning to Rome after a four-day trip to France.

In response to another reporter’s question, the pope said it was vital for the Church to proclaim Catholic social doctrine even on controversial matters such as end-of-life issues and political extremism.

Asked if he had “crossed a line” in France, where there is a strict separation of church and state, by speaking against the recent legalization there of euthanasia and assisted suicide, he said: “I didn’t cross it,” because “we’re not entering into politics; we’re applying the Gospel to people’s lives.”

“The defense of life is something that, as you all know, the Church teaches, believes very deeply,” the pope said.

“Being in a place especially like Lourdes, where people are searching for something much deeper and understanding that their lives, even in the midst of sickness or disability or pain of different kinds, that their life has meaning, the Church, because of Jesus himself, wants to be close to those people and to affirm the values that that life itself I think holds for all of us,” the pope said.

Asked whether he thought clerical sexual abuse was “systemic” in the Church, Leo said he preferred “to express it in a different way.”

He said some organizations within the Church have, at times, “as a system, been abusive.”

“But I think itʼs important to make the distinction. Sexual abuse is first and foremost a human problem. … When it happens within the Church it actually has another whole dimension added to it, because peopleʼs lives of faith are deeply wounded and sometimes even destroyed,” the pontiff said.

“The Church, in certain ways, has been seen as being responsible, but in the same way, the Church, I think, is an important part of helping [victims] to find healing.”

At the last event of his trip to France, the pope celebrated Mass in the Metz Cathedral, a towering Gothic structure dedicated to St. Stephen and nicknamed “the Good Lord’s lantern” for its large expanse of stained glass — at nearly 70,000 square feet, the most of any medieval religious structure.

“It seems that the builders sought to minimize the walls — which remain solid — so that light might flood in abundantly to the faithful,” the pope said.

“As we contemplate these stained-glass windows, we learn that Europe’s future does not lie in uniformity but in the harmony of differences, where the wounds of the past become openings through which light shines,” he said.

The Vatican said 35,000 Catholics from Metz and the neighboring areas participated in the Mass both inside the cathedral and in the surrounding streets, watching large screens. Participants described taking a day off of work or school for the occasion.

“It’s great to be able to come celebrate peace and meet all the Christians who’ve come for the occasion, and to feel that we’re all together, united for the same cause and the same values,” 20-year-old fine arts student Humbeline Deville said.

“The fact that he chose this city … and that he did us the honor of coming here is truly important to us,” said Hassina Boulariah as she walked toward the city center almost four hours before the start of Mass.

Inside the cathedral, French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, sat in the front row.

Metz, a city in northeastern France, sits just 27 miles from the Schengen tripoint, where the borders of Luxembourg, France, and Germany meet.

The Franco-German area is rich in significance for European history: It was annexed by the German Empire at the turn of the 20th century and later by Nazi Germany during World War II. Metz was also home to Robert Schuman, one of the founding fathers of the European Union.

In the Church, it is also remembered as the historical birthplace of Gregorian chant — “Metssine Chant” (also called “Metz singing”) — which developed during the eighth-century Carolingian Renaissance.

In his homily at Mass, Pope Leo recalled the history of the territory, especially the “fratricidal conflicts” that tore it apart.

Those who are from this land, he said, “know full well that it is not true that those who seek revenge are stronger than those who forgive.”

Leo said “it takes strength and great integrity not to be overwhelmed by evil, especially when the wounds inflicted are deep. However, in the face of injustice, humanity’s only path to salvation is a love that cares for others and seeks to give trust regardless of the circumstances, even when confronted with the most difficult behavior to accept.”

“In a world marked by so much violence, manipulation, and arrogance at various levels, Jesus teaches us how to transform deserts into oases, to plant gardens, and to build homes. He shows us the path that leads through forgiveness, mercy, and magnanimity,” he said.

Yvette Bisiaux pushed her adult daughter Sandrine Coquelet to the Mass in a wheelchair: “We live here, so we said, ‘Let’s go!’” she said.

Bisiaux added that she was “really moved” by the pope’s speech to the sick in Lourdes on Sept. 27. “I had tears in my eyes. It was so, so beautiful, so true.”

In his homily, the pontiff cited St. Augustine’s “The City of God,” noting that the bishop of Hippo “defined the peace of the heavenly city as a harmonious communion in which people find joy in God and in one another through him.”

St. Augustine “also described peace among people as the fruit of a “tranquillitas ordinis,” whereby each person recognizes and respects the unique and sacred dignity and role of others,” Leo added.

“Here in Metz, it is worth recalling that these are precisely the values upon which the Europe we know has been built over the centuries, with its spiritual and moral heritage preceding its economic and political heritage,” he said.

The pontiff recalled that it has never been easy to be faithful to these principles, including for those who came before us.

“Nevertheless, through faithfulness and perseverance, our ancestors bequeathed them to us as treasures to be passed on in turn to future generations, and enriched by our experience, the value of our efforts and our stories,” he said.

Before Mass, people awaiting the pope waved French or regional flags. German flags also dotted the crowds, which included enthusiastic scouts in uniform, older people seated on portable stools, and young adults embracing.

Some tired teenagers napped on the stone path of the historic outdoor market next to the cathedral.

The teens’ mother, Marion Bertagnolio, said it was worth it to take a day off from her job as a physics professor to attend the Mass.

“We are Catholics, and itʼs too important to me to come here to pray with him, to see him,” said Bertagnolio, who came with her husband and four of her six children, ages 10 to 19.

She said she hoped Leo could bring a message of peace to France, especially with presidential elections early next year. She also mentioned divisions with the country’s Catholic community, particularly over the Traditional Latin Mass.

“I hope [the pope’s] message will change our hearts” to be more united, she said.

The answer rests on the Churchʼs crucial distinction between the closed deposit of public revelation and the subordinate, pastoral role of private revelations.

The unrepeatable fullness of public revelation

A fundamental Catholic doctrine is the conviction that Godʼs self-communication reached its complete fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

As the Second Vatican Councilʼs Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, teaches, after speaking through the prophets, “in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son” (Heb 1:1-2). Christ is “the mediator and fullness of all revelation,” completing salvation through his words, deeds, death, and resurrection.

Consequently, the council declares that “no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

This boundary is firm.

In the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, the council reiterates that the faithful do not accept “a new public revelation as pertaining to the divine deposit of faith.”

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church emphasizes, and as commentary surrounding the popeʼs visit has noted, the Church has not received a single new revealed truth since the death of the last apostle.

No vision or apparition in history adds a single word to what was handed down through the apostles (Nos. 65-67).

The nature and limits of private revelation

How, then, does the Church view the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes?

The Church categorizes events like Lourdes as “private revelation.”

According to the catechism, private revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church, "do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christʼs definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history” (CCC, No. 67).

Because private revelations do not form part of mandatory doctrine, no Catholic is obliged to believe in the apparitions of Lourdes.

Church approval does not elevate an apparition to the level of dogma. Rather, such revelations remain private, nonbinding, and matters of prudent belief.

Pastoral discernment: Testing the Spirit

To protect the faithful from credulity, the Church approaches claims of apparitions with strict vigilance.

Dei Verbum states that the Churchʼs teaching authority serves the word of God by “guarding it scrupulously and explaining it faithfully” in accordance with its divine commission and with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Similarly, in Lumen Gentium, the council notes that, regarding extraordinary gifts, “judgment as to their genuineness and proper use belongs to those who are appointed leaders in the Church,” whose task is “to test all things and hold fast to what is good” (No. 12).

This principle guided the Churchʼs evaluation of St. Bernadette Soubirous' reports of apparitions in 1858.

A four-year investigation examined Bernadetteʼs character, psychological state, doctrinal orthodoxy, and the spiritual fruits associated with the apparitions, including conversions and healings. In 1862, the local bishop concluded that the faithful were justified in believing the apparitions to be authentic.

Pointing back to the Gospel

Authentic apparitions never supplant Christ. Rather, they direct believers back to sacred Scripture and the sacraments.

In his homily at Lourdes, Pope Leo XIV observed: “This Sundayʼs readings touch on a central part of the message that the Virgin Mary entrusted to St. Bernadette: the call to conversion, both tender and urgent.”

Maryʼs statements to Bernadette, including “I do not promise to make you happy in this world but in the next” and “Penance! Penance! Penance!” echo the central demands of the Gospel, the pope said.

This understanding of Maryʼs role aligns with Lumen Gentium, which teaches that the “maternal duty of Mary toward men in no wise obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows His power” (No. 60).

The council adds that “all the salvific influence of the Blessed Virgin on men originates, not from some inner necessity, but from the divine pleasure” (No. 60).

A signpost to eternal life

When Pope Leo XIV knelt at Massabielle as “a pilgrim among pilgrims,” he demonstrated the Churchʼs authentic approach to private revelation.

Popes do not go to Lourdes to seek new doctrine. Rather, they go to witness, as Pope Leo noted, how “the miracle of Lourdes is that it can awaken the joy of hope in the very midst of suffering and hardship.”

By affirming Lourdes without adding to revelation, the Church ensures that the grotto remains a signpost pointing souls back to the definitive word spoken in Jesus Christ.

“Giacomo was in the same room and saw him die. The documentary unflinchingly portrays that moment and the suffering it caused him, also aware that his own future is also marked by the disease. Yet, alongside death, there is also resurrection. In a way, that is the cross running through the entire story, because Giacomo finds the strength not to let himself be defeated and to keep moving forward,” Lia Beltrami, who co-directed the documentary with Ali Aksu, explained to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News.

Giacomo Mattivi’s daily life

The production follows the daily life of this highly intelligent young man with exquisite sensitivity as he dreams of becoming a sociologist while not shying away from the progressive physical deterioration he has endured.

Over the course of more than two decades, the disease has caused him to lose much of his muscle strength. As a child, he could walk, but today he gets around in a wheelchair. He can barely move his hands and head, just enough to control the wheelchair. Furthermore, he needs to spend many hours connected to a ventilator.

The film “tells the story of a family raising two children with such a severe illness. The parents know their children’s lives will be marked by hardship and will likely be shorter. Even simple activities, like getting up in the morning, require hours of assistance,” Beltrami noted.

Faith and family: The only way to persevere

Despite the severity of the illness, Giacomo’s life is a testament to hope, which the documentary captures well by showing how faith has helped the family persevere. The young man is no longer afraid to face the end of his life head-on, and he has even found meaning in his brother’s death.

He is currently finishing his sociology studies and will dedicate his thesis to the subject of death. “He wants to talk about a reality that is taboo in our society, considering both what might lie beyond death and what happens before reaching it,” the Italian director explained.

The documentary was filmed in the Dolomites, the mountain range in northern Italy where Giacomo lives, and images of pine forests envelop the entire setting.

In fact, the title of the documentary, “Green Lava,” is no coincidence. “For Giacomo, the green of the pines is an essential pillar of his life, while the lava represents the force of a volcano. He feels like a volcano and needs that lava to remain forever alive, never to petrify,” Beltrami explained, evoking the idea that identity must undergo profound, sometimes strange and violent, changes in order to keep growing.

In Hollywood

Last week, the production was presented in Los Angeles as part of the process to qualify for Academy Award consideration. “Green Lava” was screened at the Lumiere Music Hall in Beverly Hills, California, Sept. 18–24.

The film was produced by the Vatican through the company Emotions to Generate Change in collaboration with Vatican News and Vatican Media.

The initiative marks the first time a production linked to the Holy See has entered the Oscars competition. However, “Green Lava” will not compete officially representing the Vatican.

The Best Documentary Short Subject category allows for the entry of independent productions and does not require formal backing from a government or national committee.

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.

Referring to the large presence of immigrants in Europe, Leo said: “We must grasp the historical significance of what is taking place, namely an unprecedented encounter between peoples and cultures, which calls us to rediscover our roots in new and creative ways, while at the same time listening carefully to others.”

“The universal character of Europe’s founding values assures us that this dialogue is possible and that it can provide a solid foundation for our societies, enabling us to work more effectively for peace and a reconciled world,” he said Sept. 28.

The pope also encouraged Europe to help migrants enter safely and legally and to integrate into the community “as if they were part of one’s own family.”

The pope addressed European leaders at the Robert Schuman Conference Center in Metz on the final day of his Sept. 25–28 visit to France. The title of the event was “To the Roots of Europe for Peace and Unity.”

Metz is a city just 27 miles from the Schengen tripoint, where the borders of Luxembourg, France, and Germany meet — an area rich in significance for European history.

The city is linked to Robert Schuman, one of the founding fathers of the European Union, who lived there and is buried nearby.

Schuman, a French statesman whose leadership was shaped by two world wars and by his Catholic faith, used politics to work for reconciliation among nations. He was declared “venerable” by Pope Francis in 2021 in recognition of his heroic virtues.

“Robert Schuman, who lived through a time of constantly shifting borders, helped to lay the foundations of a Europe that was aware of the urgent need to tear down the walls that were dividing it,” Leo said.

Schuman’s Christian formation, the pontiff continued, “taught him the value of equality, without distinction of race or social class, and the dignity of work. The succession of different national sovereignties taught him the importance of international law and the value of keeping one’s word. … Schuman committed himself to peace and fraternity among peoples who, after having been in conflict for so long, finally recognized their need for each other.”

Among those present in the 1,200-seat auditorium were the heads of the bishops’ conferences of Europe; abbots and abbesses of local monasteries; French President Emmanuel Macron; Prince Albert II and Princess Charlène of Monaco; Grand Duke Guillaume and Grand Duchess Stéphanie of Luxembourg; Prime Minister Luc Frieden of Luxembourg; and Anke Rehlinger, minister president of Saarland in the Federal Republic of Germany.

In today’s multicultural context of Europe, Leo said, it is important to affirm the universal character of values such as those contained in the preamble of the Treaty on European Union: “the inviolable and inalienable rights of the human person, freedom, democracy, equality, and the rule of law.”

Quoting Schuman, the pope said: “World peace cannot be safeguarded if constructive efforts are not made commensurate with the dangers that threaten it.”

In a closing message to the young people of Europe, he encouraged them to “take up with responsibility the task of promoting peace … Do not give in to the mentality of violence and oppression.”

“Love life at every moment, and do not be afraid of the future! Do not be afraid to start a family, to bring children into the world, to defend the dignity of every person, from the moment of conception to death,” he said.

Interreligious meeting

Earlier in the morning, Pope Leo met in another room of the conference center with the chief rabbi of France and representatives of Muslims, Buddhists, Protestants, and Orthodox Christians in France.

After a musical performance, an interreligious declaration was read and signed by the religious leaders present, including Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille, president of the French bishops’ conference.

In his message to the assembly, Leo said the greatness of a religion is measured by the way it cares for and protects human beings, including the most vulnerable, from conception to death.

“If the fruitfulness of religious traditions is seen above all in their service of peace and fraternity, it is also expressed in their ability to protect, accompany, and serve life,” he said.

“The greatness of a civilization is not measured by its material achievements but by the way it cares for, protects, and upholds the human person,” the pope said, adding that “religions are guardians of life, for they affirm its sacred value.”

“For those of us who are open to transcendence, our mission is to offer sound points of reference, especially to young people, to help build a communion that respects and upholds the dignity of every human person,” he said.

The nearly two-hour encounter took place at the residence of the local bishop, where Leo is staying for his two nights at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Speaking to journalists after the meeting, one of the victims, Jérôme Guillement, said: “There was something sincere about [Pope Leo]. With him, every word was carefully chosen; every word had meaning. … There were a lot of emotions.”

According to the Holy See Press Office, Leo spent an hour and a half speaking to the four men and three women individually, before addressing them as a group for about 20 minutes and “thanking them for their painful testimony and reaffirming his commitment to ensuring that the harm they experienced is not repeated for others.”

He “expressed his solidarity with them and, through them, with all those who have suffered and continue to suffer from the wounds of abuse,” the statement said.

Leo also prayed with some of the victims.

“I sensed that he was a man of commitment and also a man of resolve,” Olivier Mardi, one of the participants, said after the meeting. “He’s not fooled and knows that these events will continue and that we must remain vigilant… There was an emotional side to it, and at the same time something very powerful when he speaks.”

Five of the seven involved in the meeting revealed their identities ahead of the pope’s trip. Among them was Bertrand Virieux, a victim of ex-priest Bernard Preynat, who in 2020 was sentenced to five years in prison for assaults on young scouts in the Archdiocese of Lyon. Preynat died in 2024.

The Church in France has been grappling with the repercussions of abuse in the wake of an independent commission’s report that hundreds of thousands of children had been abused by clergy and religious over the past 70 years.

The Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE) published a nearly 2,500-page final report in October 2021, estimating that 216,000 children were abused by priests, deacons, monks, or nuns in France from 1950 to 2020.

It added that when abuse by lay Church workers was also taken into account, “the estimated number of child victims rises to 330,000 for the whole of the period.”

The victims were accompanied by Bishop Gérard Le Stang of Amiens, president of the Council for the Prevention and Combating of Pedophilia within the French bishops’ conference.

Guillement said Leo “felt that the Church in France still had a great deal of work to do” to prevent abuse.

“We talked about prevention as part of a cultural shift at all levels … There are different opinions, but from his perspective, there’s still a systemic dimension at play,” the man added.

According to Mardi, the pontiff “responded well to our very concrete proposals; he knows he has to work with us… He said we need to rekindle hope, and it takes serious commitment to make that happen.”

Pope Leo spoke about the clerical sexual abuse of minors in his address to the French bishops on the morning of Sept. 27.

“In recent years, you have faced with determination the painful scourge of abuse committed against minors by members of the clergy or in an ecclesial context,” he said.

The pontiff praised them for their courageous measures to listen, search for truth, justice, forgiveness, and making amends, as well as “a firm commitment to a culture of prevention and protection against these crimes.”

“You must continue along the path you have begun, maintaining the greatest vigilance,” he said.

Before addressing the bishops, Leo stopped in front of a memorial for victims of child sexual abuse, featuring the brief reflection of an anonymous victim.

“[The victim] will come to understand that it was the entire culture of a system that sought to protect itself rather than protect him,” an inscription on the memorial reads. “And his turmoil continues to deepen around this question: Why can’t justice be done for him? It is so vital to him that he may finally find peace and that the tears of his childhood may cease to flow.”

At an open-air Mass later on Sunday morning, the pope seemed to allude to the clerical abuse crisis, saying in his homily that “in order to heal the deep wounds, infidelities, and painful errors that have occurred within [the Church], we must humbly place ourselves under the Lord’s purifying gaze. Recognizing our own faults is essential to our spiritual growth.”

The pope’s plans for a private conversation with victims ignited controversy among several abuse support groups in France who criticized the format of the meeting and the exclusion of victims’ organizations.

Asked about the criticism, Bishop Pierre-Antoine Bozo, the spokesman of the French bishops’ conference, told journalists that “there are many survivor groups … If all of them had been included or brought together, it would have been a very large format, and it would not have had the same impact.”

“What helps us most in accompanying victims is listening to them. And to do that, you cannot have 50 people sitting in front of you. That is really what the pope wanted,” Bozo said.

The Lourdes shrine was an evocative backdrop for the meeting with abuse victims, since it is among the first shrines to cover artwork by the accused sexual abuser Father Marko Rupnik, currently on trial at the Vatican.

Mosaics by Rupnik on the façade of the Basilica of the Rosary were covered ahead of Leo’s visit and will remain indefinitely hidden.

“It had come to carry such a symbolic burden for victims that, even though many of the people who come to Lourdes are not abuse victims, for those who are, something had to be done,” Bozo said.

“If it becomes so difficult for people to come to Lourdes, people who should have a privileged place there because they are suffering, then the situation is no longer acceptable,” the spokesman added. “So I think covering the mosaics is a first step. Afterward, something new will have to be proposed, perhaps a new work of art.”

As Leo prepares to reach Metz, at the crossroads of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, what message can he offer a continent increasingly torn between the Christian imperative to welcome the stranger and growing concerns over the social, cultural, and security consequences of mass immigration?

The balance is particularly difficult to strike, not least for a pope whose experience has been largely shaped by Latin America, where migration raises different demographic and civilizational challenges than in Europe. So far, he has combined strong continuity with Pope Francis’ defense of migrants and a more explicit recognition of the rights of nations, the demands of integration, and the concerns of receiving societies.

It is against this backdrop that Leo is traveling to Metz on Sept. 28 for an interreligious meeting, followed by an address on the “Roots of Europe for Peace and Unity” at the Robert Schuman Conference Centre. He already sent a strong international signal by visiting Maison Bakhita, a Paris center for migrants, on Sept. 26, just one day before the World Day of Migrants and Refugees.

At Europe’s crossroads

More than a decade after the 2015 migration crisis, immigration has become one of the defining fault lines of European politics — and increasingly of European Catholicism itself.

That year alone, more than 1.2 million people applied for asylum in the European Union, and migration pressures have remained a major continental issue ever since, with political repercussions still unfolding.

In the weeks preceding Leo’s arrival in Metz, the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) scored two historic victories in regional elections, while in France, Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National is already well ahead of its rivals in polls for the 2027 presidential election.

The term “remigration” itself, once largely confined to fringe circles, has entered the European political vocabulary, as illustrated by the large-scale “Save Europe Act” campaign, which advocates an end to mass immigration and a policy of remigration. It has already gathered some 750,000 signatures and sparked a confrontation with the European Commission over its attempted registration as a European Citizens’ Initiative.

These mounting tensions are increasingly reflected within the Church itself. While identitarian Catholic voices and platforms have gained visibility on social media, much of the Catholic hierarchy has continued to place strong emphasis on the duty to welcome migrants.

In Germany, Catholic bishops have also repeatedly warned against the AfD and the growing appeal of “remigration,” while Cardinal Gerhard Müller, following the party’s historic victory in Saxony-Anhalt this month, accused bishops of misusing their spiritual authority by intervening in partisan politics and thereby alienating Catholic AfD voters.

In Italy, meanwhile, Archbishop Giancarlo Perego, head of the bishops’ migration commission, recently accused Giorgia Meloni’s government of placing “borders before people.”

France has been marked by equally heated Catholic debates on the issue over the past decade.

In “Église et immigration: le grand malaise,” published in 2017, conservative writer Laurent Dandrieu accused Church leaders of reducing Catholic teaching to an almost exclusive imperative of welcome while neglecting the major upheavals experienced by local communities.

More recently, Father Benoist de Sinety, in “La Cause du Christ,” attacked the opposite temptation of instrumentalizing Christianity in the service of identitarian politics.

A column published this month in La Nef magazine challenged what it regarded as a false choice between Christian hospitality and attachment to one’s cultural inheritance.

A ‘rupture’ with the previous pontificate?

Pope Leo, however, seems sensitive to the nuances demanded by this growing polarization. While maintaining the firm defense of migrants that characterized Francis’ pontificate, he has also given unusual prominence to the responsibilities of migrants and the legitimate concerns of the societies that receive them.

Barely a month after his election, Leo prayed at Pentecost that the Holy Spirit might “open borders, break down walls,” and overcome the “logic of exclusion” of political nationalisms. Yet, while supporting the U.S. bishops’ opposition to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation policies last November, he stated unequivocally that “every country has a right to determine who and how and when people enter,” rejecting the idea that states should have open borders.

This drive for balance was reaffirmed during his visit to the Canary Islands in June, when he invoked the “right not to have to migrate,” warned against the creation of “parallel worlds,” and asserted that host societies must be able to welcome newcomers without “diluting their identity.”

This language has led some Catholic observers, including French Vatican analyst Jean-Marie Guénois, to speak of a “rupture” with his predecessor on immigration. But his approach appears less a break than an attempt to better articulate a tension already present in Catholic doctrine.

A delicate balance

Indeed, the Catechism of the Catholic Church itself holds together principles that are often separated in today’s debate. It asks wealthier nations to welcome foreigners seeking security and vital resources “to the extent they are able,” while affirming that political authorities may regulate immigration for the sake of the common good. Migrants, in turn, are called to respect the laws as well as the “material and spiritual heritage” of their host country (No. 2241).

The Catholic Church therefore establishes moral obligations without prescribing minimum or maximum thresholds. Such teaching inevitably requires prudential judgments concerning integration, security, social cohesion, and the common good — precisely the areas over which Catholics today are most deeply divided.

At a time when Europe’s migration debate is hardening and divisions are deepening to the point of threatening the unity of the Church, the question is no longer simply whether Catholics should welcome the stranger or defend the continuity of nations and cultures. It is whether the Church can speak credibly both to Europeans who feel dispossessed of their future and to the migrant who, more often than not, does not know Christ.

Leo’s address at the “Roots of Europe” conference may offer a first indication of how he intends to navigate between these two realities in an increasingly tense European context.

“I know that for some of you, because of particular illnesses and, at times, terrible pain, your horizon may appear dark, uncertain, and without hope. But no human law should ever make you lose the certainty of your dignity,” the pope said during a meeting with about 5,000 sick people and caregivers at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes on Sept. 27.

“It is precisely in the name of this inalienable dignity of the human person that we must reject the temptation to cause death under the guise of false compassion,” the pontiff added to loud applause. “It is impossible to regard causing death as something normal. What is legal is not necessarily moral.”

The popeʼs remarks on end-of-life concerns were met with applause and shouts of “Bravo.”

France legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia this summer, becoming the fifth European country to do so after Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Spain. In addition, Switzerland and Austria permit assisted suicide.

Euthanasia is the intentional ending of a person’s life to relieve suffering. It differs from assisted dying, in which the patient takes life-ending drugs himself, under a physician’s guidance. Both practices are prohibited by Catholic teaching.

Leo met Sept. 27 with staff and sick guests of the Accueil Notre-Dame (Notre Dame Home), a residential accommodation classified as a healthcare facility, which hosts sick, disabled, and frail pilgrims to Lourdes.

The Catholic shrine is one of the most visited in the world, drawing more than 3 million people every year, many in search of miraculous physical healing.

The 136-acre property includes the Grotto of Massabielle, where a young St. Bernadette Soubirous saw 18 apparitions of the Virgin Mary starting on Feb. 11, 1858. Today, pilgrims to the sanctuary bathe themselves in the freshwater spring Mary revealed to Bernadette.

Visitors have reported 7,000 healings since the apparitions; after lengthy investigations, the Church has declared that 72 of the recoveries were miraculous, meaning unexplainable by science.

“Here in Lourdes, the city of the sick and of hope, I appeal to the entire healthcare community to remember the profound meaning of your vocation, which is to care for a suffering person, not to eliminate that person,” Pope Leo said.

He encouraged healthcare workers to be “passionate servants of life” and cited his speech to the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation in June, in which he said "no one ever has the right, “on the basis of laboratory algorithms, to decide the life of a given embryo or elderly person! Medicine must never become the servant of programmed death!”

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Earlier in the morning, the pope addressed the French bishops’ conference, praising the bishops’ courage in opposing the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide.

“I encourage you to persevere, together with all people of goodwill who uphold the same values,” he told the bishops.

In his remarks to the sick and caregivers, Leo called for structures for palliative care and urged the healthcare field to accompany the sick with the same tenderness they receive in Lourdes.

“Doctors, nurses, stretcher-bearers, chaplains, pastoral teams serving the sick, and so many others live out their vocation in the service of the dignity of the human person, so that the world may have life,” he said.

“Dear brothers and sisters who are sick,” he concluded, “I want to tell you that you are not a burden. You are the beating heart of our humanity and a precious treasure for the Church. I carry in my prayers the trials you are going through.”

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Immediately after the meeting, the pope walked next door to greet the Discalced Carmelite nuns whose monastery faces the grotto of the apparitions from across the river Gave de Pau. The contemplative monastery was founded in 1876, just 18 years after Mary appeared to St. Bernadette.

Rosary procession

The pope concluded his visit to Lourdes with a torchlight rosary procession from the Grotto of Massabielle to the forecourt of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary.

“We are gathered this evening to respond to the request that Our Lady addressed to the priests through St. Bernadette: ‘People should come here in procession,’” Leo said at the procession’s end.

“How moving it is to see the faithful from one generation to the next respond with love and trust to the tender invitation of the Virgin Mary. … I give thanks to the Lord that I, too, may respond this evening to the call of our Mother, becoming a pilgrim among pilgrims.”

Pope Leo said those who are sick “are privileged witnesses to this transfiguration of our lives through faith and love of God and neighbor.”

“It is indeed necessary to come here and take part in this procession with you, dear brothers and sisters who are ill, in order to experience this full reality,” he added. “As Pope Pius XII wrote: ‘No one has ever seen such a procession of suffering in one spot on earth, never such radiance of peace, serenity, and joy.’”

The pontiff called it a miracle to find “serenity and joy amidst suffering.”

“God grants us the grace to perceive the life-giving presence of the risen Christ among us. He enables us to look beyond our earthly horizon towards a more distant future, a future of immeasurable happiness in God,” he said.

Federica Postiglione has volunteered for 30 years with UNITALSI, an Italian organization that arranges pilgrimages for sick and disabled people. Leo’s visit to Lourdes coincided with the organization’s national pilgrimage, which brought about 4,000 people to the shrine this year.

“The pilgrimage in itself is already truly a gift and a grace,” Postiglione, who is from Naples, Italy, told EWTN News. “Coming to Lourdes … with the pope, was very, very beautiful.”

She said it was wonderful to experience the anticipation that the pilgrims in their group felt as they waited to see Pope Leo in his encounter with the sick and their caregivers.

Her favorite moment was seeing how, “despite the fences, he wanted to meet and greet some of the sick people.”

Virginia Wildemann, a pilgrim from Long Island, New York, participating in the rosary procession, said she had experienced illness and “wanted to come here and I wanted to bathe myself in the holy water, and it’s a shame because we can’t do that because the pope is here, and being that he’s here, everything is closed — the grotto, the baths — but I was able to get some holy water, which is fantastic.”

Wildemann said she absorbed the pope’s message that “we have to stay together, pray together, love one another, be kind to one another, and that’s what Jesus wants of us — to love your neighbors as you love yourself.”

Ron Denissen, a pilgrim from Delaware, said when his parish group booked the trip to Lourdes, he didn’t know the pope would be visiting the Marian pilgrimage site at the same time. Denissen said he stood along the road near his hotel as the pope passed in a motorcade.

“And as he was coming by, I yelled, ‘Go Bears!’ because he’s a Chicago fan,” referring to the Chicago Bears football team, Denissen said. “And he was looking away, but then he looked over at me and waved, and I got a picture of him up close, personal, looking at me and waving. So that was pretty special.”

This story was updated at 5:45 p.m. ET on Sept. 27, 2026, to include reporting on the torchlight rosary procession.