Justin McLellan

Fr. Gabriel Romanelli described the carnage from a recent shelling of his parish and asked the universal church community for prayers. "Let's try to convince the whole world to end this war," he said.

Pope Leo XIV called for a ceasefire and an end to the war in Gaza. The Israeli strike July 17 hit the Holy Family Catholic Church compound that Pope Francis called daily from the start of the war until he died.

Fr. Gabriel Romanelli was injured slightly, and Pope Leo renewed his urgent call for an immediate ceasefire.

"We must pray for the conversion of many people, inside and outside of the church, who still do not recognize the urgency of caring for our common home," Pope Leo XIV said while celebrating a new formulary of the Mass "for the care of creation."

After more than a decade without its most famous vacationer, the quiet town of Castel Gandolfo once again counts the pope among its summer residents.

Priests can now celebrate Mass "for the care of creation" after the Vatican announced that a new formulary of prayers and biblical readings for the Mass will be added to the Roman Missal. Pope Leo XIV will use the formulary July 9.

The world must resist the allure of modern weapons which threaten to give conflicts a ferocity surpassing that of previous wars, Pope Leo XIV said.

Pope Leo XIV asked Madagascar's bishops to embrace the care of creation as a central part of their prophetic ministry, calling on them to safeguard the unique ecological beauty and fragility of their homeland.

"I want to strongly renew an appeal to responsibility and reason," he said.

Meeting with cardinals living in and visiting Rome for an ordinary public consistory June 13, the pope approved the new canonization date for the two young blesseds and set Oct. 19 as the date for the canonization of seven others.

The cultural and pastoral diversity among clergy is not a burden but a gift that should enrich communion within the church rather than fragment it, Pope Leo XIV told the priests and deacons of the Diocese of Rome.

With his death April 21, Pope Francis marked yet another first in the history of the Catholic Church: he became the first pope to open the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica without living to close it. Among his last gestures as pope, he left the door to the world's largest church wide open.

Pope Francis has ordered the suppression of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, a Peru-based lay movement active across Latin America and the United States, and three related lay movements following decades of abuse allegations and internal investigations.

Pope Francis has cleared the way for the canonizations of three blesseds: an Armenian Catholic archbishop martyred during the Armenian genocide, a lay catechist from Papua New Guinea killed during World War II and a Venezuelan religious sister who dedicated her life to education and the poor.

Amid widespread uncertainty and social fragmentation, Pope Francis urged young people to embrace their vocation as "pilgrims of hope," offering their lives generously in service to others and as a response to God's love.

Pope Francis urged Christians to examine their consciences in Lent by comparing their daily lives to the hardships faced by migrants, calling it a way to grow in empathy and discover God's call to compassion.

"May all the baptized, as missionary disciples of Christ, make his hope shine forth in every corner of the earth," the pope wrote in in his message for World Mission Sunday, which will be celebrated Oct. 19.

"In the journey of life, we could identify hope as the signpost that marks our itinerary," Pope Francis said during a meeting with seminarians from Córdoba, Spain, Jan. 17.

Taking up the spirit of the recently inaugurated Holy Year 2025, the Cuban government has announced the release of 553 people currently serving prison sentences. That same day, the White House announced that it will no longer designate Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism and that it would eliminate some restrictions on Cuba.