Justin McLellan

Pope Leo XIV on Friday, Sept. 5 will inaugurate a new center for integral ecology on Vatican-owned property south of Rome.

The question of whether the pope has the capacity to connect with the crowds was largely put to rest this past week as Leo received an enthusiastic welcome from a million young people.

She and two sisters met with then-Bishop Robert Prevost of Chiclayo, Peru, in 2022 to report allegations. 

Pope Leo XIV has not yet had a chance to let his personality break through in a defining way. Yet if history is any guide, the stage is set for something big to emerge when Leo takes the stage with young people this week.

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.