The Editorial Directorate of the Dicastery for Communication presents the documentary "Leo in Rome", featuring interviews, archival footage, and images that retrace the years Robert Francis Prevost—now Pope Leo XIV—spent in the Eternal City. The documentary was produced by journalists Felipe Herrera-Espaliat, Salvatore Cernuzio, and Tiziana Campisi, with editing by Jaime Vizcaíno Haro.

Read all

 

Training in Safeguarding is part of the broader commitment of the Missionaries of Africa to contribute to the creation of safer spaces for everyone within the Church

Read all

 

Among the 35 archbishops who received the pallium from Pope Leo XIV in St. Peter's Basilica on the Solemnity of the Apostles Peter and Paul was Archbishop Sithembele Sipuka, who was installed as the Archbishop of Cape Town on 14 March 2026.

Read all

 

ROME (CNS) -- Pope Leo XIV's call for unity in diversity extends beyond greater communion within the Catholic Church and includes one's wider community, some newly appointed U.S. archbishops said.

Pope Leo has been a role model in a world marked by division, "to remind us we're all brothers and sisters and see one another as human beings," Archbishop Mark S. Rivituso of Mobile, Ala., told Catholic News Service in Rome June 29. 

"We're all part of one family," which inspires Catholics to see how they can help break down barriers, care for each other and foster unity through greater respect, compassion and kindness, he said after receiving the pallium -- a woolen band worn around the shoulders over Mass vestments.

Pope Leo gave newly appointed metropolitan archbishops their pallium in St. Peter's Basilica on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul; the pallium symbolizes each archbishop's bond with the pope and their responsibility to care for their people and to promote unity.

Four of the 35 archbishops receiving the pallium June 29 were from the United States, and they reflected on what they are being called to do as "shepherds." 

Speaking to The Good Newsroom June 29, Archbishop Ronald A. Hicks of New York said, "As I've received the pallium, I hope that my heart is united to the pope's heart and that together we can really be disciples of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and continue to go out and make disciples."

Speaking with CNS, Archbishop Rivituso said, the pallium "reminds us to be good shepherds for those that we are so blessed and honored to serve, to serve our flock."

However, his archdiocese spans "the whole lower half of Alabama," he said, so "I not only have Catholics, but all those in that lower half that I'm called to show the pastoral care of Jesus to."

There are people in his region facing "tremendous poverty," homelessness, mental illness, domestic violence and human trafficking, he said; "So many who are out there who feel forsaken and forgotten."

"There are so many that we have to bring the care of Jesus to. And I really believe by working together, reaching out, developing relationships, fostering partnerships, we're fostering communion," the archbishop said.

Archbishop James F. Checchio of New Orleans told CNS June 29 he feels called to help people strengthen in-person, fruitful "relations and communion," given how many people are "really super involved with their phones and with their internet and kind of living this parallel life in a way." 

His archdiocese is using social media for evangelization with a new "Office for Evangelization and Communications" because so many people are online, he said. At the same time, they are gearing efforts to bring people back into an in-person community, too.

Their current nine-week program on pastoral outreach and evangelization on the Sacred Heart will culminate in a "Welcome Home Sunday" Aug. 14th, he said, "where we'll ask everybody to invite one person to come to church with them who doesn't usually come with them. Whether it's inviting someone back who's fallen away or drifted away or someone that's been hurt or someone that's searching, whatever, but to invite one person."

Archbishop James R. Golka of Denver told CNS June 28 the pallium "represents Jesus the Good Shepherd, and a bishop is called to participate in his shepherding of his flock, which is to look out for the lost and the least and to help bring them back."

He said he feels called "to be close to our Lord and to be fascinated by Jesus and want to talk about him to everybody." 

If people allow themselves to "be fascinated with Christ, you're going to fall in love with him. You're going to want to spend your life for him, and it's really fun to spend your life for the Lord,” he said. “So it sounds simple, but if we're not doing that basic thing, we're going to be lost.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Leo XIV's second consistory gave cardinals from around the world an opportunity to candidly discuss issues ranging from synodality and artificial intelligence to the future of Catholic teaching on war, some participants told Catholic News Service.

The June 26-27 meeting brought together 178 cardinals to discuss Pope Leo's first encyclical, "Magnifica Humanitas", implementation of the final document on synodality and the Church's response to modern challenges. Interviews afterward suggested the College of Cardinals had substantive discussions on war, and the pope's repeated calls for honest dialogue within the Church. 

One of the most closely watched topics was Pope Leo's declaration in "Magnifica Humanitas" that the traditional "just war" theory is "now outdated."

"It was meant to be a constraint on war, not an endorsement of going to war," Cardinal Robert W. McElroy of Washington told CNS in an interview in Rome June 29.

Opening the first day of the consistory, Pope Leo condemned war as "never blessed by God."

"Therefore, war is never worthy of humanity, and it is never blessed by God, because, even if we are equipped with high-tech weapons, the Creator has endowed us with intelligence and free will to resolve conflicts as human beings and not as beasts," he said in his June 26 homily to the cardinals. 

Developed through the writings of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, just-war theory has long held that military force can be morally justified only under strict conditions, including self-defense, legitimate authority, proportionality and the exhaustion of peaceful alternatives. The teaching has resurfaced in recent debates surrounding conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Cardinal McElroy said Pope Leo's reflection builds on decades of development in Catholic teaching, with previous popes having narrowed the circumstances under which war could be considered morally legitimate because of the destructive power of modern weapons and the immense human cost of armed conflict.

"So I think Pope Leo is bringing to bear that question now, with all this trajectory of trying to narrow the criteria for going to war," he said.

The cardinal said he believed there was broad agreement among participants that the traditional just-war framework no longer serves a productive role, while acknowledging the Church still must articulate clearly when the use of military force can be morally legitimate.

"Because I think one of the big problems is the Church has come to the recognition that basically no war is just, and it's a wrong use of terms," he said. "But there are times when military force is morally legitimate."

He said governments have increasingly treated just-war theory as a flexible political justification rather than the Church's intended "strict set of moral conditions."

Rather than revisiting the topic at future consistories, Cardinal McElroy said he expects further theological study to help refine the Church's teaching since it has become clear just-war theory has often become "a very elastic set of criteria that can easily be manipulated by governments."

Cardinal Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo told CNS June 29 that several participants even proposed issuing a collective statement supporting Pope Leo's position on war. Because not all cardinals were present, however, the idea was set aside, and bishops' conferences were encouraged instead to express support in their own countries.

Another major focus of the discussions was implementing synodality throughout the Church.

Cardinal McElroy said the discussions centered not on adding another program to parish life but on allowing "the principles and the culture of synodality" to permeate every level of the Church, particularly decision-making.

He said implementation has progressed unevenly around the world, in part because synodality became associated with several controversial issues debated during the Synod on Synodality.

"A number of people who didn't like the movement that was going on in those particular issues became resistant to the wider movement," he said.

This consistory, he said, instead focused on bringing synodality "into the heart of the life of the Church" at the universal, diocesan and parish levels.

Cardinal Antoine Kambanda of Kigali, Rwanda, agreed that the discussions reflected different perspectives. Asked whether there was disagreement over the meaning of synodality, he replied: "Yes, but that is part of synodality, to march through together."

Artificial intelligence also featured prominently in the discussions surrounding "Magnifica Humanitas.' Cardinal McElroy said the cardinals devoted significant attention to the encyclical and the challenges AI presents for the Church, while Vatican summaries of the working sessions showed participants framing the issue primarily through the lens of human dignity, the common good and Catholic social teaching.

Overall, the U.S. cardinal said the consistories give cardinals an opportunity to help the pope discern "where the call of the Church is, and the Spirit is leading us" on issues facing the universal Church.

The Holy See has reaffirmed its financial support for UNRWA at the United Nations, calling for the protection of civilians and humanitarian workers, unhindered aid delivery in Gaza, and renewed international backing for the agency's vital mission.

Read all

 

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem receives the Limes Prize for Dialogue and Peace from the Italian geopolitical magazine Limes and speaks about his latest visit to the Gaza Strip: “One thing the images do not convey is the smell. And one of the greatest scourges right now is the rats, which bite. They bite children above all, and Gaza is full of children”

Read all

 

Learn More about the Missions St. JunĂ?­pero Serra Helped Build with California Missions Adventure Junípero Serra, originally named Miguel José, was born on November 24, 1713, in Petra, Majorca, Spain. His parents, Antonio Nadal Serra and Margarita Rosa Ferrer, were farmers. Baptized at St. Peter's Church in Petra on the same day, Junípero would go on to become a renowned figure in the history of California. In his early years, Serra attended the primary school run by the ...

In a wide-ranging interview with Vatican News in Rome after receiving his pallium from Pope Leo, Archbishop Ronald Hicks of New York reflects on his time in New York. Observing an increase in young adults re-engaging in the faith, he suggests they are seeking true meaning in life amid 'the brokenness of the world, of what a world looks like when it is not connected to faith, a moral tradition or some values to ground and lead them.'

Read all

 

Ahead of Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Lampedusa, Fr. John Lydon, OSA, reflects on his call to move beyond emergency responses to migration and build systemic, compassionate bridges of integration, dialogue, and fraternity.

Read all