Amid the escalation of hostilities between Iran and Israel, the possibility of a spillover of war beyond regional borders raises fears of disastrous consequences.

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Amid the ongoing Jubilee of Sport, Father Chase Hilgenbrinck, a former professional football player, reflects on the positive values that sport offers as well as the fact that it can be a source of resilience and fraternity.

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Patriarch of Constantinople, modem Istanbul. He was born in Syracuse, Sicily, and builta monastery on the island of Chios. After some time in Constantinople, he was sent to Rome in 815 as the representative of Patriarch Nicephorus, who was exiled by Emperor Leo V the Armenian for refusing to yield to the imperial decrees on the destruction of icons. Methodius returned in 821 and was himself scourged and imprisoned for seven years. Finally, in 842, Empress Theodora arranged for his elevation as ...

Pope Leo XIV decries the military escalation between Iran and Israel and renews his appeal for dialogue and the pursuit of a world free from the nuclear threat.

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Pope Leo XIV continues his predecessor’s Saturday Jubilee audiences, focusing on St Irenaeus as a witness of hope as he welcomes athletes to St Peter’s Basilica for the Jubilee of Sport.

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As tensions rise between Iran and Israel, Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu, Archbishop of Tehran-Ispahan of the Latins, issues an appeal for peace and dialogue, cautioning against the continued use of pre-emptive military action.

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Leo XIV will canonize Blesseds Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati together on Oct. 7, the Vatican announced.

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 canonization of Blessed Acutis, a teenager known for his devotion to the Eucharist and creating an online exhibition of Eucharistic miracles, had originally been scheduled for April 27 during the Jubilee of Teenagers. It was postponed following the death of Pope Francis April 21. Born in 1991 and raised in Milan, Blessed Acutis used his tech skills to evangelize and was noted for his joyful faith and compassion for others before dying of leukemia in 2006 at age 15.

Blessed Frassati, born in 1901 into a prominent family in Turin, Italy, was admired for his deep spirituality, love for the poor and enthusiasm for life. A member of the Dominican Third Order, he served the sick through the St. Vincent de Paul Society. He died at age 24 after contracting polio, possibly from one of the people he assisted.

The two Italian laymen will be the first saints proclaimed by the new pope, who was elected May 8.

Although the Vatican had never officially set a date for Blessed Frassati's canonization, Pope Francis said last November that he intended to proclaim him a saint during the Jubilee of Youth July 28-Aug. 3. The official website of Blessed Frassati's canonization cause said the canonization would take place Aug. 3, when the pope is scheduled to celebrate Mass with thousands of young people on the outskirts of Rome. 

Wanda Gawronska, Blessed Frassati's niece and a longtime promoter of his sainthood cause, told Catholic News Service that "thousands and thousands of people have tickets to come to Rome for the canonization in August."

During the same consistory, Pope Leo also confirmed that seven other blesseds will be canonized Oct. 19. The group includes men and women from five countries, among them martyrs, founders of religious congregations, and laypeople recognized for their heroic virtue and service.

They are: 

-- Blessed Ignatius Maloyan, the martyred Armenian Catholic archbishop of Mardin, which is in present-day Turkey; born in 1869, he was arrested, tortured and executed in Turkey in 1915.

-- Blessed Peter To Rot, a martyred lay catechist, husband and father from Papua New Guinea. Born in 1912, he was arrested in 1945 during the Japanese occupation in World War II and was killed by lethal injection while in prison.

-- Blessed Vincenza Maria Poloni, founder of the Sisters of Mercy of Verona, Italy; she lived from 1802-1855.

-- Blessed Maria Rendiles Martínez, the Venezuelan founder of the Congregation of the Servants of Jesus. Born in Caracas in 1903, she died in 1977. She will be Venezuela's first female saint.

-- Blessed Maria Troncatti, a Salesian sister born in Italy in 1883 who became a missionary in Ecuador in 1922. She died in a plane crash in 1969.

-- Blessed José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros, a Venezuelan doctor born in 1864. He was a Third Order Franciscan and became known as "the doctor of the poor." He was killed in an accident in 1919 on his way to helping a patient.

-- Blessed Bartolo Longo, an Italian lawyer born in 1841. He had been a militant opponent of the church and involved in the occult, but converted, dedicating himself to charity and to building the Pontifical Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary of Pompei. He died in 1926.

Pope Leo XIV receives the President of the Republic of Lebanon, Joseph Aoun, in audience in the Vatican.

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On Pentacost Sunday Catholic faithful in Myanmar celebrate the "Jubilee of Ecclesiastical Movements"

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The National Episcopal Conference of the Democratic Republic of Congo (CENCO) responded on Thursday, 12 June, to a statement made on Monday, 9 June, during a press briefing by the DRC’s Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Transport, Jean-Pierre Bemba, accusing Catholic Bishops of attitudes that could harm the country’s stability. The Congolese Bishops fear that such a statement from a senior government minister could jeopardise and undermine national cohesion and peaceful coexistence.

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