ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV opened 2026 on Thursday with a plea for peace, singling out in particular countries “bloodied by conflict” and families wounded by violence. Leo celebrated a New Year’s Day Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica and then delivered a special noontime prayer from his studio...
ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV closed out 2025 on Wednesday with a prayer that the city of Rome might be a welcoming place for foreigners and fragile people, young and old. Leo presided over a New Year’s Eve vespers service in St. Peter’s Basilica, giving thanks for the 2025 Holy Year that brought...
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV during his first Christmas Day message on Thursday urged the faithful to shed indifference in the face of those who have lost everything, such as in Gaza, those who are impoverished, such as in Yemen, and the many migrants who cross the Mediterranean Sea and the...
VATICAN CITY— Pope Leo XIV insisted Thursday that peace was not only possible but necessary, as he blasted the “irrationality” of nuclear deterrence and the weaponization of faith in modern political discourse. Leo made the comments in his first peace message, an annual exhortation that the...
ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV criticized prison overcrowding and insufficient inmate rehabilitation programs on Sunday as he celebrated a special Mass for detainees, guards and their families in the final event of the Vatican 's 2025 Holy Year. The Vatican said an estimated 6,000 people signed...
ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV insisted Tuesday that Europe must have a role in any Ukraine peace deal and criticized what he said was the Trump administration’s effort to “break apart” the long-standing U.S.-European alliance. Leo spoke to reporters after meeting with Ukrainian President...
ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV got into the Christmas spirit Monday by taking part in a very Roman papal tradition: praying for peace at a statue of the Madonna near the Spanish Steps on the Dec. 8 feast day that kicks off the Christmas season. Leo greeted thousands of well-wishers who braved the cold...
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday shared for the first time what he was thinking when the votes started going his way during the conclave that elected him, saying he resigned himself to the inevitable and put the rest in God’s hands. “I took a deep breath. I said ‘Here...
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Pope Leo XIV celebrated Lebanon 's tradition of interfaith coexistence Monday as a beacon of hope for a conflict-torn region, as he asked for “the divine gift of peace” alongside the country’s Christian and Muslim religious leaders. Leo received a raucous,...
BEIRUT (AP) — Pope Leo XIV challenged Lebanon’s political leaders on Sunday to be true peacemakers and put their differences aside, as he sought to give Lebanon’s long-suffering people a message of hope and bolster a crucial Christian community in the Middle East. Leo arrived in Beirut from...
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Fifty of the 303 schoolchildren abducted from a Catholic school in north-central Nigeria’s Niger state have escaped captivity and are now with their families, the school authority said Sunday, as the pope called for the immediate release of those still missing. The...
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday strongly backed U.S. bishops who condemned the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, as he urged the American people to listen to them and treat migrants humanely. History 's first American pope was asked about the “special...
