Pope Leo XIV tells political leaders that “natural law, which is universally valid apart from and above other more debatable beliefs, constitutes the compass by which to take our bearings in legislating and acting” at the Jubilee of Governments on June 21, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jun 21, 2025 / 09:30 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV urged political leaders from around the world to promote the common good, warning especially of the threat to human dignity from artificial intelligence (AI).

AI “will certainly be of great help to society, provided that its employment does not undermine the identity and dignity of the human person and his or her fundamental freedoms,” the pope said on June 21 to legislators from 68 countries gathered at the Vatican for the Jubilee of Governments.

“It must not be forgotten that artificial intelligence functions as a tool for the good of human beings, not to diminish them, not to replace them,” Leo said, speaking in English to the international audience.

The pope has quickly made the challenge of artificial intelligence a signature issue of his pontificate, highlighting it at a meeting with the College of Cardinals two days after his election last month.

In his speech to political leaders on Saturday, Leo also urged them to promote the common good in other ways, including by “working to overcome the unacceptable disproportion between the immense wealth concentrated in the hands of a few and the world’s poor.” The pope decried such inequality as a leading cause of war.

Pope Leo stressed the importance of religious freedom and encouraged political leaders to follow the example of 16th-century St. Thomas More as a “martyr for freedom and for the primacy of conscience.” More was executed for refusing to recognize King Henry VIII as head of the Church in England instead of the pope.

Leo also recommended the ethical tradition of natural law, whose roots in classical antiquity predate Christianity, as “a shared point of reference in political activity” and “an element that unites everyone” regardless of religious belief.

Natural law arguments have played a prominent role in several recent legal and political debates over issues including abortion, euthanasia, religious freedom, same-sex marriage, and transgender policies.

The pope told the political leaders that “natural law, which is universally valid apart from and above other more debatable beliefs, constitutes the compass by which to take our bearings in legislating and acting, particularly on the delicate and pressing ethical issues that, today more than in the past, regard personal life and privacy.”

null / Credit: Sasapin Kanka|Shutterstock

Brussels, Belgium, Jun 21, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

A new study suggests that the ancient Catholic practice of praying the rosary may offer comparable mental health benefits to Eastern-inspired meditation techniques.

The outside of Guaranteed Rate Field, where the Chicago White Sox baseball team plays. / Credit: Spirit Juice Studios

CNA Staff, Jun 21, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

From popping a wheelie in front of Pope Leo XIV’s childhood home to sitting in “the pope’s chair” at a favorite local pizzeria, filmmaker Rob Kaczmark appeared to be enjoying every stop along a tour of Pope Leo’s childhood stomping grounds in a new short film released by Spirit Juice, a Catholic production company.

The film, which Kaczmark called “a tribute to a South Side kid who made it all the way to the Vatican,” is now available on YouTube.

“I’m still in awe of the fact that Pope Leo is from here. He’s one of us,” Kaczmark says in the film. “No matter where you’re from, God can use you. You just have to be open to his call.” 

The filmmaker, who is CEO and president of Spirit Juice, grew up minutes from the pope’s hometown of Dolton, Illinois. In the film, he drives to several key locations — from Pope Leo’s time in Chicago, including his childhood parish, St. Mary of the Assumption, and Guaranteed Rate Field, where the Chicago White Sox baseball team plays and where the pope famously attended a World Series game in 2005.

Kaczmark not only shares local historical details about the sites but also personal stories about how these same places played a role in the pope’s younger years. At Aurelio’s, the pope’s favorite local pizzeria, which also recently unveiled its “pope-a-roni” pizza, Kaczmark tells viewers that it was in this pizzeria that he told his parents that he and his wife were expecting their first child.

Another stop on the tour was St. Rita of Cascia High School, where Pope Leo taught math and physics. Kaczmark told CNA in an interview that he had several friends who went there and he himself spent a lot of time at this high school in the 1990s as a DJ at school dances. 

When Kaczmark first heard the news that the new pope was from Chicago, he said “it didn’t fully register.”

“It’s just like a really weird feeling when you see this person come out that you know is going to be such an important figure in your life, but you have no idea who they are,” he said. 

It wasn’t until a couple days later, after leaving Mass, that Kaczmark fully processed that the pope was from his hometown, and after that realization he knew he needed to do something to honor this other “South Sider.”

He shared that now walking around the streets of Chicago “there’s definitely a buzz, I think, around the city for Pope Leo.”

Kaczmark also recently attended the “Chicago Celebrates Pope Leo XIV” event held on June 14 at Rate Field, where the pope addressed those in attendance via a video message. 

He and his team arrived early to get video footage of the atmosphere outside the park before the event started and recalled those gathered being “so jazzed to be there … people were singing and dancing.”

Seeing the buzz that the newly elected pope has caused in his hometown, Kaczmark said he believes that “Chicago has the opportunity to be transformed because Pope Leo is from here” as well as “an opportunity for the United States.”

Kaczmark said he hopes this papacy will help the Church “lead in a way that doesn’t feel like there’s a political agenda attached to it but is leading people towards Christ in a very authentic way.”

Watch the South Side Chicago tour of Pope Leo’s childhood spots below.

Pope Leo XIV celebrates Mass for the Jubilee of Sport on June 15, 2025, in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jun 21, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV is preparing to celebrate the solemnity of Corpus Christi for the first time as bishop of Rome, one of the rare occasions on which a pontiff leaves the Vatican to celebrate publicly in the city.

As is the tradition, Leo XIV will celebrate Mass in St. John Lateran Basilica, the pope’s cathedral as bishop of Rome. He has also confirmed his subsequent presence at St. Mary Major Basilica.

However, it remains unclear whether he will walk — or otherwise take — the route between the two basilicas.

A statement from the Holy See Press Office confirmed the celebration for the feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ at 5 p.m. local time on Sunday, June 22, in St. John Lateran Basilica’s square.

However, the Vatican only specified that “the Eucharistic procession will then take place, traveling along Via Merulana and arriving at St. Mary Major Basilica,” wording that leaves several scenarios open.

Popes have made the procession in different ways. In 2004, John Paul II, suffering from serious health problems, traveled this route seated in the popemobile. The following year, in May 2005, Benedict XVI accompanied the procession on his knees in a white, open-top vehicle that moved slowly, surrounded by a crowd of faithful praying with candles in hand.

In his first year as pontiff, Pope Francis surprised everyone by choosing to walk behind the Blessed Sacrament in a gesture of ecclesial closeness that he repeated in subsequent years.

Since 2014, the Argentine pontiff preferred not to participate in the procession and instead appeared directly at the Marian basilica. He also introduced several new features — for example, celebrating Corpus Christi in marginalized neighborhoods of Rome rather than in Rome’s cathedral.

In 2018, Francis offered the Mass for this liturgical solemnity, which celebrates the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, in Ostia, a seaside town outside Rome, attended by some 10,000 people.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, the celebration was moved to St. Peter’s Basilica due to restrictions on social gatherings, and in other years Francis was unable to attend at all for health reasons.

In 2024, he celebrated this liturgical feast again in St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome, marking his final Corpus Christi as pope.

This Sunday, attention will be focused on how the new pope chooses to live out and express one of the most emblematic celebrations of the Catholic faith.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

null / Credit: LookerStudio/Shutterstock

Vatican City, Jun 20, 2025 / 18:46 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has issued a fresh warning about the negative effects that artificial intelligence (AI) can have on the “intellectual and neurological development” of rising generations, along with a call to confront the “loss of the sense of the human” that societies are experiencing.

“All of us, I am sure, are concerned for children and young people, and the possible consequences of the use of AI on their intellectual and neurological development,” the Holy Father said in a Friday message to participants at the second annual Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Corporate Governance, held June 19–20 in Rome.

“Our youth must be helped, and not hindered, in their journey toward maturity and true responsibility,” he indicated. He continued that young people are the “hope for the future” and that the well-being of society “depends upon their being given the ability to develop their God-given gifts and capabilities.”

Thus, according to the message made public by the Vatican Press Office, the Holy Father assured that while never before has a generation had “such quick access to the amount of information now available through AI,” this should not be confused with the ability to understand the workings of the world.

“Access to data — however extensive — must not be confused with intelligence,” he said. He added: “Authentic wisdom has more to do with recognizing the true meaning of life than with the availability of data.”

Similarly, he warned that AI can also be misused “for selfish gain at the expense of others, or worse, to foment conflict and aggression.”

At the beginning of his message, written in English, the pontiff stressed the “urgent need” for “serious reflection and ongoing discussion on the inherently ethical dimension of AI as well as its responsible governance.”

Leo XIV was particularly pleased that the second day of this meeting took place in the Apostolic Palace and assured that it was “a clear indication of the Church’s desire to participate in these discussions.”

The pontiff echoed the words of his predecessor, Pope Francis, in recalling that, despite being “an exceptional product of human genius, AI is above all else a tool.” Therefore, “tools point to the human intelligence that crafted them and draw much of their ethical force from the intentions of the individuals that wield them,” he underscored.

Pope Leo went on to point out that, in many cases, AI has been used “in positive and indeed noble ways to promote greater equality.” For example, in the uses it has been put to in the field of health research and scientific discovery.

The Holy Father stressed that the evaluation of the benefits or risks of AI must be made “in light of the “integral development of the human person and society,” as noted in the recent Vatican document Antiqua et Nova.

“This entails taking into account the well-being of the human person not only materially but also intellectually and spiritually; it means safeguarding the inviolable dignity of each human person and respecting the cultural and spiritual riches and diversity of the world’s peoples,” Leo insisted.

In the face of enthusiasm for technological innovations, the pope warned against a loss of sensitivity to the human. “As the late Pope Francis pointed out, our societies today are experiencing a certain ‘loss, or at least an eclipse, of the sense of what is human,’” he recalled. 

In this regard, Leo made clear the role of the Catholic Church in weighing the ramifications of AI in light of the “integral development of the human person and society.” 

Leo XIV also expressed his hope that the meeting’s deliberations would include reflection on intergenerational roles in ethical formation. “I express my hope that your deliberations will also consider AI within the context of the necessary intergenerational apprenticeship that will enable young people to integrate truth into their moral and spiritual life,” he concluded.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

American adults in their 20s and 30s plan to have fewer children than adults did a decade ago, Pew Research Center reported on June 19, 2025. / Credit: Fotogrin/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 20, 2025 / 17:51 pm (CNA).

American adults in their 20s and 30s plan to have fewer children than adults did a decade ago, a new Pew Research Center report finds. 

From 2002 to 2012, men and women ages 20 to 39 reported that they planned to have an average of 2.3 children. In 2023, the number of children adults reported they wanted decreased to an average of 1.8, according to Pew Research analysis of government data. 

Pew looked at data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, specifically from the National Survey of Family Growth, which “gathers information on pregnancy and births, marriage and cohabitation, infertility, use of contraception, family life, and general and reproductive health.”

Pew reported that the total number of children included kids the respondents already had, plus any future children they planned to have. Women were asked how many “live births they have had” and men were asked how many children they have “ever fathered.” Adopted children were not included in the study numbers, but children placed for adoption were.

Differences based on gender and education 

In 2023, the total number of children that men and women ages 20 to 39 planned to have fell below 2.1, which is “about the average number of children, per woman, that a population needs to replace itself over time,” according to Pew.

In 2002, the average number of children women planned to have was 2.3 and for men, it was 2.2. These numbers remained mostly stable for the next 10 years until 2012, when they began to decline. 

The exact change in numbers varied depending on the age of the adults. In 2012, women ages 20 to 24 reported they planned to have an average of 2.3 children, but in 2023 the number fell to 1.5. For women ages 25 to 29 the amount of children they wanted declined from 2.3 to 1.9. For women ages 30 to 34, the number declined to 1.9 from 2.5.

The study found that there was not a significant drop for women ages 35 to 39. Among the men surveyed, the declines were similar across all age groups.

The research also found that education levels may affect how many children women age 25 to 39 intend to have. There was less of a decline in the number of children women who had “some college or less” planned to have than among women who had a bachelor’s degree or higher.

In 2002, women with some college experience planned, on average, to have 2.4 children, which only fell to 2.2 in 2023. In 2002, women with a bachelor’s degree or higher education planned to have an average of 2.1 children, but this number declined to 1.7 in 2023.

For women 30 to 34, the decline occurred almost entirely among those with a bachelor’s degree. In 2023, women in this age group with at least a bachelor’s degree planned to have 1.5 children. The number for that group was 2.1 in 2002. Those without a bachelor’s experienced almost no change.

Pew’s analysis did not find a significant difference by education among men ages 25 to 39.

Decline in number of adults who plan to have at least 1 child

The analysis found the number of adults in their 20s and 30s who have, or intend to have, at least one child also declined.

In 2012, 9 in 10 men and women reported that they planned to have at least one child. But, in 2023, this declined to 76% of men and 77% of women. The decline was primarily among young women ages 20 to 24.

In 2002, a strong majority (94%) of this group planned to have at least one child, and this remained mostly stable until 2012 with only a small shift to 93%. But by 2023, this number had declined to 66%.

Men ages 20 to 24 experienced a decline from 89% in 2012 to 75% in 2023.

Impact of lower birth rates

In 2024, Pew asked Americans about the impact of lower birth rates on the country and how effective they thought certain federal policies would be at encouraging more people to have children.

Pew reported that 47% of U.S. adults said fewer people choosing to have children would have a negative impact on the country, 20% said it would have a positive impact, and 31% said it would have neither a positive nor a negative impact.

When asked about what policies would be “extremely or very effective” at increasing birth rates, 60% of adults said providing free child care, 51% said requiring paid family leave, 49% said providing more tax credits for parents, and 45% said giving parents of minor children a monthly payment.

The British Parliament building in London. / Credit: Marinesea/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jun 20, 2025 / 17:21 pm (CNA).

British lawmakers in the House of Commons passed a bill on June 20 legalizing assisted suicide for terminally ill patients in England and Wales.

The childhood home of Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, in Dolton, Illinois. / Credit: Michael Howie, Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Jun 20, 2025 / 14:41 pm (CNA).

The auction for the childhood home of Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, has been extended by a month and will now close on July 17, according to the auction house selling the home. 

The extension comes as the village of Dolton, Illinois, continues its efforts to acquire the 1,050-square-foot home located at 212 E. 141st Place in Dolton.

Dolton village attorney Burt Odelson told CNA on June 19 that the auction has been extended because the city has not finalized negotiations with the home’s owner, Pawel Radzik, to purchase the home but expects to close the deal “very soon.”

Odelson told CNA that on the chance the deal falls through, however, the village of Dolton is still prepared to seek ownership of the house through eminent domain.

Steve Budzik, the house’s listing agent, told the Chicago Tribune this week neither the owner nor the auction house would publicly disclose the number of bids received thus far.

Meanwhile, a federal judge declined to block the village of Dolton from purchasing the house after a former Dolton city employee filed a lawsuit on Sunday.

Lavell Redmond, a former employee who is involved in a wrongful termination suit against the city, asked the judge for a temporary order to prevent the city’s purchase of the pope’s childhood home, calling the city’s actions an “endeavor with substantial cost to taxpayers with no compelling governmental necessity.”

U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland denied Redmond’s request this week, citing lack of standing.

Odelson called the suit “absurd,” saying Redmond had no right to tell the village what it can and cannot do.

Odelson acknowledged that Dolton is an “economically deprived” community, however, and said once the house has been purchased, the village will set up a nonprofit charity to help fundraise for the preservation of the house and the revitalization of the neighborhood.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to preserve what many people believe is a sacred” place, Odelson told CNA about the pope’s former home. “We need to do it right and we don’t have the funds to do it right. We have to lean on others.” 

People from “all over the U.S. have already offered to help preserve the house,” Odelson said, “and the charity will enable them to do so.”

While the Archdiocese of Chicago did not respond to CNA’s requests for comment, Odelson told CNA he has been in touch with someone “high up” there who has expressed an interest in helping guide the village of Dolton in the house’s preservation. 

Ward Miller of the group Preservation Chicago, a nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to preserving historic sites in Chicago and encouraging landmark designations in the city, told CNA on June 20 that even though the house is outside Chicago city limits, he hopes to assist the village once it acquires the property.

Odelson said Dolton, just like the city of Chicago, has the power to declare the house a village historic site and plans to do so. 

A few blocks from the house, but within Chicago city limits, is St. Mary of the Assumption, the church and school that Pope Leo attended as a child, which has been vacant since 2011 and is now privately owned. 

The property’s current owner, Joel Hall, said in May he is open to a landmark designation by the city, and Preservation Chicago presented its case to make it so at a meeting in May of the Commission of Chicago Landmarks.

While the commission has not yet come to a decision, Miller said he is confident it will do so.

He told CNA that after 11 years of advocacy led by Preservation Chicago and supported by the Archdiocese of Chicago, he was thrilled that the Chicago City Council voted to preserve another historic church, St. Adalbert’s Parish, this week.

“One can’t help but feel that the new American pope may have influenced the idea that everyone should work together to preserve these historic treasures,” Miller said.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, chair of the United States’ recently created Religious Liberty Commission, talks with Raymond Arroyo on “The World Over” on June 19, 2025. / Credit: “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo”/Screenshot

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 20, 2025 / 14:11 pm (CNA).

As the work of the presidential Religious Liberty Commission gets underway, the commission’s chairman, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, said he sees two major sets of domestic threats to religious liberty in the United States.

The first set of threats, he said, has its origins in several mid-20th-century court decisions, while the second set of threats is due to apathy by people of faith, “because if you don’t fight for it, you can lose it.”

Patrick made these observations during a June 19 interview on “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo” following the commission’s opening June 16 hearing in Washington, D.C.

Patrick said the commission’s inaugural convocation addressed a range of topics including the intent of the country’s founders, “what the establishment clause was about … and how we lost it in this country through court decisions.”

He explained that the courts, “particularly the Warren court and Hugo Black,” took religious liberty away, “and now we’re fighting to bring it back. Because if you lose religious liberty … all the other liberties fall by the wayside quickly.”

Patrick said he and his 13 fellow commissioners, which include Bishop Robert Barron and Cardinal Timothy Dolan, received expert legal input on a number of religious liberty cases and the feedback included that “the Supreme Court needs to take up more cases, and they need to quit kicking them back down to the lower courts.”

“We have to get the courts at every level to take more cases on these big decisions,” Patrick said. During the commission’s initial hearing, the U.S. Department of Justice, under which the commission operates, was also called upon to take a more proactive role in religious liberty cases.

Patrick indicated that the commission plans to hold another seven or eight hearings over the next year and then will deliver to President Donald Trump “a report on what he can do in executive orders or maybe legislation he’ll recommend to Congress to take up,” Patrick said.  

Discussing the origins of the commission, Patrick said that “when I talked to the president about this last November, and he had already talked about religious liberty in his first four years, I said, ‘I think the timing is right now.’ And he just loved the idea.” 

Patrick said that “we have to be very smart about how we walk down this path with the president” and expressed his confidence that “we have a president who believes in God, who believes in Jesus Christ, and who has said, ‘I want my government to reflect the values of where I know most of the country is.’”

The full “World Over with Raymond Arroyo” interview with Patrick can be viewed below.

Pope Leo greets pilgrims during the Jubilee of Families, Children, Grandparents, and the Elderly on Sunday, June 1, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jun 20, 2025 / 13:11 pm (CNA).

Members of Italy’s local and national governments will be the main participants in events for the Catholic Church’s Jubilee of Government Leaders on June 21–22, part of the wider Jubilee of Hope.

According to the Vatican, the weekend’s events mix government and Church initiatives, including a pilgrimage through the Holy Door on June 21 followed by a meeting on “ecological debt” hosted by Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri at city hall. The event will include a keynote by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

The Vatican has not yet confirmed if Leo will hold a jubilee audience with participants on Saturday morning, as he did last weekend, and as Pope Francis did twice before his hospitalization in mid-February.

In addition to members of Italy’s Chamber of Deputies and Senate, Italian mayors and regional counsellors are expected to participate in one or more events. Ambassadors to the Holy See and representatives from other countries will also attend.

The area just outside St. Peter’s Square will transform into an open-air concert venue on the evening of June 21. The “Harmonies of Hope” concert will feature musicians from the United States, Russia, Ukraine, Venezuela, Switzerland, Italy, and Japan.

The U.S. musician taking part is Brad Mehldau, a 54-year-old jazz pianist and composer from Jacksonville, Florida.

On Sunday, June 22, jubilee participants will be able to attend Pope Leo XIV’s Angelus from a reserved area. Attendees are also invited to join the pope’s Mass for the solemnity of Corpus Christi to be celebrated at the Basilica of St. John Lateran and which will be followed by a Eucharistic procession through the streets to the Basilica of St. Mary Major.

During the Jubilee of Government Leaders, one of the largest groups to participate in the Holy Door pilgrimage will be employees of Italy’s national welfare agency, INPS (Istituto Nazionale Della Previdenza Sociale).

The paragovernmental entity, which employs approximately 25,000 people throughout Italy, is participating in the Catholic Church’s jubilee year with a pilgrimage through the Holy Door and Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on June 21 as an event to bring employees together.

Diego De Felice, the institute’s director of communications, told CNA around 4,000 INPS employees and their family members will participate.

According to De Felice, the welfare agency “espouses a positive vision of the intervention of the state for the purposes of social justice,” and this approach, even though secular, is “close to what the social doctrine of the Church professes.”

This week, in anticipation of the jubilee, the Italian Parliament hosted a conference on interreligious dialogue with the participation of religious and civil society leaders, and delegations from 60 countries. Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, spoke at the opening of the conference on June 19.