Cardinal William Goh, the archbishop of Singapore. / Credit: Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0

CNA Deutsch, May 23, 2025 / 11:55 am (CNA).

In an interview with the Daily Compass portal on Thursday, Cardinal William Goh, the archbishop of Singapore, said he hopes for greater doctrinal clarity from Pope Leo XIV. 

“If we are not clear about what the Church teaches, it is very difficult to work together in unity. Although both the so-called ‘left’ and ‘right’ of the Church are interested in promoting the mission of evangelization, there has been an internal division on certain issues such as marriage, LGBTQ+ rights, and transgender rights. These issues have divided the Church because, at a certain point, it became unclear what is right.”

The cardinal said that as an Augustinian, Pope Leo has “a solid foundation in the tradition and spirituality of St. Augustine.”

“At the same time,” Goh, who was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2022, said that Pope Leo “has worked in Peru and is familiar with situations of poverty and suffering. He also spent several years in Rome and is therefore familiar with the challenges facing the Curia. Having been prior general of his order, he has already demonstrated his leadership qualities. In his first public appearances, he was sober and cautious in what he said and did.”

He continued: “He seems to me to be a man who is aware that a pope’s statements are taken seriously, which is why he is cautious and prudent. This is to be welcomed because it means people won’t be confused. I believe he will be able to clarify doctrine and prevent the ‘left’ and the ‘right’ from fighting each other. He will not be ambiguous and will not leave the interpretation of his words open to individual interpretation.”

According to the website, Goh said about Pope Francis: “I believe that the least pleasant aspect of his pontificate was that his teachings appeared ambiguous in his attempt to reach everyone in terms of doctrine and morality.”  

Goh also addressed the issue of the traditional liturgy. 

“I personally believe there is no reason to discourage people who prefer the Tridentine Mass,” the cardinal said. “They are not doing anything wrong or sinful. Of course, the unity of the Church must be preserved, but we already have different rites, such as the Syro-Malabar rite. We can accept different forms of celebrating the Eucharist, so we should not suppress those who prefer the Tridentine rite.”

Ultimately, he said, “it is not the rite or the form of celebration that matters” but rather “whether one encounters God deeply.”

Goh said he does not celebrate in the traditional form, “but I’m not against those who celebrate it. In my country, there’s a small group of about 300 people, mostly young professionals. Sometimes I ask them, ‘Why do you prefer this celebration?’ They reply that they find it more thoughtful and contemplative and that it brings them closer to God. Why should I discourage them?”

He continued: “If they reject the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, that would of course be a completely different matter, and they should be disciplined. But they don’t, and therefore I don’t think we should discriminate against them. After all, this is the Mass that has been celebrated for hundreds of years, isn’t it?”

This story was first published by CNA Deutsch, CNA's German-langauage news partner, and has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Pope Leo XIV addresses members of the Pontifical Missions Societies on May 22, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, May 22, 2025 / 14:48 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV delivered an address to the Pontifical Mission Societies on Thursday thanking its members for living the Church’s call to evangelize to all nations with a spirit of communion and universality in union with the pope.

Approximately 120 national directors connected to the Vatican’s four missionary bodies — the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, the Society of the Holy Childhood, the Society of St. Peter the Apostle, and the Missionary Union — and 20 members of the Dicastery for Evangelization met with the Holy Father on the first day of their general assembly taking place in Rome from May 22–28.

“As societies committed to sharing in the missionary mandate of the pope and the college of bishops, you are called to cultivate and further promote within your members the vision of the Church as the communion of believers, enlivened by the Holy Spirit, who enables us to enter into the perfect communion and harmony of the blessed Trinity,” the pontiff said to those present at the morning meeting.

“This dimension of our Christian life and mission is close to my heart and is reflected in the words of St. Augustine that I chose for my episcopal service and now for my papal ministry: ‘In Illo uno unum’ — Christ is our savior and in him we are one, a family of God, beyond the rich variety of our languages, cultures, and experiences,” he added.

Describing apsotolic zeal as “more urgent in our own day,” Pope Leo said the Gospel message of love, reconciliation, and grace through Jesus Christ is needed in a world “wounded” by war and injustice.

“In this sense, the Church herself, in all her members, is increasingly called to be ‘a missionary Church that opens its arms to the world, proclaims the word … and becomes a leaven of harmony for humanity,” he said, echoing words from his homily given during his May 18 inauguration Mass.

Asking his listeners to be inspired and renewed in their vocation to “be a leaven of missionary zeal within the people of God,” the Holy Father reiterated the message of his predecessor to be “missionaries of hope among all peoples,” especially in light of the 2025 Jubilee Year.

“In the words of Pope Francis, ‘The Lord has overcome the world and its constant conflict “by making peace through the blood of his cross,”’” Pope Leo said, citing Evangelii Gaudium. “Hence we see the importance of fostering a spirit of missionary discipleship in all the baptized and a sense of the urgency of bringing Christ to all people.”

According to Monsignor Roger Landry, head of the Pontifical Mission Societies USA, who was present at the meeting, the Holy Father warmly encouraged national directors to continue to promote World Mission Sunday, celebrated on the second-to-last Sunday of October, and ensure their outreach programs are driven by a “universality that flows from a sense of communion.”

“He doesn’t want us to exclude anybody,” Landry told CNA on Thursday. “Like Pope Francis before him, he was getting us to focus on the peripheries — those who are not yet close to us and those who are not united with us.”

After speaking about the beauty of having representatives from over 120 countries come together “as equals” before the Holy Father at the meeting, Landry said each person present received rosary beads from Pope Leo that were blessed by Pope Francis before he died.

“There was a sense of continuity as he was giving us Pope Francis’ rosary beads,” he said.

From the popemobile, Pope Leo XIV greets thousands of people lined up along Via della Conciliazione on the morning of his inaugural Mass, Sunday, May 18, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, May 22, 2025 / 14:18 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Sister Tiziana Merletti as secretary of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

According to the Vatican Press Office, the 66-year-old consecrated religious previously served as superior general of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor for nine years.

She will report directly to another nun, Sister Simona Brambilla, whom Pope Francis appointed in January as prefect of the Vatican department, responsible for all matters concerning the government, discipline, studies, assets, rights, and privileges of institutes of consecrated life.

Under the late Argentine pontiff, women’s leadership increased significantly. According to data maintained by the Vatican on its website, the female presence increased from almost 19.2% to 23.4% during Francis’ pontificate. With the 2022 apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium, Francis decreed that laypeople, in addition to women, could lead a dicastery and become prefects, a position previously reserved for cardinals and archbishops.

Doctorate in canon law, experience in Church government

Born Sept. 30, 1959, in Pineto in the Teramo province of Italy, Merletti made her first religious profession in 1986 at the Institute of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor. She holds a degree in civil law from the then-Libera Università Abruzzese degli Studi “Gabriele d’Annunzio” in Teramo (1984) and obtained her doctorate in canon law in 1992 from the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.

From 2004 to 2013, she served as superior general of her congregation. Currently, Merletti is a professor in the canon law department of the Pontifical Antonianum University in Rome and collaborates as a canon lawyer with the International Union of Superiors General, the organization representing women religious of apostolic life worldwide.

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

Pope Leo XIV prays in front of the famous icon at the Shrine of the Mother of Good Counsel in Genazzano, Italy, on Saturday, May 10, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Staff, May 22, 2025 / 13:12 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV, the first pope to come from the Order of St. Augustine, made a visit very early in his pontificate to the Shrine of the Mother of Good Counsel in Italy.

San Diego Bishop-elect Michael Pham. / Credit: Father Michael Pham

Vatican City, May 22, 2025 / 11:22 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Thursday appointed Bishop Michael Pham as bishop of the Diocese of San Diego. He will rise from the position of auxiliary bishop there and succeed Cardinal Robert McElroy as head of the diocese.

Having received his episcopal consecration in September 2023, the 58-year-old Vietnam-born bishop has also served as titular bishop of Cercina. He was appointed the San Diego Diocese’s temporary administrator after McElroy was installed as bishop of Washington in March.

Since his ordination to the priesthood in 1999, Pham has ministered to Catholic faithful in parishes throughout the San Diego Diocese.

From 1991 to 2001, he served as assistant priest for St. Mary, Star of the Sea, in Oceanside. Between 2004 and 2023 he was appointed parish priest for the San Diego parishes of Holy Family and St. Therese. 

Other offices the new bishop-elect has held in the San Diego Diocese include vocations director from 2001 to 2004, vicar for ethnic and intercultural communities since 2017, and vicar general of San Diego. 

He has also been a member of the diocese’s executive board, presbyteral council, finance council, college of consultors, and boards for priests and seminarians. 

Pham began his seminary studies in the 1990s at St. Francis Seminary at the University of San Diego and completed his training at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, where he was awarded a bachelor’s degree in systematic theology and a master’s degree in divinity.

In 2020, he completed a licentiate degree in sacred theology at the University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome.

The bishop-elect also obtained a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering from San Diego State University and completed a master’s degree in psychology at the University of Phoenix in 2009.

Spanish Augustinian Bishop Luis Marín de San Martín and Cardinal Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV. / Credit: Courtesy of Bishop Luis Marín

Vatican City, May 22, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The undersecretary of the general secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, the Spanish Augustinian Bishop Luis Marín de San Martín, is among those who have collaborated most closely with Pope Leo XIV.

In 2008, Marín moved to Rome because the then-prior general of the Augustinians asked him to take charge of the order’s archives. The past 17 years of association equips him to make a clear prognosis of what Pope Leo’s pontificate will be like.

“He’s not a person who governs from his office; he goes out to meet people,” the bishop told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. He also noted that Pope Leo XIV is a son of the Second Vatican Council: “He embraces its theological development, above all, the ecclesiology of the constitution Lumen Gentium, which is a point of reference for synodality, although the term does not appear in it.”

The then-Cardinal Robert Prevost — now Pope Leo XIV — actively participated in all phases of the Synod on Synodality, a signature project of Pope Francis launched three years ago that aimed to make the Church more coherent and participatory, and less clerical. This is an approach that the pope “holds very dear,” since “Augustinian spirituality is very synodal,” as are “our style and structures,” Marín emphasized.

“The Augustinian charism very much fosters communion, fraternal life. It’s our most distinctive feature. We Augustinians are also a mendicant order that doesn’t have a pyramidal structure like the monastic structures do, but rather a much more horizontal one. We are governed by the prior, a ‘primus inter pares’ [first among equals]. And our chapter is very participatory: Decisions are made among all the friars,” he explained.

The key to synodality, Marín emphasized, is not ideological or political but theological and ecclesial: “Pope Leo XIV is synodal because the Church is synodal. To realize this, it’s enough to know sacred Scripture, patristics, Church history, canon law … It’s the life of the Church, which becomes experience and witness.”

In 1985, Prevost, then a priest, was sent to Peru to work in the Chulucanas mission. After a brief return to Chicago in 1987, he returned to Peru in 1988, specifically to Trujillo, where he served as a teacher and formator. While there, he was elected prior provincial of the Augustinian Province of Chicago in 1998 and, in 2001, prior general of the Augustinian order, a position he held until 2013.

“The Church has required him to make big changes in his life, but he has always trusted in what God asked of him at each moment, with total availability to the Lord and great love for the Church,” Marín commented.

In October 2013, Prevost returned to Chicago to serve again as master of the professed and vicar provincial, a role he held until Nov. 3, 2014, when Pope Francis appointed him apostolic administrator of the Peruvian Diocese of Chiclayo, making him a bishop and assigning him the titular diocese of Sufar, until he was appointed bishop of Chiclayo the following year.

Pope Leo XIV loves to drive

Marín visited him in Chiclayo, and together they toured the coastal city by car: “Prevost loves to drive, and I was able to see the affection the people had for Padre Roberto, my bishop, as they called him.”

The prelate described him above all as “a simple, genuine, authentic person, somewhat reserved, but one who greatly values ​​fraternity” and highlighted his great “sensitivity to social justice, to the poorest, the most needy, and the oppressed.”

“He has great inner balance. He is a profound, serene, precise, thoughtful, and prayerful man. He’s not given to improvisation,” the undersecretary summarized, also highlighting his ability to work as part of a team.

“He will exercise global leadership, and his voice will be greatly taken into account,” he added. 

The 12 years he served as prior general of the Augustinians, from 2001 to 2013 — the order is present in 47 countries — gave him a vision of the universal Church that also demonstrated his abilities.

“During those years, he visited all the communities in the order, some several times, and embraced cultural diversity. He has a panoramic view of the universal Church; he knows it well,” the prelate explained.

Continuity with Francis

In January 2023, Pope Francis appointed him to head the Dicastery for Bishops, one of the most important departments of the Roman Curia, from which the future leadership of the Church is drawn.

“He had his full confidence. They had known each other since Prevost was prior general and [then-Jorge] Bergoglio was archbishop of Buenos Aires,” he recounted, recalling a pivotal episode in their relationship.

“Pope Francis had just been elected, and Prevost, who was ending his term as prior general, asked him, without much hope, to preside over the opening Mass of the general chapter of the Augustinians in St. Augustine Basilica in Rome. And he accepted. It was historic. Never before had a pope presided over the opening Eucharist of the general chapter of the Order of St. Augustine,” he noted.

In any case, Marín made it clear that Pope Leo XIV will not be a “Francis clone,” although “there will be continuity in many aspects.” 

The new pope is, above all, a man of profound interior life. He possesses a solid spirituality, forged through prayer, which is also reflected in his apostolate and his understanding of ecclesial leadership.

“Communion with Christ,” the prelate said, “leads us not only as priests but also all Christians to feel responsible for the Church. Each with a different vocation, but all co-responsible and interconnected to proclaim the risen Christ and bear witness to him in today’s world.”

For Marín, the election of this Augustinian as the successor of Peter has immense value: “It’s a blessing from God. An extraordinary gift not only for the order but for the universal Church. As you get to know Pope Leo XIV, you will see what a gift the Lord has given us, you will get to know his qualities. He is the right person for the right time.”

According to the undersecretary, the spirituality of the order to which the man who now sits on the chair of Peter belongs is based on four pillars: community life, interior life, integration into the world, and availability to the needs of the Church.

“The Church is like a family, the family of God, which, in love, integrates unity and diversity. I believe it is crucial to strengthen communion,” he emphasized after warning against empty activism.

“Furthermore, if we don’t cultivate the interior life, we’re not offering anything. We have to bear witness to Christ, to communicate him to the world. And we can only bear witness to Christ if we know him from experience. Because the risen Christ is a living person.” 

Marín concluded by recalling that Pope Leo XIV’s first words in his greeting to the people of God were those of the risen Christ: “Peace be with you all.”

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

Pope Leo XIV at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls on May 20, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

Vatican City, May 21, 2025 / 14:32 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on May 20 visited St. Paul Outside the Walls Basilica, one of the papal basilicas located outside Rome, to pray at the tomb of the “apostle to the Gentiles.”

Upon his arrival, the Holy Father was welcomed by basilca abbot Father Donato Ogliari, OSB, and the archpriest of the basilica, Cardinal James Michael Harvey.

Accompanied by Benedictine monks, custodians of the church built over the tomb of St. Paul the Apostle, Pope Leo XIV entered the basilica through the Holy Door amid the chants of the Sistine Chapel choir and the Benedictine community.

He then descended to the altar of confession to venerate the tomb of St. Paul, kneeling in silence. After returning to the apse of the church, a passage from St. Paul the Apostle’s Letter to the Romans was read.

In his homily, delivered in Italian, the Holy Father emphasized that the reading revolves around three themes — “grace, faith, and justification” — and entrusted the beginning of his pontificate to the intercession of the apostle to the Gentiles.

Leo XIV reminded the nearly 2,000 faithful gathered in the basilica that St. Paul claimed to have received “from God the grace of his vocation.”

“He acknowledges, in other words, that his encounter with Christ and his own ministry were the fruit of God’s prior love, which called him to a new life while he was still far from the Gospel and persecuting the Church,” he explained.

He also quoted the convert St. Augustine, the pope’s spiritual father, “who spoke of the same experience.”

In this context, he emphasized that “at the root of every vocation, God is present, in his mercy and his goodness, as generous as that of a mother who nourishes her child with her own body for as long as the child is unable to feed itself.”

Recalling how St. Paul spoke of the “obedience of faith,” he pointed out, however, that on the road to Damascus, the Lord “did not take away his freedom but gave him the opportunity to make a decision, to choose an obedience that would prove costly and entail interior and exterior struggles, which Paul proved willing to face.”

The pontiff thus pointed out that “salvation does not come about by magic but by a mysterious interplay of grace and faith, of God’s prevenient love and of our trusting and free acceptance.”

In this regard, he invited the faithful to “ask him to enable us to respond in the same way to his grace and to become, ourselves, witnesses of the love ‘poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.’”

“Let us ask the Lord for the grace to cultivate and spread his charity,” he continued, “and to become true neighbors to one another. Let us compete in showing the love that, following his encounter with Christ, drove the former persecutor to become ‘all things to all people’ even to the point of martyrdom.”

He further emphasized that “the weakness of the flesh will show the power of faith in God that brings justification.”

From this basilica, entrusted to the care of the Benedictine community, Pope Leo XIV also recalled St. Benedict, who proposed “love as the source and driving force of the preaching of the Gospel,” noting his insistent exhortations “to fraternal charity.”

The pontiff did not want to end his homily without recalling Pope Benedict XVI and his words at World Youth Day in Madrid in 2011: “‘Dear friends,’” he said, “‘God loves us. This is the great truth of our life; it is what makes everything else meaningful.” Indeed, “our life originates as part of a loving plan of God,” and faith leads us to “open our hearts to this mystery of love and to live as men and women conscious of being loved by God.’”

“Here we see, in all its simplicity and uniqueness, the basis of every mission, including my own mission as the successor of Peter and the heir to Paul’s apostolic zeal. May the Lord grant me the grace to respond faithfully to his call,” Leo XIV concluded.

At the end of his homily, the Holy Father knelt again before the altar, located above the apostle’s tomb. Later, the Lord’s Prayer and the Regina Caeli were sung in Latin. 

Pope Leo XIV left the basilica again in procession, preceded by Benedictine monks, to the applause of the faithful.

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

Pope Leo XIV smiles during his first general audience in St. Peter's Square on May 21, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Vatican City, May 21, 2025 / 10:46 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV will hold a meeting of cardinals on June 13 to give the final approval to the canonizations of several beatified men and women.

The ordinary public consistory, as it is called, will be the first of Leo’s pontificate. Pope Francis had called for the consistory in late February, when he was in the hospital, but the date was never set.

At the consistory, cardinals will vote to approve the canonizations of five beatified men and women whose causes were advanced earlier this year by Pope Francis. The vote of the cardinals marks the final step in the canonization process and allows a date for the Mass of canonization to be set.

Among the almost-canonized saints expected to be discussed on June 13 is Blessed Bartolo Longo (also known as Bartholomew Longo).

Longo, an Italian layman and lawyer, was a former Satanist “priest” who returned to the practice of the Catholic faith through the influence of Mary and the rosary.

The canonization of the Venezuelan “doctor of the poor,” José Gregorio Hernández, is also expected be voted on at the June 13 consistory, along with Pietro To Rot, the first blessed from Papua New Guinea; Vincenza Maria Poloni, the founder of the Sisters of Mercy of Verona; and Ignazio Maloyan, a bishop martyred in the Armenian genocide in 1915. 

The consistory will take place in the consistory hall in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace with all of the cardinals resident or otherwise present in Rome. It usually begins with a short time of prayer.

The Vatican also announced Wednesday a slew of liturgies to be celebrated by Pope Leo XIV in June, including a Mass at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran followed by a Eucharistic procession through Rome to the Basilica of St. Mary Major for the solemnity of Corpus Christi on June 22.

Here is the full list of public Masses Pope Leo will celebrate during the month of June:

• June 1: Mass in St. Peter’s Square for the Jubilee of Families, Children, Grandparents, and the Elderly

• June 8: Mass in St. Peter’s Square for the solemnity of Pentecost and the Jubilee of Movements, Associations, and New Communities 

• June 9: Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica for the memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, and the Jubilee of the Holy See

• June 15: Mass in St. Peter’s Square for the solemnity of the Holy Trinity and the Jubilee of Sports

• June 22: Mass in the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran and procession to the Basilica of St. Mary Major with Eucharistic benediction for the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

• June 27: Mass in St. Peter’s Square for the solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Jubilee of Priests
  

• June 29: Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica for the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, with the blessing of the palliums for the new metropolitan archbishops

At his first general audience in St. Peter's Square on May 21, 2025, Pope Leo XIV appeals for peace and the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, where, he said, children and elderly are suffering. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Vatican City, May 21, 2025 / 08:05 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV in the first general audience of his pontificate on Wednesday appealed for an end to hostilities in Gaza and for the entrance of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

Speaking before tens of thousands of attendees on an overcast day in St. Peter’s Square, the new pope ended his remarks by calling the situation in the Gaza Strip “increasingly worrying and painful.”

“I renew my heartfelt appeal to allow the entry of decent humanitarian aid and to end the hostilities whose heartbreaking price is paid by children, the elderly, and the sick,” he added.

The pope’s appeal comes as the numbers of dead and injured in the Gaza Strip continue to rise under Israel’s attacks. According to reports, while some humanitarian aid has been allowed to enter Gaza, it has not yet been released for distribution.

One month to the day since Francis’ death, Pope Leo also recalled with gratitude the “beloved Pope Francis, who just a month ago returned to the house of the Father.”

Leo closely followed his written remarks, only adding the comment on Gaza, during the May 21 public audience, which he began by taking a turn around the square in the popemobile to cheers, banners, and waving flags. Some people stood on their chairs to try to catch a glimpse of the new pope, who paused often to bless babies of all ages held out to him in outstretched arms.

The inaugural catechesis of the first U.S.-born pope picked up the theme begun by Francis for the 2025 Jubilee Year: “Jesus Christ Our Hope.”

Reflecting on the parable of the sower, Leo noted the unusual behavior of the sower in the story, who “does not care where the seed falls. He throws the seeds even where it is unlikely they will bear fruit: on the path, on the rocks, among the thorns.”

“The way in which this ‘wasteful’ sower throws the seed is an image of the way God loves us,” he said, echoing a part of his first message from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica after his election on May 8, that God “loves us all unconditionally.”

“First and foremost in this parable Jesus tells us that God throws the seed of his word on all kinds of soil, that is, in any situation of ours,” Leo underlined. 

He continued: “God is confident and hopes that sooner or later the seed will blossom. This is how he loves us: He does not wait for us to become the best soil, but he always generously gives us his word. Perhaps by seeing that he trusts us, the desire to be better soil will be kindled in us. This is hope, founded on the rock of God’s generosity and mercy.”

The theme of personal transformation was also repeated later in the catechesis, when Leo said: “Jesus is the word, he is the seed. And the seed, to bear fruit, must die. Thus, this parable tells us that God is ready to ‘waste away’ for us and that Jesus is willing to die in order to transform our life.”

Husband and father Chuma Asuzu from Canada came to the square early in the morning with his family to attend the pope’s first general audience.

“It was good and I think it was interesting how he explained the seeds and how it’s the word of God,” Asuzu shared with CNA. “I really appreciate it.”

“He made the point to drive around a lot because it was his first audience and he looked emotional at the beginning,” he added.

Instead of taking an example from literature or philosophy, as Pope Francis often did, Pope Leo used Vincent Van Gogh’s painting “The Sower at Sunset” to prompt a meditation on hope.

“That image of the sower in the blazing sun also speaks to me of the farmer’s toil,” he said. “And it strikes me that, behind the sower, Van Gogh depicted the grain already ripe. It seems to me an image of hope: One way or another, the seed has borne fruit. We are not sure how, but it has.”

“At the center of the scene, however, is not the sower, who stands to the side; instead, the whole painting is dominated by the image of the sun, perhaps to remind us that it is God who moves history, even if he sometimes seems absent or distant,” the pope noted. “It is the sun that warms the clods of earth and makes the seed ripen.”

The pontiff’s final thought was to remind those present to ask the Lord for the grace to welcome the seed of his word: “And if we realize we are not a fruitful soil, let us not be discouraged, but let us ask him to work on us more to make us become a better terrain.”

Leo closed the audience in the customary way, singing the Our Father prayer in Latin and then giving his apostolic blessing.

Among the pilgrims present on Wednesday was Father Rolmart Verano, who is leading a group of jubilee pilgrims from the Diocese of Surigao, Philippines.

“I never thought that one day I will come here [to Rome],” he told CNA. “It is one of my wildest dreams that came true!”

“The striking point of Pope Leo XIV’s general audience is when he said that the word of God should take root in each one of our hearts,” he said. “It should serve as a guide for our daily lives no matter that it be ordinary or difficult circumstances.”

As one of 40 members of a pilgrim group from the Diocese of Mumbai, India, Sandesh Almeida said he was immediately impressed by the kindness shown by the new pontiff at the audience. 

“Peace is a good message from him,” he said. “Now with India and Pakistan … we should go for peace and the pope is mostly focusing on peace.”

Monsignor Humberto González in St. Peter’s Square after the May 18, 2025, Mass marking the beginning of Leo XIV’s pontificate. / Credit: Almudena Martínez-Bordiú/ACI Prensa

Vatican City, May 20, 2025 / 16:58 pm (CNA).

Monsignor Humberto González is a member of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America (PCAL, by its Spanish acronym), where he served alongside Cardinal Robert Prevost — now Pope Leo XIV — who was president of the organization since 2023.

The PCAL was created by Pope Pius XII in 1958 with the aim of studying issues related to the life and development of the particular Churches in the region.

The commission works in coordination with the dicasteries, which it advises and supports, including through financial resources. It is also tasked with promoting relations between ecclesiastical institutions — both international and national — working in Latin America and the organizations within the Roman Curia.

With the apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium, Pope Francis decreed that the Pontifical Commission for Latin America be integrated within the Dicastery for Bishops. This means that the prefect of that dicastery — a position then-Cardinal Prevost assumed two years ago — will also be the president of the commission.

From St. Peter’s Square, at the end of the Mass inaugurating the Holy Father's pontificate, González, born in Colombia, spoke with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, about the close relationship he had with the now pontiff at PCAL headquarters, located in Piazza di San Calisto in the Trastevere neighborhood in central Rome.

“My relationship with him was one of great trust and affection, because he came to Rome two years ago as president of the commission,” said González, who has worked at PCAL for almost two decades.

Due to his experience within the commission, González maintained close collaboration with then-Cardinal Prevost, especially upon his arrival in Rome, to “bring him up to date on some matters.”

‘A shepherd always knows his sheep’

During this time, the two met at least twice a month. “Since I manage the administration, I had to present the various reports and accounts to him,” he explained.

From his days working with the Holy Father, González particularly highlighted his “enormous capacity for listening and attention.”

“In fact, he passed by today in the popemobile, and I called out his name. When he recognized my voice, he turned to look at me, smiled, and greeted me. A shepherd always knows his sheep,” he added, visibly moved.

For González, Pope Leo XIV is also “a close, affectionate, joyful voice, one who listens and knows how to discern.”

In this regard, he emphasized that the pontiff has a great capacity for reflection and “does not make hasty decisions.”

“He takes his time and undertakes a very important task for the good of the Church. We give thanks for his presence,” he told ACI Prensa.

Pope Leo XIV has not yet announced who will take his place at the head of the Dicastery for Bishops and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, an entity that also works with the Latin American and Caribbean Bishops’ Council (CELAM, by its Spanish acronym) and the Latin American Council of Religious.

“We also seek to establish relations with the Latin American embassies to the Holy See, with the Latin American schools that have students here in Rome, so as to forge bonds of communion between the Curia and Latin America,” the PCAL official explained.

The commission’s president is also assisted by two secretaries and the commission’s officials as well as by the members and councilors elected to “assist, accompany, and advise at the meetings where subsidies for the well-being and communion of all the countries of Latin America are planned.”

Altogether, Pope Leo XIV lived nearly 20 years in Peru, including eight years as bishop of Chiclayo, which allowed him to acquire a profound understanding of the ecclesial and social reality of Latin America.

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