Pope Leo XIV waves to the crowd gathered on St. Peter’ s Square for the Regina Coeli on Sunday, May 11, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Vatican City, May 15, 2025 / 16:03 pm (CNA).

The pontificate of Pope Leo XIV can bring new impetus to the Church’s evangelical mission in the world today, theologian and philosopher George Weigel said this week.    

Weigel held a public lecture on Wednesday at Rome’s Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas — also known as the Angelicum — on the “10 Markers of a Church ‘Permanently in Mission,’” which highlighted criteria including the need for friendship with Christ, acceptance of the authority of divine revelation, the sacraments, the call to constant conversion of life, and a “liturgically-centred form of Catholic life.”

During the lecture, the American theologian expressed his hope that “the authentic Catholic reform” begun by Pope Leo XIII at the end of the 19th century will be “further accelerated” by Pope Leo XIV, whose papal inaugural Mass will take place on Sunday, May 18.

“Pope Leo XIV struck that missionary note in his presentation of himself to the Church and the world last Thursday evening when he called the Church to be faithful to Jesus Christ without fear,” Weigel said, reflecting on the new pontiff’s first “urbi et orbi” blessing. 

According to Weigel, Pope Leo XIV is an “absolutely pivotal figure” who has the ability, through his own pontificate, to carry out Pope Leo XIII’s vision of the Church as a “great institutional promoter and defender of basic human rights” in society.

In light of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical letter Rerum Novarum  — a key Vatican document outlining the foundations of Catholic social doctrine released on May 15, 1891 — Weigel propounded that “it is only Christ” who, through the Church, can be an intentional force of good and humanize the world amid suffering.

“The Church of the ‘new evangelization’ recognizes that in offering everyone the profoundly countercultural possibility of friendship with the Lord Jesus, it offers the postmodern world something postmodernity desperately needs — an encounter with the divine mercy,” he said.  

“The Gospel liberates postmodern humanity from its cynical nihilism, its skepticism, and its burden of guilt form of a tacit, if not inarticulate, understanding of the awfulness that humanity visited upon itself throughout the 20th century,” he added. 

The “Leonine revolution” that began in the Church more than 100 years ago should spur Catholics to go deeper into how to “engage the world in order to convert the world” as missionaries faithful to the Gospel, Weigel said on Wednesday. 

“A Church permanently on mission seeks to be a culture-forming [and] counterculture for the world, its healing, and its conversion,” he said, pointing out the ineffectiveness of a “church of maybe” that is timid, lukewarm, and lacks conviction.

Pope Leo XIV gives a blessing during a meeting with participants in the Jubilee of Eastern Churches on May 14, 2025, in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, May 15, 2025 / 15:33 pm (CNA).

In the first week of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate, his preaching and speeches have featured quotations from saints and Church Fathers from St. Ignatius of Antioch to St. Gregory the Great.

The Catholic Church’s first pope from the Augustinian order is already helping to educate the faithful through his deep knowledge of the Church Fathers. Here is who he has been citing in the foundation-setting first week of his pontificate.

St. Augustine (354–430)

Catholics are virtually guaranteed to be hearing a lot more great quotes from St. Augustine in the upcoming years of this pontificate. 

In his first appearance on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica on May 8, Pope Leo said: “I am an Augustinian, a son of St. Augustine, who once said, ‘With you I am a Christian, and for you I am a bishop.’”

Leo gifted us with another classic St. Augustine quote again during his speech to journalists on May 12: “Let us live well and the times will be good. We are the times (Discourse 80.8).”

His papal motto under his coat of arms also features a line from St. Augustine, “In Illo uno unum,” which means “In the One, we are one.” It comes from a discussion of Psalm 128 (127 in the Latin Vulgate) in Augustine’s “Expositions of the Psalms”: “It is not as though he were one and we many; no, we who are many are one in him, who is one.”

St. Ignatius of Antioch (second century)

In his first Mass as pope, Leo XIV identified himself as the successor of Peter with St. Ignatius of Antioch, who was famously martyred by being thrown to the lions. 

In his homily in the Sistine Chapel on May 9 he reflected on a line from St. Ignatius of Antioch’s second-century “Letter to the Romans”: “Then I will truly be a disciple of Jesus Christ, when the world no longer sees my body.” 

“I say this first of all to myself, as the successor of Peter, as I begin my mission as bishop of Rome and, according to the well-known expression of St. Ignatius of Antioch, am called to preside in charity over the universal Church (cf. Letter to the Romans, Prologue),” Leo said. 

“St. Ignatius, who was led in chains to this city, the place of his impending sacrifice, wrote to the Christians there: ‘Then I will truly be a disciple of Jesus Christ, when the world no longer sees my body’ (Letter to the Romans, IV, 1).

“Ignatius was speaking about being devoured by wild beasts in the arena — and so it happened — but his words apply more generally to an indispensable commitment for all those in the Church who exercise a ministry of authority. It is to move aside so that Christ may remain, to make oneself small so that he may be known and glorified (cf. Jn 3:30), to spend oneself to the utmost so that all may have the opportunity to know and love him.”

St. Gregory the Great (540–604)

In Pope Leo’s first Regina Caeli address in which he sang the famous Marian prayer in Latin, he also quoted St. Gregory the Great, who he said teaches people to “respond to the love of those who love them (Homily 14:3-6).”

St. Ephrem the Syrian (306–373)

In Pope Leo XIV’s speech to the Eastern Catholic Churches, he cited the writings of several Eastern Church Fathers, among them St. Ephrem the Syrian, who is a theologian venerated in both the Catholic Church and Orthodox churches, especially in Syriac Christianity.

Pope Leo said: “Together, we can pray with St. Ephrem the Syrian and say to the Lord Jesus: ‘Glory to you, who laid your cross as a bridge over death… Glory to you who clothed yourself in the body of mortal man, and made it the source of life for all mortals’ (Homily on Our Lord, 9).”

St. Isaac of Nineveh (613–700)

Notably, Pope Leo also chose to quote St. Isaac of Nineveh, a seventh-century Assyrian bishop venerated across Christian traditions, whom Pope Francis added to the Roman Martyrology last November during a meeting with Mar Awa III, Catholicos-patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East.

Pope Leo XIV said: “We must ask, then, for the grace to see the certainty of Easter in every trial of life and not to lose heart, remembering, as another great Eastern Father wrote, that ‘the greatest sin is not to believe in the power of the Resurrection’ (St. Isaac Of Nineveh, Sermones ascetici, I, 5).”

St. Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022)

In his speech to the Eastern Churches, Pope Leo also quoted an Eastern Orthodox monk, St. Symeon the New Theologian, who is also venerated in the Byzantine Catholic Churches.  

The pope said that St. Symeon used an eloquent image: “‘Just as one who throws dust on the flame of a burning furnace extinguishes it, so the cares of this life and every kind of attachment to petty and worthless things destroy the warmth of the heart that was initially kindled’ (Practical and Theological Chapters, 63).”

St. John Paul II (1920–2005)

The new pope has not limited himself only to citing early Church Fathers. Pope Leo also echoed the famous words of St. John Paul II from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica: “Do not be afraid!”

John Paul II first spoke these words during his inaugural Mass on Oct. 22, 1978, saying: “Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ. To his saving power open the boundaries of states, economic and political systems, the vast fields of culture, civilization and development. Do not be afraid. Christ knows ‘what is in man.’ He alone knows it.” 

The Polish pontiff went on to repeat the phrase “Do not be afraid” many times throughout his pontificate.

Pope Leo XIV used the words in his first Regina Caeli address when discussing the need for prayer for more vocations among young people. “And to young people, I say: Do not be afraid! Accept the invitation of the Church and of Christ the Lord!” Pope Leo XIV said.

Pope Leo also quoted John Paul II in his speech to Eastern Catholic Churches, telling them: “Truly you have ‘a unique and privileged role as the original setting where the Church was born.’”

St. Paul VI (1897–1978)

In his May 10 speech to the cardinals who elected him, Pope Leo said: “Dear brothers, I would like to conclude the first part of our meeting by making my own — and proposing to you as well — the hope that St. Paul VI expressed at the inauguration of his Petrine ministry in 1963: ‘May it pass over the whole world like a great flame of faith and love kindled in all men and women of goodwill. May it shed light on paths of mutual cooperation and bless humanity abundantly, now and always, with the very strength of God, without whose help nothing is valid, nothing is holy’ (Message Qui Fausto Die addressed to the entire human family, 22 June 1963).”

St. Peter (first century)

It has been evident that Pope Leo has been doing a lot of praying and reflecting on the Petrine ministry and looking to past saint-popes for guidance. 

His first homily at his first Mass as pope focused on the relationship between St. Peter and Jesus, specifically Jesus’ question to St. Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” and Peter’s response: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16).

Pope Leo XIV also made the choice to offer one of his first private Masses in the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica at the tomb of St. Peter on May 11.

Blessed Virgin Mary 

Pope Leo XIV also highlighted that he was elected on the day of the Prayer of Supplication to Our Lady of Pompeii. In his very first appearance as pope from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, the new pope asked the crowd to pray a Hail Mary together with him before giving the solemn “urbi et orbi” blessing in Latin.

He said: “Today is the day of the Prayer of Supplication to Our Lady of Pompeii. Our Mother Mary always wants to walk at our side, to remain close to us, to help us with her intercession and her love. So I would like to pray together with you. Let us pray together for this new mission, for the whole Church, for peace in the world, and let us ask Mary, our Mother, for this special grace.”

One of his first surprises as pope was making a spontaneous pilgrimage to a Marian shrine outside of Rome, the Shrine of the Mother of Good Counsel in Genazzano, Italy.

“I wanted so much to come here in these first days of the new ministry that the Church has entrusted to me, to carry out this mission as the successor of Peter,” Leo told those present.

“As the Mother never abandons her children, you must also be faithful to the Mother,” he said.

Dominican Father Thomas Joseph White reads the thesis of then-Father Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, titled “The Role of the Local Prior in the Order of St. Augustine,” which Prevost wrote while a student at Rome’s Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in the early 1980s. / Credit: Zofia Czubak/EWTN News

Vatican City, May 15, 2025 / 13:25 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV earned his doctorate in canon law from Rome’s Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, where his thesis on the leadership of the Augustinian order may give insight into how the new pope will govern the Catholic Church, according to the university’s rector.

In an interview with EWTN News, Dominican Father Thomas Joseph White said he imagines that Leo XIV’s canon law formation will influence his governance as pope by providing “a balance between being consultative and making final decisions,” balance that would be familiar to Leo after 12 years of experience leading a religious order.

White, the university’s first American rector, also pointed out that both Pope John Paul II and Pope Leo XIV did their doctoral work at the Angelicum, as it’s commonly called: “For our university, it’s just an unspeakable honor that we’ve been involved in the formation of two of the last four popes.”

Leo studied for a canonical licentiate (the coursework for a doctorate) at the Angelicum from 1981 to 1983 after making his solemn vows in the Order of St. Augustine in August 1981. He was ordained a priest in June 1982, in the midst of his studies, and in 1985 he completed his doctorate with a thesis titled “The Role of the Local Prior in the Order of St. Augustine.”

According to White, Father Prevost’s thesis has a vision that could be extended beyond the Augustinian rule and the role of the order’s prior to be applied to the episcopacy, and even to the papacy.

“It’s a really mature work of a 30-year-old who’s extremely learned, very well read, and deeply thoughtful and spiritual,” the Dominican said.

The thesis, he explained, reflects “on obedience and authority in the Catholic Church and the communal nature of shared life, or communion of persons, the respect of conscience, the respect of the human persons, gifts, the talents of the brethren, and also the limitations or sufferings of the brethren, and how the prior is supposed to refer himself to Christ and to the rule, and cultivate a selfless way of life for the service of the common good of all.”

The pope’s doctoral writing also explores, according to White, how the superior of a religious order must respect the consciences of the order’s members, working with the freedom of each person while ultimately having “the responsibility to make final decisions and to assure the communion and unity of the group in question.”

Then-Father Prevost studied at the Angelicum during what White called “the golden age of our canon law faculty.” The university’s canon law professors in the early ’80s helped Pope John Paul II prepare and edit the 1983 Code of Canon Law, which is still in effect today.

He said what is evident from the future pope’s thesis is that he learned a theory of obedience where “obedience is something exerted through the life of the mind, open to the truth of the faith, the truth indicated by the rule of life, and the will is to consent freely by understanding a shared truth the community wants to live together.”

The rector called it a balanced but “demanding version of obedience,” very respectful of people in the context of a shared set of goals based on the truths of the Catholic faith.

“So his Dominican vision of obedience, if I could put it that way, and his study as a canonist in the Augustinian friars, that’s something that probably is really deep in him and probably very helpful,” White noted.

The topic of Pope Leo XIV’s thesis on the prior general of the Augustinians later became of greater practical significance when then-Father Prevost was himself elected prior general in 2001, leading the order until 2013.

“It’s really interesting,” White noted, “how God prepared him for this kind of task of being a leader in the Catholic Church who’s respectful of [everyone].”

Pope Leo XIV walks in the corridor of the third loggia of the Apostolic Palace, where the papal apartment is located, on May 12, 2025, in Vatican City. / Credit: Vatican Media/Vatican Pool/Getty Images

Vatican City, May 15, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV is expected to move into the official papal residence, an apartment on the top floor of the Apostolic Palace, departing from the living arrangements used by Pope Francis for 12 years.

The papal apartment, which is a series of rooms wrapping around the Vatican’s Sixtus V Courtyard, was the traditional home of pontiffs for over a century before Pope Francis eschewed those living quarters for a suite in the Vatican’s guesthouse, the Casa Santa Marta.

Pope Francis explained his decision as “a need to live my life with others” in a 2013 interview. The late pope said the papal apartment is “old, tastefully decorated and large, but not luxurious.”

Francis’ choice of living space was commonly interpreted as a sign of his simplicity and rejection of papal pomp, though U.S. Jesuit Father James Martin said Leo’s expected move into the papal apartment was a prudent decision.

Martin called it understandable that Leo might move back into the Apostolic Palace, given the busy and crowded nature of the Vatican guesthouse compared with the privacy of the papal apartment.

“Leo’s move should not be taken as a sign either of a critique of Pope Francis (whom he has praised repeatedly and whose legacy he formally told the cardinals he wishes to continue) or as him not living ‘simply,’” the author wrote on X.

Pope Francis lived in a second-floor bedroom with a sitting room attached but would go frequently to the Apostolic Palace for meetings and audiences. Toward the end of his pontificate, he would also receive visitors in various meeting rooms of the guesthouse.

According to people who have been there, the Santa Marta guesthouse posed significant security challenges, and when the pope made it his official residence after his 2013 election, a section of the second floor was closed to guests for security.

The quarters in the Apostolic Palace include a chapel, bedroom and bathroom, papal study, office for the pope’s secretary, a living room, dining room, kitchen, and library for meetings. Since John Paul II’s pontificate, which ended in illness, the apartment has also included an outfitted medical suite that was later expanded to include dental equipment. There is also a roof garden and rooms for housekeeping staff.

The Apostolic Palace is a large building situated just to the northeast of St. Peter’s Basilica, inside Vatican City. One corner of the building overlooks St. Peter’s Square.

Besides the papal apartment, the Apostolic Palace — also sometimes called the Palace of Sixtus V for the pope who had most of it built — contains Vatican offices, the Vatican library, and some of the rooms now part of the Vatican Museums.

Several of the windows of the papal apartment overlook St. Peter’s Square, including the window at which recent popes, including Pope Francis, would appear weekly on Sundays and holy days to pray the Angelus or Regina Caeli and give a brief reflection. On May 11, Pope Leo sang the Regina Caeli from the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica for the first time.

Following recent convention, the papal apartment will likely undergo some renovations and customization prior to Leo’s move-in. Since his election, the pope has been continuing to sleep in the Vatican apartment he used as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, which is in the Palazzo Sant’Uffizio, the building that also houses the offices of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Pope Leo XIV meets with the prelate of Opus Dei, Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz, on May 14, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, May 15, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday briefly discussed the revision of Opus Dei’s statutes with the apostolate’s prelate, Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz, a revision that was postponed following the death of Pope Francis on April 21, two days before the convening of Opus Dei’s general congress, from which the revisions proposed for approval were to be issued.

According to the Opus Dei communications office in Rome, the May 14 encounter was “a brief meeting in which the pope expressed his closeness and affection.”

“In a familial atmosphere of trust, Leo XIV gave the prelate and the auxiliary vicar his paternal blessing” and, at the end of the audience, mentioned “the feasts of Our Lady celebrated on the day of his election,” the statement reads.

During the meeting, in which Ocáriz was accompanied by his auxiliary vicar, Monsignor Mariano Fazio, one of the topics discussed was the delayed statutory revisions.

“Among other topics, the Holy Father asked about the current study of the statutes of the prelature and listened with great interest to the explanations given to him,” the official statement noted.

Opus Dei had planned to revise its statutes to adapt them to Pope Francis’ motu proprio Ad Charisma Tuendum. In essence, the pope’s directive placed Opus Dei under the direction of the Dicastery for the Clergy rather than the Dicastery for Bishops and ended the practice of elevating the prelate of Opus Dei to the rank of bishop.

Pope Francis had also requested that Opus Dei revise its statutes to reflect this new structure, which was to be finalized during the general congress. This revision was to be presented as a proposal to the Holy See for approval following its adoption by the assembly.

However, the general congress ultimately focused solely on the tasks of choosing a new general council and central advisory board, positions that are selected every eight years.

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

Candlelight procession at Fatima on May 12, 2025. / Credit: Courtesy of Shrine of Fatima/EWTN

ACI Prensa Staff, May 14, 2025 / 17:59 pm (CNA).

Approximately 470,000 pilgrims gathered in Fátima, Portugal, on May 12–13 to commemorate the 108th anniversary of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Monument of the Guardian Angel of Portugal apparition to the three little shepherd children of Fátima. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

National Catholic Register, May 13, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

May 13 is the optional memorial of Our Lady of Fátima, arguably the most prominent approved apparition of the 20th century.

The cross of the German “Synodal Way.” / Credit: Maximilian von Lachner/Synodaler Weg

Magdeburg, Germany, May 9, 2025 / 10:42 am (CNA).

The German Synodal Committee meets this weekend without four bishops, who will not participate due to the Vatican’s warning that the committee is not legitimate. 

Cap Arcona — once a luxurious transatlantic liner — became a place of execution in the spring of 1945 when it was bombed by British aircraft on May 3. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Piotr Wiśniowski

Dublin, Ireland, May 6, 2025 / 14:37 pm (CNA).

On May 3, 1945, one of the greatest and most silenced maritime tragedies of the 20th century unfolded in the Bay of Lübeck in Germany. 

A patch depicting the late Pope Francis is seen on the jersey of San Lorenzo’s Spanish midfielder No. 10 Iker Muniain during the Argentine Professional Football League 2025 Apertura Tournament football match between San Lorenzo and Rosario Central at the Pedro Bidegain stadium in Buenos Aires on April 26, 2025. The late Pope Francis, Jorge Bergoglio, was a fan and member No. 88235 of Argentina’s San Lorenzo football club. / Credit: ALEJANDRO PAGNI/AFP via Getty Images

Dublin, Ireland, Apr 28, 2025 / 10:39 am (CNA).

Among the tens of thousands of mourners paying their respects before the coffin of Pope Francis late last week was Gianluigi Buffon, the Italian World Cup-winning goalkeeper.