Pope Leo XIV greets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Castel Gandolfo on July 9, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 9, 2025 / 15:07 pm (CNA).

On Wednesday Pope Leo XIV took time out from his summer vacation in Castel Gandolfo to receive the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

It was the second time the two have met after exchanging greetings at the Vatican on May 18 in the context of the Mass inaugurating Pope Leo’s pontificate.

According to an official statement from the Holy See, the two leaders discussed the ongoing conflict and “the urgency of pursuing just and lasting paths of peace.”

During the meeting, held behind closed doors, the importance of dialogue was reiterated “as the best avenue for ending hostilities.”

The pope expressed his profound sorrow for the victims of the Russia-Ukraine war and renewed his spiritual closeness to the Ukrainian people, encouraging all efforts aimed at the release of prisoners and the search for shared solutions.

Leo XIV also reaffirmed the Holy See’s willingness to receive representatives of Russia and Ukraine at the Vatican with a view to possible peace negotiations. The audience lasted approximately 30 minutes.

Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude on X for the meeting and for “a very substantive conversation” with the Holy Father. “We value all the support and every prayer for peace in Ukraine,” he added.

Regarding the proposal for meetings between leaders from both sides of the conflict to be held at the Vatican, he confirmed that “it remains open and entirely possible, with the goal of stopping Russian aggression and achieving a stable, lasting, and genuine peace.”

However, he lamented that, currently, “only Moscow continues to reject this proposal, as it has turned down all other peace initiatives.”

“We will continue to strengthen global solidarity so that diplomacy can still succeed,” he added.

He also noted that he especially thanked Pope Leo for his support for Ukrainian children, “particularly those returned from Russian captivity.”

“Ukrainian children now have the opportunity for rehabilitation and rest in Italy, and such hospitality and sincerity are extremely important. Today, we also discussed the Vatican’s continued efforts to help return Ukrainian children abducted by Russia,” he noted.

He also explained that he spoke with the pontiff about the “the deep respect that Ukrainian society holds for Andrey Sheptytskyy — his actions, including the rescue of Jews during the Second World War and his defense of the Christian faith.”

Archbishop Andrey Sheptysky was a leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church from 1900 to 1944, who, at the risk of his own life, saved hundreds of Jews during the Nazi occupation and worked for Christian unity.

“We hope that Metropolitan Sheptytsky’s contribution and merits will receive the recognition they deserve,” the president said.

International Meeting on the Reconstruction of Ukraine

Zelenskyy’s visit to Rome is part of the Fourth International Meeting on the Reconstruction of Ukraine to be held in the Italian capital July 10–11.

This is a series of international conferences aimed at mobilizing diplomatic, financial, strategic, and political support for the country’s recovery following the Russian invasion that began in February 2022.

The meeting will be opened tomorrow by Zelenskyy and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The event brings together heads of state and government from 77 countries and a total of 1,800 attendees, including representatives of 500 companies.

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 celebrates Mass for the Care of Creation at Castel Gandolfo on Wednesday, July 9, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jul 9, 2025 / 14:03 pm (CNA).

It was a mix of liturgical old and new in the gardens of Castel Gandolfo on Wednesday as Pope Leo XIV inaugurated a special Mass for the Care of Creation — with key portions in the ancient language of Latin.

Against a backdrop of green foliage and a large sculpture of Mary at the pope’s traditional summer residence, the pontiff prayed July 9 for more people to be converted from “the excesses of the human being, with his style of life,” which he said was a major cause of the many natural disasters taking place around the world.

“We should pray for the conversion of many people, in and outside of the Church, who still do not recognize the urgency of caring for creation, for our common home,” he said, adding that the world is burning both because of global warming and armed conflicts.

The pope also emphasized “the indestructible alliance between Creator and creatures,” which he said “mobilizes our intelligence and our efforts, so that evil may be turned into good, injustice into justice, greed into communion.”

The open-air celebration was likely the first use of the prayers and scriptural readings specified for the new Mass formulary. Inspired by Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical Laudato Si’, the “Mass for the Care of Creation” was presented at the Vatican on July 3.

The Mass, attended by around 50 people involved in the Castel Gandolfo-based environmental center Borgo Laudato Si’, was celebrated in Italian but with Leo reciting certain prayers, including the collect and prayer over the offerings, in Latin.

The Borgo Laudato Si’ is an initiative to put into practice the principles for integral development outlined in Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical Laudato Si’.

Archbishop Vittorio Francesco Viola, secretary of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, told CNA by phone after the Mass that Pope Leo recited the prayers in Latin because that is how they appear in the “typical edition,” meaning the approved original, while official translations have not yet been created.

“Pope Leo is absolutely familiar with Latin; it’s certainly not a problem,” the No. 2 at the Vatican’s liturgy office added.

Pope Leo gave some insight into his personal experience with the Latin language during a meeting with hundreds of children on July 3, when he explained that he was exposed to the universal language of the Church as an altar server from around age 6, when he would serve at 6:30 a.m. Mass every day before school.

“Then it was in Latin; we still had to learn Latin for Mass, and then it changed to English,” he said. “But it wasn’t so much the language [the Mass] was celebrated in, but rather having that experience of meeting other young people who served Mass together, the friendship always, and then this closeness to Jesus in the Church.”

The pope celebrated the Mass of Care for Creation July 9 during a planned two-week stay at the pontifical estate, located in the lakeside town of Castel Gandolfo, 18 miles southeast of Rome. The period of limited private and public engagements, which comes just two months into his pontificate, will end July 20.

Pope Leo has revived the 400-year tradition of papal vacationing at Castel Gandolfo, a practice eschewed by Pope Francis.

Starting his homily for the July 9 Mass on the estate’s gardens with a few improvised comments, the pontiff invited “everyone, beginning with myself, to experience that which we are celebrating in the beauty of what you could say is a ‘natural’ cathedral, with the plants and many elements of creation which they have brought here for us to celebrate the Eucharist, which means, render thanks to the Lord.”

He pointed to a reflection pool in front of the altar and recalled a practice in the first centuries of Christianity of having the faithful enter a church by passing through a baptismal font.

Leo joked that he would not want to be baptized in that specific water, which featured waterlilies and appeared to be green with algae, but he said the “symbol of passing through the water to all be washed of our sins, of our weaknesses, and so be able to enter into the great mystery of the Church is something that we experience even today.”

Viola, who was present at Leo’s Mass, noted the significance of the location, immersed in the beautiful gardens at a site of prayer for some of Leo’s predecessors.

“The place where [the Mass] was celebrated was not chosen by chance, because it is the place where several pontiffs stopped to pray during their periods of rest in Castel Gandolfo, before that image of the Virgin Mary,” he explained.

Viola called it “a place that has always preserved a dimension of prayer and the prayer of the popes. And so gathering in that place was significant, as if to preserve the heart of [Borgo Laudato Si’] that is being built on the indications of Laudato Si’, which is a heart of spirituality.”

Pope Leo, reflecting on the Gospel passage read at Mass — Jesus’ calming of the storm at sea — said the Lord’s disciples, “at the mercy of the storm, gripped by fear,” could not yet profess knowledge of Jesus as heard in the first reading, from St. Paul’s Letter to the Colossians, that “he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth.”

“We today,” the pontiff added, “in the faith that has been passed on to us, can instead continue: ‘He is also the head of the body, the Church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that in all things he might have preeminence.’”

“These are words that commit us throughout history, that make us a living body, the body of which Christ is the head. Our mission to protect creation, to bring it peace and reconciliation, is his own mission: the mission that the Lord has entrusted to us,” he said.

Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke during the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, June 29, 2019. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Vatican City, Jul 9, 2025 / 13:33 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has written a warm and detailed letter to Cardinal Raymond Burke, thanking the American cardinal for 50 years of priestly ministry, in a gesture that marks a shift in tone following years of tension between Burke and Pope Francis.

The cardinal was one of the most prominent critics in the hierarchy of the late pope, under whom he fell conspicuously out of favor.

Leo’s letter, written in Latin and signed by the pope on June 17, was posted Tuesday by Burke on his official X account. In it, the pope praised Burke “for the prompt service he has zealously carried out and the earnest care he has demonstrated most especially for the law, which has also been of good service to the dicasteries of the Apostolic See.”

The pope went on to commend Burke’s pastoral witness, writing: “He has preached the precepts of the Gospel according to the heart of Christ and has recounted His treasures, diligently offering his devoted service to the Church universal.”

In his post accompanying the papal letter, Burke wrote that he was “very humbled” by it and appealed to his followers to pray for the pope. “May God bless Pope Leo and grant him many years. Viva il Papa!” Burke wrote.

The exchange represents a striking departure from the contentious relationship between Burke and Pope Francis, under whose pontificate Burke was increasingly sidelined.

Francis removed Burke in 2013 from the Vatican Congregation for Bishops — the curial body that recommends episcopal candidates — and reassigned him the following year from the Church’s supreme court to a largely ceremonial position with the Order of Malta, later taking away many of those responsibilities and eventually removing him altogether.

A vocal critic of Pope Francis’ approach to pastoral theology, Burke twice joined other cardinals in submitting “dubia” — formal requests for clarification — regarding the pope’s teachings on Communion for divorced-and-remarried Catholics and blessings for same-sex couples.  

He has also been a staunch proponent of the Traditional Latin Mass, which Francis severely restricted in 2021 through his motu proprio Traditionis Custodes. Last month, Burke made an open appeal to Pope Leo to lift the restrictions on the Latin Mass.

Late in his pontificate, Pope Francis told a meeting of Vatican officials in late 2023 that he was taking away Burke’s stipend and rent-free apartment in Rome. In response to an inquiry from CNA on Wednesday about his current situation in regard to the stipend and the apartment, Burke declined through his secretary to comment.

Burke, 77, was ordained to the priesthood by Pope Paul VI on June 29, 1975, at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome while studying at the Pontifical North American College.

He celebrated his golden jubilee with a Novus Ordo Mass of thanksgiving on Saturday at his titular church in Rome, Sant’Agata dei Goti. Among the concelebrants were Cardinals Dominique Mamberti and James Harvey, the latter of whom delivered the homily.

The cardinal’s decades-long service includes posts as bishop of La Crosse, Wisconsin (1995–2004), archbishop of St. Louis (2004–2008), and prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura (2008–2014). He was created a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 and served as patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta from 2014 to 2023.

Burke participated in the May conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly listed Cardinal Burke's age. It is 77, not 76. Also, this story was updated at 3:08 p.m. ET with the cardinal’s response to CNA’s request for comment. (Published July 9, 2025)

Rows of bunk beds line the interior of the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” detention facility in the Florida Everglades, a repurposed training center now designated for holding immigrants. President Donald Trump appears in the background during a July 1, 2025, visit to the site, which has drawn criticism from Bishop Frank Dewane and other Catholic leaders. / Credit: The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

National Catholic Register, Jul 9, 2025 / 12:06 pm (CNA).

A Florida bishop is criticizing recent statements from public officials supporting a new detention facility for illegal immigrants in the Everglades as “obviously intentionally provocative” and degrading to the dignity of people who will be held there. 

“Decency requires that we remember individuals being detained are fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters of distressed relatives,” Venice, Florida, Bishop Frank Dewane said in a written statement last week. 

The Diocese of Venice in southwestern Florida includes the cities of Fort Myers and Sarasota. It also includes an underused training facility and airport that state and federal officials are turning into a detention facility for up to 1,000 people in the country illegally, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” 

Without naming him, Dewane criticized Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, a Republican who served as chief of staff to Gov. Ron DeSantis until DeSantis appointed him attorney general in February to fill a vacancy.

Uthmeier posted a video to social media last month touting the virtues of using the training facility, which is in the middle of the Everglades, to house immigrants here illegally.

“You don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter. People get out, there’s not much waiting for ‘em other than pythons and alligators. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide,” Uthmeier said in the video, posted June 19.

Dewane expressed concern about the potential living conditions at the site and about the ability of Catholic clerics to provide spiritual services to inmates and staff there. 

He also chided Uthmeier for what he suggested was disrespect to people who may be held there. 

“It is unbecoming of public officials and corrosive of the common good to speak of the deterrence value of ‘alligators and pythons’ at the Collier-Dade facility,” Dewane said in the statement, released July 3. “I do not speak so glibly in regard to convicted felons in Florida Department of Corrections facilities.” 

He also criticized the way President Donald Trump’s administration has gone about removing illegal immigrants from the United States, describing it as overreach. 

“It is alarming to see enforcement strategies, which treat all unauthorized immigrants as dangerous criminals. Masked, heavily armed agents who fail to identify themselves in enforcement activities are surprising. So is an apparent lack of due process in deportation proceedings in recent months,” Dewane said.

The bishop did endorse one major goal of Trump concerning immigration enforcement.

“In describing immigration enforcement initiatives, the Trump administration has stated its focus is on removing criminal aliens who endanger public safety. This concern is widely shared. There is no argument with this,” Dewane said.

“However,” he added, “the need for just immigration enforcement and the government’s obligation to carry it out must be undertaken in a way that is targeted, humane, and proportional.”

Dewane noted that Trump has said in recent weeks that his administration plans to offer passes to foreign farmworkers who don’t have legal residency in the United States. American farmers have said they are suffering from a work shortage and that recent immigration raids have further decreased their supply of labor.

“We’re going to sort of put the farmers in charge,” Trump said during a July 3 rally. 

“We don’t want to do it where we take all of the workers off the farms. We want the farms to do great like they’re doing right now,” the president said. 

Dewane said the president’s recent remarks on farmworkers reflect what the bishop called “a growing recognition that many, indeed most immigrants, even those who are not lawfully present, are not dangerous but peaceful, law-abiding, and hardworking contributors to our communities and to our economy.” 

The prelate called for “serious reforms” of the country’s immigration system that “preserve safety and the integrity of our borders, as well as to accommodate needs for labor, family stability, and the ability of those at risk of grave harm to migrate with due process,” without mentioning specific policies. 

Dewane’s statement includes a link to a January statement on immigration from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that says, in part, that “enforcement measures should focus on those who present genuine risks and dangers to society, particularly efforts to reduce gang activity, stem the flow of drugs, and end human trafficking.” 

The bishops’ conference’s statement also calls for providing “legal processes for longtime residents and other undocumented immigrants to regularize their status.”

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.

Oslo Coadjutor Bishop Fredrik Hansen speaks to “EWTN News Nightly” on Tuesday, July 8, 2025. / Credit: “EWTN News Nightly”

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 9, 2025 / 11:07 am (CNA).

On July 8, the feast day of St. Sunniva, Catholics from multiple countries arrived at Selja, an island just off the west coast of Norway.

The Catholic Cathedral of Limburg in Hesse, Germany. / Credit: Mylius via Wikimedia (GFDL 1.2)

CNA Newsroom, Jul 9, 2025 / 09:50 am (CNA).

The Diocese of Limburg — led by the chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing — recorded its first annual deficit of 810,000 euros in 2024.

Archbishop Guy de Kerimel of Toulouse, France. / Credit: Paralacre, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Newsroom, Jul 9, 2025 / 09:20 am (CNA).

Archbishop Guy de Kerimel named Father Dominique Spina as chancellor and episcopal delegate for marriages.

null / Credit: Pormezz/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 9, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

An agreement between the Virginia attorney general’s office and two Christian counselors will limit that state’s enforcement of a so-called “conversion therapy” ban for minors, a law that restricts the way counselors can interact with patients on issues related to transgenderism and sexual orientation.

Under the agreement, the state will allow a patient under the age of 18 with gender dysphoria to receive “talk therapy” that helps the patient conform his or her self-perceived “gender identity” to his or her biological sex. It will also allow a minor to receive “talk therapy” intended to align his or her sexual orientation toward attraction to the opposite sex.

Counselors who provide this type of therapy based on religious beliefs will not face disciplinary action for providing the therapy sessions to patients who request it, according to the agreement.

“This court action fixes a constitutional problem with the existing law by allowing talk therapy between willing counselors and willing patients, including those struggling with gender dysphoria,” Shaun Kenney, a spokesperson for the Virginia Office of the Attorney General, said in a statement provided to CNA.

“Talk therapy with voluntary participants was punishable before this judgment was entered,” Kenney added. “This result — which merely permits talk therapy within the standards of care while preserving the remainder of the law — respects the religious liberty and free speech rights of both counselors and patients.”

The agreement effectively limits enforcement of the statewide ban. Under a 2020 law signed by former Gov. Ralph Northam, counselors could have faced disciplinary action from regulatory boards if they provided the prohibited therapy, even if the patient had expressly requested it.

State law defines “conversion therapy” as any “practice or treatment that seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity.” This includes “efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same gender.”

The agreement, approved in the Henrico County Circuit Court, notes that the two counselors who challenged the ban in court — John and Janet Raymond — provide Christian counseling that integrates their religious beliefs in therapy sessions. The agreement states this includes “voluntary conversations, prayer, and written materials such as Scripture.”

Because their Christian faith includes a belief that “a person’s behaviors or gender expressions should be consistent with that person’s biological sex” and a belief that “sexual or romantic attractions or feelings should not be directed toward persons of the same sex,” the agreement affirms that the therapy is protected under the state’s constitutional guarantee of religious freedom.

The Founding Freedoms Law Center, which represented the two Christian counselors in court, called the agreement a “major victory” and stated that the ban is “effectively dead” in Virginia.

“With this court order, every counselor in Virginia will now be able to speak freely, truthfully, and candidly with clients who are seeking to have those critical conversations about their identity and to hear faith-based insights from trusted professionals,” the law center’s statement read.

“This is a major victory for free speech, religious freedom, and parental rights in Virginia,” the statement added.

Jennifer Morse, the president of the pro-family Ruth Institute, told CNA she believes this legal victory is essentially about free speech, and added that the bans exist because “activists would prefer that no one try to change, because if enough people try, sooner or later, at least some of them will succeed.”

“The strategic purpose of these bans is to protect the fiction that people are ‘born gay’ and can never change and that ‘sexual orientation’ is an innate immutable trait, comparable to race or eye color or left-handedness,” she said.

“If people start saying ‘I don’t want to be gay. I’m not convinced I was born this way, can I find someone who will talk to me about that?’ enough of them would change enough to disprove these crucial assumptions that underlie the ideology of the committed LGBT activists,” Morse added.

In March, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear a lawsuit challenging Colorado’s ban on “conversion therapy” for minors. That lawsuit, which could set nationwide precedent, focuses on similar arguments about religious freedom and free speech.

Anton Krecic, founder of Seven Weeks Coffee. / Credit: Screen capture “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly”/Seven Weeks Coffee

CNA Staff, Jul 9, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Seven Weeks Coffee, an American, pro-life coffee brand, announced July 7 that it has now donated $1 million to pro-life organizations.

Founded in 2021 by Anton Krecic, the coffee company has combined direct-trade specialty coffee with pro-life values. Ten percent of the profit of each coffee bag sold is donated to pro-life organizations, specifically pregnancy resource centers.

“When my wife and I founded Seven Weeks Coffee, the skeptics doubted Americans would support a values-based company. They were wrong,” Krecic said in a press release. “We are so blessed to have gone on this journey with our customers, raising money for pro-life causes.”

During its time in business, Seven Weeks Coffee has donated to over 1,000 pregnancy resource centers in all 50 states, paid for ultrasounds for pregnant mothers in unwanted pregnancies, and estimates that it has helped save over 9,000 lives.

Women from across the country have written to the pro-life coffee company thanking it for its support.

“When I found out I was pregnant, I didn’t know what to do. I was scared, alone, and abortion felt like the only option. But the pregnancy center offered me a free ultrasound — and I saw my baby’s heartbeat. That changed everything,” one mother wrote to Seven Weeks Coffee after the company paid for her ultrasound.

In an interview with “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly” in 2023, Krecic discussed how he originally wanted to work in politics but ended up running a coffee company instead. He explained that he moved to Washington, D.C., “with a passion just to get involved in the political process” but that he also has always had “a very big heart for the pro-life movement.”

After visiting a pregnancy care center several years ago, the experience made a lasting impact on him, which led to his idea to start a pro-life coffee company.

“There really was no pro-life coffee company around that I really saw making a kind of a national impact … I was like, ‘There’s a mission here and there’s an impact that we can have,’” he recalled.

While trying to come up with a name for the business, Krecic’s wife asked him when a baby in utero was the size of a coffee bean. After doing some research, Krecic found that a baby in utero is the size of a coffee bean at seven weeks. Additionally, this is also when a baby’s heartbeat is clearly detectable during an ultrasound.

“So I was like, ‘That is the name. That’s what we’re going to call the company,’” he recalled.

In its first year alone, 2022 — which was also the year Roe v. Wade was overturned — Seven Weeks Coffee donated over $50,000 to more than 250 pregnancy resource centers.

“God has blessed us more than we could have ever imagined,” Krecic said.

“There is no place for ideology in the synod. It’s another dynamic. The synod is dialogue between baptised people in the name of the church, on the life of the church, on dialogue with the world, on the problems that affect humanity today. But when you think along an ideological path, the synod ends.” (Remarks […]

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