Posted on 05/14/2025 21:59 PM (Catholic News Agency)
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.
Posted on 05/14/2025 18:48 PM (CNA Daily News - Vatican)
Pope Leo XIV meets with Italian tennis star Jannick Sinner on May 14, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media
CNA Staff, May 14, 2025 / 14:48 pm (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV met Italian tennis star Jannik Sinner at the Vatican on Wednesday.
Photos shared by Vatican News show the newly elected pope, who has described himself as “quite the amateur tennis player,” warmly greeting the 23-year-old Italian and his family as well as the president of the Italian Tennis Federation, Alberto Binaghi.
Sinner, who is ranked No. 1 in the world, is from a predominantly German-speaking region in Italy’s far north. He became the first Italian man to win a major tennis title since 1976 when he bested Daniil Medvedev at the Australian Open in 2024, earning kudos from the late Pope Francis.
Sinner is currently competing in the 2025 Italian Open, taking place in Rome.
Greeting the pope in a room off the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall, Sinner presented Pope Leo with a tennis racket and ball and asked the pope in Italian if he wanted to play.
The pope responded: “Here we’ll break something. Best not to!”
Leo also joked that “Wimbledon would let” him compete in his white cassock, a reference to the famous rule at the All England Club tennis tournament that players must wear white.
The pope had previously been asked by journalists about whether he would like to play tennis again — perhaps a charity match — and “seemed game” but quipped that “we can’t invite Sinner,” in an apparent pun on the English meaning of Sinner’s last name, the AP reported Monday.
When asked about the pope’s comment, Sinner genially responded that it’s “a good thing for us tennis players” that Leo likes the sport and expressed openness to hitting with the pontiff in the future.
Posted on 05/14/2025 18:18 PM (CNA Daily News - Vatican)
Pope Leo XIV gives the homily at Mass with the cardinale electors in the Sistine Chapel on May 9, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media
ACI Prensa Staff, May 14, 2025 / 14:18 pm (CNA).
The Vatican announced that Pope Leo XIV has decided to “maintain an active presence on social media through official papal accounts” on X @Pontifex and Instagram, creating a new one for the latter platform.
In a statement May 13, the Dicastery for Communication said “Leo XIV inherits the X @Pontifex accounts used by Pope Francis and previously by Benedict XVI,” and a new account has also been opened on Instagram.
“On Instagram, the new pope’s account is called @Pontifex – Pope Leo XIV, and is the only official account of the Holy Father on this platform in continuity with Pope Francis’ account, @Franciscus,” the dicastery noted, adding that the content published by Pope Francis on X “will soon be archived in the appropriate section of the Holy See’s institutional website,” Vatican.va.
It also added that “the content published on the @Franciscus account will continue to be accessible as an ‘Ad Memoriam’ commemorative archive.”
The Vatican noted that “the presence of the popes on social media began on Dec. 12, 2012, when Pope Benedict XVI launched the @Pontifex account on what was then Twitter.”
The account, which is published in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Polish, Arabic, and Latin, “has a total of 52 million followers.”
The dicastery highlighted Pope Francis’ activity on social media, with “a total of approximately 50,000 posts published on the nine @Pontifex accounts and on @Franciscus.”
“In this way, he has accompanied us almost every day of his pontificate with brief evangelical messages or exhortations for peace, social justice, and care for creation; and he has achieved great engagement, especially in difficult times (in 2020, a year of exceptional numbers due to the pandemic, his messages were viewed 27 billion times),” the dicastery stated.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Posted on 05/14/2025 16:12 PM (CNA Daily News - Vatican)
A cropped version of the official portrait of Pope Leo XIV, published by the Vatican on May 10, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 14, 2025 / 12:12 pm (CNA).
Prior to his elevation to the papacy, Pope Leo XIV stayed out of the spotlight on certain reforms backed by his predecessor but maintained a close relationship with Pope Francis and support for pro-life values, the dignity of migrants, care for the environment, and a more synodal Catholic Church.
Leo, formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost, was appointed as bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, in 2015 and took on major leadership roles in the Vatican from 2023 through 2025: prefect for the Dicastery for Bishops, where he provided guidance on appointing bishops and cardinals; and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, where he oversaw the Vatican’s relations with the Church in the region.
In the past, Leo has been critical of gender ideology, much like Francis. On issues related to homosexuality and same-sex blessings, Leo’s tone was very critical before his appointment as a cardinal but has since appeared to soften.
“He has not been a bishop of a diocese or a cardinal in the Roman Curia for long,” Susan Hanssen, a history professor at the University of Dallas, a Catholic institution, told CNA.
“He is not a ’senior cardinal,’” she said. “It was the choice of a relatively unknown figure.”
Joe Heschmeyer, an apologist at Catholic Answers, told CNA that Leo’s “liturgical motto stresses the need for our unity in Christ, so I have a strong hunch that one of the goals of his pontificate will be to restore more of a sense of unity and order to the Church.”
“One of the things that seems immediately clear about the new Roman pontiff is that he speaks clearly and gently,” he said. “Those are both crucial right now.”
Similar to Francis, Leo has been a consistent advocate for a culture of life. He has spoken out against abortion, euthanasia, and the death penalty.
Leo became involved in the pro-life movement before joining the priesthood and was active in “Villanovans for Life,” the pro-life club at Villanova University, and has attended pro-life marches. He has also publicly spoken on the issue, including in social media posts.
In 2015, while attending the March for Life in Chiclayo, the now-pontiff posted on X that people must “defend human life at all times.” He also reshared several articles on X, including articles from CNA, about the sanctity of human life and opposition to abortion.
During a 2022 interview with La Republica, then-Bishop Prevost said that being pro-life for the entirety of life means that “the death penalty is inadmissible” and that seeking “blood for blood” is not the proper answer when trying to bring about justice.
Prior to his pontificate, Leo spoke out about gender ideology and homosexuality.
While bishop of Chiclayo, the now-pontiff condemned the promotion of gender ideology in the public education system in Peru, according to the national Peruvian newspaper Diario Correo.
“It seeks to create genders that don’t exist, since God created men and women, and trying to confuse the ideas of nature will only harm families and individuals,” then-Bishop Prevost said in 2016, according to the article.
“This campaign, apparently, is going to create a lot of confusion and do a lot of harm. We mustn’t confuse the importance of family and marriage with what others want to create, as if it were a right to do something that isn’t,” he said.
In 2012, when Leo was the prior general of the Order of St. Augustine, he said that Western mass media promotes “enormous sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel; for example, abortion, homosexual lifestyle, euthanasia,” while speaking in an interview with Catholic News Service.
Leo further criticized the negative media portrayal of members of the clergy who support “the traditional definition of marriage” in the same interview. He criticized the positive portrayal of “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.” He spoke about the need for the Church to learn how to evangelize in this environment.
However, after he became a cardinal in 2023, he told Catholic News Service: “Pope Francis has made it very clear that he doesn’t want people to be excluded simply on the basis of choices that they make, whether it be lifestyle, work, way to dress, or whatever.” He noted that “doctrine hasn’t changed...but we are looking to be more welcoming."
After the Vatican authorized certain nonliturgical blessings of same-sex couples through the declaration Fiducia Supplicans, then-Cardinal Prevost said: “Each episcopal conference needs to have a certain authority” in determining how to implement the document, according to CBCP News. Prevost noted some African bishops believed “our cultural situation is such that the application of this document is just not going to work.”
Leo was the prefect for the Dicastery for Bishops during the cardinal appointment of Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, who authored Fiducia Supplicans. Yet, Fernández was a longtime friend of Francis and it’s unclear whether then-Archbishop Prevost had any role in his appointment.
Christopher Malloy, the author of the book “False Mercy” and chair of theology at the University of Dallas, told CNA he does not know what Leo “will emphasize in his pontificate” but said the “infallible teaching on the sexual act cannot change” and “God does not change his truth,” which is in line with Leo’s 2023 comments.
“The sexual act is ordained by God to be between one man and one woman who are married and who do not act against the end of the act, procreation,” Malloy said. “Any use of the sexual faculties that violates this principle is objectively evil and therefore harms the very persons engaged in the act.”
Leo promoted the Church’s Synod on Synodality in a 2023 interview with Vatican News. The synod brings bishops, priests, and laypeople together for conversations about how to approach certain issues in the Church.
“I truly believe that the Holy Spirit is very present in the Church at this time and is pushing us towards a renewal, and therefore we are called to the great responsibility of living what I call a new attitude,” then-Cardinal Prevost said. “It is not just a process, it is not just changing some ways of doing things, maybe holding more meetings before making a decision.”
On social media, Leo was outspoken in support of migrants and shared posts that criticized President Donald Trump’s immigration policy. Three of his five posts on X this year were criticizing those policies, including one post sharing an America Magazine article on Francis’ response to Vice President JD Vance on a Catholic approach to immigration.
Leo also served on the board of directors for Caritas Peru from 2022–2024, which provides humanitarian assistance to migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. It established a shelter for Venezuelan migrants in 2019.
However, in a homily given in the Chicago area last August, then-Cardinal Prevost also acknowledged certain problems that come from mass migration. He spoke about a large number of migrants in the small Italian town of Lampedusa, calling it “a huge problem,” and added: “It’s a problem worldwide, not only in this country.”
“There’s got to be a way to both solve the problem but also to treat people with respect,” he said, adding that everyone is given “the gift of being created in the image and likeness of God.”
As a cardinal, Prevost also spoke about environmental concerns, stressing a need to move “from words to actions,” according to a Vatican News article at the time. He said that “dominion over nature” should not become “tyrannical” but must be a “relationship of reciprocity” with the environment.
Speaking to CNA, Heschmeyer said: “On issues like caring for the environment and immigrants, I think we can expect Pope Leo to sound a lot like Pope Francis (and the Catechism of the Catholic Church).”
The Holy Father may need to navigate other subjects that he has not publicly weighed in on at this time, including Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, which opened the door to Communion for Catholics who have been divorced and remarried in limited circumstances.
Additionally, Leo will be tasked with managing his predecessor’s motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, which restricts access to the Traditional Latin Mass.
“While there have been some rumors that he celebrates the Latin Mass, they remain just that right now: rumors,” Heschmeyer said when asked whether there have been any indications on how Leo might handle those restrictions moving forward.
“What is clear is that he seems to have a traditional sensibility in terms of liturgy and vestments, and his Latin (as seen in his blessing from the balcony of St. Peter’s and in his first Mass as pope) seems crisp and clear,” he added.
Hanssen told CNA “there are a lot of cross-currents flying around the infosphere” and said it’s still unclear how Leo may handle certain topics of contention within the Church.
“Just as it was at the beginning of the Francis papacy, it is unclear how Leo XIV will position himself with regard to the John Paul II project of the re-evangelization of culture, what approach he would take to reinvigorating Christianity in secular, modern culture in first world countries, in the USA and Europe, because this has never been his primary field of pastoral work,” Hanssen said.
Heschmeyer encouraged Catholics not to follow Leo’s papacy by “looking for faults” on issues of contention but to rather focus on what can be learned from the Holy Father.
“Spiritually, it’s so much healthier if you try to figure out what you can learn from him and how his leadership can help your own spiritual journey,” he said.
Posted on 05/14/2025 15:29 PM (CNA Daily News - Vatican)
Pope Leo XIV speaks to 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 14, 2025 / 11:29 am (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV urged thousands of Eastern Catholics from around the world, many of whom come from places experiencing violence, not to abandon their ancestral lands and assured them that he will do everything he can to bring peace there.
“I thank God for those Christians — Eastern and Latin alike — who, above all in the Middle East, persevere and remain in their homelands, resisting the temptation to abandon them. Christians must be given the opportunity, and not just in words, to remain in their native lands with all the rights needed for a secure existence. Please, let us strive for this!” he said May 14.
The meeting with members of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches took place in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall, part of a three-day jubilee event that included seven Eastern-rite liturgies celebrated in St. Peter’s Basilica and the Basilica of St. Mary Major. The Eastern Catholic Churches follow the pope but maintain worship and other practices similar to Eastern Orthodoxy.
Speaking of Christ’s peace as “reconciliation, forgiveness, and the courage to turn the page and start anew,” Leo said, “for my part, I will make every effort so that this peace may prevail.”
“The peoples of our world desire peace, and to their leaders I appeal with all my heart: Let us meet, let us talk, let us negotiate!” the new pontiff said.
Metropolitan Archbishop Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia was in the audience with Pope Leo on May 14. He told CNA afterward that the Ukrainian people have embraced Leo “with acclamation” during his first days.
“His first few words, upon election, this Sunday, and today’s words have really touched the hearts of people who are enduring a brutal genocidal aggression” in Ukraine, the archbishop added.
Gudziak referred to Leo’s remarks at his first Regina Caeli prayer on May 11, when the 69-year-old pope said: “I carry in my heart the sufferings of the beloved Ukrainian people. May everything possible be done to reach an authentic, just, and lasting peace, as soon as possible. Let all the prisoners be freed and the children return to their own families.”
On that occasion, Leo also called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and for the freeing of hostages. He entrusted all conflicts around the world to the intercession of the Queen of Peace.
In Wednesday’s audience, the pontiff recalled the Church’s hope in the power of Christ’s resurrection, an emphasis during the Easter season for Eastern-rite Christians, many of whom come from countries experiencing conflict, like the Holy Land and Ukraine.
“Who, better than you, can sing a song of hope even amid the abyss of violence?” Leo said. “Who, better than you, who have experienced the horrors of war so closely that Pope Francis referred to you as ‘martyr Churches’?”
“From the Holy Land to Ukraine, from Lebanon to Syria, from the Middle East to Tigray and the Caucasus, how much violence do we see!” the pope continued. “Rising up from this horror, from the slaughter of so many young people, which ought to provoke outrage because lives are being sacrificed in the name of military conquest, there resounds an appeal: the appeal not so much of the pope, but of Christ himself, who repeats: ‘Peace be with you!’”
Leo’s speech also urged Eastern Catholics, who are minorities and a very small percentage of the global Catholic Church, to remain strong in their traditions, “without attenuating them … lest they be corrupted by the mentality of consumerism and utilitarianism” prevalent in the West.
Speaking about the contribution of the Christian East, the pope praised the sense of mystery in the liturgies, “liturgies that engage the human person in his or her entirety, that sing of the beauty of salvation and evoke a sense of wonder at how God’s majesty embraces our human frailty!”
“Pope Leo,” Gudziak said, “was at pains to say, basically, you might not be statistically big, but you have a unique role to play in the Catholic community: Stay faithful to your traditions.”
“The subtext is that sometimes these Churches, many of which are persecuted, are suffering from war, from genocide — Churches that have been numerically reduced, Churches that are in danger of disappearing after being there for 2,000 years, still speaking and praying in Aramaic, the language of Jesus — he was saying, hold on to this legacy. We need it. The whole Catholic Church needs it,” Gudziak added.
The Catholic Church needs the Eastern rites’ “focus on the Resurrection, the Christocentric experience of the Church,” the Ukrainian archbishop continued. “There’s no Church without Christ. You can’t just have sociological gatherings. If Christ is not there, it’s not the experience of the Church, it’s not the experience of salvation.”
The closing Divine Liturgy of the Jubilee of Eastern Christians was a Byzantine liturgy with the Melkite Greek, Ukrainian Greek, and Romanian Greek Catholic Churches, together with the other Churches of the Byzantine rite.
In his homily for the liturgy, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv, the primate of Ukraine, said: “We are all very touched by the meeting with the newly-elected Pope Leo. This morning we felt embraced by the Holy Father, consoled in our suffering … appreciated for our ancient Christian traditions, and encouraged in our evangelizing mission which we carry out in the contemporary world.”
On the new pope’s ability to promote peace in the Russian conflict with Ukraine, Gudziak noted that “today, many are saying maybe Pope Leo is not the most powerful American in the world, but he’s the most important American in the world, even though he doesn’t have [military] or financial or political resources.”
Posted on 05/13/2025 15:43 PM (CNA Daily News - Vatican)
Delegates at the 2024 Synod on Synodality participate in roundtable meetings on Oct. 10, 2024, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Vatican City, May 13, 2025 / 11:43 am (CNA).
The leadership of the Vatican’s synod office has pledged its full availability and support of Pope Leo XIV in a public letter to the new pontiff shared Tuesday to its website and social media pages.
Noting that the synodal journey “continues” under Leo’s guidance, the letter says the General Secretariat of the Synod looks “with confidence to the directions you will indicate, to help the Church grow as a community attentive to listening, close to each person, capable of authentic and welcoming relationships — a home and family of God open to all: a missionary synodal Church.”
Signed by Secretary-General Cardinal Mario Grech and undersecretaries Sister Nathalie Becquart, XMCJ, and Archbishop Luis Marín de San Martín, OSA, the letter explains the path the Synod on Synodality has taken since its start in 2021, including Pope Francis’ approval of the final document at the end of the general assembly in October 2024.
“The General Secretariat of the Synod remains fully available to offer its service in a spirit of collaboration and obedience,” it concluded.
As prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, the now-Pope Leo XIV participated in both sessions of the assembly of the Synod on Synodality in October 2023 and October 2024.
Like Leo, Marín, one of the synod’s undersecretaries, is a member of the Order of St. Augustine.
The synod, the letter says, “is an ecclesial journey led by the Holy Spirit, the gift of the risen Lord, who helps us grow as a missionary Church, constantly undergoing conversion through attentive listening to the Gospel.”
The letter also quotes an accompanying note to the final document, which said the document’s indications “can already now be implemented in the local Churches and groupings of Churches, taking into account different contexts, what has already been done, and what remains to be done.”
Posted on 05/13/2025 10:00 AM (CNA Daily News - Vatican)
Pope Leo XIV with his friend Father Hugo Gabriel Sánchez on May 12, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Hugo Gabriel Sánchez
Vatican City, May 13, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Father Hugo Gabriel Sánchez of Chiclayo, Peru, had been planning a trip with his mother for months to visit various Marian shrines in Europe, such as Fátima, Medjugorje, and Lourdes, with of course a final stop in Rome.
What this diocesan priest could never have imagined was that his arrival in Rome would coincide with the election of “Bishop Roberto” Prevost as successor to St. Peter — the bishop who led his diocese for eight years and with whom he has a close friendship.
On the afternoon of Sunday, May 12, Pope Leo XIV made time in his busy schedule to welcome his friend Sánchez and Sánchez’s mother to the Vatican.
“The joy was immense; we were able to speak for a little over 30 minutes and give him a painting of Cuzco that we brought from Peru,” Sánchez told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.
Sánchez met with ACI Prensa at the curia general of the Augustinians in Rome, a few steps from the Vatican and where Pope Leo XIV resided when he was prior general of the order. Despite having recently assumed the Petrine ministry, the Holy Father found time for a heartfelt gesture: He personally requested that his friend and his friend’s mother be given accommodations at the Augustinian community.
This closeness, the Peruvian priest noted, is precisely what characterizes the pontiff: “Since he left Chiclayo, he always sends us a message on our birthdays, or when there is a priestly ordination. He also writes if he hears of a priest having a problem.”
Sánchez still recalls with visible emotion the moment of the white smoke. “I was with my mother at the Lourdes shrine and I was 90% certain that the Holy Spirit could give us Bishop Prevost as pope,” said the pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in the José Leonardo Ortíz district of Chiclayo.
“I was simply waiting for the cardinal’s name to be said, and when it was, my mother and I both wept for joy. Then we thanked God, and I wrote him a message. He hasn’t answered me yet, but his secretary told us to have a little patience, as he has received many messages.”
Sánchez particularly highlighted the “love for the priests” that the now pope demonstrated as bishop of Chiclayo as well as his trust and commitment to young priests.
“We’re a young diocese, but we have many vocations. There are an average of about 80 or 85 priests, and he achieved a balance and harmony between the young and those who had been there for several years,” Sánchez emphasized.
He recalled the profound impact it had on him when years ago in the Chiclayo cathedral, he heard Prevost quote a line from St. Augustine, words that now Pope Leo XIV repeated in his first public appearance from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica: “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.’” In this sense, Sánchez reflected, “we can all walk together toward that homeland that God has prepared for us.”
As Sánchez sees it, the pontiff chose this line because “in some ways, he felt a certain fear in assuming this responsibility, but also comfort in knowing that he is not alone but accompanied by his brothers in the faith.”
The priest also recalled the new pope’s availability, always “ready to listen” and engage in conversation with anyone who needed it.
“While he listened to you, he looked at you and listened to you until you were finished.” And then “he gave you simple yet profound advice. He has a very special charism,” Sánchez noted.
During Prevost’s years as bishop of Chiclayo, the priest noted, “he gave us an example of service, humility, and simplicity.”
Pope Leo XIV’s profound spirituality and extensive formation, with degrees in mathematics, philosophy, and canon law, did not prevent “his daily dealings from being simple and open.”
“Before leaving Chicago, he was already doing advanced German studies and is fluent in several languages. But within that intellectual level that surprised us and his preparation, his relationship with the faithful was very simple, I think due to his ability to listen. His words were simple but profound, always focused on the Gospel and Christ.”
Sánchez also highlighted Prevost’s closeness to the poorest and the common people. “He revived Caritas in Chiclayo, when it was practically defunct,” he noted.
Sánchez was moved when he spoke of Chiclayo’s “strong but simple” faith while emphasizing the new pope’s closeness to young laypeople. He recalled with a smile “there’s a very funny video of him singing with them at Christmas.”
“He had a great ability to reach young people. Now on social media, we can see, without exaggerating, thousands of people from Chiclayo who have a photo with him,” he related.
He also highlighted his moderate stance, one of the characteristics that, according to the Peruvian priest, “made Cardinal Prevost a candidate for papacy.”
“His election came quickly to show that there are no divisions in the Church, and I believe the Holy Father will achieve harmony,” he emphasized.
He also emphasized that he has “a good sense of humor.”
“He doesn’t tell jokes, but he often laughs heartily when there’s a funny anecdote.”
Finally, he noted that “we needed a pope whose pontificate could be longer,” something he hopes for from the pontificate of Leo XIV, who will turn 70 on Sept. 14.
“As they say at the Augustinian college, we will have a pope for a while, and if God allows it, at some point he will visit Peru, and for the first time a pope will come to the Diocese of Chiclayo,” he said with hope.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Posted on 05/13/2025 08:00 AM (Catholic News Agency)
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.
Posted on 05/12/2025 18:24 PM (CNA Daily News - Vatican)
Bishop Robert Francis Prevost was named prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Bishops on Jan. 30, 2023. / Credit: Frayjhonattan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Rome Newsroom, May 12, 2025 / 14:24 pm (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV traveled to several countries as prior general of the Order of St. Augustine between 2001 and 2013 and also as a member of a Vatican dicastery since 2019.
Below are some of the countries (in alphabetical order) the Chicago-born pope has visited — or where he has been based for pastoral reasons — outside of the U.S. in the last three decades.
As prior general of the Augustinians, Pope Leo XIV visited Australia in 2002 and 2005.
In 2002, he visited the order’s Villanova College in Queensland’s capital city of Brisbane. In 2005, he traveled to New South Wales to visit his confreres and celebrate Mass in Holy Spirit Parish — whose pastoral care is entrusted to the Augustinians — in western Sydney.
In 2009, Pope Leo inaugurated the Augustinian university in the country’s capital of Kinshasa, where he spoke about the importance of education and also met with families and communities in war-torn villages. He also visited his confreres in the Bas-Uélé province in the same year.
Pope Leo XIV traveled twice to India, in 2004 and 2006, when he was prior general of the Augustinians, visiting communities in the Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. In 2004, he concelebrated the priestly ordination of six deacons belonging to his order in St. Francis Xavier Church in Kerala — the state where a significant number of Indian Catholics belonging to the Syro-Malabar Church live.
In 2003, Pope Leo XIV traveled to Papua, Indonesia, to celebrate an anniversary of the Order of St. Augustine in the Diocese of Sorong in Jayapura. During this stay, the former head of the Augustinians listened to the plight of those faced with armed conflict and civil unrest in the Papua region.
Pope Leo XIV was in Kenya in 2011, 2024, and 2025. In his 2024 visit to the African nation, the then-cardinal presided over the consecration and dedication of the chapel at Augustinian International House of Theology in Nairobi, reminding his listeners that the new church is “built on the rock which is our faith” and the need for each and every Catholic to “live in unity.”
The Nigeria Catholic Network reported that Pope Leo has visited the African country at least nine times between 2001 and 2016, participating in a number of meetings in Abuja and beyond in order to establish and consolidate the Augustinian order’s Nigeria province.
Pope Leo was sent on mission in 1985 as a newly-ordained priest to Peru, where he was made the local prior for his religious community. Throughout the 1990s, he served the Catholic faithful in the Archdiocese of Trujillo as judicial vicar and as a professor of canon law, patristics, and moral theology at the San Carlo and San Marcello seminary college.
He returned to Peru in November 2014, after being in Chicago and Rome between 1999 and 2014, having been appointed by Pope Francis head the Diocese of Chiclayo. In 2020, he was also appointed apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Callao. He remained in Peru until 2023 when he was called by the pope to work for the Roman Curia and eventually made a cardinal.
Pope Leo has made several visits to the Philippines — in 2002, 2010, and 2012 — as the prior general of the Augustinians. During one of his visits, the pope visited the country’s oldest church, the Santo Niño Basilica, in Cebu, which houses the renowned shrine of the Child Jesus. The Order of St. Augustine is recognized as the first group of missionaries who effectively helped establish Catholicism as the main religion on the Asian archipelago.
Augustinians in the Asia Pacific helped to establish their community in South Korea in 1985. While still a newly-ordained priest and young missionary, Pope Leo took a flight to the Asian nation, though he was on holiday, to support his brothers when they were having difficulty setting up the mission in the country, Father John Sullivan, OSA, told The Catholic Leader.
Pope Leo has visited the African nation of Tanzania more than five times. Tanzania’s national newspaper Daily News reported that the newly-elected pontiff had traveled to several places — even undertaking an approximately 468-mile road trip from Songea to Morogoro.
“We got into the same car [in Songea], which he drove himself, and went to Morogoro, where he received the perpetual vows of three of our sisters (nuns) on Aug. 28, 2003,” Bishop Stephano Musomba told Daily News.
Posted on 05/12/2025 16:04 PM (CNA Daily News - Vatican)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends a press conference after a meeting of European leaders in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on May 10, 2025. / Credit: GENYA SAVILOV/AFP via Getty Images
Vatican City, May 12, 2025 / 12:04 pm (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have spoken on the phone following the pontiff’s plea for lasting peace in the country, the Vatican said Monday.
Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, confirmed that the two leaders had spoken after the pope expressed concern for Ukraine during his Sunday address delivered from the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica.
“I carry in my heart the sufferings of the beloved Ukrainian people,” Pope Leo said on Sunday after singing the Regina Coeli prayer with approximately 100,000 people.
“May everything possible be done to reach an authentic, just, and lasting peace, as soon as possible,” the Holy Father continued. “Let all the prisoners be freed and the children return to their own families.”
On Monday morning, Zelenskyy shared a photo on X of him purportedly having a telephone call with the new head of the Catholic Church from his office.
“I spoke with Pope Leo XIV,” the Ukrainian president wrote on X. “It was our first conversation but already a very warm and truly substantive one.”
After expressing gratitude to the Holy Father “for his support for Ukraine and all our people,” Zelenskyy said he and the pope specifically discussed the plight of thousands of children deported by Russia.
“Ukraine counts on the Vatican’s assistance in bringing them home to their families,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
Reiterating Ukraine’s commitment to work toward a “full and unconditional ceasefire” and the end of the war with Russia, the president said he also invited the Holy Father “to make an apostolic visit to Ukraine” during the phone call.
“Such a visit would bring real hope to all believers and to all our people,” he said. “We agreed to stay in contact and plan [an] in-person meeting in the near future.”