Pope Leo XIV celebrates Mass for the Jubilee of Prisoners in St. Peter’s Basilica on Dec. 14, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Dec 19, 2025 / 11:05 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has written the preface to a new Vatican edition of the book “The Practice of the Presence of God,” a spiritual work he says is “one of the texts that has most shaped my spiritual life.”

“The Practice of the Presence of God” is a 17th-century spiritual classic written by the Carmelite friar Lawrence of the Resurrection.

The pontiff shared the personal importance of this work during the return flight to Rome at the end of his first international trip to Turkey and Lebanon earlier this month.

“It’s a very simple book, by someone who doesn’t even give his last name — Brother Lawrence — written many years ago,” he said at the time.

“But it describes, if you will, a type of prayer and spirituality where one simply gives his life to the Lord and allows the Lord to lead.”

The book that has ‘shaped my spiritual life’

In a preface to “The Practice of the Presence of God,” published by the Vatican Publishing House (LEV) in Italian, the pope goes deeper into this personal experience and places the work within his own journey of faith.

“As I have had occasion to say, together with the writings of St. Augustine and other books, this is one of the texts that has most shaped my spiritual life and has formed me in what the path for knowing and loving the Lord can be,” he writes.

Leo emphasizes that the small book by Brother Lawrence places at the center not merely the experience but a true “practice” of the presence of God, lived in everyday life.

It is, he explains, a path that is “simple and arduous at the same time. Simple, because it requires nothing other than “constantly calling God to mind, with small, continual acts of praise, prayer, supplication, adoration, in every action and in every thought, with him alone as our horizon, source, and end.”

It is demanding because it requires “a journey of purification, of ascetic discipline, of renunciation and conversion of the most intimate part of ourselves — of our mind and our thoughts, even more than of our actions,” he explains.

In this context, the pontiff cites St. Paul’s exhortation to the Philippians: “Have in you the same sentiments as Christ Jesus” — to underscore that “it is not only our attitudes and behaviors that must be conformed to God, but our very sentiments, our very way of feeling.”

Making daily tasks ‘easy and light’

In the preface, Leo underscores that this spiritual path, in which the presence of God becomes “familiar and occupies our inner space,” is where “graces and spiritual riches blossom, and even daily tasks become easy and light.”

The pope situates Brother Lawrence’s message in the context of today’s world. The writings of this Carmelite, who lived with luminous faith through a century marked by conflicts and violence — “certainly no less violent than our own” — can, he affirms, “also be an inspiration and a help for the lives of us men and women of the third millennium.”

Beyond ‘moralism’

The writing of Brother Lawrence shows us “that there is no circumstance that can separate us from God, that each of our actions, each of our occupations, and even each of our mistakes acquires infinite value if lived in the presence of God, continually offered to him,” the Holy Father says.

The pope adds that the whole of Christian ethics “can truly be summed up in this continual calling to mind of the fact that God is present: He is here.”

“This remembrance, which is more than a simple memory because it involves our feelings and affections, overcomes all moralism and every reduction of the Gospel to a mere set of rules, and shows us that truly, as Jesus promised us, the experience of entrusting ourselves to God the Father already gives us a hundredfold here on earth,” he explains.

“Entrusting ourselves to the presence of God means tasting a foretaste of paradise,” Leo writes.

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

Servant of God Enrique Shaw. / Credit: Acdeano, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 19, 2025 / 10:35 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has approved a miracle attributed to the intercession of Venerable Enrique Shaw, an Argentine layman, husband, father, and businessman.

Bishop Richard Moth, a former bishop of Britain’s military ordinariate, was appointed as the 12th archbishop of Westminster on Dec. 19, 2025. / Credit: Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

London, England, Dec 19, 2025 / 09:26 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop Richard Moth, a former bishop of Britain’s military ordinariate, as the 12th archbishop of Westminster. 

Pope Leo XIV speaks to patients and caregivers at the De La Croix Hospital in Jal el Dib, Lebanon, on Dec. 2, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Dec 18, 2025 / 18:28 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV warned against the destructive spiral fueled by the arms race and the development of autonomous weapons, and called for an “unarmed and disarming” peace — one that springs from the resurrection of Christ — as the only answer to the world’s challenges.

“The peace of the risen Jesus is unarmed, because his was an unarmed struggle in the midst of concrete historical, political, and social circumstances,” the pontiff wrote in his message for the 59th World Day of Peace, which will be celebrated on Jan. 1, 2026. Its text was released Dec. 18 by the Holy See Press Office.

The four-page document is titled “Peace Be with You All: Towards an Unarmed and Disarming Peace,” an expression that directly echoes the first words spoken by Leo XIV after his election as the successor of Peter on May 8, when he appeared on the balcony of the Apostolic Palace to greet the faithful for the first time.

In the text, the pope lamented that, in the face of global challenges, the predominant response is an “enormous economic investment in rearmament.” In this regard, he noted that in 2024, global military spending increased by 9.4% compared with the previous year, confirming “the trend of the last 10 years.” According to the data cited, total spending reached $2.718 trillion, equivalent to 2.5% of the world’s gross domestic product.

Beyond the statistics, the pope warned of the cultural and educational consequences of this logic. He criticized the fact that schools and universities are not adequately preserving “a culture of memory” that remembers the “millions of victims” of wars ​​and lamented that, instead, educational programs are being promoted that are based on the “perception of threats,” promoting “only an armed notion of defense and security.”

The Holy Father also emphasized how technological advancements and the incorporation of artificial intelligence in the military sphere have “worsened the tragedy” of armed conflicts. He therefore warned of the risk of a growing tendency to “shirk responsibility” by political and military leaders such that “decisions about life and death are increasingly “‘delegated’ to machines.” 

In his view, this is an “unprecedented destructive betrayal” of the “legal and philosophical principles of humanism” upon which any civilization is based and safeguarded.

The pontiff did not shy away from denouncing “the enormous concentrations of private economic and financial interests” that are driving states in this direction, but emphasized that just criticizing this would not be enough “unless we also awakened conscience and critical thought” throughout society.

In his reflection, Leo XIV included an explicit warning against the religious instrumentalization of violence. The pope observed that it is part of the contemporary landscape to “to drag the language of faith into political battles, to bless nationalism, and to justify violence and armed struggle in the name of religion.” In response, he urged believers to “actively refute this, above all by the witness of their lives,” because “these forms of blasphemy profane the holy name of God.”

Therefore, he emphasized that, alongside concrete actions for peace, it is increasingly necessary to cultivate “prayer, spirituality, and ecumenical and interreligious dialogue” as authentic paths to peace and as languages ​​of encounter between traditions and cultures.

The Holy Father also warned of the risk of treating peace as a “distant ideal” and “disconnected from the concrete experience of people and the political life of nations.”

When peace is presented as something unattainable, the pope noted in the text, “we cease to be scandalized when it is denied, or even when war is waged in its name.”

According to the pontiff, there is a real risk that this logic will end up seeping into both private and public life, fueling the perception that it is almost “a fault” not to be sufficiently prepared for war, “not to react to attacks,” even going “far beyond the principle of legitimate defense.”

“It is no coincidence that repeated calls to increase military spending, and the choices that follow, are presented by many government leaders as a justified response to external threats,” Leo XIV lamented.

Indeed, he continued, “the deterrent power of military might, especially nuclear deterrence, is based on the irrationality of relations between nations, built not on law, justice, and trust but on fear and domination by force.”

Faced with this scenario, the pope proposed a different understanding of peace that “wants to dwell within us” and has the “gentle power to enlighten and expand our understanding; it resists and overcomes violence.”

‘Peace is a breath of the eternal’

“Peace is a breath of the eternal: while to evil we cry out ‘Enough,’ to peace we whisper ‘Forever,’” the pope emphasized.

The reflection included a cultural critique of the modern world, which he called “realistic” in its narratives but “devoid of hope, blind to the beauty of others,” and that forgets that “God’s grace is always at work in human hearts, even those wounded by sin.”

In this regard, the pope recalled that the path proposed by Jesus was already perplexing even for his own disciples: “The Gospels do not hide the fact that what troubled the disciples was his nonviolent response,” a path that everyone, starting with Peter, opposed, “yet the Master asked them to follow this path to the end. The way of Jesus continues to cause unease and fear.” 

The Holy Father acknowledged the discouragement experienced by people of goodwill who “have hearts ready for peace” and are overwhelmed by a feeling of “powerlessness” in the face of the increasingly uncertain course of events.

The World Day of Peace was instituted by St. Paul VI, who proposed it on Dec. 8, 1967, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. It was celebrated for the first time on Jan. 1, 1968, coinciding with the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, and since then it has become an annual occasion for the Church to reflect on the great challenges of human coexistence.

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 holds up a tennis racket given to him by children of the Pope Paul VI Pontifical School in Castel Gandolfo on Dec. 16, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 18, 2025 / 18:08 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV enjoyed a special Christmas concert this week dedicated to him by students of the Paul VI Pontifical School in Castel Gandolfo.

The European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. / Credit: fotogoocom via Wikimedia (CC BY 3.0)

Vilnius, Lithuania, Dec 18, 2025 / 14:04 pm (CNA).

The European Parliament voted Dec. 17 in favor of a resolution supporting the creation of a new fund intended to expand access to abortion services across EU member states.

Pope Leo XIV passes through the Holy Door carrying the jubilee cross as he leads the pilgrimage of the Holy See on June 9, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Dec 18, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Just a few weeks remain until the closing of the holy year, which was inaugurated by Pope Francis on Dec. 24, 2024. On Jan. 6, 2026, Pope Leo XIV will be the one to close the enormous bronze door of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, through which nearly 30 million pilgrims have passed during the last 12 months seeking a plenary indulgence. 

This Holy Door is slated to be reopened in 2033, when the Church celebrates the Extraordinary Holy Year of the Redemption.

The schedule for closing rites of the Holy Doors of the main papal basilicas in Rome is as follows:

The first Holy Door to be closed — and which will remain walled up until the next jubilee — is that of St. Mary Major Basilica. The rite will take place on Dec. 25, as reported by the Holy See Press Office. The ceremony will be begin at 6 p.m. local time, followed by Mass celebrated by the cardinal archpriest of the basilica, Rolandas Makrickas.

Two days later, on Dec. 27 at 11 a.m. local time, the closing ceremony at St. John Lateran Basilica will be presided over by the cardinal vicar of Rome, Baldassare Reina, who will celebrate the Eucharist, and will feature the participation of the diocesan choir, directed by Monsignor Marco Frisina.

On Dec. 28 at 10 a.m. local time, the Holy Door of St. Paul Outside the Walls Basilica will be closed. The solemn event will be presided over by Cardinal Archpriest James Michael Harvey.

Finally, on Jan. 6, 2026, the solemnity of the Epiphany, Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to close the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica before celebrating the Mass that will mark the concluding act of the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope. On that occasion, the pontiff will invite pilgrims to return to Rome in 2033 for the Extraordinary Holy Year of Redemption.

The Holy Doors, as is tradition, have been solely those of the four papal basilicas of Rome: St. Peter’s in the Vatican, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, and St. Paul Outside the Walls. However, on Dec. 26, two days after officially inaugurating the holy year, Pope Francis made an exception by traveling to the Rebibbia prison in Rome to repeat this gesture at another door as a symbol of hope.

The late pope wanted to extend this gesture of grace to prisoners by opening the door of this correctional facility in the Italian capital.

The date on which the closing ceremony for this fifth Holy Door will take place has yet to be announced.

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

Catholic faithful gather on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, in St. Mary’s Pro Cathedral in Dublin to celebrate two milestones: a decree from Pope Leo XIV formally designating St. Mary’s Pro Cathedral as the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Dublin and the cathedral’s bicentenary. / Credit: John McElroy/Dublin Archdiocese

Dublin, Ireland, Dec 18, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Following a report in one of Ireland’s mainstream media publications, the Archdiocese of Dublin has moved to clarify questions raised about its financial security.

This image is preserved in the Church of San Vital, built in 386, in Rome. / Credit: Victoria Cardiel/EWTN News

Rome Newsroom, Dec 17, 2025 / 17:30 pm (CNA).

The Church of St. Vitale is the oldest Christian church still standing in the center of Rome and contains the first image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Rome.

Bishop Ronald A. Hicks of Joliet, Illinois. / Credit: Diocese of Joliet YouTube video

Vatican City, Dec 17, 2025 / 09:58 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has chosen Bishop Ronald Hicks of the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois, to be the next archbishop of New York — the most consequential U.S. episcopal appointment of Leo’s pontificate thus far.

The appointment was confirmed by EWTN News with two independent sources with direct knowledge of the appointment.

Hicks, 58, will succeed Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who has led New York, the second-largest U.S. archdiocese by population — with 2.5 million Catholics — since 2009.

The choice of Hicks for one of the most important U.S. archdioceses is likely to be heavily scrutinized for the insight it may give into the direction Pope Leo wishes to take the Church in the U.S.

A native of Illinois, Hicks has led the Joliet Diocese since September 2020. He was an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Chicago from 2018 to 2020, following three years as the archdiocese’s vicar general from 2015 to 2018.

Hicks was born on Aug. 4, 1967, in the town of Harvey, Illinois, south of Chicago, and grew up in South Holland, one suburb over from Dolton, where Pope Leo XIV grew up.

“I recognize a lot of similarities between [Pope Leo] and me,” Hicks told WGN in an interview in May. “So we grew up literally in the same radius, in the same neighborhood together. We played in the same parks, went swimming in the same pools, liked the same pizza places to go to.”

Ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1994, Hicks’ priestly ministry included time as an associate pastor and pastor, and dean of formation as St. Joseph College Seminary.

In 2005, he began a five-year term as regional director of Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (NPH) in Central America. Based in El Salvador, he oversaw the care of more than 3,400 orphaned and abandoned children in nine Latin American and Caribbean countries.

He returned to Chicago in 2010 to serve as dean of formation at Mundelein Seminary before Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago appointed him vicar general of the archdiocese on Jan. 1, 2015.

As bishop, Hicks serves on the Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations for the U.S. bishops’ conference, and as the conference liaison to the Association of Ongoing Formation of Priests and the National Association of Diaconate Directors.

The Archdiocese of New York serves Catholics in the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island, and in seven counties to the north.