Courtney Mares

Pope Leo XIV prayed for world leaders to “abandon projects of death” in a video message released by the Vatican on March 5 calling on people around the world to pray for peace.

The Vatican secretary of state appealed for peace and diplomacy on the fifth day of the U.S. and Israel-Iran war, warning that recognition of any country's right to wage "preventive war" according to their own criteria would risk the world "being set ablaze."

A Synod on Synodality study group has recommended the creation of a new “Pontifical Commission for Digital Culture and New Technologies” in the first of 15 synod study group reports expected in the coming weeks.

The Vatican Museums announced that restoration work has begun on Michelangelo's "The Last Judgement" in the Sistine Chapel, a fresco an art historian describes as "a clarion call to the cardinals of what it means to be Catholic."

Pope Leo XIV will travel to six countries over the next four months, including a 10-day tour of Africa and trips to Monaco and Spain, the Vatican announced Feb. 25.

Pope Leo XIV has urged priests to not to use artificial intelligence to write their homilies or to seek "likes" on social media platforms like TikTok.

For the first time in eight centuries, the mortal remains of St. Francis of Assisi are being exposed for an extended period of public veneration, drawing hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from around the world to pray before "the Little Poor Man of Assisi."

The Society of St. Pius X has rejected a Vatican offer of dialogue and said it will move forward with plans to ordain bishops without a papal mandate this summer.

Beneath the Roman pines of the Aventine Hill, Pope Leo XIV led a solemn penitential procession Feb. 18 to Rome's oldest extant basilica, marking the first Ash Wednesday of his pontificate.

On Ash Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV urged Catholics to seek "the gift of true conversion" this Lent, calling for an intense spirit of prayer and a conversion of heart as the 40-day penitential season begins.