Cindy Wooden

The Gospel parable of the "wasteful sower" who casts seeds on fertile soil as well as on a rocky path "is an image of the way God loves us," Pope Leo XIV told visitors and pilgrims at his first weekly general audience.

Pope Leo XIV has named Cardinal Baldassare Reina grand chancellor of the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences.

Pope Leo XIV met privately with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife May 18, their second encounter of the day.

Thanking Pope Leo XIV for his prayers for Ukraine, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church gave the pope a painting and a list of prisoners the Ukrainians want the Vatican's help in liberating.

With a huge and festive crowd gathered in St. Peter's Square, Pope Leo XIV led his first Sunday recitation of the "Regina Coeli" prayer and urged all Catholics to pray for vocations, especially to the priesthood and religious life.

Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, the Chicago-born prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops under Pope Francis, was elected the 267th pope May 8 and took the name Pope Leo XIV.

If the Holy Spirit is inspiring them, why do the cardinals need more than one ballot to elect a pope?

As members of the College of Cardinals met May 5, all 133 cardinals who plan to enter the conclave to elect a new pope had arrived in Rome, the Vatican press office said.

The Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain and the Sistine Chapel usually top the "must see" list of visitors to Rome and the Vatican.

All but four of the 135 cardinals who are eligible to enter the conclave May 7 to vote for a new pope had arrived in Rome by May 2, according to the Vatican press office.