Today’s appointment is seen in Rome as a sign of the esteem that Pope Leo has for the cardinal archbishop of Chicago, who recently came under fire from a number of U.S. bishops for giving a lifetime achievement award to Illinois’s Senator Dick Durbin.
Gerard O’Connell
Gerard O’Connell is America’s senior Vatican correspondent and author of The Election of Pope Francis: An Inside Story of the Conclave That Changed History. He has been covering the Vatican since 1985.
Posted inVatican Dispatch
Pope Leo pleads for a just peace as cease-fire in Gaza holds
As ceasefire in Gaza holds, Pope Leo XIV urges a just and lasting peace in the Holy Land and the ’disarming’ of our hearts.
Posted inVatican Dispatch
Pope Leo in first major document: Love for the poor is not optional for Christians
“I often wonder, even though the teaching of Sacred Scripture is so clear about the poor, why many people continue to think that they can safely disregard the poor,” Pope Leo XIV states in his first magisterial document, known by its Latin title, “Dilexi Te.”
Posted inVatican Dispatch
Pope Leo tells border bishop: The American church needs ‘to be united’ on migration
“You stand with me, and I stand with you,” Pope Leo told El Paso’s Bishop Mark Seitz, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ committee on migration, when he met him and a U.S. delegation in the Vatican today.
Posted inVatican Dispatch
Pope Leo calls for human dignity for migrants and an end to war in Gaza
He also expressed concern at “the rise of anti-Semitic hatred in the world,” following the terrorist attack on a synagogue in Manchester, England, this past week.
Posted inVatican Dispatch
Pope Leo signs first exhortation, ‘Dilexi te,’ focused on love for the poor
The document, which will be issued Oct. 9, can be seen as a companion document to “Dilexit nos,” the fourth and final encyclical issued by Pope Francis.
Posted inVatican Dispatch
Pope Leo makes a surprise pick for his first major Vatican appointment
In his first major appointment to the Roman Curia, Pope Leo XIV surprised most people in the Vatican by appointing the Italian archbishop Filippo Iannone, 67, a member of the Carmelite Order, as the prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops.
Posted inVatican Dispatch
How Pope Leo plans to govern the church: From Rome to China to Gaza
Pope Leo raised the question of genocide in Gaza and spoke about how he intends to engage with China over the coming years in his first major interview.
Posted inVatican Dispatch
Pope Leo expresses his ‘profound closeness’ to the people of Gaza as Israeli ground invasion begins
Palestinians in Gaza “continue to live in fear and survive in unacceptable conditions, forced once again to leave their lands,” Leo said to applause at the end of his weekly general audience on Sept. 17.
Posted inVatican Dispatch
Pope Leo calls out billionaires and income inequality in first interview
In his first major interview, Pope Leo XIV denounces “useless killing” in Ukraine and promotes synodality as the solution to rising global polarization.