Pope Leo XIV's offer to host peace talks between Russia and Ukraine was motivated by a conviction that the two sides must start negotiating and stop the killing, the Vatican secretary of state said.

Catholic bishops are calling for prayer after two Israeli Embassy staff members were slain late May 21 outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington.

In his first appointment of a top-level official of the Roman Curia, Pope Leo XIV named Sister Tiziana Merletti, a canon lawyer, to be secretary of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

The Vatican News site published the warning after a 36-minute “deep fake” —A.I.-generated—video of Pope Leo was posted on YouTube.

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Auxiliary Bishop Michael M. Pham of San Diego to head the diocese.

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 40,000 visitors and pilgrims at his first weekly general audience.