Category Archives: The papacy

Pope Leo calls for leaders to reject polarisation as he begins Spanish tour

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Pontiff to make marginalised a focus of first papal visit since 2011 including meeting with migrants in the Canaries

Pope Leo has urged political leaders to seek unity, rather than divide their populations for political gain, and said they must fight for peace, in the opening speech of his tour in Spain.

The pope has made the marginalised a focus of his visit – his first tour of an EU country, apart from Italy – including meeting homeless people in Madrid and migrants in the Canary Islands. The pope, who has clashed with the US president, Donald Trump, over his immigration policies and war with Iran, said his visit was aimed at setting an example of respecting “every human being”.

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Divine intervention: why Pope Leo visit could be a godsend for Pedro Sánchez

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Pontiff’s resolve to highlight plight of migrants has aligned him with Spanish PM, whose inner circle and party are mired in corruption allegations

While Pope Leo XIV isn’t due to touch down in Madrid until 10.30am on Saturday, his presence in the Spanish capital is already verging on the ubiquitous.

The smiling, avuncular face of the first US pontiff greets visitors from posters, from the sides of buses, from commemorative travel cards and even from the digital screens on the metro system, where it flickers up between adverts for sun cream and banking deals.

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Vatican stresses need for peace as Rubio meets pope amid strained relations

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US secretary of state speaks with Leo and officials after tensions following attacks by Trump over Iran war

The Vatican has said it raised the “need to work tirelessly in favour of peace” in talks with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who is in Rome on a trip widely regarded as an effort to ease tensions after Donald Trump’s repeated criticisms of Pope Leo.

Amid unprecedented strain on relations between the Holy See and Washington, Rubio was received by the pope on Thursday at the Apostolic Palace, before holding a series of meetings with Vatican officials

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Pope Leo rejects claim he supports nuclear weapons after Trump tirade

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Pontiff responds after US president accuses him of ‘endangering a lot of Catholics’ with stance on Iran war

Pope Leo has said he has never supported nuclear weapons and that those who criticise him need to speak the truth, in response to Donald Trump’s latest tirade accusing him of “endangering a lot of Catholics” with his stance on the Iran war.

Speaking to journalists on Tuesday night after leaving the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo, near Rome, the first US-born pontiff said: “The mission of the church is to preach the gospel, to preach peace.”

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Trump accuses pope of ‘endangering a lot of Catholics’ with Iran stance

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US president directs fresh criticism at pontiff days before secretary of state Marco Rubio’s visit to Vatican

Donald Trump has issued another verbal attack against Pope Leo, accusing the pontiff of “endangering a lot of Catholics” because “he thinks it’s fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon”.

The remarks come two days before Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, meets Leo at the Vatican in an effort to ease the tensions sparked by Trump’s previous broadside against the Chicago-born pontiff over his condemnation of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

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Marco Rubio to meet pope this week after Trump’s broadside against Leo

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US secretary of state’s two-day visit reportedly intended to thaw Washington’s frosty relations with Vatican and Italy

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will meet Pope Leo on Thursday, weeks after Donald Trump’s unprecedented broadside against the pontiff.

Rubio will meet the first US-born pope privately in the Vatican’s apostolic palace at 11.30am (10.30 GMT), the Holy See’s press office confirmed on Monday after media reports on Sunday.

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Pope appoints former undocumented immigrant as bishop of West Virginia

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Leo, who has criticized Trump’s hardline immigration policy, selected Evelio Menjivar-Ayala as state’s new bishop

Pope Leo XIV has appointed a man who had once entered the United States as an undocumented immigrant, hidden in the trunk of a car, as the new bishop of West Virginia.

The pope approved the resignation of Bishop Mark E Brennan of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, and selected Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, 55, of Washington to take his place, reported OSV News.

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Republican senator criticizes Trump’s ‘holy war’ with Pope Leo

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Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, a long supporter of Trump, says president’s feud with the pope is a ‘distraction’

A Republican lawmaker has condemned what he refers to as Donald Trump’s “holy war” against Pope Leo XIV.

Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, a long supporter of Trump and the ultraconservative Maga movement, condemned the president’s attacks on the pope during a Fox News interview on Saturday.

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Pope Leo visits Algeria in sign of Africa’s growing importance to Catholic church

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Pontiff makes first papal visit to country as he starts 11-day tour that will also include stops in Cameroon and Angola

Pope Leo XIV has arrived in Algeria for the first papal visit to the country, calling for peace on the opening stop of a tour of Africa that signals the continent’s growing importance to the Catholic church.

The 11-day trip, which will include stops in Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea, is the longest by Pope Leo since being elected to the papacy in May last year.

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I do not fear Trump, says Pope Leo after US president calls him ‘weak’

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Leader of Catholic church says he will continue to speak out against war after president’s extraordinary criticism

Pope Leo said he did not fear the Trump administration and would continue to speak out against war after Donald Trump delivered an extraordinary broadside against him in which he said he did not think the Chicago-born pontiff was “doing a very good job”, while also suggesting he should “stop catering to the radical left”.

In remarks that have been widely criticised, the US president used a lengthy social media post to sharply criticise Leo while he flew from Florida to Washington on Sunday night, then continued in comments on the tarmac to reporters. “I’m not a fan of Pope Leo,” he said.

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Pope seems to rebuke Trump in remarks about leaders with ‘hands full of blood’

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Pontiff’s unusually pointed comments come after Pete Hegseth’s prayer for violence against enemies ‘who deserve no mercy’

Pope Leo has said God ignores the prayers of leaders who wage war and have “hands full of blood”, in an apparent rebuke to the Trump administration.

The pontiff made the comments on Sunday as thousands of US troops arrived in the Middle East and days after the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, prayed for violence against enemies who deserved “no mercy”.

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Pope Leo heads to Monaco 488 years after the last papal visit

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Decision to choose small, wealthy – but very Catholic – state for first European trip has baffled some Vatican observers

Pope Leo will travel to Monaco, the semi-enclave famous for casinos and superyachts, on Saturday on his first European trip since being elected pontiff, causing bemusement among some Vatican observers, not least because it comes 488 years after the last papal visit.

Leo will travel from the Vatican by helicopter for the one-day trip, and will be greeted at Monaco’s heliport by Prince Albert and his wife, Princess Charlene, before being taken to the palace, which has been the residence of the Grimaldi dynasty since the 13th century. It is the first time a pontiff has visited Monaco since Pope Paul III in 1538.

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Pope Leo urges Lebanese leaders to make peace highest priority

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Pontiff tells politicians and religious heads they must persevere with peace efforts despite facing ‘highly complex, conflictual’ situation

Pope Leo has urged political leaders in Lebanon to make peace their highest priority in a forceful appeal as he is visiting the country, which remains a target of Israeli airstrikes, on the second leg of his first overseas trip as Catholic leader.

Leo, the first US pope, arrived in Beirut on Sunday from a four-day visit to Turkey where he said that humanity’s future was at risk because of the world’s unusual number of bloody conflicts, and condemned violence in the name of religion.

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Pope Leo condemns US’s ‘extremely disrespectful’ treatment of immigrants

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Pontiff backs statement by US bishops condemning raids and mass deportations under Trump administration

Pope Leo has reiterated his disapproval of Donald Trump’s immigration policies, saying foreigners in the US are being treated in an “extremely disrespectful way”.

Leo, the first US pontiff in the history of the Catholic church, made the remarks in response to questions about a statement adopted last week during a special assembly of US bishops that criticised the Trump administration’s mass deportations and lamented the fear and anxiety caused by immigration raids.

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‘They can’t dismiss Leo so easily’: how the pope has confounded conservatives

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As pontiff prepares for visit of King Charles, the contours of his papacy are slowly becoming apparent

When King Charles meets Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican this week, the two leaders are likely to discuss pressing global issues as well as sharing a historic moment of prayer.

In the face of volatility and rising nationalism, Leo, the first North American chosen to lead the Roman Catholic church, has begun to outline the contours of his papacy after a low-key start to his five-month-old papacy.

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Pope Leo to visit Turkey and Lebanon on first overseas trip

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Pontiff expected to appeal for peace across the Middle East and speak about the persecution of Christians in region

Pope Leo’s debut overseas trip will be to Turkey and Lebanon, where he is expected to make appeals for peace across the Middle East, the Vatican has announced.

Leo, who was elected pontiff in May after the death of Pope Francis, will visit Turkey between 27 and 30 November and Lebanon from 30 November until 2 December.

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Pope Leo brings youth jubilee to a close with mass for more than a million

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Pontiff presides over culmination of ‘Catholic Woodstock’ that drew young people from 146 countries

Pope Leo XIV presided over a mass in Rome for more than a million young people on Sunday, the culmination of a pilgrimage that has drawn Catholics from across the world.

“Aspire to great things, to holiness, wherever you are. Do not settle for less,” the pope told the crowd.

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‘No long sermons’: how influencer Catholic priests are spreading the word of God online

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Vatican invites 1,000 social media missionaries to digital jubilee conference

Mixing prayer and gospel with poetry, art and bodybuilding, the rising stars in the influencer world are not just those flaunting fashion and travel but also Roman Catholic priests spreading the word of God.

Pope Francis latched on to the trend and, just months before his death in April, made the mission of evangelising on social media a priority for the church.

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Christian leaders make rare visit to shelled church in Gaza

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Israel grants access after ‘stray’ tank round kills three people and wounds Catholic priest

Israel has granted two senior Christian leaders rare access to Gaza after an Israeli strike on the Palestinian territory’s only Roman Catholic church killed three people.

Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Catholic Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, and his Greek Orthodox counterpart, Theophilos III, led a delegation on Friday to the Holy Family Church, whose shelling the day before triggered international condemnation.

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Can Pope Leo retain US citizenship while leading a foreign government?

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US state department says on website it may ‘actively review’ status of Americans who ‘serve as a foreign head of state’

Pope Leo XIV’s election as the first US-born leader of the Roman Catholic church elevated him to the rare, legally thorny, position of being an American citizen who now is also a foreign head of state.

Born in Chicago as Robert Prevost in 1955, the new pope for the past decade has held dual citizenship in the US and Peru, where he spent time as a missionary and bishop.

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