Category Archives: Pope Leo XIV

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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King Charles to visit Vatican and meet Pope Leo for first time

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King and Queen Camilla to join pontiff in late October amid jubilee year celebrations, says Buckingham Palace

King Charles III and Queen Camilla will make a state visit to meet Pope Leo XIV for the first time at the Vatican next month, Buckingham Palace has said.

The trip in late October will come about six months after the royal couple visited Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, shortly before his death in April.

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Pope prepares to canonise London-born teenager nicknamed ‘God’s influencer’

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Carlo Acutis, who died in 2006 and built websites to spread Catholic message, to become first millennial saint

In a see-through safe carved into a wall behind the altar of a chapel in northern Rome lies a collection of relics of Carlo Acutis. These include a splinter from his wooden bed, a fragment of a jumper and a piece of the sheet used to cover him after his death. Locks of his hair are on display in other churches in the Italian capital and beyond.

Acutis, the London-born Italian who on Sunday will become the Catholic church’s first millennial saint, built websites to spread Catholic teaching, earning him the nickname “God’s Influencer” after his death, aged 15, from leukaemia.

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Pope demands ‘collective punishment’ end in Gaza as 10 more die of hunger

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Latest deaths announced by Gaza health ministry bring starvation toll to 313, including 119 children

Ten Palestinians including two children have died from starvation in the last 24 hours, health authorities in Gaza said on Wednesday, as Pope Leo XIV demanded that Israel stop its “collective punishment” of the population in the besieged territory.

At least 313 people have died from hunger, including 119 children, since the war in Gaza began and Israel intensified its siege on the Palestinian territory. Last week a UN-backed monitoring body confirmed that Gaza was in the throes of famine and warned that without more aid, increasing numbers of people would lose access to food.

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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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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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Australia news live: Bradfield goes to automatic recount after independent defeats Liberal candidate by 40 votes

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Nicolette Boele declared provisional winner over Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian. Follow today’s news live

Flood watches in place for rivers in Hunter and mid-north coast

Due to the prolonged period of wet weather for New South Wales – with rain expected to fall across the same regions for several days in a row – flood watches are in place for many rivers through the Hunter and the mid-north coast districts, where minor to moderate flooding is anticipated throughout the week, Hines says.

… and we can’t rule out the chance that one or two of them could see major flooding in the coming days.

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Pope Leo XIV holds inaugural mass at St Peter’s Square

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Volodymyr Zelenskyy and JD Vance among 150,000 present as Leo says he wants Catholic church to be ‘leaven of unity’

Pope Leo XIV said he wanted the Catholic church to be a “small leaven of unity” in a time of “too much discord and too many wounds”, during his inaugural papal mass attended by world leaders including the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the US vice-president, JD Vance.

Calling for more love and unity, Leo said the church’s “true authority” was the charity of Christ. He said: “It is never a question of capturing others by force, by religious propaganda or by means of power. Instead, it is always and only a question of loving as Jesus did.”

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The Pope Leo XIV effect: Rome hopes for papal blessings of a US tourist boom

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Traders anticipating increase in high-spending Americans are already working up Leo-themed beers and ice-creams

Even before the chimney on top of the Sistine Chapel emitted its last puff of white smoke, signalling to the world that the Roman Catholic church had a new pope, Atlante Star, a hotel with a privileged view over St Peter’s Basilica from its rooftop terrace, began to receive inquiries about room availability over the following few days.

Then, about an hour later, when the Chicago-born cardinal Robert Prevost was declared Pope Leo XIV, the inquiries turned into bookings as the tourists, mostly from the US, rushed to secure a place to stay in Rome in time for the pontiff’s inaugural Sunday mass on 18 May.

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‘Never again war’: Pope Leo calls for peace in Ukraine in first Sunday address

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New pontiff also urges a ceasefire and humanitarian aid in Gaza and welcomes truce between India and Pakistan

Pope Leo XIV has called for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine and pleaded for an end to global conflicts, which he likened to a “third world war in pieces”.

In his first Sunday address at the Vatican, the new pontiff urged an immediate ceasefire and humanitarian aid in Gaza and the release of all hostages. He also welcomed the truce between India and Pakistan and referenced the end of the second world war in 1945.

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This American pope: Leo XIV’s bloodline reflects the US melting pot

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A fraught history of race and immigration connect the new pope with his homeland

Pope Leo XIV, who on Thursday was elected as the first-ever US-born leader of the Roman Catholic church, has a familial bloodline that reflects his homeland’s fraught relationship with race – and why the nation’s stature as a melting pot of origins has long endured, records unearthed by genealogists show.

The maternal grandfather of 69-year-old Robert Prevost, the newly minted pope, was evidently born abroad in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, according to birth records that professional genealogist Chris Smothers cited to ABC News in a recent report. When Leo’s grandfather, Joseph Martinez, obtained an 1887 marriage license to wed the future pope’s grandmother, Louise Baquié, he listed his birthplace as Haiti, which at the time was the same territory as Santo Domingo, Smothers noted.

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Clergy molestation survivors concerned and insulted by election of Pope Leo XIV

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Pope faced questions about his handling of clerical sexual abuse cases earlier in his career after a survivors group filed a complaint

Groups supporting clergy-molestation survivors say they are gravely concerned and insulted by the election of Pope Leo XIV after he overcame questions about his handling of clerical sexual abuse cases earlier in his career to become the Roman Catholic church’s first-ever US-born leader.

Before Robert Prevost’s ascent to the papacy at age 69, he was leading a chapter of the Augustinian religious order in his home town of Chicago when allegations surfaced that a priest and Catholic high school principal under his jurisdiction had molested at least one student as well as kept child-abuse imagery.

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Australian Catholics welcome ‘approachable’ new pope in hope he will pursue peace

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Leo XIV is a fan of Tim Tams but not Vegemite, one church leader says, and is ‘humble’ and ‘gentle’

Australian Catholics and politicians have embraced the appointment of the new pope, Leo XIV, with many hoping he will continue his predecessor’s emphasis on peace and social justice.

Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, the president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, offered Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost – now known as Pope Leo XIV – heartfelt congratulations on behalf of the Roman Catholic church in Australia.

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‘The pope is Peruvian’: elation in country where pontiff served as bishop

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Leo XIV celebrated as second Latin American pope having spent many years in Peru’s church

The election of Pope Leo XIV has been celebrated across Latin America, where many hailed him as the second pontiff from the region, after his Argentinian predecessor, Francis.

The news prompted particular elation in Peru, where he lived and worked for more than 20 years and was granted citizenship in 2015. In the capital, Lima, the bells of the cathedral rang in celebration.

In his first appearance from the Vatican balcony, Leo XIV briefly switched from Italian to Spanish to address the faithful “from my beloved diocese of Chiclayo, in Peru”, where he served as bishop for more than a decade.

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‘Deep dish eucharist’: internet reacts to US pope with jokes and Chicago pride

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Some users wonder whether new pope has had Chicago’s favorite liqueur Malört while others reference The Bear

The internet exploded with humor and Chicago pride on Thursday following the historic announcement that Robert Francis Prevost, a 69-year-old American clergyman from Chicago, has been named the new pope.

Now known as Pope Leo XIV, Prevost has become the first clergyman from the United States to lead the Roman Catholic church, ending the Vatican’s longstanding opposition to the idea of a US pontiff.

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