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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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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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.
Continue reading...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.”
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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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Continue reading...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.
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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