Pope Leo XIV has eliminated the Pontifical Committee for World Children’s Day, established by Pope Francis in November 2024. In a decree published on Feb. 13, the Holy Father reaffirmed the importance of the Church giving special attention to children, in continuity with the intention expressed by his predecessor.

However, with the aim of “fostering greater synergies” and ensuring a more effective organization of this “noble initiative,” the decree stipulates that all the committee’s functions will be transferred to the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life, where it has been integrated since August 2025.

The document also establishes the annulment of the acts and regulations adopted to date by the body, which will cease to have legal effect under both canon and civil law.

Likewise, the president, vice president, and other members of the committee are immediately relieved of their duties.

Finally, it states that the prefect of the dicastery, Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell, must resolve outstanding matters and submit a final liquidation report to the Secretariat for the Economy.

Pope Francis established this day on Dec. 8, 2023. On that occasion, he announced that the first World Children’s Day would be celebrated worldwide on May 25-26, 2024.

Subsequently, Francis established the Pontifical Committee for World Children’s Day and appointed Father Enzo Fortunato, also director of communications for St. Peter’s Basilica and head of the press office of St. Francis of Assisi Basilica, as its president.

The next World Children’s Day will be celebrated Sept. 25–27 and is expected to be a time of encounter, prayer, and celebration involving children and their families from all over the world.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

On Saturday, Feb. 14, the humanitarian situation in Gaza was the focus of a day of the arts at the apostolic vicariate in Rome. In the halls of the Lateran Apostolic Palace, the third edition of the initiative focused on the Gaza Strip, burdened by destruction and loss, where the suffering of its residents calls for ongoing attention.

The apostolic vicariate in Rome dedicated the third edition of its day of the arts to shedding light on the Gaza Strip. | Credit: Photo by Elias Turk/ACI MENA

The event offered an artistic journey divided into four consecutive performances under the title “If There Were Water.”

Father Gabriele Vecchioni, deputy director of the University Pastoral Office at the vicariate, explained at the event that art stands in direct opposition to adaptation and forgetfulness. Shedding light on Gaza, he said, means confronting what the world has heard in recent months: the killing of 64,000 people, including 18,000 children — figures that an arts day insists must not be archived but preserved as an active memory.

The apostolic vicariate in Rome dedicated the third edition of its day of the arts to shedding light on the Gaza Strip. | Credit: Photo by Elias Turk/ACI MENA

In the “Hall of Reconciliation,” the theatrical work “Gaza: Before the Silence” by Francesco D’Alfonso was performed by first-year students of the National Academy of Dramatic Art Silvio D’Amico. Through poetry, music, international reports, and literary excerpts, the performance restored faces and names to the victims. White shrouds and the stark numbers of the tragedy became signs of a collective responsibility shared by all.

The apostolic vicariate in Rome dedicated the third edition of its day of the arts to shedding light on the Gaza Strip. | Credit: Photo by Elias Turk/ACI MENA

Reflection on the suffering of Gaza’s people continued in the “Hall of the Emperors” with the artistic work “Holm” (“Dream”). This project by the National Academy of Dance combined choreography and video. Through the languages of body and image, it opened an intellectual space for reflection on the Palestinian cause, entrusting dance with the task of fostering listening and awareness.

The apostolic vicariate in Rome dedicated the third edition of its day of the arts to shedding light on the Gaza Strip. | Credit: Photo by Elias Turk/ACI MENA

In the Hall of David, “Who Are You? A Beautiful Question,” a work within the relational art movement, directly engaged the audience with the issue. Through words, images, and sounds, it unfolded fragments of memory about what has taken place in the Gaza Strip.

The apostolic vicariate in Rome dedicated the third edition of its day of the arts to shedding light on the Gaza Strip. | Credit: Photo by Elias Turk/ACI MENA

In the Hall of the Apostles, the event hosted the Santa Cecilia Music Institute, with Senka Slipać on the violin and Vehbija Hodžić on the accordion. The musicians performed works by Antonio Vivaldi, Dražan Kosorić, and Vittorio Monti.

The artistic journey at the Lateran also included a work titled “Fire,” a collective installation created within a workshop sponsored by Caritas Rome.

The apostolic vicariate in Rome dedicated the third edition of its day of the arts to shedding light on the Gaza Strip. | Credit: Photo by Elias Turk/ACI MENA

Pope Leo XIV has appointed a Harvard University epidemiology professor and director of the Human Flourishing Program to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

Tyler J. VanderWeele, a Catholic, is also co-director of the Initiative on Health, Spirituality, and Religion at Harvard University and a contributor to the Institute for Family Studies, which promotes traditional marriage and family structures.

VanderWeele joins 35 other ordinary members — academics and professionals in the fields of law, political science, economics, and sociology — at the Vatican academy.

VanderWeele told EWTN News he is grateful “for the opportunity to participate and contribute” to the work of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

“Catholic social teaching has powerfully shaped the way I think about my own work and about the pursuit of societal flourishing,” he said.

The academic, who entered the Catholic Church in 2012, said: “The principles of the dignity of the human person, the common good, subsidiarity, and solidarity provide a powerful roadmap for our life together. We certainly need to retain what is distinctive about the Catholic faith, but we also need to find common ground with others, and these principles of Catholic social teaching can help us to do so.”

VanderWeele holds degrees in mathematics, philosophy, theology, finance, and biostatistics from Harvard, the University of Oxford, and the University of Pennsylvania.

The Catholic University of America awarded VanderWeele an honorary doctorate in 2020.

VanderWeele described his work at the Human Flourishing Program as aiming “to create a ‘positive epidemiology,’ wherein we study the distribution and determinants of well-being, and to expand the purview of public health to include the promotion of individual and societal flourishing,” according to the website of the social sciences academy.

In 2015, the professor joined a group of scholars in filing an amicus brief in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges, arguing that there is no constitutional right to same-sex marriage.

VanderWeele has also written on the topic of preventing and healing child sexual abuse in religious communities.

He spoke about Christianity’s contribution to the notion of human flourishing at a talk for the Veritas Forum at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2023.

Established by Pope John Paul II in 1994, the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences brings together academicians from a wide range of religious and nonreligious backgrounds. Current ordinary members include Catholic theologian Tracey Rowland and economist Jeffrey Sachs.

The academy is led by Sister Helen Alford, OP, president, and Cardinal Peter Turkson, chancellor.

Pope Leo XIV told the prelate of Opus Dei on Feb. 16 that “the process of updating Opus Dei’s statutes continues in its study phase and that no publication date can yet be foreseen,” according to a statement from the prelature.

The pope received Opus Dei’s prelate, Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz, in audience at the Vatican on Monday. Ocáriz was accompanied by his auxiliary vicar, Monsignor Mariano Fazio.

The Holy See Press Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Vatican meeting came as the personal prelature’s proposed statutes — submitted to the Holy See on June 11, 2025 — remain under review. Opus Dei’s draft is being examined by the Dicastery for the Clergy following the reforms to the governance of personal prelatures introduced under Pope Francis.

Opus Dei said that “several topics were addressed in an atmosphere of great trust,” including “the perspectives and challenges of the work of evangelization that Opus Dei carries out throughout the world, as it approaches its first centenary.”

The prelature added that it presented to the pope “the institutional perspective on some specific controversies in Argentina” and that the audience also included discussion of vocations in the Church, “particularly, the contrast between the situation in Africa and in Europe.”

According to the statement, Ocáriz presented the pope with two books: “The Church in the Street: The Reception of Gaudium et Spes in Six Holy Pastors,” by Augustinian Father Ramón Sala González, and “Yauyos, an Adventure in the Andes,” an account by Samuel Valero about Opus Dei priests’ evangelizing work in two provinces of Peru.

Opus Dei is currently the only personal prelature in the Catholic Church and reports about 94,450 members worldwide.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Pope Leo XIV on Monday warned that modern conflicts and widening social disparities are eroding respect for human life and equal access to health care, telling members of the Pontifical Academy for Life that “all lives are not equally respected and health is neither protected nor promoted in the same way for everyone.”

Addressing participants in the academy’s plenary assembly in the Apostolic Palace, the pope praised the meeting’s theme — “Health Care for All: Sustainability and Equity” — and lamented that “in a world scarred by conflicts, which consume enormous economic, technological, and organizational resources in the production of arms and other types of military equipment, it has never been more important to dedicate time, people, and expertise to safeguarding life and health.”

He cited Pope Francis’ insistence that health care cannot be treated as a luxury, noting that it “is not a consumer good but a universal right, which means that access to health care services cannot be a privilege.”

Reflecting on the COVID-19 pandemic, Leo said it “has become clear how much reciprocity and interdependence underpin our health and our very lives,” adding that this reality demands collaboration across disciplines, including “medicine, politics, ethics, management, and others.”

Turning to global disparities, the pope said that when we examine “life expectancy and the quality of health in different countries and social groups, we discover enormous inequalities” tied to factors such as income, education, and the neighborhoods where people live. He also deplored wars that strike civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, calling them “the most grave attacks that human hands can make against life and public health.”

“It is often said that life and health are equally fundamental values for all,” he said, “but this statement is hypocritical if, at the same time, we ignore the structural causes and policies that determine inequalities.”

Leo also highlighted the “One health” approach, encouraging an integrated vision that recognizes the links between human health, environmental conditions, and other forms of life — an outlook he said aligns with the academy’s work in global bioethics.

The pope urged renewed commitment to the common good, warning it can become “an abstract and irrelevant notion” unless it is rooted in strong social bonds. “We need to rediscover the fundamental attitude of care as support and closeness to others,” he said, arguing that this is key to building sustainable health systems and restoring trust in medicine amid “misinformation or skepticism regarding science.”

Concluding, Leo renewed his call for stronger international and multilateral cooperation, saying such relationships are essential for preventing conflicts and resisting “the mindset of force, whether verbal, physical or military.”

This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News, and has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Among the recent appointments of Pope Leo XIV, one in particular has been made with remarkable frequency: that of “chaplain of His Holiness.” What does this honorary title mean?

In November 2025, the Holy Father bestowed this title upon his secretary, Peruvian priest Father Edgard Iván Rimaycuna Inga, officially incorporating him into the papal household, in accordance with the provisions of the 1968 motu proprio Pontificalis Domus (“Pontifical House”).

Among those who have received this distinction in recent days is Father Fermín González Melado, a diocesan priest born in Badajoz, Spain, who has resided in Rome since 2019.

With degrees in biology and the theology of marriage and family, González is an adviser to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and a member of the clinical ethics committee at the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital. He has also served as vice rector of the Spanish National Church of St. James and Montserrat in Rome since 2021.

Father Fermín González Melado. | Credit: Archdiocese of Mérida-Badajoz

In an interview with ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, he explained that the title of “chaplain of His Holiness” is a recognition “granted by the dicasteries, since it is the prefects who suggest to the secretariat of state the recognition of individuals who have been working at the Holy See.”

He clarified that this “does not imply a change of job or employment status, but rather a kind of medal that recognizes meritorious work. It is an honorary title that entails a change of cassock colors and little else,” he explained.

With this appointment as chaplain, the pope also bestowed upon him the honorary title of monsignor. From now on, as a member of the papal household, the priest may wear the cassock with purple buttons and trim, along with the sash of the same color, according to protocol.

González said this title is not reserved just for the Holy See to give “but can also be granted by bishops in their dioceses after requesting it from the Vatican.”

He pointed out that there is no precise figure for the number of chaplains of His Holiness worldwide. “Some dioceses grant this honor to priests upon reaching the age of 80, in recognition of their service,” he added.

Although he has not yet been able to express his gratitude to Pope Leo XIV in person, he recalled his recent meeting with him, along with other members of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, during its plenary assembly.

The priest told ACI Prensa that every time he meets with the Holy Father, he likes to give him “some small gift.” On the last occasion, he gave him a book and a documentary film about the Shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows of Chandavila, in La Codosera, Spain, which is in his diocese.

“It’s the first shrine and the first devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows approved in Spain under the new regulations of the dicastery on alleged supernatural phenomena,” he explained.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Pope Leo XIV will preside over the traditional Ash Wednesday procession and Mass on Rome’s Aventine Hill, an important place of Christian veneration and pilgrimage for more than 1,500 years.

For the Dominican and Benedictine religious orders, whose communities have had a significant historical presence on the Aventine, the Holy Father’s Feb. 18 visit will be a special occasion to begin the Church’s liturgical season dedicated to prayer and fasting before Easter.

On the first day of the 40-day Lenten “Stations Churches” pilgrimage — formally instituted in the sixth century by Pope Gregory the Great and restored by Pope John XXIII in 1959 — the pope leads a penitential procession from the Benedictine church of Sant’Anselmo to the nearby Dominican Basilica of Santa Sabina.

“To walk with Pope Leo on this pilgrimage from the nearby Sant’Anselmo church will be a sign, a symbol, for all of us of the spiritual work that’s taking place in our hearts in Lent,” Santa Sabina resident Father Patrick Briscoe, OP, told EWTN News. “We’ll all be on pilgrimage together.”

This year, Pope Leo will preside over a short afternoon prayer service at the Benedictine monastery and then celebrate the Ash Wednesday Mass at Santa Sabina, a fourth-century basilica that was gifted to St. Dominic and the Order of Preachers in 1219 by Pope Honorius III.

“The pope himself imposes ashes on [the cardinals] during the Mass,” Briscoe added. “The cardinals stand in for the whole Church and they’re a sign of all of us joining and following the pope’s lead.”

As part of the Lenten tradition, the pope leads the procession through the main doors of Santa Sabina, which contains the oldest known artistic portrayal of Jesus Christ crucified.

“On the door we have a very important Christian symbol… It allows us to think of the meaning of Lent and to embrace the suffering of Christ,” Briscoe said.

“When we consider it from the historical perspective and the evolution of Christian understanding, we really didn’t know how to handle the cross,” he explained. “It took us a hundred years to depict it.”

“This says something to each of us entering into Lent — to discover anew what our sufferings mean and how to have them transformed by Christ’s own sacrifice,” he said.

Father Eusebius Martis, OSB, a sacramental theology professor who teaches at the Pontifical Athenaeum of Sant’Anselmo, told EWTN News the Aventine is an ideal place for prayer and pilgrimage.

“It’s really an ideal spot because it’s quiet and it’s a little bit separated but not too far [from the city center],” he said.

According to Martis, nature on the Aventine has inspired artists and pilgrims alike throughout the centuries to contemplate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“The acanthus leaf is growing all across our property here at [Sant’Anselmo],” Martis said. “It dies and it lays against the ground … completely dead until the spring [when] it comes back to life.”

“In a couple of weeks, it will start putting up flowers, which represent a bloom around Easter time,” he said.

Pointing out the reliefs of the acanthus leaf found on the Corinthian columns inside the Basilica of Sant’Anselmo, Martis said several churches across Rome purposefully depict the leaf to symbolize the Church’s belief in Jesus’ victory over sin and death.

“The architects wanted us to remember that, every time we’re at the altar, we are at Easter,” the Benedictine father said.

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday made his first visit to a parish in the Diocese of Rome, celebrating Mass at Santa Maria Regina Pacis in Ostia Lido and urging Catholics to cultivate “coherence between faith and life” while opposing violence and injustice with “the disarming strength of meekness” and renewed prayer for peace.

Santa Maria Regina Pacis, located on Rome’s coast and part of the diocese’s southern sector, is the first Roman parish the pope has visited during his pontificate. The pope is expected to visit four additional parishes over the next four Sundays in the diocese’s remaining sectors.

Upon his arrival, Leo was welcomed by Cardinal Vicar Baldassare Reina and Bishop Tarantelli Baccari, vicegerent and auxiliary bishop for the southern sector. Before Mass, the pope greeted children in catechism and young people in a field behind the church, then met with the elderly, the sick, the poor, and Caritas volunteers in the parish gym.

“It is for me a source of great joy,” the pope said in his homily, “to be here and to live with your community the gesture from which Sunday takes its name. It is the Lord’s Day because the risen Jesus comes among us, listens to us and speaks to us, nourishes us and sends us out.”

Reflecting on the day’s readings, Leo said the law God gave his people is not opposed to freedom but is “the condition for making it flourish.” The Lord’s commandments, he added, “are not an oppressive law, but his pedagogy for humanity, which seeks the fullness of life and freedom.”

Jesus’ preaching, he continued, reveals “the authentic and full meaning of God’s law,” pointing to a fidelity to God grounded in respect and care for others “in their inviolable sacredness” — something to be cultivated first “in the heart.” The pope warned that it is in the heart that both “the noblest sentiments” and “the most painful profanations” take root: “closures, envies, jealousies,” by which someone who harbors evil thoughts against a brother is “as if, within, he were already killing him.”

“We must remember,” Leo added, “that the evil we see in the world has its roots precisely there, where the heart becomes cold, hard, and poor in mercy.”

The pope said such realities are felt “also here, in Ostia,” where violence can wound, sometimes taking hold among young people and adolescents, “perhaps fueled by the use of substances,” or through criminal organizations that exploit people and draw them into wrongdoing.

In response, he urged the parish community to continue working “with generosity and courage” to sow “the good seed of the Gospel” in the neighborhood.

“Do not resign yourselves to the culture of abuse and injustice,” the pope said. “On the contrary, spread respect and harmony, beginning by disarming language and then investing energy and resources in education, especially for children and youth.”

Addressing the young in particular, Leo expressed the hope that they would learn in the parish “honesty, welcome, and love that overcomes boundaries,” as well as the ability to help those who do not repay them and to greet those who do not greet them — learning to go toward everyone “freely and gratuitously.”

“Learn coherence between faith and life, as Jesus teaches us,” he said.

In concluding remarks, the pope recalled that Pope Benedict XV gave the church its title, “Saint Mary, Queen of Peace,” during World War I, envisioning the community as “a ray of light in the leaden sky of war.” Today, Leo said, “many clouds still darken the world,” including the spread of ways of thinking contrary to the Gospel that exalt “the supremacy of the strongest,” encourage arrogance, and prize “victory at any cost,” deaf to the cry of those who suffer.

“Let us oppose this drift with the disarming strength of meekness,” the pope said, “continuing to ask for peace, and to welcome it and cultivate its gift with tenacity and humility.”

This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News, and has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday expressed his closeness to the people of Madagascar after two cyclones caused flooding and landslides.

“I pray for the victims, their families, and for all who have suffered serious damage,” the pope said after praying the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square on Feb. 15.

Looking ahead to upcoming Lunar New Year celebrations in East Asia, Leo said: “May this joyful celebration strengthen family ties and friendships, bring peace to homes and society, and provide an opportunity to look to the future together and to build peace and prosperity for all.”

In his reflection before the Marian prayer, the pope focused on the day’s Gospel from the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:17-37), saying Jesus “reveals the true meaning of the precepts of the Law of Moses.”

“They are not meant to satisfy an external religious need of feeling ‘righteous’ before God but to bring us into a relationship of love with God and with our brothers and sisters,” he said, adding: “The Law is fulfilled precisely by love, which brings its profound meaning and ultimate purpose to completion.”

Leo emphasized that “true righteousness consists in love,” and he warned against reducing faith to the bare minimum: “The Gospel offers us this valuable teaching: Minimal righteousness is not enough; great love is needed.”

This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Feb. 2 marked a turning point in the life of David Ryan, a 61-year-old Irishman who suffered sexual abuse as a teenager. More than 40 years later, he was able to share his story face-to-face with Pope Leo XIV in the first private meeting the pontiff has held alone with a victim of abuse.

While the Holy Father had already met with other victims of abuse, those meetings were in groups. The meeting with Ryan was different: For almost an hour, he was able to share everything he thought and still thinks about what happened to him and about the reaction of the Catholic Church in Ireland, which he felt did not listen to him.

“He’s a lovely man, and a lovely experience… Wow. I’m so glad I‘ve done it today, I’m really so glad I’ve done it. I didn’t hold back, I told him about the abuse and asked him, ‘Why are these priests still doing this?’” Ryan told reporters in Rome who were waiting for him outside the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.

“His sympathy, his empathy toward the survivors, myself and my family, toward my close friends… He felt this, he was sorry, and it was genuine. I knew it was genuine,” he emphasized.

Ryan suffered sexual abuse when he was roughly between the ages of 11 and 17 while attending Blackrock and Willow Park School in Dublin. His brother, Mark, who died at age 62, was also a victim of abuse but never revealed what had happened to him. “It ruined my life. It ruined Mark’s life, and my brother is now gone,” Ryan, who brought a photo of Mark to Rome, told EWTN News.

When Ryan’s story came to light in a documentary titled “Blackrock Boys” on RTÉ radio, it shocked the nation. Following the broadcast, the Irish government commissioned a report that revealed widespread allegations of sexual abuse at hundreds of schools over several decades — a total of 2,400 cases. This was made possible by the courage of Ryan and others like him who shared their stories.

Ryan, who felt he was not being heard by the Church, wrote to Pope Leo XIV and received a reply to meet with him, an appointment he attended with Deirdre Kenny, CEO of One in Four, an Irish charity that advises and supports adults who have suffered sexual abuse.

‘I’m so sorry for you’

EWTN Vatican correspondent Colm Flynn spoke with Ryan after his meeting with the pope. He recounted that he told Leo XIV “that I wanted an apology, and the first thing he said to me was, ‘David, all I can say is that I’m so sorry for your pain and hurt, what your family went through, what Mark and the other survivors went through. I can feel your pain, but I don’t know your pain.’ And he looked me straight in the eyes and just said, ‘I’m so sorry for you.’”

“But I could feel a kind of energy coming down when he told me, because I knew he meant it, and it’s like a whole new experience for me. It’s still going down; I still can’t believe I’ve been there. I thought this day would never come,” he emphasized.

‘I just wanted him to hear my voice, my story’

After explaining that he wanted to express his anger to the pope and get a response from him, Ryan clarified that with the Holy Father, “I wasn’t going to shout and scream; there was no point in doing that. I just wanted him to hear my voice, I wanted him to hear my story, and he heard. He apologized in a way I wasn’t expecting, and his empathy toward me… it was just quiet and surreal.”

“And I didn’t hold back, I told him I had been raped three times. It’s not pleasant, but many men are afraid to talk about it, and a lot of men don’t cry,” he said. However, he shared that in his case, he managed “to talk about it, I have cried.”

Ryan also said the pope “was shocked to hear how many people had been abused and that the Church had hidden it for so long. I asked him why they did that, and he replied, ‘David, I don’t have an answer yet for you, but I will have an answer when I can.’”

‘It wasn’t your fault’

Ryan also told Flynn that he shared his story so that others “would want to come forward and speak out about clerical abuse, because a lot of men don’t talk and keep it quiet.”

“And as I told the pope: It wasn’t my fault. And that took me a long time to admit: It wasn’t my fault. He shook his head and said to me, ‘Yes, it wasn’t your fault, David.’ And that really did hit me. We shook hands afterwards, and I know he understands. It was the best thing I’ve ever done,” he concluded.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday will travel outside the Vatican to visit a Roman parish — the Basilica of Santa Maria Regina Pacis — in the seaside community of Ostia, about 17 miles southwest of the city’s center.

A popular summer destination for tourists, Ostia will be the first of five parishes where the pope, as bishop of Rome, will celebrate Mass on Sundays in February and March.

The pastor of the church, Pallottine Father Giovanni Vincenzo Patanè, told EWTN News the area has its challenges, including drug dealing and prostitution, but there are also many positive initiatives worth highlighting.

“The pope’s presence will help to shed light on these somewhat shady areas, but also to show that Ostia is not only what is often reported about crime and Mafia organizations, but that there is also a lot of good,” the priest said.

According to Father Giulio Albanese, director of the Vicariate of Rome’s social communications office, in Ostia, many people are having trouble making ends meet.

The Church in Ostia is helping to look after those who are struggling, including those in need, immigrants, and young people affected by drugs, he told EWTN News. “The Christian community is there to help them, to share with them the love of God.”

Costantino, a homeless man who declined to give his last name, said he frequents the parish and has been a recipient of its charitable activities. “You must have faith. You can’t lose it ... even in difficult moments,” he said.

The town of Ostia also has an important connection to Pope Leo’s order, the Augustinians, as the site of St. Augustine and his mother, St. Monica’s, shared a mystical experience of eternal life. St. Monica died soon afterward and was buried in Ostia, though her tomb was later moved to Rome.

Pallottine Father Thomas Rzempoluch, assistant pastor of Santa Maria Regina Pacis, explained to EWTN News that the parish was first entrusted to the Augustinian order, which laid its foundation. But when they were unable to finish building the church, the Pallottine Fathers were asked to complete it.

“Our [rector general] at that time sent the Irish Pallottines all over America to take up collections to finish the church. So there’s also an American connection here,” he said.

Leo will be the third pope to visit the parish — Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis also celebrated Mass there during their pontificates.

“The community of Ostia is really so excited, not just our parish,” parishioner Daniele Libertini said.

In his message for Lent 2026, Pope Leo XIV urges Catholics to listen more closely to God and others — and to “disarm” their language by fasting from words that wound.

The Lenten season begins Feb. 18 with Ash Wednesday.

In the message, released Feb. 13, the pope offers a simple definition of Lent as a time when the Church “invites us to place the mystery of God back in the center of our lives, in order to find renewal in our faith and keep our hearts from being consumed by the anxieties and distractions of daily life.”

He encourages Catholics to allow the word of God to touch their hearts with docility so that Lent may become “a welcome opportunity to heed the voice of the Lord and renew our commitment to following Christ.”

Listening to God and the cry of the poor

The Holy Father first highlights the importance of listening.

“The willingness to listen is the first way we demonstrate our desire to enter into relationship with someone,” he writes.

Listening to sacred Scripture, he says, teaches believers to recognize and respond to suffering in the world.

Quoting his own apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te, he adds that Catholics must recognize that “the condition of the poor is a cry that, throughout human history, constantly challenges our lives, societies, political and economic systems, and, not least, the Church.”

Entering into this interior openness means allowing God to teach us to listen as he does, he writes, so that faith shapes both personal conversion and social responsibility.

Fasting, including from harmful speech

Turning to the traditional Lenten practice of fasting, the pope describes abstaining from food as “an ancient ascetic practice that is essential on the path of conversion.”

“Precisely because it involves the body, fasting makes it easier to recognize what we ‘hunger’ for and what we deem necessary for our sustenance,” he writes. It helps believers to “identify and order our ‘appetites,’ keeping our hunger and thirst for justice alive and freeing us from complacency.”

Quoting St. Augustine, he notes that the human heart expands through desire for God. “Understood in this way, fasting not only permits us to govern our desire, purifying it and making it freer, but also to expand it, so that it is directed towards God and doing good.”

However, he stresses that fasting must be lived “in faith and humility” and grounded in communion with the Lord.

In this context, the pope proposes a specific Lenten resolution: “a very practical and frequently unappreciated form of abstinence: that of refraining from words that offend and hurt our neighbor.”

“Let us begin by disarming our language, avoiding harsh words and rash judgment, refraining from slander and speaking ill of those who are not present and cannot defend themselves,” he writes. “Instead, let us strive to measure our words and cultivate kindness and respect in our families, among our friends, at work, on social media, in political debates, in the media and in Christian communities.”

“In this way, words of hatred will give way to words of hope and peace,” he adds.

A shared journey toward conversion

Finally, Pope Leo XIV emphasizes the communal dimension of Lent, recalling that Scripture frequently presents fasting and listening to the word of God as shared acts of repentance and renewal.

“Our parishes, families, ecclesial groups, and religious communities are called to undertake a shared journey during Lent,” he writes, where listening to the word of God and to “the cry of the poor and of the earth” becomes part of community life.

He underscores that conversion concerns not only individual conscience but also relationships and dialogue. It means “allowing ourselves to be challenged by reality and recognizing what truly guides our desires — both within our ecclesial communities and as regards humanity’s thirst for justice and reconciliation.”

Concluding, the pope invites the faithful to ask for grace and strength during the penitential season.

“Let us ask for the grace of a Lent that leads us to greater attentiveness to God and to the least among us,” he writes. “Let us ask for the strength that comes from the type of fasting that also extends to our use of language, so that hurtful words may diminish and give way to a greater space for the voice of others.”

“Let us strive to make our communities places where the cry of those who suffer finds welcome, and listening opens paths towards liberation, making us ready and eager to contribute to building a civilization of love.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

The Catholic Bishops of Cuba announced Thursday that they have asked Pope Leo XIV to postpone their upcoming visit to Rome due to the country’s grave situation, which is generating “so much instability and uncertainty.”

The bishops had been scheduled to meet Pope Leo XIV on Feb. 20 as part of their periodic ad limina visit, which was set to begin Monday, Feb. 16. During such visits, bishops also customarily pray at the four major papal basilicas and meet with various Vatican dicasteries.

However, in a statement on Feb. 12, the bishops’ conference said that “given the worsening socio-economic situation in the country, which is generating so much instability and uncertainty, the Catholic bishops have asked the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, that the ad limina visit be postponed to a later date than originally planned.”

“We continue praying for our homeland, and we renew our affection and communion with the pope and with the Apostolic See,” the statement added.

Cuba’s prolonged economic and social crisis has intensified in recent days, particularly after the United States government announced on Jan. 29 the imposition of tariffs on countries that send oil to the Caribbean nation, as a way of pressuring the communist regime.

In response, the Cuban government has introduced further restrictions beyond those already faced by the population. Last Sunday, the regime also reported that it no longer had fuel for commercial aircraft, a development that is affecting tourism, one of the government’s principal sources of revenue.

At the same time, the Trump administration began sending containers of humanitarian aid in January for the Catholic Church to distribute to those affected by Hurricane Melissa. The assistance is being coordinated directly with Caritas Cuba, without the participation of the regime.

On Jan. 31, the Cuban bishops warned in a separate statement that the country risks falling into social chaos and violence if the structural changes it urgently needs are not implemented.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

The Vatican’s doctrinal office said Thursday it is willing to begin a structured theological dialogue with the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), but warned that any plan by the traditionalist group to consecrate bishops without a papal mandate would constitute a break in communion and would immediately halt the talks.

In a statement following a Feb. 12 meeting between Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Father Davide Pagliarani, the SSPX’s superior general, the dicastery said the two sides agreed on a “specifically theological” process with a defined methodology to address questions it said have not yet received sufficient clarification.

The dicastery also warned that if the SSPX proceeds with episcopal consecrations it has announced for July 1 without authorization from the Holy See, the move would “imply a decisive rupture of ecclesial communion (schism),” carrying “grave consequences” for the fraternity as a whole, and would bring the dialogue to an immediate end.

The statement did not explicitly mention excommunication, which canon law prescribes for all bishops involved in episcopal consecrations with a papal mandate.

The dicastery said Pagliarani told Vatican officials he would present the proposal to the fraternity’s council and later communicate a response. If the response is positive, the statement said, both sides would jointly establish the steps, stages, and procedures to follow.

What the Vatican says the talks would cover

According to the dicastery, the theological dialogue would address contested questions tied to the interpretation of post–Second Vatican Council teaching, including God’s will regarding the plurality of religions; the distinction between an act of faith and “religious submission of mind and will”; and the differing levels of assent required by various Vatican II texts and their interpretation.

The underlying issue is whether the SSPX must accept Vatican II as doctrinally binding, or whether it can treat it as primarily pastoral and therefore open to critique.

The dicastery also said the discussions would seek to identify “minimum conditions” required for full communion with the Catholic Church and, consequently, for outlining a canonical status for the SSPX, alongside other questions to be studied further.

Why the meeting happened now

The meeting followed Pagliarani’s Feb. 2 announcement that the SSPX intends to consecrate new bishops on July 1, arguing the move is needed to preserve continuity.

The consecrations would reportedly be carried out by Bishop Bernard Fellay, Pagliarani’s predecessor as superior general, with Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta as co-consecrator. Pagliarani has said an exchange of letters with the Holy See did not produce the response the fraternity sought.

The shadow of 1988

The Vatican warning recalls the 1988 rupture, when Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without a pontifical mandate after negotiations with Rome collapsed, triggering a formal declaration of excommunication and a long-running break in full communion.

In 1988, a solution had appeared within reach after an agreement would have given the fraternity a recognized place in the Church and permission to celebrate exclusively the traditional Latin Mass, in exchange for acceptance of Vatican II and recognition of the validity of the reformed rites. Lefebvre ultimately proceeded with the consecrations anyway.

Benedict XVI later lifted the excommunications of the bishops consecrated in 1988 in 2009. Under Pope Francis, the Holy See extended certain pastoral faculties to SSPX priests, while also restricting broader use of the traditional Latin Mass through the motu proprio "Traditionis Custodes."

This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

The Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), commonly known as the Vatican Bank, announced the launch of two new equity benchmarks developed in partnership with Morningstar Indexes.

The two indexes, the Morningstar IOR Eurozone Catholic Principles and the Morningstar IOR US Catholic Principles, are designed to serve as global reference points for investments that adhere to Catholic teaching, according to a Feb. 10 IOR press release.

Each index includes 50 medium- and large-cap companies selected in accordance with the IOR’s Investment Policy, which is guided by the social doctrine of the Catholic Church, according to the press release.

The indexes exclude companies involved in activities inconsistent with Catholic teachings, the IOR said.

According to the press release, the initiative will strengthen the IOR’s commitment to responsible and ethical finance, allowing Catholic institutions, dioceses, religious orders, and other faith-aligned investors worldwide to benchmark and evaluate performance in a manner consistent with Catholic teaching, particularly on issues related to life, social responsibility, and environmental protection.

Robert Edwards, managing director for EMEA at Morningstar Indexes, stated: “Investors increasingly seek benchmarks that reflect specific values-based or policy-driven criteria. Morningstar’s transparent, rules-based approach ensures client-defined standards are applied consistently and objectively.”

Giovanni Boscia, deputy director general, CFO, and head of asset management at the IOR, added: “With the launch of these two new equity indexes, the IOR takes a further step forward in the process that has seen it adopt international best financial practices for years, in strict compliance with the principles of the social doctrine of the Church.”

“Having benchmarks built in accordance with recognized Catholic ethical criteria allows us to make our performance assessment and reporting processes even more rigorous and transparent,” Boscia continued. “This initiative reaffirms our commitment as a financial institution serving the Church, further strengthening the role of the IOR as a reference point for the Catholic world.”

In 2022, the Vatican issued Mensuram Bonam, which means “a good measure.” It is a document intended to guide Catholics to think and act according to the teachings of the Church in their investment decisions, including considering how their economic actions affect the poor.

Last year, in its annual report, the IOR showed a net profit of 32.8 million euros in 2024, representing a 7% increase compared with 2023, attributing its positive financial performance with “numerous improvements” made, including adding specialized personnel and making strategic investments in digital and technological infrastructure.

Pope Leo XIV wants to travel to Jerusalem in 2033 to commemorate the 2,000th anniversary of the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ. The Jubilee of Redemption is an event that is shaping up to be a historic opportunity to advance toward the full and visible unity of Christians.

However, the main obstacle to this goal remains the rift between the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate and the Patriarchate of Constantinople, an expert told ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News.

Father Frans Bouwen, a missionary of the Society of Missionaries of Africa, has been in Jerusalem for more than 40 years. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Frans Bouwen

Father Frans Bouwen, a missionary of the Society of Missionaries of Africa — known as the White Fathers — and an expert in ecumenical dialogue, explained the complexity of the situation: “Moscow currently refuses to participate in ecumenical meetings where Constantinople is present, which also conditions its participation and that of the local churches aligned with it.”

The future ecumenical event, framed within the bimillennial Jubilee of the Redemption, was announced by the Vatican after the ecumenical meeting in which the pontiff participated during his trip to Turkey held at Mor Ephrem Syriac Orthodox Church in Istanbul.

That meeting was also attended by representatives of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and other Christian communions and ecumenical organizations. Among the participants were also envoys from the Anglican Communion, the Lutheran World Federation, the Baptist World Alliance, the World Evangelical Alliance, and the World Council of Churches.

However, the Russian Orthodox were absent. As revealed by Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, in an interview with Crux, the patriarchate of Constantinople did not invite the Russian Orthodox Church.

The decision, he explained, was to invite the oldest Orthodox churches, which include the patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem.

“Catholics invite Catholics, and Orthodox invite Orthodox,” he said. “The decision not to invite the largest Orthodox church in the world was theirs to make, and I respect the decision of the Orthodox.”

There are still seven years until 2033, and many things can change, both in the ecumenical and geopolitical spheres. In any case, for Bouwen, for the 2033 pilgrimage to fulfill its objective and leave no one behind, the authentic participation of all the churches will be essential.

Pope Leo XIV greets Bartholomew I in Iznik during his trip to Turkey in November 2025. Credit: Vatican Media

“The specific paths of preparation must be studied and decided together, ecumenically, following a synodal approach, seeking to actively involve as many churches as possible. It is essential that contacts be established between the churches as soon as possible, creating working groups at both the local and global levels. Perhaps a preparation in different stages, as the Catholic Church did for the Jubilee of the Year 2000, would be advisable,” explained the priest, who has been in Jerusalem for over 40 years.

Ecumenical dialogue with Rome has progressed in recent years, but the situation within Orthodoxy is complicated.

New rift over Ukraine

The turning point came in 2018 when Bartholomew I granted autocephaly (self-governance) to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, separating it from being under the Moscow Patriarchate. Patriarch Kirill considered the move meddling and broke off Eucharistic communion with Constantinople, opening a rift that persists to this day.

The conflict has intensified, in part, due to Kirill’s support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, prompting Russian warnings of potentially even more drastic measures.

For Bouwen, this rupture is not theological in nature but rather canonical and geopolitical, linked above all to the status of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. “Russia considers Kyiv to be the place of its baptism and its birthplace, [with the baptism of Vladimir, Grand Prince of Kyivan Rus’ and his subjects in 988] and does not accept that it should come under another jurisdiction without its consent. Moreover, the Russian position reflects a more general distrust of the West and its values, and a growing reluctance toward ecumenism itself,” he noted.

“The interruption of communion has caused a major schism within the Orthodox communion and has repercussions for ecumenical relations worldwide,” he explained when addressing the complications arising from the break in communion between Moscow and Constantinople, which currently condition the potential participation of Russian Orthodox Christians in the Jubilee of 2033.

‘Let us have faith in the Spirit‘

The missionary clarified that, from a Catholic perspective, the path is one of hope and patience. “Let us have faith in the Spirit who will accompany this pilgrimage and help us discern what is possible at each stage,” he added.

“Perhaps opportunities will arise to collaborate in teaching, pastoral work, or even in the shared participation in certain sacraments. That in itself would constitute a powerful shared witness,” he noted.

Furthermore, he said that given that the final destination of this pilgrimage is Jerusalem, “it is important to establish contact with the patriarchs and heads of the Churches there without delay.” In this regard, he maintained that since the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem is generally recognized as first among his brethren, “he must be involved from the very beginning.”

Bouwen situated the significance of the 2033 Jubilee not only in the anniversary itself — 2,000 years since the Redemption — but also in the context in which it was announced: the ecumenical celebrations of the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea (325), held first in Iznik and then in Istanbul.

“While we celebrate in the Nicene Creed, the foundations of the Christian faith common to all the churches, the call to a shared pilgrimage toward 2033 turns our gaze toward the saving events at the heart of this faith: the incarnation, life, passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ,” he noted.

From this perspective, Jerusalem emerges as the natural destination of this shared journey. “Jerusalem is the place where these events took place,” the missionary reminded, insisting that the jubilee can only bear fruit if it is lived as a genuine ecumenical process.

Bouwen also linked this perspective to a key historical precedent: the pilgrimage of St. Paul VI to Jerusalem in January 1964. “His ardent desire was to firmly root the Second Vatican Council, and the Church itself, in the mysteries that lie at the origin of its foundation and mission,” he explained.

During that journey, the historic meeting with Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras took place, sealed with a kiss of peace that, in the words of this priest, “became an icon and a promise of the shared rediscovery and joint journey of our churches toward full communion.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Pope Leo XIV accepted the resignation of Archbishop Gregory Aymond on Wednesday, paving the way for coadjutor Archbishop James Checchio to assume the leadership of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

Leo appointed Checchio, 59, coadjutor archbishop of New Orleans in September 2025 to automatically succeed Aymond upon his retirement. After Checchio arrived in mid-November 2025, he has assisted Aymond at the archdiocese of over half a million Catholics in southeastern Louisiana for three months.

Checchio previously served, since 2016, as bishop of Metuchen, New Jersey. He was rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome from 2006 to 2016 and has a doctorate in canon law.

He said in a Feb. 11 statement from the archdiocese his first three months in New Orleans “have gone by very quickly as I learn more about our local Church.”

Checchio will celebrate his first Mass as archbishop at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 18.

He takes the helm in New Orleans as the archdiocese moves to resolve yearslong bankruptcy negotiations with a settlement for over 600 clergy sexual abuse claimants. In September 2025, the archdiocese announced a $230 million settlement offer to clergy sexual abuse claimants, up from a previous offer of $180 million.

The settlement offer follows five years of negotiations in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, where the nation’s second-oldest Catholic archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in May 2020.

Aymond, a New Orleans native, led the archdiocese since 2009. He turned 75, the age when bishops are required to submit their resignation to the pope, in November 2024.

He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of New Orleans in 1975. His priestly ministry focused on education — including serving as the president-rector of Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans from 1986 to 2000 — and missionary work in Mexico and Nicaragua.

In 1996, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese and given oversight over its Catholic schools.

Aymond came under fire in the late 1990s for allowing the coach at Sacred Heart of Jesus School in Norco, Brian Matherne, to remain in his role for several months after Aymond received information about alleged abuse of a minor boy by Matherne.

Matherne was later arrested and is now serving a 30-year sentence after pleading guilty to the molestation of 17 children over a 15-year period ending in 1999.

Aymond later admitted his mistake in keeping Matherne in his post and called the case a “painful experience — I will never forget it. It helped me to understand the complexity of pedophilia better.”

He was appointed coadjutor bishop of Austin, Texas, in June 2000 and succeeded Bishop John E. McCarthy as bishop of Austin in January 2021.

In that position, Aymond strengthened the diocese’s sex abuse policies, though clerical abuse activists from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) have criticized the archbishop’s record, claiming he only “postures as someone who takes clergy sex crimes seriously.”

Pope Leo XIV affirmed Wednesday that Sacred Scripture has been entrusted to the Catholic Church — that she preserves and explains it, and supports its purpose of making Christ known to the world.

“The Church is the rightful home of Sacred Scripture,” the pope said during the general audience on Feb. 11.

“With its efficacy and power [Sacred Scripture] sustains and invigorates the Christian community. All the faithful are called to drink from this wellspring, first and foremost in the celebration of the Eucharist and the other Sacraments,” he added.

Addressing thousands of pilgrims in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall, Leo said, Scripture “finds the sphere in which to carry out its particular task and achieve its purpose: to make Christ known and to open dialogue with God” in the Church community.

The pontiff pointed to the 2008 Synod of Bishops on “The Word of God in the life and mission of the Church” as one of the Church’s recent important reflections on Scripture.

He quoted from Pope Benedict XVI’s post-synodal exhortation Verbum Domini. In that document, Pope Benedict affirmed that “The intrinsic link between the word and faith makes clear that authentic biblical hermeneutics can only be had within the faith of the Church, which has its paradigm in Mary’s fiat… the primary setting for scriptural interpretation is the life of the Church.”

The Purpose of Scripture

Pope Leo recalled the well-known phrase from St. Jerome that “ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.”

The expression reminds us, he said, “of the ultimate purpose of reading and meditating on the Scriptures: to get to know Christ and, through him, to enter into a relationship with God, a relationship that can be understood as a conversation, a dialogue.”

“We live surrounded by so many words, but how many of these are empty!” the pontiff said.

“On the contrary, the Word of God responds to our thirst for meaning, for the truth about our life. It is the only Word that is always new: revealing the mystery of God to us, it is inexhaustible, it never ceases to offer its riches.”

Leo said those who carry out the ministry of the Word — bishops, priests, deacons, and catechists — should be guided by love for the Sacred Scriptures and familiarity with them.

“The Church ardently desires that the Word of God may reach every one of her members and nurture their journey of faith. But the Word of God also propels the Church beyond herself; it opens her continually tothe mission towards everyone,” he said.

Vatican II’s Dei Verbum

The pope’s catechesis at the general audience was part of a series on the documents of the Second Vatican Council.

The Holy Father explained that the sixth chapter of Dei Verbum, Vatican II’s constitution on Divine Revelation, expresses a “profound and vital link that exists between the Word of God and the Church.”

The document “presented the Revelation to us precisely as a dialogue, in which God speaks to humans as though to friends,” he said.

Quoting the constitution, Pope Leo said “the Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures just as she venerates the body of the Lord, since especially in the sacred liturgy, she unceasingly receives and offers to the faithful the bread of life from the table both of God’s word and of Christ’s body.”

Pope Leo XIV lights a candle in honor of the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes during the general audience in the Paul VI Hall on Feb. 11, 2026. Credit: Daniel Ibanez/EWTN News. Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes

Before the audience began, Pope Leo lit a candle in front of a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes present in the audience hall in honor of her Feb. 11 feast day.

He asked our Lady of Lourdes to accompany young people, newlyweds, and the sick, and to “intercede for before God, and obtain for you the graces that sustain you on your journey.”

After the catechesis, the pope planned to visit the Vatican Gardens, where there is a replica of the grotto where Mary appeared to St. Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, France, in 1858.

At the grotto, Leo said he would light a candle in prayer for the sick. The World Day of the Sick, commemorated on Feb. 11, was instituted by St. Pope John Paul II in 1992, one year after his diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease.

“I will not forget you” (Isaiah 49:15) is the theme chosen by Pope Leo XIV for the sixth World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly, which this year will take place on Sunday, July 26.

According to a Feb. 10 statement from the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life, the verse chosen by the Holy Father “is meant to emphasize how God’s love for every person never fails, not even in the frailty of old age.”

Taken from the book of the prophet Isaiah, the theme also aims to be “a message of comfort and hope for all grandparents and the elderly,” especially those who live alone or feel forgotten.

The Vatican dicastery emphasized that it is also an invitation to families and ecclesial communities not to forget the elderly and to recognize in them “a precious presence and a blessing.”

World Grandparents’ Day was instituted by Pope Francis in 2021 and is celebrated every fourth Sunday of July. It is an opportunity to show the elderly the closeness of the Church and to value their contribution to families and communities.

This year, the date coincides with the feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne, the maternal grandparents of Jesus Christ, on Sunday, July 26, and the Holy Father invited everyone to celebrate the day with a Eucharistic liturgy in the cathedral church of their diocese.

The Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life also urged particular Churches and ecclesial communities throughout the world to find ways to celebrate the day in their own local contexts.

Pope Leo XIV celebrated his first World Day of Grandparents in July 2025, an occasion on which he encouraged the faithful to participate in the “revolution” of care for the elderly.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Pope Leo XIV has strengthened his support for Ukraine amid the ongoing war by sending new humanitarian aid to areas hardest hit by winter bombings, including 80 electricity generators, along with food and medicine.

According to the official Vatican News outlet, the assistance was sent at the pope’s request through the Dicastery for the Service of Charity. Three trucks carrying the generators departed Rome to help communities facing severe cold after repeated attacks on energy infrastructure.

Nighttime temperatures in Ukraine have fallen as low as minus 15 degrees Celsius, forcing many families to leave their homes in search of warmth in shelters, often the only places where they can receive a hot meal. The generators are intended to ensure electricity and heating in these shelters during the harsh winter months.

Along with the generators, the pope also sent food and large quantities of medicine, including antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, supplements, and melatonin, which has been especially sought after to help people sleep amid constant fear and stress caused by ongoing attacks.

The vehicles departed from the Basilica of St. Sophia in Rome, the church of Ukrainians in Italy, and have already reached Fastiv and Kyiv, two areas particularly affected by recent bombings. Once in Ukraine, the aid is distributed through parish networks in the dioceses.

This is not the first time Pope Leo XIV’s repeated appeals for peace have been accompanied by concrete action. On Dec. 28, 2025, he sent three other trucks with special food supplies designed to meet the most urgent needs of civilians in wartime conditions. At that time, the papal almoner, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, explained that the food dissolves in small amounts of water to become high-energy chicken and vegetable soups.

Pope Leo XIV has consistently condemned the war in Ukraine. Following the Angelus on Jan. 11, he lamented the impact of recent Russian attacks that left more than a million households without water or heating in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

“New attacks, particularly serious ones, directed above all at energy infrastructure, precisely while the cold becomes harsher, are striking the civilian population heavily,” the pope said.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.