Pope Leo XIV made a private visit on July 20 to the Abbey of Montecassino, where St. Benedict of Nursia is buried.

As announced by the Holy See Press Office, the pontiff made the trip while on vacation at Castel Gandolfo, where he will remain from July 5-27. At Montecassino, he prayed at the tomb of St. Benedict, considered the father of Western monasticism, “entrusting him with his plea for peace in those regions of the world marked by bloodshed and conflict.”

Pope Leo XIV lights a candle at the tomb of St. Benedict of Nursia at the Abbey of Montecassino on July 20, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media

The pope also enjoyed lunch with the Benedictine community at the abbey.

Leo’s surprise visit to Montecassino was his first since his election to the papacy in 2025. While on vacation that year, he also made a surprise visit to the Sanctuary of the Madonna delle Grazie della Mentorella in Guadagnolo, where he also prayed for peace.

The Abbey of Montecassino, founded by St. Benedict in 529 AD, will celebrate the 1,500th anniversary of its founding in 2029.

Leo’s visit to Montecassino was also his third public appearance (outside his Sunday Angelus) during his Castel Gandolfo vacation, following his lunch with the poor on July 11 and a summer concert on July 18. Except for his Sunday Angelus, all private and public audiences, including the Wednesday general audience, are suspended during his vacation.

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A new medal named after Pope Leo XIV to recognize individuals who have worked toward ecological sustainability will be introduced in October 2026.

The pontiff will personally present the “Pope Leo XIV Sustainability Medal” at the International Sustainability Conference, to be held at the Patristic Institute Augustinianum in Rome from Oct. 12–15. The award ceremony will take place on Oct. 13 in the Borgo Laudato Si’ garden, part of the Pontifical Gardens in Castel Gandolfo.

The award and conference were established by Villanova University, a Catholic liberal arts university in Pennsylvania. This is where Leo XIV, formerly Robert Prevost, earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1977 and an honorary doctorate in 2014. The Dicastery for Integral Human Development will also sponsor the event.

The inaugural Pope Leo XIV Sustainability Medal is a permanent award that will be presented by the university every two years.

An award to reflect the care for our common home

In a July 20 press release, Villanova University’s president, Father Peter Donohue, OSA, explained that the medal will recognize individuals who embody the university’s core belief in ecological stewardship and the common good.

“The Pope Leo XIV Sustainability Medal reflects a deeply held belief at Villanova University: that care for our common home and care for one another are inseparable,” Donohue said. “By recognizing leaders whose work advances both environmental stewardship and the common good, we hope to inspire meaningful and lasting impact in communities around the world.”

Villanova University, where Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, studied from 1973-77. | Credit: Amy Lutz/Shutterstock

The conference, themed “Responding to the Cries of the Earth and the Poor,” will gather more than 300 academics, church officials, and stakeholders for discussions on integral ecology.

The recipient of the Pope Leo XIV Sustainability Medal may come from any field and will be evaluated based on their efforts to advance sustainability and equity.

Another Villanova initiative to honor Leo XIV

The medal is not the only recent initiative by Villanova University to honor its most famous alumnus.

In July 2026, the university co-sponsored the 38th Annual Liberty Medal ceremony in Philadelphia, which awarded the pope the Liberty Medal ahead of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.

On Nov. 1, the university’s basketball team will open its NCAA season in Rome with a men’s and women’s doubleheader against Notre Dame. The initiative was also inspired by Leo XIV, who will meet both teams in an audience ahead of the games.

Pope Leo XIV warned Sunday against imagining God as “a powerful figure who imposes himself by force, who takes over and dominates, or who arrives triumphantly,” and urged Christians to embrace a Gospel-centered approach marked by humility and trust.

Speaking before the Angelus prayer in Liberty Square at Castel Gandolfo, where he is spending several weeks of rest through Monday, July 27, the pope reflected on the day’s Gospel reading.

Following the parable of the sower, Jesus addresses the crowds through the images of the good wheat and the weeds, the mustard seed and the yeast in the dough, the pope noted.

“These three short parables recall the coming of the Kingdom of God in history, its action in human lives, and the way it grows, expands and transforms the world from within,” Pope Leo said.

Through these images, he continued, Jesus warns against thinking of God principally in terms of power, domination and triumph.

“Instead, God favors smallness, a sign of his discreet love, by which he leaves us free to accept or reject him,” the pope said. “His love makes its presence felt even among the weeds, acts in a hidden and invisible way like the smallest of all seeds, and leavens the dough without making a sound.”

God favors smallness

Pope Leo said believers sometimes expect God to act in dramatic and immediately visible ways.

“We sometimes expect God to do something spectacular; we want him to intervene from on high, immediately uprooting the weeds of evil,” he said.

“We imagine a strong and powerful God, and, unfortunately, we also model our way of being Christians and way of being the Church on this image.”

The Kingdom of God, however, continues to grow quietly even amid evil, the pope said.

“However, the Kingdom of God spreads even amidst the weeds, requiring us to train our vision so we can discern the good that sprouts despite the darkness of evil, and avoiding rash judgments,” he said.

The image of the smallest seed, Pope Leo explained, teaches Christians to be patient as God works through ordinary events and gradual processes.

“It comes like the smallest of seeds and thus calls for patience in accompanying these processes, so that we can recognize it in the little things of daily life and in the simplicity of ordinary existence,” he said.

The kingdom also “grows invisibly like yeast in flour,” the pope continued, freeing believers from discouragement and inviting them to maintain faith even when God appears absent.

“In fact, he is always with us, and his love is always ready to help us,” he said.

Pope Leo then urged Catholics to apply this divine way of acting to both their personal lives and the life of the Church.

“God’s way of acting must also become the way in which we live, both as individuals and as the Church, amidst the reality that surrounds us,” he said.

“We are called to adopt a Gospel-centered approach, without hastily opposing others through arrogant judgments, without imposing ourselves through power and force, and without losing trust in God’s work.”

The pope cited a reflection given by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, during the Jubilee of Catechists and Religion Teachers in the Holy Year 2000.

“As the then-Cardinal Ratzinger said, it is a matter of submitting ourselves to the logic of the seed — which is not that of success and greatness, but that of making ourselves small and serving others,” Pope Leo said.

By embracing this approach, he concluded, Christians can become instruments through which the Gospel quietly transforms the world.

“In this way, we will become like small seeds of the Gospel that sprout, and leavens of love that transform the dough of 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.

Pope Leo XIV, who has restored the papal tradition of spending part of the summer at Castel Gandolfo, is set to attend a classical concert there on July 18.

The “Concert in Honor of the Holy Father Leo XIV” will take place in the courtyard of the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo, where he is staying from July 5–27. The nearby Suburbicarian Diocese of Albano will offer the event as a gift to the pontiff to mark the renewal of the papal presence at the lakeside town, which is part of the diocese.

Leo XIV, as Cardinal Robert Prevost, was the titular cardinal-bishop of the Diocese of Albano before his election to the papacy in 2025.

Bishop Vincenzo Viva of Albano, in a July 16 press release from the diocese, described the concert as an expression of the diocese’s joy and closeness to the pope.

“The renewed presence of the Holy Father in our diocesan territory has filled our local Church and its inhabitants with joy,” Viva said in the statement. “We wish to offer this symphonic concert as a gesture of affection and communion, and the program we have designed reveals pages of rare splendor.”

The concert will feature classical repertoire by Niccolò Paganini and Vincenzo Bellini. It will be performed by the orchestra I Musici di Parma of Parma, Italy.

Pope Leo XIV decided to spend part of this summer on vacation at the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo after Pope Francis opted not to spend his summers there for his entire 12-year pontificate. The complex also includes the Pontifical Gardens, including the Borgo Laudato Si’ garden.

The July 18 concert will be Leo’s second public appearance (outside his Sunday Angelus) at Castel Gandolfo so far, following his lunch with the poor in the Borgo Laudato Si’ garden on July 11. With the exception of his Sunday Angelus, all private and public audiences, including the Wednesday general audience, are suspended during his vacation.

Inspired by Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, more than 200 leading academics, innovators, and Nobel laureates signed a declaration in Rome on July 16 calling for responsible AI development and the complete elimination of nuclear weapons.

“We must disarm the next arms race, both AI and nuclear, before they define the next century as well,” the declaration stated.

According to Vatican News, the signing of the declaration for “an unarmed and disarming peace in the age of artificial intelligence, nuclear and autonomous weapons, new digital protocols, and emerging models of digital development” took place in the Giulio Cesare Hall at the Palazzo Senatorio, Rome’s city hall atop the Capitoline Hill.

The signing also concluded the Global Nobel Laureates Assembly on Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear War, held July 14–16 at Borgo Laudato Si’, part of the Pontifical Gardens at Castel Gandolfo, where Pope Leo XIV is staying from July 5–27.

Among those present at the signing were the vicar general of the Diocese of Rome, Cardinal Baldassare Reina; the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri; and Hollywood actress Sharon Stone.

For an unarmed and disarming peace

The declaration called on governments and corporations to slow AI development, halt the expansion of nuclear arms, and work toward their total elimination.

“We call on governments, corporations, and international organizations to enable coordinated slowdown of frontier AI development,” the declaration stated. “We call for urgent, sustained, and good-faith negotiations leading, within an agreed and time-bound framework, to the verifiable and irreversible elimination of nuclear weapons.”

According to a July 16 press release, the declaration and summit were inspired by Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas.

“Pope Leo XIV, invoking values shared across religious traditions, has called humanity toward an ‘unarmed and disarming peace.’”

A race for human survival

Speaking at the signing of the declaration, Reina explained its significance for humanity’s survival amid the threats of nuclear war and AI misuse.

"The declaration presented today reminds us with great clarity that no machine, no algorithm, and no autonomous system can be placed at the center of decisions upon which the survival of humanity depends,” Reina said.

Professor David Gross, a Nobel Prize laureate in physics and a professor of theoretical physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, emphasized the need for nuclear nations to adopt policies to reduce the risk of nuclear war.

“We are in the middle of an accelerated arms race,” Gross said.

“We ask that nuclear nations promote policies that reduce the risk of war, nuclear war, and annihilation.”

When the pope speaks out on matters of war and peace, is he doing so as a religious authority or a political leader? A U.S. diplomat and a Vatican official recently expressed contrasting views on the question.

According to the New York Times last week, U.S. ambassador to the Holy See Brian Burch argued that when Pope Leo spoke out against the war in Iran, “he was not doing so as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, the vicar of Christ.”

“When the pope acts as the sovereign leader of the Holy See, he is coequal with world leaders,” Burch is quoted as telling the NYT in an interview published online July 9.

A rare op-ed from the editorial director of Vatican communications, Andrea Tornielli, appeared just days later, stating that “even when he speaks about war and peace … the successor of Peter remains, above all, a spiritual leader.”

While the Vatican News editorial did not mention Burch by name, it addressed the ambassador’s argument in the NYT interview.

Pope Leo XIV has dinner with U.S. Ambassador Brian Burch and his family at the ambassador’s residence in Rome on July 4, 2026. | Credit: U.S. Embassy to the Holy See

“Any glorification or exaggeration of the pope’s role as head of state, any emphasis on the importance of this role, is therefore misleading because it comes at the expense of his one true mission as universal shepherd,” Tornielli wrote.

A spokeswoman for Burch declined to comment.

Expert weighs in

Father Roberto Regoli, an expert on papal history and diplomacy from the 19th to 21st centuries, explained that while the pope is the head of a state, “it is just functional to his personal service as a Church leader.”

“Vatican State is an enclave state … it is functional for the spiritual mission of the popes,” Regoli told EWTN News. “The pope normally speaks as a head of the Church.”

In the Vatican News editorial, Tornielli pointed to the 1929 Lateran Pacts, an agreement that resolved the issue of the temporal power of popes and gave the pope a small territory — less than 110 acres — but said that “does not mean that he acts or speaks as a politician when addressing issues concerning the affairs of humanity.”

Tornielli quoted St. Paul VI, who, in an address to the United Nations General Assembly in 1965, said, referring to himself, that “he is your brother, and even one of the least among you who represent sovereign states, since he possesses — if you choose to consider us from this point of view — only a tiny and practically symbolic temporal sovereignty: the minimum needed in order to be free to exercise his spiritual mission and to assure those who deal with him that he is independent of any sovereignty of this world. He has no temporal power, no ambition to enter into competition with you.”

Father Roberto Regoli was appointed by the Vatican Secretariat of State in January 2026 as president of the board of directors of the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Roberto Regoli

Regoli noted that the political power of popes was different in the past, such as in the time of the Papal States. Being the head of a state today “is just functional to his personal service as a Church leader” to maintain his independence.

As the sovereign of an independent city-state, the pope has interactions with other states and multilateral institutions via apostolic nuncios and other delegates, who represent him to both the local Church and the state, Regoli said.

He added that these “diplomatic structures are in the function of papal politics,” which are “ecclesiastical politics” — that is, about the Church’s internal government.

Pope Leo himself, at the beginning of a speech to members of the Spanish Parliament in Madrid on June 8, explained in what capacity he addressed the politicians and the role of the Holy See on the international stage.

“I come before you,” he said, “as the bishop of Rome and shepherd of the Catholic Church, aware that the mission entrusted to the successor of the apostle Peter, as the principle and foundation of the unity of the bishops and the faithful, places the Holy See, in a special way, in dialogue with peoples and with states.”

The Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), also known as the Vatican Bank, has named Giovanni Boscia as its next director general.

He will succeed Gian Franco Mammì, who has reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 and has led the IOR’s day-to-day operations since 2015.

Boscia, 55, will assume his new role on Oct. 1. According to a July 15 press release from the IOR, his appointment “reflects a robust governance structure based on a clear distinction between the supervisory, governing, and management bodies, and designed to ensure transparency and stability.”

The IOR was founded in 1942 by Pope Pius XII to manage the Holy See’s assets and centralize the worldwide administration of the Catholic Church’s funds. It is also the central financial institution of Vatican City State.

Personnel changes and a mixed year at the IOR

Boscia’s appointment is the second leadership change at the IOR in 2026, following François Pauly’s appointment as its president. Pauly serves as a nonexecutive member assisting with oversight, whereas Boscia will oversee the bank’s daily operations as director general.

The leadership changes come amid a mixed year for the IOR. In its annual reports published in May, the bank reported a net profit of 51 million euros (about $58.4 million) for 2025, up 55.5% from the 32.8 million euros ($37.5 million) recorded the previous year.

In April, the Vatican detected 78 suspicious activities involving accounts linked to the IOR.

More than 3 decades of experience in finance

Before joining the IOR in 2019, Boscia spent more than 30 years in international financial markets across several firms, including Salomon Brothers, Citigroup, RBS, and Credit Suisse First Boston.

He graduated with honors with a master’s degree in finance from Bocconi University in Milan, Italy, and an executive MBA from London Business School.

In 2019, he went to Rome to serve at the IOR as its head of finance and chief financial officer. He was promoted to head of investments in 2021 and to deputy director general in 2023.

David Willey, a BBC correspondent whose career in Rome spanned more than 50 years and five papacies, died July 11 in Italy at the age of 93.

From being a student taking in the pomp of Pope Pius XII carried in a ceremonial throne to traveling the world with St. John Paul II to writing about the changes brought by Pope Francis, Willey saw “a complete revolution so that people saw the pope much more as a personality rather than in a hierarchical sense,” the journalist told EWTN News at his home in February.

Catholic background

David Douglas Willey was born in High Wycombe, in the county of Buckinghamshire, northwest of London, in December 1932. He grew up Catholic in nearby Marlow.

Willey’s first experience of Rome was a visit as a student, when he witnessed Pope Pius XII being carried through crowds in a gestatorial chair. “For me, the Vatican, St. Peter’s in Rome, was a spectacle, it was almost operatic,” he noted.

After studying law and modern languages at Cambridge, he moved to Rome as a trainee for Reuters.

He then left for stints in Algeria as a freelancer and subsequently East Africa as a correspondent for BBC. He also reported from Asia, including Saigon and Beijing, and then spent some time in London as the BBC’s assistant diplomatic correspondent.

He returned to Italy as BBC’s Rome correspondent in 1972 — and he never left.

David Willey, who died July 11, 2026, served as a BBC correspondent in Rome starting in 1972. He is seen here standing on a street in 1980. | Credit: Photo courtesy of BBC

“I never imagined I would be covering the Vatican [as a] correspondent when I was an altar boy at St. Peter’s Church in Marlow,” he said.

Willey explained that he no longer practiced the Catholic faith of his childhood but that he had “the greatest respect for the Catholic religion.”

His reporting on the Vatican was through this lens. “I always treated reporting for the Vatican as a secular matter rather than a religious one,” he said, adding that he still found “inspiration and pleasure in covering Vatican affairs” because he thought the pope and the Church had an important message in a world “torn by war and discord.”

Lengthy Rome career

During his more than five decades covering Rome and the Vatican, Willey witnessed dramatic technological changes both to journalism and to the Vatican’s own operations and communication.

Two episodes from his early days in Rome illustrate this, including a call to the Vatican switchboard asking to be connected to a cardinal.

He was immediately put through to Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, who would later become the pope’s No. 2 as the Vatican secretary of state.

“An important cardinal in the Vatican because he dealt with what was called the Ostpolitik, the Vaticanʼs policy towards Eastern Europe, communist Eastern Europe, during the years of the Cold War,” Willey said, noting that he asked to speak and the cardinal invited him that very afternoon to his “palatial” apartment for what would become a three-and-a-half-hour conversation.

Willey recalled how, while a Reuters apprentice in the 1950s, international news agencies would pay a Vatican official for information. Once, on Easter Sunday, he was sent to wait at a bar close to the Vatican to pick up a text of the pope’s “urbi et orbi” blessing.

“That was how the system worked. The changes wrought by Vatican II were extraordinary in the sense that a whole department was set up in the Vatican dealing with relations with the media,” he noted.

During the pontificate of St. John Paul II, Willey joined the Polish pope on at least 40 of his international trips, nearly half of the jet-setting pope’s total apostolic journeys.

“We went all over the world,” Willey noted. “It added to my knowledge of the world immeasurably, but it also enabled me to see the Catholic Church as an international, worldwide body of believers, which you donʼt always understand when you live here in Europe or in Rome in particular.”

Veering from the prevailing idea that the faithful should come to see the pope in Rome, John Paul II went out “to meet his flock in person. And he did this with great panache,” the British journalist said.

“And by allowing journalists like me to join him on the papal plane; one day, for example, I found him sitting next to me at breakfast on the plane,” Willey recalled. “He used to get bored during his very long journeys across the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans and he mingled with the journalists and sat down and actually talked to them.”

“I remember talking to him once about the usefulness of the United Nations, for example. He had some quite interesting things to say.”

Willey said he also had a memorable encounter with another living saint — Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

One day he rang up the Sisters of Charity in Rome to ask if he could interview Mother Teresa and was told they could arrange a meeting at the airport, in between her landing in Rome from India and before she would immediately depart again for Canada.

“We sat down together, and she was, I must say, great fun,” Willey recalled. “We had a very lively conversation in which she confided all sorts of little secrets to me, such as I said, ‘What do you do when you normally arrive in a new country?’ ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘I go to the local phone box and call up the head of state and ask him to send a car to meet me. I ring up the pope and he sends me a car.’”

“She was this combination of extreme saintliness and piety — and of course her work among the poor in India was completely a subject of which she was prepared to talk endlessly — but what I found was her sense of fun and her sense that the world was completely open to her,” the journalist said.

In 2003, Willey was appointed an officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to broadcast journalism.

He wrote several books, including “God’s Politician,” a 1992 biography of John Paul II’s global impact. He also wrote about the start of Pope Francis’ pontificate in “The Promise of Francis: The Man, the Pope, and the Challenge of Change” in 2015.

Willey continued to be active into his 90s — including writing a final reflection on the Vatican following Pope Francis’ death in April 2025. Willey spent his final years in the quiet lakeside town of Trevignano Romano, about 30 miles north of Rome. He died on July 11 from heart failure, the BBC reported.

The Vatican this week is hosting over 200 top academics, innovators, and Nobel laureates for a global summit on AI security risks, inspired by Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas.

The event, the Global Nobel Laureates Assembly on Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear War, is taking place July 14–16 at Borgo Laudato Si', part of the Pontifical Gardens at Castel Gandolfo, where the pope is staying until July 27.

The summit is inspired by the pontiff’s recent encyclical on AI, “dedicated to the protection of the human person in the age of artificial intelligence,” according to a July 6 press release.

The event also includes discussions on nuclear disarmament and AI governance, and will culminate in the drafting of a declaration for “an unarmed and disarming peace in the age of artificial intelligence, nuclear and autonomous weapons, new digital protocols, and emerging models of digital development” at the Palazzo Senatorio, Rome’s city hall.

Some of the world’s leading universities, including Catholic universities such as the University of Notre Dame and The Catholic University of America, have also sponsored the three-day gathering.

AI governance and the threat of nuclear war

In his recent encyclical and several public addresses, Pope Leo XIV has warned about the threats posed by nuclear weapons and the misuse of artificial intelligence.

Alessio Pecorario, an organizer of the summit and founder of the Domus Communis Foundation, described the event as a response to the pope’s call for disarmament.

“Disarmament in the Church’s social doctrine is not only the disarmament of weapons, obviously, but also the disarmament of spirits; it is the disarmament of the economy,” Pecorario told EWTN News.

The conference “is about the governance of artificial intelligence,” he said. “This governance should be understood not as bureaucracy but as a collective of business, religious, and academic leaders, to help ensure that human beings remain in positive control of the challenges of our time.”

Javier Romero, Vatican correspondent for “EWTN Noticias,” contributed to this story.

After more than 40 years as a research institution, the Vatican-owned children’s hospital, Bambino Gesù, continues to be at the front lines of pediatric medical research as it strives to bring the best possible care to young patients from around the world.

In one of its latest advancements, “the pope’s hospital” unveiled a new Gene Therapy Laboratory in October 2025 to develop new treatments for genetic diseases.

“We must always remain at the forefront of research, not to boast about our achievements, but because we must find the newest treatments that save lives and help children have a future. This is what matters most to us,” hospital president Tiziano Onesti told EWTN News.

“Children must be treated with … the most innovative treatments, and these must be accessible to everyone,” he said. “This is what sets Bambino Gesù apart — the fact that we are truly open to everyone.”

A researcher looks through a microscope in one of the research laboratories of the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital. | Credit: Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital

The Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital — the largest pediatric hospital and research center in Europe — is made up of six facilities located across Rome and the Italian region of Lazio; it employs around 4,000 personnel — approximately 2,000 of whom are engaged in research.

It’s a private hospital owned by the Holy See that cooperates with the Italian National Health Service to provide medical care to patients cost-free.

“The Bambino Gesù is one of a kind,” Onesti said. “It is precisely this historical combination … that makes it truly unique, because it involves the Holy See, the pope, and the national health service.”

Over 150 years of caring for sick children

The children’s hospital was founded in Rome in 1869 by the Duchess Arabella Fitz James Salviati, inspired by the Hopital des Enfantes Malades in Paris. Religious sisters from the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul were the hospital’s first staff.

A religious sister helps her young patients at the Janiculum Hill campus of the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital in 1928. | Credit: Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital

In 1887, the hospital moved from its initial location to the Janiculum Hill, now considered the “historic hospital” and “the beating heart of the Bambino Gesù,” according to its president.

The hospital opened a second facility, still operating today, in the seaside town of Santa Marinella west of Rome in 1922, and in 1924, the Salviati family donated the entire hospital complex to Pope Pius XI and the Holy See.

In 1985, another important milestone was reached when the hospital was recognized as a research institution.

More than 40 years later, Bambino Gesù continues to lead the way in pediatric healthcare research, technology, and care for the most difficult cases.

The hospital’s pediatric palliative care center — the largest in Italy for the number of beds — was inaugurated in 2022.

Thanks to its Robotics and Motion Analysis Laboratory, opened in 2000, and a decade later, the Clinical Trial Center, the hospital developed the world’s first CAR-T cell therapies for pediatric autoimmune diseases in 2024.

At the 7,500-square-foot Gene Therapy Laboratory, inaugurated on Oct. 28, 2025, the most advanced technologies are used for the research and development of genetically modified cell therapies, which are then produced in the adjacent Bambino Gesù Pharmaceutical Workshop, part of the research laboratories inaugurated in 2014 at the hospital’s San Paolo campus.

“That’s where very, very advanced therapies are also being applied” and where “important experiments are being conducted,” Onesti explained.

Pope Paul VI celebrates Mass for pediatric patients at Bambino Gesù, known as “the pope’s hospital,” in 1968. | Credit: Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital

He also noted that research and innovation are fundamental to their model: “This includes the use of innovative tools such as artificial intelligence, which — objectively speaking — plays a significant role in diagnostics, especially in medical imaging and the interpretation of various test results.”

On July 9, the hospital announced that Bambino Gesù was one of three hospitals involved in the identification of a new rare genetic neurodevelopmental disease.

“The future of Bambino Gesù certainly lies in patient care but also in research that leads to better care,” the president said.

‘A great willingness to listen’

Onesti explained that the Bambino Gesù Hospital has always had the care and protection of vulnerable children as its central mission.

“Unfortunately, the child is helpless, but we try — even in the worst moments — to be there for people,” he said.

Tiziano Onesti, president of Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital since April 2023, says the hospital “must always remain at the forefront of research” to help children have a future. | Credit: Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital

A common trait among staff members at all levels, he added, is “a great willingness to listen.”

“Knowing how to listen — or, let’s say, to truly understand the problem the child and, above all, the family are currently facing — is what allows us to make a difference. That’s what sets us apart … In the face of anguish, anxiety, and the loneliness of suffering, we all spring into action.”

The Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) has filed an appeal with the Vatican against the decree that declared the traditionalist group in schism with the Catholic Church for consecrating four bishops without papal authorization.

According to a statement from the society — whose members are known as Lefebvrists — the appeal was submitted to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on July 11, nine days after the group was declared to be in schism.

Invoking Canon 1353

The SSPX statement, published July 13, says that “through this appeal, the society wishes to exercise the right that the Church recognizes for any person who considers himself harmed by an administrative act to request its rectification, in a spirit of respect toward ecclesiastical authority and of faithful adherence to justice, truth, and the good of the Church.”

It adds that the appeal is "the prior requirement before the eventual filing of a hierarchical recourse" and "has the effect of suspending the execution of the decree, in accordance with Canon 1353 of the Code of Canon Law."

Canon 1353 states that an appeal or recourse against a judicial sentence or against a decree that imposes or declares any penalty has a suspensive effect.

“The Society of St. Pius X places this request in the hands of the competent authorities and entrusts this procedure to the prayers of all the faithful,” the statement concludes.

The appeal follows a letter the Lefebvrists addressed to Pope Leo XIV, published July 3, in which they reject the excommunications decreed by the Vatican after the illicit consecration of the four new bishops — measures they called “objectively unjust and invalid.”

Origins of the Lefebvrists

The group, founded by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1970, holds as its purpose the preservation of the traditional liturgy that predates the reforms introduced after the Second Vatican Council, while maintaining its opposition to aspects of conciliar teaching on ecumenism, religious freedom, and collegiality.

Lefebvre was excommunicated in 1988 after consecrating four bishops without the permission of St. John Paul II. That sanction was lifted by Benedict XVI in 2009.

Two of the bishops Lefebvre consecrated — Alfonso de Galarreta and Bernard Fellay — took part in the recent illicit consecration, which led to their being excommunicated once again.

The SSPX disregarded the Catholic Churchʼs warnings not to ordain new bishops, including an appeal from Leo XIV himself, who wrote to the society June 30: “With this spirit, and filled with Christian affection, I plead with you and ask you with all my heart: Please turn back! I ask you with all my heart: Please turn back!”

The superior general of the SSPX is the Italian priest Father Davide Pagliarani. According to the societyʼs statistics as of Dec. 1, 2025, it comprises 733 priests of 50 nationalities — not counting the six bishops it now has — with an average age of 47.

What is schism under canon law?

Canon 751 of the Code of Canon Law states that schism is “the refusal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him.” The penalty for this canonical offense is usually excommunication, as has happened with the SSPX.

Several bishops — including those of Panama and San Antonio, Texas — have warned the faithful not to take part in Masses or seek the sacraments from priests of the schismatic group.

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

The pope’s representative in Great Britain is hopeful that Pope Leo XIV will visit England and “awaken the conscience of the West.”

A papal visit to England is “likely, desirable, and I would even say unavoidable,” Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendía, apostolic nuncio to Great Britain since 2023, told ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News.

A visit to Great Britain is “likely, because King Charles III paid a state visit to the Vatican last year, and it is logical that the United Kingdom would now invite Pope Leo XIV to return the visit,” he added.

The last pope to make an official visit to the United Kingdom was Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.

Maury said that, as the first English-speaking pope in more than eight centuries, the welcome for Pope Leo would be “extraordinary and his message amplified throughout the English-speaking world.”

“The bishops of England and Scotland also hope that a papal visit will reinvigorate the proclamation of the faith in one of Europe’s most secularized societies — one which, I would say, is currently experiencing a time of grace,” the papal representative said.

“The spiritual vacuum of recent decades is giving way to a quiet Christian revival among younger generations,” the archbishop continued. “Religious practice is increasing among Catholics, thanks in part to the thousands of immigrants and children of immigrants who are revitalizing parish life and contributing to the growth of Catholic communities.”

“Everything suggests that the pontificate of Leo XIV is called to awaken the conscience of the West just as that of St. John Paul II once stirred the conscience of the East, so that the Church may once again breathe fully with both of its lungs,” he said.

Born in 1955 in Spain, Maury was ordained a priest in 1980. He never imagined he would become an apostolic nuncio. Nevertheless, in obedience to one of his superiors, he entered the Holy See’s diplomatic service in 1987, beginning a career that would lead him to represent the pope in various countries around the world for more than 39 years.

The book “Faith, Life, Diplomacy,” published in Spanish and Italian, reflects on Maury’s nearly four decades of diplomatic service in countries such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Romania, and Moldova.

The following is an edited version of the nuncio’s full interview with ACI Prensa:

ACI Prensa: You have published “Faith, Life, Diplomacy,” a book about your service in countries such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, where Catholics are a minority. What did you learn there, and what left a lasting mark on you?

Maury: I discovered the great humanity of those peoples and the devastating effects on their souls of 70 years of communist and atheist rule. The Muslim majority and millions of Russian Orthodox believers abandoned their faith, while the Catholic minority preserved it — despite being deprived of priests for at least 20 years — thanks to the daily family rosary.

Another thing that impressed me positively was the desire of the younger generations to learn and to serve society, now free from the terror under which their parents lived. This contrasts sharply with the apathy and selfishness present among much of Western youth.

When Pope Benedict XVI sent me as his representative to those countries, I asked him for advice. “Go,” he told me, “to the remote places where none of your predecessors has gone, and bring them the pope’s blessing.”

I did so, just as I have continued to do in the countries to which Pope Francis later sent me.

Beyond the joy such — sometimes uncomfortable and risky — journeys bring to people, they provide an unfiltered view of realities on the ground, free from assumptions and prejudices, that can help enlighten officials in the Roman Curia.

You began your diplomatic service in Rwanda. You arrived at a difficult time, amid the massacres in Burundi, and remained there when the genocide erupted. What do you remember most? Were you afraid of dying?

I began my diplomatic service in Kigali at age 31, and I truly feared that a stray bullet might hit me. In fact, I still have one that came through my bedroom in the middle of the night.

Certainly, no one intended to kill us, but the combatants’ lack of training was evident. As far as I know, apart from a few Europeans who had married Tutsi women and were specifically sought out during the genocide, only one elderly French religious sister and an Italian volunteer fell victim to stray bullets.

We should not forget that most of the victims on both sides were killed with machetes. In other words, people knew exactly whom they were eliminating.

Civil wars are the most horrific because they are driven by hatred, even though they are often provoked and fueled by outside interests.

A nuncio’s mission is not the same as that of a typical ambassador. What are the methods and goals of the pope’s diplomacy?

I never tire of repeating that the Holy See has no oranges to sell and no oil to buy.

The very purpose of Vatican City State is different from that of other states, whose primary responsibility is to ensure the well-being of their citizens. The Vatican exists to guarantee the pope’s independence. He is the only global religious leader who is not subject to any political authority and is therefore free to proclaim the Gospel.

The Holy See’s diplomacy gives priority to the spiritual dimension of the human person, raising awareness among the various actors in the international community of the need and benefit of respecting and promoting human rights at both the individual and social level.

Every country’s embassies and consulates seek to protect the rights of their citizens abroad. The Holy See’s situation is different because Catholics living in different countries are generally citizens of those same states, so there is, at least in theory, a convergence of interests.

The pope has just traveled to Spain. I believe you worked on preparations for Pope Francis’ visit to Romania. How are these visits prepared so that the pope’s message has a lasting impact?

I followed the trip on Spanish television and saw that the enthusiasm of the Spanish people for the pope remains undiminished despite social changes.

I had the honor of helping prepare five apostolic journeys of St. John Paul II — to Rwanda, Uganda, Nicaragua, Egypt, and Slovenia — and I did indeed welcome Pope Francis to Romania.

When preparing papal trips, one must distinguish among different levels: program, logistics, message, and so on.

Lately, excessive emphasis on security concerns has unfortunately had the effect of distancing the pontiff from the faithful.

As for the lasting impact of his message, much depends on whether it responds to the expectations and historical circumstances of the countries he visits. Normally, it is the local Church that proposes the motto and themes of the trip, although the pope naturally has the final word.

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 launch a contemporary art exhibit focused on water at the Vatican Apostolic Library on Sept. 14.

The exhibit “AQVA Catastrophe and Wonder” will include artwork highlighting a “reflection on water as both a threat and a resource,” according to a July 12 press release from the library.

Notably, the pope will inaugurate the exhibition on his 71st birthday, which is Sept. 14.

“AQVA Catastrophe and Wonder” will include the works of French artist JR, American typographer Bill Moran, and Italian chef Fulvio Pierangelini.

According to Archbishop Giovanni Cesare Pagazzi, the Holy See’s librarian and archivist, the exhibit will reflect the pontiff’s desire to bridge the past and the present.

“These exhibitions are intended to foster dialogue between contemporary art and the library’s centuries-old heritage,” Pagazzi said in the press release. “On several occasions, the pope has emphasized fidelity to the past and fidelity to the future. The present — including the present of this exhibition — can become a home where past and future meet as friends.”

The Vatican Apostolic Library is both the national library of Vatican City State and the library of the Holy See. It was established in 1475 by Pope Sixtus IV, making it one of the oldest in continuous existence. Beyond its extensive collection of important texts and manuscripts, it hosts an elaborate art collection, featuring frescoes and sculptures from the High Renaissance.

The display “AQVA Catastrophe and Wonder” will be open to visitors from Sept. 25, 2026, to May 14, 2027.

The Vatican’s recent emphasis on contemporary art

The Vatican Library’s latest exhibit reflects a recent focus by the Vatican on promoting contemporary art.

In 2025, the library held the “En Route” exhibition from Feb. 15 to Dec. 20, connecting historical journeys to modern pilgrimages through a collection of rare 19th-century travel documents and contemporary artistic interpretations. It marked the sixth installment in the library’s ongoing dialogue between its historical patrimony and contemporary art, which began in 2021.

During the 2025 Jubilee Year, the Dicastery for Culture and Education introduced Conciliazione 5, a one-room gallery space with a large window onto the main thoroughfare leading to St. Peter’s Basilica, Via della Conciliazione. Beyond the jubilee, the space continues to feature the works of different contemporary artists, making them visible to the tourists and pilgrims who pass the window every day on their way to the Vatican.

The Holy See has also participated in the Venice Biennale — an international artistic and cultural festival held annually in the northern Italian city — since 2013.

From the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo, where he moved on July 5 to enjoy a period of rest, Pope Leo XIV has invited the faithful to make time for “meaningful moments of silence and prayer” during the summer.

The pontiff’s remarks were made during his Sunday Angelus address on July 12 at Castel Gandolfo, where he will remain until July 27.

Reviving a summer papal tradition

This summer, Leo XIV decided to spend part of it on vacation at the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo, becoming the first pope to do so since 2012. The residence has been used by the popes as a countryside retreat for over 400 years, and was a preferred vacation spot of Benedict XVI and St. John Paul II.

Pope Francis, however, never left the Vatican during the summer of his 12-year papacy, choosing instead to remain at the Casa Santa Marta and repurpose the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo as a museum.

The palace itself is a 17th-century building on the shores of Lake Albano. Although it will be closed to the public during the pope’s vacation, the nearby papal gardens will remain open to visitors.

During Leo’s vacation, all private and public audiences, including the Wednesday general audience, are suspended. His only public audiences will be the Sunday Angelus, with the only exception so far being his lunch with the poor in the gardens on July 11.

The parable of the sower

Commenting on the Sunday Gospel for the day, which contains the parable of the sower, Leo XIV highlighted “the generosity and trust” with which God puts his word and power in the hearts of believers.

“Jesus himself, the Word made flesh, who gave his life for our salvation, is the seed that the Father continues to sow throughout the world so that, by dying, he may bear much fruit,” Leo said in his address.

Pope Leo XIV greets the crowds after his Sunday Angelus on July 12, 2026, at the Piazza della Libertà at Castel Gandolfo. | Credit: Daniel Ibanez/EWTN News

The pope also explained that, just as in the parable where the seed is planted in different soils, the faithful do not each receive this gift in the same way.

“It is true that sometimes [God] finds in us hard and unresponsive soil, at other times distracted soil, like the beaten path, the rocky ground, or the thorny bushes. Yet there are also moments when he finds receptive and fertile ground, and then miracles of love are set in motion that have the power to transform everything — as we ourselves have no doubt experienced in our own lives.”

Leo also reminded the faithful present that God’s love “is stronger than our weakness” and that he never stops sowing and believing in them. He also invited them to take advantage of the summer holidays to experience God through silence and prayer.

“Let us therefore resolve, especially during these summer days of vacation, to make room for listening to, reading, and meditating on the Word of God, thereby fostering — together with rest and wholesome recreation— meaningful moments of silence and prayer,”  Leo said.

A renewed appeal for peace

After praying the Angelus, Leo XIV renewed his appeal for peace in war-torn regions, lamenting that “the winds of war are blowing once again in the Middle East, in Ukraine and in many other parts of the world, sowing violence, terror and death.”

The pope also urged political leaders to resume dialogue and opt for diplomatic means to stop the escalation of conflicts.

Leoʼs words come at a time of rising international tension, after the United States and Iran once again became embroiled in a dangerous spiral of attacks. The United States launched new airstrikes against Iranian territory following the Revolutionary Guardʼs attack on a Cypriot-flagged cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz.

Finally, the pope, recalling that July 12 is “Sea Sunday,” gave a special greeting to sailors, fishermen, and port workers. He praised them for their work despite being “marked by separation from their loved ones and sometimes by fear of the conflicts [that] occur on the seas.”

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.

Marriage is one of the Catholic Churchʼs greatest paths to holiness. From the first Christian missionaries to modern-day martyrs, married couples have shown that a shared life rooted in faith, sacrifice, and love can become a powerful witness to the Gospel.

Throughout the month of July, the Church celebrates the feast days of several holy husbands and wives whose lives continue to inspire Catholic families today.

Here are four of those couples:

Blessed Joseph and Wiktoria Ulma (Feast day: July 7)

Blessed Joseph and Wiktoria Ulma were a young married couple living in the small Polish village of Markowa during the Second World War. Devout Catholics, they were raising six young children and were expecting a seventh when they made the decision to shelter eight Jewish people in their home after Nazi Germany occupied Poland. They knew the penalty for helping Jews was death, but their Christian faith compelled them to protect their neighbors despite the grave risk.

On March 24, 1944, German police discovered those they were hiding. Joseph and Wiktoria, along with the eight Jews they had sheltered, were executed. The soldiers then murdered each of the Ulmas' six children. During Wiktoriaʼs execution, she went into labor with her seventh child, who also died, making the entire family martyrs.

While they are not saints yet, the Ulmas were beatified together on Sept. 10 2023, becoming the first entire family — including an unborn child — to be beatified as martyrs. Today, they are honored as patrons of families and unborn children.

Sts. Priscilla and Aquila (Feast day: July 8)

Priscilla and Aquila, close collaborators of St. Paul, were among the earliest Christian married couples. Jewish converts to Christianity, they were forced to leave Rome after Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from the city around A.D. 49. The couple settled in Corinth, where they met Paul, who shared their trade of tent-making. They welcomed him into their home, and together they worked while spreading the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire.

The New Testament frequently mentions the couple together, highlighting the strength of their marriage and shared mission. They traveled with Paul to Ephesus, where they hosted a church in their home, which is also referred to as a “house church.” Paul also writes that the couple “risked their necks” for his life — however there is no biblical record of the occasion.

The couple is perhaps best known for mentoring the gifted preacher Apollos, gently explaining the fullness of the Christian faith so that he could become an even more effective evangelist.

Priscilla and Aquila are the patron saints of marriage, love, and strong Christian families.

Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin (Feast day: July 12)

Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin are best known as the parents of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, but their own path to holiness began long before the birth of their famous daughter.

Both initially considered religious life before discerning that God was instead calling them to marriage. They were wed on July 12, 1858, in Alençon, France — the date that would become their feast day.

The Martins endured both profound joy and deep suffering. Of their nine children, four died in infancy or early childhood, while the remaining five daughters all entered religious life. Throughout these trials, Louis and Zélie remained steadfast in prayer, trusting Godʼs providence and making the practice of their Catholic faith the center of family life.

Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, the prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints at the time of their beatification in Lisieux in 2008, said in his homily: “Louis and Zélie understood that they could sanctify themselves not despite marriage but through, in, and by marriage, and that their nuptials would be considered as the starting point for a mutual rise.”

Canonized together on Oct. 18, 2015, by Pope Francis, Louis and Zélie became the first married couple in Church history to be declared saints together.

Sts. Joachim and Anne (Feast day: July 26)

Sts. Joachim and Anne are honored by the Church as the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the grandparents of Jesus Christ. Although they are not mentioned in the canonical Gospels, their story has been preserved through ancient Christian tradition, particularly through the second-century “Protoevangelium of James.” According to tradition, the couple was advanced in age and had long suffered the sorrow of childlessness before God answered their prayers with the miraculous conception of Mary.

Today, Joachim and Anne are the patron saints of grandparents, married couples, and families. Their feast is a reminder of the indispensable role parents and grandparents play in passing on the faith to future generations.

Pope Leo XIV on July 11 expressed a “hunger for justice [and] authentic charity” while attending a lunch with poor people at Castel Gandolfo outside of Rome.

“[I have] a hunger for a Church that truly knows how to open its doors and receive everyone — where there is love for all and no one is an enemy, where we all know how to live out reconciliation, forgiveness, and peace,” the pope told the crowd at the lunch, hosted in the gardens of the Borgo Laudato Si’.

Pope Leo XIV dines with guests during a lunch for poor people at Castel Gandolfo outside of Rome, July 11, 2026. The event was the second lunch the pope has hosted with those facing poverty since the beginning of his pontificate. | Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

Leo pointed out that the historic papal title of “pontiff” means “a builder of bridges.”

“Today, we too wish to build a bridge with all of you, with your families, and with the society in which we want to live — but to live with justice, to live where the causes of poverty can be eliminated, where the causes of the injustices that still exist in our world can be removed,” he said.

Pope Leo XIV and guests sit for lunch at Castel Gandolfo outside of Rome, July 11, 2026. The event was the second lunch the pope has hosted with those facing poverty since the beginning of his pontificate. | Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

“This is the Church we want to be,” he said while thanking the organizers of the lunch, the second such event the pope has hosted since his pontificate began.

“When we gather together, when we experience this spirit of encounter around the table — the very table where Jesus is present with us — we are truly building a different world, a world of hope. Let us strive always to embody this experience of a Church of justice, peace, and love,” he said.

Before the pope spoke, Cardinal Fabio Baggio — the incoming pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development — had addressed the gathering.

Cardinal Fabio Baggio speaks during a lunch for poor people at Castel Gandolfo outside of Rome, July 11, 2026. The event was the second lunch Pope Leo XIV has hosted with those facing poverty since the beginning of his pontificate. | Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

“At a time when the ‘throwaway culture’ risks relegating many people to the margins, this place seeks to be a small sign of hope,” the cardinal said. “Here, we wish to remind everyone — through our lives rather than just our words — that no one is superfluous in the eyes of God and that every person is a gift to the entire community.”

About 200 people facing social vulnerability from the Diocese of Rome attended the lunch with the pope.

On Aug. 17, 2025 the pope hosted a similar lunch with people living in poverty from the Diocese of Albano; he held another such luncheon on Nov. 16 of that year.

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. 

Consecrated women and women religious who have suffered abuse face a significant legal loophole: Canon law and specialized commissions focus primarily on minors and adults with disabilities, leaving these women outside their scope of protection.

In practice, this means that if the victim is an adult who has received formation, it is assumed she can defend herself or that she consented. However, signs of change are beginning to emerge from the Vatican.

In addressing this issue, “it cannot simply be a label of ‘vulnerable adult,’” said Claudia Giampietro, an Italian canon lawyer working at the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM).

“We must understand that there are situations of imbalances of power … and situations involving abuse, and so it is these situations of vulnerability that we need to examine more deeply,” she told EWTN News on July 1.

Claudia Giampietro, an Italian canon lawyer working at the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM), during an interview on July 1, 2026. | Credit: EWTN News

One of the functions of the PCPM is to collaborate with the various dicasteries of the Roman Curia, the conferences and unions of religious men and women, and the institutes of consecrated life.

This enables them to gain firsthand knowledge of a complex reality: “There are a great many circumstances, situations, and people that can also affect women religious, including older ones, and so it is necessary to understand the contexts in which they work and carry out their ministry, both within their communities and also outside them,” Giampietro said.

The situation in Latin America

The Vatican helped break the taboo surrounding abuse against women religious by dedicating an extensive report to it in January 2020, published in “Donne, Chiesa, Mondo” (“Women, Church, World”), the monthly women’s supplement to L’Osservatore Romano. Issues covered include abuse of power, sexual abuse, and the difficulties faced by many nuns both within and outside consecrated life.

In subsequent years, there has been a proliferation of studies aimed at gauging the scale of a phenomenon that was traditionally hidden. Notable among them is the research published in 2022 in the Spanish-language book “Vulnerability, Abuse, and Care in Womenʼs Religious Life,” edited by Sister María Rosaura González Casas, who at the time was coordinator of the Commission for the Care and Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Persons for the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious.

Based on a survey of 1,417 women religious, the study revealed that 19.8% reported having suffered sexual abuse, and more than half stated they had experienced some form of abuse of power at the hands of superiors, priests, formators, or bishops. Additionally, 14.3% of respondents indicated having been harassed by a priest, 9.7% by laypeople, and 8% by other religious women, figures that highlight the scope and complexity of an issue that remained largely silenced for decades.

González Casas, dean of the Institute of Anthropology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, explained that since the study was published four years ago, “greater awareness of what abuse entails has grown at all levels” in the region.

Sister María Rosaura González Casas of the Company of St. Teresa of Jesus is dean of the Institute of Anthropology at the Pontifical Gregorian University. | Credit: Victoria Cardiel/EWTN News

“The sisters are more aware, and bishops and priests are also more alert to it. When we conducted the survey, many women religious did not want to respond, even though it was anonymous. There was fear of speaking out. Now there is greater awareness, although clear codes of conduct are still lacking. Unconscious and internalized machismo persists in society and has permeated religious and priestly life,” she explained in comments to EWTN News.

A conference in Rome on abuse prevention

In order to promote dialogue to prevent abuse against women religious, the PCPM will organize the second annual Meeting on Abuse Prevention, focusing on consecrated life. It will be held in Rome on Dec. 9–11, centering on the theme “Communion, Care, and Justice: Mutual Relationships for a Shared Mission.”

This is not an academic conference but a synodal “learning lab” geared toward concrete results. Over the course of three days, bishops, representatives from institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life, conferences and unions of major superiors, officials from Roman Curia dicasteries, and experts in abuse prevention will collaborate through roundtables, sessions on canon law, and working groups.

“The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors has already taken up this issue, and with their involvement, superiors and women religious will take it more seriously,” said Sister Jacinta Ondeng of the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Kenya, who has been invited to participate in the forum.

“Safeguarding must be an essential part of community life,” emphasized the religious sister, director of the Safeguarding Initiative for Catholic Sisters, a project based at Tangaza University in Nairobi that provides training on abuse prevention across various African countries.

Many situations are covered up due to a lack of oversight

Ondeng emphasized the need for effective case follow-up. “It’s important for the relevant Vatican offices to oversee these situations because cases from Africa, and perhaps other parts of the world, are often covered up precisely due to a lack of oversight. If the relevant bodies of the Holy See intervene and evaluate cases when congregations fail to resolve them, that will help.”

Sister Jacinta Ondeng, of the School Sisters of Notre Dame congregation in Kenya, will participate in a Vatican-organized conference on abuse. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Sister Jacinta Ondeng

She also proposes developing clear guidelines for handling abuse cases within consecrated life — similar to those established by Pope Francis in Vos Estis Lux Mundi for allegations of abuse against minors — which require bishops and superiors to take action when faced with complaints or concerning indications.

“Once it becomes clear that the Vatican is involved in matters affecting members of consecrated life, there will be changes. Human nature responds to clear rules: when they exist, people tend to act with greater prudence,” she observed.

The sister also led a revealing, as-yet-unpublished study in Africa that brought to light harrowing testimonies from consecrated women, such as:

• “Sisters leave not because they lack a vocation, but because of abuse; superiors are abusing their authority.”
• “Sisters suffer in silence rather than reporting it because they love the Church and fear damaging the reputation of a priest, bishop, or superior.”
• “I told my superior what was happening, and since the sister in question was her friend, she did nothing.”

The study’s results were presented at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome during the 2026 International Safeguarding Conference, held June 16–19 under the theme “One Commitment, Many Contexts: Safeguarding Across Cultures.” The study was based on an anonymous online survey conducted between February and March in which more than 140 religious sisters from various African countries participated.

Fear of stigma and self-blame

The findings are revealing: 35.5% of congregations lack a formal safeguarding policy; 67.4% of those surveyed identify fear of stigma and self-blame as the main obstacles to reporting abuse; and 60.3% point to the absence of confidential reporting channels.

Personal factors such as “shame, guilt, and self-reproach are very prevalent among many women religious who wish to take the step of reporting abuse,” explained Ondeng, who dedicates her ministry to conducting workshops and training on safeguarding in Africa, with a particular focus on Catholic women religious.

Her goal is to raise awareness about abuse and its consequences, empower consecrated women to break the culture of silence, and promote safe environments for all. She also emphasized the importance of transparency and accountability as fundamental pillars for the success of safeguarding policies within the Church.

The religious also warned of the tendency toward cover-ups that can arise in certain ecclesial contexts.

“As numerous studies on abuse and the abuse of authority have shown, the Church hierarchy commands immense respect in many African societies,” she noted. While this is a positive cultural value, it also helps explain why individuals in positions of authority are rarely reported when involved in abusive behavior.

This phenomenon is reflected in several of the testimonies gathered during the investigation:

• “Many sisters do not want to air dirty laundry. They do not wish to publicly expose these problems, in order to protect the institute’s reputation.”
• “Some fear that if they speak out, they will be expelled from religious life, and they do not want to leave,” Ondeng added.

Lack of training in abuse prevention

Ondeng’s study also reveals that, when faced with situations of injustice or abuse, some women religious choose to leave consecrated life. Abuse can take many forms — sexual, spiritual, physical, emotional, or institutional — and, in certain cases, becomes unbearable.

However, the majority of victims remain in their communities, often out of fear of the social stigma or rejection they might suffer if they returned to their families.

Others are aware that leaving the convent could entail serious financial difficulties, as they lack employment or the means to support themselves, the religious explained.

Of the 141 women religious surveyed, more than 95% stated they had received some form of training on the prevention of sexual abuse. However, in many cases, this preparation proves insufficient.

“Most have taken short courses, but we cannot say that this 95% has received comprehensive training in safeguarding. At most, some have participated in one- or two-day sessions. That is very little, and it poses a problem,” the Kenyan religious sister noted in a statement to EWTN News.

For this reason, she insists on the need to strengthen safeguarding training as a true ministry within the Church.

“Much more preparation is needed for Catholic women religious to have the courage to speak about their experiences in their communities. Currently, training is very limited and must be ramped up to empower consecrated women,” she stated.

Added to this challenge is a significant cultural component. “People do not want to make their problems public. It is something deeply rooted in African culture, although it also occurs in European and American contexts,” she stated.

For its part, the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life does not publish aggregate figures on apostolic visitations conducted worldwide, as these are carried out on an occasional rather than a systematic basis.

The only large-scale investigation for which detailed data exist was the one conducted in the United States from 2008 to 2014, which involved 341 institutes of consecrated life and about 50,000 religious women.

“The entire Church must understand that safeguarding is a Gospel value. It’s not something imposed from the outside. The Gospel calls us to promote the dignity of every person, support those who suffer, and care for those who are hurting,” Ondeng pointed out.

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 Holy Seeʼs declaration this month that formally recognizes the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) to be in a state of schism has prompted numerous questions among the faithful. One of the most frequently asked questions is why the Catholic Church recognizes the validity of marriages performed in Orthodox churches while marriages now performed by priests of the society are considered invalid.

Father Davide Cito, professor of canon law at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, emphasized that the answer has to do with profoundly different juridical and ecclesial realities.

As he explained to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, although the Orthodox churches are not in full communion with Rome, they are not currently in a state of formal schism comparable to that of the Society of St. Pius X.

“These are two different situations. The Orthodox are not in full communion with the Catholic Church, but they are not excommunicated. In contrast, the fraternity has committed a formal act of breaking ecclesial communion,” he explained.

The canon lawyer noted that, prior to the recent declaration of schism, the situation of the SSPX was different. Although there were serious doctrinal and disciplinary tensions with Rome, it was not juridically in its current situation.

“The society could perform valid marriages because it was not in a state of formal schism,” he noted.

In fact, during the pontificate of Pope Francis, the society’s priests received faculties to validly hear confessions and, under certain circumstances, to witness marriages with the authorization of the competent ecclesiastical authority.

However, following the formal declaration of schism, the Vatican has made it clear that those faculties can no longer be exercised.

Specifically, sources in the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) emphasized to ACI Prensa “the invalidity of those two sacraments" (referring to confession and marriage), which Pope Francis had previously granted them permission to administer in 2019 as a gesture of pastoral outreach.

The DDF source went on to confirm that the dicastery’s July 2 explanatory note on the matter “was published with the pope’s approval. The pontiff himself formally warned that this would happen if they ordained bishops in the letter he sent to [SSPX Superior General Father Davide] Pagliarani just hours before the episcopal ordinations took place without a papal mandate. There is no doubt whatsoever regarding his will. That is the decision of the Holy See.”

The DDF, led by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, also clarified that, in declaring the schism, it did not get into considering the SSPXʼs past situation following the lifting of the excommunications by Benedict XVI in 2009 and the concessions subsequently made by Francis. Instead, it focused “on the fact that the new ordinations — a schismatic act — have undoubtedly created a situation of excommunication and schism, and that what they were clearly warned about is now being applied.”

Regarding this point, Cito explained that “a schismatic cannot validly hear confessions or validly witness a marriage, because since the Council of Trent, these sacraments require a canonical faculty or authorization.”

Why are Orthodox sacraments recognized?

Relations between Catholics and the Orthodox underwent a decisive shift during the Second Vatican Council and the pontificate of St. Paul VI. In December 1965, Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I signed a joint declaration lifting the mutual excommunications pronounced in 1054, events traditionally regarded as the beginning of the Great Schism between East and West.

Although that gesture did not restore full communion, it put an end to centuries of mutual condemnations and excommunications and opened a new chapter of ecumenical dialogue.

“We are in communion, though not in full communion,” Cito summarized. “That is why there are areas where it is possible to share sacramental life, something unthinkable in a situation of formal rupture caused by a schism, such as the situation of the fraternity,” he observed.

The Catholic Church recognizes the validity of Orthodox sacraments because it maintains that the Eastern churches have preserved apostolic succession and a valid priesthood. For this reason, Cito explained, there is the possibility of a certain “communicatio in sacris” — participation in certain sacraments among the faithful of different churches as provided for by canon law.

“Canon 844 allows Catholics and Orthodox, in certain cases, to receive some sacraments from one another. I myself have seen this in pastoral practice. This is possible because there is authentic sacramental communion, even if it is not full,” he stated.

The expert pointed out that the situation is very different for those affected by excommunication or who knowingly participate in a schismatic group.

Excommunication is a canonical penalty that prohibits the administration and reception of certain sacraments. Schism, on the other hand, entails the rejection of communion with the Church and the authority of the Roman pontiff — in other words, a formal separation from the Catholic Church.

In the case of the Society of St. Pius X, the Holy See considers that there is now a formal rupture of that communion, which entails juridical and sacramental consequences.

“When someone rejects an ecumenical council or denies essential elements of communion with the pope and the college of bishops, the situation becomes very complex from a canonical standpoint,” Cito said.

The professor pointed out that some traditionalist communities that emerged from the SSPX, such as the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), have remained in full communion with Rome and continue to celebrate the traditional liturgy without any difficulty.

“The problem has never been simply the liturgy. The issue touches upon fundamental doctrinal aspects related to the Second Vatican Council and ecclesial communion,” he stated.

How those who leave the SSPX might return to Catholic unity

New regulations issued by the Holy See establish that the faithful and priests who decide to leave the SSPX and return to full communion with the Church will no longer depend on a specific structure like the Ecclesia Dei Commission, created by St. John Paul II in 1988.

Going forward, they may turn directly to diocesan bishops or to the heads of traditionalist institutes that are fully integrated into the Church. The new protocol from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith aims to facilitate this return.

"The procedures for doing so are very simple because, ultimately, these are people who want to be Catholic and desire to be in communion with the Church," Cito added.

The Vatican document warns that those wishing to fully rejoin the Catholic Church may not continue to regularly attend activities of an institution now considered schismatic.

“The explanatory note from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, attached to the decree of excommunication, is very clear on this point: The sacred ministers administer the sacraments illicitly and, regarding penance and matrimony, also invalidly. Therefore, dioceses and their pastors are urged to be vigilant and to exhort the faithful to remain steadfast in ecclesial communion and not to participate in celebrations or activities promoted by the SSPX,” noted Father Pierpaolo dal Corso, who teaches at the St. Pius X department of penal canon law in Venice, Italy.

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.

Fiat will donate 30 electric vehicles to Vatican City State to support the daily operations of employees of the governorate as part of efforts to advance more sustainable mobility and reduce the environmental impact of its fleet.

The Italian automaker said the vehicles will be used for internal operations and will help improve transportation within the Vatican through low-emissions mobility.

The initiative is part of the Ecological Conversion 2030 program launched by the Governorate of Vatican City State in 2023. The plan calls for the gradual decarbonization of the Vatican’s official fleet, with the goal of reaching zero emissions by the end of the decade.

The first phase of the project took place June 30 with the delivery of 20 Fiat Topolino vehicles. The handover was held on the esplanade in front of the Governorate Palace and was attended by Archbishop Emilio Nappa and lawyer Giuseppe Puglisi-Alibrandi, secretaries-general of the governorate, as well as Olivier François, CEO of Fiat and chief marketing officer of Stellantis.

The fleet will be completed with the addition of 10 Fiat TRIS vehicles, also fully electric.

The Ecological Conversion 2030 plan goes beyond the renewal of the Vatican’s vehicle fleet. The project includes a range of measures aimed at reducing the environmental impact of the Holy See’s activities, including the responsible use of natural resources, improved energy efficiency, and the modernization of technological infrastructure.

The initiative also seeks to promote cleaner energy sources for transportation, strengthen waste management policies, and support future reforestation projects as Vatican City State works toward climate neutrality.

After launching the program in 2023, the Governorate of Vatican City State said it intended to place itself among the leading states in sustainability by adopting innovative solutions that contribute both to care for the environment and to the transformation of its work and management practices.

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 urged Iraqi Christians to be the light of Christ amid worsening persecution and insecurity.

In a video message published by the Vatican on July 8 for the Ankawa Youth Meeting in Ankawa, Iraq, the pope greeted the young Christians present and encouraged them to trust in God during these challenging times for the country.

“Dear young people, never doubt the goodness of God, and do not be afraid of the plan the Lord has for each of your lives,” Leo said in the video message. “The prophet Jeremiah also had to face difficult moments, and he
bears witness that the Lord’s plans are ‘for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope’ (Jer 29:11).”

Prolonged Christian persecution and emigration from Iraq

Iraq continues to experience sectarian violence and terrorist attacks, forcing waves of Christians to emigrate. As reported by ACI MENA, the Arabic-language sister service of EWTN News, and the Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate of Baghdad, two-thirds of Christians have left the country, with most fleeing to the United States and Australia.

The report also states that since the Iraq War in 2003, the Christian population has declined from 1.5 million to approximately half a million. The patriarchate attributed this to the number of Christians who were kidnapped and killed by the Islamist militant organization al-Qaida.

Encouragement from Pope Leo

Leo XIV encouraged the Iraqi Christians gathered in Ankawa to persevere in faith, assuring them of his closeness and that of the Church in these times.

“I am with you; the Church is with you. Place your trust in Jesus; listen to him in prayer and through the guidance of others, and allow him to lead you,” Leo said.

The pope also called on them to radiate the light of Christ and to work for peace at a time of conflict.

“Rooted in charity, you are particularly called to be peacemakers, to unite those around you, and to instill in others the hope of a future marked by lasting peace.”

“It is not always easy to be a light in the world (cf. Mt 5:13). Indeed, at the present time, you are called to radiate this light in a situation that has often been marked by war and instability. The Lord has placed great trust in you in bestowing upon you this mission, and I too have great confidence in all of you,” the pope said.