The liturgical music tradition of polyphony with its blend of melodies and harmonies should lift people’s spirits as it subtly transmits a message about diversity and unity, Pope Leo XIV said.

The famed Sacré-Coeur, or Basilica of the Sacred Heart, which Émile Zola called a “stone host placed on the open wound of the city,” celebrates the 150th anniversary of the laying of its first stone.

In a quiet but powerful move, Vatican News has begun removing artwork by Father Marko Rupnik — the once-renowned mosaicist now accused of abusing over two dozen women — from its website. His mosaics, long used to mark major feast days online, were recently replaced or left blank — a shift many survivors say is long overdue.

A video of Brazilian nuns beatboxing and dancing hip-hop, a scene taken from a local TV show and defined by celebrities like Whoopi Goldberg as “a real life ‘Sister Act,'” went viral on May 28, with millions of views all over the world.

Workers spent about two weeks planting and rearranging evergreens, flowers and plants to complete a gigantic botanical reproduction of Pope Leo’s shield on the sloped lawn in front of the Vatican’s governing office.

As details of Pope Leo’s past life come to light one thing, many are struck by his Chicago roots and his Chicago-ness.

The rules and rituals for the election of a new pope say that immediately after his election, he goes into the sacristy of the Sistine Chapel and puts on “the garments that are appropriate to him.”

The Archdiocese of Mobile announced April 25 that engineers have deemed the west end of the Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception as unsafe due to extensive termite damage.

As cardinals gather in Rome ahead of the May 7 conclave, thousands of pilgrims are flocking to the Basilica of St. Denis in Argenteuil, France, to venerate what’s believed to be the holy tunic of Jesus — the seamless robe described in the Gospels.

What the “Stabat Mater” conveys, the sorrows of Mary witnessing the crucifixion of her son, is worth pondering.