Courtney Mares

Pope Leo XIV made a surprise visit to the Benedictine Abbey of Montecassino July 20, where he prayed for peace at the tomb of St. Benedict.

Catholics from every inhabited continent gathered in Castel Gandolfo July 19 as Pope Leo XIV led the Angelus prayer from the papal summer palace in the small Italian hill town, where the pope reflected on how the kingdom of God grows through “the little things of daily life.”

When Pope Leo XIV sat down to lunch with people experiencing homelessness and poverty at Castel Gandolfo this month, he offered a model that one Catholic organization says any parish can follow.

Pope Leo XIV spent what is traditionally his weekly day off on Tuesday issuing a flurry of legislation and appointments June 30, overhauling the Vatican’s financial watchdog agency, revising the governing structure of the Vicariate of Rome and making several appointments in the Roman Curia.

Four American archbishops have traveled to Rome to receive the pallium from Pope Leo XIV on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, joining newly appointed metropolitan archbishops from around the world in a centuries-old tradition.

Pope Leo XIV has a message for American teens gathered this summer at the Steubenville Youth Conferences: True joy is not found “spending hours in front of a screen or endlessly scrolling on social media.”