Andrzej Poczobut, a Belarusian Catholic dissident and journalist, returned to Belarus Sept. 8, following an audience with Pope Leo XIV and after five months in exile in Poland, saying he was prepared to risk arrest and urging Western Catholics to remember Christians imprisoned by the regime.

The Peruvian city of Callao announced an unusual tribute to Pope Leo XIV ahead of his November visit to the South American country: the largest statue of the pontiff in the world.

Pope Leo XIV returned Sept. 7 to the Marian shrine of Our Lady of Good Counsel, where he asked the Virgin Mary for aid to bring God’s word to light through “courageous and wise decisions.”

Pope Leo XIV once again appealed for peace in Ukraine and prayed that U.S.-led negotiation efforts would finally bring an end to the death and destruction caused by the conflict now in its fourth year.

Pope Leo XIV on Sept. 3 praised the “precious presence” of the small Christian communities who “make Christ present” in the Middle East.

The faithful are called to leave behind “all passivity and indifference” toward current events and the lives of others, especially amid the “rapid and profound changes we are experiencing today,” Pope Leo XIV said at his weekly general audience.

For over three decades, the allegations of sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse against Slovenian Father Marko Rupnik were met with cover-ups and bureaucratic delays.

The International Theological Commission published a new document Sept. 2 calling for ecological conversion due to “sin against creation and the Creator.”

Pope Leo XIV began the five-week Season of Creation by calling on the faithful to step away from the frenzy of daily life to “hear the melodious voice of creation,” stressing that “it is not yet too late” to repair humanity’s relationship with the environment.

Whatever the injustice or injury, do not revert to hatred or violence, Pope Leo XIV told the faithful, because only love, hope, forgiveness and respect will protect and promote human dignity.