Pope Leo XIV said that although he is considering a final appeal to the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X, the choice to splinter from the Catholic Church falls on them.

Reflecting on his weeklong trip to Spain, Pope Leo XIV said one of his clearest impressions came from the Canary Islands, where migration revealed both the challenges facing Europe and what he described as a Christian path toward a “civilization of love.”

Despite minor setbacks, including the last-minute thwarting of a separatist demonstration and the grounding of the papal flight to Rome, organizers said Pope Leo XIV’s weeklong visit to Spain was an overwhelming success.

Nine Polish Salesian priests killed in German Nazi concentration camps during World War II were beatified June 6 at the Sanctuary of St. John Paul II in Kraków during a Mass that highlighted not only their martyrdom but also their lives as educators, pastors and mentors to young people.

Pope Leo XIV approved new statutes for the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors that seek to balance its integration with the Roman Curia while preserving its independence.

As hundreds of drones illuminated the night sky above Barcelona’s Sagrada Família, or Basilica of the Holy Family, forming the image of Antoni Gaudí and one of the architect’s most enduring maxims — “First love, then technique” — the message seemed almost paradoxical.

At the final Mass of his visit to Spain, Pope Leo XIV called on Christians to look beyond the allure of commerce and profit and instead embrace the vocation of hospitality and the wisdom that comes from the encounter with the vulnerable and the suffering.

Pope Leo delivered a powerful message to human trafficking survivors June 11 during the first stop of a two-day visit to Spain’s Canary Islands, one of Europe’s closest points of entry from the African coast.

Pope Leo XIV blessed the newly completed Tower of Jesus Christ at Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia basilica June 10, inaugurating the crowning spire that makes the iconic church the tallest Catholic church the world and urging people to lift their gaze to Christ “who alone reveals to us the truth about God and the truth about ourselves.”

As Catholics from around the world gathered in Vilnius, Lithuania, for the sixth World Apostolic Congress on Mercy, Pope Leo XIV said the world’s growing need for peace cannot be separated from mercy, urging believers to become witnesses of God’s compassion in a time marked by war, violence and uncertainty.