Chesterton Academy students from across the U.S. kicked off a 10-day pilgrimage to Italy with Pope Leo XIV’s general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

Pope Leo XIV declared Father Edward Flanagan, the founder of Boys Town, venerable on March 23, recognizing his heroic virtue and moving him one step closer to sainthood.

As the U.S. and Israel-Iran war enters its fourth week, and amid a deep humanitarian crisis throughout the region, Pope Leo XIV appealed during his Sunday Angelus prayer March 22: “Persevere in prayer, so that hostilities may cease and paths of peace may finally open up, based on sincere dialogue and respect for the dignity of every human person.”

As Pope Leo XIV prepares to visit Algeria as the first stop of his apostolic trip to Africa April 13–23, Bishop Michel Guillaud of Constantine-Hippone told OSV News the Holy Father’s presence will demonstrate that Christianity “is an asset and not a danger” to Algeria.

Pope Leo XIV, who graduated from the lower school of St. Mary of the Assumption on the city’s South Side in 1969, greeted and reminisced with 10 of his 82 former classmates after the general audience in St. Peter’s Square March 18.

Pope Leo XIV received King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain at the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace March 20, ahead of a solemn ceremony in which the Spanish king renewed a centuries-old bond with the Basilica of St. Mary Major by taking possession of his hereditary title as its protocanon.

Pope Leo XIV announced March 19 that he is asking the presidents of all bishops’ conferences around the world to convene in Rome in October to renew and deepen the Church’s discussion on marriage and family in light of “Amoris Laetitia.”

All baptized Christians share in the Church’s mission and, guided by the Holy Spirit, are fit for renewing and building up the Church, Pope Leo XIV said at his weekly general audience.

The Vatican’s appeals court declared a partial mistrial in the high-profile financial misconduct case involving Cardinal Angelo Becciu and other defendants, citing procedural errors by prosecutors in the Vatican trial that led in 2023 to a jail sentence for the cardinal on several counts of financial embezzlement.

Pope Leo XIV met March 16 with Gareth Gore, the British financial journalist and author of a book that levels allegations of exploitation and human trafficking against Opus Dei, accusations that the Catholic organization calls “absolute nonsense.”