As atrocities against civilians surge globally, the Vatican’s top diplomat to the United Nations stressed the crucial need for both prevention and accountability — and the vital roles of individual nations and the global community in those tasks.

People of faith and goodwill need to take time to acknowledge the needs and suffering of those around them and be moved by love and compassion to offer others concrete help, Pope Leo XIV said.

The zeal to evangelize and announce the Gospel must be tempered with charity and respect for an individual’s conscience, Pope Leo XIV told members of the Neocatechumenal Way.

Pope Leo XIV expressed his condolences to the families of victims of a devastating accident in which two high-speed trains collided in southern Spain’s Andalucia region.

Approval, public consensus and visibility are often given undue importance in modern society, shaping how people think, behave and even understand themselves, Pope Leo XIV warned in his Jan. 18 Angelus address. That focus, he warned, can lead to personal suffering, social division and relationships that are fragile and ultimately disappointing.

Deacon Greg Kandra is a writer, retreat leader, blogger and author. Catholic Review Editor Christopher Gunty chatted with Deacon Kandra about his most recent book, “Peace Be with All of You: The Mission and Message of Pope Leo XIV,” from Word Among Us.

By all appearances, January’s consistory was a first step to returning to a more collegial sense of governance that has largely marked the exercise of papal ministry since the Second Vatican Council.

Pope Leo XIV, who plays the daily online puzzle Wordle, is not the only papal puzzle lover.

Surrogacy violates the dignity of both unborn children and pregnant women, reducing them to mere commodities and victims of exploitation, said Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher, the Vatican foreign minister.

Pope Leo XIV met Jan. 15 with the families of victims of the Crans-Montana bar fire on New Year’s night, which took the lives of 40 people and injured 116 in a Swiss resort tragedy.