Preparing the way of the Lord means taking concrete steps to help usher in God’s kingdom of peace, Pope Leo XIV said on his first Advent Sunday back at the Vatican after his trip to Turkey and Lebanon.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Christmas carols in every language and culture are expressions of how music can convey “feelings and emotions, even the deepest movements of the soul,” Pope Leo XIV said after listening, clapping and singing along at the Vatican Christmas concert with the poor. “As the melodies touched our hearts, we felt the inestimable value of music: not a luxury for the […]

The Second Vatican Council, which after three years of dialogue and document drafting closed on Dec. 8, 1965, changed the face of the church, and opened it to the modern world.

A newly released Vatican commission report on the issue of women deacons ultimately shows the profound theological mystery of Christ’s relationship to the church, as well as the rediscovery of the long-dormant diaconate itself, experts told OSV News.

As Pope Leo XIV was wrapping up his first apostolic trip to Turkey and Lebanon recently, the world was moved by the sight of a young Lebanese woman crying and hugging the pontiff as he was meeting with victims of the deadly 2020 Beirut port explosion.

Pope Leo XIV asked Canadian singer Michael Bublé and other artists to do their very best when performing a Christmas concert for the poor.

The Holy See’s diplomatic mission to the United Nations called for an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine “not at some undefined moment in the future, but right now.”

A commission set up by Pope Francis to study women deacons has voted against the possibility of ordaining women deacons while also supporting more study on the issue.

Pope Leo XIV’s childhood home just outside of Chicago has been declared a historic landmark.

Spending time with Catholics, other Christian leaders and top Muslim clerics in Turkey Nov. 27-Nov. 30 and Lebanon Nov. 30-Dec. 2, the pope made formal speeches about how believing in God as the father of all means recognizing one another as brothers and sisters.