Pope Leo XIV offered prayers as firefighters continue to battle massive wildfires in Spain and France that have forced hundreds of thousands to evacuate from their homes.

Pope Leo XIV on July 26 renewed his urgent appeals for peace in the Holy Land and across the Middle East during his Angelus address in Castel Gandolfo, expressing deep concern over the escalating violence and calling for an immediate return to dialogue.

Renown tenor Andrea Bocelli will sing for Pope Leo XIV July 29 alongside a children’s choir of more than 160 members from the Holy Land, Uganda and Italy. The performance was organized by Bocelli’s charitable foundation to take place at the Vatican’s Borgo Laudato Si’ gardens in Castel Gandolfo. 

Since the pontificate of St. Paul VI, journalists covering the Vatican have had the unique privilege of direct access to the Vicar of Christ at 30,000 feet.

When Jack Lebon, 15, returns to his Texas high school in the fall, he will be able to share a summer experience few can match: a handshake with Pope Leo XIV. 

Pope Leo XIV took a road trip pilgrimage with his older brother to the scenic mountainside Sanctuary of the Most Holy Trinity in Vallepietra July 22 before stopping to pray in the Holy Cave in Subiaco, where a young St. Benedict sought refuge from the corruption of Rome in the early sixth century.

Pope Leo XIV said the conscience of just one person can “be worth the entire world” when it comes to preventing a nuclear catastrophe, in a new book foreword that also quotes an unpublished Bob Dylan song about the atomic bomb.

Pope Leo XIV made a surprise visit to the Benedictine Abbey of Montecassino July 20, where he prayed for peace at the tomb of St. Benedict.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his government’s representative to the Holy See are hopeful that Pope Leo XIV will visit Ukraine despite no firm indication from the Vatican that a visit is in the works.

Catholics from every inhabited continent gathered in Castel Gandolfo July 19 as Pope Leo XIV led the Angelus prayer from the papal summer palace in the small Italian hill town, where the pope reflected on how the kingdom of God grows through “the little things of daily life.”