For Syrian Archbishop Jacques Mourad of Homs, who was held captive by the Islamic State group for five months in 2015, receiving an award named after St. John Paul II was a hopeful reminder of the late pontiff’s efforts to advance peace and dialogue in uncertain times.

The U.S. Catholic bishops have appointed veteran journalist Carol Glatz to head up their Rome-based news bureau, succeeding Cindy Wooden, another longtime journalist.

Welcoming a group of Holy Year pilgrims from Russia, Pope Leo XIV did not mention their country’s war on Ukraine, but he prayed that the pilgrims would let “the fire of Christian love” be kindled in their lives so it would warm “even the coldest and hardest of hearts.”

In anticipation of the celebration Oct. 19 of World Mission Sunday, the Vatican’s missionary news agency shared statistics about the Catholic population, church personnel and the works they are engaged in.

The official state visit of Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla to Pope Leo XIV and the Vatican will focus on ecumenism and ecology, Vatican officials said Oct. 17.

“Dilexi Te” manifests both Pope Leo’s recognition that we need to grow in unity and subtly illustrates a means to bring such unity to a fractured church, something he has spoken of from the earliest days of his pontificate.

To improve the church’s safeguarding approaches and measures, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors said it relied on extensive input and feedback from victims/survivors in its second annual report.

The pope drove across Rome Oct. 16 to address world leaders and government representatives at the headquarters of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. In addition to marking World Food Day, the delegates were celebrating the 80th anniversary of FAO’s establishment.

The “Litany of Humility,” which often is attributed to Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val, “outlines a model that is valid for all those who exercise responsibilities in the church,” Pope Leo XIV said.

At his Wednesday morning general audience, Pope Leo’s face lit up with an unusually bright smile receiving a unique donation: Proton, a purebred Arabian horse from a prestigious Polish stable.