Sister Lucia spoke with OSV News May 16 from her monastery in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, where she and two fellow Basilian sisters have remained throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion, providing humanitarian and spiritual aid to civilians and military personnel alike.

The Gospel parable of the “wasteful sower” who casts seeds on fertile soil as well as on a rocky path “is an image of the way God loves us,” Pope Leo XIV told visitors and pilgrims at his first weekly general audience.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin received the Path to Peace Award at a May 19 gala dinner in New York, having addressed representatives at the United Nations headquarters to celebrate the election of Pope Leo XIV earlier that day.

The pope visited the basilica and tomb of St. Paul two days after the Mass for the inauguration of his Petrine ministry in St. Peter’s Square. It was part of a series of visits to the city’s major papal basilicas after his election.

As Pope Leo XIV begins his pontificate with an emphasis on peace, justice and bridge-building, the Vatican has reaffirmed its “unwavering support for the mission of the United Nations” amid conflict and other urgent challenges facing the global community.

A move to hold talks between Ukraine and Russia at the Vatican appeared to gain momentum May 19, following a call between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

This is the full text of the Regina Caeli address given by Pope Leo XIV May 18 at the end of the Mass for the Inauguration of the Petrine Ministry of the Bishop of Rome.

He commands no armies, but we pray desperately that Pope Leo’s moral weight, and ours as he guides us, can make the world and our country a more peaceful place, a community of love and welcome, a place where all are respected and the common good is the common standard.

Deacon Thomas O’Donnell keeps returning to one word – “powerful” – to describe a weeklong experience in Rome where he literally was steps away from a historic papal transition.

The election of Pope Leo XIV made Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, recall a vivid memory that went all the way back to first grade at the former St. Ann School in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.