In a letter marking the 100th anniversary of the canonization of three French saints — John Eudes, John Vianney and Thérèse of Lisieux — Pope Leo prayed that the anniversary celebrations “will not merely evoke nostalgia for a past that might seem bygone, but that they will awaken hope and give rise to a new missionary impetus.”

Blessed Iuliu Hossu, the Romanian Greek Catholic bishop of Cluj-Gherla, was named a cardinal “in pectore” — secretly — by St. Paul VI in 1969.

The Catholic Church, its ministers and its members must find new ways to reach out to and welcome families who are distant from the church and have no understanding of how much God loves them, Pope Leo XIV said.

Families are the cradle of the future of humanity, Pope Leo XIV said during a Mass concluding the Jubilee of Families, Children, Grandparents and the Elderly.

In a tribute to Pope Francis and his message of hope for the Jubilee Year, elite cyclists rode through Vatican City and its gardens before starting the last stage of the Giro d’Italia in Rome.

As spring turned into summer, some 2,000 people closed the month of May with a rosary walk through the Vatican Gardens.

In a church and a world divided and fractured, priests are called to be witnesses of God’s love and forgiveness, which reconciles people and makes them one community, Pope Leo XIV told new priests.

Workers spent about two weeks planting and rearranging evergreens, flowers and plants to complete a gigantic botanical reproduction of Pope Leo’s shield on the sloped lawn in front of the Vatican’s governing office.

Pope Leo XIV spent several hours May 29 visiting the Borgo Laudato Si’ ecology project set up at the papal villa and farm in Castel Gandolfo, as well as the former papal summer residence there.

As civilian casualties from multiple conflicts have soared, the Holy See’s diplomat to the United Nations has called for a renewed respect for human dignity and international law, along with restrictions in armaments and a commitment to end the scourge of war.