Lebanon’s Catholic clergy celebrated a commemorative Mass and held a vigil in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, remembering those who perished five years earlier, on Aug. 4, 2020, in the catastrophic Beirut port explosion.

As emergency workers searched for survivors and tried to recuperate the bodies of the dead, Pope Leo XIV offered his prayers for people impacted by the latest shipwreck of a migrant boat off the coast of Yemen.

With Pope Leo XIV prioritizing the issue of artificial intelligence, one expert warned OSV News that generative AI poses serious — and largely unaddressed — threats to child safety, by accelerating the creation and distribution of child sex abuse material, or CSAM.

After beginning the vigil with prayers, the pope engaged in a dialogue with several young people who asked him three questions.

The fullness of life depends on how much one joyfully welcomes and shares in life while also living with a constant yearning for those things that only come from God, Pope Leo XIV told young people.

In a message of solidarity and peace, Pope Leo XIV said the Catholic Church stands with young people suffering in war-torn areas, including Gaza and Ukraine.

While the Catholic Church has consistently voiced major ethical concerns over in vitro fertilization, or IVF, there are now many additional ethical issues to address as modern science continues to explore areas of human reproduction, including with the creation of “three parent” embryos in an effort to prevent mitochondrial disease.

The modern educational toolkit, of both teachers and students, now includes the use of artificial intelligence. Experts and teachers from coast-to-coast told OSV News AI is poised to transform Catholic education.

In a rare Saturday session, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Brian Burch, President Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, in a vote of 49-44 along party lines Aug. 2.

Addressing an estimated 1 million young people, Pope Leo XIV urged them to forge genuine relationships rooted in Christ rather than ephemeral online connections that can reduce individuals to a commodity.