Pope Leo has consistently turned his audience’s eyes to St. Augustine, the fifth-century bishop who continues to serve as a philosophical and theological heavyweight in Catholic thought.

Pope Leo XIV sent his “heartfelt condolences and the assurance of spiritual closeness” to all those affected by the “terrible tragedy” of a shooting at a Catholic church in Minneapolis that left two children dead and 17 people injured.

A deadly mass shooting took place the morning of Aug. 27 at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis shortly after the start of the school day during an all-school Mass at the adjacent Annunciation Catholic Church.

Pope Leo XIV appealed to Israel and Hamas to stop the violence that has caused “so much terror, destruction and death.”

Christian hope is not about avoiding pain and suffering but about knowing that God gives people the strength to persevere and to love even when things go wrong, Pope Leo XIV said.

In 2014, James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family and a longtime broadcaster, became one of the first evangelical Christian leaders invited to speak at the national March for Life, joining a group of speakers that in past years had been dominated by Catholic clergy and Catholic members of Congress.

Two months after celebrating a new Mass “for the care of creation,” Pope Leo XIV will return to Castel Gandolfo to formally inaugurate Borgo Laudato Si’, a place of education, ecology and spirituality in the papal summer estate.

The devotion created by Father Buhman, pastor of All Saints in Holdrege and St. John in Smithfield, Neb., centers around an image of St. Monica by a local artist, a prayer asking for the intercession of St. Monica by Father Buhman, and Masses offered for loved ones who have left the Catholic Church.

President Donald Trump said at an Aug. 26 Cabinet meeting that capital punishment will be sought for all murders in Washington, D.C.

A federal judge in Maine declined on Aug. 25 to prevent the government from stripping Medicaid funding from a network of abortion providers in Maine, arguing that doing so would circumvent “the will of the people as expressed by Congress.”