Though only days into his papacy, Pope Leo XIV has given war-weary Ukrainians reason to hope that Russia’s aggression against their nation — now in its 11th year — can be ended through a just peace.

Pope Leo XIV met privately with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife May 18, their second encounter of the day.

Christ Our Savior — through two sets of church mergers — is now known as the “de facto” home parish of the new pope when he was just Robert F. Prevost.

Launching his papacy with a call for reconciliation and communion, Pope Leo XIV formally began his ministry as the successor of St. Peter by calling for “a united church, a sign of unity and communion, which becomes a leaven for a reconciled world.”

One issue any pope would have to face when elected to govern the Catholic Church in 2025 is that of continuing to address the clergy sexual abuse crisis.

On May 18, Pope Leo XIV will be inaugurated into his Petrine ministry at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. Hours later, on a different continent, a Mass in Indianapolis will launch the 2025 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, a five-week journey across 10 states to Los Angeles.

Catholic opponents of the death penalty said they are eager for Pope Leo XIV to build on his predecessor’s legacy of opposition to capital punishment.

Almost a full decade ago, the Miami Archdiocese led a pilgrimage from Miami to Havana in support of the late Pope Francis’ visit to Cuba early in his papacy.

The Department of Homeland Security is reviewing a pitch for a reality show in which immigrants would compete for fast-tracked citizenship. Catholic immigration advocates expressed concern such a show would undermine the dignity of those seeking U.S. citizenship or legal residency and the challenges they undergo to do so.

The confirmation of Brian Burch, President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, was blocked May 13 amid a hold by a Senate Democrat on State Department nominees in protest of the Trump administration’s closure of the U.S. Agency for International Development.