When Pope Leo XIV was elected to the papacy on May 8, 2025, few felt the change more personally than those who had known him long before he stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Time magazine has named Pope Leo XIV to its “100 Most Influential People of 2026” list.

“The voices in the bushes.” That is the fear that defines daily life for many residents of this city in Cameroon’s troubled Anglophone region.

The canonization cause for Jesuit Father Walter Ciszek — a Polish American priest who ministered amid years in Soviet captivity — has been terminated, although Vatican’s decision does not “diminish the enduring spiritual value” of his witness, said a leading advocate for the cause.

Pope Leo XIV has warned that the rise of artificial intelligence threatens to change humanity’s relationship with truth, calling on Catholic universities to help form leaders capable of navigating an increasingly digital world with integrity and discernment.

Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass for more than 120,000 people in Cameroon’s largest city on April 17, urging “beloved children of the African continent” to share God’s love by feeding the hungry and offering the spiritual nourishment of “the bread of life.”

President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House April 16 that he does not see a meeting with Pope Leo XIV as “necessary” after the president lashed out at the pontiff on social media and in verbal remarks over the pontiff’s opposition to the Iran war over the course of several days starting April 12.

The police chief of a southwest suburb of Chicago, where one of Pope Leo XIV’s brothers lives, confirmed to OSV News that his department is conducting “an ongoing and active investigation” of an unsubstantiated bomb threat at John Prevost’s house.

The Trump administration has canceled an $11 million contract with Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami for sheltering unaccompanied migrant children, leaving just three months to place an unspecified number of children.

Pope Leo XIV brought joy to 64 orphaned and abandoned children on the evening of April 15 when he visited the Ngul Zamba orphanage in Cameroon, blessing the children and assuring them that despite their suffering, Jesus “cares especially for children like you.”