Pope Leo XIV made a surprise visit to the Benedictine Abbey of Montecassino July 20, where he prayed for peace at the tomb of St. Benedict.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his government’s representative to the Holy See are hopeful that Pope Leo XIV will visit Ukraine despite no firm indication from the Vatican that a visit is in the works.

Two U.S. Catholic bishops are lamenting recent deadly immigration enforcement encounters, calling for God-given human dignity to be respected in every individual.

Lebanon’s Cardinal Bechara Rai, the patriarch of the country’s Maronite Catholic Church, has urged for prayer and guidance as Lebanese President Joseph Aoun makes a critical visit to the White House July 21 to present President Donald Trump with a plan on how to disarm the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group and secure Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon.

In Assisi, one of the main pilgrim draws is a tiny church dwarfed by its expansive surroundings, the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels near Assisi, Italy.

Four orders of women religious and Catholic healthcare ministries sued the state of New York July 17 over a new law allowing physicians to aid terminally ill adults in dying by suicide. 

Second lady Usha Vance gave birth July 19 to the couple’s fourth child, Vice President JD Vance announced on X.

Heated rivalries among soccer fans bubbled to the surface in the lead-up to the World Cup Final that ultimately saw Spain clinch a 1-0 victory over Argentina in an intense match. Yet for Christians in Gaza, the final game was a much-needed moment of joy and a reprieve from the hardship and suffering of war.

Catholics from every inhabited continent gathered in Castel Gandolfo July 19 as Pope Leo XIV led the Angelus prayer from the papal summer palace in the small Italian hill town, where the pope reflected on how the kingdom of God grows through “the little things of daily life.”

Nobel laureates called Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas” a “clarion call” and “a giant step forward” for the prevention of AI-driven nuclear warfare as they gathered in Rome July 16 to sign a declaration urging a global treaty banning artificial intelligence from nuclear launch systems.