Pope Leo XIV’s first World Peace Day message will expand on the prayer he expressed the night of his election when addressing the crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

Even though what is happening in Gaza is shocking and prospects for peace in Ukraine seem more complicated than ever, Catholics must continue praying and hoping, said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state.

Pope Leo XIV will preside over his first canonization Mass Sept. 7, declaring the sainthood of two young Italians whose devotion to the Eucharist nourished a deep involvement in the cultures of their day.

Every Catholic at Mass, but especially the altar servers, should rejoice that they are in the presence of Jesus, Pope Leo XIV said.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national and Maryland resident at the center of a high-profile immigration case, surrendered to U.S. immigration authorities in Baltimore on Aug. 25, and faces possible deportation to Uganda, a nation that recently agreed to accept certain deportees from the U.S., even those that have no ties to the country like Abrego Garcia.

Days after the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem expressed hope that “hearts can change even in the Holy Land,” at least 20 people — including five journalists — have been reported killed in Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital, located in southern Gaza.

Catholic Church leaders have spotlighted a cholera outbreak in South Sudan and Sudan, as some faith-based humanitarian agencies moved to respond to the crisis.

As the Trump administration seeks to implement its hardline immigration policies, it has increased enforcement actions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in immigration courts, prompting alarm from Catholic immigration advocates.

Pope Leo XIV blessed five statues of Mary that refugees evicted from their islands in order to build a major U.S. military base plan to place in the chapels they hope to restore when they return to their homelands.

Colombia’s bishops expressed their outrage after at least 18 people died and more than 40 were injured after two attacks in Colombia attributed to different dissident factions of the former FARC guerrilla group.