MILAN, Italy (RNS) – Amid a growing public rift between Pope Leo XIV and President Donald Trump — arguably the two most influential American-born figures in the world — Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the Vatican on Thursday seeking to highlight common ground between the Holy See and the Trump administration. Rubio’s meeting with…
Amid growing tensions between President Trump and Pope Leo XIV, the pontiff met privately with Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Vatican on Thursday morning They discussed “the situation in the Middle East and topics of mutual interest in the Western Hemisphere,” according to a statement from Tommy Pigott, the spokesman for the State…
Good morning. You’re reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day. Today’s top stories Iran is evaluating the Trump administration’s latest proposal to end the war, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said yesterday. President Trump…
Pope Leo XIV surprised 13 priests from southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, by joining a video call from Rome on Wednesday, telling them they were in his prayers and that he hoped peace would soon prevail along the tense frontier. The Lebanese Catholic and Maronite priests were asked to attend an online morning…
For decades, the unspoken assumption at the Vatican was that there could never be a pope from the United States. With Americans as both Holy Father and leader of the free world, the thinking went, the United States would wield too much influence in both the geopolitical and spiritual realms. The cardinals who elected new…
Many things are named in honor of popes, including shrines, schools and other structures. In Singapore, there’s even an orchid variety with a papal moniker: Dendrobium His Holiness Pope Francis, presented to its namesake during the late pope’s 2024 apostolic visit to that nation. And the convention has taken to the heavens — literally. The Vatican…
Pope Leo XIV issued decrees advancing the sainthood causes of five candidates, including a Dutch nun who served in St. Louis in the early 20th century. During a meeting April 27, with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, the pope signed a decree recognizing the heroic virtues of Carmelite Sr. Teresia of the…
The Most Rev. Sarah Mullally, the first woman to lead the Anglican Communion, prayed at the Vatican on Monday with Pope Leo XIV, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, projecting a powerful image of female ecclesiastical authority within an institution that maintains a male-only priesthood. The historic meeting was both an expression of unity…
The Justice Department announced April 24 it will adopt firing squads and reauthorize a single-drug lethal injection protocol on the same day that Pope Leo XIV publicly voiced support for efforts to abolish the death penalty in the United States. The policy shift, part of a broader push by the Trump administration to expand capital…
It’s no accident that the figure emerging as the global challenger to the might of Donald Trump is a priest in white, known as Pope Leo XIV. In recent weeks, the pope has issued a string of barely coded denunciations of the US president, unfazed by the insults that have come his way in return….
