It is a rare thing—rare almost to the point of unheard-of—for the Holy See’s own news service to issue a public correction aimed, however obliquely, at the ambassador of a friendly power. Yet that is what happened on Monday, when Andrea Tornielli, editorial director of the Dicastery for Communication, published a reflection under the deceptively gentle…
Donald Trump’s handpicked representative to the Vatican insists that when Pope Leo XIV said the United States-led war in Iran did not meet the criteria of a just war, he was not speaking as the moral leader of the world’s largest religious denomination. The Vatican, it seems, disagrees. After Brian Burch, U.S. ambassador to the…
The Vatican has released the framework for a fall meeting with the heads of Eastern Catholic Churches and presidents of bishops’ conferences, marking the 10th anniversary of Amoris Laetitia and focusing on the Church’s pastoral approach to families. Pope Francis’ issued his post-synodal apostolic exhortation on the pastoral care of families. It was published after the 2014 and 2015 Synods on…
Pope Leo XIV spent what is traditionally his weekly day off on Tuesday issuing a flurry of legislation and appointments June 30, overhauling the Vatican’s financial watchdog agency, revising the governing structure of the Vicariate of Rome and making several appointments in the Roman Curia. While the pope’s letter to SSPX garnered (and merited) the headlines, the…
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 President Trump’s financial disclosures reveal that he and his family earned more than $1 billion through cryptocurrency ventures and other businesses last…
VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Pope Leo XIV opened his summit of cardinals at the Vatican on Friday (June 26) by appealing to unity within the church, which he said is called to build a “civilization of love” amid rising conflicts and ongoing wars around the world. “War is never worthy of humanity, and it is…
Pulitzer Prize winners, a Nobel laureate, celebrated novelists and authors from nearly a dozen countries met at the Vatican June 24 for an audience with Pope Leo XIV, who reflected on the importance of books to reveal who we are and “our inner dialogue with God.” “Writing, as you know, is an act of truth,…
VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Early on, Pope Leo XIV signaled support for women’s leadership in the Catholic Church, but a new Vatican decision released on Tuesday (June 23) barring laypeople, including women, from preaching the homily at Mass is testing how far that openness is likely to go. “ … It is not possible ……
(RNS) — In the face of an accelerating U.S. pressure campaign, deteriorating public utilities and economic inefficiency, Cuba’s communist government on Thursday (June 18) announced sweeping economic reforms, the largest privatization since before Fidel Castro’s revolution in 1959. Since January, the Trump administration has made repeated threats of military action, and its sanctions and an…
VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Cardinal Camillo Ruini, former president of the Italian bishops’ conference and a towering figure in Italy’s post-Second Vatican Council culture wars, died on Tuesday (June 16) at the age of 95. Ruini had been admitted to the hospital in September to treat kidney problems, and his health declined in the following…
