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[Catholic Caucus] Pope Leo authorizes bishops to remove superiors of autonomous monasteriesCatholic podcaster Ryan Grant called the new canon law rule ‘one the most revolutionary changes in the history of the Church.’Pope Leo XIV on Thursday issued a new regulation allowing a diocesan bishop to dismiss the major superior of an autonomous monastery.The Vatican rescript, signed by Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, grants the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life “the authority to authorize the competent diocesan Bishop to issue the decree of dismissal,” according to the document Rescriptum ex Audientia Sanctissimi.Catholic podcaster Ryan...

Pope Leo holds ‘multi-faith prayer’ with far-left Chicago mayor who celebrated ‘Abortion Provider Day’Pope Leo met with radically pro-abortion, pro-LGBT Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson and reportedly discussed Trump’s immigration policy, slavery reparations, and the Iran war.Pope Leo XIV on Thursday met in a private audience with radical Chicago Democratic mayor Brandon Johnson, during which they reportedly discussed ICE raids in the city, slavery reparations, and the Iran war, but not key moral issues such as abortion and LGBT ideology, both of which Johnson supports.While the Vatican has not disclosed what was discussed during the May 28 meeting, Johnson, a far-left...

I was born into a sternly Presbyterian culture. Politically, I’m more Orange than Donald Trump’s skin tone. But today I am on my knees giving thanks to the Pope. He has produced the most powerful political document of the year, taking on the greatest challenge of our times. His first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, deals with the changes which will be wrought to all our lives by artificial intelligence in the months and years ahead. AI will transform our economies and societies massively and irrevocably; it will change what it means to be human; it may even mark the end of...

Ghana has welcomed Pope Leo XIV's apology for the Catholic Church's historic role in slavery, describing it as an "act of moral courage" that was important in the global pursuit of "truth, human dignity and justice". The Pope issued the clearest apology yet for the Church's involvement in legitimising slavery and its delay in condemning it for centuries. The apology was published on Monday in the Pope's first major teaching document of his papacy, which also focused on the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI). Ghana was a major hub for the transatlantic slave trade when millions of people were captured...

Pope Leo XIV published his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, May 25, warning that artificial intelligence (AI) and other technological advances pose moral challenges that could reshape humanity’s understanding of truth, work, relationships, and human dignity.“Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together,” the encyclical, subtitled “On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence,” opens.Pope Leo signed the encyclical May 15, the 135th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum,...

VATICAN CITY—Pope Leo XIV warned that artificial intelligence “threatens to normalize an anti-human vision” and said that the concentration of immense digital power in the hands of a few private actors must be countered. The pontiff’s encyclical letter—a text that is poised to define Leo’s papacy—reads like a sharp warning to Silicon Valley executives and humanity more broadly about the future of civilization as new technologies rapidly advance. The risk, he said, is that humans will be reduced “to mere cogs in a system driven toward ever greater efficiency.” Leo used two biblical images to describe the choice humanity faces....

Pope Leo XIV made a historic apology on Monday for the Holy See's role in legitimizing slavery and for having failed to condemn it for centuries, calling the Vatican's record a "wound in Christian memory." Past popes have apologized for Christians' involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. But no pope had ever publicly acknowledged, much less apologized for, the role that past popes played in giving European sovereigns explicit authority to subjugate and enslave "infidels." ... In 1452, for example, Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, which gave the Portuguese king and his successors the right "to...

Lebanese Catholic priests serving in the south of the country near the border with Israel said they were overjoyed to discover that a call with Lebanon’s papal nuncio included another special guest on the online visit, Pope Leo XIV… “First, it was a surprise, then it was a great joy,” Lebanese Maronite Catholic parish priest, Father Toni Elias, told OSV News… The 13 priests who received a video call serve in Lebanon’s southern villages and towns, including Rmeich, Ain Ebel, Debel and Marjayoun… “The Holy Father wished to give us good courage in the face of difficulties that our Christian...

Pope Leo has criticized Trump over Iran... If it would have been any pope..but this is Pope Leo who has openly criticizing immigration policies of Donald Trump, he has been a defender of policies of Barack Hussein Obama... Fajardo: The Vatican is a theocratic stare... it's not democratic...Pope Leo is head of State...all around him know why he was elected... Marian: As a Catholic... And I’m going to put this to you very clearly. It absolutely sickened me to see Pope Francis travel to Cuba and not advocate for Cuban prisoners, and travel to Nicaragua and not advocate for Nicaraguan...

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio made a fence-mending visit to the Vatican on Thursday to underscore strong bilateral ties, after U.S. President Donald Trump's broadsides against Pope Leo XIV for his opposition to the Iran war angered the Holy See and sparked ongoing sparring between them. The U.S. State Department said that the meetings with Leo and the Vatican's top diplomat covered peace in the Middle East and "underscored the strong relationship between the United States and the Holy See," and reflected the "enduring partnership" between them.

Pope Leo XIV pointed out May 5 that the Catholic Church has long opposed nuclear arms after President Donald Trump falsely claimed the Pontiff had made a “statement” saying “Iran can have a nuclear weapon.”Trump reiterated the accusation against the Pope for the third time during a May 4 radio interview, when host Hugh Hewitt raised the case of Jimmy Lai, a Catholic pro-democracy advocate serving a 20-year prison sentence. Hewitt said Pope Leo should say more on Lai’s behalf. The Chinese Communist Party’s targeting of Lai and other Catholic leaders has put mounting pressure on the Vatican to disentangle...

On April 26, 1986, a reactor exploded at the Soviet-run Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located some 90 kilometers north of Kyiv in Ukraine, killing 31 people immediately and another 15,000 over the next several years from radiation poisoning. In his appeal, Pope Leo warned about the risk of using increasingly powerful technologies. He expressed his hopes that discernment and responsible decision-making may be carried out regarding nuclear energy. “I hope that at all levels of decision-making, discernment and responsibility may always prevail, so that every use of atomic energy may be at the service of life and peace,” said the...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Leo XIV affirms informal blessing for homosexual couples and downplays sexual sinPope Leo affirmed the position outlined in Fiducia Supplicans of informal blessings for those in homosexual unions while opposing a ‘formalized blessing,’ as proposed by German Cardinal Marx.On a return flight from Africa Thursday, Pope Leo XIV responded to a question about the Church in Germany issuing formalized blessings for homosexual couples, saying that the Vatican has objected. He made it clear, however, that the impromptu blessings of homosexual couples and couples in adulterous unions was still permitted as the Vatican document Fiducia Supplicans teaches, contrary...

Pope Leo XIV clarified April 23 that the Vatican does not support formalized blessing ceremonies for people in same-sex relationships, responding to a question about German Cardinal Reinhard Marx’s plan to introduce such rituals in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising. The Pope’s remarks came during an in-flight press conference while returning to Rome after his 11-day apostolic journey across Africa. Asked by a German reporter about Cardinal Marx’s decision, Pope Leo said the Vatican “has made it clear that we do not agree with the formalized blessing of couples, in this case, ‘homosexual couples,’ as you asked, or couples...

Donald Trump’s Truth Social post against Pope Leo is unprecedented in the history of the presidency and papacy. No president has ever made such a statement, even as previous popes urged peace during wartime and opposed specific U.S. interventions. Our Aubrey Harris noted examples going back to Pope Benedict XV and World War I. Others are detailing examples from throughout the 20th century. They’ve continued into this century. In recent times, President George W. Bush felt no compulsion to publicly denounce Pope John Paul II when the sainted pontiff opposed the U.S. war in Iraq — a war that Donald...

Former President Barack Obama said in a YouTube interview posted Feb. 14 he wants to meet Pope Leo XIV. Left-leaning political YouTuber and podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen asked who the former president most wanted to meet at the end of a wide-ranging Q&A that began with the topic of a controversial racist social media post that portrayed him and his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, as apes. Obama answered that he wanted to meet the pope, “and I hope I get an opportunity sometime in the future.” Obama, whose second term ended in 2017 when President Donald Trump entered...

VATICAN CITY — Seated inside a fortress with 40-foot walls and surrounded by Swiss guards, Pope Leo XIV cautioned the rest of the world's population not to fear mass Islamic migration. After condemning anyone opposed to their country being overrun by Muslims, the pope then ordered the doors of the Vatican sealed as he hopped into his bulletproof car. "You must lovingly accept anyone into your country, even if they want very much to kill you," explained the Supreme Pontiff. "Do not put up high walls to protect yourself. Do not close yourself in a church with others like yourself....

Vice President JD Vance said April 18 he was "grateful" to Pope Leo XIV after the Pontiff pushed back on a media "narrative" casting him and President Donald Trump as adversaries. Pope Leo says his remarks on war predated the president’s criticismSpeaking to reporters aboard the papal plane while flying from Cameroon to Angola, Pope Leo XIV addressed the dispute with the president that has drawn widespread media attention."There's been a certain narrative that has not been accurate in all of its aspects, but because of the political situation created when, on the first day of the trip, the president...

Pope Leo XIV urged Cameroon’s young people Friday to resist the temptation to migrate and instead work for the common good at home, as he called for morally upright citizens to combat corruption plaguing many African countries. Leo highlighted two of the big problems facing the continent during a Mass and a meeting with students and faculty at the Catholic University of Central Africa: the corruption that keeps countries in poverty and the brain drain of their brightest children who leave rather than fight the corruption at home. They’re themes Leo has highlighted during his visit to Cameroon, a mineral-rich...

Pope Leo XIV has sent 80 electric generators and thousands of medical supplies to Ukraine to help civilians cope with freezing winter temperatures and constant attacks, the Vatican announced on Feb. 9. The aid was arranged in response to appeals from bishops who warned of mounting difficulties caused by Russia’s attacks on energy infrastructure and subzero temperatures across the country. Three trucks carrying the generators and medical supplies departed from the Basilica of Saint Sophia in Rome and have already arrived in Fastiv and Kyiv, areas heavily affected by recent strikes. Alongside the generators, thousands of medical supplies were delivered,...