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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,...

Iran is planning to execute four more protesters in an attempt to quell further uprisings while the Islamic nation is in talks with the U.S. The four people, Mohammadreza Majidi-Asl, Bita Hemmati, Behrouz Zamaninejad, and Kourosh Zamaninejad were arrested in January and sentenced to death earlier this week. Bita Hemmati is the first woman to be publicly executed for her ties to the anti-regime protests. A reporter asked President Trump about these executions, and this was his response. A pretty amazing response from President Trump to this reporter question:REPORTER: Iran is going to execute four more protesters, including the first...

President Donald Trump on April 16 defended his criticism of Pope Leo XIV’s stance on the Iran war, saying he has a right to disagree with the Holy Father and that a meeting is not necessary to resolve their differences. Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Trump said he has “no disagreement with the fact the pope can say what he wants, and I want him to say what he wants, but I can disagree.”“I want him to preach the Gospel. I’m all about the Gospel,” Trump said of Pope Leo at another point. “But I also know you...

In 1955, Algeria had over 1 million Catholics and 140,000 Jews. Today, as Pope Leo visits Algeria, there are some 8,000 Catholics in Algeria and there are fewer than 200 Jews.99% of the population of what was one of the old territories of Christianity are Sunni Muslims.Was Islam so popular that all the Christians and Jews decided to convert? Not at all. They were persecuted, murdered, tortured and driven out by Islamic violence that occurred in our lifetimes.Christians and Jews had lived in Algeria since Roman times. Now they’re gone.This Christian genocide was endorsed by major world powers, aided and...

President Donald Trump on April 14 directly addressed Pope Leo XIV in another Truth Social post, drawing attention to the Iranian regime’s reported killing of thousands of protesters in the past two months. “Will someone please tell Pope Leo that Iran has killed at least 42,000 innocent, completely unarmed, protesters in the last two months, and that for Iran to have a Nuclear Bomb is absolutely unacceptable,” he wrote.Protests in Iran erupted in late December 2025 over economic hardships and quickly turned into broader anti-government demonstrations, Zeale News previously reported. Iranian security forces reportedly responded with live ammunition against the...

Perhaps, and we'll get to an answer – or at least an argument for it – shortly. The better question created by the last two pontificates is this: Has the Catholic Church abandoned St. Thomas Aquinas' deeply considered and scripturally rooted "Just War Doctrine" in exchange for flabby and fashionable pacifism dressed up as Christianity? We can address both questions without indulging in ad hominems and invective, I assure you, even when public officials (such as President Trump) can't restrain their frustration enough to keep the debate on point. The second question matters more than the first, especially in a...

Vice President JD Vance responded to Pope Leo's recent comments opposing the war in Iran, as the Vatican has taken heat from President Trump for commenting on political matters, and specifically calling out U.S. policy. Vance was asked about the Pope’s comments at a recent Turning Point USA event, where he suggested that the Pontiff and the president had a difference of opinion over whether the Iran war could be considered a just war. "Number one, when the Pope says that God is never on the side of those who wield the sword, there is a thousand-year, more than a...

Pope Leo XIV's recent visit to the Mosque of Algiers--where he removed his shoes, stood in silent reflection before the mihrab, and expressed gratitude for being in "a place that represents the space proper to God"--is not a harmless gesture of goodwill. It is a deeply consequential moment that raises serious questions about how the highest office in the Catholic Church is choosing to represent Christian truth in the public square. Because this is not simply about respect. No one is arguing against basic courtesy toward Muslims or any other religious group. Christians are called to love their neighbors and...