Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, confirmed on Wednesday that Pope Leo XIV would visit several foreign countries over the next few months, including Monaco and Spain.

Bruni said the pope would travel to the Principality of Monaco on March 28, becoming the first pontiff to visit the country.

The pope was also scheduled to travel to Spain June 6–12, 15 years after Pope Benedict XVI visited Madrid in the summer of 2011 for World Youth Day. The Vatican said it would announce further details about the trips in the coming weeks.

The Vatican has announced that Pope Leo XIV will undertake his first pastoral visit to Africa as pontiff April 13–23.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Feb. 25, the Holy See confirmed that the Holy Father’s 11-day apostolic journey will take him to four African countries: Algeria, Cameroon, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea.

According to Vatican officials, the pope is to visit Algiers and Annaba in Algeria April 13–15; Yaoundé, Bamenda, and Douala in Cameroon April 15–18; Luanda, Muxima, and Saurimo in Angola April 18–21; and Malabo, Mongomo, and Bata in Equatorial Guinea April 21–23.

The pastoral visit is in response to “invitations of the respective heads of state and ecclesiastical authorities,” Vatican officials said, adding that “the program of the journey will be published at a later date.”

Angolan and Equatorial Guinean authorities had publicly confirmed plans for the papal visit in official communications weeks before the Vatican’s  announcement.

At the time of the Holy See’s statement, neither Cameroon nor Algeria had issued their own formal confirmation of the scheduled trip.

Angola confirmed Pope Leo’s maiden visit to the continent on Jan. 13. Addressing journalists, the apostolic nuncio in the Southern African nation confirmed that the Holy Father had accepted invitations from both the Catholic bishops of Angola and the country’s president, João Lourenço.

Archbishop Kryspin Witold Dubiel invited all Angolan citizens to prepare for the papal visit and added: “I hope that the Holy Father’s visit will be an opportunity to rediscover the values that have shaped the Angolan people and to share these values with the diverse communities that live and work around the world.”

Archbishop José Manuel Imbamba, president of the Bishops’ Conference of Angola and São Tomé and Príncipe (CEAST), called upon Angolans to participate in the committees that will be established to prepare for the pope’s visit.

“Each of these committees should give their best in the preparation, promotion, and realization of all tasks assigned,” said Imbamba, the archbishop of Angola’s Saurimo Archdiocese.

In January, Equatorial Guinea joined Angola in confirming the anticipated  journey. According to a report published on Jan. 23 by the press department of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE), the official announcement of the papal visit followed a high-level meeting between Equatorial Guinea’s president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, and the country’s Catholic bishops, signaling the beginning of coordinated preparations between the Church and the government for what was described as “a historic occasion.”

The report indicated that Equatorial Guinea’s head of state had met with members of the Episcopal Conference of Equatorial Guinea (CEGE) to “coordinate preparations for a historic occasion: the upcoming visit of Pope Leo XIV to the Republic of Equatorial Guinea.”

Led by the CEGE president, Bishop Juan Domingo-Beka Esono Ayang of Mongono Diocese, the Catholic Church leaders discussed logistical and organizational arrangements with the country’s head of state.

Following the meeting, Obiang addressed the press, underscoring both the national significance and the international dimension of the papal visit.

He emphasized that Pope Leo XIV would be received with the highest level of public engagement, stating: “Equatorial Guinea is accustomed to receiving personalities, so it will mobilize the population to give it the apotheosic sense that the Holy Father deserves, to bring a good impression of the population and the name of Equatorial Guinea at the international level.”

Bishop Domingo-Beka described the anticipated visit as “a moment of grace and joy for the people of Ecuato Guinean,” noting that it will be the first time in 44 years that a pontiff sets foot in the country.

He called on the people of God in parishes and other Catholic institutions nationwide to begin immediate spiritual preparation, urging them to unite around three guiding actions: “prepare, receive, and live this pastoral visit of the Holy Father.”

The last papal visit to Equatorial Guinea took place on Feb. 18, 1982, when St. John Paul II arrived in the country, becoming the first and, until now, the only pontiff to do so.

Leo XIV is the first pope in modern history with firsthand knowledge of Africa. Unlike his predecessors, he has already been to Eastern, Western, Southern, Northern, and Central Africa in person.

In a world where “the notion of ‘freedom’ has become contentious in public discourse,” Christians must be clear about what freedom means in the light of faith, Bishop Erik Varden told Pope Leo XIV and members of the Roman Curia during the Lenten retreat.

“Freedom is a good to which we all aspire; we rise up against anything which threatens to curtail or confine our freedom. As a result, the vocabulary of freedom is an effective rhetorical tool,” Varden said in the fourth meditation of the retreat, delivered on Feb. 24.

“Suggestions that the freedom of a particular group is at risk will call forth instant responses of outrage on the internet,” he continued, noting that “a variety of political causes in Europe now harness the jargon of freedom. Tensions result. What one segment of society perceives as ‘liberating’ is found oppressive by others.”

“Opposing fronts are raised, with the banner of ‘freedom’ held high on all sides,” Varden said. “Bitter conflicts arise from incompatible agendas of purported liberation. This state of affairs poses a challenge for Christians.”

Varden, a Norwegian Cistercian and bishop-prelate of Trondheim, grounded his reflection in St. Bernard of Clairvaux’s teaching on freedom, insisting that for Christians, true freedom is inseparable from the Son’s loving obedience to the Father.

“Rooting his understanding of freedom in the Son’s ‘Yes!’ to the Father’s will, Bernard works a revolution in our grasp of what it means to be free,” he said. “Christian freedom is not about seizing the world with force; it is about loving the world with a crucified love magnanimous enough to make us freely wish, one with Christ, to give our lives for it, that it may be set free.”

Varden also warned against the way “freedom,” when detached from the person and from truth, can be exploited to justify oppression.

“Caution is called for when freedom, held hostage by force, is manipulated as a means to legitimate the doings of impersonal subjects like ‘the Party,’ ‘the Economy,’ or even ‘History,’” he said. “In a Christian way of thinking, no oppressive policy can be redeemed by invocations of ideological ‘freedom.’ The only meaningful freedom is personal; and one person’s freedom cannot cancel another’s.”

“To subscribe to a Christian idea of freedom is to consent to pain,” Varden added. When Christ says, “Resist not evil,” he explained, “he does not ask us to countenance injustice. He lets us see that justice’s cause is sometimes best served by suffering for it, refusing to meet force with force.”

“Our emblem of freedom remains the Son of God who ‘emptied himself,’” he concluded.

In the fifth meditation, delivered later that day in the Pauline Chapel, Varden turned again to St. Bernard, focusing on ambition as a distortion of the soul’s relationship to truth.

“Ambition represents a particular form of capitulation to untruth,” he said. “Ambition is a not very subtly sublimated form of cupidity.” Citing Bernard, he described ambition as “a subtle ill, a secret virus, an occult pest, an artisan of deceit,” adding that it “springs from an ‘alienation of the mind’.”

“It is a madness that comes about when truth is forgotten,” Varden said. “The fact that ambition is a form of insanity makes it ridiculous in any instantiation, but especially so when it occurs in persons given to a state of selfless service.”

Varden then took up Pilate’s question — “What is truth?” — saying it must not be left unanswered amid today’s confusion and fear.

“People of our time ask this question earnestly, often with remarkable goodwill, notwithstanding their confusion, fear, and the rush they are always in. We cannot let it go unanswered,” he said. “We need our best resources to uphold substantial, essential, freeing truth against more or less plausibly shining, more or less fiendish substitutes.”

“In our predicament, rich in opportunity, it is imperative to see and articulate the world in Christ’s light,” Varden continued. “Christ, who is truth, not only shields us; he renews us, impatient to reveal himself through us to a creation increasingly aware of being subject to futility.”

Pointing to the Second Vatican Council’s emphasis on sanctity, Varden said the Church’s claim to truth convinces most when it is embodied personally.

“Was not the universal call to holiness, the call, that is, to embody truth, the strongest note struck by the Second Vatican Council?” he asked. “It resounded splendidly like a gong throughout its deliberations. The Christian claim to truth becomes compelling when its splendor is made personally evident with sacrificial love in sanctity, cleansed of temptations to temporize.”

This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News, and has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

St. Peter’s Basilica has inaugurated new Stations of the Cross — 14 large oil paintings by Swiss painter Manuel Dürr — for Lent as part of celebrations marking the 400th anniversary of the church’s 1626 consecration.

The basilica first built at Emperor Constantine’s order in 326 over the tomb of the Apostle Peter stood for 12 centuries. In 1506, Pope Julius II ordered its demolition to raise a new church from the ground up.

The St. Peter’s Basilica known today was consecrated on Nov. 18, 1626, by Pope Urban VIII, capping a long project that drew on the genius of artists and architects including Michelangelo Buonarroti, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and Carlo Maderno.

Four centuries later, the largest church in Christendom is commemorating the anniversary with a new artistic Stations of the Cross, inaugurated Feb. 20, featuring 14 paintings installed for Lent.

The proposal by Dürr, 36, was selected from more than 1,000 submissions representing 80 countries after an international competition launched in December 2023. A Vatican commission of art historians and liturgists chose the project, awarding it a 120,000-euro ($141,390) prize.

The Stations of the Cross is the work of Swiss painter Manuel Dürr, 36. | Credit: Victoria Cardiel/EWTN News

The result is a fresh spiritual perspective on the passion of Christ, depicting Jesus’ final moments from condemnation to burial in 14 oil paintings, each measuring about 51 by 51 inches.

The jury cited the proposal’s “balance and expressive power” and praised its “powerful and immediate” pictorial language, which the Vatican said evokes both the Renaissance and certain elements of the avant-garde.

Manuel Dürr sketches the figures for the Stations of the Cross in his studio. | Credit: manuelandreasduerr.ch A monumental commission completed in 8 months

In an interview during the inauguration, Dürr said that, given the magnitude of the commission, he had to “draw a bit of confidence” from within himself.

“Painting Jesus is very, very difficult,” the artist said, “because he’s not someone I’m presenting for the first time; he’s someone about whom billions of people already have an image and a relationship.”

The result is a fresh spiritual perspective on the Passion of Christ. | Credit: Victoria Cardiel/EWTN News

Now that the works are installed around Bernini’s baldachin, Dürr said he feels serene: “I’m very happy to see that the context for which these paintings were conceived … I think they work well.”

Over eight months, Dürr produced the 14 canvases that are now incorporated into the basilica’s central nave during Lent.

From the start, he said he understood he was not working for a contemporary gallery but for a liturgical space with a living tradition. The works were meant “to dialogue with a specific context, with an already existing symbolic universe,” he explained.

Technically, he drew inspiration from “the colors that already exist in the floor mosaics” of St. Peter’s; spiritually, he wanted to insert himself humbly into “a very long and very rich tradition of images that have approached this mystery of the Incarnation and the Passion.”

The Vatican held an international competition in December 2023, from which this young painter was selected. | Credit: Victoria Cardiel/EWTN News ‘Theologically quite close to the Catholic faith’

Although Dürr is not Catholic, he described himself as “theologically quite close to the Catholic faith.” He belongs to the Jahu community — about 600 people worldwide — linked to the Swiss Reformed Church and marked by a strongly ecumenical character.

Two of his brothers hold doctorates in theology from Catholic universities, which, he joked, helped him get to know the tradition “from the kitchen table.”

The artist said he hopes this Stations of the Cross can help people find a useful way to delve into this mystery. | Credit: Victoria Cardiel/EWTN News

Dürr said he hopes the Stations of the Cross can help people find a helpful way to enter more deeply into the mystery they contemplate.

He also recalled how his first visit to St. Peter’s Basilica expanded his horizons and left a mark on his creative process: “My church back home feels very provincial when I see here people of all ages, from all continents and all social classes, gathered around shared expressions of faith.”

He acknowledged the decisive influence of Fra Angelico, especially the frescoes at the Convent of San Marco in Florence where, he said, there is an exemplary synthesis of artistic innovation and spiritual depth.

The Crucifixion as the centerpiece

For Dürr, the Crucifixion became the axis of the entire series: It was the first canvas he began and the last he finished.

“This story has shaped Christian art and European culture — perhaps world culture — like no other,” he reflected.

The station depicting the crucifixion of Jesus was the first and last painting the artist created. | Credit: Victoria Cardiel/EWTN News

“The cross, conceived as an instrument of terror to instill fear in the Roman Empire, has been transformed into a symbol of hope that we wear around our neck,” he said.

He expressed hope that the series might offer “a small doorway” into this central mystery of the Christian faith for those who contemplate the new Via Crucis during Lent.

This station depicts the moment when Jesus is being crucified by Roman soldiers. | Credit: Victoria Cardiel/EWTN News

Even so, the most special station for him, he said, was Veronica.

“She holds a cloth with the image of Christ, and in a way that’s what I’m trying to do: paint on a canvas and offer a trace, a mark that allows something deeper to be experienced,” Dürr said.

He added: “That is the great mystery of the Incarnation. Why would God leave a trace on a cloth?”

The station depicting the moment when Veronica wipes the face of Jesus and his image is imprinted on the cloth is the artist’s favorite. | Credit: Vatican Media

Four centuries after its consecration, St. Peter’s Basilica is thus preparing to commemorate its history not only through architectural memory but with a renewed invitation to contemplate the Passion of Christ.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, and has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Pope Leo XIV has sent a humanitarian shipment to Ukraine containing urgently needed medicines and more than 1,000 electric radiators to assist people affected by the war.

According to the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, the shipment responds to a “desperate request” made by several bishops amid the grave situation caused by the latest Russian airstrikes, especially in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Through the apostolic almonry, the Holy Father arranged for a truckload of essential pharmaceuticals to address what the office led by Cardinal Konrad Krajewski described as a “disastrous humanitarian emergency.”

The dicastery said the commercial value of the shipment exceeds 1 million euros ($1.17 million) and was made possible in large part thanks to the collaboration of the Fondazione Banco Farmaceutico ETS.

A population worn down by attacks

The war, which has shaken Ukraine for four years, continues to leave behind destruction, forced displacement, and families torn apart. In that context, Ukrainian bishops conveyed to the pope the cry of a population exhausted by ongoing attacks and the deterioration of basic infrastructure.

One of the most urgent appeals came from the bishop of Kharkiv-Zaporizhzhia, Bishop Pavlo Honcharuk, who warned that more than 800 families — an entire neighborhood — have been left without heat after strikes on energy infrastructure. The damage cannot be repaired in the short term, according to Vatican News.

With freezing temperatures approaching and resources scarce, Honcharuk asked for direct assistance from the papal almoner, Krajewski.

In response, on Feb. 24 medicines and oil-filled electric radiators purchased in Italy arrived in Zaporizhzhia. The more than 1,000 devices are expected to provide a basic source of heat for affected families, many of whom have been forced into makeshift accommodations or communal spaces warmed by generators.

The Apostolic Almonry said that despite the logistical and operational difficulties caused by the conflict, the material will be distributed shortly in areas hardest hit by bombardments.

Pope renews appeal for ceasefire

The initiative reflects the ongoing closeness the Holy See and the local Church have shown to the Ukrainian people since the beginning of the invasion.

Last Sunday during the Angelus, Pope Leo XIV urged that a ceasefire in Ukraine be agreed upon “without delay” as the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion was marked. He insisted that peace “cannot be postponed” and must be expressed in responsible decisions.

“In my heart there remains the dramatic situation that is before everyone’s eyes. How many victims, how many lives and families shattered, how much destruction, how many indescribable sufferings!” the pope said.

Leo XIV added that “every war is truly a wound inflicted on the whole human family,” leaving behind “death, devastation, and a trail of pain that marks generations.”

He renewed his appeal: “May weapons fall silent, may the bombings end, may a ceasefire be reached without delay, and may dialogue be strengthened to open the way to peace!”

He also invited the faithful to unite in prayer “for the martyred Ukrainian people and for all those who suffer because of this war and of every other conflict in the world, so that the long-awaited gift of peace may shine upon our days.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, and has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Writing with the distinctive hand of one of the Renaissance’s greatest geniuses is now possible. Marking the 400th anniversary of the consecration of St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican and Microsoft have introduced “Michelangelus,” a new digital typeface faithfully modeled on the handwriting of Michelangelo Buonarroti.

The font, which will be incorporated into the latest versions of Microsoft Office, is expected to allow millions of users worldwide to draft digital documents in the recognizable handwritten style of the Florentine artist, best known in the Vatican for designing the iconic dome of St. Peter’s.

A tech partnership in service of cultural heritage

The project grew out of an ongoing collaboration between the Fabric of St. Peter — the Vatican body responsible for the basilica’s upkeep and conservation — and the technology company, which has previously participated in other initiatives connected to the basilica.

To develop Michelangelus, Microsoft engineers closely studied documents preserved in the Vatican archives, including letters and personal and technical notes, as well as detailed architectural plans from the period when the basilica was still under construction — many written in Michelangelo’s own hand.

The artist’s harmonious calligraphy, recognizable for its elongated strokes, was reproduced after a lengthy paleographic study of the parchments Michelangelo regularly sent to papal officials to share new ideas, request funding, or report on the progress of the work.

Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, said the new font helps “the writing of the Renaissance genius” meet the digital age.

“Beyond the letters, the numbers handwritten by Michelangelo were represented in an impressive way: Each number seemed like a work of art,” the cardinal said during a Vatican presentation of activities planned to commemorate the basilica’s 1626 consecration by Pope Urban VIII.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, and has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

The Roman Curia’s Lenten spiritual exercises moved on to the second and third meditations Monday, Feb. 23, following the program schedule with sessions at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. in the Pauline Chapel.

In the morning, Cistercian Bishop Erik Varden spoke to the pope and the Roman Curia about St. Bernard of Clairvaux, focusing on the theme “Bernard the Idealist.”

According to Varden, Bernard is “a good, wise companion for anyone setting out on a Lenten exodus from selfishness and pride, wishing to pursue authenticity with eyes set on the all-illumining love of God.”

Varden described Bernard as “a genuinely humble man, fully given to God, capable of tender kindness, a firm friend — indeed, able to befriend former enemies — and a compelling witness to God’s love. He was, and remains, fascinating.”

In the afternoon, Varden introduced a new theme: “God’s help.” He began with a line from Mary Ward: “Do your best and God will help.”

“The notion that God can and will help us in our predicaments is axiomatic to biblical faith,” Varden said. “It sets the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God made compassionate flesh in Christ Jesus, apart from the Unmoved Mover of philosophy.”

He then turned to a difficult question: What about times when believers fall and appear abandoned — when they cry out to heaven and receive no answer, hearing only the echo of their own voice?

Varden pointed to Job as the scriptural figure who embodies this experience, proposing that Job’s book can be read “as a symphony in three movements, going from a visceral lament through an exposition of menace to a wholly surprising experience of grace.”

This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News, and has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Cardinal Gerhard Müller and Cardinal Robert Sarah, two prominent supporters of the Traditional Latin Mass, have spoken out against the decision of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) to defy the Vatican and ordain new bishops on July 1.

The decision to proceed with the episcopal consecrations without papal approval was confirmed in a Feb. 18 letter, penned by SSPX superior general Father Davide Pagliarani a week after his Feb. 12 meeting with Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF).

In the letter, the Catholic traditionalist group said it could not “accept the perspective and objectives” for resumed dialogue proposed by the DDF prefect, insisting the July 1 consecrations would “not constitute a rupture of communion” with the Church.

The SSPX, which exclusively celebrates the Traditional Latin Mass, maintains doctrinal differences with certain teachings and reforms of the Second Vatican Council, particularly with regard to religious freedom and the Church’s approach to other faiths.

Under canon law, a bishop who consecrates another bishop without a papal mandate and the person who receives that consecration incur automatic excommunication.

Müller, who served as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) from 2012 to 2017, issued a lengthy Feb. 21 statement, saying “personal sensitivities should take a back seat” for the good of Church unity.

“If the Society of St. Pius X is to have a positive impact on Church history, it cannot fight for the true faith from a distance, from the outside, against the Church united with the pope,” Müller wrote.

Highlighting the importance for SSPX to recognize papal authority “not only in theory but also in practice,” the German prelate said the society must submit to the teaching authority of the Church “without preconditions.”

“No orthodox Catholic can invoke reasons of conscience if he withdraws from the formal authority of the pope regarding the visible unity of the sacramental Church in order to establish an ecclesiastical order not in full communion with him,” Müller said.

Over the weekend, Sarah, who served as prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments from 2014 to 2021, also shared his “deep concern and sadness” after SSPX confirmed its decision to ordain new bishops without a papal mandate.

“Is it to desire the salvation of souls to tear apart the mystical body of Christ in a way that may be irreversible? How many souls are in danger of being lost because of this new division?” Sarah lamented in a Feb. 22 Le Journal du Dimanche article.

“We are told that this act is intended to defend tradition and the faith,” he added. “I know how much the deposit of faith is sometimes despised today by those very people whose mission it is to defend it.”

The African prelate ardently appealed for SSPX to be united to the Church founded by Jesus Christ and entrusted to the care of the apostles, particularly St. Peter, the first pope, and his successors.

“Can we really do without following Christ in his humility unto the cross? Is it not a betrayal of tradition to take refuge in human means [and] maintain our works, however good they may be?” he said.

The proposed July 1 date for the episcopal consecrations coincides with the anniversary of the 1988 excommunication of SSPX founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre for consecrating four bishops without permission of Rome.

The Society of St. Pius X did not immediately respond to a request for comment from EWTN News.

Norwegian Cistercian Bishop Erik Varden opened the Vatican’s annual Lenten spiritual exercises for the Roman Curia by urging Christians to resist using the Gospel as a political weapon and to measure authentic faith by fidelity to Christ — and by the peace believers embody.

“Fidelity to Christ’s example and commandments is the hallmark of Christian sincerity,” Varden said in his first meditation, delivered in the Pauline Chapel during the retreat for Pope Leo XIV and members of the Curia, which began Sunday afternoon.

“The extent of the peace we embody — that signal peace ‘which the world cannot give’ — indicates Jesus’ abiding presence in us,” he continued. “We must insist on this now, when the Gospel is sometimes deployed as a weapon in culture wars.”

Varden called on Christians to contest “instrumentalizations of Christian language and signs,” not merely with indignation but by teaching what real spiritual struggle looks like.

“Instrumentalizations of Christian language and signs should be challenged, not just by wan outrage but by teaching the terms of authentic spiritual warfare,” he said. “For Christian peace is not a promise of ease; it is a condition for transformed society.”

In the same meditation, Varden pointed to anger as a spiritual danger, citing St. John Climacus: “There is no greater obstacle to the presence of the Spirit in us than anger.”

He also reflected on the Church’s Lenten discipline as a “program” marked by clarity and peace: Lent “confronts us with essentials,” he said, stripping away distractions and inviting “an abstinence of the senses,” while still calling believers to battle vice and harmful passions with a straightforward “yes, yes,” and “no, no.”

Varden noted the Church’s liturgy sets that tone from the outset of Lent, pointing to the traditional chant of Psalm 90 (91), “Qui Habitat,” sung on the first Sunday of Lent as the Gospel recounts Christ’s temptation in the wilderness.

Later Monday, Varden was scheduled to deliver two additional meditations, including reflections on St. Bernard of Clairvaux and on God’s help.

This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News, and has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Pope Leo XIV began a Lenten retreat with the Roman Curia at the Vatican on Sunday. Cistercian Bishop Erik Varden of Trondheim, Norway, is leading the spiritual exercises at the request of the pope.

Varden will deliver his meditations for the Feb. 22–27 retreat in the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace.

The cardinals residing in Rome and the prefects of the Curia’s dicasteries are invited to participate, suspending or reducing their regular work activities in order to spend time in spiritual reflection with the pope and his closest collaborators.

Varden’s meditations, titled “Illuminated by a Hidden Glory,” will reflect on St. Bernard of Clairvaux, approached from a dual perspective: an idealistic dimension and a realistic view of the Christian experience.

Other talks, of which he will give 11 total, are titled “Entering Lent,” “God’s Help,” and “Communicating Hope.” The aim is to foster an atmosphere of silence, discernment, and inner renewal among those responsible for the Curia.

The meditations will be accompanied by Eucharistic adoration and the twice daily praying of the Liturgy of the Hours.

Last year, the Lenten spiritual exercises were led by Capuchin friar Father Roberto Pasolini, who was appointed by Pope Francis as preacher of the papal household in 2024, and focused on the hope of eternal life and theological reflection.

Under the theme “Anchored in Christ,” Pasolini went into depth on the need for universal hope and urged those present to live “rooted and grounded” in the promise of new life.

Pope Francis followed the meditations from Gemelli Hospital in Rome, where he was hospitalized for 38 days with bilateral pneumonia. He was discharged on March 23, 2025, and died the following month on April 21 at 7:35 a.m. local time at the Santa Marta guesthouse, his residence in the Vatican.

In the latter part of his pontificate, Francis usually chose to do the annual spiritual exercises in private. From 2014–2020, he moved them from the Vatican to a retreat house in Ariccia, Italy, about 16 miles south of Rome.

From atheist to bishop

Born in 1974, Varden has an unusual profile among preachers of curial retreats. He has recounted on several occasions his personal journey from atheism to the Christian faith, a path that culminated in his entry into the Cistercian Order after his formation in the British Isles. Years later, he returned to his native country, where he was appointed bishop of Trondheim.

In addition to his monastic life, he has a well-known public profile as a writer on spirituality.

His works have achieved widespread international dissemination, including: “Entering into the Twofold Mystery: On Christian Conversion,” in which he invites readers to reorient their lives toward God as one goes through both pain and joy, and “Healing Wounds,” in which he combines theological reflection with personal experience. This style, characterized by dialogue with contemporary humanity, is one of the reasons why his appointment has created interest within ecclesial circles.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Hannah Brockhaus contributed to this report.

Pope Leo XIV urged Catholics to switch off their cellphones during Lent to create room for silence and prayer, while also calling Sunday for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine as the war approaches its fourth year.

“Let us create space for silence by turning off televisions, radios, and cellphones for a while,” the pope said during his Angelus address. “Let us meditate on the word of God, approach the sacraments, and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, who speaks to us in our heart. Let us also listen to one another — in our families, workplaces, and communities.”

The pope invited the faithful to view Lent as “a luminous path” of “prayer, fasting, and almsgiving,” saying these practices can renew cooperation with God “in the crafting of our lives as a unique masterpiece,” allowing the Lord to “cleanse the stains and heal the wounds of sin” until life reaches “the fullness of love — the only source of true happiness.”

Leo warned that Lent is “a demanding journey” and that there is “always the risk of discouragement or of being drawn to easier paths to satisfaction, such as wealth, fame, and power.” Such temptations, he said, “are merely poor substitutes for the joy for which we were created,” and ultimately leave people “dissatisfied, restless, and empty.”

He cited St. Paul VI’s teaching that penance, “far from impoverishing our humanity,” instead “enriches, purifies, and strengthens it,” guiding believers toward a horizon that has “as its aim love and surrender to God.”

The pope also urged care for those on the margins: “Let us dedicate time to those who are alone, especially the elderly, the poor, and the sick,” he said, adding that by giving up what is superfluous, “we can share what we save with those in need.”

After the Angelus, Leo turned to Ukraine, marking four years since the start of the war. “Peace cannot be postponed,” he said, calling it “an urgent necessity that must find a home in our hearts and be translated into responsible decisions.”

“My heartfelt thoughts remain focused on the tragic situation unfolding before the eyes of the whole world: so many victims, so many lives and families shattered, such immense destruction, such unspeakable suffering!” he said, adding: “Every war is truly a wound inflicted upon the entire human family.”

He renewed his appeal “that the weapons fall silent,” that “the bombings cease,” and that “an immediate ceasefire be reached,” urging dialogue to be strengthened “to pave the way toward peace.” He invited prayers for “the embattled people of Ukraine” and for all who suffer from war, “that the long-awaited gift of peace may shine upon our days.”

He concluded the Angelus by entrusting the Lenten journey of the faithful to Mary: “We entrust our Lenten journey to the Virgin Mary, our mother who always assists her children in times of trial.”

This story was first published in two parts by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, and has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday visited Rome’s Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in the central Castro Pretorio neighborhood, steps from Termini station, telling parishioners that true freedom “is fulfilled by saying yes to God” and urging the community to be a visible sign of charity in an area marked by sharp social contrasts.

The visit was part of the pope’s Lenten round of pastoral stops at parishes across Rome.

In his homily, the pope invited Catholics to rediscover baptism as a source of freedom and new life, describing Lent as an “intense” season that offers an opportunity to “rediscover” the richness of the sacrament and to live as people renewed through Jesus’ incarnation, death, and resurrection.

Reflecting on readings from Genesis and the Gospel account of the temptations, Leo said they shed light on baptism as a gift “that encounters our freedom.” The Genesis narrative, he added, is not primarily about “a prohibition, as is often believed,” but reveals the human person as “free to recognize and welcome the otherness of the Creator.”

He warned that the serpent instead “suggests the presumption of being able to erase all difference between creatures and the Creator,” enticing with “the illusion of becoming like God.”

The pope said the answer to the question — whether life is fulfilled by saying “yes” to God or by freeing oneself from him — is found in Christ. Citing Gaudium et spes, he said that in the mystery of the incarnate Word, the mystery of the human person finds true light. Jesus, he explained, rejects temptation and “shows us the new man, the free man,” an epiphany of freedom realized by saying yes to God.

Leo added that this “new humanity” is born from the baptismal font, calling baptism an inner voice that urges believers to conform themselves to Jesus, freeing their liberty so it finds its fullness in love of God and neighbor. Against a view of freedom as individual power, he proposed freedom expressed in self-giving: not the pursuit of one’s own power, but love that is given — “and that makes us all brothers and sisters.”

Turning to the local reality around Termini, the pope noted that within a few meters one can feel “the contradictions of our time”: the comfort of travelers alongside those without shelter, “many potentialities for good” as well as expanding violence, the desire to work honestly alongside illicit trade in drugs and prostitution.

“Your parish is called to take on these realities,” he told the community, encouraging them to be “leaven of the Gospel” in the neighborhood and a sign of closeness and charity. He also thanked the Salesians serving the parish for keeping “a small flame of light and hope” alive.

Leo arrived at the parish complex shortly after 8:15 a.m., welcomed by applause and ringing bells. A banner on the church façade read: “Welcome, Pope Leo XIV.” Before heading to the sacristy, he briefly greeted the faithful and, passing journalists, said: “Let us pray for peace.” He later added spontaneously: “Thank you for this joy. How beautiful to find oneself in a place where everyone is welcome.”

Later, during an encounter with the parish pastoral council, the pope made a lighthearted remark about his youth, saying that before entering the Augustinian order he had visited Salesian communities as well.

“When I was young, before entering the Augustinians, I also made a visit to the Salesian community,” he said. “They came in second place — sorry!” drawing laughter from those present.

Smiling, he added that something of the Salesian charism has remained close to him. In his first 10 months as pope, he said, he has visited more Salesian communities than Augustinian ones, emphasizing his affection for the congregation and its educational and pastoral work.

“Something remained in my heart, united to you, in the Salesian community,” he said, praising what he called God’s providence in the Salesian vocation of service to young people and educational ministry across the world.

Leo entered the Augustinian novitiate on Sept. 1, 1977, before his priestly ordination, according to ACI Prensa.

This story was first published in two parts by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, and has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

ROME — Just days after four of Europe’s most senior bishops called on the continent to “rediscover its soul,” scholars gathered at the German Embassy to the Holy See on Feb. 17 to honor the man who spent his entire career making that very argument: Joseph Ratzinger.

Benedict XVI — as a theologian, as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and as the 265th pope — never stopped insisting that Europe could not survive as a mere economic and political project without its Christian foundations.

In a landmark 2005 lecture at Subiaco, delivered the day before St. John Paul II died, then-Cardinal Ratzinger warned that what offends people of other religions is “not the mention of God” in Europe’s founding documents but rather “the attempt to build the human community absolutely without God.”

That message was echoed on Feb. 13 when the presidents of the French, Italian, German, and Polish bishops’ conferences issued a joint appeal urging Europe to recover its spiritual identity in a world they described as “torn and polarized.” The bishops invoked the EU’s Catholic founding fathers — Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer, and Alcide De Gasperi — and warned that Europe “cannot be reduced to an economic and financial market” without betraying their vision.”

“And he was never fed up with it,” said Giovanni Maria Vian, a historian and the former editor-in-chief of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, describing Ratzinger’s decades-long engagement with Europe’s crisis of identity at the conference organized ahead of the 100th anniversary of his birth on April 16, 2027.

‘Christianity helped to bring all of them together’

The event, titled “Ricordando Benedetto XVI” (“Remembering Benedict XVI”), also served as the Rome presentation for a forthcoming exhibition dedicated to the late pope at the Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art in the Italian city of Pordenone, running from Feb. 21 to April 12.

“One of the greatest examples was that Cardinal Ratzinger brought the ancient Holy Inquisition” — referring to what is now the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith — “as a Roman institution to the whole world,” Vian told EWTN News, describing Ratzinger’s impact in and beyond Europe.

Vian said that after Benedict XVI resigned in 2013, he visited the pope emeritus and found that Ratzinger “followed everything” from Church affairs to global politics and was “curious and attentive” also to the secular world.

Father Mariusz Kuciński, director of the Ratzinger Study Centre in Bydgoszcz, Poland, told EWTN News that the relevance of the late pope is evident in the continued volume of books being reprinted and new institutes being established across Germany, Europe, and other parts of the world.

“Ratzinger truly fought a battle” both intellectually and in the form of “strong pastoral action, to help Europe regain its nature,” Kuciński said.

“It is not that Europe is perfectly Christian, because it never was,” the priest said, but Ratzinger struggled for the continent to “reclaim its Christian roots.”

According to Kuciński, Ratzinger understood that Europe was built on the Ten Commandments, Greek philosophy, and Roman law. When those three foundations are separated, “nothing remains,” the priest warned, stressing that “Christianity helped to bring all of them together.”

“In our difficult era, we need a clear and concrete teaching” just like Benedict’s, Kuciński said.

A ‘creative minority’

Ratzinger’s concern for Europe spanned his entire career and produced some of his most memorable interventions, such as a constant call for Catholics to be a “creative minority.”

In his 2004 book “Without Roots,” co-authored with Marcello Pera, then-president of the Italian Senate, the Bavarian cardinal argued that “Europe is not a continent that can be comprehended neatly in geographical terms; rather it is a cultural and historical concept.”

Ratzinger warned of a “self-hatred in the Western world that is strange and that can be considered pathological; yes, the West is making a praiseworthy attempt to be completely open to understanding foreign values, but it no longer loves itself.”

“In order to survive, Europe needs a new — and certainly a critical and humble — acceptance of itself, that is, if it wants to survive.”

In his lecture at the convent of St. Scholastica in Subiaco, Italy, the theologian famously connected this warning with “a proposal to the secularists.”

“The attempt, carried to the extreme, to manage human affairs disdaining God completely leads us increasingly to the edge of the abyss, to man’s ever-greater isolation from reality.”

The late pope called on Europe, and the West more broadly, to “reverse the axiom of the Enlightenment and say: Even one who does not succeed in finding the way of accepting God, should, nevertheless, seek to live and to direct his life ‘veluti si Deus daretur,’ as if God existed.”

In a private exchange with priests of the Diocese of Rome on Thursday, Pope Leo XIV responded to four questions, advising them on prayer, study, and priestly fraternity.

The off-camera moment took place after Leo gave a public speech to the priests, inviting them to “rekindle the fire” of their ministry.

“The first priest to speak was a young man who asked the pope how the Gospel can be embodied in the world of young people,” according to a priest present at the Feb. 19 meeting in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall.

The priest told ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News, that Leo’s answer to this question was: “First of all, what is needed is the witness of the priest; and then, when meeting young people, they must broaden their horizons to reach as many young people as possible. For this, it is necessary to rediscover the value of communion.”

Responding to a second question, the pope recommended knowing well “the community in which one lives and works. It is necessary to know the reality well. To love your community, you must know it. Therefore, a real shared effort is needed to understand it better and thus face together all the challenges that arise.”

“The pope also invited us to use our brains more and not artificial intelligence [AI] to prepare homilies, as he now sees and hears happening,” the priest said. “And here the pope made a strong recommendation regarding prayer: We priests must pray — remain with the Lord, that is — not reduce everything to the breviary or to a few brief moments of prayer, but truly learn again to listen to the Lord.”

The third question was more reflective: Today, as priests, we are unable to rejoice in the success of another fellow priest.

The pope responded that “we are all human, but we should set a good example, especially the example of priestly fraternity.”

He dwelt at length on how to cultivate priestly friendship. The pope also reminded them to continue studying. “It must be ongoing study; we must always stay up to date. But the fundamental thing is to cultivate priestly friendship, priestly fraternity,” the priest from Rome said.

The final question concerned elderly priests and their loneliness. According to the priest, Leo’s response “reaffirmed the need for fraternity, for the joy of being together. We must give thanks, truly live gratitude for the fact of being priests, from the day of our ordination every single day, and thank God for this great gift, and live the priesthood with gratitude. And here, a great deal of humility is also required.”

“Personally, I was happy,” the priest concluded. “We greatly appreciated the pope for a very, very concrete speech.”

This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

This spring, the Vatican will debut a simultaneous translation system assisted by artificial intelligence, allowing people to follow liturgical celebrations in St. Peter’s Basilica in real time in up to 60 languages.

For the first time, the faithful will be able to follow the liturgy in their own language via their smartphones.

Pilgrims cross the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican in 2025. | Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

The service will operate directly in the device’s browser, without the need to download any applications or use any accessories. In this way, Mass attendees will be able to understand the readings, chants, and prayers in their own language as the celebration unfolds.

The new system is designed to be easy to use. QR codes will be placed at the entrances and designated points within the church, allowing users to connect to a website where they can follow the liturgy with real-time translation, in both audio and text formats.

The system relies on the simultaneous interpretation capabilities of Lara, an artificial intelligence developed by Translated, a world leader in AI-based language solutions, in collaboration with Carnegie-AI LLC, a company specializing in simultaneous interpretation technologies.

Antonio Autorino, head of communications at the Fabric of St. Peter, confirmed to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, that the service will be operational this spring. For now, tests have already begun with selected groups of the faithful to assess its functionality.

The initiative, spearheaded by the Fabric of St. Peter in collaboration with the Dicastery for Communication and the technology company Translated, was presented Feb. 16 by the archpriest of the basilica, Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, along with a series of liturgical initiatives and cultural projects in which technology has played a crucial role.

Cardinal Mauro Gambetti is the archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica. | Credit: Daniel Ibañez/EWTN News

“St. Peter’s Basilica has welcomed the faithful of all nations and languages ​​for centuries. By making available a tool that helps many understand the words of the liturgy, we want to serve the mission that defines the heart of the Catholic Church, universal by its very vocation,” Gambetti emphasized.

The new service is being launched four centuries after the basilica was consecrated in 1626 by Pope Urban VIII, after more than a century of construction. The first stone of the new church was laid on April 18, 1506, after Pope Julius II decided to build a new basilica due to the deterioration of the building constructed during the time of Roman emperor Constantine (d. 337).

Another example of how technology is serving the Vatican is the new digital access system that will be used to better manage the flow of tourists and pilgrims who enter St. Peter’s Basilica every day. Called SmartPass, it is integrated into the basilica’s official website along with a network of sensors that will allow for real-time monitoring of visitor presence and improved security.

In addition, the Vatican has also unveiled a revolutionary technological project with sensors installed in the foundations, facade, dome, and subsoil that will allow for real-time monitoring of the basilica’s structural condition.

The project, dubbed “Beyond the Visible” and financed by the Italian oil company Eni, combines high-precision geophysical, topographic, and structural technologies.

“We have created an integrated information process that will allow us, from today and in the future, to monitor all movements that may occur in this monumental structure and, at the same time, support the technical experts who must make decisions,” explained Claudio Granata, Eni’s head of these projects, during the official presentation of the commemorative initiatives at the Vatican.

A crew works with the system to monitor the slightest movement in St. Peter’s Basilica. | Credit: Daniel Ibañez/EWTN News

Thanks to this system, it will be possible to detect millimeter displacements and inclinations on the order of ten-thousandths of a degree as well as obtain a complete map of the architecture and geology of the terrain beneath the basilica, with the ability to consult data in real time.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

The Priestly Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) says it will proceed with plans to consecrate new bishops on July 1 without a pontifical mandate, despite a Vatican warning that the move would represent a “decisive rupture” of communion and bring “grave consequences” for the group.

In a letter dated Feb. 18 — Ash Wednesday — Father Davide Pagliarani, the SSPX superior general, told Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, that the traditionalist group could not accept either the Vatican’s proposed framework for renewed dialogue or a delay of the announced consecration date.

The SSPX, which exclusively celebrates the Traditional Latin Mass, maintains doctrinal differences with certain teachings and reforms of the Second Vatican Council, particularly with regard to religious freedom and the Church’s approach to other faiths.

“I cannot accept the perspective and objectives in the name of which the dicastery offers to resume dialogue in the present situation, nor indeed the postponement of the date of 1 July,” Pagliarani wrote.

The Vatican’s doctrinal office had recently proposed what it described as a “specifically theological” path of dialogue aimed at identifying the minimum conditions for full communion with the Catholic Church but made the opening of that process contingent on suspending the planned July 1 consecrations. The Holy See warned that “the ordination of bishops without a mandate from the Holy Father” would “imply a decisive rupture of ecclesial communion (schism)” with “grave consequences” for the fraternity as a whole.

Under canon law, a bishop who consecrates another bishop without a papal mandate and the person who receives that consecration incur automatic (“latae sententiae”) excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See, a penalty that was publicly declared in the SSPX’s 1988 rupture with Rome.

SSPX argues consecrations would not be ‘schismatic’

Alongside Pagliarani’s letter, the SSPX circulated a doctrinal statement disputing the Vatican’s characterization of unauthorized consecrations as necessarily schismatic.

“The society defends itself against any accusation of schism and, relying on all traditional theology and the Church’s constant teaching, maintains that an episcopal consecration not authorized by the Holy See does not constitute a rupture of communion — provided it is not accompanied by schismatic intent or the conferral of jurisdiction,” the SSPX statement said.

In that statement, the society argued that schism consists in assuming jurisdiction independently of the pope’s will and insisted that bishops consecrated as SSPX auxiliaries would “assume no jurisdiction against the will of the pope and will in no way be schismatic.”

‘A genuine case of conscience’

In his letter, Pagliarani said the current context — marked by public warnings about sanctions — undermines the serenity he believes is required for meaningful dialogue.

He wrote that the SSPX and the Holy See “both know in advance” they cannot reach doctrinal agreement “particularly regarding the fundamental orientations adopted since the Second Vatican Council,” describing the disagreement as “a genuine case of conscience” rooted, in the SSPX’s view, in a “rupture with the tradition of the Church.”

Pagliarani also questioned the feasibility of a process intended to determine together “the minimum requirements for full communion,” arguing that such criteria are the Church’s to define and not something to be established jointly in dialogue.

The letter, published by the society, was signed by members of its general council, including bishops Alfonso de Galarreta and Bernard Fellay.

A conflict stretching back to 1988

The Vatican warning revives memories of the 1988 crisis, when Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without a pontifical mandate in defiance of Pope John Paul II. The Holy See declared the bishops excommunicated at the time; Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications of the surviving bishops in 2009 as a gesture toward reconciliation.

In subsequent years, Pope Francis granted SSPX priests faculties to hear confessions validly and to witness marriages under certain conditions, while the society’s canonical status has remained irregular and short of full recognition in the Church.

The SSPX announced Feb. 2 that it intended to consecrate new bishops on July 1, a date that coincides with the anniversary of the 1988 decree declaring Lefebvre’s excommunication.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Pope Leo XIV encouraged young priests on Wednesday to continue to serve the Lord with enthusiasm, even if they do not immediately see the results of their work, and to share their difficulties with other priests.

“Above all, I urge you never to close yourselves off: Don’t be afraid to talk to others, even about your fatigue and your crises, especially with brother priests whom you believe can help you,” the pope said in a Feb. 19 meeting with clergy of the Diocese of Rome.

During the meeting in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, the Holy Father exhorted Rome’s priests to pursue greater creativity in their service and not fall into passivity.

He also urged them to renew the proclamation of the Gospel, to work together in communion, and to remain close to young people.

Addressing young priests specifically, Leo noted that they “often experience firsthand the potential and struggles of their generation and of this era.”

“In a more difficult and less rewarding social and ecclesial context, there is a risk of quickly exhausting one’s energy, accumulating frustration, and falling into loneliness. I urge you to be faithful every day in your relationship with the Lord and to work with enthusiasm even if you do not see the fruits of your apostolate now,” he added.

The pope’s advice to all of the clergy was to “rekindle the fire” of their ministry, especially when they experience fatigue, discouragement, or spiritual and moral decline.

“Pressed by sudden cultural changes and the scenarios in which our mission takes place, sometimes assailed by fatigue and the weight of routine, or discouraged by the growing disaffection with faith and religious practice, we feel the need for this fire to be fed and rekindled,” he said.

Putting evangelization back at the center

To achieve this rekindling of their priestly vocations, Leo first emphasized the urgency of “proclaiming the Gospel anew” and the need to change direction in the ordinary pastoral life of parishes, particularly in the relationship between Christian initiation and evangelization.

He explained that it is not enough merely to ensure the administration of the sacraments — as proposed by the classic model of ordinary pastoral care — but that it is essential to place proclamation back at the center, “seeking ways and means to help people reconnect with the promise of Jesus.”

The pope stressed that Christian initiation must be reexamined and affirmed that “we need to experiment with other ways of transmitting the faith, even outside the traditional paths, in order to try to engage children, young people, and families in new ways.”

The Holy Father also advised the priests of his diocese to work together, avoiding solitary action and the temptation of self-referentiality, and to foster greater coordination among neighboring parishes.

Welcoming young people

The pontiff turned his attention to the challenges facing young people, inviting the clergy of Rome to try “understanding and interpreting the profound existential unease that inhabits them, their confusion, their many difficulties, as well as the phenomena that involve them in the virtual world and the symptoms of a worrying aggressiveness, which sometimes leads to violence.”

He also asked them to remain attentive to young people, to be present, to welcome them, “to share a little of their lives,” and to engage in dialogue with local institutions.

At the end of his address, Leo spoke especially to the youngest priests. Aware of the reality they face, marked by a social and ecclesial context that is “more difficult and less rewarding,” he warned that there is a risk of “quickly exhausting one’s energies, accumulating frustration, and falling into loneliness.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, and has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Pope Leo XIV will travel July 4 to the southern Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, a major migrant landing point that has become a symbol of Europe’s migration emergency as tens of thousands of migrants can arrive there in a single year after perilous sea crossings.

The Vatican on Thursday published a calendar of the pope’s Italian pastoral visits through Aug. 22, including stops in Pompei, Naples, Acerra, Pavia, Assisi, and Rimini.

Lampedusa — a small Italian island south of Sicily — gained worldwide attention as a flashpoint of Mediterranean migration and as a place of mourning for those who died trying to reach Europe. Pope Francis chose Lampedusa as the destination of his first official visit outside Rome on July 8, 2013, when he prayed for victims lost at sea and decried indifference toward migrants.

Leo’s planned visit also comes after he has spoken publicly about the U.S. migration debate, supporting a letter by the U.S. Catholic bishops last year opposing the mass deportation policy of the Trump administration and calling for humane treatment of migrants.

The pope’s Italy visits through Aug. 22

According to the schedule released Feb. 19, Leo’s upcoming pastoral visits include:

— May 8: Pompei, marking the anniversary of his election, with Mass and a traditional act of supplication to Our Lady; later that day, Naples, meeting clergy and religious in the cathedral and addressing the public in Piazza del Plebiscito

— May 23: Acerra, meeting with faithful in the “Terra dei Fuochi” area

— June 20: Pavia, home to the shrine housing the remains of St. Augustine

— July 4: Lampedusa (morning)

— Aug. 6: Assisi (Santa Maria degli Angeli), meeting young people gathered for a centenary observance connected to St. Francis’ “Transitus,” and celebrating Mass

— Aug. 22: Rimini, meeting participants in the annual Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples and celebrating Mass with the local faithful

Local Church leaders welcomed the announced visits, with Naples Archbishop Domenico Battaglia, Pompei Archbishop Tommaso Caputo, and Acerra Bishop Antonio Di Donna describing the Campania stops as a sign of pastoral concern for a region marked by both hope and hardship — including environmental degradation tied to illegal dumping and burning in the “Terra dei Fuochi.”

Rimini Meeting Foundation President Bernhard Scholz also expressed anticipation for Leo’s Aug. 22 visit, saying the pope’s call to build places of love, peace, and reconciliation resonates with the meeting’s mission.

This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News, and has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Pope Leo XIV led the traditional Ash Wednesday penitential procession on Rome’s Aventine Hill on Feb. 18, walking with clergy and faithful to the Basilica of Santa Sabina, where he celebrated Mass marking the start of Lent.

Reflecting on the meaning of the ashes traditionally imposed on the heads of the faithful, Leo recalled a 1966 catechesis by St. Paul VI, who described the public celebration of the rite as a “severe and striking penitential ceremony” and as “a realistic pedagogy,” intended to cut through modern illusions and widespread pessimism that can reduce life to “the metaphysics of the absurd and of nothingness.”

“Today, we can recognize that his words were prophetic as we perceive in the ashes imposed on us the weight of a world that is ablaze, of entire cities destroyed by war,” Leo said.

He said that devastation is echoed in “the ashes of international law and justice among peoples,” “the ashes of entire ecosystems and harmony among peoples,” “the ashes of critical thinking and ancient local wisdom,” and “the ashes of that sense of the sacred that dwells in every creature.”

In the same homily, the pope urged Catholics to treat Lent as a time when the Church is renewed as a true community, even as modern society finds it harder to come together in communion.

Leo stressed that sin is never only private because it shapes and is shaped by the real and digital environments people inhabit. “Naturally, sin is always personal, but it takes shape in the real and virtual contexts of life… and often within real economic, cultural, political, and even religious ‘structures of sin,’” he said. Against idolatry, he added, Scripture calls Christians to dare to be free and to rediscover freedom through “an exodus, a journey,” rather than remaining “paralyzed, rigid, or complacent.”

The pope also pointed to what he described as a renewed attentiveness among young people to Ash Wednesday’s call to accountability. “Young people especially understand clearly that it is possible to live a just lifestyle, and that there should be accountability for wrongdoings in the Church and in the world,” he said, urging Catholics to “start where we can, with those who are around us,” and to embrace “the missionary significance of Lent” for “the many restless people of goodwill” seeking genuine renewal.

The pope also highlighted the ancient Roman tradition of the Lenten station churches, which begins each year with Santa Sabina. “The ancient Roman tradition of the Lenten ‘stationes’ — which begins today with the first station — is instructive,” he said, noting that it points both to moving, as pilgrims, and to pausing — ‘statio’ — at the memories of the martyrs on which Rome’s basilicas were built.

This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News, and has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Grieving wives, mothers, and daughters of Ukrainian soldiers held prisoner in Russia found a moment of consolation and hope on Wednesday when several of them briefly greeted Pope Leo XIV after the general audience.

With mild winter temperatures returning to Rome, the audience was once again held outdoors in St. Peter’s Square, where the women were able to approach the pope at the close of the catechesis.

Traveling with the group was Kateryna Muzlova, director of the charitable foundation Heart in Action, along with 11 other Ukrainian women representing nongovernmental organizations and associations that support the families of prisoners of war and the missing.

“Shaking the pope’s hand, feeling his closeness to all the families who suffer because of the war, and entrusting him with all our concern has been a great opportunity to put our hearts into action and fill them with hope and deep spiritual consolation,” Muzlova said in remarks to official Vatican media.

Muzlova is known particularly for “Voices of Captives,” an initiative that seeks to bring greater visibility to the plight of Ukrainian prisoners of war and to keep public attention focused on those who remain in captivity.

Her own father, Oleh, was captured by Russian forces while defending the city of Mariupol and was freed after three years in prison on June 19. Since his release, the two have continued their efforts on behalf of Ukrainian families seeking reunion with husbands, sons, and fathers still held by Russian authorities.

Muzlova also noted that about a year ago she attended one of Pope Francis’ final general audiences; a few days later, she was able to speak by phone with her father for the first time after his release.

Also present at the meeting was Andrii Yurash, Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See.

Symbolic gifts for the pope

During the encounter, the Ukrainian delegation presented Pope Leo XIV with a St. Nicholas icon made with amber from northern Ukraine, as well as a painting titled “Guardian Angel” by artist Olha Sypelyk depicting a sleeping child while an angel watches not only over the home but also over the child’s future. Sypelyk auctions off her works to help people in vulnerable situations.

The group also gave the pope a portrait of himself painted by a 12-year-old girl — the daughter of Serhii Nazareskul, a Ukrainian soldier missing on the front lines. The girl lives in Odesa and continues attending school and developing her artistic talent despite frequent power outages.

Among the women present — many holding Ukrainian flags — were representatives of charitable organizations assisting relatives of those missing or detained in Russia, including Valentyna Shcherbyna, the mother of a student captured in Kherson and a member of an association that supports families with loved ones in Russian prisons.

Men also participated in the delegation, including Oleh Litvynenko of the Veterans Hub Odessa regiment. His son, Mykyta, died in June 2022, and his remains were recovered in February 2025.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.