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Pope Leo XIV tries to head off claims that chatbots are sentient beings with rights.
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Kristen Ziccarelli
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Tag: Pope Leo XIV
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Opinion | AI Is a Tool, Not a Soul
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Pope Leo XIV reveals a very wholesome list of favorite films. You expected different?
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The “Purge” movies are missing from the list, as are the entries in the “Saw” franchise. There are no “Evil Dead” titles. “The Exorcist” is suspiciously absent.
The list, in this case, is the favorite four films of Pope Leo XIV, f.k.a. Robert Francis Prevost of Chicago. The pontiff released the list via video ahead of a planned meeting Saturday with luminaries from the world of cinema.
To avoid the risk of being played off the stage by the academy’s orchestra, let’s share the winners quickly:
1. “It’s a Wonderful Life,” 1946
2. “The Sound of Music,” 1965
3. “Ordinary People,” 1980
4. “Life Is Beautiful,” 1997That’s it. No “The Agony and the Ecstasy.” No “Pope Joan” or “Spotlight” or “Conclave,” for obvious reasons. No “Sister Act” or “Oh, God!” or any of the associated sequels, for less obvious reasons.
As a matter of fact, not a single comedy at all, much less a goofy comedy. And on either the drama or comedy fronts, the pope definitely could have chosen at least one flick set in his former neck of the woods. Think “The Blues Brothers,” “Home Alone,” “The Untouchables,” “High Fidelity,” “Eight Men Out” or “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” (Think “Chicago,” for goodness’ sake.)
Pope Leo will apparently be meeting Saturday with Hollywood types including, Variety reports, actors Monica Bellucci, Cate Blanchett, Alison Brie, Dave Franco, Viggo Mortensen and Chris Pine, plus directors Spike Lee, George Miller, Giuseppe Tornatore and Gus Van Sant.
Seems the pope “has expressed his desire to deepen dialogue with the World of Cinema, and in particular with actors and directors, exploring the possibilities that artistic creativity offers to the mission of the Church and the promotion of human values,” according to a statement obtained by CNN.
That sounds all well and good, and a person can’t really go wrong with the movies on the pope’s list — two of the four are best picture Oscar winners, and the other two are best picture nominees.
That said, let’s shed a tiny tear for the exclusion of “Bruce Almighty,” if only because Morgan Freeman could use a little papal recognition too.
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Christie D’Zurilla
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Pope Leo calls for ‘deep reflection’ about treatment of detained migrants in the United States
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Pope Leo XIV called for “deep reflection” in the United States about the treatment of migrants held in detention, saying that “many people who have lived for years and years and years, never causing problems, have been deeply affected by what is going on right now.”Related video above: Pope intervenes in US abortion debate by raising what it really means to be ‘pro-life’The Chicago-born pope was responding Tuesday to a range of geopolitical questions from reporters outside the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo, including what kind of spiritual rights migrants in U.S. custody should have, U.S. military attacks on suspected drug traffickers off Venezuela and the fragile ceasefire in the Middle East. Leo underlined that scripture emphasizes the question that will be posed at the end of the world: “How did you receive the foreigner, did you receive him and welcome him, or not? I think there is a deep reflection that needs to be made about what is happening.” He said, “The spiritual rights of people who have been detained should also be considered,” and he called on authorities to allow pastoral workers access to the detained migrants. “Many times they’ve been separated from their families. No one knows what’s happening, but their own spiritual needs should be attended to,” Leo said.Leo last month urged labor union leaders visiting from Chicago to advocate for immigrants and welcome minorities into their ranks.Asked about the lethal attacks on suspected drug traffickers off Venezuela, the pontiff said the military action was “increasing tension,” noting that they were coming even closer to the coastline.”The thing is to seek dialogue,” the pope said.On the Middle East, Leo acknowledged that the first phase of the peace accord between Israel and Hamas remains “very fragile,” and said that the parties need to find a way forward on future governance “and how you can guarantee the rights of all peoples.”Asked about Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, the pope described the settlement issue as “complex,” adding: “Israel has said one thing, then it’s done another sometimes. We need to try to work together for justice for all peoples.”Pope Leo will receive Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the Vatican on Thursday. At the end of November, he will make his first trip as Pope to Turkey and Lebanon.
Pope Leo XIV called for “deep reflection” in the United States about the treatment of migrants held in detention, saying that “many people who have lived for years and years and years, never causing problems, have been deeply affected by what is going on right now.”
Related video above: Pope intervenes in US abortion debate by raising what it really means to be ‘pro-life’
The Chicago-born pope was responding Tuesday to a range of geopolitical questions from reporters outside the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo, including what kind of spiritual rights migrants in U.S. custody should have, U.S. military attacks on suspected drug traffickers off Venezuela and the fragile ceasefire in the Middle East.
Leo underlined that scripture emphasizes the question that will be posed at the end of the world: “How did you receive the foreigner, did you receive him and welcome him, or not? I think there is a deep reflection that needs to be made about what is happening.”
He said, “The spiritual rights of people who have been detained should also be considered,” and he called on authorities to allow pastoral workers access to the detained migrants. “Many times they’ve been separated from their families. No one knows what’s happening, but their own spiritual needs should be attended to,” Leo said.
Leo last month urged labor union leaders visiting from Chicago to advocate for immigrants and welcome minorities into their ranks.
Asked about the lethal attacks on suspected drug traffickers off Venezuela, the pontiff said the military action was “increasing tension,” noting that they were coming even closer to the coastline.
“The thing is to seek dialogue,” the pope said.
On the Middle East, Leo acknowledged that the first phase of the peace accord between Israel and Hamas remains “very fragile,” and said that the parties need to find a way forward on future governance “and how you can guarantee the rights of all peoples.”
Asked about Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, the pope described the settlement issue as “complex,” adding: “Israel has said one thing, then it’s done another sometimes. We need to try to work together for justice for all peoples.”
Pope Leo will receive Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the Vatican on Thursday. At the end of November, he will make his first trip as Pope to Turkey and Lebanon.
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Pope Leo XIV meets with survivors of clergy sexual abuse and advocates
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Pope Leo XIV met with an organization of clergy abuse survivors and advocates for the first time on Monday, marking a difference from his predecessors, who had kept activist and advocacy organizations at arm’s length.
The meeting, which included four victims and two advocates with Ending Clergy Abuse, a global organization of abuse victims and activists, lasted about an hour.
Gemma Hickey, a Canadian survivor and president of the group’s board of directors, said the meeting with the pontiff was a “deeply meaningful conversation” that reflected a “shared commitment to justice, healing and real change.”
“Survivors have long sought a seat at the table, and today we felt heard,” Hickey said in a statement.
AP Photo/Andrew Medichini
The group has been campaigning to universalize the U.S. church’s zero-tolerance abuse policy in the Catholic Church. Among other things, the policy calls for the permanent removal from the ministry of any priest who abuses a child.
Leo acknowledged “there was great resistance” to the idea of a universal zero-tolerance law, said Tim Law, co-founder of Ending Clergy Abuse. But Law said he told Leo the group wanted to work with him and the Vatican to move the idea forward.
Hickey told reporters Leo met with the group in his office at the Vatican’s apostolic palace, took pictures with them, and listened carefully.
“I left the meeting with hope,” Janet Aguti, a Ugandan survivor who was also at the meeting, told reporters, according to the Reuters news agency. “It is a big step for us.”
Leo has met before with clergy abuse survivors, and was the point person for listening to victims in the Peruvian bishops’ conference when he was a bishop there. But history’s first U.S.-born pope acknowledged the significance of meeting with the group as an activist organization, members said during a press conference.
AP Photo/Andrew Medichini
Survivors said Leo told them he was still coming to grips with the enormity of the church’s scandals after becoming pope in May.
“I think he is still in a phase where he is trying to find out how to best address these issues,” said Matthias Katsch.
The late Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI also met with individual victims, but had kept activist and advocacy organizations at arm’s length.
In May 2024, Francis sat down with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell for a wide-ranging interview, and she asked him whether, in his view, the church had done enough to address the sexual abuse scandal.
“It must continue to do more,” replied Francis. “Unfortunately, the tragedy of the abuses is enormous. And against this, an upright conscience and not only to not permit it, but to put in place the conditions so that it does not happen.”
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Former Satanic priest and a
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Pope Leo XIV has created seven new saints, bringing the total number of people who posthumously received this title to nine since he was appointed to lead the Catholic Church earlier this year. Among the latest group honored was an attorney who at one point became a Satanic priest, before denouncing Satan and returning to his Christian faith.
Bells rang out over St. Peter’s Square for the ceremony on Sunday, which had an audience that the Vatican estimated at some 70,000 people. There, the pope canonized that ex-occultist priest, Bartolo Longo, alongside a lay catechist from Papua New Guinea, an archbishop killed in the Armenian genocide, a Venezuelan “doctor of the poor” and three nuns who dedicated their lives to the poor and sick.
The former Satanic priest Longo, an Italian lawyer born in 1841 and who died in 1926, rejoined Catholicism and went on to found the Pontifical Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeii.
Claudia Greco / REUTERS
“Today we have before us seven witnesses, the new Saints, who, with God’s grace, kept the lamp of faith burning,” Leo told the crowd gathered at the Vatican during his homily. “May their intercession assist us in our trials and their example inspire us in our shared vocation to holiness.”
Huge portraits of the seven were unfurled from windows over the square as Leo, the first U.S. pope, emerged from St. Peter’s Basilica dressed in a ceremonial white cassock with a miter on his head, preceded by white-clad bishops and cardinals.
Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints — the Vatican department charged with beatification and canonization — read aloud profiles of the seven to applause from the crowd.
With Leo’s reading of the canonization formula, they were officially declared saints.
In his homily, Leo acknowledged the importance of the world’s “material, cultural, scientific and artistic treasures” but said “their true meaning is lost without faith,” according to the Vatican. Describing the new saints as either “martyrs for their faith,” “evangelizers and missionaries,” “charismatic founders” of congregations or “benefactors of humanity,” the pope also encouraged his followers to lean on their faith at times when the suffering around them could spark doubt.
“When we are ‘crucified’ by pain and violence, by hatred and war, Christ is already there, on the cross for us and with us,” he said. “There is no cry that God does not console; there is no tear that is far from His heart.”
Rite of canonization
The rite of canonization on Sunday was the second for the former Robert Prevost since he was made leader of the Catholic Church on May 8.
Last month, he proclaimed as saints Italians Carlo Acutis — a teenager dubbed “God’s Influencer” who spread the faith online before his death at age 15 in 2006 — and Pier Giorgio Frassati, considered a model of charity who died in 1925, aged 24.
Canonization is the final step towards sainthood in the Catholic Church, following beatification.
Three conditions are required — most crucially that the individual has performed at least two miracles. He or she must be deceased for at least five years and have led an exemplary Christian life.
Martyrs, humanitarians
Among those made saints Sunday were Peter To Rot, a lay catechist from Papua New Guinea killed during the Japanese occupation during World War II, Armenian bishop Ignazio Choukrallah Maloyan killed by Turkish forces in 1915, and Venezuela’s Jose Gregorio Hernandez Cisneros, a layman who died in 1919, whom the late Pope Francis called a “doctor close to the weakest.”
Also from Venezuela was Maria Carmen Rendiles Martinez, a nun born without a left arm who overcame her disability to found the Congregation of the Servants of Jesus before her death in 1977. She becomes the South American country’s first female saint.
Andrew Medichini / AP
The Italian nuns canonized are Vincenza Maria Poloni, the 19th-century founder of Verona’s Institute of the Sisters of Mercy, which cares primarily for the sick in hospitals, and Maria Troncatti of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians.
In the 1920s, Troncatti arrived in Ecuador to devote her life to helping its indigenous population.
Circling St. Peter’s Square in his popemobile after the service, Leo went far beyond its confines, traveling down the Via della Conciliazione linking the Vatican to Rome, stopping frequently to bless babies among the thousands of well-wishers.
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Pope Leo to proclaim seven new saints, including three nuns
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Pope Leo XIV is set to create seven new saints Sunday, including the first from Papua New Guinea, an archbishop killed in the Armenian genocide and a Venezuelan “doctor of the poor”.
Also set to be canonised in the solemn ceremony in St Peter’s Square on World Mission Day are three nuns who dedicated their lives to the poor and sick, and former Satanic priest Bartolo Longo.
Born in 1841, the Italian lawyer subsequently rejoined the Catholic faith and went on to found the Pontifical Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeii.
The canonisation will be the second for the US pope since he was made leader of the Catholic Church on May 8.
Last month, he proclaimed as saints Italians Carlo Acutis — a teenager dubbed “God’s Influencer” who spread the faith online before his death at age 15 in 2006 — and Pier Giorgio Frassati, considered a model of charity who died in 1925, aged 24.
Canonisation is the final step towards sainthood in the Catholic Church, following beatification.
Three conditions are required — most crucially that the individual has performed at least two miracles. He or she must be deceased for at least five years and have led an exemplary Christian life.
Those to be proclaimed saints Sunday are Peter To Rot, a lay catechist from Papua New Guinea killed during the Japanese occupation during World War II, Armenian bishop Ignazio Choukrallah Maloyan killed by Turkish forces in 1915, and Venezuela’s Jose Gregorio Hernandez Cisneros, a layman who died in 1919 whom the late Pope Francis called a “doctor close to the weakest”.
Also from Venezuela is Maria Carmen Elena Rendiles Martinez, a nun born without a left arm who overcame her disability to found the Congregation of the Servants of Jesus before her death in 1977. She becomes the South American country’s first female saint.
The Italian nuns to be canonised are Vincenza Maria Poloni, the 19th century founder of Verona’s Institute of the Sisters of Mercy, which cares primarily for the sick in hospitals, and Maria Troncatti of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians.
In the 1920s, Troncatti arrived in Ecuador to devote her life to helping Ecuador’s Indigenous population.
ams/ach
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Reporter’s Notebook: Using power for good
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When you have power, where do you aim it? This week, two organizations aimed their power toward elevating those without it — the poor, the voiceless, the oppressed. “CBS Evening News” co-anchor John Dickerson explains.
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New Pope Offers Same Headaches for Trump
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Leo probably doesn’t envision Jesus in a MAGA hat.
Photo: Maria Grazia Picciarella/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty ImagesDonald Trump and his team are currently working overtime to convince Americans that anyone who opposes his agenda represents a “radical left” full of “terrorists” who hate America, and for that matter, Christianity. The MAGA movement can’t be happy that one of the world’s oldest and most conservative institutions, the Roman Catholic Church, remains hostile to his mass-deportation program, his efforts to cut government assistance to poor people, and his militant opposition to climate-change initiatives.
During the tenure of the late Pope Francis, Trump allies and many traditionalist Catholics viewed the pontiff as fundamentally misguided (in all but his hard-line position opposing abortion). They hoped his American-born successor would be more “reasonable,” from their point of view. Indeed, as the Washington Post reports, Leo IV “has comforted traditionalists by embracing formal vestments and other reverent trappings of his office more than Francis did.” But in the last week he’s sent a series of signals that he shares Francis’s position on many of the issues that grated on MAGA Republicans, as the Post notes:
At an Oct. 1 Vatican summit, Leo condemned deniers of global warming and issued a blunt call to climate action. And last Sunday, in St. Peter’s Square, he declared a new “missionary age” against the “coldness of indifference” to migrants.
On Wednesday, he met privately with Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, a critic of the Trump administration’s migrant crackdown, along with other U.S. pro-migrant activists, to receive letters and testimonies from those living in “fear” of detention and deportation in the United States.
Leo “was very clear that what is happening to migrants in the United States right now is an injustice,” said Dylan Corbett, executive director of the Texas-based Hope Border Institute, who attended the meeting. “He said the church cannot remain silent.”
In the middle of this drumbeat of events, the pontiff intervened in an American church dispute over the proposed presentation of an award to pro-choice Catholic Senator Dick Durbin, with these words:
“Someone who says, ‘I’m against abortion but says I am in favor of the death penalty’ is not really pro-life,” he said Tuesday. “Someone who says that ‘I’m against abortion, but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”
Then today, the pontiff released his first major teaching document, an “apostolic exhortation,” as the National Catholic Reporter explains:
“In a world where the poor are increasingly numerous, we paradoxically see the growth of a wealthy elite, living in a bubble of comfort and luxury, almost in another world compared to ordinary people,” the pope wrote. “We must not let our guard down when it comes to poverty.” …
While the document’s pastoral tone urges a renewed spiritual concern for the marginalized, it also carries sharp edges. For example, it denounces people who internalize indifference by placing their faith in the free market instead of allowing themselves to be consumed by compassion for their neighbor.
[The papal document] calls out Christians who “find it easier to turn a blind eye to the poor,” justifying their inaction by reducing faith to prayer and teaching “sound doctrine,” or by invoking “pseudo-scientific data” to claim that “a free market economy will automatically solve the problem of poverty.”
Sounds “radical left” to me, or perhaps even communist.
The Vatican acknowledged that preparation of this document began under Francis, and those who didn’t like its tone and scope probably hope it was more of a tribute to Leo’s predecessor rather than a statement of his own views. But as the Post noted, there’s another possibility:
Leo holds Peruvian nationality from his years as a missionary there in addition to U.S. citizenship. His critique of market capitalism in particular suggests that in key ways, those who thought they were getting the first American pope are actually getting the second Latin American, one whose stances, like Francis, echo perceptions common in the Global South.
Vatican hostility to Trump could have a limited effect on American Catholics, who, after all, widely disregard church teachings on contraception and other matters. But one of the under-discussed success stories of the president’s 2024 campaign is that he carried self-described Catholics by a 12-point margin over Kamala Harris after splitting this vote right down the middle with Joe Biden four years earlier. Regular criticism from a pontiff who is (so far) wildly popular in the U.S. won’t help Trump’s own flagging popularity. And it’s particularly noteworthy that for the most part America’s conservative-leaning Catholic bishops are in lockstep with the Vatican on the duty owed to immigrants even if they disagree on other issues. Vice-President J.D. Vance was very isolated in his effort to provide a Catholic doctrinal defense of his administration’s mass-deportation effort. And Francis, near the end of his earthly journey, pretty much handed Vance’s ass to him in an exchange on the subject.
As Trump’s armed and masked agents begin assaulting Pope Leo’s home town of Chicago in search of brown people to terrorize or deport, they might want to keep in mind the Vatican is watching and isn’t particularly afraid of MAGA.
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Ed Kilgore
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Pope Leo condemns economies that marginalize poor while wealthy live in bubble of luxury
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VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV criticized how the wealthy live in a “bubble of comfort and luxury” while poor people suffer on the margins, confirming in his first teaching document that he is in perfect lockstep with his predecessor Pope Francis on matters of social and economic injustice.
The Vatican on Thursday released the document, entitled “I have loved you,” which Francis had begun to write in his final months but never finished. Leo, who was elected in May, credited Francis with the text, cited him repeatedly, but said he had made the document his own and signed it.
The 100-page document traces the history of Christianity’s constant concern for poor people, from Biblical citations and the teaching of church fathers to the preaching of recent popes about caring for migrants, prisoners and victims of human trafficking.
Leo credits especially women’s religious orders with carrying out God’s mandate to care for the sick, feed the poor and welcome the stranger, and also praised lay-led popular movements advocating for land, housing and work for the society’s most disadvantaged.
The conclusion Leo draws is that the Catholic Church’s “preferential option for the poor” has existed from the start, is non-negotiable and is the very essence of what it means to be Christian. He calls for a renewed commitment to fixing the structural causes of poverty, while providing unquestioning charity to those who need it.
“When the church kneels beside a leper, a malnourished child or an anonymous dying person, she fulfills her deepest vocation: to love the Lord where he is most disfigured,” Leo writes.
Citing Francis, a critique of the wealthy
Leo cites Francis frequently, including in some of the Argentine pope’s most-quoted talking points about the global “economy that kills” and criticism of trickle down economics. Francis made those points from the very start of his pontificate in 2013, saying he wanted a “church that is poor and for the poor.”
“God has a special place in his heart for those who are discriminated against and oppressed, and he asks us, his church, to make a decisive and radical choice in favor of the weakest,” Leo writes.
Echoing Francis, Leo rails against the “illusion of happiness” derived from accumulating wealth. “Thus, in a world where the poor are increasingly numerous, we paradoxically see the growth of a wealthy elite, living in a bubble of comfort and luxury, almost in another world compared to ordinary people.”
Francis’ frequent criticism of capitalism angered many conservative and wealthy Catholics, especially in the United States, who accused the Argentine Jesuit of being a Marxist.
In a recent interview, Leo said such misdirected criticism cannot be leveled against him. “The fact that I am American means, among other things, people can’t say, like they did about Francis, ‘he doesn’t understand the United States, he just doesn’t see what’s going on,’” Leo told Crux, a Catholic site.
As a result, Leo’s embrace of Francis’ teaching on poverty and the church’s obligation to care for the weakest is a significant reaffirmation, especially in Leo’s first teaching document.
Francis’ spirit in text and launch
Vatican officials insisted that the text was fully Leo’s and declined to say how much Francis had written before he died.
“It’s 100% Francis and it’s 100% Leo,” said Cardinal Michael Czerny, who runs the Vatican’s development and migrants office and was a top Francis aide. Asked if the same conservatives who labeled Francis a Marxist or Communist will now accuse Leo of the same, Czerny noted that both are merely following the Gospel.
Such labels “say much more about the person who is using the label,” Czerny said. “The problem is not Pope Francis’ or Pope Leo’s. The problem is the person,” using such labels to reject the church’s teaching.
Francis’ spirit was very much infused in the document and in its official presentation on Thursday.
SEE ALSO: Chicago Catholic school students to serve Mass with Cardinal Cupich in Rome Thursday
In addition to Czerny, the news conference featured a rare appearance by Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the Polish prelate whom Francis entrusted with carrying out his personal acts of charity over the course of his pontificate. Under Krajewski’s quiet eye, the Vatican installed showers for homeless people off St. Peter’s Square, provided COVID-19 vaccines for 6,000 migrants and people without access to Italy’s health service, sent ambulances with medicine to Ukraine and hosted weekly luncheons for the hungry.
Krajewski said the document was proof that such gestures of charity toward the needy come straight from the Bible, recalling that Jesus didn’t work 9-5 in an office, but rather went out and looked for people who needed him.
Krajewski regaled reporters with anecdotes of his behind-the-scenes dealings with Francis, who would jokingly reprimand him if his bank account had too much money in it because it meant he hadn’t spent enough on poor people.
Signed on the feast of St. Francis
Leo signed the text on Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the 13th-century mendicant friar who renounced his wealth to live poor among the poor. The date was not coincidental.
The late Pope Francis named himself after the saint and one of the pontiff’s most important documents – “Fratelli Tutti” (Brothers All) – was itself published on the Oct. 4 feast day in 2020.
Leo, too, seems inspired by the saint’s example: As a young priest, the former Robert Prevost left the comforts of home to work as a missionary in Peru as a member of the Augustinian religious order, one of the other ancient mendicant orders that considers community, the sharing of communal property and service to others as central tenets of its spirituality.
“The fact that some dismiss or ridicule charitable works, as if they were an obsession on the part of a few and not the burning heart of the church’s mission, convinces me of the need to go back and reread the Gospel, lest we risk replacing it with the wisdom of this world,” Leo writes.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Copyright © 2025 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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Pope Leo meets with Chicago students of viral ‘mock conclave’ of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy
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Wednesday, October 8, 2025 11:49AM
Pope Leo XIV is seen standing next to the students who were dressed in their conclave costumes.
CHICAGO (WLS) — An exciting day for students from Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy.
ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch
On Wednesday, the children got to meet their hometown pope.
Video shows as Pope Leo XIV greets the students, who were dressed in their costumes of the viral “mock conclave.”
Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich was also at the meeting with the students.
Pope Leo XIV is seen standing next to the students who were dressed in their conclave costumes.
Leo was seen talking to the students and shook their hands.
They met in St. Peter’s Square as Leo addressed the general audience.
Video shows the group afterwards making their way through St. Peter’s Square.
Cate Cauguiran is following the school on their trip. Stay tuned for more updates.
Copyright © 2025 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.
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Cate Cauguiran
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Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy students to attend audience with Chicago native Pope Leo at Vatican
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CHICAGO (WLS) — On a beautiful Tuesday evening in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City, excitement is building for a group of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy students, who are getting ready for Wednesday’s papal audience.
An ABC7 crew was on the flight with some of those students and Cardinal Blase Cupich. From the gate at O’Hare Airport to their tour of Vatican City and Rome, their energy is only growing.
ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch
Swapping Lakeview for Vatican views, the students part of a class project gone viral are now walking the same places and spaces of the Catholic cardinals they once dressed up as.
“I get emotional when I think about it,” said Allison Foerster, who teaches at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy. “This feels like such a gift to get to be a part of this, to get to be a part of the team that puts together something like this for our students.”
And on Wednesday, they will get to stand in St. Peter’s Square as their hometown pontiff, Pope Leo XIV, addresses the general audience.
“We have no expectation of what will happen. We are just coming in faith and in joy to be in his presence and see what happens,” Foerster said.
On Monday, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy students in Rome took part in a special tour of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, getting a chance to see the tomb of Paul the Apostle.
“I don’t want to leave. I want to learn more, but I can’t, because we have to go see other stuff,” said fifth-grader Max Schnakenberg.
Schnakenberg, 10, says the time between first putting on his conclave costume to being able to walk into walls of Vatican City was fast.
“They were like ‘Hey guys, we’re going to make our own conclave.’ And now, ‘Hey, were going to meet the pope.’ Like, that’s a big jump,” Schnakenberg said. “Coming here, to Rome, is insane itself. Meeting the pope is a whole other level.”
Chicago native Pope Leo showed off his catching skills at a special greeting for Croatian pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square on Monday.
It is still anyone’s guess if these students will get more than just a general audience with the Holy Father.
But for Foerster, one the teachers who envisioned the idea of the mock conclave, says this trip itself is a blessing she and her fellow teachers never imagined.
“They’re really looking forward to just being a part of the experience. We know that no matter what, we get to see him and that in itself feels like such a gift,” Foerster said. “To be able to be here doing this, knowing this is a watershed moment for our church for our school… It’s such a gift to get be a part of this community, and to get to teach these sweet young people and to know that this is going to be a life-changing moment for them.”
Meanwhile, ABC News has learned the pope will make his first foreign trip.
The Vatican told reporters that Pope Leo XIV will travel to Turkey and Lebanon. His trip is set for late November into December.
Copyright © 2025 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.
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Cate Cauguiran
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Pope Leo XIV says those
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For the first time since being elected in May, Pope Leo XIV waded into U.S. politics Tuesday, criticizing those who say they’re against abortion but support the death penalty, saying that’s “not really pro-life.”
Leo, a Chicago native, was asked late Tuesday about plans by Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich to give a lifetime achievement award to Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin for his work helping immigrants. The plans drew objection from some conservative U.S. bishops, given the powerful Democratic senator’s support for abortion rights.
Leo called first of all for respect for both sides, but he also pointed out the seeming contradiction in such debates.
“Someone who says ‘I’m against abortion but says I am in favor of the death penalty’ is not really pro-life,” Leo told reporters. “Someone who says that ‘I’m against abortion, but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”
Leo, whose words echoed a common Catholic argument often made in discussions about abortion, spoke hours before Cupich announced that Durbin had declined the award.
“I am not terribly familiar with the particular case. I think it’s important to look at the overall work that a senator has done during, if I’m not mistaken, in 40 years of service in the United States Senate,” the pope told reporters on Tuesday in response to a question from EWTN News.
In his comments about the Illinois dispute, Leo made no mention of President Trump, whose administration has carried out a surge of immigration enforcement in the Chicago area.
Still, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt weighed in and disputed concerns raised by Pope Leo about the treatment of immigrants, saying that she “would reject there is inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants in the United States under this administration.”
The administration, Leavitt said, “is trying to enforce our nation’s laws in the most humane way possible.”
Church teaching forbids abortion, but it also opposes capital punishment as “inadmissible” under all circumstances. U.S. bishops and the Vatican have strongly called for humane treatment of migrants, citing the Biblical command to “welcome the stranger.”
Responding to a question in English from the U.S. Catholic broadcaster EWTN News, he said there were many ethical issues that constitute the teaching of the Catholic Church.
“I don’t know if anyone has all the truth on them but I would ask first and foremost that there be greater respect for one another and that we search together both as human beings, in that case as American citizens or citizens of the state of Illinois, as well as Catholics to say we need to you know really look closely at all of these ethical issues and to find the way forward in this church. Church teaching on each one of those issues is very clear,” he said.
Cupich was a close adviser to Pope Francis, who strongly upheld church teaching opposing abortion but also criticized the politicizing of the abortion debate by U.S. bishops. Some bishops had called for denying Communion to Catholic politicians who supported abortion rights, including former President Joe Biden.
Biden met on several occasions with Francis and told reporters in 2021 that Francis had told him to continue receiving Communion. During a visit to Rome that year, he received the sacrament during Mass at a church in Francis’ diocese.
Durbin was barred from receiving Communion in his home diocese of Springfield in 2004. Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki has continued the prohibition and was one of the U.S. bishops who strongly objected to Cupich’s decision to honor the senator. Cupich claims Durbin as a member of the Chicago Archdiocese, where Durbin also has a home.
In his statement announcing that Durbin would decline the award, Cupich lamented that the polarization in the U.S. has created a situation where U.S. Catholics “find themselves politically homeless” since neither the Republican nor the Democratic party fully encapsulates the breadth of Catholic teaching.
He defended honoring Durbin for his pro-immigration stance, and said the planned Nov. 3 award ceremony could have been an occasion to engage him and other political leaders with the hope of pressing the church’s view on other issues, including abortion.
“It could be an invitation to Catholics who tirelessly promote the dignity of the unborn, the elderly, and the sick to extend the circle of protection to immigrants facing in this present moment an existential threat to their lives and the lives of their families,” Cupich wrote.
Paprocki, for his part, thanked Durbin for declining the award. “I ask that all Catholics continue to pray for our church, our country, and for the human dignity of all people to be respected in all stages of life, including the unborn and immigrants,” Paprocki said in a Facebook post.
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Summer of tragedies test the faith of Minnesotans
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Minnesotans are grappling with two high-profile cases of violence this summer. In June, former House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were the targets of a political assassination and the near-fatal shooting of Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette.
In August, a mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis left two children dead and more than 20 wounded.
For some, it’s a time to turn to faith, but for others, it’s a time to question it. One person helping parishioners navigate their faith is Archbishop Bernard Hebda of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. He said it’s his job to bring hope.
Within hours of the shooting, Hebda was at the scene with a message from Pope Leo XIV.
“The Holy Father wanted to promise us our prayers, which was very quick, and obviously, he pays attention to what’s going on in the United States,” Hebda said. “And then I mentioned it would be helpful if we had something written sooner rather than later. And even with the time difference, they managed to get a statement that we were able to read then already that afternoon.”
On the Sunday following the tragedy, Pope Leo XIV called for an end to a “worldwide pandemic of arms.” Within weeks, the Archbishop was at the Minnesota Legislature calling for change with parents of students who survived the Annunciation shooting.
“if we really are able to put our resources together, that we’ll be able to address the question of guns, we’ll be able to address the question of mental health crisis that we’re experiencing at this point, and begin to address the problem,” Hebda said.
In the weeks following the devastating shooting, Hedba said he’s astonished at the community’s resilience.
“I’m amazed at the deep faith. I’ve been really blessed,” he said. “There’s a group that gets together every night at 9 at Annunciation for the rosary, a typical Catholic prayer, and it’s growing.”
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Pope Leo XIV told US ambassador he is praying for Charlie Kirk, his family after assassination
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Pope Leo XIV told the new U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, Brian Burch, that he is praying for conservative activist Charlie Kirk, as well as his wife and children, following his murder last week in Utah, the Vatican said on Tuesday.
Leo also expressed concern about political violence and addressed the need “to refrain from rhetoric and exploitation that lead to polarization rather than dialogue,” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement, according to Vatican News.
The pope’s remarks came on Saturday, when he received the ambassador in an audience to receive his credentials, marking the first meeting between the two.
Pope Leo XIV expressed concern about political violence and addressed the need “to refrain from rhetoric and exploitation that lead to polarization rather than dialogue.” (Riccardo De Luca/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“The pope confirmed that he is praying for Charlie Kirk,” Bruni said.
Kirk, the 31-year-old co-founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed during an event on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem on Sept. 10. He was transported to a hospital in critical condition before he was later pronounced dead.
The alleged gunman was identified as Tyler Robinson, 22, whose family persuaded him to turn himself in after a two-day manhunt. Robinson has been charged with aggravated murder in connection with Kirk’s killing.
Pope Leo XIV told the new U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, Brian Burch, that he is praying for conservative activist Charlie Kirk. (Getty Images)
The pontiff had also sent a telegram message offering condolences last month after a shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minnesota, leaving two children dead and 18 others injured, including more than a dozen kids from the school.
However, the pope did not send a telegram about Kirk’s assassination.
Charlie Kirk speaks before he is shot during Turning Point’s visit to Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. (AP)
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Burch hosted a welcome diplomatic reception on Monday, saying it was a “remarkable time to be in Rome,” with the first American pope.
The ambassador spoke about his papal audience, noting to the assembled ambassadors, cardinals and guests that the pontiff “reminded me he is not an American pope. He is a pope of America for the world.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Inside Pope Leo’s adopted home in Peru
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Before becoming pontiff, Pope Leo spent over two decades as a missionary and a bishop in Peru. The city where he led the church has now become a destination for the faithful. Lilia Luciano reports.
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What Pope Leo XIV’s selection to lead the Catholic Church has meant for one Peruvian city
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Chiclayo, Peru — It is a long way from the South Side of Chicago to the heart of Chiclayo in Northern Peru.
But it was a simple phrase, spoken on a balcony in the Vatican by the first American pope, that has turned Chiclayo into a sensation.“A greeting to everyone, and in particular to my beloved Diocese of Chiclayo, in Peru, where a faithful people has accompanied its bishop, shared its faith and given so much, so much, to continue being a faithful church of Jesus Christ.,” Pope Leo XIV said from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on May 8 after being chosen by the cardinal electors in the papal enclave to succeed Pope Francis.
Leo, a Chicago native who turned 70 on Sunday, is also a citizen of Peru, where he served for more than two decades, first as a missionary. He then ran an Augustinian seminary in Trujillo, and in 2014, he was appointed apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo. In 2015, he became a bishop in Chiclayo, and he was made a cardinal there in 2023.
Rev. Fidel Purisaca Vigil, a spokesperson for the Diocese of Chiclayo, recalls the local reaction to Leo’s statement on the balcony.
“Some cried, we laughed and remembered all of those gracious moments he spent with us here in Chiclayo,” Purisaca told CBS News.
On that day in early May, when then-Cardinal Robert Prevost ascended to the throne of St. Peter, Chiclayo was lifted as well, becoming an instant tourist attraction.
City officials said the election of Leo touched off a pilgrimage here by Catholics from all over the world.
It has also been a blessing for the economy. The tourism brought on by it could give Chiclayo an estimated annual boost of $40 million, city officials say.
Restaurants, hotels and tour companies are scrambling to meet the demand.“Really, we’re going to have a lot of work with everybody, with hotels, tour operators, restaurants, with the tour guides,” Maria Isabel Espinal, who runs a local tourism agency, told CBS News.
Like the Stations of the Cross, tourists retrace Leo’s steps here, walking from church to church along his unique path to the papacy.
They even stop at his favorite lunch spot, served by none other than Leo’s favorite waiter, Carlos.
“This is where the Pope would sit,” Carlos showed CBS News, who added that he prays every day for his old friend, the new Pope.
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Town in Peru boosted by Pope Leo’s rise to the papacy
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Pope Leo XIV turned 70 years old on Saturday. Before becoming pontiff, he spent over two decades as a missionary and bishop in Peru. Lilia Luciano reports from Chiclayo, Peru.
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LGBTQ+ Catholics make Holy Year pilgrimage to Rome, acknowledging new sense of acceptance
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Hundreds of LGBTQ+ Catholics and their families participated in a Holy Year pilgrimage to Rome on Saturday, celebrating a new level of acceptance in the Catholic Church after long feeling shunned and crediting Pope Francis with the change.
The vice president of the Italian bishops conference, Bishop Franceseco Savino, celebrated Mass for the pilgrims in a packed Chiesa del Gesu, the main Jesuit church in Rome. He received a sustained standing ovation in the middle of his homily when he recalled that Jubilee celebrations historically were meant to restore hope to those on the margins.
“The Jubilee was the time to free the oppressed and restore dignity to those who had been denied it,” he said. “Brothers and sisters, I say this with emotion: It is time to restore dignity to everyone, especially to those who have been denied it.”
Several LGBTQ+ groups participated in the pilgrimage, which was listed in the Vatican’s official calendar of events for the Holy Year, the once-every-quarter-century celebration of Catholicism. Vatican organizers stressed that the listing in the calendar didn’t signal endorsement or sponsorship.
The main organizer of the pilgrimage was an Italian LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, “Jonathan’s Tent,” but other groups participated, including DignityUSA and Outreach, another U.S. group.
“I was here 25 years ago at the last Holy Year with a contingent of LGBTQ people from the U.S. and we were actually detained as a threat to the Holy Year programs,” said DignityUSA’s Marianne Duddy Burke.
To now be invited to walk through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica “fully recognized as who we are and the gifts we bring to the church, and that we have both our faith and our identities combined, is a day of great celebration and hope,” she said.
A 2020 study from UCLA’s Williams Institute discovered that there were about 11.3 million LGBTQ adults in the U.S., and about 5.3 million of them are religious, including about 1.3 million who are Roman Catholics.
Pope Leo XIV celebrated a special Jubilee audience Saturday at the Vatican for all pilgrim groups in Rome this weekend, but made no special mention of the LGBTQ+ Catholics.
Andrew Medichini / AP
A legacy of LGBTQ+ acceptance
Many of the pilgrims attributed their feeling of welcome to Francis. More than any of his predecessors, Francis distinguished himself with a message of welcome. Four months after Francis became pope in 2013, he sparked controversy when, during a July in-flight press conference, he responded to a journalist’s question about gay clergy members, saying, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” Francis’ answer went against years of Catholic precedent.
His words set a very different tone from the previous relationship the Church had with gay clergy and members. His predecessors — John Paul II and Benedict XVI — were far less accepting of LGBTQ people. In 1986, Benedict XVI published the first modern formal statement denouncing homosexuality.
He never changed church teaching, saying homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.” But during his 12-year papacy from 2013 to 2025, Francis met with LGBTQ advocates, ministered to a community of trans women and, in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press, declared that “being homosexual is not a crime.”
Francis, who died at 88 earlier this year, didn’t change doctrine, but he altered the conversation by voicing support for legal civil unions, personally meeting with LGBTQ groups and extending blessings to individuals in same-sex unions.
John Capozzi of Washington, D.C., who was participating in the pilgrimage with his husband, Justin del Rosario, said Francis’ attitude brought him back to the church after he left it in the 1980s, at the height of the AIDS crisis. Then, he said, he felt shunned by his fellow Catholics.
“There was that feeling like I wasn’t welcome in the church,” he said. “Not because I was doing anything, just because I was who I was,” he said. “It was this fear of going back in because of the judgment.”
But Francis, who insisted that the Catholic Church was open to everyone, “todos, todos, todos,” changed all that, he said.
“I was a closeted Catholic,” Capozzi said. “With Pope Francis, I was able to come out and say, ‘Hey, you know, I am Catholic and I’m proud of it and I want to be part of the church.”
“Tears of hope”
Capozzi spoke during a standing room-only vigil service for the pilgrims on Friday night at the Jesuit church. The service featured testimonies from gay couples, the mother of a trans child and a moving reflection by an Italian priest, the Rev. Fausto Focosi.
“Our eyes have known the tears of rejection, of hiding. They have known the tears of shame. And perhaps sometimes those tears still spring from our eyes,” Focosi said. “Today, however, there are other tears, new tears. They wash away the old ones.”
“And so today these tears are tears of hope,” he said.
Leo’s position becomes more clear
Leo’s position on LGBTQ+ Catholics had been something of a question. Soon after he was elected in May, remarks surfaced from 2012 in which the future pope, then known as the Rev. Robert Prevost, criticized the “homosexual lifestyle” and the role of mass media in promoting acceptance of same-sex relationships that conflicted with Catholic doctrine.
When he became a cardinal in 2023, Catholic News Service asked Prevost if his views had changed. He acknowledged Francis’ call for a more inclusive church, saying Francis “made it very clear that he doesn’t want people to be excluded simply on the basis of choices that they make, whether it be lifestyle, work, way to dress, or whatever.”
Leo met on Monday with the Rev. James Martin, an American Jesuit who has advocated for a greater welcome for LGBTQ+ Catholics. Martin emerged, saying Leo told him he intended to continue Francis’ policy of LGBTQ+ acceptance in the church and encouraged him to keep up his advocacy.
“I heard the same message from Pope Leo that I heard from Pope Francis, which is the desire to welcome all people, including LGBTQ people,” Martin told The Associated Press after the audience.
Savino said he, too, had received Leo’s blessing to celebrate the Mass for the LGBTQ+ pilgrims.
Del Rosario, Capozzi’s husband, said he now felt welcome after long staying away from the faith he was raised in.
“Pope Francis influenced me to return back to church. Pope Leo only strengthened my faith,” he said.
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Pope Leo XIV to canonize two modern saints this weekend as faithful flock to Rome
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The Jubilee, also known as the Holy Year, is in full swing with visitors flocking to Rome, the Vatican City and across Italy.
In St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to preside over the canonization of Carlo Acutis, a millennial computer programmer, and Italian student and avid outdoorsman Pier Giorgio Frassati.
Fr. Charlie Gallagher, pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Washington, D.C., has traveled to Rome for the ceremony.
POPE FRANCIS KICKS OFF HOLY YEAR AT VATICAN WITH OVER 32 MILLION VISITORS EXPECTED
“The atmosphere here is already one of expectant joy, even electric,” Gallagher told Fox News Digital from Rome.
The Vatican anticipates that over 32 million pilgrims will travel during the Jubilee year, according to the U.S. Embassy in Italy.
Fr. Charlie Gallagher of Washington, D.C., traveled to Rome to witness Pope Leo XIV’s canonization of two modern saints. (Fr. Charlie Gallagher)
“I know there are dozens [of people] from D.C. here [and] there is a small group of about six from my parish,” Gallagher added.
He anticipates a crowd of at least 250,000 worshipers on Sunday.
He says this canonization is very personal for him, as he has a deep connection to Pier Giorgio Frassati.
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“I took Pier Giorgio Frassati as my patron. When I decided to become a priest, I started corresponding with Giorgio’s niece, Wanda,” said Gallagher. “Pier Giorgio died in 1925. The next year, his sister Luciana gave birth to Wanda.”
Gallagher has known Wanda for 20 years. He met with her as a seminarian in Rome and asked her how her uncle has impacted her.
Pope Leo XIV will canonize saints Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati on Sunday in St. Peter’s Sqaure. (Massimo Valicchia/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“Pope John Paul II called Frassati the ‘Man of the Beatitudes,’ as he showed us what it means to live out the full spectrum of the Gospel. Frassati was a volcano of joy and spontaneity,” said Gallagher.
“With every corner of his heart, he models the most effective way to win our friends to Jesus Christ.”
Gallagher said that even though Carlo Acutis was very smart, he did not always do well in school – even failing an exam.
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“His mom asked him why, and he said he had more important things to do, like spread devotion to the Eucharist by promoting Eucharistic miracles.”
The Vatican anticipates over 32 million pilgrims will travel to Rome during the Jubilee year. (Grzegorz Galazka/Archivio Grzegorz Galazka/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)
Gallagher lived in Rome for four years while a seminarian at the North American College in 2007.
He said that while being in the capital city, so many memories have come to mind. “It is a blessing to visit my favorite churches and to enjoy some authentic Carbonara!”
It was Pope Francis, according to The Associated Press, who fervently willed the Acutis sainthood case forward — convinced that the church needed someone like him to attract young Catholics to the faith while addressing the promises and perils of the digital age.
Carlo Acutis, seen here prior to his leukemia diagnosis, died at age 15. (Carlo Acutis Association)
Pope Leo inherited the Acutis cause, but he, too, has pointed to technology — especially artificial intelligence — as one of the main challenges facing humanity.
Frassati lived his faith through “constant, humble, mostly hidden service to the poorest of Turin,” noted the Frassati Catholic Academy. “He lived simply and gave away food, money or anything that anyone asked of him.” He died in his early 20s of polio.
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It is believed that he contracted the illness from those he ministered to in the slums of Turin, Italy.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
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Pope Leo XIV feeds fish as he opens Vatican’s ambitious model of sustainable farming and education
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Pope Leo XIV fed fish, petted horses and visited organic vineyards Friday as he inaugurated the Vatican’s ambitious project to turn Pope Francis’ preaching about caring for the environment into practice.Leo formally opened Borgo Laudato Si, a 55-acre utopian experiment in sustainable farming, vocational training and environmental education located on the grounds of the papal summer retreat in Castel Gandolfo. The Vatican hopes the center, open to student groups, CEOs and others, will be a model of ecological stewardship, education and spirituality for the Catholic Church and beyond.Leo travelled by helicopter to Castel Gandolfo and then zoomed around the estate’s cypress-lined gardens in an electric golf cart to reach the center, which is named for Francis’ landmark 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si,” or Praised Be. The document, which inspired an entire church movement, cast care for the planet as an urgent and existential moral concern that was inherently tied to questions of human dignity and justice, especially for the poor.Leo has strongly reaffirmed Francis’ focus on the need to care for God’s creation, and celebrated the first “green” Mass in the estate’s gardens earlier this summer, using a new set of prayers inspired by the encyclical that specifically invoke prayers for creation. On Friday, some 10 years after Laudato Si was published, Leo presided over a liturgy to bless the new center after touring its gardens, fishpond, farm, and classrooms.Leo recalled that according to the Bible, human beings have a special place in the act of creation, created in the “image and likeness of God.”“But this privilege comes with a great responsibility: that of caring for all other creatures, in accordance with the creator’s plan,” he said. “Care for creation, therefore, represents a true vocation for every human being, a commitment to be carried out within creation itself, without ever forgetting that we are creatures among creatures, and not creators.”A greenhouse inspired by St. Peter’s SquareLeo spoke from the heart of the project: a huge greenhouse in the same curved, embracing shape as the colonnade of St. Peter’s Square that faces a 10-room educational facility and dining hall. Once it’s up and running, visiting groups can come for an afternoon school trip to learn about organic farming, or a weekslong course on regenerative agriculture.The center aims to accomplish many of the goals of the environmental cause. Solar panels provide all the power the facility needs, plastics are banned, and recycling and composting systems used to reach zero-waste. Officials say water will be conserved and maximized via “smart irrigation” systems that use artificial intelligence to determine plants’ needs, along with rainwater harvesting and the installation of wastewater treatment and reuse systems.There is a social component as well. The Vatican’s first-ever vocational school on the grounds will aim to provide on-site training in sustainable gardening, organic winemaking, and olive harvesting to offer new job opportunities for particularly vulnerable groups: victims of domestic violence, refugees, recovering addicts, and rehabilitated prisoners.The products made will be sold on-site, with profits reinvested in the educational center: Laudato Si wine, organic olive oil, herbal teas from the farm’s aromatic garden, and cheese made from its 60 dairy cows, continuing a tradition of agricultural production that for centuries has subsidized monasteries and convents.While school groups are a core target audience, organizers also want to invite CEOs and professionals for executive education seminars, to sensitize the world of business to the need for sustainable economic growth.Officials declined to discuss the financing of the project, other than to say an undisclosed number of partners had invested in it and that confidential business plans precluded the Vatican from releasing further information.
Pope Leo XIV fed fish, petted horses and visited organic vineyards Friday as he inaugurated the Vatican’s ambitious project to turn Pope Francis’ preaching about caring for the environment into practice.
Leo formally opened Borgo Laudato Si, a 55-acre utopian experiment in sustainable farming, vocational training and environmental education located on the grounds of the papal summer retreat in Castel Gandolfo. The Vatican hopes the center, open to student groups, CEOs and others, will be a model of ecological stewardship, education and spirituality for the Catholic Church and beyond.
Leo travelled by helicopter to Castel Gandolfo and then zoomed around the estate’s cypress-lined gardens in an electric golf cart to reach the center, which is named for Francis’ landmark 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si,” or Praised Be. The document, which inspired an entire church movement, cast care for the planet as an urgent and existential moral concern that was inherently tied to questions of human dignity and justice, especially for the poor.
Leo has strongly reaffirmed Francis’ focus on the need to care for God’s creation, and celebrated the first “green” Mass in the estate’s gardens earlier this summer, using a new set of prayers inspired by the encyclical that specifically invoke prayers for creation. On Friday, some 10 years after Laudato Si was published, Leo presided over a liturgy to bless the new center after touring its gardens, fishpond, farm, and classrooms.
Leo recalled that according to the Bible, human beings have a special place in the act of creation, created in the “image and likeness of God.”
“But this privilege comes with a great responsibility: that of caring for all other creatures, in accordance with the creator’s plan,” he said. “Care for creation, therefore, represents a true vocation for every human being, a commitment to be carried out within creation itself, without ever forgetting that we are creatures among creatures, and not creators.”
A greenhouse inspired by St. Peter’s Square
Leo spoke from the heart of the project: a huge greenhouse in the same curved, embracing shape as the colonnade of St. Peter’s Square that faces a 10-room educational facility and dining hall. Once it’s up and running, visiting groups can come for an afternoon school trip to learn about organic farming, or a weekslong course on regenerative agriculture.
The center aims to accomplish many of the goals of the environmental cause. Solar panels provide all the power the facility needs, plastics are banned, and recycling and composting systems used to reach zero-waste. Officials say water will be conserved and maximized via “smart irrigation” systems that use artificial intelligence to determine plants’ needs, along with rainwater harvesting and the installation of wastewater treatment and reuse systems.
There is a social component as well. The Vatican’s first-ever vocational school on the grounds will aim to provide on-site training in sustainable gardening, organic winemaking, and olive harvesting to offer new job opportunities for particularly vulnerable groups: victims of domestic violence, refugees, recovering addicts, and rehabilitated prisoners.
The products made will be sold on-site, with profits reinvested in the educational center: Laudato Si wine, organic olive oil, herbal teas from the farm’s aromatic garden, and cheese made from its 60 dairy cows, continuing a tradition of agricultural production that for centuries has subsidized monasteries and convents.
While school groups are a core target audience, organizers also want to invite CEOs and professionals for executive education seminars, to sensitize the world of business to the need for sustainable economic growth.
Officials declined to discuss the financing of the project, other than to say an undisclosed number of partners had invested in it and that confidential business plans precluded the Vatican from releasing further information.
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