Pope Leo on Friday sent best wishes to the athletes preparing to compete in the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics and reiterated his call for world leaders to use the Games to promote peace efforts and de-escalate the world's violent conflicts. For @reuters.com

Pope Leo will likely travel to Peru in November, the president of the nation's Catholic bishops said on Wednesday, for a visit expected to draw large crowds to see a pontiff who was a missionary in the South American country for decades. For @reuters.com

Pope Leo on Wednesday urged leaders in Russia and the United States to renew their last nuclear arms control treaty, New START, which caps the number of strategic nuclear weapons deployed by each country. @reuters.com

Sometimes even God needs a bit of a makeover. Michelangelo's "Last Judgment", a Renaissance masterwork in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel that depicts the Second Coming of Jesus, is undergoing its first restoration in 30 years. @reuters.com

Pope Leo said on Sunday he was deeply concerned about rising tensions between the United States and Cuba, and he called for "sincere and effective dialogue" to prevent violence and further suffering for the Cuban people. @reuters.com

Pope Leo appealed against the global rise of antisemitism on Wednesday, marking the annual commemoration of the Holocaust during his weekly audience at the Vatican with a prayer for a world without prejudice or racism. For @reuters.com

Pope Leo is among world leaders invited to join U.S. President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace", Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's top diplomatic official, said on Wednesday. For @reuters.com

Pope Leo plans to visit Angola as part of a multi-nation trip across Africa, the Vatican's ambassador to the country announced on Tuesday, in what could be the pontiff's first overseas trip in 2026. For @reuters.com

Pope Leo met Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel peace prize winner Maria Corina Machado on Monday, the Vatican said, but did not provide any further details. For @reuters.com

Pope Leo decried the use of military force as a means of achieving diplomatic goals on Friday, delivering an unusually fiery annual foreign policy speech in which he also called for human rights to be respected in Venezuela. For @reuters.com:

Pope Leo met on Thursday with the world's Catholic cardinals as part of a two-day summit, urging the senior clerics to shun divisions in the 1.4-billion-member Church and focus on attracting new believers. For @reuters.com

Pope Leo closed the Catholic Church's Holy Year on Tuesday by sealing shut the special "Holy Door" in St. Peter's Basilica and urging Christians worldwide to help those in need and treat foreigners with kindness. For @reuters.com

About 33.5 million pilgrims came to Rome in 2025 for the Catholic Holy Year, Vatican and Italian officials said on Monday, marking a record number of yearly visitors and a boon for local tourist shops, museums and restaurants. For @reuters.com

Pope Leo called for Venezuela to remain an independent nation and said he was following developments after the United States' toppling of President Nicolas Maduro with a "soul full of concern" on Sunday. For @reuters.com:

Pope Leo in his first Christmas blessing on Thursday lamented the situation for migrants and refugees who "traverse the American continent". For @reuters.com

Pope Leo decried conditions for Palestinians in Gaza in his Christmas sermon on Thursday, in an unusually direct appeal during what is normally a solemn, spiritual service on the day Christians across the globe celebrate the birth of Jesus. For @reuters.com:

Pope Leo said in a Christmas Eve sermon that the story of Jesus being born in a stable because there was no room at an inn should remind Christians that refusing to help the poor and strangers today is tantamount to rejecting God himself. For @reuters.com

Pope Leo on Tuesday criticized the governor of the U.S. state of Illinois for signing a bill to allow some adults with a terminal illness to end their own lives with medical help, in an unusual political intervention by the church leader. For @reuters.com

Pope Leo said on Tuesday that he feels "much sadness" that Russia did not agree to a Christmas ceasefire in its nearly four-year old war with Ukraine. @reuters.com

Most of Pope Leo's appointments for Catholic bishops in the U.S. have called for better treatment of immigrants in the country, in a trend that may shape how the national Church responds to the Trump administration's divisive anti-immigration policies. For @reuters.com

Pope Leo urges joyful, welcoming Church in speech to Vatican cardinals reut.rs/4b15hCs

Pope Leo indicated on Monday that he plans to follow the reform agenda of his predecessor Francis, praising the late pontiff's attempts to make the global Catholic Church more inclusive in an annual Christmas address to Vatican cardinals. For @reuters.com:

Pope Leo replaced Cardinal Timothy Dolan as the leader of the Catholic Church in New York, the Vatican announced on Thursday, sidelining a prominent U.S. Church figure in a major shake-up of the country's Catholic leadership. For @reuters.com

Pope Leo on Thursday decried political leaders who invoke religious beliefs to justify conflicts or nationalist policies, calling that a form of blasphemy, or a serious sin that disrespects or insults God. For @reuters.com

A high-level Vatican commission voted against allowing Catholic women to serve as deacons, maintaining the global Church's practice of all-male clergy, according to a report given to Pope Leo and released on Thursday. For @reuters.com:

Pope Leo revealed on Tuesday that at the moment of his election as leader of the 1.4 billion-member Catholic Church, he turned to God with a simple message: "You're in charge and you lead the way". For @reuters.com

Pope Leo urged U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday not to try to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro using military force. For @reuters.com

BEIRUT - Pope Leo made a fervent appeal to Lebanon's diverse communities to unite to solve the crisis-hit country's myriad problems at a Mass on Tuesday attended by tens of thousands which wrapped up his first overseas trip as Catholic leader. For @reuters.com

Pope Leo urged leaders from Lebanon's many diverse religious sects on Monday to unite to heal the country after years of conflict, political paralysis and economic crisis that have prompted waves of migration abroad. For @reuters.com:

Pope pushes peace message on second day in crisis-hit Lebanon reut.rs/3XrMd8I

Pope Leo will meet leaders from Lebanon's diverse religious sects on Monday and is expected to urge Lebanese not to abandon their country despite years of conflict, political paralysis and economic crisis that have prompted waves of migration. For @reuters.com:

Pope Leo urged political leaders in Lebanon on Sunday to make peace their highest priority in a forceful appeal in a country that remains a target of Israeli airstrikes on the second leg of his first overseas trip as Catholic leader. For @reuters.com

Pope Leo said on Sunday that the only solution in the decades-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people must include a Palestinian state, reaffirming the Vatican's position in his first in-flight press conference. For @reuters.com

Pope Leo visited Istanbul's famed Blue Mosque on Saturday, removing his shoes in a sign of respect but not appearing to pray in his first visit as leader of the Catholic Church to a Muslim place of worship during his four-day visit to Turkey. For @reuters.com:

Pope Leo condemned violence in the name of religion on Friday at a landmark event with Christian leaders from across the Middle East, urging them during his first overseas trip as leader of the Catholic Church to overcome centuries of heated divisions. For @reuters.com

Pope Leo lamented that the world was seeing an unusual number of bloody conflicts during his first trip outside Italy as Catholic leader on Thursday, and he warned that a third world war was being "fought piecemeal" with humanity's future at risk. For @reuters.com

Like many Americans on the annual holiday of Thanksgiving, Pope Leo was travelling on Thursday, flying from Rome to Turkey for his first overseas trip as leader of the Catholic Church. But thankfully, he got some pumpkin pie. For @reuters.com

The Vatican closed 2024 with a budget surplus of 1.6 million euros ($1.85 million), it said on Wednesday, signalling a turnaround after years of deficits that had frustrated Church leaders, including the late Pope Francis. For @reuters.com:

Happily ever after doesn't require any complicated maths, the Vatican said on Tuesday -- for Catholics, one spouse is enough. For @reuters.com

Pope Leo will embark on his first trip outside Italy as the leader of the Catholic Church on Thursday, travelling to Turkey and Lebanon, where he is expected to make appeals for peace in the region and urge unity among long-divided Christian churches. For @reuters.com:

After decades of conflict, residents of the Christian town of Rmeich in Lebanon's war-battered south hope Pope Leo's upcoming trip to their country will bring peace - and the strength to stay as the region's Christian communities dwindle. From @reuters.com

Don't let AI do your homework, Pope Leo tells US youth reut.rs/48tKTYY

Artificial intelligence may be a useful tool for learning, but don't use it for your homework, Pope Leo told about 15,000 U.S. youth during a question-and-answer session on Friday. For @reuters.com

Pope Leo was presented on Friday with a copy of a US Senate resolution commemorating the victims of a shooting in August at a Minnesota Catholic Church and school, given to him by Senator Amy Klobuchar, one of the bill's co-sponsors. For @reuters.com

Catholics believe in holy water. How about holy beer? Pope Leo received a special gift on Wednesday from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, a four-pack of American mild ale from a Chicago brewery. For @reuters.com:

Pope Leo renewed his criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump's hard-line anti-immigration policies on Tuesday, saying foreigners living in the United States were being treated by the administration in a manner that was "extremely disrespectful". For @reuters.com

Jesus may answer prayers but he has not made special appearances in a small town in the north of France, the Vatican said on Wednesday. For @reuters.com:

Lights, camera, action, pope? About three dozen Hollywood stars will meet Pope Leo this weekend, including actors Cate Blanchett, Chris Pine and Adam Scott, the Vatican said on Monday. For @reuters.com:

Pope Leo's criticisms of US President Trump's anti-immigration policies are emboldening Catholic efforts to help immigrants caught up in the administration's hardline crackdown, senior US Church leaders say. For @reuters.com

Pope Leo's criticisms of US President Trump's anti-immigration policies are emboldening Catholic efforts to help immigrants caught up in the administration's hardline crackdown, senior US Church leaders say. For @reuters.com