Pope Leo XIV is embarking on his first foreign trip. His pilgrimage to Turkey and Lebanon would be delicate under any circumstances but is even more fraught given Mideast tensions and the media glare that will document history's first American pope on the road. Leo is fulfilling a trip Pope Francis had planned to make. In Turkey, he'll mark an important anniversary with the Orthodox church. In Lebanon, he'll try to boost a long-suffering Christian community and country still demanding justice from the 2020 Beirut port blast. Leo, who spent 12 years as the global superior of his Augustinian religious order and two decades as a missionary in Peru, says he loves to travel. In recent weeks he has shown diplomatic dexterity in answering questions on the fly from reporters.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla have visited the Vatican to pray with Pope Leo XIV. This historic meeting aims to strengthen ties between the Church of England and the Catholic Church. The event on Thursday marked the first time since the Reformation that the heads of these two churches have prayed together. The visit comes amid renewed scrutiny of the British royal family over Prince Andrew's ties with Jeffrey Epstein. Charles' and Camilla's visit had been planned for earlier in the year but was rescheduled after Pope Francis's illness and death. The meeting included discussions on ecological sustainability, a priority for both Charles and the Vatican.
Pope Leo XIV has urged labor union leaders from Chicago to advocate for immigrants and welcome minorities into their ranks. Leo weighed in as the Trump administration crackdown on immigrants intensifies in the pontiff's hometown. The audience on Thursday was scheduled before the deployment of National Guard troops to protect federal property in the Chicago area. The sites include a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building that has been the site of occasional clashes between protesters and federal agents. Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich accompanied the labor leaders. Cupich said that Leo was well aware of the situation on the ground and has made clear that migrants and the poor must be treated in ways that respect their human dignity.
Pope Leo XIV has spoken publicly about his childhood in Chicago for the first time as pontiff. Leo recalled Thursday that from the age of six he used to get up early to serve as an altar boy at the 6:30 a.m. Mass before going to school. Leo shared the memories during an unscripted visit with the children of Vatican employees who are attending the Holy See's summer camp. The visit, which was not announced in advance, took place in the Vatican's main audience hall, which was decked out with huge inflatable bouncy castles.
Pope Leo XIV has affirmed core Catholic teaching on marriage and the unborn in his first meeting with the ambassadors accredited to the Holy See. He said Friday the family is founded on the "stable union between a man and a woman" and that the unborn and elderly enjoy dignity as God's creatures. Leo also called for reviving multilateral diplomacy and promoting dialogue between religions in the search for peace. The encounter with the Vatican diplomatic corps is one of the protocol requirements after a conclave, allowing a new pope to greet representatives of world governments ahead of his formal installation Mass this Sunday.
The contrast between President Donald Trump and Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV couldn't be more stark, politically, personally or in their world views. They lead in different roles and realms. But Leo's historic election last week to lead the world's 1.4 billion Catholics as the first U.S.-born pope means that the two most powerful people on the planet are Americans. That raises questions about American influence at a time when Trump's tariff wars and "one way or the other" threats have upended eight decades of global order and sparked distrust among allies toward the U.S. The prospect of too much American power in geopolitics is considered one reason that the Catholic Church had never elected an American to the papacy.
Pope Leo XIV has called for the release of imprisoned journalists and affirmed the "precious gift of free speech and the press." He spoke in an audience with some of the 6,000 journalists who descended on Rome to cover his election as the first American pontiff. Leo received a standing ovation as he entered the Vatican auditorium for his first meeting with representatives of the general public. The 69-year-old Augustinian missionary, elected in a 24-hour conclave last week, called for journalists to use words for peace, to reject war and to give voice to the voiceless.
Details have begun to emerge of how votes swiftly coalesced to make Pope Leo XIV history's first American pope. Freed from their conclave, cardinals began describing the hours and days leading up to the final ballot Thursday afternoon that brought Leo past the two-thirds majority needed. Many marveled that the Chicago-born Augustinian missionary in Peru reached the threshold so quickly, given the vast diversity of voters and the traditional taboo against a U.S. pope because of the secular power the country wields. Leo said Friday in his first Mass that his election was both a cross to bear and a blessing.
Black smoke has poured out of the Sistine Chapel chimney, indicating no pope was elected on the first ballot of the conclave to choose a new leader of the Catholic Church. The smoke billowed out at 9 p.m. Wednesday, some four hours after 133 cardinals solemnly entered the Sistine Chapel, took their oaths of secrecy and formally opened the centuries-old ritual to elect a successor to Pope Francis to lead the 1.4 billion-member church. With no one securing the necessary two-thirds majority, or 89 votes, the cardinals will retire for the night to the Vatican residences where they are being sequestered. They return to the Sistine Chapel Thursday morning.
Cardinals have wrapped up their pre-conclave meetings before they enter the conclave to elect a new pope. They are trying to identify someone who could follow Pope Francis and make the 2,000-year-old Catholic Church credible and relevant today, especially to young people. The cardinals held their last day of pre-conclave meetings Tuesday morning during which Francis' fisherman's ring and his official seal were destroyed in one of the final formal rites of the transition of his pontificate to the next.
