The Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, arrived at the Vatican on Monday (April 27, 2026) for an audience with Pope Leo XIV, making her first foreign visit since being installed as the first woman leader of the Church of England and spiritual leader of millions of Anglicans around the world.

Archbishop Mullally, whose appointment has split the already divided Anglican Communion, arrived early to meet with Pope Leo in his library. Later, they were to go to into the Urban VIII Chapel inside the Apostolic palace for what the Vatican said would be a “moment of prayer.”

U.S. President Donald Trump posted an image of Jesus embracing ‌him on Wednesday (April 15, 2026), as a war of words between his administration and the Pope ​showed little sign of abating.

The image, reposted to Mr. Trump’s Truth Social account, shows Mr. Trump with ⁠his eyes closed, touching temple-to-temple with a similarly posed Jesus. Mr. Trump is standing behind a microphone, and behind him is an American flag. The original post had a caption that included the words: “God might be playing his Trump card!”

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday (March 29, 2026) rejected claims that God justifies war and prayed especially for Christians in the Middle East during a Palm Sunday Mass before tens of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square.

With the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran entering its second month and Russia’s ongoing campaign in Ukraine, Leo dedicated his Palm Sunday homily to insisting that God is the “king of peace” who rejects violence and comforts those who are oppressed.

“Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” Pope Leo said. “He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.” Leaders on all sides of the Iran war have used religion to justify their actions. U.S. officials, especially Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, have invoked their Christian faith to cast the war as a Christian nation trying to vanquish its foes with military might.

Russia’s Orthodox Church, too, has justified Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “holy war” against a Western world it considers has fallen into evil.

Palm Sunday marks Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem in the time leading up to his crucifixion, which Christians observe on Good Friday, and resurrection on Easter Sunday.

In a special blessing at the end of Mass, Pope Leo said he was praying especially for Christians in the Middle East who are “suffering the consequences of an atrocious conflict. In many cases, they cannot live the rites of these holy days.” Earlier Sunday, the Latin Patriarchate said Jerusalem police prevented the Catholic church’s top leadership from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It was the first time in centuries that church leaders were prevented from celebrating Palm Sunday at the place where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, the Patriarchate said.

Pope Leo said that during Holy Week, Christians cannot forget how many people around the world are suffering as Christ did. “Their trials appeal to the conscience of all. Let us raise our prayers to the Prince of Peace so that he may support people wounded by war and open concrete paths of reconciliation and peace,” Pope Leo said.

A Holy Week that recalls Pope Francis’ suffering

When Holy Week opened last year, Pope Francis was still recovering at the Vatican after a five-week hospital stay for double pneumonia. He had delegated the liturgical celebrations to others, but rallied on Easter Sunday to greet the faithful from the loggia of St. Peter’s Square. Most poignantly, he then made what became his final popemobile loop around the piazza.

Pope Francis died the following morning, Easter Monday, after suffering a stroke. His nurse, Massimiliano Strappetti, later told Vatican Media that Francis had told him: “Thank you for bringing me back to the square” for the final salute.

Pope Leo is due to preside over this week’s liturgical appointments and is returning to tradition with the Holy Thursday foot-washing ceremony that commemorates Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples.

During his 12-year pontificate,Pope Francis famously celebrated the Holy Thursday ritual by travelling to Rome-area prisons and refugee centres to wash the feet of people on society’s margins. His aim was to drive home the ritual’s message of service and humility, and he would frequently muse during his Holy Thursday homilies, “Why them and not me?” Pope Francis’ gesture had been praised as a tangible evidence of his belief that the church must go to the peripheries to find those most in need of God’s love and mercy. But some critics bristled at the annual outings, especially since Francis would also wash the feet of Muslims and people of other faiths.

Leo restores Holy Week foot-washing tradition

Pope Leo, history’s first U.S.-born Pope, is returning the Holy Thursday foot-washing tradition to the basilica of St. John Lateran, where popes performed it for decades. The Vatican hasn’t yet said who will participate, though Popes Benedict XVI and John Paul II normally washed the feet of 12 priests.

On Friday, Pope Leo is due to preside over the Good Friday procession at Rome’s Colosseum commemorating Christ’s Passion and crucifixion. Saturday brings the late-night Easter Vigil, during which Leo will baptise new Catholics, followed a few hours later by Easter Sunday, when Christians commemorate the resurrection of Jesus.

Pope Leo will celebrate Easter Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square and then deliver his Easter blessing from the loggia of the basilica.

Pope Leo lamented a world “in flames” due to ​wars and the destruction of the environment during an ‌Ash Wednesday Mass, opening the season of ​Lent for the world’s Christians.

Before ⁠sprinkling ashes on the heads of participants, a sign of mortality, the pope said the ashes could ‌represent “the weight of a world that is ablaze, of entire cities destroyed ‌by war”.

He also told participants the ashes ‌could ⁠signify “the ashes of international law and justice ⁠among peoples, (and) the ashes of entire ecosystems”.

“It is so easy to feel powerless in the face of a ​world that is in ‌flames,” said Leo, the first U.S. Pope.

Lent is a 40-day period of penance that leads to Easter, the most important Christian ‌holiday, which celebrates the day on which ​believers say Jesus rose from the dead.

It represents the 40 days ⁠Jesus is said in the Bible to have spent fasting in the desert. During the ‌season, Catholics are asked to fast, remember the needy and reflect on mortality.

Pope Leo, elected leader of the 1.4-billion-member Church in May to replace the late Pope Francis, did not mention a specific conflict in his remarks. The ‌pope has forcefully decried the world’s ongoing wars ​in his first year and denounced what he called a global “zeal for war” in ⁠a major foreign policy speech last month.

He spoke ⁠on Wednesday (February 18, 2026) at a service held in the Basilica of Santa Sabina on ‌Rome’s Aventine Hill, preceded by prayers in a nearby church and a procession ​of cardinals and bishops.

Pope Leo met Venezuelan ​opposition leader and Nobel peace prize ‌winner Maria Corina Machado ​on Monday (January 12, 2026), the Vatican said, but did not provide any further details.

The meeting, listed among the Pope’s appointments for Monday in a daily Vatican statement, ​had not been included in ⁠an earlier advisory to the press about Pope Leo’s planned schedule for the day.

Leo, the ​first U.S. ⁠Pope, has called for Venezuela to remain an independent country after the capture by U.S. ‌forces of Venezuelan President Nicolas ‌Maduro on the orders of President Donald Trump.

In a major ‍foreign policy speech on Friday, the Pope decried the use of ‍military force as a means of achieving diplomatic goals and called for human rights to be protected in Venezuela.

Ms. Machado, a former National Assembly member, was barred from running in Venezuela’s 2024 general election ⁠by authorities aligned with Mr. Maduro.

She backed a stand-in candidate ​who was widely considered to have ⁠won the vote, although Mr. Maduro claimed victory. Ballot audits by independent observers showed irregularities in the official results.

Pope Leo XIV closed out 2025 on Wednesday (December 31, 2025) with a prayer that the city of Rome might be a welcoming place for foreigners and fragile people, young and old.

Pope Leo presided over a New Year’s Eve vespers service in St. Peter’s Basilica, giving thanks for the 2025 Holy Year that brought millions of pilgrims to Rome in the once-every-quarter-century celebration of Christianity.

Pope Leo will officially close out the Jubilee on Jan. 6. But in his homily, he thanked the city of Rome and the volunteers who helped keep crowds moving as they visited St. Peter’s and passed through its Holy Door.

He recalled that Pope Francis, who inaugurated the Holy Year on Dec. 24, 2024, had asked that Rome be a more welcoming place. “I would like it to be so again, and I would say even more so after this time of grace,” Leo said.

“What can we wish for Rome? That it may be worthy of its little ones. Of children, of lonely and fragile elderly people, of families who struggle to get by, of men and women who have come from afar hoping for a dignified life,” he said.

In the pews was Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri and other dignitaries.

In addition to the Jubilee, 2025 was momentous because of the papal transition after Francis died in April and cardinals elected history’s first pope from the United States.

The Vatican this week released statistics showing 3.2 million people had participated in Vatican liturgies, audiences, Angelus prayers and Jubilee audiences this year. The numbers were small in the first quarter, given Francis’ long hospitalization and illness, and then greatly shot up after Pope Leo’s May election.

Pope Leo decried conditions for ‍Palestinians in Gaza in his Christmas sermon on Thursday (December 25, 2025), 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.

Leo, the first U.S. pope, said the story of Jesus being born in a stable showed that God had “pitched his fragile tent” among the people of the world.

“How, then, can we not think of the tents in Gaza, exposed for weeks ​to rain, wind and cold?” he asked.

Leo, celebrating ⁠his first Christmas after being elected in May by the world’s cardinals to succeed the late Pope Francis, has a more quiet, diplomatic style ​than his predecessor and usually ⁠refrains from making political references in his sermons.

But the new pope has also lamented the conditions for Palestinians in Gaza several times recently and told journalists last month ‌that the only solution in the decades-long conflict between ‌Israel and the Palestinian people must include a Palestinian state.

Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire ‍in October after two years of intense bombardment and military operations, but humanitarian agencies say there is still too little ‍aid getting into Gaza, where nearly the entire population is homeless.

In Thursday’s service with thousands in St. Peter’s Basilica, Leo also lamented conditions for the homeless across the globe and the destruction caused by the wars roiling the world.

“Fragile is the flesh of defenseless populations, tried by so many wars, ongoing or concluded, leaving behind rubble and open wounds,” said ⁠the pope.

“Fragile are the minds and lives of young people forced to take up arms, who ​on the front lines feel the senselessness of what is asked ⁠of them and the falsehoods that fill the pompous speeches of those who send them to their deaths,” he said.

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.”

The Chicago-born pope was responding Tuesday (November 4, 2025) 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.

Pope Leo underlined that scripture emphasises 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,’’ Pope Leo said.

Pope Leo last month urged labour 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 West Asia, Pope 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 (November 6, 2025). At the end of November he will make his first trip as Pope to Turkiye and Lebanon.

Pope Leo on Sunday (November 2, 2025) appealed for an immediate ceasefire and the opening of humanitarian corridors in Sudan, saying he was following with “great sorrow” reports of terrible brutality in the city of Al-Fashir in Darfur.

“Indiscriminate violence against women and children, attacks on defenceless civilians and serious obstacles to humanitarian action are causing unacceptable suffering,” the Pope said during his weekly Angelus address to crowds in St. Peter’s Square.

He called on the international community to act “decisively and generously” to support relief efforts.

The U.N. human rights office said on Friday that hundreds of civilians and unarmed fighters may have been killed late last month when the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces captured Al-Fashir, the Sudanese army’s last major holdout in Darfur.

The city fell a week ago after an 18-month siege, prompting tens of thousands to flee.

Pope Leo also addressed the situation in Tanzania on Sunday, saying there had been clashes with numerous casualties after recent national elections. He urged all sides to avoid violence and “walk the path of dialogue”.

Pope Leo will publish the first document of his tenure on October 9, the Vatican said on Saturday (October 4, 2025), with a text that is likely to offer hints about the new pontiff’s priorities for the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church.

The document, known as an apostolic exhortation, will take the name “Dilexi te” (He loved you), and was formally signed by the Pope on Saturday ahead of its publication, the Vatican said.

Several Vatican officials told Reuters in recent weeks that Pope Leo’s text will focus primarily on the needs of the world’s poor.

The Vatican did not give details about the document on Saturday but the title suggests Pope Leo wants to signal continuity with the late Pope Francis, whose last major document, an encyclical, was issued in October 2024 with the name “Dilexit nos” (He loved us).

Pope Leo’s document completes a writing project first started by Francis but left uncompleted before the pontiff’s death in April, after 12 years leading the global Church, said the officials.

Leo, the first U.S. Pope, was elected to replace Francis by the world’s cardinals on May 8.

Pope Leo formally signed the text on Saturday, the Catholic feast day celebrating St. Francis of Assisi, the 13th century Italian saint renowned for his vow of poverty and closeness to nature.

Pope Francis, the first pontiff to take the saint’s name, shunned many of the trappings of the papacy. He often hosted meals with Rome’s homeless population and frequently criticised the global market system as not caring for society’s most vulnerable people.

Francis’ last encyclical, “Dilexit nos,” took a different approach from many of his other writings, largely abstaining from talking about political issues and focusing on spiritual themes.

In that text, Francis urged the world’s Catholics to abandon the “mad pursuit” of money and instead devote themselves to their faith.