Second Full Seven Days of Pope Leo XIV’s Pontificate

Pope Leo XIV began his second full week on Friday May 16th as pope in an Audience to the Members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, or in simpler terms, to the ambassadors of other countries to the Holy See. 

Here, he began thanking the longest serving ambassador to the Holy See, the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps His Excellency Mr. George Poulides of the Republic of Cyprus who has been serving as the Cypriot Ambassador to the Holy See for over 20 years.

He further stressed how thankful he was for all in attendance because they represent his own mission and that of the Catholic Church to transcend borders and reach every nation.

Pope Leo XIV also thanked the kind responses of the Diplomatic Corps to the passing of Pope Francis, highlighting how many nations not officially with diplomatic relations to the Holy See even sent messages to the higher ups in the Catholic Church furthering the Church’s universal reach. 

While speaking very diplomatically in the Apostolic Palace’s Clementine Hall, Pope Leo XIV reminded the audience the unique nature of Holy See Diplomacy, one that seeks to build bridges through pastoralism. 

“Papal diplomacy is an expression of the very catholicity of the Church. In its diplomatic activity, the Holy See is inspired by a pastoral outreach that leads it not to seek privileges but to strengthen its evangelical mission at the service of humanity. Resisting all forms of indifference, it appeals to consciences, as witnessed by the constant efforts of my venerable predecessor, ever attentive to the cry of the poor, the needy and the marginalized, as well as to contemporary challenges, ranging from the protection of creation to artificial intelligence.” - Pope Leo XIV

He would thus outline “three essential words” that formulate “the pillars of the Church’s missionary activity and the aim of the Holy See’s diplomacy.” 

The first word was “peace”, which Pope Leo XIV described as an active goal that takes constant work, full of dialogue to stop people from being in constant conflict. 

Stressing the importance of religious freedom, interreligious dialogue, and international institutions designed to remedy disputes, Pope Leo XIV claimed these would “eliminate the root causes of all conflicts and every destructive urge for conquest” because it would put speaking over clashing. He also stressed the importance of disarmament that Pope Franics made popular in his Urbi et Orbi speech, stating that “[n]o peace is ‘possible without true disarmament [and] the requirement that every people provide for its own defence must not turn into a race to rearmament’.”

The second word was “justice”, which Pope Leo XIV recalled Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum as a guide, stressing that the “Holy See cannot fail to make its voice heard in the face of the many imbalances and injustices that lead, not least, to unworthy working conditions and increasingly fragmented and conflict-ridden societies.” 

He stated that all nations should work to lessen inequalities between countries and continents, and within their own nation.

“It is the responsibility of government leaders to work to build harmonious and peaceful civil societies. This can be achieved above all by investing in the family, founded upon the stable union between a man and a woman, ‘a small but genuine society, and prior to all civil society.’ In addition, no one is exempted from striving to ensure respect for the dignity of every person, especially the most frail and vulnerable, from the unborn to the elderly, from the sick to the unemployed, citizens and immigrants alike.” - Pope Leo XIV

The third word was “truth”. Pope Leo XIV stated that no peaceful relations can exist without truth, and how in Christianity, truth is represented by Jesus Christ with an emphasis on charity, but that truth sometimes must be blunt when the concept is quite complicated. 

Thus, the Holy See will seek to be truthful and charitable when possible to lessen confusion and increase its reach. 

Yet, Pope Leo XIV warned of the complications of modern communications whereby falsehoods often prevail in media narratives: “[w]here words take on ambiguous and ambivalent connotations, and the virtual world, with its altered perception of reality, takes over unchecked, it is difficult to build authentic relationships, since the objective and real premises of communication are lacking.”

This can increase tensions because we may no longer deal in an accepted truth, marking dialogue nearly obsolete for truth becomes altered or relative. 

Hence the reason Pope Leo XIV warns that the Holy See will have to be blunt at times in creating a dialogue with established truths held within the family of nations. 

Pope Leo XIV ended his Audience with a call for hope and authenticity in attempts to lead the world towards a more lasting and just peace. 

In 1991, on the 100th year anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum, Saint Pope John Paul II issued the encyclical titled Centesimus Annus, to further highlight Catholic social doctrine during the then present industrial age.

Two years later, Saint Pope John Paul II would establish the Fondazione Centesimus Annus - Pro Pontifice (Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation) that included lay Catholic business, academic, and other professional industrial leaders. 

Being a central theme of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate, he would make his Address to the “Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice” Foundation on May 17th in the Clementine Hall.

It was the foundations’ annual International Conference and General Assembly, and the title was “Overcoming Polarizations and Rebuilding Global Governance: The Ethical Foundations”. 

While appearing as an in-depth and quite modern topic not relevant for the healing mechanisms of 1890s or even 1990s Catholic social doctrine, Pope Leo XIV was quick to remind the audience that Catholic social doctrine is not an unchangeable opinion, rather it is “the product of research, and hence of hypotheses, discussions, progress, and setbacks, all aimed at conveying a reliable, organized, and systematic body of knowledge about a given issue.” 

To put this into more plain English, Pope Leo XIV is communicating that Catholic social doctrine is not static in its prescriptions, rather it is a tool to be used to formulate opinions, a science of truths to base prescriptions on. Thus, one can use these doctrines to find their ultimate answer for modern-day problems. 

“ “Indoctrination” is immoral. It stifles critical judgement and undermines the sacred freedom of conscience, even if erroneous. It resists new notions and rejects movement, change, or the evolution of ideas in the face of new problems. “Doctrine,” on the other hand, as a serious, serene, and rigorous discourse, aims to teach us primarily how to approach problems and, even more importantly, how to approach people. It also helps us to make prudential judgements when confronted with challenges. Seriousness, rigour, and serenity are what we must learn from every doctrine, including the Church’s social doctrine.” - Pope Leo XIV

During this same day, the first beatification under Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate took place in the Cathedral of Saint-François-de-Sales in Chambéry in the Archdiocese of Chambéry, itself an Æque principaliter known as the Archdiocese of Chambéry, Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne and Tarentaise. 

Here, the Apostolic Nuncio to France, Titular Bishop of Canosa, Celestino Migliore, presided over a Solemn Mass to proclaim Father Camille Costa de Beauregard a Blessed with Archbishop Thibault Verny.

Father Costa de Beauregard had become an ally of workers during his early years in the clery opening a mutual aid fund, but when cholera struck Chambéry, many adults died leaving an infamous amount of orphans. 

Together with a Savoyard noble family called the Boigne Family, Father Costa would start the Bocage Orphanage and led this for over 40 years from the 1860s to 1910. Due to his great relations with Saint John Bosco, the founder of the Salesians, Father Costa would implement many Salesian teaching techniques as many of his students would become farmers.

Sunday May 18th marked the Holy Mass for the Beginning of the Pontificate of Pope Leo XIV, or as it is dubbed in modern language, the Inauguration Mass. 

Combined with the weekly Angelus that is substituted during this holy season by the Regina Caeli held on Sunday, and the greetings with all the foreign dignitaries, the event lasted nearly five hours both outside in Saint Peter’s Square and inside in Saint Peter’s Basilica. 

Pope Leo XIV included officials and individuals representing all groups in the Catholic Church, including those from the six continents, those representing each level of clergy, those representing members of religious life, married couples, the youth, and a few other categories.

Throughout the mass, many languages were spoken, including a very long Gospel reading from the Acts of the Apostles sung in Greek, a tip of the hat to the Eastern Catholic churches who often hold Greek as their ancient liturgical language similar to how the Western Church upholds Latin.

With a reported 200,000+ people in attendance, the crowd not only featured Catholics, but also many people of other denominations and other religions including religious leaders representing Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Zoroastrians, and Jainists.

In Pope Leo XIV’s homily, two important “dimensions” of Jesus’s ministry were focused on to reflect on the Petrine ministry: “love and unity”. 

For love, Pope Leo XIV focused on the Greek-language Bible to communicate the different types of love such as God’s love worded as agapáo (agape) meaning unconditional and infinite love no matter the context of failure and denial. 

Therefore, Saint Peter and his successors are called to be “fishers of men” who cast a large net and often, to draw in the most amount of followers possible. However, due to this agape love, the Petrine Ministry is not called to be forceful, rather simply consistently inviting.

“Peter is thus entrusted with the task of “loving more” and giving his life for the flock.  The ministry of Peter is distinguished precisely by this self-sacrificing love, because the Church of Rome presides in charity and its true authority is the charity of Christ.  It is never a question of capturing others by force, by religious propaganda or by means of power.  Instead, it is always and only a question of loving as Jesus did.” - Pope Leo XIV

As for unity, Pope Leo XIV asked us to focus more on respecting one another’s differences hoping for a united Church and also a unified culture seeking peace among those of different religions who are also God-fearing. 

Pope Leo XIV continued his casting metaphor for unity by drawing together a concept often deemed opposed to unity: missionizing. 

For our new pope, he deems missionizing done in the casting way as one of invitation instead of encroachment, seeking on uniting people’s differences under a singular purpose to draw connection on the desperateness that clouds the world.

“This is the missionary spirit that must animate us; not closing ourselves off in our small groups, nor feeling superior to the world.  We are called to offer God’s love to everyone, in order to achieve that unity which does not cancel out differences but values the personal history of each person and the social and religious culture of every people.” - Pope Leo XIV

Towards the end of his homily, Pope Leo XIV suggested that if we were all to follow Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, that we could live in a peaceful world because we would be focused on consulting all people instead of dividing ourselves into different incongruent and animus sectors. 

“I would like that our first great desire be for a united Church, a sign of unity and communion, which becomes a leaven for a reconciled world.” - Pope Leo XIV

In addition to his address to the whole world, Pope Leo XIV also addressed the religious confraternities who had descended upon Rome for the Jubilee of Confraternities from the 16th to the 18th of May. 

This added to the regal nature of the event that unlike the Presidential Inauguration in the United States of America, does not equal the pope officially becoming the pope, which already happened on his first night on May 8th, but rather continues the historic tradition of being the first mass pilgrims across the world can reasonably get to with enough time in between the election and the inauguration. 

In the Regina Caeli, Pope Leo XIV further thanked the confraternities for “keeping the great heritage of popular piety alive”, as the confraternities are the lay groups often in charge of important festivals such as those during Holy Week made famous in Spain. 

Highlighting the previous days’ Beatification of Father Camille Costa de Beauregard who came from Chambéry in the Savoie Department of today's Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region of France, calling to attention the situation in and praying for those in Gaza, Ukraine, and Myanmar, plus praying for the intercession of Mary to help lead the Church, Pope Leo XIV ended his speaking by focusing on others.

This was a constant theme during his inaugural mass as he described himself as having been chosen “without any merit of [his] own [...] who desires to be the servant of [our] faith and [our] joy.”

Perhaps the happiest moment came when Pope Leo XIV was able to hug his eldest brother Louis Martín Prevost in the midst of shaking many dignitaries' hands. 

Meeting with representatives of different denominations and religions on Monday May 19th, Pope Leo XIV was quick to recognize Pope Francis’s role in his encyclical Fratelli Tutti that stressed the importance of brotherhood among all people in the context of Saint Francis of Assissi’s Feast Day the day before. Both Pope Francis and Saint Francis of Assissi were known for creating closer relations between the Church and the Islamic world through interreligious dialogue.

Yet, Pope Leo XIV took things a step further to focus on ecumenical dialogue among the various Christian denominations in which he announced his goals for re-unification during 2025, the 1,700th year anniversary of the Council of Nicaea when the Nicene Creed was created in present-day Turkey. 

Thus, he made special addresses to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I, first among equals of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Patriarch of the (Eastern) Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, Patriarch Theophilos III, and the Catholicos-Patriarch of the (Assyrian) Church of the East, Mar Awa III. 

All of these leaders are part of the four apostolic traditional denominations of Christianity that are most closely aligned, with the Oriental Orthodox Church being another member. 

Pope Leo XIV continued by invoking the motto he chose, In Illo uno unum (“in the one that is Christ, we are one”), which stems from Saint Augustine of Hippo.

In continuation of the spirit of dialogue, Pope Leo XIV announced plans to continue synodality through inclusion of these other denominations to come to future shared decisions and reduce our differences.  

Towards the end of his Address in the Clementine Hall, Pope Leo XIV addressed the other religious leaders, making a special invocation to Jewish and Muslim leaders who share the same singular God.

Speaking to the rest of the representatives, he thanked them on their work for peace and announced how they too can work together for shared values: “I am convinced that if we are in agreement, and free from ideological and political conditioning, we can be effective in saying “no” to war and “yes” to peace, “no” to the arms race and “yes” to disarmament, “no” to an economy that impoverishes peoples and the Earth and “yes” to integral development”.

A very special moment came in a photo of Mar Awa III and Pope Leo XIV who both were born in and grew up around Chicago, Illinois in the United States of America, making Chicago the birth city of two of the four leaders of the ancient apostolic churches.  

Following this address, Pope Leo XIV would meet three very important world leaders.

One of these leaders was the President of the Republic of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, a man with an extremely controversial past having been a member of a rebellious left-wing paramilitary group to overthrow the Colombian government. 

Yet, his socialist leanings and push for violent overthrow was always clouded by his Catholic upbringing, which he had declared a calling from God to approach it through a liberation theology lens. This later contributed to his rise in the M-19 group to make it into a viable political party focused on democratic change rather than on violent overthrow.

While still aligned in the wider Bolivarian Movement that describes itself as socialist under Venezuelan leadership with key partners in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Bolivia, and having pushed through abortion policies and other policies that go against Catholic Social Teaching, President Petro has also been a key promoter of many other Catholic Social Teaching policies such as reducing crime and criminal syndicates within the governmental structure, promoting a cleaner and healthier environment, reducing poverty, improving education, agrarian and land reform, and fighting neoliberalism. 

Thus, Pope Leo XIV and President Petro spoke on issues they could find common ground on such as the “positive and lasting collaboration between the Church and State in support of peace and reconciliation processes.” 

This is one of the key points Pope Leo XIV has expressed is the concept of reconciliation which President Petro has based his rise in the political scene on as well as a way to distance himself from his guerilla warfare past.

Pope Leo XIV’s nation of Peru went through a similar, but different period whereby right wing parties largely in-line publicly with the USA and thus the Catholic world in the eyes of the English-speaking press fought against socialist and communist guerilla groups, terrorists, and political parties in sometimes very violent ways leading to bloodshed across the nation, which only reconciliation processes could heal.

These processes were largely part of Pope Leo XIV’s time as an Augustinian priest and later as a diocesan bishop in Peru as he balanced the political, socio-economic, foreign policy, and cultural divide of Peru that is quite similar to many other parts of South America like Colombia.

Next, Pope Leo XIV met with the Vice President and Secretary of State of the United States of America (USA), J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio. 

Vice President Vance and Secretary Rubio are two vastly different figures to President Petro representing very different sides.

Outside of Vice President Vance’s statements on IVF, both Secretary Rubio and Vice President Vance have extremely good records on Catholic policies for issues such as abortion, marriage, religious freedom, gender ideology, and nearly all other teachings.

Yet, there has been a divide on immigration policy, of which Vice President Vance and Pope Leo XIV have a public disagreement on. 

Under the administration of President Donald Trump, the USA has pursued deportations of illegal immigrants that Pope Leo XIV and Pope Francis have often considered more refugees and asylum seekers instead.

Furthermore, both Secretary Rubio and Vice President Vance have often been less aligned with the disarmament and environmental policies of Pope Francis and presumably Pope Leo XIV at the moment. 

In terms of foreign policy, Secretary Rubio has led an effort to stop and delegitimize the Bolivarian Movement due to its ties to increasing authoritarianism that often plagues religious freedom in places like Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. 

This stems from his background where his parents escaped Communist-led Cuba for the USA. Likewise, Vice President Vance’s political stances are largely shaped by his struggle from one of the lowest economic classes in the poorest region of the USA, where his solutions are very different from that of President Petro.

While Pope Leo XIV has voted for both major political parties in the USA in the past, most Catholic Americans have been leaning toward Vice President Vance’s and Secretary Rubio’s Republican Party because of their strong religious freedom policies that help the Catholic Church remain more free from government control and able to operate hospitals and schools through Catholic Social Teaching. 

This is one of the key reasons Catholics feature so prominently in the Cabinet of President Donald Trump as both Vice President Vance and Secretary Rubio are strong Catholics, with Vice President Vance being a converted Catholic.

Furthermore, President Donald Trump has publicly led many peace efforts across the world in line with the Holy See’s foreign policy goals so there was also a lot of common ground to focus on in these meetings as well. 

Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher attended all of these meetings. The longtime Holy See diplomat from Liverpool, England in the United Kingdom has served as the Secretary for the Relations with States since 2014, often described as the second in command to the Secretary of State for the Holy See’s foreign policy. 

Later that day, it was announced that the renowned musicologist from Trostberg, Bavaria in Germany, Father Robert Melhart, O.P., had been put in charge of reviving the Gregorian Chant and other sacred music forms to help people sing with Pope Leo XIV. 

As President of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music which is a higher education institute focused on teaching and spreading sacred and historic Catholic music across the world, Father Melhart was able to use social media to launch “Let’s Sing with the Pope” after noticing how Pope Leo XIV sang during in his first Regina Caelli and how many people wished to join in, but many did not know how.

“Christians sing; lovers sing, as St. Augustine reminds us, and Christians are lovers as they love God.” - Father Robert Melhart, O.P.

Tuesday May 20th was a very holy day as Pope Leo XIV made a surprise visit to say mass at the Chapel of the Dicastery for Bishops and made his official Visit to the Tomb of Saint Paul at the Papal Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome. 

His surprise visit to the Dicastery for Bishops lasted around an hour and half and marked a return to his former office where he served as Prefect from 2023-2025. 

The Dicastery for Bishops like most of the Roman Curia, is located just past the border on the other side of the colonnades of Saint Peter’s Square at Palazzo delle Congregazioni in Pius XII Square at the end of the famous Via della Conciliazione street that leads to the Vatican City from Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome. 

In charge of proposing the ordinaries of all particular churches (usually meaning the bishops of each diocese) as well as many other functions such as the creation of new particular churches, the Dicastery for Bishops is arguably the most important Department of the Roman Curia for human resources. The reason for this visit may be officially secret, but appeared more revealing later on in the week.

Following this extremely short trip to the closest part of Rome to the Vatican City, Pope Leo XIV then journeyed further into the city to travel to Saint Paul outside the Walls.

Here, he prayed at the tomb of Saint Paul and then led a prayer service with a homily after a reading from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans. 

He focused on three key themes: grace, faith, and justification.

Saint Paul first experienced Jesus because Jesus came to him showing grace at a time when he was persecuting Christians.This is part of what Saint Paul describes as the “Fruits of God’s Prior Love”, a situation very similar to another converts’ description of his process of becoming a Chrisitan: Saint Augustine. Pope Leo XIV then quoted Saint Augustine: “How can we choose, unless we have first been chosen? We cannot love, unless someone has loved us first.” 

Saint Paul then experienced the “Obedience of Faith”, which Pope Leo XIV states was not Jesus taking away his freedom on the Road to Damascus, but rather was Jesus offering Saint Paul a choice to either obey the Faith or not, understanding that obeying the Faith comes with sacrifices. 

“Salvation does not come about by magic, but by a mysterious interplay of grace and faith, of God’s prevenient love and of our trusting and free acceptance.” - Pope Leo XIV

Using the words of Pope Francis, Pope Leo XIV communicated the gratefulness we must all show to God for turning around Saint Paul’s life as the Apostle of Gentiles, and connected how his choice to become a missionary was justified by his salvation as a saint.

“Let us compete in showing the love that, following his encounter with Christ, drove the former persecutor to become ‘all things to all people’ even to the point of martyrdom. In this way, for us as for Paul, the weakness of the flesh will show the power of faith in God that brings justification.” - Pope Leo XIV

He finished his homily giving credit to the Benedictines who have been in charge of Saint Paul outside the Walls for centuries, highlighting Saint Benedict and Pope Benedict XVI.

For Saint Benedict, he spoke to his Rule, “to fraternal charity in the monastery and hospitality toward all”, as Saint Benedict is considered the founder of the Benedictine movement.

For Pope Benedict XVI, he invoked a homily of his in Madrid, Spain in 2011, in which Pope Benedict XVI stated that “ ‘our life originates as part of a loving plan of God,’ [and faith leads us to] ‘open our hearts to this mystery of love and to live as men and women conscious of being loved by God’.”

Therefore, Pope Leo XIV ended his homily by asking God to “grant [him] the grace to respond faithfully to [God’s] call”. 

Next, Pope Leo XIV addressed the Network of Universities for the Care of Our Common Home who were at the Jesuit and Archdiocese of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro-run Pontifical University of Rio de Janeiro on the 10h anniversary of Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato si’ in anticipation of the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém, Pará, Brazil. 

The Network of Universities for the Care of Our Common Home was begun in 2021 by Pope Francis and includes all universities, Catholic and non-Catholic, in a quest to create a better environment through new technologies and new approaches in climate mitigation, to reduce poverty and inequality, and to embrace modern science, urban planning, and many other subjects in line with Catholic social teaching.

This address was done over a video message in which Pope Leo XIV stressed two very important concepts. 

First was how he encouraged the students to think of the possible ways of implementing the remission of the public debt and of the ecological debt Pope Francis had proposed. 

This follows similar policies employed by the United Nations and global leaders like King Charles III of the Commonwealth realm and the Anglican Communion who have sought remedies which reward nations who keep the environment cleaner instead of only rewarding nations through exploitation of resources.

Secondly, he encouraged the students to be “builders of bridges of integration” between the Americas and the Iberian Peninsula, a sort of random encouragement due to the nature of the message, but important for the times as much of the Latin American world is seeing a movement to cut ties to Spain and Portugal in quests for further “de-colonization” efforts.

These efforts especially popular in indigenous movements such as Pope Leo’s Peru often make economic systems like capitalism and religion such as the Catholic Church out to be tools of genocide in quests to improve the enviroment, protect native-Amerindian culture, and lessen economic inequality. 

While implied, it would be a very good idea for the Church to get ahead of this movement before religious freedom is eroded over erroneous and often fabricated revisionist history. 

Lastly, a fun announcement came from the Chicago White Sox who put in a special mural dedicated to Pope Leo XIV in section 140 called the Holy Corner at their Rate Field. This is where Pope Leo watched his favorite baseball team’s Game 1 victory in the 2005 World Series on October 22nd. The White Sox went onto win their third World Series to become champions of Major League Baseball (MLB) for the first time in 88 years. 

The Archdiocese of Chicago also announced a celebration mass for the election of Pope Leo XIV at Rate Field on June 14th. 

Pope Leo XIV then held his first General Audience on Wednesday the 21st in Saint Peter’s Square.

Here, he focused on Jesus's Parable of The Sower. 

But, he takes a different approach by speaking to the crowd of “Jesus Christ Our Hope”, the theme of the Jubilee Year started under Pope Francis. 

What Pope Leo XIV means by this is that the sower is God, the seed is the Word, and the soil is us.

When soil is at its best, the seed will grow the best, and thus we will understand the Word and our Faith the best.

But, regardless of the soil, the sower, God, must plant his seed, speak His Word, wherever possible in hopes that we will be in our best state.

For example, in the parable, the sower throws his seed all over to various terrains including rocky terrains, just for the chance that the seeds may grow. 

And this is the hope we must have is that “if we realize we are not a fruitful soil, [to] not be discouraged, but let us ask him to work on us more to make us become a better terrain.”

For love you do not calculate Pope Leo XIV states, and that is how God’s seed is, it is done through love rather than calculation, which is why He sows in all soils. 

“God throws the seed of his Word on all kinds of soil, that is, in any situation of ours: at times we are more superficial and distracted, at times we let ourselves get carried away by enthusiasm, sometimes we are burdened by life’s worries, but there are also times when we are willing and welcoming. God is confident and hopes that sooner or later the seed will blossom. This is how he loves us: he does not wait for us to become the best soil, but he always generously gives us his word. Perhaps by seeing that he trusts us, the desire to be better soil will be kindled in us. This is hope, founded on the rock of God’s generosity and mercy.” - Pope Leo XIV

Afterwards, he expressed special appeals for Gaza for the resumption of dignified humanitarian aid and an end to hostilities. 

Then, he addressed the English-speaking pilgrims in the audience by welcoming them with a special greeting.

A special moment came when Pope Leo XIV referenced famous Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and his painting, The Sower at Sunlight, where the farmer is in the heat of the sun, but his fruit is already ripe, representing how our toils do lead to good results. 

Pope Leo XIV Addressed the Pontifical Mission Society in the Clementine Hall on Thursday May 22nd.

This society is made up of multiple groups, and Pope Leo made sure to outline each in his opening paragraphs.

The Society for the Propagation of Faith “provides aid for pastoral and catechetical programmes, the building of new churches, healthcare, and educational needs in mission territories.”

Providing children’s Christian formation is the Society of the Holy Childhood, while the Society of Saint Peter the Apostle “cultivate[s] missionary vocations [both] priestly and religious.”

And the Missionary Union “form[s] priests, religious men and women, and all the people of God for the Church’s missionary activity.”

“The promotion of apostolic zeal among the People of God remains an essential aspect of the Church’s renewal as envisioned by the Second Vatican Council, and is all the more urgent in our own day. Our world, wounded by war, violence and injustice, needs to hear the Gospel message of God’s love and to experience the reconciling power of Christ’s grace.” - Pope Leo XIV

He thanked them for their work on promoting World Mission Sunday every year on the second to last Sunday of October, which helps many of the churches in the areas under the control of the Dicastery of Evangelization.

Pope Leo XIV concluded with using communion and universality as two central themes for the the Pontifical Missionary Societies to remember. 

The Pontifical Missionary Societies are meant to create communion with the Holy Trinity, with the pope and the College of Bishops, with our Faith among their members, and by doing so, they become universal as they are meant to bring the Gospel to every nation and people.

As the day concluded, two important appointments were announced, a new secretary for a dicastery and a new bishop for an important diocese. 

Sister Tiziana Merletti, former Superior General of the Sisters of the Poor of Saint Francis, was named Secretary for the Dicastery of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, making her the number two to the Prefect Sister Simona Brambilla of the Institute of the Consolta Missionaries, both Italian religious sisters. 

Pope Leo XIV then appointed auxiliary bishop of San Diego, Michael Pham, to become the Bishop of the Diocese of San Diego, with installation expected to be July 17th, 2025.

This marks Pope Leo XIV’s first bishop appointment in the USA, and it happened to a very large diocese within the ecclesiastical province of Los Angeles. 

Sister Tiziana Merletti is notable for her excessive education in law, becoming one of the foremost canon lawyers to represent the International Union of Superiors General, an organization that represents over 600,000 religious sisters and nuns across the world. She has also been a professor in canon law at the Franciscan’s Pontifical University of Saint Anthony. 

Bishop Pham has become the first named ordinary in the USA to be born in Vietnam, of which a vibrant community of the American Catholic Church originates from. His expertise in aeronautical engineering he received from San Diego State University makes him similar to Pope Leo XIV in STEM expertise, and also makes him a very good figure to lead a diocese where many members are either members of the USA’s military or work for companies directly tied to them. These include many companies and elite military personnel engaged in aeronautics. 

Thus, it was another very long and fruitful week for Pope Leo XIV.