NATION
CHICAGO (OSV News) – White Sox baseball fans sporting custom-designed black and gold mitre-style hats celebrated Pope Leo XIV, a fellow Sox fan, at a pope-themed game in Chicago Aug. 11. Dominican Sister Mary Jo Sobieck of Springfield, Illinois, threw the first pitch, and fans shook hands with the “sign of peace,” led by the Chicago Archdiocese’s Father Tom Hurley, during the fifth inning at Rate Field, home of Pope Leo’s favorite baseball team. White Sox management handed out “pope hats” to over 38,000 fans who showed up at the third game in a series against the Cincinnati Reds. The promo project started out as a fan giveaway for the first 2,500 tickets, which sold quickly and it added another fast-selling 500. Management expanded the promo to the full stadium capacity and the tickets flew. “The place was capacity,” Richard King, a diehard Sox fan and Knight of Columbus who watched the game on TV, told OSV News, adding he thought having Catholicism so openly on display was “great” and would raise more interest in the Catholic faith. The game also featured its own familiar penitential rite for Sox fans, as the Reds rallied in the 10th inning to beat the White Sox 5-4, giving Cincinnati a lead in the three-game series that concludes Aug. 13. Pope Leo, a Chicago native who grew up in Dolton, Illinois, a south suburb, has been pictured sporting a White Sox baseball cap at the Vatican, and has received multiple Sox-themed presents since his election as pontiff in May 2025.

CANTON, Ohio (OSV News) – Rhoda Wise, an Ohio laywoman, wife, adoptive mother, Catholic convert and mystic, has taken a step closer to possible sainthood. The Diocese of Youngstown announced July 7 that the official “positio” on Wise has been submitted to the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. The comprehensive document examines her life of virtue and alleged miracles. The dicastery’s theological and historical commissions will investigate her heroic virtues and could recommend that the pope declare her venerable. Wise was born into a Protestant family in 1888 and endured significant hardships, including infertility, the death of one of her adopted daughters and a husband struggling with alcoholism and unemployment. She later experienced visions of Jesus and St. Thérèse of Lisieux, known as the “Little Flower,” and was associated with the stigmata and hundreds of reported healings. Among those who attributed a healing to Wise was Mother Angelica, founder of EWTN. She said Wise prayed with her during a novena to St. Thérèse, after which a painful stomach condition was healed. As Wise’s reputation for holiness spread, many visitors came to speak with her and pray outside of her house. She died in 1948, and her former home in Canton continues to be a place of pilgrimage.

VATICAN
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Leo XIV urged Catholics to gather in person for Sunday Mass and called for working conditions that allow people to attend, saying Sunday is “the foundation and kernel of the whole liturgical year.” “To sanctify Sunday, it is essential to celebrate the Eucharist,” the pope said at his Aug. 12 general audience in St. Peter’s Basilica. “In this regard, I urge everyone to seek the best possible conditions so that even those who are unable to take time off work on Sundays may take part in Holy Mass.” Continuing his series on the documents of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Leo reflected on ‘Sacrosanctum Concilium,’ the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. The liturgical year is not a static representation of past events, but an ongoing encounter with Christ, he said. At its core is Easter, when Christ rose from the dead, and for that reason, the pope said, it is “essential for the faithful to sanctify the Lord’s Day by gathering to celebrate the Eucharist.”
VATICAN CITY (OSV News) – The Vatican announced Aug. 11 that Pope Leo XIV’s message for the 2027 World Day of Peace will focus on “disarming technology” and the moral responsibility of political leaders. The theme will be “Disarming Technology, Serving Peace. Politics as Preventive Responsibility,” according to the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. “His Holiness wishes to draw attention to the moral responsibility of those called to serve in the public sphere, and he urges all people to uphold the dignity of the human person and to contribute to the building of peace, beginning by ‘disarming technology,’” the dicastery said. The message will draw on Pope Leo’s encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas” and warn about risks of entrusting military decisions to artificial intelligence. The announcement comes after Nobel laureates, inspired by the pope’s encyclical, gathered in Rome July 16 to sign a declaration urging a global treaty banning artificial intelligence from nuclear launch systems. The Jan. 1 observance, which is the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, will be the 60th World Day of Peace, a tradition begun by Pope Paul VI.
WORLD
AMMAN, Jordan (OSV News) – Jordan is officially preparing for a major milestone in Christian history: the 2,000th anniversary of the Baptism of Jesus Christ at Bethany Beyond the Jordan, also known as Al-Maghtas. A $120 million development project is underway adjacent to the UNESCO World Heritage site along the Jordan River. The initiative features a new Baptism museum, a dedicated pilgrim and visitor village, and ecological walking trails designed to support environmental conservation. The sacred site marks the beginning of Christ’s public ministry and holds a unique place in modern Church history as the only location visited by four popes: St. Paul VI, St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis. Millions of Christian pilgrims are expected to journey to Jordan by 2030 for this historic commemoration of faith, unity, and Christian heritage.
PELPLIN, Poland (OSV News) – Two previously unknown sermons by St. Augustine have been identified in a 12th-century manuscript preserved at the diocesan library in Pelplin, Poland, after nearly two years of research by scholars from Germany and Austria. The sermons, which address Saul’s encounter with the Medium of Endor in the Book of Samuel, will be published in a critical edition by the end of 2026. Researchers authenticated the texts through extensive philological, linguistic, liturgical and theological analysis. The manuscript, copied at the Cistercian abbey of Bad Doberan, reached Pelplin in the Middle Ages through monastic connections. Scholars say the sermons provide fresh insight into St. Augustine’s preaching and his willingness to consider multiple faithful interpretations of difficult biblical passages rather than insisting on a single explanation. “He presents several possible interpretations, refrains from making a final judgment, and allows his listeners to draw their own conclusions,” said Paul Nebauer, a member of the Bad Doberan Monastery Association, who has spent years tracing medieval manuscripts from the former Cistercian abbey. The sermons also highlight Augustine’s emphasis on God’s mercy, suggesting Saul may have repented after hearing Samuel’s prophecy. The discovery underscores the importance of preserving historic Church libraries and manuscript collections.