By Courtney Mares
ROME (OSV News) – Pope Leo XIV has dedicated his prayer intention for the month of May to one of humanity’s most persistent challenges: hunger.
In a video message released on April 30 by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, the pope called on Catholics worldwide to confront the problem of food insecurity with both prayer and concrete action.
“Today we recognize with sorrow that millions of brothers and sisters continue to suffer from hunger, while so many goods are wasted at our tables,” the pope said in the video, recorded inside the Church of San Pellegrino in Vatican City.

At least 318 million people are expected to face food crisis conditions or worse this year, according to the World Food Program’s 2026 Global Outlook. The ongoing war in the Middle East could push an additional 45 million people into severe hunger before mid-year. In 2025, two famines were recorded in parts of Gaza and Sudan.
At the same time, the U.N. Environment Program reports that more than 1 billion tons of food are wasted globally every year, a contrast the pope addressed directly in his message.
Pope Leo called for a shift away from what he described as “the logic of selfish consumption” and toward “a culture of solidarity,” urging Catholic communities to take up practical measures including food banks, awareness campaigns and simpler, more responsible lifestyles.
“May our communities promote concrete gestures,” the pope said, adding that believers should approach every meal with gratitude, consume simply and “share with joy” in the knowledge that the fruits of the earth are “destined for all, not just a few.”
The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, also known as the Apostleship of Prayer, releases a prayer intention from the pope each month as part of its mission to unite Catholics in prayer for the Church’s global concerns.
Father Cristóbal Fones, director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, said the intention is a deeply personal concern for the pope.
“This intention comes from the pope’s heart. It pains him deeply that so many people in the world cannot access something as essential and human as food,” Father Fones said. “This is why he is asking everyone not to remain indifferent but to take decisive action, first with prayer, then with concrete gestures of solidarity.”

(Courtney Mares is Vatican editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @catholicourtney.)

By Junno Arocho Esteves
(OSV News) – Pope Leo XIV paid tribute to Pope Francis and called on Catholics to follow the late pontiff’s example in proclaiming the truth in a troubled world.

Addressing pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square April 6, the pope remembered his predecessor “who, on Easter Monday of last year, returned to the Lord.”

“As we recall his profound witness of faith and love, let us pray together to the Virgin Mary, Seat of Wisdom, that we may become ever more radiant heralds of the truth,” Pope Leo said before praying the “Regina Caeli” prayer.

Pope Francis died April 21, 2025, just one day after delivering what would be his final Easter Sunday “urbi et orbi” blessing.

In his address, Pope Leo recalled the day’s Gospel reading, which gave the dual accounts of the women who encountered the risen Christ and the guards who accepted a bribe in exchange for publicly denying the resurrection.

The two contrasting narratives, he explained, are an invitation to reflect “on the value of Christian witness and the integrity of human communication.”

“Often, the proclamation of truth is obscured by what we today call ‘fake news’ – lies, insinuations, and unfounded accusations. Yet, in the face of such obstacles, the truth does not remain hidden; rather, it comes forth to meet us, living and radiant, illuminating even the deepest darkness.”

Like he told the women at the tomb, Jesus calls on Christians not to be afraid and to announce the good news of his resurrection.

“The Passover of the Lord is our Passover – the Passover of all humanity – for this man who died for us is the Son of God, who gave his life for us,” the pope said. “Just as the risen One, ever living and present, frees the past from a destructive end, so the Easter proclamation redeems our future from the tomb.”

Pope Leo emphasized the importance of the Gospel’s reach to “those oppressed by the evil that corrupts history and confuses consciences,” particularly those “afflicted by war, of Christians persecuted for their faith, of children deprived of an education.”

“To proclaim the Paschal mystery of Christ in both word and deed means to give a new voice to hope – a hope otherwise stifled by the hands of the violent. Wherever it is proclaimed, the Good News sheds light upon every shadow, in every age,” the pope said.

After praying with the faithful, Pope Leo expressed his gratitude for the prayers from those who “have sent me messages of good wishes for Easter during these days.”

“I hope you spend this Easter Monday and these days of the Easter Octave – during which we continue to celebrate Christ’s Resurrection – in joy and faith,” he said. “Let us continue to pray for the gift of peace for the whole world.”

(Junno Arocho Esteves is an international correspondent for OSV News. Follow him on X @jae_journalist.)

(OSV News) – As tensions escalate following the Feb. 28 U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran, we share this prayer to St. Francis of Assisi – a timeless intercessor for peace – which Pope Leo XIV shared with leaders of the Franciscan order on the beginning of the 800th anniversary of St. Francis’ death in January 2026.

By Courtney Mares

ROME (OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV has pointed to Our Lady of Guadalupe as the model of “perfect inculturation” as Mexico prepares to mark the 500th anniversary of the apparition in 2031 with a jubilee year.

In a Feb. 24 message to the Theological-Pastoral Congress being held in Mexico City, the pope said Our Lady of Guadalupe “manifests God’s way of approaching his people.”

The congress, running Feb. 24-26, was organized to prepare for the 500th anniversary of the Marian apparitions to St. Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill in Mexico City. It is promoted by the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, the Mexican Episcopal Conference, the Knights of Columbus and the Pontifical International Marian Academy.

“Our Lady of Guadalupe is a lesson in divine pedagogy on the inculturation of salvific truth,” Pope Leo said. “She does not canonize a culture or absolutize its categories, but neither does she ignore or despise them: they are assumed, purified, and transfigured to become a place of encounter with Christ.”

In December 1531, Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared four times to St. Juan Diego, an Indigenous Mexican convert to Christianity, on Tepeyac Hill. She asked that a church be built in her honor on the site and left her image miraculously imprinted on St. Juan Diego’s tilma, or cloak, which remains on display today at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

Scholars and theologians have long noted how the image on the tilma is rich with symbolism that was intelligible to the Nahuatl-speaking peoples of central Mexico from her turquoise mantle, associated with a queenly status in Aztec culture, to the black band around her waist, which was a sign of pregnancy in Indigenous tradition. The four-petaled flower, located on her garment over Our Lady’s womb, was an Aztec symbol for the center of the universe and the fullness of the divine.

The pope said the apparitions on Tepeyac Hill can be seen as “a permanent criterion for discerning the evangelizing mission of the Church, called to proclaim the True God for whom we live, without imposing him, but also without diluting the radical newness of his saving presence.”

Inculturation refers to the concept of making the Gospel incarnate in different cultures. The pope clarified that “inculturation does not equate to a sacralization of cultures or their adoption as a decisive interpretive framework for the Gospel message.”

“To legitimize everything that is culturally given or to justify practices, worldviews, or structures that contradict the Gospel and the dignity of the person would be to ignore that every culture — like every human reality — must be enlightened and transformed by the grace that flows from the Paschal mystery of Christ,” Pope Leo added.

He noted that Our Lady of Guadalupe exemplifies an inculturation that is “respectful in its starting point, intelligible in its language, and firm and delicate in its guidance toward the encounter with the full Truth, with the blessed Fruit of his womb.”

“Inculturation is, rather, a demanding and purifying process, through which the Gospel, while remaining intact in its truth, recognizes, discerns, and assumes the semina Verbi present in cultures, and at the same time purifies and elevates their authentic values, freeing them from what obscures or disfigures them,” the pope said.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is venerated as the patroness of the Americas. Pope Leo noted that “today, in many regions of the American continent and the world, the transmission of faith can no longer be taken for granted, particularly in large urban centers and pluralistic societies marked by visions of man and life that tend to relegate God to the private sphere or to dispense with Him altogether.”

Pope Leo, who is on his Lenten retreat this week, signed the message on Feb. 5, the feast of St. Philip of Jesus, the first canonized saint born in Mexico.

He pointed to the example of “many holy evangelizers and pastors” who can serve as examples and intercessors for the congress’ efforts, citing St. Toribio de Mogrovejo, St. Junípero Serra, Blessed Sebastián de Aparicio, St. Mamá Antula, St. José de Anchieta, Blessed Juan de Palafox, St. Pedro de San José de Betancur, St. Roque González, St. Mariana de Jesús and St. Francisco Solano.

“And may Our Lady of Guadalupe, Star of the New Evangelization, accompany and inspire every initiative leading up to the 500th anniversary of her apparition,” Pope Leo said.

(Courtney Mares is Vatican editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @catholicourtney.)

By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – A lack of faith in Christ leads to many delusions, such as believing the arrogant will always rule and only money can buy happiness, Pope Leo XIV said.

The beatitudes, which show how to love as Christ does, “become for us a measure of happiness, leading us to ask whether we consider it an achievement to be bought or a gift to be shared; whether we place it in objects that are consumed or in relationships that accompany us,” the pope said Feb. 1.

“The Beatitudes lift up the humble and disperse the proud,” he said.

Before praying the Angelus with visitors in St. Peter’s Square, the pope reflected on the day’s Gospel reading: the beatitudes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which begin, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” according to the Gospel of St. Matthew (5:1-12).

The beatitudes, which single out the lowly for God’s favor, “remain a paradox only for those who believe that God is other than how Christ reveals him,” Pope Leo said.

For example, the pope said, “Those who expect the arrogant to always rule the earth are surprised by the Lord’s words. Those who are accustomed to thinking that happiness belongs to the rich may believe that Jesus is deluded.”

“However, the delusion lies precisely in the lack of faith in Christ. He is the poor man who shares his life with everyone, the meek man who perseveres in suffering, the peacemaker persecuted to death on the cross,” he said.

Jesus shows that history “is no longer written by conquerors, but rather by God, who is able to accomplish it by saving the oppressed,” Pope Leo said. “The Son looks at the world through the Father’s love.”

He said the faithful should not follow today’s “experts in illusion,” as Pope Francis said, because “they are unable to give us hope.” Instead, God gives hope “primarily to those whom the world dismisses as hopeless.”

It is, in fact, because of Christ “that the bitterness of trials is transformed into the joy of the redeemed,” Pope Leo said. “Jesus does not speak of a distant consolation, but of a constant grace that always sustains us, especially in times of affliction.”

By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The world is not saved by threatening violence or by judging, oppressing or getting rid of others, Pope Leo XIV said.

“Rather, it is saved by tirelessly striving to understand, forgive, liberate and welcome everyone, without calculation and without fear,” the pope said during Mass on Jan. 1 in St. Peter’s Basilica for the feast of Mary, Mother of God, and World Peace Day.

Therefore, at the beginning of a new year with “new and unique days that await us, let us ask the Lord to help us experience at every moment, around us and upon us, the warmth of his fatherly embrace and the light of his benevolent gaze,” he said in his homily.

The Mass marked the 59th World Day of Peace celebrated by the church. The pope’s message for the world day, published in December, was dedicated to the humble, “unarmed and disarming” peace of the risen Christ who loves unconditionally.

Thousands of people were present in the basilica for the celebration on New Year’s Day, including young people dressed as the three kings who visited Jesus. A figurine of the infant Jesus was before the altar, in keeping with the Christmas season of celebration, and an image of Our Lady of Hope was to the side of the main altar as a sign of the Jubilee of hope, which will end Jan. 6.

In his homily, Pope Leo reflected on the mystery of Mary’s divine motherhood, which “helped give a human face to the source of all mercy and benevolence: the face of Jesus.”

By being born of Mary in a grotto, he said, “God presents himself to us ‘unarmed and disarming,’ as naked and defenseless as a newborn in a cradle.”

“He does this to teach us that the world is not saved by sharpening swords, nor by judging, oppressing or eliminating our brothers and sisters,” he said. Rather, the world is saved by seeking to understand, forgive, free and welcome everyone with love.

“Thus, at the dawn of the new year, the liturgy reminds us that for each of us, every day can be the beginning of a new life, thanks to God’s generous love, his mercy and the response of our freedom,” Pope Leo said. “It is beautiful to view the coming year in this way: as an open journey to be discovered.”

“Indeed, through grace, we can venture forth on this journey with confidence – free and bearers of freedom, forgiven and bringers of forgiveness, trusting in the closeness and goodness of the Lord who accompanies us always,” he said.

Overlooking St. Peter’s Square after Mass, Pope Leo urged Christians to help usher in “an era of peace and friendship among all peoples.”

“The Jubilee … has taught us how to cultivate hope for a new world. We do this by converting our hearts to God, so as to transform wrongs into forgiveness, pain into consolation, and resolutions of virtue into good works,” he said.

The Son of God also illuminates “the consciences of people of goodwill, so that we can build the future as a welcoming home for every man and woman who comes into the world,” he said.

“The heart of Jesus, therefore, beats for every man and woman; for those who are ready to welcome him, like the shepherds, and for those who do not want him, like Herod,” he said.

“His heart is not indifferent to those who have no heart for their neighbor: it beats for the righteous, so that they may persevere in their dedication, as well as for the unrighteous, so that they may change their lives and find peace,” Pope Leo said.

CASTEL GANDOLFO (CNS) – At the end of his one day off each week, Pope Leo XIV went to the local school in Castel Gandolfo and joined hundreds of excited parents in watching the children’s Christmas concert.

After 45 minutes of songs in Italian, Latin, English and Spanish, Pope Leo thanked the children and their teachers for “the invitation that mysteriously arrived at my house, but maybe even more mysterious was the response when you learned I had decided to come.”

Shortly after the pope arrived Dec. 16 and school staff convinced the parents to sit down, more than 200 students, from the oldest to the youngest, filed on to risers on the stage in the gym wearing white sweatshirts and dark trousers.

The children all begin studying English in primary school, and the first piece they sang in English was a rousing “Joy to the World.” They also sang “The Little Drummer Boy” with drumming hand motions.

At the end of the concert, before leading the children in the Lord’s Prayer – which one class did in Italian sign language as well – Pope Leo spoke about the first song, a modern Italian carol, that recounted the angels singing the news of Jesus’ birth.

“The most beautiful words were about ‘angels who bring love,’ and you are the ones who brought love to all of us this evening,” the pope told the children.

St. Augustine once said, “One who loves, sings,” he told them.

“This is Christmas – God who wanted to draw near to us, especially to the smallest,” the pope said, expressing his hope that “we can feel and live this love” all year long.

Pope Leo also thanked the children for singing in several languages, showing that Christmas fills the hearts of believers everywhere with joy and peace.

He also quoted a well-known Italian song that says, “At Christmas you can do more.”

“It’s an invitation to all of us,” the pope said. “Let’s do more to proclaim peace, love and unity in the world.”