“To respect the role of journalists and the dignity of readers,” Pope Leo XIV described the particular task of the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera (Evening Courier) on the occasion of its 150th anniversary.
In his letter, addressed to editor-in-chief Luciano Fontana, the Holy Father also warned of the challenge posed by the technological revolution and urged the newspaper to “keep pace with the times.”
In the age of artificial intelligence, the pope emphasized, “there is an irreplaceable task concerning communication” and, in particular, for major newspapers, given their historical legacy.
According to the pope, this task consists of “never renouncing one’s authority, guaranteeing the transparency of sources, respecting the role of journalists and the dignity of readers, cultivating the human dimension of the story, which only experience can provide.”
“…never renouncing oneʼs authority, guaranteeing the transparency of sources, respecting the role of journalists and the dignity of readers, cultivating the human dimension of the story, which only experience can provide.”
Pope Leo IXV
Pope Leo XIV congratulated the newspaper on its 150th anniversary and for having borne witness “to the role of the printed press as a vehicle for disseminating not only news but also ideas and culture as a living leaven of the society that your newspaper has helped to build.”
“Your responsibility is great, as long as your history. Many best wishes for this anniversary, which testifies to the deep bond that unites you with Italy and encourages you to cultivate together your roots and your future,” the Holy Father stated.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
The Lenten sermons began March 6 in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican, delivered by the Capuchin friar and preacher to the papal household, Father Roberto Pasolini, and inspired by the conversion of St. Francis of Assisi.
In the first of the meditations, which will take place every Friday until March 27, Pasolini reflected in the presence of Pope Leo XIV, members of the Roman Curia, and Vatican employees on “Conversion: Following the Lord Jesus on the Path of Humility.”
Aware of the crisis gripping the Middle East and the escalating violence, the priest noted that, in these days marked by sorrow, “speaking of humilitymight seem abstract, almost a spiritual luxury.”
Reflecting on the threat of war, he emphasized that “peace is born not only from political agreements, nor from diplomatic or military strategies, but from men and women who find the courage to humble themselves.”
These people, marked by humility, are, according to Pasolini, “capable of taking a step back, of renouncing violence in all its forms, of not yielding to the temptation of revenge and oppression, of choosing dialogue even when circumstances seem to thwart it.”
He then described the saint of Assisi as “a man pierced by the fire of the Gospel, capable of rekindling in each person the longing for a new life in the Spirit.”
In light of the example of St. Francis, the priest posed this question as a starting point: “What is meant by conversion?”
“It is, first and foremost, God’s initiative, in which man is called to participate with all his freedom,” he said.
He further explained that it occurs “in the innermost recesses of our nature, where the image of God imprinted within us awaits awakening. It is when something, long silent, begins to stir anew within the person.”
“Conversion is no longer an attempt to straighten out one’s life through one’s own strength but rather a response to a grace that has redefined the parameters of how we perceive, judge, and desire,” he added.
“Conversion is no longer an attempt to straighten out one’s life through one’s own strength but rather a response to a grace that has redefined the parameters of how we perceive, judge, and desire.”
Father Roberto Pasolini
Capuchin friar and preacher to the papal household
For a true evangelical conversion, the friar emphasized the need to identify the root of evil — that is, sin — without falling into the temptation of reducing it “to a small mistake or weakness.”
He proposed “deep healing” for this purpose, emphasizing that “if the possibility of true evil no longer exists, we cannot even believe in the possibility of true good. If sin disappears, even holiness becomes an abstract and incomprehensible destiny.”
He emphasized that humility “is a path that every baptized person is called to follow if they wish to fully embrace the grace of life in Christ.” Furthermore, he emphasized that it “does not impoverish man” but rather restores him to himself and to his true greatness.
“Original sin arises precisely from the rejection of humility: from the refusal to accept oneself as a finite human being, dependent on God. Conversion, then, can only be understood as a return to humility,” he affirmed.
Finally, Pasolini exhorted everyone to ongoing conversion and reiterated that evangelical humility is most necessary “in times of conflict and difficulty.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Cardinal Joseph Zen, a prominent supporter of the Traditional Latin Mass, has urged the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) to avoid schism by listening to Pope Leo XIV’s explanations of the Second Vatican Council.
In a comment posted to X in Italian on Friday, the 94-year-old Chinese prelate weighed in on the ongoing discussions between the Holy See and the society, which has said it will consecrate bishops without papal approval.
Zen’s comment follows those of Cardinals Gerhard Müller and Robert Sarah, who criticized the society for moving forward with its plan to consecrate bishops in defiance of the Vatican.
“Pope Leo is one who listens! He understands and will make his children understand that certain things perpetrated in the name of the so-called ‘spirit of the council,’ but contrary to the Church’s tradition, are not of the council,” the cardinal wrote.
He noted that even traditionalists are divided over the SSPX consecrations. “A schism must be avoided at all costs, because it will cause serious and lasting damage to the Church; but on the other hand, we must also respect a major problem of conscience: ‘How can we force someone to follow teachings that clearly deny the holy tradition of the Church?’” Zen said.
Zen also accused the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, of wanting “to dismantle the Church’s traditions.”
“The SSPX has been sent to dialogue with the head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, but is there any hope to be gained from this dialogue?” he said.
He also compared the discussions between the SSPX and the DDF to the biblical story of Joseph and his brothers. He identified the SSPX as Joseph, Fernández as Joseph’s brothers, and Pope Leo XIV as Reuben, who saved Joseph from his brothers.
The SSPX — which exclusively celebrates the Traditional Latin Mass — published a statement in February defending its decision to consecrate bishops and the breakdown in discussions with the Vatican. Under canon law, a bishop who consecrates another bishop without a papal mandate incurs automatic excommunication along with the one who was consecrated.
Zen slammed synodality at the consistory of cardinals in January. He is also an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the 2018 Vatican-China deal.
Pope Leo XIV’s prayer intention for the month of March is for disarmament and peace.
In a video released on X, the Holy Father posed a question to the faithful: “Would you imagine what a world without wars would be like? A world without the terror of approaching explosions? Without rocket alarms shattering the silence of the night?”
“Please join me in prayer this month for disarmament and peace,” he said.
In the full video shared on the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network website, Pope Leo recites an original prayer written specifically for this month’s prayer intention.
Here is the pope’s full prayer:
Lord of Life,
you shaped every human being in your image and likeness.
We believe you created us for communion, not for war,
for fraternity, not for destruction.
You who greeted your disciples saying, “Peace be with you,”
grant us the gift of your peace
and the strength to make it a reality in history.
Today we lift up our prayer for peace in the world,
asking that nations renounce weapons
and choose the path of dialogue and diplomacy.
Disarm our hearts of hatred, resentment, and indifference,
so we may become instruments of reconciliation.
Help us understand that true security
does not come from control fueled by fear,
but from trust, justice, and solidarity among peoples.
Lord, enlighten the leaders of the nations,
so they may have the courage to abandon projects of death,
halt the arms race,
and place the lives of the most vulnerable at the center.
May the nuclear threat never again dictate the future of humanity.
Holy Spirit,
make us faithful and creative builders of daily peace:
in our hearts, our families,
our communities, and our cities.
May every kind word, every gesture of reconciliation,
and every choice for dialogue be seeds of a new world.
Amen.
“Pray with the Pope” is accessible on the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network website and its digital platforms.
Speaking at a conference in Geneva on March 3, Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, the permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations since 2023, decried the fact that Christians are the most persecuted community in the world.
His address was titled “Standing with Persecuted Christians: Defending the Faith and Christian Values.”
Balestrero, who is also the Holy See’s representative to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), stated that during 2025 “almost 5,000 faithful were killed for their faith,” the equivalent of 13 people a day.
“Almost 400 million Christians worldwide face persecution or violence, making them the most persecuted religious community in the world,” the prelate told Vatican News.
Balestrero stated that the victims “are martyrs in the etymological sense of the term,” because they are witnesses “to their creed who embody values that challenge the logic of power.”
From the perspective of international law, the Italian prelate emphasized that Christians are also victims of “outrageous human rights violations” and insisted that their witness should not distract from the responsibility of states, whose duty it is to provide protection.
“It is the state’s duty to protect freedom of religion or belief, which includes preventing third parties from violating this right. This protection has to safeguard believers who are targeted, before, during, and after an attack,” he stated.
The problem of impunity
Balestrero drew attention to the issue of impunity for those who take the lives of Christians, which he referred to as “one of the most serious issues in the global landscape of religious persecution.”
After expressing his concern for the millions of persecuted Christians, he noted that this “scourge” to which they are subjected “affects countries across the world” and continents, including Europe. In this context, he cited the recent report on hate crimes by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, which recorded more than 760 hate crimes against Christians in Europe in 2024 alone.
Beyond the crimes, the Holy See’s representative in Geneva denounced other forms of persecution that are “more subtle and often silent forms of persecution,” such as gradual marginalization or exclusion from social and professional life “even in traditionally Christian lands.”
He also specified that this persecution takes the form of more discreet restrictions and limitations, “through which legal norms and administrative practices restrict or, in fact, nullify the legally recognized rights of the predominantly Christian population, even in some parts of Europe.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
ROME — A new exhibition in Rome is spotlighting the pivotal moment Pope Urban VIII entrusted a 25-year-old Gian Lorenzo Bernini with one of the most ambitious artistic commissions in Church history: creating the massive bronze canopy over the tomb of St. Peter in St. Peter’s Basilica.
The show — hosted by the Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica at Palazzo Barberini and running through June 14 — explores the close relationship between Bernini and the pope born Maffeo Barberini, the artist’s first major patron, according to exhibition curator Maurizia Cicconi. The initiative also forms part of celebrations marking the 400th anniversary of the consecration of the new St. Peter’s Basilica in 1626 and is supported by the Fabric of St. Peter.
Bernini, who would later shape the visual identity of Baroque Rome — including the sweeping colonnade of St. Peter’s Square — was still considered too inexperienced for such a monumental undertaking. Cicconi said Urban VIII pushed ahead anyway, despite resistance from the body of cardinals overseeing the basilica’s building works.
Bernini’s canopy is nearly 100 feet tall. | Credit: Victoria Cardiel/EWTN News
Excavations for the canopy’s foundations began in June 1623, only months after Urban VIII’s election and even before the basilica’s solemn consecration in November. At the time, the apostle’s tomb beneath the altar was covered by a modest structure of wood and fabric. Urban VIII, Cicconi noted, wanted a stable, monumental work that would proclaim the grandeur of the new basilica and emphasize the centrality of the site.
‘Fear of profaning’ St. Peter’s remains
The excavation stirred anxiety among cardinals who worried that disturbing the soil could profane relics connected to the tomb of St. Peter. The solution, the curator explained, reflected the era’s intense religious sensibility: Every portion of earth removed was carefully preserved.
The exhibition includes a stone marker documenting that decision, Cicconi said, underscoring how the excavated soil itself came to be treated “in a certain way” as a relic. Urban VIII even donated some of that soil to monastic orders — including Carmelites — for the founding of convents in Naples and Rome.
The exhibition can be visited through mid-June in Rome. | Credit: Daniel Ibañez/EWTN News
A decade-long construction, and a key design problem
Bernini’s canopy — formally known as the Baldachin of St. Peter’s — stands nearly 100 feet (about 92 feet, as the exhibit notes) tall and took a decade to complete, from 1624 to 1633. The exhibition traces the complex process through drawings, coins, printed books, and manuscripts, including studies in red chalk for the crown of the structure.
The exhibition displays documents detailing the construction of the canopy. | Credit: Daniel Ibañez/EWTN News
One major technical issue documented in the show: an early concept featuring arches topped by a triumphant Christ proved structurally unworkable. Cicconi said the final solution likely came from Francesco Borromini, whose system of large volutes now supports the globe crowned by a cross.
Among the most evocative artifacts is a medal discovered last year inside the sarcophagus of Urban VIII’s tomb — also a Bernini work — bearing the pope’s portrait on one side and the canopy on the other. Cicconi said evidence suggests it had been worn on a cord around the neck before someone placed it in the tomb in a spontaneous gesture of devotion. While it is tempting to imagine Bernini himself left it there, she cautioned that such a claim goes beyond what the documentation can prove.
More than engineering: Power, politics, and the Barberini image
The exhibit extends beyond the canopy to show how Urban VIII’s artistic program helped define St. Peter’s during a volatile European moment. Cicconi pointed to the backdrop of the Thirty Years’ War, when religion and dynastic power were intertwined and the papacy faced major monarchies such as France and Spain. In that context, she said, the Church sought to assert its spiritual primacy — and its temporal influence — through art.
Visitors will also find materials tied to other Bernini projects in St. Peter’s, including pieces linked to the tomb of Matilda of Canossa, terracotta models for the virtue of charity intended for the pope’s funerary monument, and the valuable sketch connected to St. Longinus, one of the last ideas for the colossal statue that now rises in the basilica’s crossing.
The exhibition includes a sketch for Bernini’s marble statue of St. Longinus (1638). | Credit: Daniel Ibañez/EWTN News
Another section focuses on Bernini’s role in shaping the public identity of the Barberini family, including works associated with the “gallery of ancestors” promoted by Cardinal Francesco Barberini, the pope’s nephew. Among the featured works are some of Bernini’s early pieces, already regarded as true works of art.
The “Bernini and the Barberini” exhibition. | Credit: Daniel Ibañez/EWTN News
Bernini “truly shaped the official image of the Barberini,” Cicconi said. The show includes extraordinary works such as a bust of Monsignor Francesco Barberini — on loan from Washington and displayed in Italy for the first time in many years — set beside busts of Camilla Barbadori, the pope’s mother, and Antonio Barberini Sr., made by Bernini with the help of one of his leading disciples.
The aim, Cicconi said, was clear: to move the bust-portrait — until then largely reserved for funerary monuments and family chapels — into palatial settings, giving it a dynastic and political dimension.
Bust of Pope Urban VIII. | Credit: Daniel Ibañez/EWTN News
An entire wall is dedicated to Urban VIII’s image. Cicconi said the display of several seemingly similar busts — yet in fact profoundly different — helps visitors see how Bernini constructed and modulated the pope’s official image.
The exhibition. | Credit: Daniel Ibañez/EWTN News
There are busts in marble, bronze, and even ancient red porphyry. Some were made directly by Bernini, others with the help of assistants, but always based on his model.
The show also highlights a lesser-known side of Bernini: painting. “It may be the least known aspect for the general public and yet extremely interesting,” Cicconi said.
Urban VIII even dreamed of making him the new Michelangelo of his pontificate and wanted him to decorate the Loggia of Blessings, echoing the ambition of the Sistine Chapel commissioned by Pope Julius II. Bernini, however, refused.
The exhibition. | Credit: Daniel Ibañez/EWTN News
“The freedom of Gian Lorenzo Bernini is seen precisely in the possibility — or not — of freely accepting commissions,” Cicconi said.
Though Bernini would outlive his patron and serve other popes, the exhibition intentionally concentrates on the decisive years of Urban VIII’s pontificate, from 1623 to 1644, when the Barberini pope’s support helped propel the young Bernini into the heart of St. Peter’s — and into the center of Catholic artistic history.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV said Wednesday that the Church cannot be understood solely from a human perspective but rather as the fruit of God’s plan of love for humanity realized in Christ. He also emphasized that this does not imply the spiritual superiority of the Church’s members.
“An ideal and pure Church, separated from the earth, does not exist; only the one Church of Christ, embodied in history,” the Holy Father affirmed at the general audience in St. Peter’s Square on March 4.
The pope continued his catechesis on the dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium, one of the pillars of the Second Vatican Council, in which the Church is described as “a complex reality.”
However, he clarified that this complexity does not mean the Church is “complicated” or difficult to explain. Rather, the Latin meaning of the word “complex” refers to “the orderly union of different aspects or dimensions within the same reality.”
The pope noted that the Church is “a well-organized body, in which the human and divine dimensions coexist without separation and without confusion.”
‘Both human and divine’
Leo pointed out that the Church’s human dimension is immediately perceptible, since it is “a community of men and women who share the joy and struggle of being Christians, with their strengths and weaknesses, proclaiming the Gospel and becoming a sign of the presence of Christ who accompanies us on our journey through life.”
Yet this aspect, even together with its institutional organization, is not sufficient to describe the Church’s true nature, because it also has a divine dimension. This, he explained, “does not consist in an ideal perfection or spiritual superiority of its members, but in the fact that the Church is generated by God’s plan for humanity, realized in Christ.”
Therefore, the Church is “at the same time an earthly community and the mystical body of Christ, a visible assembly and a spiritual mystery, a reality present in history and a people journeying towards heaven.”
He added that the human and divine dimensions “integrate harmoniously, without one overshadowing the other,” forming a fruitful paradox: “She is a reality that is both human and divine, which welcomes the sinful man and leads him to God.”
To illustrate this condition, the pope referred to the life of Jesus. Those who met Christ along the roads of Palestine experienced “his humanity, his eyes, his hands, the sound of his voice.” Yet through this visible humanity they encountered God, since “Christ’s flesh, his face, his gestures, and his words visibly manifest the invisible God.”
In the light of Christ’s reality, the pope said, the Church can be understood more clearly: “When we look at her closely, we discover a human dimension made up of real people, who sometimes manifest the beauty of the Gospel and other times struggle and make mistakes like everyone else.”
Yet “it is precisely through her members and her limited earthly aspects that Christ’s presence and his saving action are manifested,” he added.
No opposition between the Gospel and the Church
Pope Leo recalled the words of Pope Benedict XVI, who stated that there is no opposition between the Gospel and the institution of the Church. Rather, the structures of the Church serve the “realization and concretization of the Gospel in our time.”
The holiness of the Church, he explained, lies in the fact that Christ dwells within her and continues to give himself through the smallness and fragility of her members.
Reflecting on this “perennial miracle,” one can understand what the pope called “God’s method:” God “makes himself visible through the weakness of creatures.”
He also recalled the words of Pope Francis in the apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, which invites Christians “to remove our sandals before the sacred ground of the other (cf. Ex 3:5).”
The Church is built not only by organizing visible structures but also by building “that spiritual edifice which is the body of Christ, through communion and charity among ourselves,” Leo said.
He quoted St. Augustine, who emphasized that charity is the heart of ecclesial life: “If only we could all just let our thoughts dwell on the one thing, charity! It’s the only thing, you see, which both surpasses all things, and without which all things worth nothing, and which draws all things to itself, wherever it may be.”
This report was originally published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
The International Theological Commission has released a new document arguing that “the life of the human being is vocation,” while warning that unprecedented scientific and technological developments must be matched by a corresponding growth in responsibility so that progress is directed toward the good of the person.
The text, titled “Quo vadis, humanitas? Thinking Christian anthropology in the face of some scenarios concerning the future of the human,” was published Wednesday and was drafted by the International Theological Commission, which is chaired by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. The document was approved by Pope Leo XIV. For now, the document is available only in Italian.
“In this moment of the 21st century, the human family finds itself facing questions so radical that they even threaten its existence as we have known it up to now,” the document says, adding that human beings today are exposed to risks “never imagined before.”
Artificial intelligence and the human person
Addressing AI, the commission cautions that forms of knowledge and calculation detached from embodied, situated human intelligence — and from relational knowledge passed down through generations via education — can become a threat to the true good of humanity.
Social media, polarization, and ‘digital religions’
On social media, the document says online platforms can intensify “strong polarizations” among groups and can “tribalize” social exchange, fragmenting society into like-minded opinion blocs shaped by likes. The commission also warns that social platforms can become “territory of loneliness, manipulation, exploitation, and violence.”
The document raises concerns about what it describes as a “gigantic religious marketplace” online, where a variety of “digital religions” could offer an à la carte spirituality driven by individual interests rather than real bonds or community belonging. It also questions the genuinely ecclesial character of some Christian communication on social networks, particularly when used to inflame polemics, foster division, or damage the reputations of others.
‘The human being is vocation’
The commission reiterates that vocation is not only a theme for particular states of life in the Church but also is rooted in what a human person is. It adds that in the West a “culture of non-vocation” is often encouraged, shaping contemporary anthropological challenges — especially in the education of the young.
The text says many young people are taught to view their future primarily through the lens of career choice, economic stability, or the satisfaction of certain needs, without openness to an ultimate meaning and the foundational relationships that shape identity and destiny.
A warning about animals and humans
In a final caution, the commission says societies — especially in the West — should avoid treating some animals, particularly pets, “almost like persons,” while also resisting the opposite temptation: reducing human beings to animals.
This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
