Pope Leo XIV lands in Rome after historic first papal trip to Turkey and Lebanon

Pope Leo XIV interacts with a baby before celebrating Mass in Beirut, Lebanon, on Dec. 2, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media.CNA Staff, Dec 2, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).Pope Leo XIV has arrived in Rome after his first apostolic journey to Turkey and Lebanon Nov. 27 to Dec. 2.Note: CNA has concluded this live blog. Please visit our main website for ongoing coverage and other Catholic news.

Pope Leo reveals Mideast peace talks with Trump, Netanyahu, other regional players

Pope Leo XIV speaks with reporters on his flight from Beirut to Rome on Dec. 2, 2025. / Credit: Elias Turk/EWTNRome, Italy, Dec 2, 2025 / 11:30 am (CNA).Pope Leo XIV has begun conversations with U.S. President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the need to halt violence and seek solutions in the Middle East, the pope told journalists on his Tuesday flight from Beirut to Rome.The wide-ranging news conference also touched on Ukraine, the Catholic Church in Germany, and Leo's own election as pope, among other topics.In response to a question referring to Hezbollah, an Iran-backed political party and militia that holds significant influence in Lebanon, the pope said that during the trip he also held personal meetings with representatives of unnamed political groups involved in regional conflicts. "Our work is not something we announce publicly," he said. "We try to convince the parties to put down the arms and violence and come together to the table o...

Bishop Patrick Neary of Saint Cloud to chair Catholic Relief Services board

Bishop Patrick Neary of the Diocese of Saint Cloud, Minnesota. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Diocese of Saint CloudWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 2, 2025 / 12:03 pm (CNA).Bishop Patrick Neary of Saint Cloud, Minnesota, has been appointed as the chair of Catholic Relief Services' (CRS) board. Neary was appointed by Archbishop Paul Coakley, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) president. Neary succeeds Archbishop Nelson Pérez of Philadelphia. Neary assumes responsibilities for the role immediately, and the term runs until November 2028. "It is a profound honor to serve as chairman of the Catholic Relief Services board," Neary said, according to a press release. "My years in Africa and in parish ministry have shown me the face of Christ in the poor and the vulnerable, and I carry those encounters with me into this role."Neary praised CRS for embodying the Church's mission of compassionate accompaniment of those in need and lauded his predecessor, Pérez...

LIVE UPDATES: Last day of Pope Leo XIV's historic papal trip to Lebanon

Pope Leo XIV greets religious sisters and patients at the De La Croix Hospital for the mentally disabled in Jal el Dib, north of Beirut, Lebanon, on Dec. 2, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media.CNA Staff, Dec 2, 2025 / 01:11 am (CNA).Pope Leo XIV concludes his visit to Lebanon on Dec. 2. Watch LIVE the major events of Pope Leo's first apostolic journey Nov. 27 to Dec. 2 at youtube.com/@ewtnnews and follow our live updates of his historic visit:

Pope Leo urges Lebanon to place the sick at the center of society

Pope Leo XIV speaks to patients and caregivers at the De La Croix Hospital in Jal el Dib, Lebanon, on December 2, 2025. / Vatican MediaJal el Dib, Lebanon, Dec 2, 2025 / 02:07 am (CNA).Pope Leo XIV told hospital patients and caregivers in Lebanon that he had come to "where Jesus dwells," adding that Christ is present "in you who are ill, and in you who care for the ailing." He delivered the message during a Tuesday morning visit to De La Croix Hospital in Jal el Dib, one of the final stops of his trip to Lebanon as the country continues to struggle with the wounds of conflict and economic collapse.The Holy Father addressed staff, patients, and the Franciscan Sisters of the Cross who operate the institution. Pointing to the hospital's founder, Blessed Yaaqub El-Haddad, Pope Leo described him as a "tireless apostle of charity" whose devotion to the suffering shaped the institution's identity."Your presence is a tangible sign of the merciful love of Christ," Leo told the healthcar...

Pope Leo prays at Beirut blast site, meets families seeking justice

Pope Leo XIV prays in silence at the site of the 2020 port explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, on December 2, 2025. / AIGAV PoolBeirut, Lebanon, Dec 2, 2025 / 03:15 am (CNA).Pope Leo XIV paused on the final morning of his trip to Lebanon before the ruins of the Beirut port explosion, praying in silence and placing a wreath in memory of the victims. He also met families of those killed and survivors still carrying the wounds of the 2020 blast.The pope lit a candle and laid down a wreath of red flowers at the site, and seemed at one point to hold back tears. Afterwards, he spoke with family members of victims, some of whom who were holding photographs of their relatives killed in the blast.The pope's silent prayer at the port unfolded against an unresolved search for justice, a grief still felt across Lebanon.Five years after the August 4, 2020 explosion, one of the largest non-nuclear blasts in history, families of the 236 people killed and more than 7,000 wounded say they are still w...

Pope Leo XIV calls Lebanon to stand up, be a home of justice and fraternity

Pope Leo XIV celebrates Mass for an estimated 150,000 people at Beirut's Waterfront in Lebanon, on Dec. 2, 2025. / Credit: Marwan Semaan/ACI MENA.Beirut, Lebanon, Dec 2, 2025 / 04:52 am (CNA).Beirut heard a different kind of voice on Tuesday morning. In a city still marked by the sounds of the 2024 escalation between Hezbollah and Israel, Pope Leo XIV urged Lebanon to rise above violence and division. "Lebanon, stand up. Be a home of justice and fraternity. Be a prophetic sign of peace for the whole of the Levant," he said at a Mass attended by about 150,000 people at Beirut Waterfront.The liturgy closed the final day of the pope's visit to a nation strained by intermittent political paralysis, economic freefall and persistent instability. The Waterfront itself carries symbolic weight. Built on land reclaimed from the sea with rubble from downtown Beirut destroyed in the civil war, it has come to represent both loss and reconstruction.In his homily, Pope Leo spoke of prais...

CNA explains: When is a deportation policy 'intrinsically evil' and when is it not?

A person detained is taken to a parking lot on the far north side of the city before being transferred to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Chicago on Oct. 31, 2025. / Credit: Jamie Kelter Davis/Getty ImagesWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 2, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).Catholic bishops in the United States have expressed unified disapproval of the "indiscriminate mass deportation of people" as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported over 527,000 deportations and another 1.6 million self-deportations since Jan. 20.Several Catholics in the Trump administration, such as Vice President JD Vance and Border czar Tom Homan, have invoked their faith to defend the heavy crackdown on migrants who do not have legal status in the country after the bishops' message of dismay.Caring for immigrants is a clear command in Scripture. Catholic teaching on the matter of mass deportations is somewhat nuanced, with obligations on wealthy countries to welcome immigrants and respo...

Reactions mount in Canada to undercover video exposing late-term abortions

A screenshot from the Vancouver video in which Alissa Golob recorded her conversation with a health care worker at BC Women's Hospital. / Credit: RightNow YouTube/B.C. CatholicVancouver, Canada, Dec 1, 2025 / 15:51 pm (CNA).A week after The Catholic Register in Canada revealed that pro-life advocate Alissa Golob went undercover while 22 weeks pregnant to test whether late-term abortions were accessible in Canada without medical justification, the national response continues to intensify, with a new twist: a fourth hidden-camera video that Golob says she is legally barred from releasing.Golob, co-founder of RightNow, posed as an undecided pregnant woman in abortion facilities in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary in 2023. The Nov. 19 Register story detailed her conversations with clinic counselors and physicians who told her late-term abortions could be arranged at nearby hospitals, sometimes "up to 32 weeks," without needing to provide medical reasons.Staff described pro...

Aid to the Church in Need welcomes appointment of Cardinal Koch as its new president

Cardinal Kurt Koch during an interview with EWTN News. / Credit: EWTN NewsACI Prensa Staff, Dec 1, 2025 / 16:21 pm (CNA).The executive director of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Regina Lynch, thanked Pope Leo XIV for appointing Cardinal Kurt Koch as the new president of the pontifical foundation."We very much look forward to having Cardinal Koch as our president and for the guidance he can bring to our mission to persecuted and suffering Christians all over the world. We are grateful to Pope Leo XIV for this appointment and for his interest in our work," Lynch said.Koch is 75 years old and replaces Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, who is 81 years old and has led the institution since 2011.Piacenza was the first president of ACN since the organization received the title of pontifical foundation.In a Nov. 27 statement published on the ACN website, Lynch highlighted the work carried out by Piacenza, in whom the international institution "has always had a steady and trusted mentor and pr...