Pope Leo XIV on Thursday slammed the world’s failure to stop millions of people going hungry, blaming a “soulless economy” and calling on people to rethink their lifestyles and priorities.

“Allowing millions of human beings to live — and die — victims of hunger is a collective failure, an ethical aberration, a historical sin”, Leo said in a speech at the Rome-based UN agricultural agency.

“The scourge of hunger… continues to atrociously plague a significant portion of humanity,” he said, a day after the UN warned global hunger “is at record levels”.

The crisis was “a clear sign of a prevailing insensitivity, a soulless economy,” Leo told the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) at an event to mark its 80th anniversary.

Leo highlighted the “outrageous paradoxes” by which enormous amounts of food go wasted in the world “while multitudes of people scramble to find something in the garbage to put in their mouths”.

“How can we explain the inequalities that allow a few to have everything and many to have nothing?” he asked.

He cited in particular “Ukraine, Gaza, Haiti, Afghanistan, Mali, the Central African Republic, Yemen, and South Sudan,” among other countries “where poverty has become the daily bread”.

He also lambasted the fact that people seem “to have forgotten” that using starvation as a weapon is a war crime.

The US pontiff urged the world to rouse itself from “the fatal lethargy in which we are immersed”.

“The hungry faces of so many people who still suffer challenge us and invite us to reexamine our lifestyles, our priorities, and our way of living in today’s world in general,” he said.

The World Food Agency (WFP) said Wednesday that 319 million people are facing acute food insecurity, including 44 million in emergency levels of hunger, and “staggering” cuts to its funding mean it has had to drastically cut aid packages to millions in need.

Source: AFP

During his General Audience, Pope Leo XIV spoke about the importance of forgiveness in the lives of people, looking at the story of Judas Iscariot’s betrayal of Jesus.

“How many relationships are broken, how many stories become complicated, how many unspoken words remain suspended,” the pontiff said in the Paul VI Audience Hall in the Vatican on Aug. 20.

“And yet the Gospel shows us that there is always a way to continue to love, even when everything seems irredeemably compromised. To forgive does not mean to deny evil, but to prevent it from generating further evil. It is not to say that nothing has happened, but to do everything possible to ensure that resentment does not determine the future,” Leo said.

He was referring to the scene in the Last Supper, when Jesus offers a morsel to the one who is about to betray him, who is Judas.

“Saint John, with his profound spiritual sensibility, tells us about this moment as follows: During supper, when ‘the devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over… Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass …  he loved them to the end’ [Jn 13:1-2]. To love until the end: Here is the key to understanding Christ’s heart. A love that does not cease in the face of rejection, disappointment, even ingratitude,” the pope said.

“Jesus knows the time, but he does not submit to it: he chooses it. It is he who recognizes the moment in which his love must pass through the most painful wound, that of betrayal. And instead of withdrawing, accusing, defending himself… he continues to love: He washes the feet, dips the bread and offers it,” he continued.

Leo says Jesus offering to dip the bread is a “simple and humble gesture” that carries Christ’s love forward and to its depths, “not because he is ignoring what is happening, but precisely because he sees it clearly.”

“He has understood that the freedom of the other, even when it is lost in evil, can still be reached by the light of a meek gesture, because he knows that true forgiveness does not await repentance, but offers itself first, as a free gift, even before it is accepted,” the pope explained.

“Judas, unfortunately, does not understand. After the morsel – says the Gospel – ‘Satan entered him’. This passage strikes us: As if evil, hidden until then, manifested itself after love showed its most defenseless face. And precisely for this reason, brothers and sisters, that morsel is our salvation: Because it tells us that God does everything – absolutely everything – to reach us, even in the hour when we reject him,” he continued.

Leo said Jesus shows forgiveness is not forgetfulness, nor is it is weakness.

“It is the ability to set the other free, while loving him to the end. Jesus’s love does not deny the truth of pain, but it does not allow evil to have the last word. This is the mystery Jesus accomplishes for us, in which we too, at times, are called to participate,” he said.

The pontiff said people today experience painful and difficult nights.

“Nights of the soul, nights of disappointment, nights in which someone has hurt or betrayed us. In those moments, the temptation is to close ourselves up, to protect ourselves, to return the blow,” he said.

“But the Lord shows us the hope that another way always exists. He teaches us that one can offer a morsel even to someone who turns their back on us. That one can respond with the silence of trust. And that we can move forward with dignity, without renouncing love,” Leo continued.

“Let us ask today for the grace to be able to forgive, even when we do not feel understood, even when we feel abandoned. Because it is precisely in those hours that love can reach its pinnacle. As Jesus teaches us, to love means to leave the other free — even to betray — without ever ceasing to believe that even that freedom, wounded and lost, can be snatched from the deception of darkness and returned to the light of goodness,” the pope said.

“When the light of forgiveness succeeds in filtering through the deepest crevices of the heart, we understand that it is never futile. Even if the other does not accept it, even if it seems to be in vain, forgiveness frees those who give it: It dispels resentment, it restores peace, it returns us to ourselves,” he said.

Leo said Jesus, with the simple gesture of offering bread, “shows that every betrayal can become an opportunity for salvation, if it is chosen as a space for a greater love.”

“It does not give in to evil, but conquers it with good, preventing it from extinguishing what is truest in us: the capacity to love,” the pope said.

Source: Crux

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday announced that the dates of the next World Youth Day, to be held in Seoul, South Korea, will be Aug. 3–8, 2027.

“After this jubilee, the ‘pilgrimage of hope’ of young people continues and will take us to Asia,” the pontiff said in a message before praying the Angelus at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, 10 miles east of Rome, where he had just celebrated Mass for 1 million participants from 146 countries.

“I renew the invitation that Pope Francis extended in Lisbon two years ago,” he added, referring to World Youth Day in Portugal in 2023.

This new edition of World Youth Day, he said, will mark an important stage in the faith journey of the new generations. The theme will be: “Take courage, I have overcome the world.”

Leo XIV concluded his Angelus address with a powerful missionary call: “You, young pilgrims of hope, will be witnesses of this to the ends of the earth! I look forward to seeing you in Seoul: Let us continue to dream together and to hope together.”

The 2027 World Youth Day will be the first to be held in South Korea and the second in Asia, following the historic gathering of young people in Manila, Philippines, in 1995.

The pontiff defined the Jubilee of Youth, held in Rome from July 28 to Aug. 3, as “an outpouring of grace for the Church and for the whole world!” He also thanked the 1 million pilgrims who attended for their witness and enthusiasm.

In English, the pope recalled the teens and young adults who suffer in “every land bloodied by war” and mentioned in particular the young people of Gaza and Ukraine, whose lives are marked by the violence and uncertainty of war.

Leo XIV also spoke in Spanish, telling those present they are “the sign that a different world is possible.” He concluded in Italian with the affirmation that with Christ, faith is possible: “with his love, with his forgiveness, and with the power of his Spirit.”

Source: aciafrica

Gaza’s civil defence agency on Sunday said at least 93 people were killed when Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians waiting to collect humanitarian aid, in the latest killing of Palestinians seeking desperately needed food handouts.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that the shooting took place near Gaza City in the territory’s north.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Deaths of people waiting for handouts in huge crowds near food points in Gaza have become a regular occurrence, with the territory’s authorities frequently blaming Israeli fire.

Addressing the ongoing conflict in his traditional Angelus prayer, Pope Leo XIV slammed the “barbarity” of the war in the Palestinian territory and urged against the “indiscriminate use of force”.

His plea came just days after a deadly strike by Israel’s military on a Catholic church in Gaza.

“I once again ask for an immediate end to the barbarity of the war and for a peaceful resolution to the conflict,” Leo said at Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence near Rome.

The pope, who spoke by telephone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the morning after Thursday’s church strike, spoke of his “deep sorrow” for the attack on the Holy Family Church.

The church was sheltering around 600 displaced people, the majority of them children and including dozens of people with special needs.

Israel expressed “deep sorrow” over the damage and civilian casualties, adding that the military was investigating the strike.

“This act, unfortunately, adds to the ongoing military attacks against the civilian population and places of worship in Gaza,” Leo said on Sunday.

“I appeal to the international community to observe humanitarian law and respect the obligation to protect civilians, as well as the prohibition of collective punishment, the indiscriminate use of force, and the forced displacement of populations,” he added.

The Israeli military on Sunday issued an evacuation order for Palestinians in the central Gaza Strip, warning of imminent action against Hamas militants.

Most of Gaza’s population of more than two million people have been displaced at least once during the war, which is now in its 22nd month.

The pope also expressed his “sympathy” for the plight of “beloved Middle Eastern Christians” and their “sense of being able to do little in the face of this dramatic situation”.

Source: AFP

Pope Leo XIV has appointed the first Chinese bishop of his papacy, signalling that he will continue a historic agreement that sought to improve relations between the Vatican and China.

Both sides have hailed the appointment of Fuzhou Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Lin Yuntuan as an affirmation of their commitment to the 2018 accord, which was reached under the late Pope Francis.

The agreement gave Chinese officials some input on the appointment of bishops. However, its contents were never fully disclosed to the public.

Beijing insists that the state must approve the appointment of bishops in China, running contrary to the Catholic Church’s insistence that it is a papal decision.

China has some 10 million Catholics.

Currently, they face the choice of attending state-sanctioned churches approved by Beijing or worshipping in underground congregations that have sworn allegiance to the Vatican.

On Wednesday, the Vatican said Yuntuan’s ministry had been “recognised” by Chinese law.

“This event constitutes a further fruit of the dialogue between the Holy See and the Chinese Authorities and is an important step in the journey of communion of the Diocese,” the Vatican said.

When asked about Yuntuan’s appointment, foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters on Thursday that this showed how the 2018 agreement had been “smoothly implemented”, state media reported.

China is willing to work with the Vatican to continue improving relations, he said.

The Pope’s move shows a “willingness to support reconciliation instead of antagonism”, Michel Chambon, a research fellow at the Asia Research Institute in Singapore who has written extensively about the Catholic Church, told Reuters news agency.

In September 2018, Pope Francis recognised seven bishops appointed by China. The Vatican also posthumously recognised an eighth bishop who died the year before.

China first broke off diplomatic ties with the Holy See in 1951, and many Catholics were forced to go underground during former communist leader Mao Zedong’s rule, emerging only in the 1980s when religious practices were tolerated again.

Source: BBC

A Nigerian Catholic priest who recently served in the United States has been abducted by extremists along with other travellers in northeast Nigeria’s Borno state, the church said.

The Rev. Alphonsus Afina was kidnapped on June 1 near the northeastern town of Gwoza, close to the border with Cameroon, by the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram, Bishop John Bogna Bakeni of Maiduguri told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Bakeni said that he spoke with the priest over the phone a day after the abduction. Afina, though exhausted from trekking, was “sounding OK” and “in good spirits” during the brief conversation, according to the bishop.

The priest was traveling from the city of Mubi, where he is based, to Maidiguri, the capital of Borno, for a workshop when his convoy was ambushed by armed men while waiting for clearance at a military checkpoint, he said.

A rocket-propelled grenade hit one of the vehicles, killing one person and wounding others, according to the bishop.

Bakeni said it was difficult to determine if the priest was specifically targeted, given the number of travelers caught in the ambush. Other travelers were also abducted, he said, although it was unclear how many.

Nigerian authorities haven’t publicly commented on the abductions and didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Rev. Robert Fath, the vicar general of the diocese of Fairbanks, Alaska, told the Anchorage Daily News on Thursday that he had received a phone call from Boko Haram confirming they had Afina.

Afina served in Alaska from 2017 to 2024 before returning to Nigeria, where he works with the Justice, Development and Peace Commission, a Catholic social justice group.

Source: Africa News

In Ireland, a new study says attitudes towards the Church are “deeply divided” in the once deeply Catholic country.

A poll commissioned by The Iona Institute shows the Irish public are almost evenly divided in their attitudes towards priests and nuns with almost exactly a third in each case viewing them positively, a third negatively, with the rest neutral.

“Our research comes at a time of considerable change in Irish society: Not surprisingly, religious attitudes and beliefs are also changing as well. While perceptions of the Catholic Church remain negative on balance, especially among younger generations, nevertheless religious identity and spiritual orientation remain important for the vast majority of Irish people,” the report says.

Once one of the most Catholic nations in Europe, revelations about clerical sexual abuse has left public confidence in the Church at its lowest level in the history of Ireland.

Not only has Mass attendance dropped significantly over the past quarter century, the Irish people have increasingly rejected laws seen as rooted in Catholic teaching.

In 2015, the country held a referendum on same-sex marriage in which 62 percent of the voters backed changing the constitution to allow the practice. An even larger number – over 66 percent – voted to change the constitution to allow legal abortion in 2018.

The new poll showed that 42 percent of those with negative views of the Church named abuse as a reason for their views, with 31 percent naming scandals. Only 17 percent named “old-fashioned views” – such as attitude towards women, abortion and LGBTQ+ issues – as the reason, while 14 percent named the traditional control of the Church on the country as a reason.

David Quinn, the founder and director of The Iona Institute, said despite its high ranking, the abuse crisis isn’t the primary reason for the falling status of the Church in Irish culture.

“I think even without the scandals, issues such as the Church’s past influence on society, its attitude to women – as critics see it – and more generally its ‘old-fashioned views’ would still be cited,” he told Crux.

“I think the scandals definitely increased public anger greatly, but I also think we would have had drastically reduced Mass attendance anyway due to secularization. The Protestant Churches here have also seen huge falls in attendance. The scandals definitely mean increased negativity towards priests and religious though,” Quinn said.

The report said despite the legacy of the clerical abuse scandals, most people agree Catholic teachings and the Church itself “remain relevant and important to the wider sense of Irish identity and as a source of values and guidance for the future.”

“The challenges facing the Irish Catholic Church are clearly enormous but there are trends and preferences in our survey that point to possible future priorities. For example, there is an obvious hunger for spiritual insights and practices, with 18-24s (‘Gen Z’), for example, revealing a more open, more curious take on religion and spirituality than some older age groups,” the report continues.

“Much of what Catholic and other Christian believers affirm (however imperfectly) remains relevant, helpful and inspiring for most people in Ireland, even for many non-believers and non-Catholics,” the report says.

Unsurprisingly, the poll shows significant differences by age with younger people being more likely to hold a negative view and older people a more positive one.

Also unsurprisingly, regular Mass-goers have by far the most positive view of the Church, while those who do not consider themselves Catholic at all having the most negative one. “Cultural Catholics” that is those who say they are Catholic but rarely attend Mass are somewhere in between.

Breda O’Brien, a spokesperson for The Iona Institute, said it is not surprising that public attitudes towards the Catholic Church are so divided and that there is considerable negativity, “especially in view of all the scandals which are still fresh in the public mind.”

“It’s good to see that many people are less negative about the teachings of the Catholic Church than they are towards the institution,” she said.

The poll shows Christianity in general – and Catholicism in particular – remains a powerful source of individual and collective identity for many Irish people, one that will continue to resonate with younger and future generations as Ireland navigates the many challenges ahead.

“It’s interesting that older people, who are most familiar with priests and nuns are the least negative in their attitudes. Many young people never meet priests or nuns and their whole image is shaped by the scandals or by negative portrayals in the movies or in documentaries,” O’Brien added.

“But the vast majority of priests and nuns do good work in their parishes or in the wider community, and hopefully over time those who view priests and religious negatively will come to a more rounded view, and this will eventually be reflected in dramas and documentaries as well,” she said.

“We hear a lot from those who are most negative. Maybe it’s time that those who are more positive find their voice and are given space to express themselves as well,” she continued.

Quinn said the surprise from the poll “is that so many people have no opinion either way.”

“There is growing indifference. The Church is only a remote presence in Irish life for a lot of people and a big majority under the age of 40 would barely even meet a priest – except at funerals and so on – never mind a nun. A similar poll to this one in 20 years will probably find a lot more people with no opinion,” he told Crux.

“What also surprised me a bit is that the age group 18-24 – Gen Z – are a bit less negative in their views towards the Church than the Millennials. Perhaps in time this will lead to a mini-revival among some young people as seems to be happening in Britain and maybe in the United States,” he said.

When asked what the Catholic Church could do to improve its standing in Ireland, Quinn told Crux his answer was “bland.”

“The Church has to preach and practice the Gospel as best it can, continue to put its house in order with regard to the scandals, and essentially wait for this period of anger to burn itself out,” he said.

“We should also keep in mind that the number of people with a largely positive view of the Church balances out those with a negative view, despite everything,” Quinn said.

Source: Crux

Pope Leo XIV laid out his priorities for his papacy Sunday, criticising an economic system that exploits nature and the poor during a homily delivered in front of world dignitaries.

“In this our time, we still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, the fear of difference, and an economic paradigm that exploits the Earth’s resources and marginalises the poorest,” Leo said during his inauguration mass.

Tens of thousands of Catholics and politicians including US Vice President JD Vance gathered at the Vatican on Sunday for the inauguration mass of Leo XIV, the first US pope.

Ten days after the soft-spoken Robert Francis Prevost was chosen from among his fellow cardinals to lead the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, his papacy would formally begin in a ceremony at St Peter’s Square.

The 69-year-old began the day by making his debut tour in a popemobile, standing up in the custom-made white vehicle and smiling, waving and blessing the cheering crowds at the Vatican.

In front of dignitaries including Vance and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, he then gave a homily calling for the Church to be a transformational force in a world of division and hatred.

“In this our time, we still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, the fear of difference, and an economic paradigm that exploits the Earth’s resources and marginalises the poorest,” he said.

The new pontiff, who spent many years as a missionary in Peru, also warned against “closing ourselves off in our small groups”.

“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,” he said.

Prevost, who was made a cardinal only in 2023 and is unknown to many Catholics, has repeatedly emphasised the importance of peace and social justice in his first few days as pope.

Inacia Lisboa, 71, a pilgrim from Cape Verde who lives in Rome, told AFP at the Vatican on Sunday that Leo had already “entered my heart”.

She said she wanted him to “pray for us all, for peace in the world – we need it so much”.

Source: France 24