Pope Leo named one of Time magazine's '100 Most Influential People of 2026'

Time magazine has named Pope Leo XIV to its "100 Most Influential People of 2026" list.

The accolade was announced April 15, with the first U.S.-born pope joining a diverse group of individuals — some famous, some lesser known — distinguished by their contributions as leaders, innovators, icons, artists and pioneers.

Each list member was feted on Time's website with a short reflection from a prominent figure, with filmmaker Martin Scorsese saying in his commentary on Pope Leo that he was "struck by his bravery and his common touch."

Recalling Pope Francis as "a man I came to know and love as a friend," Scorsese said Pope Leo "seems to share" the late pope's "understanding that the church needs to reform itself to retain its moral and spiritual force."

Like Francis — "the first Pope born outside of Europe since the Middle Ages and the first Jesuit" — Leo is also a pioneer, being "the first North American-born Pope (with a Chicago accent!) and the first Augustinian in 500 years," wrote Scorsese.

"For many, the church has lost a great deal of moral and spiritual credibility," he wrote. "Revelations of widespread sexual abuse and financial wrongdoing keep coming up, and many Christians have grown more secular over the years. The church is at a crossroads, and it may once again be remaking itself."

He noted that "Pope Francis always stressed that the church was not a building or a symbol but the actual teachings of Jesus," adding, "I believe that Pope Leo shares that view."

"Like Francis, he seems to be committed to giving the laity a more active role in the leadership of the faith and the practice of charity," Scorsese said.

The list, well into its third decade, has "no single metric that defines influence," said Time Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs in his overview of the list.

Rather, Jacobs and his team "poll our editors, reporters, and sources around the world, and review the recommendations that are sent to us every day," with their ultimate selections "led by the stories that are shaping the world each year and the people who write them."

Scorsese noted that Pope Leo had penned the introduction to a new edition of The Practice of the Presence of God, a short book of spiritual insights by a 17th-century French Carmelite friar whose religious name was Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection.

Pope Leo has called attention to the book on several occasions, writing in December 2025 that the work, along with the writings of St. Augustine and other books, "is one of the texts that have most shaped my spiritual life" and has "formed me in what the path can be for knowing and loving the Lord."

"I know the book well," Scorsese wrote. "A friend gave me a copy a few years ago, and I've since passed it along to many others. It offers a model for finding God in daily life, and for taking the church out of buildings, no matter how majestic, and into everyday existence."

He quoted Leo's introduction to the work: "All Christian ethics can truly be summed up in this continual calling to mind the fact that God is present: He is here."

"I'm encouraged by his words," wrote Scorsese.

Archbishop Vigano accuses Clinton of Benedict XVI resignation trigger — Vatican banking shutdown

It is understandable that many Catholics feel offended and scandalized by the statements made by the President of the United States regarding Leo, even if one certainly cannot claim that Jorge Bergoglio refrained during his “reign” from launching attacks and provocations against Donald Trump. 

Moreover, the latter’s intervention is contextualized by the statements orchestrated against him this week on the CBS, propaganda program 60 Minutes by three utterly corrupt cardinals: Cupich, McElroy, and Tobin, three prelates who are notoriously ultra-Bergoglian and ultra-progressive, part of the network of the serial abuser Theodore McCarrick, inextricably linked to the radical “woke” Left, and key electors and closest collaborators of Robert Prevost.

When asked by journalists about Donald Trump’s post, Leo replied: “I am not afraid of the Trump administration, nor of boldly proclaiming the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am called to do, and what the Church is called to do.” These words, apparently indisputable coming from Prevost, can however shift sharply in meaning depending on how they are interpreted. They may simply mean, “I have no fear of civil power,” thereby asserting the superiority of the Catholic Church’s spiritual authority over any earthly authority. 

Or, in a diametrically opposite sense, they may mean, “I have no fear of this administration” – implying that, in other instances, he deems it legitimate to feel fear and to refrain from “boldly proclaiming the message of the Gospel.” And immediately, one is reminded of how often we have seen the Vatican “fear” other administrations, both in Washington – especially when the interference of Hillary Clinton and John Podesta went so far as to block in the Vatican banking transactions via the SWIFT network – and in Beijing, where the Holy See is officially involved with the communist dictatorship, through a secret Agreement, not to “forcefully proclaim the message of the Gospel,” rubber-stamping the episcopal appointments of the Chinese Patriotic Association without them being deemed a schismatic act, unlike the Consecrations at Ecône.

In numerous other instances, Prevost, and before him Bergoglio, have seen fit to remain silent of their own accord, perhaps because their acquiescence, if not outright enthusiastic cooperation, was precisely what the Powers That Be expected from the Conciliar and Synodal Church. Indeed, no sooner had the Trump Administration cut off the stream of funds that USAID was channeling to the USCCB and various bodies of the American Catholic Church to facilitate immigration, than an open war erupted on the part of all those cardinals and bishops whom Clinton, Obama, and Biden had, until that moment, showered with money. 

During those years of plenty, Bergoglio and the entire American Episcopate took great care not to disrupt their idyll with the White House, thanks, in part, to the good offices of then-Cardinal McCarrick, and paid scant heed to the pro-abortion, LGBTQ+, and gender-related policies promoted by “Catholic” Democrats. The mere suggestion of excommunicating “pro-choice” politicians was deemed an intolerable intrusion by a Hierarchy that had itself made it abundantly clear it had no intention whatsoever of taking such a step.

Thus, a single phrase, extrapolated from its context – “I am not afraid of the Trump administration, nor of boldly proclaiming the message of the Gospel” – might appear entirely unobjectionable. Yet, when viewed within a broader, more coherent framework, it leaves one utterly perplexed, for it directly contradicts the very words Leo uttered on that same occasion: “We are not politicians. (…) I do not believe that the message of the Gospel should be instrumentalized, as some are currently doing.” And while there are undoubtedly those who instrumentalize “the message of the Gospel” through the pseudo-messianic delusions typical of American televangelists, there are also most certainly those the within the Vatican who do not hesitate to instrumentalize that very same Gospel to lend a veneer of legitimacy and morality to the agenda of ethnic replacement and the Islamization of the West: an agenda doggedly pursued by the globalist elite through the Agenda 2030. This is an Agenda that Trump detests entirely, but which the Holy See, Leo, the USCCB, and a host of pseudo-Catholic charities have elevated to the status of a new globalist totem within their own synodal program. 

Nor should we forget the doctrinal ratification that Bergoglio bestowed upon the pandemic farce and mass vaccination, just as he did for climate fraud and “sustainable development goals” with his pseudo-encyclical Laudato Si, or the blessing that Prevost imparted to a block of ice specially shipped from Antarctica during a truly cringeworthy ceremony at Castel Gandolfo.

Despite his insistence that he is not a politician, Leo had no qualms about granting a private audience on April 9 to David Axelrod, Barack Obama’s chief strategist and former senior adviser at the White House. One question is more than legitimate: Did Axelrod perhaps come to the Vatican to dictate a specific political strategy to Leo, much as Hillary Clinton and John Podesta had previously interfered to pressure Benedict XVI into abdicating and then facilitate the election of Bergoglio?

The paradox is made manifest by Trump himself: “Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a politician. It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church!” Which is absolutely true, more so than President Trump could possibly imagine.

While the Democratic administrations have repeatedly and improperly interfered in the governance of the Church of Rome, untimely and inappropriate interventions by the Vatican regarding Washington have hardly been lacking either. And while nobody was surprised by the invective of the Jesuit from Buenos Aires, who labeled Trump “unchristian” for declaring his intention to repatriate hordes of illegal immigrants, the pronouncements of the Augustinian from Chicago regarding immigration, and more recently concerning the war, have certainly left observers bewildered: “God blesses no conflict. Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, never sides with those who yesterday wielded the sword and today drop bombs,” Leo said. Surely he could have elaborated, as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger did in 2003: “Given the new weapons that make possible a destruction extending far beyond groups of combatants, today we must ask ourselves whether it is still licit to admit the very existence of a just war.” Or, better yet, Leo could have recalled the words of Pius XII: “A people threatened by, or already the victim of, unjust aggression, if it wishes to act in a Christian manner, cannot remain in a state of passive indifference; moreover, the solidarity of the family of nations forbids others from behaving as mere spectators, adopting an attitude of impassive neutrality.” (Pius XII, Radio Message for Christmas, 24 December 1948)

But Prevost – and herein lies the true problem – does not speak with the voice of the Church: his words of condemnation against any war whatsoever ultimately serve to legitimize even unjust wars, thereby depriving the victim of aggression of the right to self-defense, given that even a defensive war would be deemed unjust. 

This error is akin to asserting that all religions are equivalent, that moral precepts must be adapted to contingent circumstances (see Amoris Lætitia and Fiducia Supplicans), or that capital punishment is contrary to the Gospel. For in these instances, too, the one who ought to serve as a point of reference in discerning Good from Evil betrays his own mandate by granting equal rights to error and to Truth, rather than assuming his moral responsibility to condemn the former and defend the latter.

Of course, if Leo ever dared to speak with the authoritative voice of the Catholic Church, he would find himself opposed not only by the pacifist Left (in whose ranks Prevost has served since the 1980s, joining the Young Augustinians movement (The resonance with the Young Turks movement, of clear Masonic aspiration (albeit perhaps unintentional), will not escape notice.), or Augustinians for Peace which was sponsored by the Italian Communist Party), but also by the “theo-con” Right, with which quite a few Catholic conservatives are dangerously aligned. 

The tolerance that the Conciliar Hierarchy currently enjoys is, in fact, conditional upon its acceptance and promotion not only of the globalist agenda of the UN, the World Economic Forum in Davos, and the Council for Inclusive Capitalism With the Vatican founded by Bergoglio in collaboration with Lynn Forester de Rothschild, but also of the liberal agenda of the Anglo-Zionist lobby. 

In other words, it depends on two supranational powers operating on seemingly opposing fronts yet pursuing a common objective: the establishment of a New World Order, in which, regardless of which side ultimately prevails in the conflict, the sole victim of persecution will invariably be Catholicism – specifically, that Traditional Catholicism which Rome is striving by every means to destroy or subsume by “conciliarizing” and “synodalizing” it.

According to Trump’s admonition, “Leo should get his act together as Pope (…) and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician.” Indeed, the election of an American “pope” from Chicago, steeped in heretical doctrines acquired during his years of ministry in Latin America, devoted to the cult of Pachamama, and ideologically aligned – by his own admission – with the worst progressivism of the infamous Cardinals Bernardin and Cupich, appears to have been deliberately orchestrated to serve as a counterweight to the President of the United States. 

If his role was intended to be – as has indeed become evident in recent months – that of continuing the conciliar and synodal revolution, it comes as no surprise that Bergoglio meticulously paved the way for his ecclesiastical ascent, ensuring that he would succeed him and not undo the twelve years of systematic dismantling of the Catholic edifice and total subservience to the globalist establishment carried out by the Argentine Jesuit. 

In the face of these concrete demonstrations of continuity between Bergoglio and Prevost, the silence of the sparse, moderately conservative minority within the College of Cardinals confirms their complicity and inadequacy.

The unanimous chorus of the mainstream media and the neo-papists serves as proof that Leo is not speaking as a pope but rather as a standard-bearer for anti-Trumpism, so to speak. This is because the accolades come from figures – both within and outside the ecclesial body – who possess nothing of the Catholic spirit, and who would be the very first to crucify Prevost were he to dare express even the slightest doubt regarding the untouchable “dogms”s of the radical Left. 

Furthermore, this defense of Prevost is motivated precisely by the fact that the “pope” has chosen to play the politician, thereby demonstrating a partisanship that discredits both the Papacy and the Catholic Church in the eyes of the world. For this reason, Leo truly ought to “get his act together as Pope” – a task that is, however, exceedingly difficult for someone like him, who was chosen precisely because his support for the globalist agenda would be not merely coerced, but spontaneous and convinced; and because Leo is being kept under close watch by the emissaries of those Powers who have absolutely no intention of relinquishing the positions they have secured within the Catholic Church, now that they stand so tantalizingly close to the finish line.

When Our Lord Jesus Christ is recognized as King of the Nations, no Antichrist will dare to claim the title of Messiah. And when He is recognized as King and High Priest within the Church, no Vicar of His will dare to subvert His teaching or demolish His Church. If this is happening today, before our very eyes, it is because we are living in eschatological times in which Our Lord has been dethroned from His Divine Kingship by the Nations, and from His Eternal Priesthood by His own Ministers. 

Therefore, in judging present events, let us not allow ourselves to be beguiled by abstract speculations, nor let us attempt to alter reality to suit our own illusions. Let us view all that is unfolding through a supernatural lens, for this is the only way to preserve, amidst our present tribulations, that peace of soul which the world neither knows how to give, nor can give (Jn 14:27).

+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States of America

Viterbo, 17 April MMXXVI
S.cti Aniceti Papæ et Martyris

Cross that crowned Aneto destroyed with an angle grinder in a hate attack

The cross that crowned the summit of Aneto has been torn from its position after being cut with a grinder, according to information gathered in the last few hours. 

The disappearance of the symbol, detected by several mountaineers who reached the summit, is not due to natural causes or structural deterioration: someone climbed to the 3,404 meters of altitude with a cutting tool and deliberately executed its removal.

The structure, over three meters tall and weighing nearly a hundred kilos, had been reinstalled on August 6, 2025 following a complete restoration that reinforced its base and anchors. 

Precisely that reinforcement makes any explanation based on wind or accidental detachment unfeasible. 

The only way to remove the cross was to cut it, and that’s exactly what happened.

The incident introduces an indisputable element: we are not dealing with minor vandalism, but with a planned action. 

Climbing to the summit of Aneto with a grinder implies preparation, physical effort, and a clear intention. 

There is no room for improvisation in an operation of this nature. It is a conscious intervention aimed at eliminating a specific symbol.

The Aneto cross did not fall: it was cut. And that difference changes everything. 

Because it is not just any landscape element that has been damaged, but a visible Christian sign, with more than seventy years of history, deeply linked to the tradition of the Pyrenean summits.

This is not the first time this symbol has suffered attacks, but what has happened now marks a turning point. It is no longer about graffiti or isolated acts of degradation. 

The action has been surgical: cut, topple, and make disappear. 

The goal was not to deteriorate, but to erase.

Climbing to over 3,400 meters with a grinder to cut a cross is a premeditated act with an evident anti-Christian component. 

The choice of location, the technical difficulty, and the method employed leave no room for naive interpretations. 

What happened on Aneto cannot be detached from a broader context of hostility toward religious symbols in public spaces.

The confirmation that a grinder was used obliges us to call things by their name. 

A cross has not disappeared: it has been eliminated with hatred and malice.

Vatican investigates Chaouqui and reopens doubts about the Becciu case

The Vatican has opened an investigation into Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui in relation to the judicial process against Cardinal Angelo Becciu, in a case that once again calls into question the development of the trial for the so-called “London palace”. 

The decision comes after the appearance of new materials that point to possible interferences in the instruction.

The Vatican investigates Chaouqui’s role in the Becciu case

According to the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero, the tribunal of Pope Leo XIV has opened a file to clarify the actions of Chaouqui, former Vatican consultant and already convicted in the Vatileaks case, for her alleged involvement in a series of actions that would have affected the development of the process against Cardinal Becciu.

The matter came to light after the death of Pope Francis, when during the vacancy more than a hundred WhatsApp messages from 2020 were disseminated. 

These messages, which were not incorporated into the process at the time, had been kept secret by the Promoter of Justice, Alessandro Diddi, without being made available to the defenses.

Hidden messages and new doubts about the instruction

The content of these messages has raised questions about the basis of the accusation. 

Part of the communications point to Chaouqui having anticipated key decisions of the process and maintained contact with people close to Monsignor Alberto Perlasca, the main witness in the case.

Other materials, including chats published by Italian media and audios disseminated by the program Le Iene, reinforce doubts about the preparation of some testimonies. 

In one of these audios, a conversation is recorded in which indications are suggested about what Perlasca should declare.

Accusations of influence peddling and false testimony

Chaouqui is being investigated for alleged influence peddling and false testimony. 

According to the published information, it is being analyzed whether she received money to influence the main accuser of Cardinal Becciu and whether she participated in the construction of statements during the instruction phase.

The opening of this file by the Promoter of Justice introduces a new element in a process that had already been questioned due to the absence of certain evidence and the difficulties pointed out by the defenses to adequately exercise their work.

The defenses point to irregularities in the process

The lawyers of Cardinal Becciu have pointed out that the opened investigation confirms aspects that had already come to light during the trial. 

From the beginning of the process, the defense has maintained that there were irregularities that would have conditioned both the investigation and the subsequent development of the hearings.

Becciu himself has repeatedly defended his innocence and has denounced the existence of maneuvers against him, a thesis that now regains strength in light of the new known elements.

A case that remains open

The judicial process, which concluded in the first instance with the conviction of the cardinal, will continue in the appeal phase starting in September. 

The opening of this new investigation could have implications in the overall assessment of the case.

In this context, the Becciu case remains one of the most complex episodes of recent Vatican judicial life, with questions still open about the development of the instruction and the guarantees of the process.

Victims' Unit of the Ombudsman to assess abuses in the Church

The Victims Unit of the Ombudsman has been established with a team of sixteen experts in charge of evaluating applications and proposing the recognition and reparation for victims of sexual abuse within the Church. 

The measure is framed within the system agreed upon between the Government, the Catholic Church, and the institution itself, which has begun to operate in recent days.

A team of experts to evaluate each case

As reported by the Defensor del Pueblo on April 17, the unit is made up of independent professionals specialized in victimology, psychology, criminology, and various branches of Law. 

Its function will be to analyze each application individually and prepare a proposal on the recognition of victim status and possible reparation measures.

At the head of this structure is Antonio Mora Lladó, along with a multidisciplinary team made up of jurists, forensic psychologists, and experts in criminal policy.

Development of the protocol between the Government, the Church, and the Ombudsman

The creation of this unit responds to the protocol signed on March 30 between the Government, the Spanish Episcopal Conference, CONFER, and the Ombudsman, which establishes a common system to address reparation for victims of abuse in the ecclesiastical sphere.

The agreement specifies the procedures and deadlines of the system, which began operating on April 15, and contemplates different types of reparation: symbolic, restorative, and economic, depending on the damage suffered and the circumstances of each case.

A system with several evaluation instances

The model includes different levels of intervention. 

The Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes has set up a Processing Unit in charge of receiving applications and managing communication between the parties.

For its part, the Victims Unit of the Ombudsman will carry out the technical evaluation of each case. Subsequently, the Spanish Episcopal Conference and CONFER will issue a report through the PRIVA Advisory Commission.

In cases where there is no agreement, a Joint Commission with representation from the involved institutions and victims’ associations will intervene, with the aim of reaching a resolution.

Castel Gandolfo will cease to be a museum to host the Pope this summer

The Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo will close its doors to the public starting in July, pointing to a significant change in the use of the historic pontifical residence. 

The measure coincides with the forecast that Pope Leo XIV may move this summer to what has traditionally been the summer residence of the pontiffs.

Closing of the museum in the middle of high season

According to Rome Reports, ticket sales to visit the palace—open as a museum since 2016—are only available until June 30. 

Starting in July, and for the following months, no dates are available, which is particularly striking as it coincides with the high tourist season in the area.

Sources from Castel Gandolfo have indicated that the works will begin in May, with the aim of adapting the building again for residential use.

From museum to pontifical residence

The palace was converted into a museum by Pope Francis, allowing public access for the first time to private rooms such as the papal bedroom, the chapel, or the office. 

This decision represented a significant change from the tradition of exclusive use by the pontiffs.

Now, the proposed project contemplates a limited intervention to return the building to its original function. 

According to the same sources cited by Rome Reports, it is not a major reform, but basic adaptation works, as the property is in good condition of conservation.

Security reasons and move from Villa Barberini

Currently, Leo XIV resides in Villa Barberini during his stays in Castel Gandolfo. However, this location presents security limitations, being situated at street level and with open access to pedestrians and vehicles.

The possibility of moving the Pope to the Apostolic Palace responds, in part, to these considerations, in addition to recovering a space historically linked to the rest of the pontiffs.

A residence marked by the history of the popes

Castel Gandolfo has been for centuries a summer retreat place for the popes. St. John Paul II used it frequently, as did Benedict XVI. In this enclave, Pius XII also died in 1958 and Paul VI in 1978.

With this possible change, Leo XIV would place himself in the continuity of a tradition interrupted in recent years, recovering the use of a residence that has played a relevant role in the life of the contemporary Church.

A return to tradition

If the move is confirmed, Leo XIV could become the sixteenth pontiff to use Castel Gandolfo as a summer residence. 

The reopening of the palace as a residence would thus mean a return to a practice consolidated for decades in the Roman pontificate.

Diocese of Madrid ordains 17 new priests in the Almudena Cathedral before more than a thousand attendees

The Almudena Cathedral hosted on Saturday, April 18, the priestly ordination of 17 new priests in a ceremony presided over by the Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal José Cobo Cano, before an attendance that exceeded the temple’s capacity.

Of the 17 ordained, 15 will be diocesan priests of Madrid. Eight have been trained at the Seminario Conciliar de Madrid (Miguel Fragoso, José María Ausín, Jaime Echanove, Guillermo Ara, José María González, Alberto del Olmo, Jesús Nistal, and Alberto Ramírez) and seven at the Seminario Redemptoris Mater (Alejandro Cantos Rey, Lorenzo Carelli, Simone Colleluori, Francesc Xavier Esplugues Barquero, Marco Antonio González García, Andrés José Marín, and Christian Oliveira dos Santos).

The group is completed by a religious, Javier Carmena, from the Disciples of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and a priest from Haiti, Almay Belizaire, from the diocese of Jérémie.

The celebration gathered more than a thousand people outside, in addition to the faithful who filled the interior of the temple, which required installing screens to follow the ceremony from outside.

In his homily, the cardinal highlighted that the priestly vocation responds to Christ’s personal call, which “changes history,” and warned that the ministry will combine moments of joy with situations of tiredness and difficulty.

Taking as a reference the evangelical episode of the road to Emmaus, he emphasized that the priestly model involves accompaniment, listening, and closeness, as opposed to approaches based on protagonism or prefabricated responses.

The archbishop also insisted on the need to maintain ecclesial communion at three levels: with the presbytery, with the body of the faithful, and with the most needy, pointing out that in the latter, Christ’s presence is manifested in a special way.

Likewise, he stressed the eucharistic character of the priesthood, indicating that the presbyter’s mission is not limited to liturgical celebration, but involves building living and cohesive communities.

Stipend rise may hit clergy posts

IN THE wake of stipend increases, clergy posts are being examined by archdeacons in the diocese of Southwark. It is forecast that its deficit could grow to £3.7 million by 2030 without higher parish-share contributions or “significant cost reductions”.

This week, a spokesperson for the diocese said that while its commitment to maintaining the maximum possible number of stipendiary clergy remained unchanged, “it’s highly unlikely this number will remain static”.

A letter from the Area Bishop of Kingston, Dr Martin Gainsborough, to clergy, lay ministers, and parish officers in his episcopal area says that, in places, “it may be time to try something different or reshape ministry provision to be more sustainable.”

The warning of “challenging financial realities” that may necessitate “reshaping ministry provision to be more sustainable” comes less than a year after the national Triennium Funding Working Group announced a relief package designed to help dioceses to avoid “short-term non-optimal decisions”.

The letter, sent on 16 March, announces an “intentional piece of work around planning our diocesan and parish finances in a way that will be sustainable for the longer-term”, during which archdeacons will be working to “examine parish costs and clergy posts” while the diocesan secretary looks at central costs. Archdeacons will be convening meetings with parishes over the coming weeks. The diocese must “seek to live according to our means”, it says.

The Bishop lists as challenges — shared by other dioceses — parish-share income having fallen “dramatically” during the pandemic, and inflation. In 2019, parish share stood at £16.4 million, and fell to £15.6 million in 2021. Although recovery has been achieved, the parish-share fund increased by just 1.5 per cent since 2019, against inflation of 29 per cent.

While parish share made up two-thirds of Southwark diocesan income in 2019, it represented 57 per cent in 2024. The letter notes that reductions in grants from external organisations are set to continue, and that “stipend increases and changes to the way the Church Commissioners fund dioceses mean that now is the time for us to get ahead of likely future financial challenges.”

Last year, the Archbishops’ Council recommended a 10.7-per-cent rise in clergy stipends, to come into effect this month. This was to be funded by a national package for dioceses which included the abolition of apportionment and £200 million of “time-limited additional support” set to taper down over nine years and prevent “short-term non-optimal decisions”.

In the General Synod last July, the chair of the Archbishops’ Council’s Finance Committee, Carl Hughes, said that dioceses as a whole would be £12 million better off, but that this level varied from diocese to diocese, and seven would be “slightly worse off”. Julie Dziegiel, vice-chair of Oxford’s board of finance, warned that the stipend increase would mean diocesan costs would increase “substantially”, and that the package left dioceses “dependent on central funding over which they have no control”.

In Southwark, the stipend will increase from £31,686 to £35,000 — rises projected to increase annual expenditure by £1.2 million. The diocese is not a recipient of Lowest Income Communities Funding.

The Church-wide review of diocesan finances, published in 2024, found that diocesan deficits were set to reach £62 million in 2024, and that 23 held less than three months’ cash reserves. The latest annual report records that Southwark diocese ended 2024 with a surplus of £0.4 million, after a number of property sales took place (the deficit stood at £3 million in 2023).

Setting out the 2026 budget at the December 2025 meeting of the diocesan synod, the Vice Chair of the Diocesan Board of Finance reported that parish share was expected to increase by 2.5 per cent rather than the 5.7 per cent sought — generating £15.8 million rather than £16.7 million. The diocese “cannot move away from our reliance on the gains from property sales as soon as we would like”.

Like other dioceses, Southwark has less than the target of three months’ unrestricted expenditure in reserves: £3 million rather than £7.5 million. The budget report to the diocesan synod warns that without “significant increases” in parish share or “significant cost reductions” the deficit could grow to £3.7 million by 2030, “which is clearly not sustainable”.

The latest budget is predicated on keeping incumbent-status posts the same, with an occupancy rate of 240, in addition to 50 stipended curates. The diocese’s “indicative costs” for one priest total £94,400. As of 2024, the diocese employed 77.6 full-time equivalent employees, up from 66 the previous year, and employee costs totalled £3.3 million.

Goals in the current diocesan strategy covering 2024 to 2035 include surpassing pre-pandemic levels of church attendance in the next five years and growth of a further ten per cent by 2035. In 2024, all-age average weekly attendance was 11 per cent below the 2019 level. The diocesan spokesperson said that “Worshipping Community” figures had “almost recovered to 2019 figures” and that the average weekly attendance figure for children and young people has seen “one of the largest increases in the Church of England for 2024, resulting in us being about 10 per cent below 2019 figures”.

In recent years, Southwark has been a major recipient of funding from the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board. It was awarded £6.5 million in 2023 for four resourcing churches and three “Hub Churches” and to develop 25 new worshipping communities serving estates. The following year, it was awarded £29 million for a “whole-diocese transformation programme” over nine years with a focus on “extensive renewal and development for parishes of all traditions”.

A diocesan spokesperson said this week that the diocese was “enormously grateful” for the funds, which had been “invested to generate sustainable growth across our diocese”, supporting more than 150 parishes already. More than 1000 people were “engaging in worshipping communities where this investment has been focussed”. But “it has always been clear that this funding is for innovative work and mission in our diocese — and could not be used to fund ‘business as usual’ operational costs or the funding of establishment posts.”

Fr Liam Power: Pope Leo calls out false premises of the war in Iran

President Donald Trump shocked the world on Wednesday with his criticism of Pope Leo. 

In a post on Truth Social, he claimed that the pope “was weak on crime, terrible for foreign policy, weak on Nuclear weapons.” 

To cap it all, the president declared that if it wasn’t for him Leo would not have been elected pope.

Vice-President JD Vance supported Trump. He took issue with Pope Leo's statement that disciples of Christ are “never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.” 

Vance advised that “it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality, to stick to matters of what’s going on in the Catholic church and let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy.” 

I find it incomprehensible that Vance, a recent convert to Catholicism, would fail to recognise the moral implications of the war in Iran.

The hostile response from the president and vice president to the Pope’s invocation of the beatitude “Blessed are the peacemakers” is consistent with a more sinister effort to silence the Vatican just before the outbreak of the war.

In January, the Under Secretary of Defence, Eldridge Colby, summoned the then Papal Nuncio to the United States, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, to a meeting at the Pentagon (not to the State Department, where diplomatic business is normally conducted). The Trump administration was furious with Pope Leo who condemned the zeal for war in his address to the diplomatic corps in the Vatican. Eldridge reputedly threatened the Pope and the Church that if they did not side with the US in their war effort, there would be serious consequences. 

“America has military power to do whatever it wants; the Church had better take sides and it had better be the right side.” 

Eldridge invoked the memory of the Avignon papacy. In the 14th century, Popes took up residence in Avignon, France, instead of Rome, due to tremendous military pressure from the King of France, Philip IV, who opposed the independence of the Church. Pope Boniface was kidnapped at the time and murdered.

Pope Leo did not flinch. His response: he refuses to attend the 250th celebration of American independence on July 4. Instead, he will visit the Island of Lampedusa in Southern Italy on that day. (Lampedusa is the primary Mediterranean entry point for African migrants reaching Europe, and serves as a pilot site for screening of asylum seekers.) 

I also find it to be so hypocritical of the Trump administration to have attempted to justify their condemnation of the Pope's critique of the war and American foreign policy as an unwarranted religious intrusion into politics. At the same time, high-ranking officials in the administration, such as Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defence, and indeed even the President himself, have claimed that the war has divine sanction. Hegseth had asked the American people to pray “every day, on bended knee... for a military victory in the Middle East in the name of Jesus Christ.” 

He stood up after military strikes in Iran and said that God deserves the glory: “Tens of thousands of strikes and sorties carried out under the protection of divine providence… a massive effort with miraculous protection."

Hegseth represents the views of Christian Evangelical Nationalists, many of whom are closely associated with the Trump administration. I was shocked to see a televised prayer service in the Oval Office where Trump was surrounded by Evangelical Church leaders praying for his success in the war. These are leaders who subscribe to the absurd theological viewpoint of Christian Zionism, which supports a belief that the return of the Jews to the Promised Land would satisfy the conditions for the second coming of Christ. 

They fully support the Jewish claim on Palestinian territory, which, according to orthodox Judaism, was mandated by Divine command in the scriptures. This claim is based on a literal interpretation of Genesis 17:8, “The whole land of Canaan will be yours.” 

So, there is unequivocal support for Israel in the current war. Viewed through the apocalyptic lens of Armageddon, the war is the final conflict when Jews will finally take possession of the Promised Land, and Christians can then look forward to the second coming of Christ.

Such an absurd theological force is driving this terrible war. Pope Leo has roundly condemned the use of God to justify violence. 

“Blessed are the peacemakers! But woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.” 

He declared that Jesus “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them… their hands are full of blood."

The brutal theocratic regime in Iran has blood on its hands as well. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard represents a deviant derivative of mainstream Islam, claiming as it does, that Shia Muslims in Iran were destined to lead and unite Islam in a war against the West.

Inspired by the leadership of Pope Leo, we must pray that the authentic Gospel message of peace will prevail and that moderate Judaism and orthodox Islam expose the blasphemous, heretical deviance in their religions, which is fuelling this war.

Trump tests his luck with the religious right amid feud with pope and AI Jesus posts (Opinion)

Donald Trump’s depiction of himself as Jesus Christ and recent spat with Pope Leo XIV could come back to bite him and the Republican party in the midterm elections, according to experts, with some newly aggrieved Christian groups set to play an outsized role in key races across the US.

The president’s Trump-as-the-Messiah Truth Social post sparked immediate criticism among some Christians, including some on the right. 

Trump, 79, said he thought the AI image of him administering an ethereal light to a stricken man’s head as translucent figures descended from the heavens represented him as a doctor.

“Blasphemous,” was the verdict of Douglas Wilson, a self-described Christian nationalist who believes women should not be able to vote, and a confidant of Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary.

“This should be deleted immediately. There’s no context where this is acceptable,” Sean Feucht, a Christian activist who is partnering with the Trump administration on a “Worship Tour”, posted on social media.

Trump’s post was ultimately taken down, although the level of his apology was brought into question when he then posted an AI image of what appeared to be Jesus Christ cuddling him.

“He did seem to cross a line for some of his Christian supporters,” said Kristin Kobes Du Mez, a professor at Calvin University and an expert on white American evangelicals. She noted that Trump’s supporters have been prepared to put up with plenty of other things.

“Really, from day one, with him bragging on camera that he assaulted women in the Access Hollywood tape to, even just very recently, threatening to annihilate an entire civilization. He is also detaining children, and there are allegations right now related to the Epstein files.

“There is a lot out there that arguably should concern Christian supporters, and the fact that it was this AI-generated image that sparked this outcry is worth pondering. I think it felt like it crossed the line for some because it was just so blatant.”

Yet Du Mez said not all the outrage may have been sincere.

“I sense that there was this kind of performative aspect that enough Christian leaders knew that they needed to be on record saying: ‘We don’t approve of this. But again, that’s something very different from them actually withdrawing their support from him,” she said.

Feucht, the Worship Tour guru, certainly got over it quickly. Within hours he had uncritically reposted Trump’s “doctor” explanation. Riley Gaines, a Christian, anti-trans activist, initially responded to the Trump image: “A little humility would serve him well.” Later that day, Gaines wrote on social media: “I love the President and I’m so grateful he’s in the Oval Office.”

Robert Jones, president and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), said Trump’s support among white evangelicals and Christian nationalists would probably endure.

“They’re just more conservative than Catholics are. They’re heavily concentrated in the south, so they come out of this kind of southern US history, and they’re frankly more motivated by racism. So the anti-immigrant, anti-Islam drumbeat is kind of fuelling the Maga movement. And the flip side of that anti-Islam, anti-immigrant drumbeat is [the right wing’s] positive vision of a white Christian America.”

Trump’s attacks on Pope Leo – the president has called him “wrong on the issues” and, bizarrely, “weak on crime” – also may not be important to that white evangelical base: some have even backed Trump’s attacks on the pontiff. But those Christians are likely to be less important than others in this year’s elections.

“White evangelicals, except for maybe in Georgia and North Carolina, aren’t actually going to help the Republican party in the midterms that much, because most they’re mostly concentrated in fairly safe, red states and red districts. They’re heavily concentrated in the south, where Republicans are going to win anyway,” Jones said.

“If you ask, though, who are the biggest religious groups in the more competitive states and districts, the answer is Catholics.”

White Catholics, in particular, could have a big say in the midterms, PRRI data shows. A majority of them voted for Trump in 2024 – Hispanic Catholics tended to support Harris – meaning a loss in their support could influence competitive races.

And unfortunately for the Republican party, white Catholics are overrepresented in several swing states, where there are seats which fluctuate between Republican and Democrat. White Catholics make up 12% of the nation as a whole, according to PRRI, but in Pennsylvania they make up 18% of the population; in Wisconsin 22%, and they overindex in Michigan, too.

“In these more competitive districts and swing states, if he loses 10 points among white evangelicals, he and Republicans might be able to weather that. If they lose 10 points among white Catholics, that’s going to be game over in many elections in the midterms,” Jones said.

Pope says 'tyrants' speech was not aimed at Trump

Pope Leo says he was not seeking to debate Donald Trump when he criticised "tyrants" for spending billions on wars in a speech earlier this week.

The pontiff said the remarks, delivered days after a high-profile spat with the US president, had been written a fortnight earlier – "well before the president ever commented on myself".

"And yet as it happens, it was looked at as if I was trying to debate, again, the president, which is not in my interest at all," he told reporters aboard a flight to Angola on Saturday.

On Monday, Trump launched a scathing attack on the first American Pope – who has been a vocal critic of the US-Israeli military operation in Iran – as "terrible for foreign policy".

The Pope, who is on a tour of Africa, said a "certain narrative that has not been accurate" had developed, citing "the political situation created" by Trump's comments.

In response to the pontiff's latest remarks, US Vice-President JD Vance, who converted to Catholicism as an adult, said he was "grateful to Pope Leo for saying this".

"While the media narrative constantly gins up conflict - and yes, real disagreements have happened and will happen - the reality is often much more complicated," Vance added.

Earlier in the week - before the Pope's speech referring to "tyrants" - Vance had urged the Vatican to "stick to matters of morality".

During the speech in Cameroon on Thursday, the Pope had criticised leaders who "turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education and restoration are nowhere to be found".

"The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet often a lifetime is not enough to rebuild," he said.

The Pope also condemned "an endless cycle of destabilisation and death" in a "bloodstained" region of Cameroon that had been gripped by insurgency for nearly a decade.

The remarks were interpreted by some as a reference to Trump – who later told reporters: "The Pope can say what he wants, and I want him to say what he wants, but I can disagree."

He had initially posted his lengthy criticism of the leader of the Catholic Church after the pontiff had voiced concern about Trump's threat that "a whole civilisation will die" if Iran did not agree to US demands to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz.

The president said he was "not a big fan" of the Pope and called him "WEAK on crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy". Trump also posted an AI-generated image of himself as a Jesus-like figure, which he later removed.

The Catholic leader's Africa tour includes stops in 11 cities across four countries. It is his second major foreign visit since being elected to the papacy last year, and reflects the importance of Catholicism in Africa.

More than a fifth of the world's Catholics – some 288 million people – live in Africa, according to figures from 2024.

Australian diocese unveils new cathedral as archbishop prepares for Rome

An Australian diocese north of Sydney is building the countryʼs first purpose-built Catholic cathedral in more than 100 years, appointing an award-winning architect to design a sprawling precinct that will house everything from the bishopʼs seat to a parish hall and disability services.

The Diocese of Broken Bay announced April 14 that it has appointed London-based Níall McLaughlin Architects to design the new cathedral and surrounding campus at Waitara, on Sydneyʼs upper north shore. 

The diocese describes the project as the first Roman Catholic cathedral in Australia in more than a century to be master-planned from inception as a complete, integrated complex.

The announcement was the final major project decision taken under Archbishop Anthony Randazzo before his expected relocation to Rome.

Pope Leo XIV named Randazzo, 59, prefect of the Vaticanʼs Dicastery for Legislative Texts on March 25, the feast of the Annunciation, also granting him the personal title of archbishop. He continues to serve as apostolic administrator of Broken Bay until the move.

Australian bishop named to top Vatican legal post

“While my responsibilities have expanded to serve the universal Church in Rome, my commitment to this vision is unwavering,” Randazzo said in a statement issued through the diocese. “The appointment of Níall McLaughlin Architects signals we are moving ahead with confidence to create a community legacy for generations to come.”

The 7.7-hectare Cathedral Precinct Project will succeed the dioceseʼs current cathedral, Our Lady of the Rosary, which was designated as the bishopʼs seat in February 2008 after succeeding the smaller Corpus Christi Church at St. Ives.

The new precinct will rise on the same Yardley Avenue site and integrate the existing St. Leoʼs Catholic College campus, a pastoral center, parish hall, a new home for the diocesan charity CatholicCare, residences for the bishop and clergy, and diocesan offices.

Erected as a diocese in April 1986 by Pope John Paul II, Broken Bay this year marks its 40th anniversary and serves around 250,000 Catholics across 26 parishes spanning Sydneyʼs North Shore, the Northern Beaches, and the upper Central Coast — a territory of 2,763 square kilometers (1,067 square miles).

A ‘virtuous circle’ of faith and education

In its own communications, the diocese has framed the project around what it calls a “virtuous circle” of Catholic life — the integration of liturgy, formation, and education on a single site, from baptism through secondary schooling.

The architectural concept draws on the natural setting of the Hawkesbury River, which unites the dioceseʼs parishes, and on the local sandstone bluffs of the surrounding bushland.

Renderings released by the practice show twin slender sandstone-clad spires rising above a public forecourt, with a timber-framed entrance portal centered on a cross. Inside, an exposed lattice of cross-braced timber members vaults the length of the nave, with raw sandstone walls and geometric stained glass.

The diocese said the design draws explicitly on the spirit of Laudato Si’, the 2015 encyclical of Pope Francis on care for creation, prioritizing sustainable timber and stone and preserving the existing Blue Gum High Forest on the site as a public amenity.

A practice known for sacred architecture

Níall McLaughlin Architects, established in 1990, was selected following an invited international design process. Its founder, the Irish-born and London-based Níall McLaughlin, received the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Royal Gold Medal in January — one of the disciplineʼs highest international honors, awarded annually in recognition of a lifetime contribution to architecture.

The practice has built several sacred and contemplative spaces, including the Bishop Edward King Chapel for Ripon College in Oxford, a 2013 Stirling Prize finalist; the New Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge; and the Auckland Castle Faith Museum in northern England.

In February the firm was announced as winner of the international competition to design the Museum of Jesus’ Baptism at Bethany Beyond the Jordan, the UNESCO World Heritage site on the east bank of the River Jordan traditionally identified as the place of Christʼs baptism. That museum is targeted to open in 2030 to mark the bimillennial of the baptism of Jesus.

McLaughlin spoke about the Broken Bay project on April 14 at the Rothwell Public Lecture series at the University of Sydney. “We are delighted to work on this significant project to help create an enduring spiritual, civic, and cultural precinct that places the faithful at its center,” he said.

The Australian firm Hayball has been appointed as executive architect on the project. Funding will be drawn from a combination of institutional capital and a dedicated philanthropic appeal, and the diocese said design work will now move into approval pathways that will determine the construction timeline.

Archbishop Wenski laments US cuts to Church aid to unaccompanied minors

"For more than 60 years, the Archdiocese of Miami’s services for unaccompanied minors have been recognized for their excellence and have served as a model for other agencies throughout the country. Our track record in serving this vulnerable population is unmatched. Yet, the Archdiocese of Miami’s Catholic Charities’ services for unaccompanied minors has been stripped of funding and will be forced to shut down within three months."

In a statement on the Archdiocese of Miami's website, Archbishop Thomas Wenski decried the US government's decision to cut the charity's aid and end the more than 60-year relationship with Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Miami.

He recalled that the partnership began with Operation “Pedro Pan,” which had begun under the direction of then-young Irish priest Monsignor Bryan O. Walsh, who helped resettle some 14,000 Cuban children sent alone to this country by desperate parents seeking to protect them from communist indoctrination.

Archbishop Wenski noted that from 1960 to today, the Archdiocese has worked closely with the Office of Refugee Resettlement to provide shelter and other services to thousands of unaccompanied minor children of all nationalities.

He pointed out that today, a facility named the Msgr. Bryan O. Walsh Children’s Village in Palmetto Bay can house up to 81 minors. The program helps place children in foster care, reunites them with family members, and provides supportive services.

He noted that given the trauma that many of these children have endured before arriving in the US, psychological care is also provided.

"The positive impact of this cooperation between the federal government and Catholic Charities," he emphasized, "can be readily seen in the lives of former Pedro Pan children who, through this intervention, grew up to be successful members of our communities."

He observed that Pedro Pan “alumni” include business leaders and politicians, including a former senator, academics, doctors, lawyers, priests, and Bishops.

The Archbishop acknowledged that the number of unaccompanied minors entering the country has decreased, and called it understandable that some programs may be scaled back or even eliminated.

"But given the history and reputation of the Msgr. Bryan O. Walsh Children’s Village," he stated, "it is baffling that the US government would shut down a program that it would be hard-pressed to replicate at the level of competence and excellence that Catholic Charities has achieved if and when future waves of unaccompanied minors reach our shores."

Archbishop Wenski concluded his statement noting that the Office of Refugee Resettlement, an agency within the US Department of Health and Human Services, includes in its mission the promotion of the health, well-being, and stability of unaccompanied alien children.

The Offie of Refugee Resettlement, he said, is pledged to act in the best interest of the child, noting, "This alone should call for a review of the decision to shut down this legacy and signature program."

China raises pressure on underground Catholics to join official church, Human Rights Watch finds

Chinese authorities are increasing pressure on underground Catholic communities to join the state-controlled official church while tightening surveillance and travel restrictions on all of China's estimated 12 million Catholics, a rights group said Wednesday.

The detailed report from Human Rights Watch said the heightened pressure was part of a decade-old campaign to ensure that religious denominations and independent churches are loyal to the officially atheist Communist Party, a claim the Chinese government rejected, saying the group is "consistently biased against China."

China's Catholics have been divided between an official, state-controlled church that didn't recognize papal authority and an underground church that remained loyal to Rome through decades of persecution.

Pope Francis, in 2018, sought to ease Vatican-China tensions with a deal giving the state-controlled church a say in naming bishops — a task traditionally exclusive to the pope.

Despite that deal, "Catholics in China face escalating repression that violates their religious freedoms," said Yalkun Uluyol, a China researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Pope Leo XIV should urgently review the agreement and press Beijing to end the persecution and intimidation of underground churches, clergy, and worshippers."

The Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, didn't immediately respond Wednesday when asked to comment on the report.

In a statement sent to The Associated Press, the Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson's Office said Human Rights Watch "fabricates all manner of lies and rumors, and lacks any credibility whatsoever." It added that the government "oversees religious affairs in accordance with the law and protects citizens' freedom of religious belief and normal religious activities."

Human Rights Watch said its researchers are not allowed into China. It said its report is based on input from people outside China "who had firsthand knowledge of Catholic life in China," as well as experts on religious freedom and Catholicism in China.

Under the 2018 agreement, Beijing proposes candidates for bishop that the pope can then veto, though the agreement's full text has never been made public.

Last June, a month after becoming pope, Leo made his first appointment of a Chinese bishop under the agreement. And in a subsequent interview, Leo specified that he would continue with the agreement "in the short term."

"I'm also in ongoing dialogue with a number of people, Chinese, on both sides of some of the issues that are there," Leo said. " It's a very difficult situation. In the long term, I don't pretend to say this is what I will and will not do, but after two months, I've already begun having discussions at several levels on that topic."

Since 2018, according to Human Rights Watch, Chinese authorities have pressured underground Catholic communities to join the state-controlled Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association "by arbitrarily detaining, forcibly disappearing ... and subjecting underground Catholic bishops and priests to house arrest."

The report described some of those actions, attributed to people who had left China and who were not named in the report.

The government has also intensified ideological control, surveillance, restrictions on religious activities, and foreign ties in official churches, according to Human Rights Watch. It said that regulations adopted in December subject foreign travel by Catholic clergy to state approval.

The Chinese government officially recognizes five religions — Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism, Protestantism and Islam — and tightly supervises them.

In 2016, President Xi Jinping said he would "Sinicize" the country's religions — increasing oversight and ideological control in a bid to align religious practice with the Communist Party's ideology and leadership.

Since then, Human Rights Watch asserted, the authorities have demolished hundreds of church buildings or the crosses atop them, prevented adherents from gathering in unofficial churches, restricted access to the Bible, and confiscated religious materials not authorized by the government.

The Sinicization campaign has also meant severe repression of Tibetan Buddhism and Islam, Human Rights Watch said.

In October, a pastor of a prominent underground Christian church was detained, according to his daughter, a church pastor and a group that monitors religion in China.

They said Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri of the Zion Church was detained at his home in Guangxi province, along with dozens of other church leaders across China.

Zion Church is among the largest so-called underground or house churches that are unregistered with the Chinese authorities. They defy government restrictions requiring believers to worship only in registered congregations.

Last month, ChinaAid — a U.S.-based group advocating for religious freedom in China — urged U.S. President Donald Trump to demand Mingri's release ahead of his planned meeting with Xi in May.

"The Chinese Communist Party has escalated its systematic campaign to eradicate independent religious life," said Bob Fu, ChinaAid's president. "The United States must respond with consequences — not just concern."