Pope Leo's vote in US, but not Peru, raises questions about papal identity

Pope Leo XIV's historic decision to vote in the U.S. midterm elections — a first for a sitting pope — was met with both praise and criticism, but it also raised questions about how the pope understands his identity before visiting Peru, the other country where he holds citizenship. 

After the Chicago Sun-Times broke the news that Leo, born Robert Francis Prevost, had requested a mail-in ballot to vote in his native Illinois for the Nov. 3 midterm elections, the Vatican issued a confirmation that he had submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago and said that the pope "expresses his belief in the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes." 

That statement marked the first documented case of a sitting pope voting in elections in a country where he holds citizenship and opened a public debate over whether the leader of the Catholic Church should engage in political elections.

The Vatican also stated that "during his years of residence in Peru he exercised his right to vote whenever he was eligible to do so." 

Prevost became a naturalized citizen of Peru, in addition to maintaining his American citizenship, shortly after being named bishop of the northern city of Chiclayo in 2014, and he resided in the country until he was called to Rome to lead the Vatican's office for selecting bishops in 2023 and made a cardinal. 

But the Vatican's statement did not clarify whether he had voted in the April 2026 elections that eventually elected the new Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori, who Leo will meet when he touches down in Lima on Nov. 11 to begin his weeklong visit to the country. 

It wasn't until his 14½-hour flight from Rome to Montevideo on Nov. 6 that he told reporters that he did not vote in those elections "because it's not possible, but I would have — it's a good thing [to vote]." 

Leo did not explain why it was not possible for him to vote in the Peruvian elections from Rome, where more than 10,000 Peruvian citizens reside. 

He renewed his Peruvian ID since becoming pope, needed to vote in Peruvian elections, and was present in Rome on election day April 12; Peru does not use mail-in ballots and he would have had to go to a Peruvian consulate in Rome to vote in person. 

Voting is mandatory in Peru for citizens ages 18-70. At 71, Leo is exempt from this requirement, but his comments on the obligation of citizens to participate in democratic processes raise the question of why he did not seek to vote in Peru's presidential election. 

Asked by journalists on his flight to Uruguay about the significance of his decision to vote on, he replied that he was "proud to be an American and to exercise the right" to vote.

His decision also underscores the distinction he sees between the papal office and his personal identity, one that has been broached by previous popes but not asserted quite as fully as Leo.

Pope Benedict XVI wrote a series of theological studies on the life of Jesus as Joseph Ratzinger while pope, publishing them among his personal works and not as papal magisterium, and Pope Francis had his Argentine passport renewed shortly after becoming pope. 

Leo has highlighted the difference he sees between his office and personal identity in other, more light-hearted occasions: When meeting with delegations from Villanova University, his alma mater, and the University of Notre Dame before the schools were due to play each other in basketball, he said that while the pope doesn't take sides in sporting competitions, "Prevost has another opinion." 

Even with such a distinction, the Vatican's confirmation of the pope's vote, and his expression of the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes, puts papal backing on an action taken by Robert Prevost. 

Whether or not such a distinction is justified is a new question brought about by the novelty of Leo's decision to vote. 

That he is the first pope to hold dual citizenship in the modern sense (excluding Vatican City citizenship) adds another wrinkle, since he would be expected to carry out his civic duty to both nations. 

Days before Leo will be received in Peru on Nov. 11, a country which claims him as their own just as the United States does, the question rises as to whether Robert Prevost understands himself to be as Peruvian as he is perceived. 

At least regarding his own voting record, the man who occupies the papacy seems to draw a distinction between his citizenships. 

40 years after Cardinal Ratzinger's 'Halloween Letter,' anti-gay message lingers

Forty years ago, the Catholic Church's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released a pastoral letter titled "On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons." 

Known colloquially as the "Halloween Letter" because it was published Oct. 30, 1986, and opening with the words "Homosexualitatis problema" in Latin, the letter described gay sex as "intrinsically disordered" and "able in no case to be approved of." 

Not only was the letter profoundly devastating for LGBTQ+ Catholics and organizations, but it represented a crossroads for many LGBTQ+ Catholics about what they looked for and demanded in their faith. 

Tthe Halloween Letter is well known among queer Catholic communities, especially members of the largest LGBTQ+ Catholic organizations, Outreach, DignityUSA and New Ways Ministry. 

It aimed to correct what its leading author, Cardinal Prefect Joseph Ratzinger (who would later become Pope Benedict XVI), considered misunderstandings surrounding a 1975 letter from the CDF. 

Titled "Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics," the earlier letter acknowledged that there are some "homosexuals who are definitely such because of some kind of innate instinct or a pathological constitution judged to be incurable." 

As a result, the letter continued, "these homosexuals must certainly be treated with understanding and sustained in the hope of overcoming their personal difficulties and their inability to fit into society." 

While the 1975 letter continued to pathologize lesbian and gay people, it opened the door to recognize that lesbian and gay people were not coerced into nor voluntarily become lesbian and gay; instead, they were always this way. 

"In our workshops, Bob and I would point that out and say there's some recognition here that the orientation is innate, is something within a person and God put it there," Loretto Sr. Jeannine Gramick explained to NCR. 

Gramick founded New Ways Ministry in 1977 alongside Salvadorian Fr. Robert Nugent.  

This 1975 letter came out right after the Second Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops released the document "Justice in the World," declaring that social justice is at the heart of Catholicism's mission. 

In 1976, Fr. John McNeill published his monumental theological text The Church and the Homosexual, disputing the church's long-held stance against gay sex and intimacy. 

In the 1970s, there were about 3,000 members of DignityUSA who were part of 60-70 chapters across the United States. These chapters largely met in local Catholic churches.

"The atmosphere at that time was just so exciting in the church because of the justice that was being promoted," Gramick explained. 

"Ratzinger is seeing these theologians taking more progressive stances," she said. "He's seeing lesbian and gay people organizing and meeting publicly at churches, and he's seeing Catholic leaders speaking publicly in a favorable way about lesbian and gay people, and all of this generated that [Halloween] letter." 

Gramick recalls the moment she and Nugent learned about it. "We were horrified when we read it, but I would say we were not surprised," she said.

New Ways Ministry Executive Director Francis DeBernardo, who was a graduate student at the time, recalled his first impressions. 

"I was really shocked. It just seemed so un-Catholic to me."

DignityUSA Executive Director Marianne Duddy-Burke remembered learning about it from the newspaper. 

"This can't really be what it says," she recalled thinking. "It was just so horrific to think that some of the language that was quoted in the early reports really came from the Vatican." 

An active member of Dignity Boston and the national organization, Duddy-Burke said "when this document came out, it was crushing. It was probably one of the two worst crises of faith for me ever in my life. … I mean, it was clearly recognized that this was a direct attack on Dignity, and our leaders understood that." 

By 1977, Dignity Boston had already been pushed out of the Catholic church where they first met. 

Following the publication of the Halloween Letter, dioceses suddenly refused to host LGBTQ+ Catholic groups including Dignity chapter meetings and New Ways Ministry workshops that had long taken place in their buildings. 

"I knew people all across the country who were instantly anxious about what this meant for them, and that feeling of being unwelcome in your own home was something that, at the time, many gay, lesbian and bisexual people were used to feeling," Duddy-Burke said. 

As a result, many gay and lesbian Catholics who had long found homes in Dignity chapters left the church for good, converting to or joining affirming Christian denominations. 

"I know people who immediately left the church," Duddy-Burke said. "They had put up with enough. This was kind of a last straw for them."

But for those who stayed and remained involved in LGBTQ+ Catholic ministry, something changed. In addition to hosting witnesses and protests against the letter in November and December 1986, delegates at the 1987 DignityUSA convention voted to change their statement of position and purpose to be very explicit about their support for the good of intimate same-sex relationships.

"We became honest about who we were," Duddy-Burke said. "I think it signaled a turning point for the Dignity community. It was clear that now we're not going to tolerate doctrine, practice, teachings that discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community … I think it gave a lot of people a sense that we weren't going to take second class." 

Gramick  said the letter also gave her and Nugent "energy to go on, that we absolutely were needed more than ever."

It also cemented New Ways Ministry's partnership with communities of women religious who took the risk of keeping their doors open to LGBTQ+ workshops and chapters, inviting Gramick, Nugent and others to meet at their motherhouses and retreat centers. 

It took 40 years, but after Pope Francis cautiously cracked open the door to LGBTQ+ inclusion and Pope Leo has tentatively followed his model, Gramick said that "we were welcomed back into more official quarters."

"Nowadays," DeBernardo said, "I hear less people talk in the church about what the 1986 letter said, and more people talking about what Pope Francis has said or what Pope Francis has modeled."

But this doesn't mean that the fight for LGBTQ+ inclusion is over nor that the effects of Ratzinger's letter have dissipated. 

In Duddy-Burke's view, the letter signaled growing pushback to social justice movements inside the church, involving the suppression of theologians and investigations into social justice oriented ministries. 

This fall, DignityUSA is hosting a four-part series reflecting on the long-term impacts of the Halloween Letter's release. 

While some members and allies were initially hesitant to revisit this history, Duddy-Burke said its impact persists to this day.

"You have queer kids going to schools that won't host LGBTQ+ groups," she said. "All of the stuff that is in that letter has shaped our church and our society for so long, and I think it is important we wrestle with it. … It's not history. It is unfortunately still a living document."

Polish bishops call for prayer after gunman kills 6 in Krakówʼs historic square

The archbishop of Kraków called on the city to stand “together” in prayer after a gunman killed six people in its Main Market Square, a few steps from St. Maryʼs Basilica, on Saturday afternoon.

“We do not want to, we cannot, we are unable to be indifferent at such a moment. We want, we need and we must be together,” Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś wrote in a letter to the faithful on Nov. 7.

“I write ‘us’ because in truth any one of us could have been in the Square at that time, passing where the bullets struck random, unsuspecting people,” the Polish prelate wrote.

Ryś invited residents to a Mass for the dead, the wounded and their families at St. Maryʼs Basilica on Sunday, Nov. 8, at 4 p.m. local time, saying that “the last word does not and cannot belong to hatred.”

The cardinal asked the pastors of the victims' parishes to “be there” for them and give every possible help.

Police said the gunman drove onto the square shortly after 3 p.m. and fired at passersby from his car. Four women and two men were killed, among them three Polish women and a British national. 

Sixteen people were wounded, including the suspect and two police officers, one of whom was shot three times.

Officers shot and detained the attacker, a man in his mid-20s from Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, a town in southeastern Poland.

Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said the suspect held “very radical views” and that “everything indicates he was fascinated by far-right ideologies,” though this had yet to be verified.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the attack terrorism.

Police found three bodies in the suspectʼs flat. President Karol Nawrocki declared national mourning for Nov. 8 and 9.

Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda, president of the Polish bishops' conference, said he was “deeply shaken.”

“It is hard even to grasp that in the very heart of Kraków, right by St. Maryʼs Basilica … such dramatic scenes could unfold,” he said.

Archbishop Wojciech Polak, the primate of Poland, said he was praying for the dead and the wounded and expressed solidarity with Ryś. He spoke of “faith that good is stronger than hatred and love always wins.”

Warsawʼs Archbishop Adrian Galbas echoed the Kraków cardinal.

“As Cardinal Grzegorz asked: let us be together!” he wrote on Facebook, echoing the Kraków cardinal.

Over 90 US lawmakers call for Pope Leo to address next Congress in bipartisan letter

Ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, a bipartisan group of more than 90 U.S. lawmakers urged House Speaker Mike Johnson to invite Pope Leo XIV to address Congress, saying the U.S.-born pope’s “unique perspective” and “ties to our country” would be “a unifying force” for officials.

On Oct. 30, Catholic lawmakers, Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., spearheaded a letter signed by 91 members of Congress, asking Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to formally invite the Chicago-born pope to speak at a joint session of the legislative body in January, when it convenes for its 120th session.

“As the first ever American-born Pope, his unique perspective, and ties to our country, would serve as a unifying force for members of Congress,” said the lawmakers in their letter. “Following a divisive election, Pope Leo’s unifying message of service, compassion for fellow mankind, and the importance of human dignity would be especially timely.”

Letter gains renewed attention after midterms

The letter attracted media attention following the tumultuous election, which saw Democrats regain robust control of both the House and the Senate. 

If Pope Leo does end up addressing Congress, it may possibly not include either of the lawmakers who led the charge to invite him. 

Fitzpatrick lost his seat in the election and, as of press time, Thompson is projected to lose his closely contested district race against another Democrat.

Johnson reportedly plans to step aside as House Speaker, with several media outlets citing his recent private call with staff. Jeffries has meanwhile announced his candidacy for House Speaker.

Despite the historic flux in the midterms, at least one lawmaker has continued to express support for the Pope Leo initiative, with Rep. Wesley Bell, D-Mo., posting on X Nov. 6 that he had signed the letter.

In their request, the lawmakers said that Pope Leo’s proposed “visit would offer a much-needed outlook as we navigate complex foreign and domestic issues.”

They pointed to Pope Francis’ 2015 address to Congress — which marked the first time a pope had addressed a joint session of the legislative body — and cited its “undeniable historical significance and cultural impact.”

Pope Leo ‘arguably the strongest moral voice in our world’

In its Oct. 30 press release accompanying the letter, Thompson’s office quoted Jesuit Father Chris Kellerman, justice and ecology secretary for the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, who described Pope Leo as “arguably the strongest moral voice in our world for the promotion of human dignity, peace and the common good.”

“A joint address to Congress from the Holy Father would not only offer a precious opportunity to hear to his wisdom but could also serve as a joyous celebration of the United States and its tradition of religious freedom,” said Father Kellerman.

Laurie Carafone, executive director of the Catholic advocacy group Network, said in the press release that the lobbying group’s members “enthusiastically support this important bipartisan effort.”

“Pope Leo’s urgent and universal call for peace, for greater love, and for solidarity that recognizes and champions the dignity of every person, no exceptions, is urgently needed,” Carafone said. “Our prayer is that his visit inspires lawmakers, Catholics, and all people of good will to work together to create laws that protect our shared humanity and the common good.”

After a successful trip to Uruguay, Pope Leo heads to Argentina

Pope Leo XIV wrapped up his visit to Uruguay on Sunday by praising the women who have passed the Catholic faith onto younger generations, as he highlighted the role the church has played since the founding of Latin America's most secular country.

Leo traveled to the city of Florida, north of Montevideo, to mark an important Catholic feast day before heading to Argentina for the second leg of his South American tour. 

It's expected to be the most politically delicate stop, given the Catholic Church's sharp criticisms of the austerity program of libertarian President Javier Milei.

For his final event in Uruguay, Leo celebrated the feast of the Virgin of the Thirty-three. 

According to tradition, 33 independence patriots acquired the Guaraní statue and had it with them when independence was declared from the Brazilian empire in Florida on Aug. 25, 1825.

Leo became the first pope in nearly four decades to visit Uruguay, in hopes of reminding its people that the Catholic Church is part of their very identity as a nation — even if, in subsequent decades, the country went on a deeply secular, and at times anticlerical, route.

Pope thanks the mothers who passed on the faith

In his homily, delivered in front of Florida's cathedral, Leo recalled the presence of the statue at the time of independence in reminding Uruguayans that "the history of peoples, too, cannot be fully understood without reference to God," and especially a mother.

He thanked all the mothers and grandmothers who have passed the faith onto younger generations, and acknowledged their pain when their efforts didn't stick.

"You taught your children to pray, and today they no longer do so. You used to attend Mass together, and it has been years since they entered a church," he said. But he urged them to not despair.

"Mothers and grandmothers: never tire of passing on the faith!"

Tens of thousands of people packed Florida's main square for the Mass under brilliant blue skies, some walking for several kilometers (miles) to reach the site. The city has a population of about 40,000 but the Vatican estimated 50,000 were on hand.

Fiama Pirez, an English professor, traveled from Montevideo for the Mass even though she could have seen Leo in the capital. She said she preferred a family outing to Florida so her mother could fulfill a dream to see a pope.

"I'm religious in my own way, and although I never strayed far from the Catholic faith, I'm rediscovering it today," she said. 

A potentially delicate meeting with Milei

In Buenos Aires, Milei is due to greet Leo at the airport before the two appear together for the traditional welcome ceremony and exchange of speeches. 

The Catholic Church has criticized Milei's austerity measures that have slashed social spending, and his embrace of artificial intelligence.

Milei has staked his presidency on cutting social spending to overhaul Argentina's troubled economy and deliver a long-elusive budget surplus. 

He has called social justice "an aberration" that amounts to stealing, and mocked as "huge stupidity" the increasingly common complaint in Argentina that families squeezed by his austerity program can't make it to the end of the month.

Leo, who took his name from the 19th-century pope whose encyclical on labor laid the foundation of Catholic social teaching, has made the poor and vulnerable a focus of his papacy, carrying on the legacy of his Argentine predecessor, Pope Francis.

Posters reading "At last, a Lion who unites" appeared across Buenos Aires this weekend, a jab playing on the pope's name in Spanish — León, or lion — and the lion imagery Milei often uses to portray himself on social media.

"Argentina is a society currently experiencing significant upheaval, deep polarization, and an economic crisis, along with a president who defies conventional protocol — a leader who, at one point, even challenged Pope Francis," said Luis Bahamondes, a professor at the Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Chile.

The Argentine church is a sharp Milei critic

Since taking office in December 2023, Milei has slashed Argentina's healthcare budget by 48% in real terms. 

Planned cuts to the public university system, which represents a near-universal point of pride in the crisis-prone country, sent students into the streets.

According to official data, poverty in Argentina reached 32.3% of the population during the first half of 2026, representing about 15 million people.

Much like its allies in the Trump administration, Milei's government has portrayed the cuts as part of a necessary reform process to remake Argentina's troubled economy and eliminate fraud and waste in the federal bureaucracy.

Like Trump, Milei has also courted AI investment and data centers with promises of limited regulation. 

Leo has warned that the AI race poses threats to humanity and the environment and called for strict, internationally policed safeguards on its development.

Milei's government insists the papal trip is purely religious. "The pope belongs to all Argentines. He doesn't belong to a political party or a political camp," Karina Milei, the president's sister and secretary-general of the presidency, told reporters after a recent planning meeting for Leo's visit with church leaders.

A trip to complete Francis' unfinished business

In Argentina, Leo is completing unfinished business left by Francis. 

The Argentine Jesuit, the former archbishop of Buenos Aires, never returned home during his 12-year pontificate, confounding friends and foes alike.

"There's a lot of disagreement over Francis and his legacy in Argentina," said David Lantigua, a theology professor and faculty fellow at the University of Notre Dame's Kellogg Institute, which focuses especially on Latin American affairs.

Much of the polemics stems from his tenure in Buenos Aires, when the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was a slum priest who advocated for the poorest and most marginalized — the sector of Argentines feeling Milei's social spending cuts the most.

"I think we'll see that kind of tension with Leo — that's the ministry Francis left behind," Lantigua said.

Leo, who spent two decades as a missionary priest in Peru ministering to poor people, is very much a pastor in Francis' image and owes his pontificate to the late pope. 

But unlike Francis, he is returning home to Peru on the last leg of this trip, visiting a country where he spent two decades as a missionary.

Argentina's state intelligence agency said Saturday that a person had been arrested over death threats against Leo ahead of his arrival. 

A federal court in Campana, some 70 kilometers (45 miles) northwest of Buenos Aires, ordered the arrest less than 24 hours after the agency was tipped off, it said, without elaborating.

Pope Leo XIV mourns lives lost in shooting in Krakow, Poland

On Sunday, Pope Leo XIV expressed his profound sadness for the lives lost and those injured in a shooting that took place in the main square of Krakow, Poland, on Saturday.

The Pope sent a telegram of condolences signed by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin on the Pope's behalf to the Archbishop of Krakow, Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś.

On November 7, a gunman opened fire on people in Kraków’s historic Main Market Square, killing six people and injuring 15 others before being shot and apprehended by police. 

Polish authorities are investigating the attack.

Pope assures victims of his prayers

"Deeply saddened upon learning of the deaths and injuries caused by the shooting that took place in Kraków," the message said the Pope expresses his "spiritual closeness in the Risen Christ to all those affected by this tragedy."

Invoking the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Poland, the Holy Father implored the gift of Christian hope "for the families overcome with grief" and joined with all those experiencing these days of mourning.

While assuring them of his prayers, Pope Leo imparted his Apostolic Blessing and urged all people to persevere tirelessly in the pursuit of peace and harmony.

Raleigh Diocese refers case involving Wilmington priest to law enforcement

The Catholic Diocese of Raleigh has conducted an investigation into allegations of financial irregularities at a church in New Hanover County, and has referred the case to law enforcement.

In an email sent to parishioners of Immaculate Conception Church on Friday, a statement from the Diocese said: “Following a preliminary investigation into financial irregularities conducted by third-party accounting and legal professionals, the matter involving Father John McGee, OSFS, has been referred to law enforcement officials”.

The statement did not include details regarding the allegations. Officials at the diocese told WECT News they have no further comment at this time.

The investigation followed the sudden departure of Father McGee from Immaculate Conception, and an announcement made by the Diocese on October 2: “Very Reverend John McGee, O.S.F.S., V.F., resigns as Pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Wilmington and Dean of the Cape Fear Deanery”.

Father McGee was appointed pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in 2008.

Lawsuit alleges historic sex abuse by priest at Brandon residential school, Portage youth centre worker

A man suing the provincial and federal governments alleges he was sexually abused by a priest when he attended a Brandon, Man., residential school nearly six decades ago, and that he suffered further abuse from a Portage la Prairie youth centre employee.

The now 68-year-old man, who is Indigenous, was separated from his family and community supports in 1968 at age 10, when he started attending the Brandon Indian Residential School, according to a statement of claim filed with the Manitoba Court of King's Bench on Monday.

A priest employed at the school, who is not identified by name in the suit, sexually assaulted him, including non-consensual touching, and inflicted physical violence on him, rupturing his eardrum, the statement of claim alleges.

CBC News is not identifying the plaintiff because he says he is the victim of sexual abuse.

The man says he wasn't able to protect himself from the abuse or report it due to his age, his dependency on his adult supervisors, the authority of the priest and fear of consequences, according to the suit.

The lawsuit does not specify how long the alleged abuse continued at the school, which closed in 1972.

Abuse at Portage la Prairie centre

The man says he also experienced sexual abuse while he was confined from 1974 to 1976 at the Manitoba Home for Boys, a youth correctional and training facility in Portage la Prairie that was later renamed the Agassiz Youth Centre, according to the Manitoba Historical Society. It was closed in 2022 and later demolished.

The man alleges a night supervisor at the institution sexually assaulted him numerous times while he was confined to his dormitory bed. The abuse included non-consensual sexual touching under his clothing and an attempted oral sex act, the suit alleges.

The man says he could not safely report the abuse because he was a confined minor, and the supervisor had custodial and supervisory authority over him.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

A provincial spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit while it's before the courts. CBC News has reached out to the federal government for comment but had not received a reply prior to publication.

The man alleges the governments of Canada and Manitoba failed to protect him from abuse at the residential school and the Portage institution, respectively, and so were negligent and breached the duty of care they owed him.

The federal government, which had statutory authority over the residential school's funding, regulation, supervision and oversight, knew or should have known about the vulnerability and dependency of children in those schools, as well as the need for measures to protect them from abuse, the suit says.

The Manitoba government — which owned, operated, administered, staffed and controlled the Manitoba Home for Boys — knew or should have known that minors confined in an institution were vulnerable to abuse by staff, and required supervision and safe reporting mechanisms, according to the statement of claim.

The man says he has and continues to suffer significant psychological trauma because of the abuse, as well as anxiety and depressive symptoms, a disrupted education, and sustained physical injury such as the ruptured eardrum, the lawsuit says.

His injuries are ongoing and have "materially altered the course of his life," it says.

He's seeking aggravated, general, financial, punitive and special damages, as well as future care costs.

Bertomeu wields his criminal immunity in Peru before the victims and postpones reparation indefinitely

Jordi Bertomeu, commissioner for the liquidation of the so-called “spiritual family” of the Sodalitium, has informed the victims that he will not close the liquidation process, a prerequisite for any reparation, until the economic and administrative bodies of the Holy See assisting him have “sufficient certainty regarding the validity and canonical licitness of the economic activities carried out by the suppressed group” and until they have been able to assess “any legal actions that may be initiated before state authorities.” 

He sets no deadline. 

In the same letter, which is mainly devoted to defending his actions, he cites a document from the Peruvian Chancellery stating that he “was granted immunity in criminal matters, as well as civil and administrative, during the duration of his mission in Peruvian territory.”

It is an internal communiqué dated in Rome on November 7, four days before the arrival of Leo XIV in Peru, to which InfoVaticana has had access, and it is the second in eight days. 

The decision is stated in the first person, “I will not consider the liquidation process concluded, prior to the reparatory process,” and is supported by two popes: the commissioner says he is taking it “in fulfillment of the mandate received from Pope Francis and ratified by Pope Leo XIV.” 

The liquidation, he explains, must “clarify the legitimacy of the economic activities that have given rise to the ecclesial patrimony” and not be limited to the assets that the former leaders of the group have so far made available to the process. 

Bertomeu acknowledges the cost: “I am aware that the wait may be especially painful for those of you who have been waiting so many years for truth, justice, and reparation.” 

On October 30 he had written that his responsibility obliged him to ensure that the actions could “soon translate into real results.”

The announcement occupies about 300 of the nearly 2,100 words of the communiqué. 

Some 1,400, two-thirds of the total, form the section “On the information questioning my conduct,” devoted to rebutting Narrative and Persecution, a recent book by Peruvian lawyer Percy García Cavero about his role in the Scicluna-Bertomeu Special Mission of 2023, in the suppression of the Sodalitium, and in the liquidation. 

Bertomeu presents it as a continuation of another book by the same author, from 2018, entitled The Pedro Salinas Case: From Abuse Whistleblower to Defamer of Reputations. At the end, he asks the victims not to take “sides in a dispute about my person.”

Regarding his diplomatic status, the commissioner reproaches the book for giving relevance to a certificate issued by “Mr. Linares Arenaza” on July 8, 2026, whose content he does not detail, and counters it with document OR. RE. (SGG) no. 4-3-A/969, of March 11, 2025, signed by Mr. Salamanca Castro, in charge of the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from which the phrase about his immunity comes. 

He adds that this documentation “was already submitted as evidence in the judicial proceeding initiated by Mr. Percy García Cavero against the undersigned of this communiqué.” 

The letter does not clarify what proceeding this refers to, nor whether it is the criminal complaint for violation of professional secrecy that Giuliana Caccia and Sebastián Blanco filed against him in July 2024.

That complaint was archived in January 2025 by a prosecutor who relied on documents provided by Bertomeu’s defense, including a photocopy of his diplomatic passport, and weeks later the Prosecutor’s Office declared the complainants’ appeal against the archiving admissible, according to this newspaper at the time. 

Caccia and Blanco stated at that time that the Chancellery had responded to their lawyer that Bertomeu entered the country with an official visa and at no time requested “temporary or permanent accreditation as a diplomatic mission before the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” 

The document now cited by the commissioner is from March 2025, after that response and after the appeal.

Regarding the leak, the letter denies less than it seems. Bertomeu writes that “in no case were the names of Giuliana Caccia and Sebastián Blanco communicated to Paola Ugaz and Pedro Salinas, as stated in the investigation records.” 

The phrase is impersonal, refers only to the names, and relies on records that the commissioner himself describes, a few paragraphs earlier, as “reserved material kept in the Holy See and to which it is not appropriate to give indiscriminate publicity.” 

There is no express denial regarding the content of what was declared, only the warning that he does not consider it correct “to draw conclusions” about “a possible transmission of reserved information without sufficient evidence.” 

Nor does he mention the WhatsApp messages that Caccia and Blanco claim to have notarized and in which, according to them, Bertomeu acknowledges having transmitted information from their statements to Salinas and Ugaz.

The letter also maintains that the column “The Pope’s Elite Command,” published by Raúl Tola in La República, “should not be automatically interpreted as the result of a leak,” and to explain its origin refers to an interview with Salinas on August 19, 2023, to an article of his own on September 29, 2024, and to an interview with Ugaz on December 11, 2024. 

The column was published on July 29, 2023, before the three, when the mission was still receiving testimonies at the Nunciature, which it did between July 23 and August 1 according to the letter itself. Tola did not give names. 

He spoke of “a militant ultra-Catholic very active on social media” and of “a man (who ended up being the brother-in-law of the first)” who, when “the Spanish priest asked him if he would like his son to be subjected to those practices,” “kept an explicit silence.” 

Caccia and Blanco maintain that that column was born from the leak of their statements. 

Bertomeu recalls that in those days there were photojournalists around the Nunciature, an argument that, according to Crux, was already included in the prosecutor’s decree of January 2025. 

The letter does not explain how what was said inside reached the columnist.

In the same section, Bertomeu attributes to Francis the penal precept with the threat of excommunication that the nuncio in Peru delivered to Caccia and Blanco in September 2024, and presents it as the result of “the conduct attributed” to both during the mission, which “prompted the intervention of the Holy Father and the consequent imposition by him of a penal precept with the warning of excommunication in case of disobedience.” 

As Tola himself described at the time, the precept gave them 48 hours to withdraw the complaint against Bertomeu and publicly apologize to the Pope’s envoys. 

The letter does not mention that, according to what Caccia and Blanco later recounted, Francis received them in a private audience in November 2024, assured them that the excommunication “was not appropriate,” that “it had been a mistake,” and revoked it “in his own handwriting.” 

Finally, he explains to the victims who testified at the Nunciature in 2023 that none of them signed a confidentiality agreement because the reservation “did not depend on a contractual formality, but on the commitment to protect the information received,” and that “the information you shared was not intended to be automatically transmitted to the Holy Father without prior examination.” 

Caccia and Blanco maintain that they were promised that whatever they said would only reach the Pope.

The communiqué opens with thanks for “the numerous expressions of recognition, trust, and support” received after the previous one and closes with Hannah Arendt, with an idea attributed to Dietrich Bonhoeffer about repetitions “without evidence” that end up being confused with the truth, and with Psalm 33: “Keep your tongue from evil, your lips from falsehood.” 

The one of October 30 was signed “The Pontifical Commissioner of the ‘Spiritual Family’ of the Sodalitium.” This one bears his name, “Msgr. Jordi Bertomeu Farnós,” and ends thus: “With my affection and closeness, always at your service.”

Santa Maria Maggiore restores the Salus Populi Romani chapel: closed for 90 days and works lasting 18 months

The Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome will begin the restoration of the Pauline Chapel, which houses the icon of the Salus Populi Romani, on November 16. 

According to Vatican News on November 6, the intervention will last approximately eighteen months and is jointly promoted by the basilica itself and the Governorate of Vatican City State, which describes it as “one of the most significant restoration works” of the church.

The work will focus on the upper register of the chapel, from the entablament to the dome, and will include the frescoes and stucco decorations of the vaults, lunettes, pendentives, and the dome itself. 

The frescoes and wooden furnishings of the chapel sacristy will also be restored, as well as “The Immaculate Conception,” the so-called “Galilean Madonna” by Cigoli.

Frescoes from 1610 to 1612 by Reni, Cigoli, Baglione and the Cavalier d’Arpino

The decoration now being restored was executed between 1610 and 1612 by Giovanni Baglione, Lodovico Cardi, known as Cigoli, Guido Reni, and Giuseppe Cesari, the Cavalier d’Arpino. 

It is one of the most important pictorial ensembles of seventeenth-century Rome, conceived for a chapel that has since become one of the city’s principal centers of Marian devotion.

A copy of the icon and Masses in the Sistine Chapel

The basilica has planned a preliminary phase of about ninety days, dedicated to diagnostic and photographic surveys, during which the chapel will remain closed to the public. 

During this period, according to Vatican News, “near the Chapel, a copy of the Icon will be placed for veneration.”

Once this first phase is completed, a “state-of-the-art” suspended scaffold will be installed, specifically designed to carry out the restoration operations without interfering with the use of the chapel and to ensure the continuity of the faithful’s devotion. 

While the work is underway, daily Masses will be celebrated in the Sistine Chapel of the basilica, at the usual times: 8:00, 9:00, 10:00, 11:00, 12:00, and 18:00.

The Pauline Chapel, named after Pope Paul V, who promoted it, houses the icon of the Salus Populi Romani, the most venerated Marian image in Rome, to which the popes go to pray before and after their apostolic journeys.

Belmullet school appeals for information after chapel vandalised

The principal of a secondary school in Belmullet Co Mayo has issued an appeal for information after vandals targeted its chapel and convent.

Principal of Our Lady's Secondary School Edmund Holmes said he was dismayed at a decision by vandals to "desecrate" their beautiful chapel.

"Religious artefacts, sacred images, stained-glass windows and furnishings have been damaged, and parts of the chapel left in a shocking state of destruction.

This building is much more than bricks and mortar. It is an important part of the history and heritage of Belmullet and the wider Erris community, holding special memories for generations of students, families, staff and the religious sisters who dedicated so much of their lives to education in our community.

To see such a cherished part of our school's history treated with such disregard is deeply disappointing."

Mr Holmes said it wasn't simply an act of vandalism against their school.

The school appealed for information about who was behind the vandalism

"It is an attack on a place of great historical, cultural and spiritual significance to our to our entire community."

He has called on members of the public who may have witnessed suspicious activity in or around the school, convent or chapel in recent weeks to contact the school authorities or gardai.

"No piece of information is too small, and any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

We know that the overwhelming majority of people in our community share our respect for these buildings and the important place they hold in our local heritage.

We cannot allow such destruction to go unchallenged. These buildings and their history belong to our community, and we all have a responsibility to protect them for future generations."

APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIV TO URUGUAY, ARGENTINA AND PERU

Cathedral Basilica of Florida, National Shrine of Our Lady of the Thirty-Three (Florida)

Sunday, 8 November 2026

___________________________________

Dear brothers and sisters of this land of Uruguay,

With great enthusiasm, I am here with you today next to Our Lady of the Thirty-Three. I come as a pilgrim to share in the faith and the tenderness with which the Uruguayan people have looked at the Mother of God for generations. I say to those who have come from different places, to those who have been making the pilgrimage here for years, and to those who are visiting for the first time today: I embrace all of you with affection and entrust you to Mary’s protection.

Today, the word of God presents us with two women who lived in very different times and upon whom almost the same blessing is bestowed.  To Judith, after the liberation of her people, it was said: “O daughter, you are blessed by the Most High God above all other women on earth” (Jud 13:18).  Many centuries later, Elizabeth welcomes Mary into her home and exclaims: “Blessed are you among women” (Lk 1:42).

This connection was recognized very early on by Christian tradition. In Judith, it saw a woman who did not allow herself to be overcome by fear at a difficult time for her people. Through prayer and fasting, she made a decision that led her to risk her own life (cf. Jud 8-10). When victory came, Judith did not take credit for it, for she knew full well who had saved Israel, and said: “Begin a song to my God with tambourines, sing to my Lord with cymbals” (Jud 16:1). That is why the words with which her people welcomed her are so majestic: “You are the glory of Jerusalem, you are the great boast of Israel, you are the great pride of our nation!” (Jud 15:9). The people celebrated what God had done for them through Judith.

Hearing these words today before the Patroness of this country has a special resonance. This small image is linked to a decisive moment in Uruguay’s history. In 1825, those who were fighting for the freedom of this land also turned to Mary, to place the beginning of their efforts under her protection. That gesture reminds us that the history of peoples, too, cannot be fully understood without reference to God. Thus, from the earliest days of the nation’s founding, Uruguay has been intimately linked to a Mother. Since that time, generations have come and gone, circumstances have changed, including the relationship of many Uruguayans to the faith. Yet she has remained here.  While Mary accompanied the history of this people, at the same time in so many homes other women preserved the faith and passed it on to their children.

I think of the mothers who placed the first words of prayer on their children’s lips, who took them to be baptized, who prepared them to receive the sacraments, and who taught them to live out Christian charity.  I think of the grandmothers who kept an altar at home, who prayed for the living and the deceased and who made God present in the ordinary events of life. Even in the early days of the Church we find something similar.  Timothy’s faith was rooted in two women, with the Apostle fondly recalling Timothy’s grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice.  In them, “sincere faith” had first taken root, which Paul also recognized in Timothy (cf. 2 Tim 1:5).  Scripture tells us little about those two women.  We know, however, that Timothy, who would become a close collaborator of Saint Paul, was formed by that faith learned at home (cf. Acts 16:1-3).

This land also has women’s names inscribed in its history of faith. Among them is Saint María Francisca Rubatto, who chose to remain among you and serve those most in need here. There are also the Blessed Martyrs Dolores and Consuelo Aguiar-Mella, two sisters born in Montevideo. Their lives were very different, but in all three we find supreme examples of faithfulness.

Yet most of this history of faith in the country was never written down in books.  It was quietly passed down from generation to generation within families.  When we wonder and ask where our faith comes from, the name of a specific woman often comes to mind: a mother, a grandmother, a godmother, a religious sister or a catechist. We may not remember every word they said to us, but we do remember how they prayed, how they spoke of the Lord and with what conviction they lived out what they taught us.

Today I would like to thank all of those women. Thank you for having believed and for having kept open a path to God in so many families.  Some were able to do so supported by a long-standing family tradition; others had to sustain that faith with greater effort, perhaps without always finding understanding or support within their own homes. I know that many of you carry a very specific sorrow.  You taught your children to pray, and today they no longer do so. You used to attend Mass together, and it has been years since they entered a church.  You spoke to your grandchildren about God, and now you do not know if those words left a mark. Sometimes you wonder if you did something wrong or if it was all futile.  Allow me to recall Saint Monica here, who knew that pain well. She prayed for years for a son who seemed to be drifting further and further from God, but she never stopped trusting in his grace. Therefore, do not consider what you have sown to be lost.  The Lord himself taught us that the seed can grow without the sower knowing how (cf. Mk 4:27).

Mothers and grandmothers: never tire of passing on the faith!  Preach with your lives as well as with your words.  Insist on prayer, love, and hope; insist on them in season and out of season (cf. 2 Tim 4:2). Do so with patience, without harshness or discouragement.  Even if your loved ones seem far from God, continue to place them before him. Do not stop blessing them, accompanying them, and simply reminding them of what they once received. There are doors that you cannot open, but God can.

I would also like to address the men — fathers and grandfathers. Your children and grandchildren need to see that the faith occupies a genuine place in the lives of the men in your family.  Imitate Saint Joseph, who took on the task of raising Jesus, bringing him to the temple, teaching him to work honestly and showing him that God must come first in a person’s life. Dear fathers and grandfathers, young people need to see that you pray, receive the sacraments, treat your wives with respect, ask for forgiveness and live with integrity, even when doing so requires sacrifice.  Children learn a great deal by seeing that their father can kneel before God without feeling that he is any less of a man for doing it.

Scripture called on God’s people to keep the words they have received from him in their hearts and to teach them to their children, to speak of them “when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise” (Deut 6:7).  God was central to conversation, decision making and daily family life.  In this way, children learned that the faith they received from their parents was also what their parents lived by.  Likewise today, bishops, priests and consecrated persons are also called to support families in this task, generously exercising their spiritual fatherhood and motherhood, accompanying those who falter and helping many to rediscover the path to God.

Passing on the faith means bringing others to Christ, whom we ourselves have encountered.  Mary shows us precisely how to do this.  In the Gospel, Elizabeth welcomes her exclaiming: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Lk 1:42). Mary does not keep that praise to herself.  When Elizabeth proclaims her blessed, Mary responds by singing of the Lord’s greatness (cf. Lk 1:46-55). At Cana, when others turn to her, she directs them to her Son: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5).

In the second reading, Saint Paul explicitly states a truth that Mary’s entire life proclaims: “There is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human” (1 Tim 2:5).  All of Mary’s greatness is based on her relationship with Christ: she welcomes him, lives by him, and leads others to him.  An encounter with the Master is the goal of all evangelization and of all authentic Marian devotion.  The Son of God has given himself up for all; thus, no one can be excluded from the Church’s prayer.  That is why Saint Paul asks us to pray “for kings and all who are in high positions” (1 Tim 2:2), and for all people, because God “desires everyone to be saved” (1 Tim 2:4).

On this feast of the Patroness of Uruguay, let us bring this entire people before the Lord.  Let us pray for those who bear the responsibility of governing it, that they may seek with integrity the good of all; for families, for young people, for those who suffer, for those who feel far from God and for those who need to return to him and change their lives.

Saint Luke shows us how that mission begins. After conceiving the Son of God, Mary “set out and went with haste” (1:39). She does not wait for Elizabeth to come looking for her, but rather goes out to meet her and enters her home, carrying the Lord with her. There, the child leaps for joy, and Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit (cf. Lk 1:41-44). Mary’s action also points out the way for us. We cannot always wait for those who have strayed to return on their own. People of Uruguay: you must set out on the journey! You must enter people’s homes once more, draw near to them, listen to their questions and bring them to Christ!  Each of you knows a person toward whom you need to take that step: perhaps a child, a friend, a neighbor, someone who stopped believing long ago or who has never had anyone close to them to speak to them about God.

May the Queen of Heaven sustain those who continue to sow the faith. May she teach us to recognize Christ in the poor, the sick and those who are alone, and teach us to bring him to places where he is not yet known.

Soon I will place the Golden Rose before this image. With this gesture, I wish to honor the one who is indeed “the great pride of our nation” (Jud 15:9) and to make visible the fulfillment of the words she herself spoke: “All generations will call me blessed” (Lk 1:48).

To Mary, commander and guide of this people, I wish to consecrate this nation anew, to entrust this land and all who live in it to her protection and to implore God that, through her powerful intercession, he may thwart the works of the evil one and preserve beloved Uruguay from whatever might lead it away from Christ.  May this Golden Rose, offered as a sign of veneration and filial love, also remind her children that they are called to imitate her by loving Christ as she loved him, and bringing him to others as she brought him. Amen.

____________________________________

Words of Thanks of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV at the conclusion of Holy Mass

At the conclusion of this Eucharistic celebration, and before saying farewell to this beloved country, I wish to thank all the people who made my visit possible. I thank the civil and religious authorities, the groups that organized each event, the volunteers, the families and communities who came together and worked to make it possible for us to share these days together, as well as the people who have accompanied us through the various means of communication. 

I had been told that, although Uruguay is a relatively small country, its people have generous hearts and are capable of great things. That has become evident over these past few days.  You have prepared everything so well, and I express my heartfelt gratitude to all of you.

We have gladly shared the joy of faith in Christ, and we have witnessed how this joy has grown with each passing day.  May what we have experienced in Montevideo, in Paysandú and here in Florida spread to the rest of the country and the world.  Such is the mathematics of faith: what we have received and freely offer, with God’s grace, multiplies, opens new horizons and enriches our lives, giving them new meaning.  

Dear brothers and sisters of Uruguay, help faith, hope and charity to continue growing.  Keep living and proclaiming the joy that springs from our encounter with our Lord Jesus Christ and you will have, as a result, a full and fruitful life.

Through the intercession of Our Lady of the Thirty-Three, I ask God to bless the Uruguayan people and to guide them along paths of unity and peace.  I carry you in my heart and I ask that you continue to accompany me with your prayers. Thank you very much, Uruguay!

Sacraments in free fall in the diocese of Málaga after the arrival of Satué

The Diocese of Málaga recorded a decline in the four sacraments tracked in its annual report for 2025. 

According to the data in that document, presented on November 5 by Bishop José Antonio Satué at a press conference, there were 3,844 baptisms, 5,386 confirmations, 3,623 first communions, and 817 marriages, all figures lower than those of the previous year.

Confirmations, the sacrament that declines the most

A comparison with the 2024 report shows the extent of the drop. 

That year, the diocese recorded around 5,000 baptisms and a similar number of first communions, about 8,500 confirmations, and around a thousand marriages. 

Confirmations are, therefore, the sacrament that has declined the most, with a drop of nearly one-third, while weddings fell below 900 and baptisms and first communions each lost more than a thousand celebrations.

The presentation of the report highlighted other data. 

The diocese noted that nearly 14,000 baptisms, confirmations, first communions, and marriages were celebrated in total, and that it served 49,126 people in 211 centers in Málaga and Melilla. 

The report also includes 297 priests, 591 religious brothers and sisters, 143 cloistered nuns, 22 permanent deacons, and 4,500 catechists, spread across 250 parishes and 17 monasteries.

Schools, heritage, and finances

The report also includes the diocesan educational network, consisting of 28 diocesan schools and 36 canonically owned centers, which serve around 37,000 students and employ nearly 8,400 people. 

On the financial side, the main expenditure was the maintenance of buildings and operations, with nearly 17 million euros spent, within a total management of almost 32 million.

Speaking about the churches, Satué recalled that they are “the places where the people of Málaga baptize their children, get married, and bid farewell to their elders,” a statement that contrasts with the sacramental celebration figures contained in the report itself.

A bishop very active in ecclesial forums

The prelate has had a prominent presence in various ecclesial gatherings in recent weeks. InfoVaticana reported that he asked the brotherhoods in Cádiz to joyfully welcome the “gay couple” and divorced people who have remarried, and that he addressed a message to the “LGTBIQ+ Christians” gathered in Chipiona, telling them that “you have much to contribute to the Church.” 

Both interventions took place during the same period in which the report of a diocese whose sacramental numbers are declining was being finalized.

Maltese court orders four companies to pay 24.1 million to the IOR for the Kappa Fund

The First Civil Chamber of the Republic of Malta has ordered four companies to pay jointly and severally 24.1 million euros to the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), plus 8 % interest from the date of the judgment until full payment. 

The IOR itself announced the ruling on 6 November, according to Vatican News, and it is a first-instance decision in the case of the so-called Kappa Fund.

The defendants are Optimum Evolution Fund SIF, Optimum Asset Management S.A., Futura Investment Management Limited and Futura Funds SICAV plc. 

The court held that they breached their fiduciary duties to the Vatican bank under Article 1124A of the Maltese Civil Code.

The investment in the Budapest building

The matter concerns the management of the IOR’s investment in the Kappa fund and the operations of the Exchange Palace real-estate project in Budapest. 

According to the judgment, the structure of the transaction, which involved an intermediary entity called Cougar, resulted in an unjustified transfer of value to the detriment of the IOR.

The court also rejected any breach by the Institute toward the Kappa fund and ruled that it was not obliged to provide additional capital. 

It likewise dismissed in full the claims the four companies had brought against the IOR.

Proceedings opened in 2017

The IOR states that the ruling comes “after a long judicial journey that began in 2017” and stresses that “for the first time a judge has examined the substance of the case.” 

In its statement it asserts that “the judgment handed down today clarifies the facts.” According to Vatican News, proceedings are also pending in other jurisdictions.

The decision comes just days after the Vatican appeals court postponed the Becciu case to January 2027 following an eleven-minute hearing, a criminal proceeding that also revolves around investments of Holy See funds.

Callao raises the world's largest statue dedicated to the Pope, measuring 14 meters, on the occasion of his visit to Peru

A 14-meter-tall statue of Leo XIV, with arms outstretched, was installed this Friday in a public park in Callao, the port province adjacent to Lima, facing the Pacific Ocean. 

According to El Debate, which reports on the transfer, the work is presented as the largest in the world dedicated to the Pope and is being installed days before his visit to Peru, scheduled from November 11 to 16.

The figure, about 12 meters tall, rests on a two-meter pedestal. 

It was transported in parts at dawn from the workshop where it was molded to the park, where a crane assembled the body, the bust, and the outstretched arms. 

The sculpture was created in less than two months by a team of 14 people led by artists Rafael Gutiérrez and Deyvi Wong, and was donated to Callao by Caja Huancayo.

A tribute to Prevost’s time in Callao

The mayor of Callao, César Pérez, announced the project with the aim of honoring Robert Prevost’s work as apostolic administrator of the diocese of Callao during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he brought food donations from Chiclayo, about 600 kilometers to the north. 

According to the EFE news agency, the mayor maintains that the monument “will reflect and increase the Catholic faith” and could attract national and international tourism.

The mayor also hopes that the Pope will stop to see the statue during his stay in the country. The inauguration is scheduled for Monday, November 9 at five in the afternoon, local time, coinciding with the sunset over the Pacific.

Other statues in Lambayeque

This is not the first effigy of the pontiff on Peruvian soil. In the Lambayeque region, whose capital is Chiclayo, there is already a full-body statue in that city, where Leo XIV was bishop, and another in Pimentel, also facing the sea. 

The one in Chiclayo was inaugurated in November 2025.

Leo XIV, who obtained Peruvian nationality in 2015, spent more than twenty years of ministry in Peru. 

He will arrive in the country after visiting Uruguay and Argentina, on the sixth international trip of his pontificate. 

Regarding the media and personalist drift of the papacy, InfoVaticana reported in August the warning of Monsignor Eleganti, for whom personality and not the office occupies the center.

Legionaries of Christ record five new reports of abuse in 2025 in their sixth annual report

The Legionaries of Christ Congregation published its sixth annual report on November 5, titled “Truth, Justice and Healing,” covering the period from January 1 to December 31, 2025, and accounting for the care of abuse victims, canonical procedures, reparation, and safe environments. 

The document is signed by the general director, Fr. Carlos Gutiérrez, and Catalina Gallego Barbier, international director of Safe Environments, and closes the 2020-2026 governance period. 

According to the congregation itself, it is being released later than in previous years due to preparations for the General Chapter.

Five new complaints and six canonical processes opened

The report indicates that five complaints were received in 2025. 

At the end of the year, there were six canonical procedures underway: five new ones were initiated and four of the five that had remained open since the previous report were concluded. 

In all active cases, precautionary measures were imposed, without prejudice to the presumption of innocence of the accused.

Since the first report, covering the period 1941-2019, the congregation has addressed complaints involving 25 priests not counted at that time. 

Of these, in nine cases abuse could not be substantiated, two were expelled from the congregation and the clerical state, seven are in process, and two await the conclusion of the civil process, as the canonical one has already ended. 

Three others were not prosecuted by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, one due to the death of the accused and two because they had left the congregation and the clerical state, and in two more the accused remains unidentified due to lack of information.

62 victims assisted and 64 reparation agreements

Since 2022, the independent channel Eshmá has assisted 62 victims, of whom 31 are receiving active care at the close of the report. Economic reparation is in effect in five territories; in 2025, two new agreements were signed, bringing the total to 64 since 2022.

Regarding safe environments, last year Western and Central Europe, Italy, and the Rome Delegation were accredited. Brazil began its first accreditation, while Colombia-Venezuela and Chile-Argentina started the reaccreditation process. 

The report also declares the study commission on authority and obedience, established in 2023, concluded; it produced the document Authority and Obedience in the Legion of Christ: A Path of Evangelical Renewal as a contribution to the General Chapter.

A request for forgiveness and a document to be updated

The 2026 General Chapter communiqué asked forgiveness for the errors committed in the care of victims, for not always having provided it promptly and sensitively, and for not always having harmonized transparency with the presumption of innocence. 

The Chapter also entrusted the new general director with promulgating an updated version of Protect and Heal, in force since 2020, adapted to the new Book VI of the Code of Canon Law and without the need to convene another Chapter.

“The commitments made in 2020 have become part of the identity and mission of the Congregation,” the report states. Gutiérrez writes that “truth, justice, and healing are not for us a task that closes,” and Gallego Barbier acknowledges that “no action can erase the harm caused.” 

The congregation sets itself eight lines of work: listening, reparation, justice, transparency, prevention, efficiency, collaboration, and the evangelical exercise of authority and obedience.

The full report, statistics, and a timeline since 2006 are available on the Legionaries of Christ website. 

The congregation still lives under the shadow of its founder, Marcial Maciel, whose case was referenced in its reaction to the HBO Max docuseries last August.

Pope Leo XIV appoints Juan Gabriel Díaz Ruiz as archbishop of Santiago de Cuba

Pope Leo XIV has accepted the resignation of Monsignor Dionisio Guillermo García Ibáñez as archbishop of Santiago de Cuba and has appointed Monsignor Juan Gabriel Díaz Ruiz, until now bishop of Matanzas, to succeed him. 

The Holy See made the appointment public on November 7, and the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba announced it in a communiqué that outlines the careers of both prelates.

García Ibáñez, 81, has governed the archdiocese since 2007, when he was appointed by Benedict XVI. He had previously been the first bishop of Bayamo-Manzanillo and presided over the Cuban Episcopal Conference from 2009 to 2017, after serving as vice-president from 2006 to 2009. He was also president of Caritas Cuba. 

According to the bishops’ note, his service was marked by fidelity, closeness, and a pastoral spirit, and was characterized by accompanying priests, deacons, religious, and laity and by promoting communion in the archdiocese.

An engineer who left his career to enter the seminary

Díaz Ruiz was born on November 14, 1960, in Céspedes, in the province of Camagüey. In 1978 he began studying Civil Engineering at the University of Camagüey, but dropped out in his third year to enter the San Basilio Magno seminary in Santiago de Cuba. 

He later completed his formation at the San Carlos and San Ambrosio seminary in Havana, where he specialized in Theology, and was ordained a priest on August 5, 1989, at the parish of La Soledad in Camagüey.

He served as assistant vicar in Morón and Florida and was in charge of the parish of Esmeralda. In 1999 he was sent to Rome, where he earned a licentiate in Biblical Theology from the Gregorian University. 

Upon his return in 2002, he led the parish of Nuevitas and served as a missionary in Chambas, in the diocese of Ciego de Ávila, as well as in Guáimaro and Florida. 

In addition, he was a clergy delegate on the National Commission of Priests, head of the Biblical Animation area of the National Catechetical Commission, and professor of Sacred Scripture at the seminaries of Camagüey and Havana.

From Ciego de Ávila to Matanzas and now to Santiago

Pope Francis appointed him bishop of Ciego de Ávila on July 8, 2017, and on April 7, 2023, transferred him to the diocese of Matanzas. 

He is currently vice-president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba and chairs the national commission for the pastoral care of adolescents, youth, and communication.

Santiago de Cuba is the country’s oldest metropolitan see, founded in 1522, and within its territory stands the national shrine of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, patroness of Cuba. 

The communiqué does not indicate the date of Díaz Ruiz’s installation.

Statement from the Diocese of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora

Statement from the Diocese of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora on the Conclusion of the Trial Relating to the Plot Against the Myriam Mosque, Galway

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The conclusion of the trial of those involved in a plot to cause death and destruction at the Myriam Mosque, Galway offers us a collective opportunity to reflect on the right of all to religious freedom, free from the threat of violence. 

The intentional targeting of any person on the basis of their religion is a threat to us all. It is something about which we should all be rightly appalled and deeply concerned.

Bishop Michael reiterates the words of the message he sent to Imam Noonan after the news of this plot broke in November 2025 - 

“I write to express my concern at the recent uncovering of threats against your Mosque and my solidarity with your community.  It is deeply sad and disturbing that such would be the case. For me it emphasises a need for us all to work harder towards a greater understanding and good relation between all religions. Rest assured of my thoughts and prayers. May God bless us all.”

Diocesan Appointments 2026 - Achonry & Elphin

New appointments, involving both clergy and lay staff, having been agreed over recent months and, while they have been announced as they took place, I now wish to communicate the full list.

I take this opportunity to thank all involved for their very generous ministry in their present parish and diocesan appointments and wish them every blessing in the future. 

In particular, I wish Canon Gerard Hanly every health and happiness as he retires from the office of Parish Priest of Boyle after 28 years.

In what is another first for our dioceses, I am very grateful to Fr Gabriel Murphy for his generosity in taking on an additional parish “across the border” in the Diocese of Elphin.

I take this opportunity to welcome Fr Luke Muhindo and Fr Ronnie Kawooya, members of the East African Province of the Congregation of Holy Cross who will live as a Religious Community in Ballintubber, serving as Parish Priests of Ballintubber and Tulsk, respectively.

As we continue our journey together, I am grateful to all who give so much in service to the people of God in this part of the Lord’s vineyard. I am grateful too for your continued support and prayers for me in my ministry as bishop.

+Kevin Doran

Bishop of Achonry and of Elphin

7 November 2026

CLERGY APPOINTMENTS

Accord

Fr Jim Murray (Elphin) and Fr Joe Caulfield (Achonry) have stepped down as Directors of Accord, in their respective Dioceses.

Fr John Mahony has been appointed Director of Accord for the Dioceses of Achonry and Elphin, effective 1st August 2026.

Ahascragh Parish

Fr Micheál Donnelly PP, Fairymount and Frenchpark, has been appointed Parish Priest of Ahascragh, effective 1st July 2026.

Athleague and Kilbegnet Parishes

Fr Pravin Dhason PP, Kilbegnet, has been appointed Parish Priest of Athleague in addition to being Parish Priest of Kilbegnet, effective 18th March 2026.

Fr Joseph Ali, CC Athleague and Knockcroghery has been appointed CC Athleague and Kilbegnet, effective 18th March 2026.

Aughanagh Parish

Deacon Damien Kearns has concluded his term as Administrator of Aughanagh Parish.

Fr Gabriel Murphy PP, Keash (Achonry), has been appointed Parish Priest of Aughanagh (Elphin), in addition to being Parish Priest of Keash, effective 7th November 2026.

Ballinameen and Croghan Parishes

Fr Alan Conway PP, Croghan, has been appointed PP Ballinameen, in addition to being PP Croghan, effective 1st July 2026.

Fr John Mahony PP, Ahascragh, has been appointed CC Ballinameen and Croghan, effective 1st July 2026.

Ballintubber Parish

Fr Julian Lupot PP, Ballintubber, has taken a one-year sabbatical, effective 21st August 2026.

Fr Luke Muhindo CSC, has been appointed PP Ballintubber, effective 21st August 2026.

Boyle Parish

Canon Gerard Hanly PP, Boyle, has retired from the office of Parish Priest, effective 31st July 2026.

Fr John Gannon PP, Tulsk, has been appointed PP Boyle, effective 1st August 2026.

Fairymount and Frenchpark Parishes

Fr Larry Ebuk MSP PP, Ballinameen, has been appointed PP Fairymount and of Frenchpark, effective 1st July 2026.

Sligo Cathedral Parish

Fr Innocent Sunu CC, has been recalled to his home diocese of Maiduguri (Nigeria), effective 1st July 2026.

Tulsk Parish

Fr Ronald Kawooya CSC, has been appointed PP Tulsk, effective 7th September 2026, and residing in Ballintubber.

NEW DIOCESAN STAFF AND VOLUNTEER APPOINTMENTS

Finance Manager

The role of Mr Conor Ward, Finance and Asset Manager in the Diocese of Elphin has been altered, and he has been appointed Finance Manager for the Dioceses of Achonry and Elphin, effective 11th May 2026.

Property Manager

Mr Frank Fox has been appointed Property Manager for the Dioceses of Achonry and Elphin, effective 11th May 2026.

Safeguarding

Ms Helen Diskin has retired as Director of Safeguarding for the Diocese of Achonry and as Diocesan Liaison Person and Safeguarding Trainer for the Diocese of Elphin, effective 3 November 2026.

Mrs Mary Nicholson, currently Director of Safeguarding in the Diocese of Elphin has been appointed Director of Safeguarding for the Dioceses of Achonry and Elphin, effective 3rd November 2026.

Sr Pat Casey, Diocesan Liaison Person for the Diocese of Achonry has stepped down from this role, effective 3rd November 2026.

Mrs Anne Leonard, currently Diocesan Liaison Person in the Diocese of Achonry, will now be one of two Diocesan Liaison Persons for the Dioceses of Achonry and Elphin.

Mrs Patricia Rogers has been appointed Diocesan Liaison Person and Trainer for the Dioceses of Achonry and Elphin, effective 3rd November 2026.

The respective safeguarding committees of Achonry and of Elphin will shortly be joined to become one new Safeguarding Committee for the Dioceses of Achonry and Elphin.

Youth and Young Adult Ministry

Mr Stephen Giblin and Deacon Seamus Talbot concluded their terms as Coordinators of Youth and Young Adult Ministry in the Dioceses of Achonry and of Elphin, respectively.

Ms Sinead Fallon has been appointed Coordinator of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Dioceses of Achonry and Elphin, effective 15th July 2026.

Trócaire

Fr Gerard Davey (Achonry) and Deacon William Gacquin (Elphin) have concluded their time as diocesan representatives for Trócaire. 

Mr Noel Connelly has been appointed Diocesan Representative for Achonry and Elphin.

Russian Orthodox Church accused of worshipping the 'bloody antichrist' by Ukraine Primate

The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) has been accused of following the “newest bloody antichrist” by the Primate of All Ukraine. 

Metropolitan Epiphanius of Kyiv, leader of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) which is aligned to Constantinople, described a ruler of the “Russian empire of evil” but did not directly name Vladimir Putin in his 1 November sermon. 

The ROC and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow have been supportive of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling it a “holy war”.  

In September, the Church stepped up its support for Vladimir Putin’s war by sending more clerics and the relic of a 14th century Russian warrior priest in an effort to aid “spiritual strengthening”. 

In the sermon, which had been translated, Metropolitan Epiphanius said: “Unfortunately, the same spirit that prompted the pharisees to reject Christ, that prompted the false brothers to harm the Apostle Paul and divide the Church of Christ on the sign of circumcision – this same spirit of pharisaism and legalism divides the Church in our time. 

“For it is precisely this spirit of old legalism that the followers of the Moscow Patriarchate, who divide the Church, are gripped by. They reject faith as the basis of church unity, putting their own rules and regulations in its place, just as the opponents of the Apostle Paul put the main sign not faith in Christ, but old circumcision. 

“They place worship of the Moscow throne above worship of the Cross of Christ. Therefore, they reject many Christian brothers and even their Mother Church of Constantinople, but praise the newest bloody antichrist, who rules the Russian empire of evil, and unite with all his like-minded people, regardless of their confession of faith, as their deeds clearly testify. They replaced the conciliarity of the Church of Christ with the “all-Russian council”, instead of peace they bless war, and the cross of Christ was replaced with the letter “Z” and a bloodstained sword, which they raised against their brothers in order to kill them, like Cain did to Abel.”

The letter “Z” has become a propaganda symbol used by Russians to show their support for the war. 

Metropolitan Epiphanius concluded: “And just as Saint Paul exposed the hypocrisy of false brothers who replaced the New Testament with old pharisaism, so we expose the teachings of the “Russian world,” which replaces the Christian faith with old Russian imperial chauvinism and false legalism. And although it is difficult for us to resist these challenges, just as it was difficult for the Apostle Paul to resist false brothers, we are convinced that in this struggle against untruth we too will win, just as he won, holding on to the true faith and rejecting the false wisdom of men. Amen.”

The Primate of All Ukraine celebrated the Divine Liturgy at St. Volodymyr's Cathedral in Kyiv, before visiting a memorial in the eastern city of Lviv for Ukrainian soldiers who have been killed.

Survivors criticise CofE redress scheme as 'not fit for purpose'

The Church of England’s long-awaited redress scheme for abuse survivors is facing renewed criticism, with some warning it is “not fit for purpose”.

The scheme, which was approved by the Church of England’s General Synod in July, is expected to go live by the end of 2026. It was proposed after the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) strongly criticised the Church’s handling of abuse disclosures.

Concerns intensified in September 2026 following a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury Most Rev Dame Sarah Mullally by the Redress Scheme Survivor Advisory Group.

The group, made up of survivors who helped advise on the scheme, said they could no longer support it in its current form and accused the church of failing to consult them on key issues. 

They said the scheme risked re-traumatising survivors rather than treating them with dignity, respect and compassion.

Among their concerns are requirements for survivors seeking funding for therapeutic support to undergo a fresh psychiatric assessment, restrictions on the maximum compensation available and the absence of a meaningful restorative justice process. 

A former member of General Synod who continues to offer support to those affected by church-related abuse told Premier Christian News he thinks a "lack of trauma awareness in those devising the scheme will have triggering effects" for survivors.

Awards are expected to range from £5,000 to £667,000, with the church setting the criteria and formula used to calculate payments. 

Eligibility for the scheme requires either a close connection between the abuser’s church-authorised role and the abuse, or evidence that a church officer knew, or should have known, of a significant risk that the abuser might commit similar abuse. 

There is no time limit on when the abuse took place, but the scheme will be open to applications for five years.

Malcom Johnson, who is head of the abuse team at Lime Solicitors last week hosted a seminar on the scheme. Describing it as “not fit for purpose” he said “the church has had seven years to get this right, yet its failure to properly consult with survivors is unforgiveable.

“What we are looking at is Windrush, part two. There is a real danger that victims will be subjected to further delays, more trauma and ultimately told they do not qualify because of the strict terms set by the church.

“A redress scheme should offer survivors a route to justice and recognition, not put further barriers in their way. The church cannot claim to be putting survivors at the heart of this scheme while ignoring their concerns. It is simply not good enough.”

Outlining the scheme on its website, the Church of England said its purpose "is to acknowledge the harm the abuse has caused and the impact on people’s lives. The Scheme aims to offer meaningful recognition to victims and survivors. It also demonstrates the Church of England’s commitment to acknowledging and responding to past safeguarding failings. 

“Survivors of Church-related abuse have provided their input into the design of the scheme, helping to ensure the Scheme is as survivor-centred as possible”.

Draft legislation for the scheme still needs to pass through Parliament ahead of its introduction in late 2027.