Rabat already has an apostolic administrator while Cardinal López Romero is under investigation

The Archdiocese of Rabat already has an apostolic administrator while the preliminary investigation opened against Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero continues over accusations of alleged sexual abuse and inappropriate conduct made by five adult women. 

The decision, however, has not been announced by the Holy See through the Bollettino, the usual channel for communicating this type of appointment.

The appointment was made known by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI), the congregation to which Monsignor Mario León Dorado belongs, and later confirmed by ACI Prensa, which claims to have had access to the decree sent by the Apostolic Nunciature in Morocco through a letter signed by the apostolic nuncio, Monsignor Alfred Xuereb, dated August 1. 

In its statement, the Oblates announced that “the Holy See has appointed Monsignor Mario León Dorado, OMI, apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Rabat, Morocco” and noted that he will exercise this responsibility “in communion with the Holy See and at its discretion.”

He will govern the archdiocese for the duration of the investigation

The figure of the apostolic administrator sede plena is used when the titular bishop remains at the head of a diocese but cannot temporarily exercise pastoral governance. 

In these circumstances, the Holy See entrusts the ordinary administration of the diocese to another bishop or priest until the situation that prompted the measure is resolved.

In this way, Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero retains the title of Archbishop of Rabat, but ceases to exercise the powers of governance, which are provisionally transferred to Monsignor Mario León Dorado.

López Romero stepped away from public ministry

In early July, the cardinal announced that he was temporarily withdrawing from all public and pastoral activity following the opening of a preliminary investigation by the Holy See. 

The accusations, revealed by the AFP agency, refer to alleged inappropriate behavior with adult women that occurred between 2009 and 2024 in Morocco and in other countries where he carried out his ministry.

In a statement released at the time, López Romero defended his innocence and assured his full cooperation with the investigation. 

“I have not committed any aggression, nor violence or sexual harassment,” he stated, explaining that he had decided to “take a step back” so as not to interfere in the development of the process.

A missionary with long experience in North Africa

Monsignor Mario León Dorado belongs to the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and is currently apostolic prefect of Laayún-Sahara in Western Sahara.

Ordained a priest in 2001, he has been carrying out his missionary work in North Africa for nearly twenty-five years. 

On a provisional basis, he will now assume the governance of the Archdiocese of Rabat until the Holy See concludes the investigation into Cardinal López Romero and makes a definitive decision regarding his situation.

Cardinal Sarah describes the liturgical war as a "true sin" and calls for the recovery of Benedict XVI's model

Cardinal Robert Sarah has stated that the division surrounding the traditional Mass constitutes “a drama, a true and authentic sin” and has defended the recovery of the model promoted by Benedict XVI, in which the Novus Ordo and the traditional liturgy coexisted within the Roman rite. 

The Guinean prelate believes that the Church in the West is going through “a time of great difficulty, even of confusion,” especially in the doctrinal, moral, and disciplinary spheres.

In an interview given to the director of Il Foglio, Matteo Matzuzzi, the prefect emeritus of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments reflected on the situation of the Church, the transmission of the faith, the liturgy, and the first months of the pontificate of Leo XIV.

“No one has the authority to abolish a rite”

Sarah lamented that the liturgy has become a source of division within the Church. “It is a drama, a true and authentic sin, that on an essential matter such as the liturgy there should be a kind of war,” he stated. In his view, the liturgy is a source of ecclesial communion and it is “unthinkable” that it should provoke such intense confrontations.

In that context, he defended that the rites belong to the living tradition of the Church and do not depend on arbitrary decisions. 

“No one has authority over the rites, which are born from the secular history of the Church. Rites cannot be abolished arbitrarily and no one can say that a rite ceases to exist from one day to the next,” he maintained.

For this reason, he called for the recovery of the “balanced, pastoral, and theologically grounded position” of Benedict XVI, which allowed the coexistence of the two forms of the Roman rite so that they might “enrich each other mutually” and be known by the people of God.

Likewise, he considered that, with the passage of time, the faithful will be able to choose the liturgical form that best responds to their spiritual needs.

A Church marked by confusion

The prelate affirmed that the Church in the West is going through “a time of great difficulty, even of confusion,” a situation that, according to him, affects doctrine, morality, and ecclesiastical discipline.

In his view, the transmission of the faith can no longer rely on the dominant culture, but on communities capable of offering authentic Christian experiences, centered on prayer, silence, a liturgy celebrated with dignity, and fidelity to the Gospel. 

Sarah linked this vision to Benedict XVI’s proposal to strengthen communities solidly rooted in the spiritual life.

Despite this diagnosis, he expressed his confidence in the future of the Church. “Throughout the centuries it has gone through many storms, but we must never forget that it is divine and, therefore, will never disappear,” he stated.

Criticism of liturgical abuses and preaching focused on pleasing

During the interview, Sarah acknowledged that excesses may exist among some faithful linked to the traditional liturgy, but maintained that, in part, they respond to the “dramatic and widespread abuses” that, in his opinion, continue to occur in numerous celebrations of the ordinary form of the Roman rite.

He also warned of the risk of preaching concerned with pleasing listeners rather than proclaiming the Gospel. 

In his opinion, when preaching adapts to cultural fashions or limits itself to social issues, it ends up being “banal” and incapable of responding to the deepest needs of man.

“It is never legitimate to reduce the Gospel to social and horizontal themes, however important they may be,” he stated.

Formation, key to facing the crisis

Asked about the path to addressing the current challenges of the Church, the cardinal responded that the priority must be formation.

“The key is liturgical formation, formation, and once again formation: of bishops, of priests, and of the laity,” he concluded.

Cardinal Sarah’s statements come after the prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Cardinal Arthur Roche, stated that Leo XIV will not reverse Traditionis Custodes, the motu proprio promulgated by Pope Francis in 2021 that restricted the celebration of the traditional liturgy.

"There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet": rioters shouting the shahada in Ceuta

The Spanish Government is unable to provide a reliable figure for how many immigrants have returned to Morocco and how many remain in Ceuta. 

The dance of numbers is, in itself, the diagnosis: the State does not control the situation.

What is indeed confirmed is what happened on Sunday night. 

According to the German agency NIUS, the immigrants whom the Army was supposed to transfer from the first reception camp to the beach for their return resisted violently, thwarted the operation, and marched in groups toward the city center.

What they chanted - clearly audible in the footage - is the shahada: «La ilaha illa Allah, Muhammad rasul Allah», the Islamic profession of faith, the constitutive formula of belonging to the umma.

The sector that refuses to return invokes Allah against Spanish law. That is the nature of the conflict, and whoever does not wish to see it has decided not to see it.

Morocco knows what it is doing; Spain does not

None of this is new.

In May 2021, Rabat pushed ten thousand people across the border in just two days as retaliation for the reception of Brahim Ghali.

Morocco manages migratory pressure on Ceuta and Melilla as an instrument of foreign policy, with the territorial claim over both cities always on the table.

Each crisis constitutes a test of strength, and this one reaches a city of barely 83,000 inhabitants, with a Muslim population already approaching half the census and a Christian community in demographic decline.

The alms of the faithful, for the mutineers

In the midst of this scenario, the Church in Ceuta announces that the weekend collections will go entirely to the provisions of the invaders.

One may wonder whether they will also serve those who defied the Army while chanting the Islamic profession of faith through the streets.

Handing over the money of the faithful of Ceuta, precisely now and precisely to this contingent, amounts to rewarding the mutiny with the Sunday collection of those who suffer it.

There is no Gospel that justifies this; there is a hierarchy that has renounced discernment and calls its abdication mercy.

The Catholics of Ceuta, who for decades have sustained their faith on a frontier that Madrid and the curias only visit for the photo opportunity, deserve something better than seeing their alms turned into supplies for the challenge.

Roche campaigns to drag Leo XIV to his anti-Traditional Mass thesis

In three days, two publications have launched the same message: that the restrictive line on the traditional Mass is not Cardinal Roche’s, but the Pope’s. 

On July 29, The Tablet published an interview in which the still-prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship stated: “No, Pope Leo is not going to change Traditionis custodes, and he is not going back to Summorum Pontificum.” 

On August 2, La Razón added, citing anonymous Vatican sources, that the liturgy document Roche distributed to the cardinals at the January consistory was drafted at the request of Leo XIV, who reviewed it and “did not change a single comma,” and that it was distributed at the Pope’s direction.

From institutional assignment to papal endorsement is a leap no one has proven

That the Pope commissioned Roche to prepare the report is plausible and has corroboration: Austen Ivereigh, close to curial progressives, already wrote in January that Roche was one of the four cardinals asked to prepare reports on the four topics of the consistory.

But a Pope asking the prefect of Divine Worship for a report on liturgy - subject matter proper to his dicastery and his role - and respecting the text without amending it does not mean endorsement of its content. 

It simply means that Leo XIV allowed each prefect to present his own vision within his area of competence, as he did with the other three speakers. A ruler who respects the independence of his collaborators does not thereby endorse every word they write. 

The “did not change a single comma” that the anonymous sources present as proof of papal approval admits a much more sober reading: the Pope did not wish to correct his prefect, which is exactly what one would expect from someone who commissions a report, not a magisterial text. Turning that institutional respect into doctrinal commitment on the part of the Pontiff is the logical leap on which the entire operation rests.

Subsequent facts also fail to support the thesis of total backing. The cardinals rejected by a wide majority any debate on the liturgical question, and the text was distributed without discussion. 

And the documented gestures of Leo XIV point in a more nuanced direction: the instruction conveyed by Parolin to the French bishops in March asking for “concrete solutions that allow the generous inclusion of those who are sincerely attached to the Vetus Ordo”; the letter to the FSSPX before Écône recognizing their “desire for fidelity to Tradition”; the appointment of Monsignor Cordileone to the Signatura. 

Fifteen months after his election, the Pope has not signed any document on this matter. 

Everything asserted about his will comes from third parties.

Imprudent and targeted leaks

Whether Roche is more or less right on the substance, the Tablet–La Razón sequence is, above all, imprudent and targeted. Imprudent, because it publicly attributes to the Pope a decision the Pope has neither taken nor communicated, apparently closing off a space for discernment that belongs only to him. 

Targeted, because it comes from anonymous sources in the prefect’s circle, at the precise moment when Roche, aged 76 and with his five-year term expired since May, is being insistently mentioned for replacement. 

The Tablet interview—empty of content except for the sentence on Traditionis custodes, which the interviewer himself admitted having introduced almost at the end—reads like that of an outgoing official trying to bind the successor of Peter to his own thesis, raising the cost of any future correction. As Monsignor Cordileone said this week: “I do not know to what extent he knows the mind of the Holy Father.”

A text with its own problems

The document distributed in January, moreover, does not withstand scrutiny. It invokes Quo primum - the bull that guaranteed the traditional missal in perpetuity - to justify its suppression. 

It suggests that tradition without reform is reduced to “dead things, not always healthy,” a qualification no magisterium has applied to the Roman Missal and which clashes with Benedict XVI: “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us as well” (2007). 

It identifies without nuance the 1969 reform with the will of the conciliar Fathers, when Sacrosanctum Concilium ordered a revision according to criteria (SC 23, 25, 36) whose fulfillment has been the subject of academic debate for decades. 

And in its most revealing passage, it states that the use of the ancient books was, “from St. John Paul II to Francis, a concession”: sixteen years of Summorum Pontificum, which recognized the 1962 missal as a right of every priest and not as a concession, simply disappear from the narrative. 

The omission is not accidental: it is the necessary premise for presenting the restrictive line as uninterrupted continuity.

Nervousness in the most anti-traditional sector, heir to Bugnini

What is verifiable is little and clear: there was a papal commission for a report, there was no debate, and the Pope has not spoken. 

The rest - the supervision “without changing a single comma,” the endorsement of the content, the decided will of Leo XIV - are anonymous attributions in the midst of a battle to define the pontificate. 

Respecting the work of a prefect is not endorsing it; and whoever needs leaks to put his thesis in the Pope’s mouth probably knows that the Pope has not yet made it his own.

Pope Leo XIV receives in audience the future prefect of the Dicastery for Communication

Pope Leo XIV received María Montserrat Alvarado, the designated prefect of the Dicasterio for Communication, in audience this Monday, August 3, according to the Holy See Press Office in its daily bulletin of audiences.

Alvarado was appointed by the Pontiff on June 2 and will officially assume the position on November 1, when she will take charge of the dicastery responsible for coordinating the institutional communication of the Holy See.

The audience takes place less than three months before her installation and is part of the meetings the Holy Father holds with the heads of the various bodies of the Roman Curia.

María Montserrat Alvarado will be responsible for succeeding in the prefecture of the Dicasterio for Communication upon completion of the transition process planned after her appointment by Leo XIV.

Bishop’s appeal to women not to ‘lure priests into an affair’ sparks criticism from Limerick priest

A bishop’s appeal to women not to lure priests into an affair has been strongly criticised by a member of the Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland, who said it plays into the “church’s medieval view of women as temptress”.

Bishop Hieronymus Emusugut Joya of Maralal in Kenya recently called on women to respect the celibacy of priests and not to “force them into affairs that go against their beliefs and priestly calling”.

However, Fr Roy Donovan, parish priest of Caherconlish and Inch St Lawrence in Co Limerick, told the Irish Independent that the bishop’s comments showed a negative view of women and he was “blaming women” while men were “not taking responsibility for their own sexuality”.

Setting out a new set of disciplinary norms for the clergy of his diocese, Bishop Emusugut Joya imposed a 7pm curfew on priests and banned on overnight guests in priests’ residences without his permission.

As part of this reform, the prelate has also removed seven priests from ministry for alleged violations of canon law.

In his message to the faithful, the bishop made an explicit appeal to women to respect the priestly commitment to celibacy.

“For those intending to tempt priests and force them into affairs that go against their beliefs and priestly calling, please stop. These priests are human and have feelings. If you convince them, they might fall,” he said.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, Fr Donovan said the statement raised questions about the view of priesthood “as if priests are special species”.

He said it also raised issues about seminary formation in an all-male environment as an outdated way of learning. “What about women and men learning together as in the modern world”. Synodality, he said, saw women and men as equal in baptism.

Fr Diarmuid Hogan of the diocese of Galway told the Irish Independent: “Priests and religious freely undertake a commitment to celibacy and to chastity. These commitments are clear and unambiguous and the responsibility for living them faithfully rests entirely with the individual priest, sister or brother, who has made them before God.

“In the same way, those who enter into the sacrament of marriage freely undertake vows of lifelong faithfulness and fidelity to one another and are thus responsible to each other and to God to live them out.

“In a culture where there can sometimes be a tendency to shift responsibility onto other people or institutions, it is important to reaffirm this core Christian principle of personal accountability.

“God has given each of us the gift of free will. While people may encounter temptation in many forms, we remain responsible for our own choices and actions.”

In March, a Catholic bishop in Belgium said he plans to ordain married men to the priesthood by 2028, despite the church’s mandatory celibacy rule.

In a pastoral letter, Bishop Johan Bonny cited a shortage of priests and said “the number of unmarried men who want to become priests has fallen to just above zero” in many dioceses.

"The Church has not always known how to serve the Truth": Bishops of Mexico at the Centenary of the beginning of the Cristero War

On July 31, 2026, marking exactly one hundred years since the enactment of the so-called Calles Law and the suspension of public worship in all churches throughout Mexico, the Mexican Episcopal Conference released a far-reaching message titled “Message on the Centenary of 1926: The Religious Conflict in Mexico.” 

With the subtitle “The Bells of the Churches Fell Silent, Their Blood Spoke: Memory of Our Martyrs, Religious Freedom and the Building of Peace,” the document, signed by the president of the episcopate, Ramón Castro Castro, and the secretary general, Héctor M. Pérez Villarreal, does not seek to reopen wounds or fuel resentments, but rather to inaugurate a time of grateful memory and ecclesial discernment that will extend until the Guadalupano Jubilee of 2031 and the Jubilee of the Redemption in 2033.

The text recalls that on July 25, 1926, the Mexican bishops issued a collective pastoral letter in which, faced with the impossibility of freely exercising their ministry, they suspended public worship beginning July 31. 

At dawn on August 1 of that year, Mexico awoke without public Masses; the churches remained open and silent, guarded by the faithful themselves. 

Thus began one of the most painful chapters in national history, which led to armed conflict between 1926 and 1929, the “arrangements” of June 1929, and a second period of hostility that lasted until the late 1930s.

The bishops emphasize that a people that does not remember remains at the mercy of those who write its history for it, and that Christian memory is not nostalgia for the past but strength for the present. 

They also recall that just seven months earlier, on December 11, 1925, Pius XI had instituted the feast of Christ the King with the encyclical Quas primas. 

That teaching on the kingship of Christ, which does not impose itself by force of arms but reigns from the cross, became in Mexico a popular cry that no army could silence: “Long live Christ the King and Holy Mary of Guadalupe!”. 

One hundred years later, that cry remains a program: to recognize that no human power is absolute, because only God is Lord of conscience and of history.

With clarity, the episcopate specifies what is not being commemorated. It does not celebrate a war or a victory; it does not exalt weapons or idealize violence, regardless of its origin. 

It does not call for revenge, does not feed resentment, and does not place this memory at the service of any political or partisan project. 

Nor does it reduce those years to a sacristy dispute; it was a national drama that cut across families, towns, schools, and entire countrysides where the federal government attacked its own citizens. What is commemorated, instead, are three fundamental realities. 

First, the fidelity of a believing people who, amid fear, continued to pray in their homes, baptize their children in secret, protect their priests, and kept the faith alive when no churches were open; the faith of our grandmothers is the first heritage of this memory. 

Second, the witness of the martyrs who did not kill for Christ but died for Him, forgiving their executioners. 

And third, the lesson learned at an enormous cost: that religious freedom is not a privilege of the clergy but a right of every human person, and that its denial always ends up costing blood. 

A Christian memorial, they warn, does not repeat the past; it purifies it and hands it healed to new generations. 

Recent magisterial teaching calls for fostering processes of healing collective memory as part of the justice that repairs broken bonds, and the bishops commit themselves to this: to a memory that does not justify injustice but is not nourished by hatred.

The document addresses without evasion the fratricidal dimension of the conflict. The first question God directs to man after original sin is not about God but about the brother: “Where is your brother Abel?” 

What happened in Mexico a century ago has that tragic face: it was not a nation invaded by outsiders but a people divided against itself. 

On both sides of the trenches and the battalions were children of the same land, baptized in the same parishes, heirs of the same culture, with the same Mother in their hearts—the Virgin of Guadalupe. 

Brothers who killed brothers. 

As pastors, the bishops humbly acknowledge that in those years, alongside heroism, there was also among some Catholics hardness of heart, political calculations, words that inflamed passions, and decisions made without the lucidity now demanded of others—and that the Church itself, at certain moments in history, has not always known how to serve the truth with the peaceful means of the Gospel. 

Asking forgiveness for one’s own faults does not weaken the denunciation of others’ faults; it makes it more credible. And therefore they affirm with prophetic firmness: the persecution against the Church was real. 

There were churches closed and desecrated, priests executed without trial, religious expelled, laypeople hanged from roadside posts, thousands murdered, deportations, betrayals, and children turned into victims. 

Naming these injustices is not to offend anyone; it is to fulfill the duty of truth, without which there is no possible reconciliation, only imposed silence. 

Then the bells of the churches fell silent; their blood spoke, and its voice has reached us.

The martyrs occupy a central place. “Martyr” simply means “witness.” 

There is a daily martyrdom—the honesty that does not yield to temptation, the forgiveness repeated in the face of offense, the fidelity without applause—that prepares and makes possible definitive martyrdom. Martyrdom is not a defeat: it is a Passover. 

Mexico has its own martyrology, verified by the Church: the twenty-five martyrs canonized by Saint John Paul II on May 21, 2000, led by Saint Cristóbal Magallanes; the thirteen beatified in Guadalajara on November 20, 2005, among them Blessed Anacleto González Flores, lawyer, catechist, father of a family, and apostle of peaceful resistance, declared by this Conference patron of Mexican laity; Saint José Sánchez del Río, canonized on October 16, 2016; Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro, S.J., executed on November 23, 1927 with arms outstretched in the form of a cross; Saint Luis Batis Sáinz and the laypeople of Chalchihuites who wished to die together. 

Alongside them, the immense multitude of those whose names were never recorded on any list and are known only to God. 

They built the nation not with weapons but with what sustains a people from within: the conviction that there are truths worth living and dying for, the certainty that power has limits, and the freedom of a conscience that cannot be bought. 

And above all, they built the Kingdom of God. The memory of the martyrs does not belong to any group or region: it is the spiritual heritage of all Mexicans.

Regarding religious freedom, the episcopate affirms that it is a fundamental human right still unfinished. Founded on the dignity of the person, according to Vatican II, it does not seek a privilege for Catholics but defends a right of all. 

The steps taken in 1992 and the reform of Article 24 of the Constitution in 2013 are gratefully acknowledged. Mexico has left behind the stage of confrontation and pretense. Yet, with serenity and without offense, it is stated that religious freedom in Mexico is still not complete. 

Restrictions persist that do not correspond to a mature democracy: limits on the ordinary exercise of worship outside churches, the impossibility for religious associations to obtain radio and television concessions, restrictions on parents’ freedom to choose religious education for their children, and an attitude among the political class that has not assimilated the new constitutional culture of religious freedom. 

Even more serious is when the State allows organized crime to become a parallel government controlling territories where all human rights are nullified. 

The blood of priests murdered in the exercise of their ministry—including the Jesuits of Cerocahui and Father Marcelo Pérez—tells us that the list of witnesses did not close in 1929. 

There is also a new risk: that rights are proclaimed in a purely formal way while other violations of human dignity advance through the manipulation of information, polarizing algorithms, and the new slaveries of the digital age. 

Guarding religious freedom today also means guarding the right of every person to seek God without being reduced to data.

At the heart of the entire message lies a single conviction: the greatness of the human person. 

The martyr is the most radical affirmation of the value of the person, preferring to lose life rather than lose face and conscience. For this reason, all violence—yesterday’s and today’s—is rejected, and the ideology that measures a person’s worth by utility and turns the poor, the sick, migrants, the elderly, and the unborn into disposable material is denounced.

For the unity of the nation and the building of peace, the episcopate turns to two biblical images proposed by Pope Leo XIV: the Tower of Babel, a work of pride that ends in dispersion, and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem with Nehemiah, who invokes God and entrusts each family with a section of the wall. Mexico today needs the way of Nehemiah. 

The homeland lives fractured by violence, disappearances, impunity, inequality, and a polarization that has turned the adversary into an enemy. When the other ceases to be a brother, the entire country loses. Building peace does not mean silencing conflicts but transforming them. 

Therefore, the commitment to the National Dialogue for Peace is reaffirmed, along with walks and days of prayer, accompaniment of victims, and a culture of encounter that first disarms words. 

Legislators are asked for laws that fully guarantee religious freedom, and Catholics are urged not to claim for themselves what they are not willing to defend for others.

The message concludes by emphasizing that this commemoration is not being organized from a desk; it is already happening in the hands of the people, especially the laity, who were the majority of the martyrs. 

Throughout the country there will be days of prayer, walks, pilgrimages to the Sanctuary of the Martyrs and to the Hill of Cubilete, expressions of popular culture and devotion, diplomas and congresses, and the catechetical series “Witnesses of the Kingdom.” 

Behind all this lies a longing: that this time find the Church listening before speaking, united, capable of awakening in the laity the awareness that their faith is lived in the family, at work, and in public life, and of reading with lucidity a change of epoch in which threats to conscience no longer come with soldiers but with screens. 

It does not propose an agenda of activities; it proposes a time of grace.

This memory walks toward Tepeyac, within the Intercontinental Guadalupana Novena preparing for the Fifth Centenary of the Guadalupano event in 2031. 

The centenary of the religious conflict is lived within that Novena, so that the memory of the martyrs is a gift offered to the sister Churches of the Americas, the Philippines, and Spain. 

The martyrs did not cry out only the name of Christ the King; they also cried out the name of Holy Mary of Guadalupe. 

Under her gaze, the episcopate desires that this time find Mexicans reconciled, capable of naming the truth without hatred, of forgiving without forgetting, and of building together a nation where no conscience is coerced and no life is disposable. 

May the blood of the martyrs, united to the blood of Christ, continue to speak—more eloquent than that of Abel—of life, freedom, and peace. Do not be afraid of the truth of this history, the bishops say. We are their heirs, more by faith than by blood. 

May their memory make us better. May Christ the King reign in hearts and may Holy Mary of Guadalupe cover the Homeland with her mantle.

A 4.7 magnitude earthquake causes damage to churches in southern Italy

An earthquake of magnitude 4.7 recorded on Friday, July 31, caused significant damage to several churches in Pozzuoli, a city located near Naples in southern Italy. 

The quake, followed by aftershocks, also affected homes, commercial establishments, and infrastructure in the area.

The Diocese of Pozzuoli and Ischia reported on Saturday, August 1, that the first tremor occurred at 7:46 p.m. the previous day and that the successive shocks had left a “truly difficult” situation. 

According to the statement, the few churches in Pozzuoli that were still open for worship showed “significant damage.”

Bishop Carlo Villano noted that the Diocesan Office for Cultural Heritage had intensified inspections to assess the condition of the temples. At the time of reporting, the diocese had not released a complete list of the affected churches nor specified how many would have to suspend services.

Damage to the churches of Pozzuoli

One of the most visible damages occurred at the Church of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Anthony of Padua, located in the center of Pozzuoli, where one side of the bell tower partially collapsed. The collapse caused no injuries or damage to nearby buildings, according to Italian authorities.

The church was already closed for worship due to its state of preservation and was undergoing restoration and consolidation work. The façade had been secured in December 2025, and structural work began in March of this year.

The church was included in public plans for the rehabilitation and seismic protection of places of worship in the area. 

According to the Italian Ministry of Culture, the interventions carried out before the earthquake helped limit the damage. Technicians must now assess the reconstruction of the collapsed sections and the continuation of the works.

The diocese calls for attention to vulnerable people

“I express the Church’s closeness to the population, to law enforcement, and to all those involved in civil protection efforts,” Villano stated in the Saturday communiqué.

The bishop asked the community to remain united and to pay particular attention to “the most vulnerable, children, the elderly, and the sick.” 

The diocese indicated that its first concern was for the people and families affected, given the existence of numerous uninhabitable homes and damage to businesses and churches.

Navigation in the port of Pozzuoli was also suspended due to problems with the dock and access roads. Villano called for efforts to reopen it as soon as possible because of its importance for the economic and social activity of the Phlegraean Fields and the island of Ischia, especially during the summer.

Churches that had served as shelters

The statement recalled that, during previous seismic events, the bishop had offered the churches of the diocese as shelter spaces. 

In October 2023, Villano stated that the doors of the temples were open to show that “the Church is a home for all and for everyone” and so that each person could feel “welcomed, heard, and accompanied.”

The damage recorded on Friday now complicates that function, as several of the few churches that remained open were affected. The inspections initiated by the diocese will determine which ones can continue to be used safely.

The Italian Church expresses its closeness

Following the earthquake, the president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, contacted Villano to convey the closeness, solidarity, and prayers of the bishops and the Italian Church.

Also, the vice president of the Episcopal Conference, Bishop Francesco Savino, expressed his support and assured his prayers for the communities of Pozzuoli, the Phlegraean Fields, and Naples, called to face “once again moments of fear and great concern.”

The Italian Church entrusted the families, the most vulnerable people, and all the affected communities to God, and asked for them “serenity, strength, and hope.”

Pope Leo XIV to Ernest Simoni: "No chain can imprison a conscience enlightened by the Gospel"

Pope Leo XIV addressed a message to Albanian Cardinal Ernest Simoni on the occasion of the Mass he presided over on Friday, July 31, at the former Spaç prison camp, where he served a significant part of his 18-year sentence during the communist persecution. 

In the text, the Pope recalled the testimony of those who suffered in that place and stated that “no chain is strong enough to imprison a conscience enlightened by the Gospel.”

The message, dated July 30 and read at the end of the celebration, accompanied Simoni’s return to the camp where he had been subjected to forced labor and where, despite the risk of being discovered, he secretly celebrated Mass, heard confessions, and distributed Communion.

“With deep emotion, I spiritually join Your Eminence and all those gathered at the former Spaç prison camp, returning after so many years to celebrate the Eucharist, the Sacrifice of Christ that transformed the Cross from a sign of death into a promise of life,” wrote Pope Leo XIV.

Ernest Simoni’s Return to Spaç

Simoni, 97, returned to the camp to celebrate the Eucharist in memory of those who suffered or died there during the Albanian communist regime. The cardinal had been sentenced to death as an “enemy of the people,” although the sentence was later commuted to imprisonment and forced labor in various detention centers.

During his captivity, he continued to exercise his priestly ministry in secret. “During my imprisonment, risking my life each time, I celebrated Mass in Latin from memory, just as I heard confessions and distributed Communion in secret,” he recalled.

To prepare the Eucharist, he used a dough made from flour cooked on improvised stoves and pressed grapes. “If they had found me, they would have hanged me immediately,” he explained. During the celebration in Spaç, he also displayed the helmet he was forced to wear when descending into the mines.

“One of the Most Painful Pages” of Albania

In his message, Pope Leo XIV described Spaç as a place “etched in the memory of the Albanian people” and as one of the most painful chapters in its history. There, he noted, “many bore the heavy cross of injustice,” while “the blood of those who suffered and died in those mountains irrigated that land, turning it into a silent testimony of fidelity, courage, and hope.”

The Pontiff also recalled the prayers of those who remained imprisoned in the camp and the faces of those, marked by labor and deprivation, who entrusted their final hope to the Lord.

“How many prayers must have risen to Heaven from that place! How many invocations whispered in the heart! How many faces, marked by labor and deprivation, entrusted their last hope to the Lord!” he wrote.

A Conscience Enlightened by the Gospel

Reflecting on the memory of the prisoners, Pope Leo XIV affirmed that “no chain is strong enough to imprison a conscience enlightened by the Gospel, no night is long enough to prevent the dawn that the Lord prepares for His children, and no prison is deep enough to separate man from the love of God.”

The Pope also joined in prayer for those who suffered and died in Spaç, many of whom were buried in unmarked graves, and asked that their memory remain alive as a warning to new generations.

According to him, that memory should serve as “a constant reminder of the inviolable dignity of the human person, the value of freedom, and the commitment to peace.”

Pope Leo XIV concluded by entrusting Simoni and all participants in the celebration to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom he invoked as “Mother of Hope,” and imparted the apostolic blessing.

Archbishop of Tangier rules out the involvement of mafias in the mass entry of illegal immigrants into Ceuta

The Archbishop of Tangier, Emilio Rocha, has ruled out that mafias are behind the mass entry of illegal immigrants from Morocco into Ceuta and has called for a «pact of common sense» to prevent the migration crisis from being used as a tool for political confrontation.

In an interview broadcast on Saturday, August 1, on the program La Linterna de la Iglesia, on COPE, the prelate maintained that those who have crossed the border are not paying organizations involved in human trafficking and attributed the mobilization mainly to the spread of messages through social media and the expectations generated by the difficulties in carrying out immediate repatriations.

«I believe that the mafias are not operating here, because mafias act for money and the young people who are jumping are not paying,» Rocha stated, who also rejected that most of them are fleeing from hunger. «Morocco is not a poor country, it is not a country where young people are fleeing from hunger,» he noted.

Inequality and expectations of prosperity

The archbishop explained that many of the young people trying to reach Spain are seeking «more successful alternatives» in the face of existing inequalities in Morocco and the image of prosperity they associate with Europe. 

According to him, in some Moroccan families, the arrival of one of their members in Spanish territory is seen as an opportunity for economic progress.

«When a young person managed to reach Spain and communicated ‘I’m in Spain,’ it was a family celebration,» he recounted. That perception, he added, coexists with a critical view of Europe, which some Moroccans attribute with greater material wealth, but also with a «loss of ethical and moral values.»

From Tangier, Rocha described an uneven reaction to what happened. While Moroccan official media have treated the crisis with caution and as a somewhat predictable situation, part of the population has shown concern and, in some cases, satisfaction at the possibility that relatives or acquaintances have reached Spain.

The human impact on both sides of the border

The prelate expressed concern both for those who have crossed the border and for the residents of Ceuta, where the mass arrival has caused a sense of insecurity and helplessness.

Rocha asked that the crisis not be reduced to numbers and recalled that «behind every face there is a person with projects, with dreams, with hopes.» 

At the same time, he acknowledged the impact the situation has had on the Ceuta population and the need to address the social and security consequences resulting from an arrival of these dimensions.

According to estimates cited during the interview, around 60,000 people would have entered Ceuta from Morocco and 57 deaths would have been recorded.

A «pact of common sense» between the parties

In the face of the political confrontation generated by the crisis, the archbishop called on Spanish parties to avoid turning immigrants into «political bargaining chips» or «throwing weapons.»

«We need a pact of common sense where we do not use migrants as political bargaining chips,» he stated. In his opinion, parliamentary forces should lower tensions and seek a coordinated response that combines border control with an orderly management of immigration.

Rocha also called for greater dialogue between the governments of Spain and Morocco and proposed «working more on training, less on repression,» with the aim of promoting regular and integrated migration processes. 

In this regard, he recalled that Spain needs labor, although he insisted that the arrival of workers must occur in an organized manner.

Poland will bless Europe's tallest Marian figure on August 15

The small Polish town of Konotopie, near Toruń, is finalizing the construction of a monumental image of the Virgin of Mercy which, at 55.6 meters in height, will become the tallest Marian figure in Europe. 

The statue will be solemnly blessed on August 15, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, and will be open to the faithful and visitors.

The ceremony will begin at 12:00 with a Mass presided over by the Bishop of Włocławek, Krzysztof Wętkowski. 

Its promoters hope that the complex will become a new destination for pilgrimage and religious tourism in Poland, around the sanctuary of Our Lady of Sorrows, which for years has welcomed faithful from different parts of the country.

A 55.6-meter image

The figure will surpass in height other great European religious monuments and also the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, which, including its pedestal, reaches approximately 38.5 meters. 

It will not, however, be the largest Marian monument in the world, a title that belongs to the statue Mother of All Asia – Tower of Peace, located in the Philippines and whose structure exceeds 98 meters including the base.

Inside the Konotopie image, an elevator has been installed that will allow access to a panoramic terrace from which visitors can contemplate the surrounding landscape. 

To erect the monument, approximately 2,500 cubic meters of concrete have been used, while parking areas, green spaces, and technical facilities are being prepared in the surroundings to accommodate pilgrims.

The project was carried out by sculptor Adam Jakub Matejkowski. Work began in 2025 and had its symbolic start with the laying of the foundation act on March 12 of that year. 

At this moment, the final finishing work on the statue and the conditioning of the grounds are being carried out before its inauguration.

Inspired by a small local image

The monumental figure is inspired by a small image of the Virgin of Mercy venerated in the Konotopie sanctuary. 

The carving measures barely 55 centimeters, but for years it has occupied a prominent place in the devotion of the faithful in the area.

The promoters of the initiative are businessman Roman Karkosik and his wife, Grażyna, who have presented the construction as a personal vote of thanksgiving. 

Those responsible for the project insist that the main purpose of the complex is religious, although they trust that its dimensions and characteristics will also arouse the interest of those who come for architectural or tourist reasons.

The monument already attracts visitors

Although it has not yet been officially inaugurated, the figure has already become a point of attraction. 

Its silhouette is visible from National Road number 10, which leads numerous drivers to stop nearby to contemplate and photograph it. 

Other visitors travel expressly to Konotopie and share images and videos of the construction on social networks, increasing the notoriety of the town.

Pope Leo XIV calls for solutions "of peace, stability and justice" regarding the situation in Ceuta

Pope Leo XIV centered his Angelus reflection this Sunday, August 2, on the Gospel episode of the multiplication of the loaves, presented as a sign of God’s providence and a call to combat indifference toward those who lack what is necessary. 

The Pope warned against “accumulation and waste,” which he defined as two manifestations of the same “sickness of the soul”: the greed that makes one forget those who suffer hunger, thirst, or the consequences of war.

From the window of the Apostolic Palace, before the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square, the Pontiff recalled that Christ not only responds to material needs but also satisfies “the thirst for truth and life” of humanity. Starting from the Eucharist, he urged that charity be translated into everyday gestures of fraternity, even during rest and vacation time.

After the Marian prayer, Pope Leo XIV specifically referred to the situation in Ceuta, which he described as “alarming,” and asked for the intercession of Our Lady of Africa so that solutions “of peace, stability, and justice” may be found. The Pope also renewed his call for an end to wars, remembered the most vulnerable victims of conflicts, and evoked the Pardon of Assisi, granted to Saint Francis by Honorius III in 1216.

Below are the words of Pope Leo XIV before and after the Angelus.

Dear brothers and sisters: Happy Sunday!

When the Gospel is proclaimed, we often hear the account of the signs performed by Jesus. These are gestures that manifest His special self-giving for us, that is, the salvation He brings to the world. The Lord presents Himself as the One who gives meaning to life, freeing it from evil and sin.

Christ, by giving sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, not only performs wondrous deeds but also announces to all that the Kingdom of God is near. That is why today’s Gospel (Mt 14:13-21) bears witness that Jesus does not limit Himself to restoring the senses to those who lack them, but also makes our senses taste. To the deaf who hear again, the Lord directs the Good News so that they may listen; to the blind who see once more, He shows the splendid work of redemption being accomplished in them. Likewise, Jesus feeds those who are hungry. The episode of the multiplication of the loaves signifies that the encounter with the Lord is an experience that nourishes us. In the desert, that is, in the place of our needs, Christ is the bread of life. With Him, what is essential abounds: “They all ate and were satisfied,” and twelve baskets full were left over (v. 20). This number shows that the Lord’s gift is universal and that His providence toward us never fails.

Dear brothers and sisters, Christ truly satisfies humanity’s hunger, our hunger for truth and life. At the same time, His gesture teaches us that nothing is lost when it is shared. Accumulation and waste, on the other hand, are two sides of the same evil: greed. This sickness of the soul causes one to lose one’s senses because it intoxicates with riches, to the point of forgetting those who cry out from hunger and thirst. And thus, before the opulence of things that decay, there are the outstretched hands of those who have nothing to eat, the destroyed homes of those who have no peace.

In the desert of war and arrogance, we see with what kindness the Lord, “raising His eyes to heaven,” “said the blessing,” “broke the loaves and gave them” to the disciples to distribute to the people (cf. v. 19). In this miracle of charity, we recognize the typical actions of Jesus, which find their culmination in the Last Supper, where the Son of God gives us His very life as our brother in humanity. As we savor the grace of the Eucharist, let us commit ourselves to witnessing its beauty in our daily gestures, beginning with the blessing of the table, when we share bread with family and friends. In the company of Jesus, vacations too can become a time of serene fraternity, including those beside us who are in need.

Let us therefore ask the Virgin Mary, our caring Mother, to help us grow in charity, so that no one may lack daily bread.

After the Angelus

Dear brothers and sisters,

I continue to follow with concern the alarming situation in Ceuta, asking God, through the intercession of Our Lady of Africa, that solutions of peace, stability, and justice may be found.

Let us continue to pray for peace, that wars in the world may cease and diplomatic solutions to conflicts may be found. Let us remember all the victims of hostilities, especially the weakest and most defenseless: children, the elderly, and the sick. May the Lord console those who suffer and bless the work of those who bring help and comfort.

These days the “Pardon of Assisi” is being celebrated. Saint Francis obtained this indulgence from Pope Honorius III in 1216, inspired, while praying in the Portiuncula, by a vision of Jesus and Mary surrounded by angels. Let us thank the Lord for this great gift and treasure it, especially in the eighth centenary of the Poverello of Assisi’s “Transitus,” who died precisely in the Portiuncula on October 3, 1226.

I greet all of you, Romans and pilgrims from various countries: in particular the young people from the parishes of Saccolongo and Creola (Padua), those from the parish of San Giovanni Bosco in Altamura, and the boys from the Pastoral Collaboration of Castelfranco Veneto, accompanied by their priests and animators.

I wish you all a happy Sunday!

Pope exhorts the young people of Medjugorje to return to Christ, "source of new life and authentic joy"

Tens of thousands of young people from 73 countries are taking part from August 1 to 6 in the International Youth Prayer Festival of Medjugorje, held this year under the motto Ad fontem!, “To the source!” 

On the occasion of the gathering, Leo XIV has asked them to return to Christ, “source of new life and authentic joy,” and not to be seduced by “the deceptions of fleeting happiness.”

The papal message, dated in Vatican City on July 7 and signed by the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, was read during the opening of the festival by the Apostolic Visitor for the parish of Medjugorje, Archbishop Aldo Cavalli.

In the text, the Pope invites the participants to rediscover, through prayer, listening to the Word of God, and the sacraments, “the beauty of the personal encounter with the Lord, who quenches the thirst of every heart and grants the strength to begin anew always.”

Young people from 73 countries gathered in Medjugorje

This year, Mladifest has brought together young people from Europe, Latin America, Africa, Asia, North America, and the Middle East. Over six days, they take part in Masses, catechesis sessions, conferences, testimonies, adoration, and confessions, as well as pilgrimages to the Hill of Apparitions and Križevac.

Among the countries represented are Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Poland, Croatia, the United States, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Ukraine, Lebanon, the Holy Land, South Korea, China, India, Nigeria, Kenya, and Vatican City.

The parish priest of Medjugorje, Fr. Zvonimir Pavičić, welcomed the pilgrims before the reading of Leo XIV’s message and the inaugural Mass, presided over by the Apostolic Nuncio to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, Archbishop Francis Assisi Chullikatt.

Seeking the truth that sets us free

Leo XIV encourages the young people to sincerely seek “the Truth that sets them free” and not to equate happiness with immediate success, social recognition, or fleeting pleasures. He also notes that doubts and anxieties should not necessarily be seen as obstacles to the Christian life; in following Jesus, they can become “an opportunity for discernment and growth in faith.”

During the homily, Chullikatt took up this idea and posed a question to those present: “What is it that truly sets our life free? Success? Acceptance? Well-being? The image others have of us? Or fidelity to the Gospel?”

The Nuncio warned that contemporary culture offers numerous “false sources of happiness,” including quick success, notoriety, possessions, and fleeting pleasures, which he described as “seductive promises” capable of leaving the heart “even more thirsty.”

A call to vocation and Christian coherence

Chullikatt also expressed his confidence that some of the participants will hear during these days a call to the priesthood, consecrated life, or a more committed Christian witness in the midst of the world.

“I am convinced that many of you, as has already happened to so many before you, will hear precisely during this pilgrimage to Medjugorje the voice of the Lord calling you to the priesthood, to consecrated life, or to give a generous Christian witness in the world,” he stated.

The Archbishop also recalled that fidelity to the Gospel often requires a “small martyrdom of coherence”: telling the truth, keeping a clear conscience, acting with integrity, forgiving, and choosing Christ even when His teaching contradicts the prevailing environment.

The Mass was concelebrated by Archbishop Aldo Cavalli, the Apostolic Nuncio to Croatia, Leopoldo Girelli, the parish priest of Medjugorje, and 518 other bishops and priests. After the celebration, Eucharistic adoration took place.

Witnesses of the Gospel and builders of peace

In the final part of his message, Leo XIV exhorts the young people to let themselves be guided by the Holy Spirit and to entrust themselves to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church.

The Pontiff asks that they become “luminous witnesses of the Gospel, promoters of fraternity, and builders of peace in society,” before assuring them of his remembrance in prayer and imparting the apostolic blessing.

At the beginning of the Mass, Chullikatt described the presence of the young people as “a luminous sign of hope for the Church” and affirmed that they represent “its young face, its vitality, and its future.”

The recent attack on the shrine

This edition of the festival is taking place just days after the vandalistic act committed on July 28 at the outdoor altar of the parish of St. James the Apostle, where the main events of Mladifest are held. The altar was set on fire, and an image of the Virgin appeared covered with offensive inscriptions.

During his homily, the Nuncio specifically referred to these events and warned that attacks on religious symbols and places of worship not only wound believers but also harm “universal values such as religious freedom, respect for the sacred, and the dignity of the human person.”

After mentioning “the recent acts of destruction and desecration committed here in Medjugorje,” Chullikatt observed a few moments of silence together with the young people gathered before the outdoor altar. He then recalled that Christians are not called to respond “with hatred or revenge,” but “with the serene strength of the Gospel, bearing witness to truth in love, to forgiveness in justice, and to hope in peace.”

Below we provide the full text of Leo XIV’s message: 

Medjugorje, from August 1 to 6, 2026

On the occasion of the Medjugorje Youth Festival, Pope Leo XIV extends his cordial greeting to all participants and urges them to return AD FONTEM, that is, to Christ, source of new life and authentic joy. He therefore invites them to rediscover, through prayer, listening to the Word of God, and the sacraments, the beauty of the personal encounter with the Lord, who quenches the thirst of every heart and grants the strength to begin anew always.

His Holiness encourages the young people to sincerely seek the Truth that sets them free, without allowing themselves to be seduced by the illusions of fleeting happiness. In following Jesus, indeed, each person can welcome even the most difficult questions and the anxieties of the heart as an opportunity for discernment and growth in faith.

Likewise, the Holy Father exhorts the young people to let themselves be guided by the Holy Spirit and to entrust themselves to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, so that they may become luminous witnesses of the Gospel, promoters of fraternity, and builders of peace in society.

While assuring them of his remembrance in prayer, the Supreme Pontiff invokes upon all the abundance of divine grace and cordially imparts the apostolic blessing.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin
Secretary of State of His Holiness

Holy See is studying a possible visit by Leo XIV to Ukraine

The Holy See is studying the conditions for a possible visit by Leo XIV to Ukraine, following repeated invitations extended by the country’s authorities. 

This was confirmed by the Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, at the conclusion of his recent pastoral and diplomatic mission in Ukrainian territory.

Gallagher explained to Vatican media on July 22 that virtually everyone he met asked when the Pontiff would travel to the country. “The Holy Father takes this invitation very seriously,” he stated, before noting that the Holy See will analyze the circumstances to determine “the most favorable timing and methods for Ukraine and for world peace.”

The prelate did not specify a date and emphasized that any eventual visit must take place “at the most opportune moment and in the most fruitful way possible.”

Gallagher’s Mission in Ukraine

The Vatican secretary spent six days in Ukraine, where he held meetings with political and ecclesial authorities, visited areas affected by bombings, and participated in celebrations at the Marian shrine of Berdychiv.

During his stay, he met in Kyiv with President Volodymyr Zelensky, who expressed gratitude for the Holy See’s support amid the war with Russia. Gallagher stated that Ukrainian authorities conveyed their appreciation for Leo XIV’s appeals and for the continuity of diplomatic and humanitarian initiatives promoted by the Vatican.

The archbishop also noted that the Holy See intends to maintain dialogue with the international community and with Russian authorities, while continuing to work on issues such as the return of Ukrainian children transferred to Russia, the exchange of prisoners, and assistance to civilians affected by the conflict.

Ukraine Reiterates the Invitation

Following Gallagher’s statements, Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See, Andrii Yurash, reiterated Kyiv’s interest in receiving the Pontiff. In an interview granted on July 30 to EWTN News, he assured that a possible visit could contribute to international efforts to end the war.

“We are absolutely certain that his possible visit would be a major contribution to the process of achieving peace,” the diplomat declared, adding that the presence of Leo XIV in Ukrainian territory, with “a message of peace” and “a message of justice,” would be particularly relevant in the current context.

Yurash stated that expectations among the population are high and described the Pope as “the most desired foreign representative in Ukraine.” According to him, Ukrainians want to receive him and “hear his messages expressed directly on Ukrainian soil.”

Invitations to Leo XIV

Ukraine has extended several official invitations to the Pontiff since the beginning of his pontificate. According to the ambassador, these have been conveyed at various levels since the first meeting between Leo XIV and Zelensky.

The most recent invitation was issued by the Ukrainian president during a conversation held on Good Friday. On that occasion, the Pope expressed his closeness to those suffering because of the war, stressed the need to ensure humanitarian assistance, and voiced his desire for hostilities to cease and for a just and lasting peace to be achieved.

Yurash expressed confidence that Leo XIV is seriously considering the trip and seeking “a truly appropriate moment” to carry it out.

The Holy See’s Humanitarian Efforts

Gallagher’s mission was preceded by a new visit to Ukraine by Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, the Pope’s special envoy, who spent four days in Lviv and Kyiv to address the exchange of prisoners, the return of children transferred to Russia, and the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The ambassador interpreted both missions as evidence of the Holy See’s interest in the country’s situation and in efforts aimed at reaching a resolution to the conflict. He also highlighted the moral and spiritual support that, in his view, the Vatican continues to offer to the Ukrainian population.

“The Holy See demonstrates that Ukraine is not alone and that it is trying to do everything possible to spiritually support the Ukrainian people, give them hope, and inspire them to remain strong,” Yurash affirmed.