When Jack Lebon, 15, returns to his Texas high school in the fall, he will be able to share a summer experience few can match: a handshake with Pope Leo XIV.
A W
The bishops of Venezuela called on the faithful to reject the superstitious notion that the twin earthquakes that struck the country were a divine punishment.
Pope Leo XIV took a road trip pilgrimage with his older brother to the scenic mountainside Sanctuary of the Most Holy Trinity in Vallepietra July 22 before stopping to pray in the Holy Cave in Subiaco, where a young St. Benedict sought refuge from the corruption of Rome in the early sixth century.
In the early 1990s, Joseph Julián González was driving from Los Angeles to California’s Central Valley, where his family is from, when he suddenly began hearing music unlike anything he had ever heard.
For 10 days in Costa Rica, a group of students from the Diocese of Dallas traded the relaxing routines of summer break for work gloves, prayer, and a mission to serve.
Pope Leo XIV made a surprise visit to the Benedictine Abbey of Montecassino July 20, where he prayed for peace at the tomb of St. Benedict.
When the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops first considered holding an annual educational campaign on natural family planning, there was some debate over the best timing for it. Ultimately, the bishops settled on July 25, the anniversary of the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, in which St. Paul VI articulated Catholic teaching on artificial contraception, human sexuality, marital love, and parenthood.
In Assisi, one of the main pilgrim draws is a tiny church dwarfed by its expansive surroundings, the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels near Assisi, Italy.
Catholics from every inhabited continent gathered in Castel Gandolfo July 19 as Pope Leo XIV led the Angelus prayer from the papal summer palace in the small Italian hill town, where the pope reflected on how the kingdom of God grows through “the little things of daily life.”
Life is a journey that unfolds one day at a time. This summer, I found myself reflecting deeply on what it means to trust that journey. My thoughts were not centered on where I stand today, but on where God is leading me. I had a quiet conversation with him within my heart, a conversation about my spiritual life, my relationship with him, and the mission he continues to shape in me as his priest and servant. I asked myself how God wants to use me to proclaim his Gospel, not only to others but also to my own soul.