Vatican News

ROME — Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, said Wednesday that the episcopal ordinations carried out earlier in the day without papal mandate by the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) constitute a schismatic act.“I don’t think there is much to say about this episode,” Parolin said at an e...

One day after the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) consecrated four bishops without the permission of Pope Leo XIV, the Vatican issued a decree declaring the excommunication of all bishops involved in the ceremony and stating that the group is in schism.Published on July 2 by the Dicaster...

The Vatican has released a new documentary, “Leone a Roma,” about Pope Leo XIV’s early years in Rome before his election to the papacy.Following its previous documentaries, “León de Perú” and “Leo from Chicago,” the documentary premiered July 1 on the Vatican News YouTube channels in English, Italia...

Pope Leo XIV will follow in his predecessor Pope Francis’ footsteps with a visit to a major migrant landing point, the Italian island of Lampedusa, on July 4.Continuing his summer of day trips in Italy, the first U.S.-born pope will spend the U.S. Independence Day greeting immigrants, celebrating Ma...

Editor’s Note: The following is the keynote address delivered by Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu, secretary of the Dicastery for Evangelization, to young Catholic media professionals and guests during the closing dinner of the 2026 EWTN Summer Academy on July 1 in Rome.Gratitude and hopeAllow me to...

Peter’s Pence, the Holy See’s fund that gathers donations for the pope’s charitable works and the needs of the universal Church, closed 2025 with an income of 57.6 million euros ($65.8 million) and expenses of 59.8 million euros ($68.3 million).The Vatican attributes the 2.2-million-euro ($2.5 milli...

Two bishops of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) — Spaniard Alfonso de Galarreta and Swiss Bernard Fellay — incurred automatic excommunication by committing the canonical offense of schism following the ordination of four bishops without the permission of Pope Leo XIV.The Dicastery for the Doctrine o...

Pope Leo XIV celebrated the contributions of Catholics and immigrants to the United States in an open letter to Americans for the country’s 250th anniversary.The letter, dated June 25 and released by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on Friday, also highlighted the principles of religious free...

The Vatican this week issued a decree declaring that the bishops involved in the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X’s illicit consecrations have incurred automatic excommunication and that the group is in schism with the Church.The illicit ordinations occurred in Écône, Switzerland, on July 1 afte...

Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass on Saturday on the Italian island of Lampedusa, warning that migrants who have died crossing the Mediterranean Sea are “victims both of decisions that were made and of decisions that were not made.”In his homily at the Arena sports field July 4, the pope cited the Gospel...

The Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), whose members are known as “Lefebvrians,” rejected the recent excommunications decreed by the Vatican after consecrating four bishops without papal authorization on July 1 and asserted that the sanctions imposed are “objectively unjust and invalid.”In a letter addre...

VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV on Sunday said Christ remains the Church’s hope amid war, slavery, sin, and the wounds of history, urging Christians to learn from Jesus a “school of freedom” rooted in the cross.Speaking at the July 5 Angelus in a sunny and hot St. Peter’s Square, the pope reflected on t...