Pope Leo XIV marked the 56th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission by visiting the Vatican Observatory at Castel Gandolfo following his midday Angelus address and later speaking with Buzz Aldrin, the last surviving member of the crew that first set foot on the Moon in July 1969.

The observatory, founded by Pope Leo XIII in 1891 and tracing its origins to papal studies under Gregory XIII, holds a prestigious collection of meteorites, including fragments from Mars, and continues its mission to serve as a bridge between faith and science.

Pope Leo XIV spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday evening, after a tank struck the only Catholic church in Gaza, killing three people. Several others were injured, including Father Gabriel Romanelli, the pastor of Holy Family Church.

Israel insists the strike on Holy Family was accidental. “Israel deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza’s Holy Family Church,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. “Every innocent life lost is a tragedy,” the statement added, noting that the incident is under investigation.

“I find the Israeli Prime Minister’s willingness to speak directly with Pope Leo positive,” said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, in an interview with Italian news programme Tg2 Post.

“Tell her then to help me” (Luke 10:40)

‍Jesus tells Martha that only one thing is necessary: love. That is, love of God, of neighbour, and of self, as the lawyer rightly said earlier in this chapter of Luke’s Gospel.

‍Martha is striving to love her neighbour in her guest, while Mary, sitting at Jesus’ feet, loves God by listening to him. Of these three loves, which together make up the one thing necessary for us, the “good portion” is love of God, since it fuels the other two. Mary has chosen this part, and Jesus promises that “it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:42). May our time of prayerful listening to Jesus never be taken from us by anything else. Jesus longs to make the same promise to each of us.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has released a statement following the attack on the only Catholic church in Gaza, which killed two people on Thursday morning.

The statement says: “Israel deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza's Holy Family Church. Every innocent life lost is a tragedy. We share the grief of the families and the faithful. We are grateful to Pope Leo for his words of comfort. Israel is investigating the incident and remains committed to protecting civilians and holy sites.”

In a telegram sent on behalf of Pope Leo by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, His Holiness expressed deep sorrow for the loss of life and for the injuries caused by the attack. The full telegram reads:

His Holiness Pope Leo XIV was deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and injury caused by the military attack on the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza, and he assures the parish priest, Father Gabriele Romanelli, and the whole parish community of his spiritual closeness. In commending the souls of the deceased to the loving mercy of Almighty God, the Holy Father prays for the consolation of those who grieve and for the recovery of the injured. His Holiness renews his call for an immediate ceasefire, and he expresses his profound hope for dialogue, reconciliation and enduring peace in the region.

San Diego’s annual Pride celebration began with a multifaith prayer service held at St Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral on Tuesday evening, marking the tenth year of the event known as Light the Cathedral. The service featured religious leaders from a range of faiths gathering with the LGBT community.

The event, organised in partnership with San Diego Pride, was described by organisers as a spiritual and community-focused start to Pride Week. It has been held at the cathedral annually since 2015.

A total of 405 men in the United States are expected to be ordained this year, according to a CARA (Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate) survey conducted in collaboration with the U.S. bishops. Approximately 80 per cent of respondents will be ordained for dioceses or eparchies, with the remaining 20 per cent entering religious orders.

The data reveals notable trends in the Church in the United States when compared with the same survey from 2006, the earliest available report. In 2006, just 3 per cent of ordinands reported receiving some homeschooling. The 2025 report finds that five times as many have now been homeschooled, with 15 per cent of ordinands reporting such.

Pope Leo XIV pledged to “pursue the path of unity and fraternal charity” during a meeting in Castel Gandolfo with Orthodox and Catholic clergy from the United States.

The group were on the pilgrimage “From Rome to New Rome” and included fifty Greek Orthodox, Byzantine Catholic, and Latin Catholic pilgrims from the U.S., among them Greek Orthodox Archbishop Elpidophoros of America and Cardinal Joseph Tobin, Archbishop of Newark, New Jersey.

Remembering the anniversary of the proclamation of the Virgo Fidelis – Faithful Virgin – as the patroness of the Italian military police, Pope Leo XIV praised their dedication for helping those in “dangerous conditions.”

The Carabinieri Corps is a part of the Italian Military, and serves as a national police force in the country.

Although serving under Benito Mussolini during Italy’s Fascist period – 1922-1943 – they were not trusted by the German Nazis occupying much of the north of the country after 1943, and many Carabinieri members joined the resistance.

“But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart” (Deuteronomy 30:14)

Sunday’s first reading foreshadows the Word of God made flesh, Jesus Christ: he comes very near to us, in our mouths and hearts in Holy Communion. As the Word of God in the Old Testament was not “in heaven” or “beyond the sea”, so Jesus came down from heaven, and walked over the sea, to be close to us and then stay with us in the Blessed Sacrament.

Pope Leo XIV says the world needs a “revolution of love” and reflected on the parable of the Good Samaritan while celebrating Mass at the Parish of St Thomas of Villanova in Castel Gandolfo, a lakeside town outside Rome.

The pontiff began a short vacation in the town last Sunday, reintroducing a papal tradition skipped by Pope Francis, who preferred to remain at the Vatican during the summer months.

Humanity is at a crossroads and facing the immense potential generated by the digital revolution driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI), according to a message from Pope Leo XIV.

In a letter sent to experts on the pontiff’s behalf by the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin Secretary of State, Leo said the impact of the AI revolution “is far-reaching, transforming areas such as education, work, art, healthcare, governance, the military, and communication.”

A US Catholic diocese has suspended the obligation to attend Sunday Mass for immigrants who fear immigration raids.

Bishop Alberto Rojas of the Diocese of San Bernardino, California issued the decree dispensing from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass on Monday, 8 July, “in light of the pastoral needs of our diocese and the concerns expressed by many of our brothers and sisters regarding fears of attending Mass due to potential immigration enforcement actions by civil authorities.”

The Vatican released its latest synod implementation document on Monday, bringing to mind a remark Pope Francis made a few years ago about how the Church is not a large multinational company run by managers carefully studying how best to sell their product.

“The Church,” Francis said to journalists on 13 November 2021, “does not build itself on the basis of its own project, it does not draw from itself the strength to move forward and it does not live by marketing strategies.”

Pope Leo has delighted Pokémon fans by blessing and signing a Pokémon card during a Danish youth group’s visit to the Vatican on 5 July.

He was presented with two Popplio Pokémon cards due to the similarity in the names. The Holy Father blessed a Reverse Holo version and signed a regular version with a ballpoint pen.

Tri Nguyen, whose Pokémon card was signed by the Pope, described how the Pope’s “joyous face and speech touched my heart” and said it was “a great culmination of our pilgrimage”.

After a devastating flood hit the Hill Country of Texas, Pope Leo XIV has offered his prayers for the victims, some of whom were children attending a Christian summer camp, and for their families.

At least 51 people are presumed dead after heavy rains caused flooding along the Guadalupe River in central Texas, including at least 15 children who were attending a Christian summer camp for girls.

“I would like to express sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters, who were at the summer camp, in the disaster caused by flooding of the Guadalupe river in Texas in the United States,” Pope Leo said.

After Pope Leo XIV arrives in Castel Gandolfo for his summer break, it is unlikely to prove a real vacation for the new pontiff.

When Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected on 8 May 2025, it was the post-Easter period in Rome. This is the slow-down time in Rome, since the Vatican basically shuts down after the 29 June celebration of the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul.

Unlike Pope Francis, Pope Leo is continuing the tradition of spending the summer in the lakeside town about 15 miles outside of Rome and which offers a much cooler climate.

Pope Leo XIV has appointed a French archbishop as the new president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. He replaces American Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley, the former archbishop of Boston and the founding head of the commission when it was created by Pope Francis in 2014.

Archbishop Thibault Verny heads the Archdiocese of Chambéry–Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne-Tarentaise.

“Having worked closely with Archbishop Verny through his membership on the commission since 2022, I have witnessed his dedication to the prevention of abuse in the life of the Church,” said O’Malley, who is now 81.

Like the populist he was, Pope Francis felt an instinctive scepticism about bureaucracies, including the one he was called to lead. Famously, he once catalogued 15 spiritual diseases of the Roman curia, including “spiritual Alzheimer’s” and the “terrorism of gossip”, and those actually were among the kinder things he had to say about the place.

I vividly recall one veteran curial official coming out of that Christmas 2014 dressing-down and sarcastically quipping to no one in particular: “Well, that wasn’t exactly a pick-me-up.” The problem with populism is that, sooner or later, you need institutions to function to get things done. Personal inspiration and leadership by example can only carry an administration so far, and when its institutions, which a leader is called to direct, are demoralised and lacking direction, it generally spells great mischief.

Pope Leo XIV has said that Catholic school teachers should be “models in life” as well as “models of faith” during what he described as a teacher’s “pilgrimage of discipleship”. He also urged the students under their care to try and listen to “God’s voice” calling to their young hearts.

Speaking to teachers from Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland on 5 July in the Vatican as part of the Jubilee year, the pontiff said students will “look to you particularly as to how you teach and how you live”.