Well staged: Pope Leo XIV greeted a young Ukrainian cancer survivor, who told him: “You too will overcome this and continue your work of spreading the Gospel.” The Holy Father first met Varvara, a 13-year-old Ukrainian refugee on December 31, 2025, at the conclusion of his General Audience, as she awaited surgery for cancer. She told the Pope that their hug in December had given her “the strength to overcome the illness that, fortunately, I have now beaten.” She told him that, as soon as she learned he had been hospitalized, she felt she “wanted to come to Rome to pray for him beneath his window and return that important embrace."

Il chirurgo che ha operato Leone XIV ha raccontato com’è andata
Stefano Margaritora racconta come è stato scoperto il tumore al polmone di Leone XIV, l'intervento al Gemelli e il recupero del Papa dopo quattro giorni.
Il tumore scoperto per caso, la tensione in sala operatoria e il recupero più rapido del previsto. Il professor Stefano Margaritora ha raccontato l’intervento, i giorni di degenza e quando il Papa potrà tornare alle sue attività.
Città del Vaticano - Oggi pomeriggio, intorno alle 15.30, papa Leone XIV ha lasciato il Policlinico Gemelli di Roma ed è rientrato in Vaticano. Era ricoverato da martedì 13 ottobre, il giorno in cui gli è stato asportato un adenocarcinoma polmonare, la forma più comune di tumore maligno del polmone. In mattinata gli erano stati fatti gli esami del sangue e una radiografia del torace, e i medici lo avevano giudicato «idoneo alla dimissione». Matteo Bruni aveva previsto una degenza di circa una settimana: sono bastati quattro giorni. Domenica 18 …

Fr. Ripperger: Why God allows evil, suffering and chastisements at LifeSite
Fr. Ripperger: Why God allows evil, suffering and chastisements
Drawing on St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine, Scripture, and his work as an exorcist, Fr. Chad Ripperger argues that God permits evil primarily to bring about a greater good, especially the perfection of the soul.
The Fall of Adam and Eve led to the Incarnation and Resurrection, a greater good than the prelapsarian state; Christ’s Passion sacrificed bodily and external goods for the salvation of souls. Ripperger urges sufferers to ask what spiritual good God seeks to draw from their trials and to focus on deeper intimacy with God than would have existed otherwise.
The talk has been republished on LifeSiteNews with the kind permission of Fr. Ripperger and SensusTraditionis.org
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Connect with John-Henry Westen and all of LifeSiteNews on social media:
LifeSite: https://linktr.ee/lifesitenews
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October 16…

Leo leaves Gemelli Hospital just moments ago, en route to the Vatican. Tomorrow he will lead the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square.

Fr. Ripperger: Why God allows evil, suffering and chastisements at LifeSite
Fr. Ripperger: Why God allows evil, suffering and chastisements
Drawing on St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine, Scripture, and his work as an exorcist, Fr. Chad Ripperger argues that God permits evil primarily to bring about a greater good, especially the perfection of the soul.
The Fall of Adam and Eve led to the Incarnation and Resurrection, a greater good than the prelapsarian state; Christ’s Passion sacrificed bodily and external goods for the salvation of souls. Ripperger urges sufferers to ask what spiritual good God seeks to draw from their trials and to focus on deeper intimacy with God than would have existed otherwise.
The talk has been republished on LifeSiteNews with the kind permission of Fr. Ripperger and SensusTraditionis.org
+++
Connect with John-Henry Westen and all of LifeSiteNews on social media:
LifeSite: https://linktr.ee/lifesitenews
John-Henry Westen: https://linktr.ee/jhwesten
October 16…

Seminarian Sex Trafficking Cover-Up
Part one of a two-part interview
U.S. mainstream and Catholic media have not reported on the sex trafficking of foreign seminarians who for decades were used as “young meat” by homosexual U.S. bishops and priests. When I wrote this short report on “The Colombian Connection,” I was invited to appear on a podcast in Spanish with Henry Gomez Casas, the Director of Radio Rosa Mistica Colombia. The first four of ten questions I was asked during the interview follow my report. My responses to questions five through ten will appear in next week’s Substack article. I hope you find my report and responses informative.
Records have all been destroyed to cover up evidence involving the systematic sex trafficking of Colombian seminarians to U.S. seminaries, including Christ the King in East Aurora, NY, and Pope John Paul II Residence for college seminarians studying at Canisius College in Buffalo.
The scheme was orchestrated by a ring of predatory clergy, including …

A Day In the Life of Pope Leo XIV
-- By Rome-based journalist and novelist Anna Kurian, Aleteia
Pope Leo XIV greets the faithful at his general audience in St. Peter’s Basilica on August 19, 2026. (Photo: Vatican Media)
As head of state and head of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV occupies one of the most unique positions of power in the world. A modern, connected pope, he moves from prayer to pressing issues, from the intimacy of silence to the fervor of crowds, faithful to a spirituality that makes every activity an encounter with God. Here we have a look into a typical day in the life of a sovereign unlike any other.
It is still very early in the morning in Rome when the head of the Catholic Church awakens, as the first subways begin to move and the cafés prepare to open. Pope Leo XIV is discreet about his habits, but by all accounts, he is known for rising valiantly at the crack of dawn. His longtime Peruvian friend César Piscoya describes the very strict discipline that got the …

Fr. Ripperger: Why God allows evil, suffering and chastisements at LifeSite
Fr. Ripperger: Why God allows evil, suffering and chastisements
Drawing on St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine, Scripture, and his work as an exorcist, Fr. Chad Ripperger argues that God permits evil primarily to bring about a greater good, especially the perfection of the soul.
The Fall of Adam and Eve led to the Incarnation and Resurrection, a greater good than the prelapsarian state; Christ’s Passion sacrificed bodily and external goods for the salvation of souls. Ripperger urges sufferers to ask what spiritual good God seeks to draw from their trials and to focus on deeper intimacy with God than would have existed otherwise.
The talk has been republished on LifeSiteNews with the kind permission of Fr. Ripperger and SensusTraditionis.org
+++
Connect with John-Henry Westen and all of LifeSiteNews on social media:
LifeSite: https://linktr.ee/lifesitenews
John-Henry Westen: https://linktr.ee/jhwesten
October 16…

Papa Leone XIV concelebra la Santa Messa al Gemelli
Questa mattina il Papa ha celebrato la Santa Messa alle 12 in una sala del decimo piano dell'ospedale. Ha distribuito lui la Comunione.
da pagina facebook di SilereNonPossum

Pope petitions for ceasefire during call with Putin
The Pope spoke with President Putin from his hospital room today, particularly highlighting the humanitarian crisis in the city of Oleshky.
Pope Leo XIV spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin today, urging a ceasefire to enable delivery of food and medicine and noting the Holy See’s efforts to promote dialogue and peace.
In his second phone conversation with Russia’s president, Pope Leo spoke this time from his recovery room at the Gemelli Hospital. According to the Vatican, during the conversation between the two men, Leo “expressed his deep concern about the grave humanitarian situation in the city of Oleshky, in the Kherson region.”

James Martin is the new face of the Francis-Leo Church — and conservatives are hosting him at LifeSite
James Martin is the new face of the Francis-Leo Church — and conservatives are hosting him
The Ape of the Church is now on full display. The Napa Institute, a conservative Catholic bastion funded by wealthy orthodox donors, invited Fr. James Martin to carry the monstrance in a Eucharistic procession. One of the best-known conservative Catholic journalists gave him a soft interview to present his LGBT ideology to a conservative audience. The man who once embodied the progressive fringe is now being embraced by the very institutions that should be resisting him.
A man who discerned with the Jesuits has just released his testimony that he was rejected and told to seek counseling simply for criticizing Martin. Cardinals Sarah, Burke, Müller, and Bishop Paprocki once spoke clearly against him. Those voices are needed again, because since Leo, there has been only praise from the prelates.
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Papa Leone XIV concelebra la Santa Messa al Gemelli
Questa mattina il Papa ha celebrato la Santa Messa alle 12 in una sala del decimo piano dell'ospedale. Ha distribuito lui la Comunione.
da pagina facebook di SilereNonPossum

Leo XIV-appointed bishop wants women to preach at Mass.
Bishop Beat Grögli of St. Gallen, Switzerland, has defended the practice of women delivering homilies at Mass, although canon law defines the homily as an inherent part of the liturgy.
Kath.ch reported on October 8 that Bishop Grögli told a group of women that this prohibited practice had existed in his diocese for nearly 50 years. He suggested that reversing the practice would be incomprehensible.
Grögli described the theological arguments against women preaching as “weak,” adding: “Honestly, I have never understood them.” He considers “the female perspective in preaching an enrichment.”
Asked whether his position constituted disobedience, he pointed to ongoing discussions with Rome.
Canon 767 §1 reserves the homily at Mass to priests and deacons. The Vatican's 2004 instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum states that lay homilies at Mass cannot acquire legitimacy through longstanding custom.
Pope Leo XIV appointed Grögli Bishop of …

Card. Pablo Virgilio Siongco David (Philippines) at the Vatican Amoris laetitia summit, today:
"To discern concrete situations rather than begin with classifications, to accompany gradual growth, and to trust that grace can already be at work even in lives and relationships marked by weakness and incompleteness.”
How to understand Amoris Laetitia: “Not simply to ask how close families are to the ideal, but also how close the Church is willing to come to families in their actual struggles.”

Inclusion of adulterers and “persons identifying as LGBTQ” called for at the current Vatican meeting on Amoris Laetitia.
American Catholic moral theologian Prof. Julie Hanlon Rubio addressed the Vatican’s meeting marking the tenth anniversary of Amoris Laetitia on October 12.
Rubio recounted the case of an elderly woman with dementia who refused Communion because her husband had previously been married. The woman, she said, remembered that “she was not worthy to receive the Body of Christ.” Rubio presented the story as evidence that feelings of exclusion persist.
She also quoted Francis’s assertion that “the fact that … love [!] is imperfect doesn’t mean it’s false or unreal,” adding that human fragility is “not a problem to be solved but a fundamental element of our humanity to be integrated.”
Rubio again cited Francis: “No one can be condemned forever! It is not the logic of the Gospel!”
She said “this principle” should apply to “everyone.”
In a footnote, she specified whom she believed …

Cardinal notes “changing understandings of gender,” says Church must discern how to change.
At Leo XIV's meeting marking ten years of Amoris Laetitia on October 8, Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão delivered a speech on the challenges facing families in Asia. He is the President of the Conference of Bishops of India.
Discussing changes in the “identity, nature and composition of the family,” the cardinal observed that “new forms of partnership and cohabitation are emerging, amid changing understandings of gender and relationships in urban settings.”
Reflecting on what the Church has learned from its pastoral work, Ferrão declared: “Pastoral work is itself a place of discernment. We don't arrive with ready-made answers. We discern together with families and, in doing so, we learn how the Church herself is being asked to change.”
In his conclusion, the cardinal stated that “there is no single stereotype of an ideal family” and asked, “What is the Holy Spirit asking the Church to change – not …

l’euthanasie pour maladie mentale est suspendue – medias-presse.info
Canada : l’euthanasie pour maladie mentale est suspendue
Le Canada suspend l’extension de sa loi sur l’euthanasie aux personnes atteintes de maladie mentale. Le gouvernement fédéral a annoncé la suspension indéfinie de l’extension de l’euthanasie et du suicide assisté aux personnes dont le seul mal est une maladie mentale, initialement prévue pour mars 2027. Cette décision fait suite à la constatation qu’il n’existe aucun consensus médical quant au moment où un trouble psychiatrique peut être considéré comme incurable.
« Pas de consensus médical »
Le ministre de la Justice, Sean Fraser, a fait cette annonce mercredi dans le hall de la Chambre des communes. « Le Canada a décidé de ne pas aller de l’avant avec l’élargissement de l’aide médicale à mourir prévue par le Code criminel dans les cas où la maladie mentale en est le seul motif », a-t-il déclaré, selon Radio-Canada. Le gouvernement déposera un projet de loi cet …

EWTN names Ursula Murua to succeed Montse Alvarado as head of EWTN News
A Catholic journalist for more than 30 years, Murua covered a talk by EWTN’s foundress, Mother Angelica, as a 20-year-old reporter in Peru.
EWTN Global Catholic Network on Friday named Ursula Murua, a longtime leader of digital strategy, as the next president of EWTN News, effective Nov. 1.
Murua, a native of Peru who is director of digital strategy and social media for EWTN News, succeeds Montse Alvarado, president and chief operating officer of EWTN News since 2023, whom Pope Leo XIV appointed in June as prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication. Alvarado takes up the Vatican post the same day.
A story that began with Mother Angelica
Murua’s path into journalism is linked to EWTN’s foundress. When Mother Angelica visited Peru, she gave a talk that Murua, then 20, covered for the then-fledgling ACI Prensa, EWTN Chairman of the Board and CEO Michael P. Warsaw told staff in a message announcing the …

During the Vatican meeting marking the tenth anniversary of Amoris Laetitia, Pope Leo XIV and Cardinal Mario Grech both used language suggesting that different local Churches may develop different "pastoral" approaches.
As so often with synodal language, the implications remain ambiguous: neither explicitly says that different countries may adopt contradictory teachings or sacramental rules.
Leo XIV called for episcopal conferences and local Churches to discern “new paths.”
In his October 7 address, he said: “Moreover, the diversity of the situations from which we come can become a gift for the discernment of the whole Church.”
He later spoke of experiences brought from different cultural contexts, adding: “This will nourish the pastoral discernment of the Episcopal Conferences and the hierarchical structures of the Eastern Churches. It will likewise help the local Churches recognize new paths, and draw all the baptized more deeply into the Church’s synodal journey.”
Grech: Reception of …

"Just go to church. Who cares if they're actually Christian or not."