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Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, said in a statement for a recent UN meeting that “development cannot be comprehended exclusively in economic terms; it must also foster the cultural and spiritual development of all people.”

“Integral development is therefore the overarching metric against which the collective efforts of the international community should be measured,” Archbishop Caccia said.

In his statement, the prelate also emphasized the “moral imperative for the eradication of poverty,” praised multilateralism as “the sole viable avenue for progress” in development, and lamented rising military expenses.

The patriarchs and heads of churches in Jerusalem, echoing an earlier statement by the Latin Patriarch, welcomed the Gaza peace agreement.

The Christian leaders paid tribute to the “enormous efforts of all those in the international community who worked relentlessly to accomplish this major achievement,” as well as to the perseverance of Gaza’s Christians. At the same time, they expressed “great concern” about “the increasing violence against local communities in the West Bank in connection with [Israeli] settlement expansions there.”

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has announced the slate of ten candidates for conference president and vice president. The winning candidates will succeed Archbishops Timothy Broglio (Military Services) and William Lori (Baltimore), who were elected to three-year terms as president and vice president in November 2022.

At their November meeting, the bishops will also vote for six committee chairmen.

At a press conference yesterday (video) for the upcoming Fifth World Meeting of Popular Movements, Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, said that “many development efforts have failed because outsiders, even very qualified ones, seem to think that development can occur without the direct involvement of the poor.”

Citing Pope Leo’s apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te, Cardinal Czerny, the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, said that “when different institutions think about the needs of the poor, it is necessary to ‘include popular movements.’”

At the recent Jubilee of Consecrated Life, some 4,000 participants issued a final message.

“The Jubilee is an opportunity to ask forgiveness for the times when we failed to be a presence of listening and care, when we closed our eyes and hearts,” the participants stated. “It is also an opportunity to rejoice and give thanks for the good given and received.”

The message also called for “respect for the rights of all, beginning with the poorest, the exploited, and the invisible, and appealing to those who hold responsibility in civil society, so that over the logic of profit that crushes the small may prevail the care that helps every seed of life to blossom.”

Pope Leo XIV held his first meeting yesterday with Abdullah II, Jordan’s king since 1999.

The king “highlighted efforts to preserve Christian religious sites in Jordan, particularly the Baptism Site of Jesus Christ,” The Jordan Times reported. The king invited the Pontiff to visit the site and recalled the historic Hashemite custodianship of Jerusalem’s holy sites.

Earlier this year, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of His Holiness, hailed the strong ties between the Vatican and Jordan and consecrated the Church of the Baptism of the Lord at the site of the Lord’s Baptism, on land donated by King Abdullah II.

Pope Leo XIV appointed Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago and Cardinal Baldassare Reina, vicar general of His Holiness for the Diocese of Rome, as members of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State. The commission, led by Sister Raffaella Petrini, FSE, is the state’s legislative body.

Pope Leo also affirmed the mandates of four of the commission’s members: Cardinals Kevin Farrell, Arthur Roche, Lazarus You Heung-sik, and Claudio Gugerotti, all prefects of Vatican dicasteries. The Pope, however, did not affirm the appointments of 81-year-old Cardinal Leonardo Sandri (Argentina) and Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, who remains vicar general of His Holiness for Vatican City as well as archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica.

The Pope’s appointment of Cardinal Cupich to the commission comes less than a month after several US bishops criticized his decision to give Sen. Richard Durbin a lifetime achievement award.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness, delivered a lecture yesterday on the promise and perils of AI in health care.

Speaking at the inauguration of the Center for the Study and Development of Artificial Intelligence at the Italian National Institute of Health, Cardinal Parolin spoke of AI as potentially a “powerful tool at the service of life, an ally of humanity in the fight against disease and suffering.”

Cardinal Parolin, however, warned of the potential “dehumanization of care” and said that “an algorithm can provide a diagnosis, but it cannot offer a word of comfort.” He expressed concern that AI could transform a doctor “from a wise clinician into a mere supervisor of an automated process.” He also warned of a lack of accountability for algorithmic errors, which “risks generating ‘systemic irresponsibility’ in which, ultimately, no one is truly responsible.”