Saint Joseph Catholic Church

In a message to the 17th National Missionary Congress of Mexico, Pope Leo XIV likened the work of evangelization to the kneading of dough to activate leaven.

Citing the words of Jesus—“The kingdom of heave is like leaven...” (Mt 13:33)—the Pope said that the leaven of the Gospel which came to Mexico through a few missionaries has been kneaded into “the new flour of a continent that did not yet know Christ’s name,” transforming the culture with the faith “until the Gospel took root in the people’s hearts and blossomed into works of unique holiness and beauty.”

Speaking on November 7 to board members of the RCS Academy, an institution that trains people for careers in the field of communications, Pope Leo XIV said: “The world needs honest and courageous entrepreneurs and communicators, who care for the common good.”

The Pope told the group that work in communications “consists in informing responsibly,” and professionals in that field should be “enabling their recipients to evaluate everything critically, in order to distinguish facts from opinions, true news from false.”

Cardinal Pietro Parolin said that the world is running out of time to address the climate-change crisis, in a November 7 interview with Vatican News.

Speaking from Brazil, where he is participating in the UN’s Climate Summit next week, the Vatican’s Secretary of State cited the words of St. Paul (1 Cor. 7:29) that “time is short.” The cardinal added: “He said it about life, but it applies here too—the sense of urgency must be real.”

Cardinal Parolin made the striking claim that “there are now more displaced persons because of climate change than because of wars.”

In a message to a forum on artificial intelligence (AI) at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Pope Leo XIV called for “research, entrepreneurship, and pastoral vision” in those who use AI to serve the mission of the Church.

AI, the Pope said, “like all human invention, springs from the creative capacity that God has entrusted to us,” and properly used, “can be a form of participation in the divine act of creation.”

The Pontiff encouraged participants in the November 7 conference to use AI technology “at the service of evangelization and the integral development of every person.” He observed:

The question is not merely what AI can do, but who we are becoming through the technologies we build.

cna

cna

In remarks delivered at Pontifical Urban University, the secretary of the doctrinal section of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith reflected on the significance of Pope Leo XIV’s proclamation of St. John Henry Newman as the 38th doctor of the Church.

Newman “was not only faithful to the Church’s magisterium but also developed a theological knowledge so enlightened and illuminating that it could inspire theological research of the present and future,” said Msgr. Armando Matteo. “I would like to point out here that, when the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith received the request to verify the presence of eminent doctrine in Newman’s extensive body of work, none of us had any doubts. And the process for this request was initiated and concluded rather quickly.”

Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Sako has complained that Vatican officials do not have a proper understanding of the Eastern Catholic churches.

In conversation with The Tablet, the Iraqi prelate said that staff members of the Dicastery for Eastern Churches “should know that they are there to serve the churches.” He said that Vatican officials do not show proper respect for the status of the Eastern Catholic patriarchs, who “precede all bishops” in hierarchical rank.

Cardinal Sako said that Vatican officials lack “practical exprience” with the Eastern churches, so that: “When they speak, they speak in occidental speech.”

Pope Leo XIV met on November 6 with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, for talks that centered on the “urgent need to provide assistance to the civilian population in Gaza.”

The meeting was the first face-to-face encounter between the Pope and Abbas. The Palestinian leader was in Rome for observances of the 10th anniversary of the “comprehensive agreement” with which the Holy See recognized the Palestinian state.

Before his meeting with the Pontiff, Abbas visited the tomb of Pope Francis. He explained: “I came to see Pope Francis because I cannot forget what he did for Palestine and for the Palestinian people, and I cannot forget that he recognized Palestine without anyone having to ask him to do so.”

The Roman Martyrology commemorates St. Leonard of Limoges (d. 559). He was a hermit-abbot who was a convert of St. Remigius. He was a French courtier offered a bishopric, but became a recluse at Micy, France. He then lived at Limoges, France, and he was given land by the royal court on which he founded Noblac Abbey, later called Saint-Leonard.