Pope Leo XIV called attention to two important events that fell on May 24: the day of prayer for Catholics in China and the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis' encyclical on the environment.
Before he was Pope Leo XIV, then-Bishop Robert F. Prevost of Chiclayo, Peru, created a commission to help women escape forced prostitution, said a trafficking survivor who worked with him.
The Gospel parable of the "wasteful sower" who casts seeds on fertile soil as well as on a rocky path "is an image of the way God loves us," Pope Leo XIV told visitors and pilgrims at his first weekly general audience.
Pope Leo XIV has named Cardinal Baldassare Reina grand chancellor of the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences.
Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, the Chicago-born prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops under Pope Francis, was elected the 267th pope May 8 and took the name Pope Leo XIV.
In Rome, the conclave is the talk of the town: from speculation over a morning espresso about who will be the next pope to taxi drivers complaining about how roadblocks have made their work even more difficult.
As members of the College of Cardinals met May 5, all 133 cardinals who plan to enter the conclave to elect a new pope had arrived in Rome, the Vatican press office said.
The cardinals preparing to elect a new pope must strengthen communion in the Catholic Church, promoting a form of unity that has nothing to do with uniformity and everything to do with a common focus on Jesus, a Benedictine abbot told the College of Cardinals.
After the casket bearing Pope Francis' body was placed in St. Peter's Basilica, tens of thousands of mourners lined up to pay their respects.
Pope Francis, who died April 21 at the age of 88 gave new energy to millions of Catholics -- and caused concern for some -- as he transformed the image of the papacy into a pastoral ministry based on personal encounters and strong convictions about mission, poverty, immigration and dialogue.
