Month: August 2026

ROME (OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV will make the first apostolic journey to South America of his pontificate Nov. 6-17, visiting 10 cities in Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, the Vatican has announced.

The trip will take him from one of Latin America’s least religious countries to the homeland of the late Pope Francis before culminating in Pope Leo’s return to Peru, where he served as an Augustinian missionary and later bishop of Chiclayo. It will be his first return to the continent since his election as pope.

The Holy See Press Office confirmed Aug. 5 that the pope will visit Montevideo, Paysandú and Florida in Uruguay; Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Luján in Argentina; and Lima, Chiclayo, Cusco and Pucallpa in Peru. Here is a look at the cities that Pope Leo will visit:

Uruguay (Nov. 6-8)

The pope’s first stop will be Uruguay, where Christians only make up 44% of the population, the lowest percentage in Latin America, according to the Pew Research Center.

Montevideo

Montevideo is Uruguay’s capital and largest city. It is home to the National Shrine of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the historic Montevideo Metropolitan Cathedral.

Paysandú

Paysandú, a cultural and economic hub on Uruguay’s western border with Argentina, was founded in 1772 by a priest, Policarpo Sandú, and Christianized Indigenous families. The city is home to the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, known for its large pipe organ.

Florida

The Uruguay visit will likely conclude in Florida, home to the National Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Thirty-Three, the patroness of Uruguay. A yearly pilgrimage is held every second Sunday of November, which falls this year on Nov. 8. The basilica preserves an 18th-century Guaraní image of the Virgin Mary before which 33 of Uruguayans prayed before fighting for independence.

St. John Paul II consecrated the shrine during his 1988 visit, the last papal trip to Uruguay. “Almost 40 years ago, we experienced the unforgettable visit of St. John Paul II. Now we welcome Pope Leo with enormous anticipation. It is a joy for the Church, but also for all of Uruguay,” Cardinal Daniel Sturla of Montevideo said.

Argentina (Nov. 8-11)

The second leg of the trip will be Argentina, the homeland of Pope Francis, who served as archbishop of Buenos Aires before becoming pope, but never returned during his pontificate. About 58% of adults in Argentina identify as Catholic, according to Pew.

Buenos Aires

In Buenos Aires, the pope will likely meet President Javier Milei, who welcomed the announced visit as “an event of enormous spiritual and institutional significance for our country and for all Argentines.”

The capital is also home to the Basilica of Our Lady of Mercy, where the tomb of Argentina’s first female saint, known as Mama Antula, is located.

Córdoba

Córdoba, Argentina’s second-largest city, is known for its Spanish colonial architecture. Its historic Manzana Jesuítica, “Jesuit Block,” includes one of South America’s oldest universities and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Luján

Luján is home to the Shrine of Our Lady of Luján, patroness of Argentina and one of the country’s leading pilgrimage sites. As archbishop of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis led pilgrimages there, while St. John Paul celebrated Mass at the shrine during his 1982 visit and consecrated Argentina to Our Lady of Luján.

Peru (Nov. 11-17)

The final and longest portion of the trip will bring Pope Leo back to Peru, where he first arrived as an Augustinian missionary in 1985. He was appointed apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo in 2014 before becoming its bishop. He obtained Peruvian citizenship in 2015 before being transferred to the Vatican in 2023.

Lima

Lima is Peru’s capital and largest city. The city is home to the Basilica and Convent of Our Lady of the Rosary, also known as the Convent of Santo Domingo, where St. Rose of Lima and St. Martin de Porres are buried. Keiko Fujimori, whose victory in Peru’s presidential election was declared July 4, is expected to welcome the pope to the country.

Chiclayo

Chiclayo is expected to be one of the most closely watched stops of the trip because of the pope’s ties to the local church. Pope Leo served as bishop of the diocese from 2015 to 2023.

Cusco

Pope Leo will also visit Cusco, the former capital of the Inca Empire. One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the Western Hemisphere, Cusco remains one of Peru’s foremost cultural centers in the Andes with an average elevation of 11,150 feet.

Pucallpa

The pope will not leave Peru without stopping in Pucallpa, a city on the Ucayali River in the Amazonian rainforest that has long served as a center for Catholic missionary outreach in Peru’s rainforest.

The Diocese of Chiclayo celebrated the Vatican’s announcement saying that the pope’s visit will bring “a message of faith, hope, and closeness to millions of Peruvians.”

“It will be a historic visit that will unite us as a people and as a Church,” the diocese said in a social media post.

“With joy and hope, we prepare to welcome the Successor of Peter and to experience this time of grace together.”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The U.S. Catholic bishops are getting ready a nationwide call to prayer and action, with an official launch date of Aug. 18, to mobilize Catholics to address the rising abortion rate and the increased availability of an abortion-inducing drug.

“Every abortion involves the death of a child and harm to the mother. Now with easier access to abortion pills, the abortion rate is tragically climbing, along with increased health risks,” Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Bishop Daniel E. Thomas of Toledo, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said in joint remarks.

According to an estimate from Guttmacher Institute, a research firm for the abortion industry, 1.12 million abortions took place in 2025, marking a 21% increase from 2020. Guttmacher said 2020 marked “the last year of comprehensive national estimates” before the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. Dobbs overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and its related abortion precedents, returning the matter of abortion back to the legislative branch.

Guttmacher found the figures for 2025 were largely unchanged from the prior year, but suggested abortion numbers overall may be an undercount due to people acquiring abortion pills in advance or obtaining them by means other than U.S. abortion clinic providers.

Abortion rates in the U.S. bottomed out in 2017, when they were estimated to be just over 862,000, and began increasing again in the first Trump administration, which also approved the first generic for mifepristone, commonly called “the abortion pill,” in 2019. The pill is commonly used in combination with misoprostol for early abortion, although the same combination is also used in some miscarriage care protocols that were more recently recommended for consideration by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

More than six of 10 abortions in the U.S. are performed through a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol, according to recent estimates.

A federal policy permitting distribution by mail of mifepristone was first issued by the Biden administration following the Dobbs decision. The policy has thus far been left in place by the second Trump administration, which approved a second generic for mifepristone in 2025 to the shock of pro-life groups.

The Department of Justice, under the current Trump administration, has also sought to block state challenges to the policy pending a promised safety review by the Food and Drug Administration. But the status and timeline of the FDA review are unclear.

Archbishop Coakley and Bishop Thomas stated that the FDA “has enabled a nationwide mail-order abortion industry by allowing abortion pills to be prescribed in telehealth appointments and sold both at neighborhood pharmacies and online, circumventing state laws that protect life in the womb.”

“This leaves women vulnerable to suffering an abortion alone at home, without any medical supervision,” they said. “It also sets up additional opportunities for exploitation by violent partners or human traffickers.”

The bishops said that from the official start of the campaign through the end of October, when the Church in the U.S. marks Respect Life Month, “the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities is inviting Catholics to join a focused effort of prayer and action to stop the spread of abortion pills.”

They urged Catholics to seek “the intercession of St. Joseph, Defender of Life” as well as to send messages to pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies that are involved.

The USCCB is gearing up to mobilize Catholics all over the U.S. with resources in time for the Aug. 18 launch of the campaign.

“We are setting up a simple on-line platform allowing users to click and send one message that will go to multiple entities, such as brick-and-mortar pharmacies and online pharmacies, distributors, and pharmaceutical companies,” Kat Talalas, assistant director for pro-life communications at the USCCB’s Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities, told OSV News. “We are also developing educational resources about the abortion pill, which will help explain distinctions between miscarriage care versus ending the life of a child in an abortion.”

The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death, and as such, opposes direct abortion. Following the Dobbs decision, U.S. Church officials have reaffirmed the Church’s concern for both mother and child, and have called for enhancing support to those made vulnerable to abortion through poverty and other factors.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Returning to his weekly general audiences after a monthlong summer break, Pope Leo XIV urged Catholics to embrace the Liturgy of the Hours more fully in their daily lives, saying the church’s public prayer is an antidote to a world shaped by technology, consumerism and an efficiency-driven mindset.

“Every week and every day, the Eucharist and the Liturgy of the Hours are the breath of the life of the Church, which makes the Holy Spirit circulate through her Body,” he said Aug. 5.

Because of Rome’s summer heat, the pope held the audience inside instead of St. Peter’s Square; however, this time it was held in St. Peter’s Basilica rather than in the Paul VI Hall. As he processed to the altar, he stopped to shake hands with attendees and bless babies and rosaries.

Continuing his series on the documents of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Leo reflected on ‘Sacrosanctum Concilium,’ the Constitution on the liturgy. He said “it is the Holy Spirit who teaches us to pray,” and that Christians unite themselves with Christ in offering praise and thanksgiving to God through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Bound to the Eucharist, the Liturgy of the Hours sanctifies the rhythm of the day, the pope said, beginning with morning prayer, continuing at midday and evening, and ending with night prayer as the faithful entrust themselves to God’s peace.

“Each hour is an act of hope,” he said.

The Liturgy of the Hours is the church’s official daily prayer, consisting of psalms, Scripture readings, hymns and prayers recited at designated times throughout the day. Pope Leo said the tradition of prayer is “no longer passed on” even in many Christian families, even though prayer is a “fundamental dimension of our humanity.”

In societies “dominated by an efficiency-driven and consumerist mindset,” prayer can seem “pointless and trivial,” the pope said. In a world “where science and technology claim to provide all the answers,” he added, prayer may appear to be a form of escapism.

“Brothers and sisters, may we find the spiritual nourishment necessary on our earthly pilgrimage by joining with the whole Church in her liturgical prayer as we await the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” the pope said in his greeting to English-speaking pilgrims.

“Far from avoiding the world and its needs, all prayer, especially in the entire liturgy, is the essential dimension of our humanity,” he added.

The pope’s encouragement comes after the Vatican approved a new English-language edition of the Liturgy of the Hours in November 2025. After 13 years, the U.S. bishops produced a translation that more closely reflects the original Latin texts. The first volume is expected to be released ahead of Lent 2027.

In his greeting to French-speaking pilgrims, Pope Leo encouraged those on summer vacation to deepen their interior life by spending more time with the Lord in prayer. Even leisure and rest, he said, “belong to him” and “can be sanctified by his presence.”

OKLAHOMA CITY (OSVNews) – “He didn’t go back to Guatemala to die. He went back to Guatemala to live.”

Msgr. Don Wolf, rector of the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine and a cousin of Blessed Rother, shared these words in a documentary “American Martyr: The Stanley Rother Story.”

This scene still makes Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City choke up every time he sees it.

“He knew that death awaited him, but he knew that not going back would mean a different kind of death, and only by going back there would he live life to the full, the life that the Lord had called him to, even though that meant laying down his life,” Archbishop Coakley said during a panel discussion. It followed the documentary’s world premiere at the Regal Warren Moore Theater in Moore, Oklahoma, a suburb of Oklahoma City, on July 28, the feast day of Blessed Stanley Rother.

More than 600 people filled three theaters to watch the documentary — one for the English version narrated by award-winning actor Martin Sheen, and two for the Spanish version.

Sheen narrated the documentary for free, said Maria Scaperlanda, one of the executive producers of the documentary and promoter for the cause. Sheen “fell in love with Father Stan,” she told OSV News.

“I want to help you get Blessed Stanley across the line, have him become a saint. And this is my way of helping,” she recalled Sheen — himself a devout Catholic — telling her.

“We showed up at his house, finished all the audio with him. It’s his gift to the cause,” she said.

Scaperlanda, who also wrote the definitive biography on Blessed Rother, “The Shepherd Who Didn’t Run: Father Stanley Rother, Martyr from Oklahoma,” said that people often ask her when a movie will be made.

“There’s a lot of people, very excited, who have been waiting for something visual. God is putting me where he wants me,” she said. “I hope that more and more people will be able to hear the story.”

“American Martyr: The Stanley Rother Story” is scheduled to be released in theaters nationwide Aug. 25-27.

Archbishop Coakley told OSV News that he hopes by spreading the word about Blessed Rother, more people will turn to him in prayer.

“The Church needs saints, and we have a Catholic priest missionary martyr who’s on the threshold of being declared a saint. But in order for people to have the confidence to turn to him — to seek his intercession — they have to know his story,” he said. “My primary interest and concern is to introduce people to the life of this heroic missionary priest, so that they might imitate his faith in turning to the Lord in seeking what they need.”

Bishop Edward J. Burns of Dallas hadn’t planned on attending the premiere a month ago. Archbishop Coakley’s classmate from Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, the same seminary Blessed Rother graduated from, Bishop Burns told the archbishop he planned to visit the shrine on July 28, not knowing it was Blessed Rother’s feast day. The archbishop, in turn, invited him to concelebrate the Mass at the shrine that day.

“Then, I later learned that there was the premiere of this wonderful documentary. I said, ‘Wow, what a coincidence,’ but in actuality, it’s just a little gift from Blessed Stanley Rother,” Bishop Burns told OSVNews.

Like Archbishop Coakley, Bishop Burns was completing his final year at Mount St. Mary’s when the students learned of their alumnus’ martyrdom. As a leader of the student body, he took the responsibility of welcoming Blessed Rother’s parents and sister, Sister Marita Rother, an Adorer of the Blood of Christ, to the campus.

“In those moments, for me to sit and speak to the parents of a martyr moved me in such a powerful way, to speak to a mom of a martyr and the anguish that she went through, it touched my heart,” Bishop Burns recalled.

He described Blessed Rother as a “model of what it is to give everything for the Gospel” and said that he hopes to spread devotion in his own diocese.

“The opportunity to grow closer to Christ is exactly what Stanley did. You look at his life on the farm, through school, in the seminary, and then into his priesthood. He just grew closer and closer to our Lord Jesus Christ. And that same Lord Jesus Christ is the one who welcomed him into the community of saints, angels and martyrs,” he said.

Among the attendees at the premiere were 27 members of Blessed Rother’s family who were recognized during the panel.

“It’s very stirring to see his family with both simple memory of just a man but with deep devotion that now their brother is beatified because he’s martyred,” said the Rev. Nathan Carr, vicar of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Oklahoma City and missioner for strategic development for the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma.

Rev. Carr, who also serves as the headmaster of the Academy of Classical Christian Studies — a K-12 school with a 17% Catholic enrollment — said his school’s Schola Cantorum choir has led music at the shrine every year since its opening. He said Blessed Rother provides inspiration for everybody and plans to encourage his parishioners to see the documentary.

“We are dying on the vine in a dearth of local exemplars — and suddenly, out of God’s perfect grace, we are given an exemplar of the holy life, the life of virtue, and the life of holiness, a life being poured out for others,” Rev. Carr said. “Every kind of Christian — and every kind of person, for that matter — will be able to experience what sacrificial love truly and finally and forever is in light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

For Blessed Rother to be canonized, there must be a verified miracle attributed to his intercession before God.

The Rome-based postulator for Rother’s cause, Cristiana Marinelli, said that while she can’t provide details, there are active investigations.

“I can say that what I experienced today is that the devotion, the veneration, is still alive, is still growing. And this is something that’s very important, because only through prayer will we be able to get a sign of God,” she said.

Marinelli, who has served as postulator for three years, said she views her work as a vocation.

“Having the possibility to study the life of this candidate has given me the opportunity also to not only to increase my intellectual, professional knowledge but also my spiritual life,” she said.

Deacon Jan Latta from St. Eugene Parish in North Oklahoma City and his wife, Mary, were excited to see the beatification Mass from 2017 featured in the documentary, because they had both volunteered as ushers before he had entered deacon formation. Deacon Latta said he found inspiration from the fact that Blessed Rother had initially failed his courses in a Texas seminary, Latin in particular, and transferred to the Emmitsburg seminary.

“I grew up on a farm in Iowa, and I’m not that intellectual. I had trouble even in deacon formation with some of the classes,” reflected Deacon Latta. “Even if somebody tells you you’re not intelligent enough or smart enough to be a priest, he didn’t settle for that, and he followed his heart, and he was able to become a priest and go to Guatemala, and he followed his heart down there.”

The documentary features several scenes dramatizing Blessed Rother’s life. Actor Ryan Francis hadn’t heard of Blessed Rother but happened to check his email — something he doesn’t normally do — when he noticed a call for someone to perform historical reenactments.

At the time, Francis had a full beard with some gray for another role he’d done. After sending in a headshot, he was invited to participate in the project.

“When this chance came up, as I was going through it, and then I got to a picture of Father Apla’s, and I go, ‘Oh, my gosh, I can do this,'” he said. “I never even click on these emails, but I happened to click on this one and see it, and it just, it all just happened. Next thing I knew, I was on a plane to Guatemala.”

Although he doesn’t consider himself religious, Francis said he found inspiration from Blessed Rother’s life.

“It was quite interesting to visit the places and reenact these actual photos at the actual place where these photos were taken and actually get a crash course on the history on Father Apla’s,” Francis said, noting the similarity between his last name and Blessed Rother’s middle name, for which “Apla’s” is the Tz’utujil translation. “His whole story — especially, just his selflessness, his sacrifice, his commitments — those things just really resonated with me on a level that was very impactful.”

During the panel discussion, Archbishop Coakley said that the message Blessed Rother offers is that there’s “nothing really extraordinary about him at all. He was just an ordinary guy from Okarche, a farmer who became a priest, who became a missionary, who became a martyr, who has become a saint. God calls us all to holiness, and he calls us right where we are.”

He said he hopes the documentary will inspire people to live a life of holiness and to share their gifts in a way that they, too, can become everyday saints.

“We don’t have to go out of our way looking for it. We don’t have to travel across the world. It’s right here at home. It’s in our homes, in our families, in our parishes, in our places of work. That’s where we’re called to flourish and to become saints,” he said.

Blessed Rother baptized Felipe Coche Pablo in Santiago Atítlan, Guatemala, who was only 2 when the martyrdom occurred. Watching the documentary helped him understand what life was like during that time period.

During the panel, Coche — who is also involved in the cause in Guatemala — said through a translator that the people of Santiago Atítlan love Blessed Rother, even today.

“For my people, Father Apla’s is already a saint. He has been loved before and now even more. It’s a blessing for my people Tz’utujil,” he said.

VATICAN CITY (OSV News) – Pope Leo XIV is inviting Catholics to pray “for evangelization in the city” as his August prayer intention, asking the Lord to accompany millions searching for meaning amid the noise and haste of urban life.

In his monthly “Pray with the Pope” video, Pope Leo expressed his hope that urban environments may provide “fertile ground” for proclaiming the Gospel.

The Chicago-born pope acknowledged that while cities are meant to be places of “freedom and opportunity,” they can also become “spaces of anonymity and isolation.”

“Make us a Church that goes forth, able to reach out to the peripheries, to console those who are lonely, and to sow fraternity and connection instead of giving in to indifference,” the pope prayed.

Today, almost 45% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, making cities one of the largest mission territories of our time, according to the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network.

“Lord, may our urban communities be open and welcoming homes, places where hope is shared, where no one feels invisible, and where the joy of your Gospel shines in the hidden lives of so many brothers and sisters,” Pope Leo said in his prayer for the month of August.

“Make us your witnesses in the city, bold and creative missionaries, who proclaim your Love with their lives— a Love capable of overcoming haste, noise, and anonymity.”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – A bipartisan pair of lawmakers announced July 30 they will form and co-chair a new caucus in the U.S. House aimed at the prevention of human trafficking.

Reps. Chris Smith, R-N.J. and Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., said the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Protection and Prevention Caucus — named in honor of the abolitionist and statesman — will work to advance legislation to prevent human trafficking, prosecute traffickers, and strengthen support and protection for victims, and facilitate greater cooperation to prevent the trafficking through partnerships between government, law enforcement, private and faith-based organizations.

“I am honored to announce the formation of the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Protection and Prevention Caucus alongside my Co-Chair, Rep. Mfume, who is fiercely committed to ending the modern-day slavery that is human trafficking,” Smith, a longtime Catholic lawmaker, said in a statement.

Mfume noted they made the announcement on the annual World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.

“Human trafficking is modern-day slavery and a scourge on our collective humanity,” Mfume said. “Nearly 27 million people worldwide are trapped in forms of forced labor and human bondage, and Americans in all 50 states have been victimized as well.”

“We owe it to every survivor and victim to pass comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation out of the Congress and send it to the President’s desk,” Mfume continued. “This Caucus and anti-trafficking organizations across the country represent proof of our collective intention to get that done, no matter how long it takes.”

Smith added, “Human trafficking is an ever-evolving crime, as traffickers are constantly finding new ways—both in-person and virtually—to exploit, manipulate, and abuse victims. To meet these changing and challenging demands, this Caucus will work tirelessly to advance new anti-trafficking legislation—especially and including the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Act of 2025 (H.R. 1144), which Rep. Mfume and I introduced earlier this Congress—that uplifts and empowers survivors and raises awareness of this global problem.”

Smith and Mfume urged the House to promptly take up H.R. 1144 for debate and a vote.

“The House passage of the Frederick Douglass TVPRA will bring us one step closer to finally eradicating this modern-day slavery,” they said in a joint statement. “Delay means denial for the millions of men, women, and children currently trapped in trafficking situations. We are working every single day—especially and including World Day Against Trafficking in Persons—to get this critical legislation over the finish line to protect critical funding and programs.”

The Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Protection and Prevention Caucus will also be bicameral, Smith’s office said, as Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., plans to form a complementary caucus in the Senate. Blackburn’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

If enacted, H.R. 1144 would “reauthorize and bolster anti-human trafficking programs across numerous federal agencies, including the State Department, Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Health and Human Services; ensure robust prosecutions for human trafficking crimes, along with thorough investigations and jail time commensurate with the crime; and authorize the first-ever housing program for survivors ensuring wrap-around case management, including education, life skills training, mental health services, and employment assistance,” Smith’s office said.

Among other provisions, it would also train teachers and students in grade schools on building situational awareness and self-esteem and give guidance on how to share resources to prevent, identify and respond to human trafficking.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Jennie Bradley Lichter will step down as president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, she said in a July 30 statement.

“This note is to wish you the fondest farewell, as I will be stepping down as President of the March for Life effective tomorrow, July 31,” Bradley Lichter said in a statement. “My next chapter will be a new one for me: full-time mom.”

Organizers of the March for Life – first founded in protest of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, which was overturned in 2022 – describe it as the nation’s largest annual human rights demonstration.

The March for Life will seek new leadership while the pro-life movement faces a number of key challenges, such as preserving the Hyde Amendment, the recent approval of a new generic abortion drug, a policy permitting the distribution of that drug by mail and a rising abortion rate.

Bradley Lichter said in a statement that the role of March for Life president was the “highlight of my professional life.”

“In countless conversations, public and private, I have doggedly made the case for ending the scourge of chemical abortion and for other pro-life policy priorities,” she said. “With our twin goals of speaking to the head and speaking to the heart, the MFL team and I have continued to prioritize communicating the truth about human life and the harms of abortion—because the truth IS pro-life—and also communicating the beauty and joy of parenthood and the infinite preciousness of every single baby, no matter the circumstances.”

But, she said, “it has become very clear that my family needs more of my time and my active presence than I’m able to give while leading the March for Life. And so I must step away.”

Bradley Lichter, who became president of both the March for Life organization and its sister lobbying organization in February 2025, was previously deputy general counsel at The Catholic University of America in Washington, where she oversaw its Guadalupe Project, a campus-wide initiative to offer tangible support for pregnant and parenting students, faculty and staff.

Lichter previously served in the White House during the first Trump administration as a deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, where she supervised rulemaking and policy efforts at several federal agencies.

CASTEL GANDOLFO (OSV News) – As dusk settled over the Pontifical Gardens of Castel Gandolfo on July 29, Pope Leo XIV listened as Andrea Bocelli led 164 young voices in a hymn, prompting the pope to offer a reflection on how beauty can lead us to God.

“The beauty of music invites us to encounter the one who is beauty itself,” Pope Leo remarked after the international children’s choir performed with the tenor in the Vatican’s Borgo Laudato si’ gardens.

“It is significant that Sacred Scripture and the Liturgy of the Church speak of ‘choirs of angels and saints’ when describing the joy of heaven,” he added, “not because they are literally singing all the time, but because united in love they behold God together and find in him the fullness of happiness.”

The pope sat before the choir as Bocelli led children and teenagers from the Holy Land, Uganda and Italy in singing “Amazing Grace” as the final song of the evening. The Italian tenor also sang the Latin hymn “Panis Angelicus” for the pope.
The children’s choir was made up of participants in the Andrea Bocelli Foundation’s “Voices Of” program, which pairs choral singing with educational workshops for children in communities affected by poverty, conflict or limited access to schooling.

“My dear young friends, as you were singing, did you notice how music drew all of us into an experience of something new, something that was greater than any one of us alone could create? This is the experience of beauty,” Pope Leo told the choir.

When one seeks beauty, the pope added, “we discover not simply something, but Someone. We encounter God our Creator.”

The young singers, ranging in age from 8 to 19, traveled from Bethlehem and Jerusalem, the Ugandan village of Nabikabala, and the Italian cities of Naples and Camerino to take part in the performance, the culminating moment in a 10-day program in Italy sponsored by the charitable foundation. Choir members from Haiti were unable to travel because of ongoing instability in the country, organizers said.

“Continue to cultivate the gifts that God has given you, and allow them to lead you towards him,” Pope Leo told the young singers. “He is everything we are looking for in life, the one who alone can quell our restless hearts.”

“Remember that you have been made for great things, and that this world is not enough to quench your thirst for meaning and happiness,” he said.

The night of musical performances and prayer, held in the Borgo Laudato si’ gardens near the papal summer residence where Pope Leo spent much of July, was part of the jubilee year celebrations marking the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi.

Sister Alessandra Smerilli, whom Pope Leo recently named the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, read aloud St. Francis’ 1225 poem “The Canticle of the Sun” praising God’s creation, while other members of the Roman Curia read excerpts from writings of past popes and passages of Scripture between songs under the garden’s Roman pines.

In attendance at the concert were about 500 employees of the Dicasteries of the Holy See, the Governorate of Vatican City State and offices of the Roman Curia. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani also was present and briefly spoke with the pope after the concert.

At the conclusion of the performance, children from the choir presented Pope Leo XIV with gifts from their home countries. Cardinals and members of the Curia were then invited to a dinner reception in the gardens as the sun set.

Cardinal Fabio Baggio, director general of the Laudato Si’ Center for Higher Education, said the event reflected the mission of Borgo Laudato si’ as “a place where faith becomes an encounter and peace is built by caring for individuals, communities, and creation.”

“Let us entrust this ‘Canticle of Peace’ to the Lord, so that the song that rises from this place today may reach hearts, cross borders and become a seed of hope for the world,” the cardinal said.