Pope Leo XIV

Pope Leo XIV (born Robert Francis Prevost on 14 September 1955) is the 267th pope of the Catholic Church. Elected on 8 May 2025 following the death of Pope Francis, he is the first pope from the United States and the first member of the Order of Saint Augustine to hold the office. His career before election encompassed missionary ministry in Peru, leadership of the Augustinian order, episcopal service in Chiclayo, and responsibility for episcopal appointments in Rome. (vatican.va)

His pontificate has emphasized evangelization, ecclesial communion, and Catholic social teaching. He explained his papal name principally by reference to Leo XIII, whose encyclical Rerum novarum addressed industrial society, connecting that inheritance with contemporary questions concerning human dignity, work, and artificial intelligence. His principal teaching documents include the apostolic exhortation Dilexi te, concerning love for the poor, and the encyclical Magnifica humanitas, addressing human dignity and technological change. His early pontificate has also included consultation with the College of Cardinals, international pastoral journeys, and dialogue with other Christian churches. (vatican.va)

Family background and education

Robert Francis Prevost was born on 14 September 1955 in Chicago, Illinois, to Louis Marius Prevost and Mildred Agnes Martínez, both Chicago natives. He grew up in Dolton, a suburb south of the city, with his older brothers, Louis Martín and John Joseph. The family belonged to Saint Mary of the Assumption parish, where his parents were active participants in parish life and where he received his elementary education. His childhood home and school thus lay within the same local Catholic community. (vatican.va)

Both parents worked in education. Louis Marius served in the United States Navy during the Second World War before becoming a teacher and subsequently a principal, working in Brookwood School District 167 in Glenwood and at Mount Carmel Elementary School in Chicago Heights. Mildred Agnes worked as a librarian at Von Steuben, Mendel, and Saint Mary of the Assumption schools. Her employment at Saint Mary connected the family directly with the institution where Robert completed his primary studies. (vatican.va)

For secondary education, Prevost attended Saint Augustine Seminary High School in Michigan, graduating in 1973. The Augustinian school combined secondary schooling with preparation for students considering the priesthood. His activities extended beyond the classroom: he edited the yearbook, participated in student government, served as Library Club and senior-class president, and played tennis and bowled. A contemporary report in the Holland Sentinel, dated 7 October 1972, also identified him as a member of the National Honor Society. Former schoolmate Robert Schick later recalled his assistance to younger boarding students experiencing homesickness. (vatican.va)

In 1973, Prevost entered Villanova University in Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in mathematics in 1977. He also pursued studies in philosophy; the degree awarded was in mathematics rather than theology. Villanova, founded in 1842, was a Catholic university conducted by the Order of Saint Augustine, providing continuity with the religious tradition of his secondary school while placing his undergraduate work within a university setting. His formal entry into the Augustinian novitiate followed on 1 September 1977, after the completion of his degree. (villanova.edu)

Augustinian formation and religious leadership

Robert Francis Prevost entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine in Saint Louis on 1 September 1977, joining the Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel, based in Chicago. He made his first religious profession on 2 September 1978 and his solemn profession on 29 August 1981. His theological formation took place at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, which identifies him as a 1982 Master of Divinity graduate. These studies prepared him for ordained ministry while he completed his formation as an Augustinian friar. (vatican.va)

In September 1981, Prevost was sent to Rome to study canon law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, commonly called the Angelicum, and lived at the International College of Saint Monica. He was ordained a priest in the college’s chapel on 19 June 1982. He obtained his licentiate in canon law in 1984 and defended his doctoral dissertation, The Role of the Local Prior in the Order of Saint Augustine, in 1985; it was published in 1987. Its subject was the office of the superior of an individual Augustinian community, rather than the leadership of a diocese or of the order as a whole. (vatican.va)

Following missionary and formation work in Peru, Prevost was elected provincial prior of the Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel in 1998 and assumed office on 8 March 1999. This placed him at the head of his own province, an intermediate level of religious government distinct from both an individual community and the worldwide order. His provincial leadership followed experience as a community prior and director of religious formation, responsibilities that combined the organization of common life with the preparation of candidates for Augustinian ministry. (vatican.va)

The Ordinary General Chapter elected Prevost prior general in 2001, and he was elected to a second six-year term in 2007, serving until 2013. Unlike his provincial office, this responsibility extended to the entire international order. The general chapter was the mechanism through which representatives considered the order’s common affairs and elected its leadership. Under the Augustinian constitutions, ordinary general chapters met every six years; the central government’s report to them covered religious formation, studies, pastoral activities, missions, cooperation within the Augustinian family, social questions, and finances. His two terms therefore involved leadership accountable to a representative chapter, rather than an indefinite appointment. (vatican.va)

At the 2013 general chapter, Alejandro Moral Antón succeeded Prevost as prior general. The order’s contemporary account recorded the participation of ninety friars in deliberations lasting approximately two and a half weeks. Prevost subsequently returned to his Chicago province, serving as director of formation at Saint Augustine Convent, first councillor, and provincial vicar. These assignments returned him from worldwide government to the formation and administration of his home province. (augustinians.net)

Missionary and episcopal ministry in Peru

Robert Francis Prevost began his missionary service in Peru in 1985, when he joined the Augustinian mission in Chulucanas, in the northern region of Piura. His assignments combined parish work with ecclesiastical administration: he was parochial vicar at Holy Family Cathedral and chancellor of the Territorial Prelature of Chulucanas. After returning to the United States in 1987 to serve as his province’s vocations and missions director, he went back to Peru in 1988, this time to Trujillo. There he directed a joint formation project for Augustinian candidates from the vicariates of Chulucanas, Iquitos, and Apurímac. He served as community prior from 1988 to 1992 and formation director from 1988 to 1998. These responsibilities concerned preparation for Augustinian religious life, distinct from his simultaneous work educating diocesan seminarians. (vatican.va)

In the Archdiocese of Trujillo, Prevost taught canon law, moral theology, and patristics at the Major Seminary of San Carlos and San Marcelo, where he also served as director of studies and acting rector. His archdiocesan responsibilities included service as judicial vicar and membership of the college of consultors. Alongside these educational and administrative offices, he maintained parish ministry: he was parish priest of Our Lady Mother of the Church, subsequently established as Saint Rita of Cascia Parish, from 1988 to 1999, and administrator of Our Lady of Montserrat Parish from 1992 to 1999. His election to provincial leadership brought him back to the United States in 1999; leadership of the worldwide Augustinian order followed. (vatican.va)

Pope Francis returned Prevost to Peru by appointing him apostolic administrator of Chiclayo and titular bishop of Sufar on 3 November 2014. He took canonical possession on 7 November, before receiving episcopal ordination on 12 December, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Archbishop James Patrick Green, the apostolic nuncio to Peru, ordained him in Chiclayo’s Cathedral of Saint Mary. The initial appointment placed him in charge as administrator rather than as the diocese’s appointed bishop. That status changed on 26 September 2015, when Francis named him Bishop of Chiclayo. Shortly beforehand, on 24 August 2015, Prevost had acquired Peruvian citizenship through naturalization. (vaticannews.va)

His responsibilities extended beyond Chiclayo through the Peruvian Episcopal Conference. Elected second vice-president in March 2018, he was reelected in 2022. He also served on its economic council and chaired its commission for culture and education. On 15 April 2020, Francis additionally appointed him apostolic administrator of Callao while he remained Bishop of Chiclayo. In an interview published by the Diocese of Callao on 24 April, Prevost identified the distance between the two dioceses and their size as practical challenges. With pandemic restrictions preventing ordinary gatherings, he described using technological means to begin contact with the diocese and emphasized listening to priests, religious, and laypeople in carrying out the additional assignment. (vaticannews.va)

Roman Curia and cardinalate

On 30 January 2023, Pope Francis appointed Robert Francis Prevost prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, succeeding Cardinal Marc Ouellet in both offices. Prevost, until then bishop of Chiclayo in Peru, was also granted the personal title of archbishop and became archbishop-bishop emeritus of Chiclayo. The appointment announcement specified that he would assume office on 12 April 2023, distinguishing the date of his appointment from the beginning of his tenure. He had already served as a member of the Congregation for Bishops, the dicastery’s predecessor, since 21 November 2020. (press.vatican.va)

As prefect, Prevost headed the department of the Roman Curia responsible for episcopal appointments and the exercise of episcopal office in the Latin Church, subject to the jurisdiction reserved to the Dicastery for Evangelization. Under the 2022 apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium, the department considers proposals from local churches, episcopal conferences, and papal representatives, consults the relevant ecclesiastical authorities, and provides for appropriate participation by members of the dioceses concerned. Its remit also includes bishops’ resignations, diocesan reorganization, and the formation of newly appointed bishops. Where difficulties in episcopal governance require intervention, it can arrange visitations, assess their findings, and propose measures to the pope. These responsibilities made the prefecture broader than the selection of candidates alone. (vatican.va)

The presidency of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America was institutionally linked to the prefecture: article 112 of Praedicate Evangelium assigns both offices to the same person. Established within the dicastery, the commission studies the life and development of Latin American churches, assists them through advice and financial resources, and fosters relations between institutions working in the region and the Curia. Prevost’s two appointments therefore combined a general responsibility for episcopal affairs with a specifically Latin American institutional mandate. (vatican.va)

Francis announced Prevost’s inclusion among the forthcoming cardinals on 9 July 2023 and created him a cardinal at the consistory of 30 September. He entered the College of Cardinals as a cardinal deacon and was assigned the deaconry of Saint Monica in Rome, taking formal possession on 28 January 2024. On 4 October 2023, Francis also appointed him a member of seven other dicasteries: Evangelization’s section for first evangelization and new particular churches; the Doctrine of the Faith; the Eastern Churches; the Clergy; Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life; Culture and Education; and Legislative Texts. He additionally became a member of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State. (press.vatican.va)

On 6 February 2025, Francis promoted Prevost to the order of cardinal bishops, assigning him the title of the suburbicarian Church of Albano. The appointment changed his cardinalatial rank and titular assignment from the deaconry of Saint Monica to Albano; the official announcement continued to identify him as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. (press.vatican.va)

Election and inauguration of the pontificate

The death of Pope Francis on 21 April 2025 opened the vacancy of the Apostolic See. On 28 April, the cardinals gathered in Rome agreed that the conclave to elect his successor would begin on 7 May. That afternoon, 133 cardinal electors entered the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. Each swore an oath binding him to secrecy during and after the election; the proceedings were then closed to outsiders. The election required a majority of at least two-thirds of the electors, or 89 votes. These arrangements made the choice an internal ecclesiastical election, insulated by its rules from external intervention. (vaticannews.va)

Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected on 8 May, the conclave’s second day, taking the name Leo XIV as the 267th pope. Vatican News subsequently identified the decisive vote as the fourth ballot. White smoke publicly signalled the successful election, and Cardinal Protodeacon Dominique Mamberti announced the result from the central loggia of Saint Peter’s Basilica with the traditional Habemus papam formula. The public announcement and the officially reported ballot number should be distinguished from the confidential deliberations: they do not establish individual cardinals’ votes, the successive totals received by candidates, or negotiations within the conclave. The electors’ secrecy oath covered matters relating to the election, not merely their own ballots. (vaticannews.va)

Leo became the first pope born in the United States and the first member of the Order of Saint Augustine elected to the papacy. His Chicago birth marked a geographical first, while his religious affiliation marked a distinct institutional first. His long ministry in Peru also formed part of the background to his election; the designation “American pope” did not encompass his entire ecclesiastical career. In his first public address, he greeted the crowd with “Peace be with all of you,” called for dialogue and bridge-building, and addressed his former diocese of Chiclayo in Spanish. These remarks presented a pastoral mission to the worldwide Catholic Church, rather than a national political mandate. (apnews.com)

The inaugural Mass took place in Saint Peter’s Square on 18 May 2025. Its rites expressed the new pope’s relationship to the Apostle Peter and his responsibility as bishop of Rome. They included prayer at Peter’s tomb and the conferral of the pallium and the Ring of the Fisherman. The pallium, a woollen liturgical vestment, symbolized the shepherd’s care for the flock; the ring recalled Peter’s identity as a fisherman and his mission to gather people into the Church. These insignia placed the inauguration’s emphasis on the responsibilities of the office and continuity with Peter. (vaticannews.va)

In his homily, Leo identified love and unity as the central dimensions of Peter’s mission. Drawing on John 21, in which the risen Jesus questions Peter about his love and entrusts him with the flock, he described pastoral authority as self-sacrificing service. He explicitly rejected coercion, religious propaganda and the exercise of power as substitutes for love, and warned against governing as an autocrat. Unity, in this account, did not require eliminating differences: it involved communion that respected personal histories and peoples’ social and religious cultures. He extended the call to cooperation beyond Catholics to other Christians, followers of other religions and people of goodwill, connecting the Church’s internal communion with reconciliation in the wider world. (vatican.va)

Papal name, motto, and heraldry

Leo XIV explained his choice of name to the College of Cardinals on 10 May 2025. While acknowledging several reasons, he identified the principal reference as Leo XIII, whose encyclical Rerum novarum, dated 15 May 1891, addressed the social consequences of industrialization. That document examined relations between employers and workers, the concentration of wealth, and the protection of working people while defending private property. Leo XIV drew an explicit parallel between those circumstances and contemporary technological change, particularly artificial intelligence. His stated concern was how the Catholic Church could apply its social teaching to new challenges involving human dignity, justice, and labour; the name therefore indicated a particular historical reference rather than simply repeating an earlier papal name. (vatican.va)

His Latin motto, In Illo uno unum, is translated as “In the One, we are one,” or, with its theological referent made explicit, “In the one Christ we are one.” It comes from Augustine of Hippo’s Exposition on Psalm 127. Augustine’s argument concerns the unity of Christians in Christ: although believers are numerous, they form one body with Christ as its head. The motto had already been Prevost’s episcopal motto. In a 2023 interview subsequently quoted by Vatican News, he associated it with the Augustinian emphasis on communion and described promoting unity within the Church as fundamental to his ministry. Its meaning is therefore specifically ecclesial and Christological, rather than a general appeal to agreement. (vaticannews.va)

The shield of his coat of arms is divided diagonally. Its upper field is blue and contains a silver or white lily; the lower field is white, rendered in an ivory tone, and bears a red flaming heart pierced by an arrow above a book. The explanation published by the Holy See Press Office on 14 May 2025 identifies the lily as a symbol of the Virgin Mary and also associates the blue field with Marian symbolism. It identifies the heart and book with the Augustinian tradition. These stated meanings distinguish the official explanation from interpretations based merely on the lily’s resemblance to civic or dynastic emblems. (press.vatican.va)

The pierced heart evokes Augustine’s account in the Confessions of his heart being wounded by divine love. The book signifies the word of God, understood as transforming the human heart, and also recalls Augustine’s writings. Above the shield is a silver mitre decorated with three gold bands joined by a vertical gold strip. Behind it are crossed Petrine keys, one gold and one silver, joined by a red cord; the motto appears beneath the shield. These external papal insignia surround the Marian and Augustinian imagery that gives the shield its individual character. (press.vatican.va)

Church governance, synodality, and mission

On 10 May 2025, Leo XIV told the College of Cardinals that his pontificate would continue the course established by the Second Vatican Council and articulated in Francis’s apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium. He identified Christ-centred proclamation, the missionary renewal of the entire Christian community, collegiality, synodality, attention to the faithful’s sense of faith, care for marginalized people, and dialogue with contemporary society as fundamental priorities. Evangelization in this context meant proclaiming Jesus Christ and orienting the Church’s communal life towards that mission, rather than treating missionary activity as a separate institutional department. His meeting with the cardinals included an opportunity for them to offer advice and concrete proposals. (vatican.va)

Collegiality and synodality describe related but distinct dimensions of governance in the Catholic Church. Collegiality concerns the bishops’ shared responsibility for the Church in communion with the bishop of Rome; synodality encompasses the participation of the whole people of God, including clergy, religious, and lay Catholics, through listening, discernment, and cooperation according to their different ministries. Neither term simply denotes majority rule: ecclesial consultation operates within the Church’s differentiated responsibilities and teaching authority. The International Theological Commission’s 2018 explanation distinguishes the participation of all the faithful from the specifically episcopal exercise of collegial responsibility. (vatican.va)

Leo’s first extraordinary consistory, held on 7–8 January 2026, brought together approximately 170 cardinals to advise him on the Church’s priorities. They selected mission and evangelization in the light of Evangelii gaudium, and synodality, from four proposed subjects; liturgy and the Roman Curia’s service under Praedicate evangelium were the other options. The working arrangements put listening into practice: participants sat at round tables in 20 language-based groups, with individual interventions limited to approximately three minutes. Reports from groups representing local Churches received particular attention. The gathering was intended as an exercise in shared discernment, not as a meeting that would produce a negotiated final document. (vaticannews.va)

In his concluding address, Leo connected this consultation with practical changes in ecclesial relationships: formation in listening for seminarians, priests, bishops, and lay collaborators; revitalized participatory bodies; pastoral visits; and stronger relationships among the pope, episcopal conferences, and local Churches. He also emphasized listening to victims of sexual abuse. He invited further written assessments from the cardinals and proposed another two-day consistory in June, followed by annual meetings lasting three or four days. These were stated plans for continuing consultation, while the implementation of the synodal process remained directed towards an ecclesial assembly planned for 2028. (press.vatican.va)

The second extraordinary consistory, on 26–27 June 2026, continued this approach. Its four sessions addressed the contemporary setting for Gospel proclamation, power and love in social life, the Church’s contribution to the common good, and implementation of the Synod on Synodality. In opening the meeting, Leo asked for candid counsel and presented synodality as a disposition of openness and understanding serving mission. The announced agenda and opening address established subjects for deliberation; they were not themselves legislative enactments or evidence that particular institutional reforms had been formally adopted. (vaticannews.va)

His public schedule was interrupted in October 2026. On 13 October he entered Rome’s Gemelli hospital and underwent surgery removing the lower lobe of his right lung, according to Vatican statements reported by the Associated Press. The Vatican had cancelled his audiences through 20 October. At the time of that report, no decision had been announced on whether his planned November journey to South America would proceed. (apnews.com)

Social teaching and major documents

Leo XIV’s first apostolic exhortation, Dilexi te (“I have loved you”), was signed on 4 October 2025 and published on 9 October. Addressed to all Christians, its 121 numbered paragraphs develop a text begun by Pope Francis during his final months. Leo adopted that work, adding reflections and explicitly connecting it with Francis’s encyclical Dilexit nos, which concerned Christ’s human and divine love. The exhortation grounds responsibility toward people experiencing poverty in the Bible: its title comes from Revelation 3:9, while Matthew 25:31–46 supplies the identification of service to the hungry, strangers, and prisoners with service to Christ. Care for the poor is consequently presented as integral to Christian faith and holiness, rather than an optional charitable activity. (vatican.va)

Dilexi te distinguishes material deprivation from social marginalization, cultural exclusion, and the denial of rights or freedom. It rejects the assumption that poverty generally demonstrates a lack of personal merit and calls for action against its structural causes. Its concrete examples of Christian responsibility include caring for the sick, providing education, accompanying migrants, and defending women subjected to exclusion or violence. Leo also defends almsgiving as a direct encounter with another person’s suffering, while insisting that private generosity neither replaces public authorities’ responsibilities nor removes the obligation to pursue justice. The document thus joins immediate assistance to institutional change rather than treating them as competing alternatives. (vaticannews.va)

His first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas, subtitled “On safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence,” was signed on 15 May 2026 and released on 25 May. Its date marked the 135th anniversary of Leo XIII’s Rerum novarum (1891). It situates digitalization, artificial intelligence, and robotics within Catholic social teaching, understood as a developing tradition of principles, moral discernment, and practical guidance. Rather than simply repeating responses to industrialization, Leo calls for applying that tradition to technologies that influence decisions, institutions, and everyday life. Human dignity and the common good provide the principal standards for that assessment. (press.vatican.va)

The encyclical’s position is not that technology is inherently hostile to humanity: Leo presents it as capable of improving living conditions, but also of causing harm when directed toward domination or narrowly concentrated advantage. His ethical argument locates responsibility in the choices of those who design, finance, regulate, and use technological systems. Proposed safeguards include accountable decision-making, appropriate legal frameworks, independent oversight, and user education. He also applies subsidiarity to digital governance: decisions about data, algorithms, and platforms should involve cooperation across social and institutional levels rather than remain exclusively with a small group of powerful actors. These are prescriptions of papal teaching, not empirical demonstrations of particular technologies’ effects. (vatican.va)

The documents also illustrate different forms of papal communication. Magnifica humanitas, an encyclical, offers an extended exposition of social doctrine; Dilexi te, an apostolic exhortation, particularly urges Christians to embody their faith through practical commitment. An address responds more directly to a particular audience and occasion. In his address to the College of Cardinals on 10 May 2025, for example, Leo identified AI’s implications for dignity, justice, and work as reasons to draw upon the Church’s social teaching—a concise statement of concerns subsequently developed in the encyclical. (vatican.va)

Christian unity and interreligious encounters

Leo XIV’s apostolic letter In unitate fidei, dated 23 November 2025, marked the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea in 325. It presented the council’s confession of Jesus Christ as a foundation for shared Christian belief and renewed commitment to unity. Leo explained the controversy surrounding Arius through the council’s affirmation that the Son is homoousios, or of the same substance, with the Father, rather than a created intermediary between God and humanity. He also distinguished Nicaea’s formulation from its subsequent development at Constantinople in 381, which produced the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. The letter connected this doctrinal inheritance with Christian conduct, particularly service to vulnerable people, and described ecumenism as a process of reconciliation through dialogue, prayer, conversion, and the exchange of spiritual gifts—not simply acceptance of existing divisions or a return to an earlier historical arrangement. (vatican.va)

On 28 November 2025, Leo joined Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and other Christian leaders and representatives for an ecumenical prayer service at İznik, ancient Nicaea, near the archaeological remains of the Basilica of Saint Neophytos. In his address, he identified belief in Christ’s divinity as an existing bond among Christian communities, including those that did not use the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed in their worship. He distinguished that shared confession from the full communion still being sought, urging mutual love and dialogue while acknowledging continuing divisions. The commemoration thus expressed an existing religious bond and a commitment to further reconciliation, rather than an institutional reunification of the participating churches. (vatican.va)

Leo and Bartholomew signed a joint declaration at the Patriarchal Palace in Istanbul on 29 November. They reaffirmed their intention to seek the restoration of full communion between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, acknowledging unresolved obstacles. The declaration supported the Joint International Commission for theological dialogue and identified prayer, fraternal contacts, and practical cooperation as complementary means of rapprochement. It also recalled the sixtieth anniversary of the 1965 declaration by Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras that removed the mutual excommunications of 1054 from the churches’ memory and midst. This historical reference accompanied, rather than replaced, their recognition that full communion remained a future objective. (vatican.va)

The declaration addressed a common date for Easter, noting that Christians had celebrated the feast together in 2025. It committed the two leaders to continued exploration of a solution allowing a common annual celebration; it did not establish a new calendar or announce a binding agreement. Their statement also rejected the use of religion or God’s name to justify violence. Invoking the sixtieth anniversary of Nostra aetate, it defended interreligious dialogue as necessary for coexistence among different traditions and cultures, while distinguishing such dialogue from religious syncretism or confusion. (vatican.va)

Earlier on 29 November, Leo visited Istanbul’s Sultan Ahmed Mosque, commonly called the Blue Mosque, accompanied by Turkish officials and Muslim religious representatives. This was an interreligious encounter, distinct from the Christian prayer services and Catholic–Orthodox discussions. Vatican reporting described his conduct as silent, reflective, and attentive to his hosts’ explanations. The Associated Press reported that the Vatican corrected its initial account by removing a reference to a brief period of silent prayer. The documented visit therefore involved respectful presence and listening, not a joint Christian–Muslim worship service. Leo followed Benedict XVI, who visited the mosque in 2006, and Francis, who visited in 2014. (vaticannews.va)

Apostolic journeys and international engagement

Leo XIV’s first foreign apostolic journey took him to Türkiye and Lebanon from 27 November to 2 December 2025. On 27 November he visited the Atatürk Mausoleum in Ankara, met the president, and addressed civil authorities and diplomats before flying to Istanbul. On 28 November he met clergy and pastoral workers at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, visited a nursing home, and travelled to İznik for the Nicaea commemoration. His Istanbul programme on 29 November included encounters with religious leaders and Mass at the Volkswagen Arena; on 30 November he attended the Divine Liturgy at the Patriarchal Church of Saint George before departing for Beirut. (vatican.va)

The Lebanese stage began on 30 November with separate meetings with the president, parliamentary speaker, and prime minister. Pastoral engagements on 1 December included prayer at Saint Charbel’s tomb in Annaya, a gathering with clergy and pastoral workers at Harissa, and a youth meeting at Bkerké. On 2 December Leo visited De la Croix Hospital, prayed silently at the Beirut port explosion site, and celebrated Mass on the waterfront before returning to Rome. These hospital, pilgrimage, and liturgical visits were distinct from the journey’s formal meetings with state officials. (vatican.va)

On 28 March 2026 Leo made a one-day visit to Monaco, travelling by helicopter from Vatican City. Following the palace welcome and a courtesy visit to the prince, he met the Catholic community in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. A separate gathering outside Sainte-Dévote brought together young people and catechumens, people preparing for Christian initiation. The principal public liturgy was Mass at Louis II Stadium that afternoon; he returned to Vatican City the same evening. (vatican.va)

His first African journey, from 13 to 23 April 2026, covered four countries. In Algeria on 13–15 April, he visited Algiers and Annaba, including the Great Mosque, the archaeological remains of Hippo, and the Basilica of Saint Augustine, where he celebrated Mass. The Cameroon stage, 15–18 April, connected Yaoundé, Bamenda, and Douala: engagements included a peace meeting in Bamenda, Mass at Japoma Stadium, an orphanage visit, and an encounter with university students and professors. In Angola, 18–21 April, he celebrated Mass in Kilamba and Saurimo, prayed at the Muxima shrine, and met church personnel in Luanda. The final stage in Equatorial Guinea, 21–23 April, encompassed Malabo, Mongomo, and Bata, with hospital and prison visits, a youth-and-family gathering, and Masses. Each national stage also included a presidential courtesy visit and an address to civil authorities and diplomats, institutionally separate from the pastoral programme. (vatican.va)

The journey to Spain on 6–12 June 2026 proceeded through Madrid, Barcelona, and the Canary Islands. In Madrid, Leo met King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, the prime minister, and parliamentarians; pastoral activities included the CEDIA 24 Horas social project, a youth vigil, Corpus Christi Mass and procession, and a diocesan gathering. He reached Barcelona on 9 June. On 10 June he visited Brians 1 prison and Montserrat, met charitable organizations, and celebrated Mass at the Sagrada Família with the inauguration of its Jesus Christ tower. On 11 June he met migrant-support organizations at Arguineguín in Gran Canaria. The following day he visited migrants at Tenerife’s Las Raíces centre, met integration organizations, and celebrated Mass at Santa Cruz de Tenerife before returning to Rome. (vatican.va)

A further completed journey, to France on 25–28 September 2026, combined presidential and UNESCO meetings in Paris with worship at Notre-Dame, pastoral encounters at Lourdes, and interreligious and European meetings in Metz. This completed itinerary must be distinguished from the published programme for Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru on 6–17 November 2026, which, as of 15 October 2026, remained forthcoming rather than part of Leo’s completed travel record. (vatican.va)

References

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35. L’enciclica di Leone XIV: l’IA serva l’umanità, non il potere di pochivaticannews.va
36. Apostolic Letter In Unitate Fidei on the 1700th Anniversary of the Council of Nicaea (23 November 2025)vatican.va
37. Apostolic Journey to Türkiye: Ecumenical Prayer service near the archaeological excavations of the ancient Basilica of Saint Neophytos in İznik (28 November 2025)vatican.va
38. Apostolic Journey of His Holiness to Türkiye: Joint Declaration of the Holy Father Leo XIV and His Holiness Bartholomew I (29 November 2025)vatican.va
39. Pope Leo visits Blue Mosque, one of most important in Istanbulvaticannews.va
40. Apostolic Journey of His Holiness to Türkiye and Lebanon with Pilgrimage to İznik (Türkiye) on the occasion of the 1700th Anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea (27 November–2 December 2025)vatican.va
41. Apostolic Journey of the Holy Father to the Principality of Monaco (28 March 2026)vatican.va
42. Apostolic Journey of the Holy Father to Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea (13–23 April 2026)vatican.va
43. Apostolic Journey of the Holy Father to Spain (6–12 June 2026)vatican.va
44. Apostolic Journey of the Holy Father to France and Visit to the Headquarters of UNESCO (25–28 September 2026)vatican.va
45. Apostolic Journey of the Holy Father to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru (6–17 November 2026)vatican.va