Nicole Winfield

The Vatican on Friday released the first images of Pope Leo XIV since his lung cancer surgery, showing him celebrating Mass, as doctors said that tests confirmed the "continued improvement" in his recovery.

Pope Leo XIV met with a top aide on Thursday and resumed working from the hospital, as doctors reported his lung had recovered well from surgery to remove a cancerous nodule.

The pontiff's tweet followed comments by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, criticizing the public firing squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan.

Pope Leo XIV took a first step Friday to lay the groundwork for the eventual conclave that will elect his successor: He appointed Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle as the new dean of the College of Cardinals, elevating his profile as a papal contender in the process.

Church leaders will meet in Rome next week to understand how "The Joy of Love", Pope Francis' 2016 document on divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, has been implemented.

The Vatican has published a papal decree repealing 2021 salary cuts that Pope Francis had imposed on many Vatican employees as part of the Holy See's COVID-19 cost-saving measures.

Pope Leo XIV, history's first pope from the U.S., called for a renewed commitment to peace on Sunday (Sept. 13) as he marked the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on his home country.

Pope Leo XIV began a summer vacation on Sunday, capping a whirlwind finale to the first half of 2026 in which he emerged as a powerful global statesman on issues from artificial intelligence to war and flexed decisive papal muscle to govern internal church problems.

The ultraconservative Catholics insisted they were merely saving souls and were victims of an unjust sanction by the Holy See.

The ultratraditionalist Society of St. Pius X defied Pope Leo XIV by consecrating four bishops without his consent at its seminary in Econe, Switzerland. The move incurs an automatic excommunication for the bishops involved.

The Society of St. Pius X, which celebrates the traditional Latin Mass and rejects the modernizing reforms of the Catholic Church, is planning a highly organized, four-day, livestreamed extravaganza for the consecrations at its Swiss seminary.

The Vatican has long opposed multinational mining corporations, especially in Latin America and in favor of the Indigenous peoples, whose lands and livelihoods are often ravaged by mining projects.

The pontiff's day trip marked the midway point of his summer 2026 grand tour of Italy. 

Past popes have apologized for the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but none have publicly acknowledged the role their predecessors played in giving European sovereigns explicit authority to subjugate and enslave "infidels."

Leo believes the AI revolution poses the same existential questions that the Industrial Revolution posed over a century ago.

The Vatican is sending new signals about how it intends to minister to LGBTQ+ Catholics in the Pope Leo XIV era, with signs of openness and limitations after Pope Francis ushered in a notable welcome during his 12-year pontificate.

Leo has made some significant decisions so far, and has several challenges looming.

Vatican prosecutors on Thursday seemingly defied an appeals court order to turn over to the defense all the evidence gathered in the Vatican’s big financial trial, setting the stage for another clash in the long-running case.

Pope Leo XIV prayed Monday in the Vatican with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, and vowed to keep working to overcome differences "no matter how intractable they may appear," in a historic meeting with the first female leader of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion.

Pope Leo XIV told inmates at one of Equatorial Guinea's notorious prisons on Wednesday that they are not alone, as he delivered a message of hope during a visit that drew attention to prison conditions, human rights abuses and injustices that campaigners have denounced for years here.