The Vatican has released the framework for a fall meeting with the heads of Eastern Catholic Churches and presidents of bishops' conferences, marking the 10th anniversary of Amoris Laetitia and focusing on the Church's pastoral approach to families.
Pope Leo XIV spent what is traditionally his weekly day off on Tuesday issuing a flurry of legislation and appointments June 30, overhauling the Vatican's financial watchdog agency, revising the governing structure of the Vicariate of Rome and making several appointments in the Roman Curia.
After the Society of St. Pius X created four new bishops in defiance of Pope Leo XIV, the Vatican declared that the bishops, the men who consecrated them and the priests and laity who adhered to the schism, had been excommunicated.
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.
"We want the faith of the church in order to remain in the church, and we want the church within the faith, even if those opposed to us refuse to understand this," said the group's superior general.
Pope Leo XIV has named Sr. Alessandra Smerilli prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the Vatican announced June 30, making her the latest woman elevated to lead a major Vatican office under the new pontificate.
"With a sorrowful yet hopeful heart, I feel it is my duty, through the authority received from Christ, to ask you to desist from your intended act," the pope wrote.
Before placing the white woolen bands symbolizing authority around the shoulders of 35 new metropolitan archbishops, Pope Leo XIV urged the church's pastors to become "builders of unity" within the church.
Pope Leo XIV offered prayers for the victims of devastating twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela as the death toll continues to climb and rescuers race to save people trapped under collapsed buildings.
