Middle East

President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House April 16 that he does not see a meeting with Pope Leo XIV as “necessary” after his social media tirade.

“Only by returning to negotiations can the war be brought to an end,” he said in remarks in Italian following his April 8 general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

The U.S. bishops’ president said that President Donald Trump threatening Iran’s “whole civilization will die tonight” without a deal was morally unjustifiable.

Catholics during Holy Week should continue to “pray ardently” for a de-escalation of violence in the Middle East, Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, …

Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Franciscan Custos Father Francesco Ielpo gave an annual pre-Easter press conference on March 31. 

Pope Leo answered questions in Italian, English and Spanish as he was leaving Castel Gandolfo, a lakeside town 13 miles southeast of Rome, after his customary Tuesday day off. 

The Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem issued an Easter message calling the Iran war an “expanding wreckage” and its timing a “deep darkness.”

At his first Palm Sunday, Pope Leo XIV declared that Jesus, the King of Peace, embraces all suffering in human history and cries out from the cross against war.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, and Father Francesco Ielpo, the custos of the Holy Land, were prevented from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulcher by Israeli …

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher remains a place of continuous prayer despite restricted access to the faithful, according to a statement released by the Custody of the Holy Land.