Everyone is waiting for Leo XIV to reshape the Roman Curia. Five department heads are already over 75, and there will be six by the end of the year. Vatican watchers are also keeping eyes on Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the sostituto –think “papal chief-of-staff” – who has had a controversial tenure in [...]

Rumors swirled last week surrounding the future of Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra, Sostituto of the Secretariat of State, some of them saying the long-serving papal “chief of staff” will become the pope’s next nuncio to Italy.

If confirmed, it would mark the beginning of a broad domino effect sweeping Vatican appointments, extending from the [...]

Last February 18th, the scaffolding inside the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican came down, a sign the the traditional pontifical abode is ready for Pope Leo to take up residence.

The news has circulated through the Vatican grapevine, with some trepidation.

Leo XIV’s move to the Apostolic Palace will, in [...]

There was much anticipation surrounding the announced meeting between the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, and the Superior General of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X, Fr. Davide Pagliarani.

Heading into the meeting, however, the parties understood their conversation would be the first of [...]

The choice of preachers for the Lenten Spiritual Exercises has always had a special significance, and Pope Leo XIV’s choice of a Trappist bishop from Norway to offer this year’s retreat to the Roman Curia is no exception.

Popes generally chose among those they held in highest regard, often ahead of an important assignment [...]

Leo XIV’s speech last week to participants in the plenary session of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith was highly anticipated. After Leo XIV agreed to finalize the documents left on the table by Pope Francis, it was unclear whether the Pope would maintain the dicastery’s stance or introduce a change.

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Ahead of the conclave that elected Robert Francis Cardinal Prevost OSA to succeed Pope Francis in the See of Peter, legendary Vatican beat journalist John L. Allen Jr. – who died last week at the age of 61 – described the man we now know by the name of Pope Leo XIV as [...]

Pope Leo XIV’s decision to return the celebration of the Missa in coena Domini – the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper — to his cathedral basilica of St. John Lateran is another step in the new pope’s deliberate work to re-establish traditional papal customs.

By restoring this and other practices, Leo XIV [...]

No concrete results came from Leo XIV’s first extraordinary consistory, which took place over two days, Jan. 7-8. None were expected.

Nearly two hundred cardinals participated in the talks, which focused – per the cardinals’ own choice – on evangelization and synodality, two of the four themes Leo proposed for their consideration.

The liturgical [...]

Through the first eight months of his reign, Pope Leo XIV has conducted himself as a transitional leader. The challenges he faced and the decisions he made were all somehow shaped by Pope Francis, who initiated the Holy Year and remained its principal point of reference until its end.

This period has been a [...]