VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Leo XIV met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for the first time on Thursday, and the two men discussed the urgent need to provide assistance to civilians in Gaza and to pursue a two-state solution to end the conflict in the region.

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Leo XIV called for “deep reflection” in the United States about the treatment of migrants held in detention, saying that “many people who have lived for years and years and years, never causing problems, have been deeply affected by what is going on right now.”

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Leo XIV on Saturday bestowed one of the Catholic Church’s highest honors on St. John Henry Newman, the deeply influential 19th- century British convert and theologian, declaring him a doctor of the church and holding him up as a model for Catholic educators.