Pope Leo XVI arrived in Castel Gandolfo on July 6 (video). In doing so, he resumed the centuries-old papal custom, abandoned by Pope Francis after 2013, of residing there during much of the summer.

“When Pope Francis decided not to come, we were upset on an emotional level, beyond the economic level,” said Patrizia Gasperini, whose family runs a souvenir shop there.

Earlier in the day, at the conclusion of his Sunday Angelus address, Pope Leo said, “This afternoon, I will travel to Castel Gandolfo, where I intend to have a short period of rest. I hope that everyone will be able to enjoy some vacation time in order to restore both body and spirit.”

Referring to floods in central Texas, Pope Leo XIV expressed condolences at the conclusion of his July 6 Angelus address to “all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters, who were at the summer camp, in the disaster caused by flooding of the Guadalupe River.”

Pope Leo then told the pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square that “peace is a desire of all peoples, and it is the sorrowful cry of those torn apart by war. Let us ask the Lord to touch the hearts and inspire the minds of those who govern, that the violence of weapons be replaced by the pursuit of dialogue.”

Pope Leo XIV told pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his July 6 Angelus address that “we need laborers who are eager to work in the mission field, loving disciples who bear witness to the Kingdom of God in all places” (video).

Reflecting on the Gospel reading at Sunday Mass (Luke 10:1-12, 17-20), Pope Leo said that “there are few who are ready, on a daily basis, to labor in God’s harvest, cultivating the seed of the Gospel in their own hearts in order then to share it in their families, places of work or study, their social contexts and with those in need.”

To do so, the Pope continued, “we do not need too many theoretical ideas about pastoral plans. Instead, we need to pray to the Lord of the harvest. Priority must be given, then, to our relationship with the Lord and to cultivating our dialogue with him.

“In this way,” Pope Leo explained, “he will make us his laborers and send us into the field of the world to bear witness to his Kingdom.”

The village of Dolton, Illinois has purchased the boyhood home of Pope Leo XIV.

The small three-bedroom home in the Chicago suburb—which the Prevost family had sold years ago—was on the market before the papal conclave. But when Cardinal Prevost was elected, the owner pulled the property from the market. Officials of the Village of Dolton reached an agreement to buy the house, saying that it was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to own the former home of the first American Pontiff.

The government of Ukraine has revoked the citizenship of Metropolitan Onufriy, the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC).

Government officials said they had discovered that Metropolitan Onufriy acquired Russian citizenship in 2002. The government charged that the UOC leader “maintains ties to the Moscow patriarchate and deliberately opposed the acquisition of canonical independence of the Ukrainian Church from the Moscow Patriarchate, whose representatives openly support Russian aggression against Ukraine.”

Pope Leo XIV has named Archbishop Thibault Verny of Chambéry, France as the president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, replacing Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who has stepped down at the age of 81.

Archbishop Verny has been a member of the commission since 2022, and had chaired the French bishops’ commission on abuse of minors.

Cardinal O’Malley had headed the papal abuse commission since it was established by Pope Francis in 2013.

Msgr. Mariano Fazio, the second-ranking official in Opus Dei, has been named as a defendant in a human-trafficking complaint in Argentina.

The complaint charges that officials of Opus Dei recruited underage women to work in the group’s residences, under conditions that were described as approaching slavery. Opus Dei has insisted the complaint is without merit.

The office of the Synod of Bishops has released a new document, entitled “Pathways for the Implementation Phase of the Synod,” aimed to give “local churches throughout the world a shared framework that will make it easier to walk together.”

The document is offered in preparation for the “ecclesial assembly” scheduled for 2028, which is now described as the “culmination” of the Synod on Synodality. Introducing the document, Cardinal Mario Grech, the secretary-general of the Synod, said that “it is the urgency of this mission that drives us to implement the Synod, a task for which all the baptized share responsibility.”

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, said on July 3 that judges have been selected for the canonical trial of Father Marko Rupnik, the Slovenian priest and artist accused of abusing more than two dozen women.

In May 2020, Father Rupnik was declared excommunicated for the canonical offense of absolving an accomplice in a sin against the Sixth Commandment; the excommunication was lifted that same month. Asked about the excommunication, Cardinal Fernández replied, “It happens much more often than one might imagine, sometimes even in the same day.”

Some 600 children—half from Ukraine, and half from a Vatican summer camp—met with Pope Leo XIV in Paul VI Audience Hall on July 3.

In his conversation with the children, Pope Leo recalled attending Mass as a child; there, he encountered “the best friend of all: Jesus.”

“It is important to build bridges, to create friendship,” the Pope told the children. “Do not enter into war or conflict ... Jesus calls us all to be friends.”