“People are getting tired of a secular, materialistic world,” said Cardinal Arborelius, who has purchased more than 20 Protestant churches for use as Catholic churches in his diocese. People, he said, have “become more aware of the threats” of modernity and are “more open to God.”

The prelate, who was in Poland to receive an honorary degree on May 18, also discussed the influence that Pope St. John Paul II had upon his life.

“St. John Paul has meant a lot to me,” he said. “He made me a bishop. He gave me that (bishop’s) cross. He came to Sweden,” and “somehow I am the son of his.”

“Our nation is faced with an affordable housing crisis that sees no sign of improvement,” Archbishop Shelton Fabre of Louisville, joined by the two presidents, wrote in a May 21 letter to leading members of the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations. “This crisis is further punctuated by the alarming rise in homelessness.”

The federal housing programs, they continued, “help people build better lives, and any cuts to funding or substantive programmatic changes that undermine the effectiveness of affordable housing programs should be opposed. Further, considering current economic conditions, flat funding for housing and community development programs is effectively a cut to these vital services.”

During a May 22 meeting with the prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Pope Leo XIV approved decrees that advanced six beatification causes.

Micheál Martin, the taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland, discussed peace in a May 22 audience with Pope Leo XIV.

“We had an extremely cordial and very honest meeting, which lasted longer than usual,” Dotsova said following the audience. “Pope Leo XIV shared that he expects Bulgaria, as a country located at a crossroad, to be one of the creators of bridges for peace, and he sent his blessing to the entire Bulgarian people.”

The lawmaker invited the Pope to visit the nation, and the Pontiff, in turn, “promised to do everything possible to continue the tradition” of papal visits to Bulgaria, the state-run Bulgarian News Agency reported.

Located in Southeast Europe, Bulgaria, a nation of 6.7 million (map), is 84% Christian (80% Orthodox) and 13% Muslim. Pope Francis made an apostolic journey there in 2019.

Pope Leo XIV today is making of pastoral visit to Acerra, a southern Italian city of 60,000 known for its Mafia-linked toxic waste pollution.

The Vatican newspaper warned that international aid is running out for the over one million Rohingya refugees who have fled Myanmar for neighboring Bangladesh (map).

The pilgrimage will wind its way up the Eastern states to New England, and then back to the south, before concluding in Philadelphia on July 5.

Cardinal Czerny, whose family left Czechoslovakia for Canada when he was two, spoke about Fathers Jan Bula and Václav Drbola, who will be beatified on June 6. Their lives, he said, are “proof that no violence can stifle the life of God in those who entrust themselves to Him.”

The conference, entitled Blessed Martyrs of Communism, took place on May 20.

In his second and final address this morning in Acerra, a southern Italian city known for its pollution, Pope Leo XIV called for individual responsibility and conversion to counter environmental degradation.