Pope Leo XIV gives his apostolic blessing at the end of the general audience in St. Peter's Square on Nov. 12, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA.

Vatican City, Nov 12, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV reflected Wednesday on the world’s need for fraternity — a gift from Christ which frees us from selfishness and division.

Fraternity “is without doubt one of the great challenges for contemporary humanity, as Pope Francis saw clearly,” the pope said during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square Nov. 12.

“The fraternity given by Christ, who died and rose again, frees us from the negative logic of selfishness, division and arrogance,” he added.

Continuing his meditations on Christ’s death and resurrection, Leo said “to believe in the death and resurrection of Christ and to live paschal spirituality imbues life with hope and encourages us to invest in goodness.”

He observed that fraternity “cannot be taken for granted, it is not immediate. Many conflicts, many wars all over the world, social tensions and feelings of hatred would seem to prove the opposite.”

Fraternity “is not a beautiful but impossible dream; it is not the desire of a deluded few,” he emphasized, inviting the faithful “to go to the source, and above all to draw light and strength from him who alone frees us from the poison of enmity.”

The importance of relationships

The pope reflected that “fraternity stems from something deeply human. We are capable of relationship and, if we want, we are able to build authentic bonds between us. Without relationships, which support and enrich us from the very beginning of our life, we would not be able to survive, grow or learn. They are manifold, varied in form and depth. But it is certain that our humanity is best fulfilled when we exist and live together, when we succeed in experiencing authentic, not formal, bonds with the people around us.”

He warned that “if we turn in on ourselves, we risk falling ill with loneliness, and even a narcissism that is concerned with others only out of self-interest. The other is then reduced to someone from whom we can take, without ever being truly willing to give, to offer ourselves.”

Recalling that “disagreement, division and sometimes hatred can devastate even relationships between relatives, not only between strangers,” the pope cited St. Francis of Assisi’s greeting of “omnes fratres,” [“all brothers”] — “the inclusive way in which the saint placed all human beings on the same level, precisely because he recognized them in their common destiny of dignity, dialogue, welcome and salvation.”

Leo noted that Pope Francis had reproposed this approach in his encyclical Fratelli Tutti, emphasizing that the word “tutti” — Italian for “everyone” — “expresses an essential feature of Christianity, which ever since the beginning has been the proclamation of the Good News destined for the salvation of all, never in an exclusive or private form.”

He explained that “this fraternity is based on Jesus’ commandment, which is new insofar as he accomplished it himself, the superabundant fulfilment of the will of the Father: thanks to him, who loved us and gave himself for us, we can in turn love one another and give our lives for others, as children of the one Father and true brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.”

They weep and rejoice together

“Brothers and sisters support each other in hardship, they do not turn their back on those who are in need, and they weep and rejoice together in the active pursuit of unity, trust and mutual reliance,” the pope said. “The dynamic is that which Jesus himself gives to us: ‘Love one another as I have loved you’ (cf. John 15:12).”

He concluded his general audience by reminding the faithful that “the fraternity given by Christ, who died and rose again, frees us from the negative logic of selfishness, division and arrogance, and restores to us our original vocation, in the name of a love and a hope that are renewed every day. The Risen One has shown us the way to journey with him, to feel and to be ‘brothers and sisters all.’”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Pope Leo XIV celebrates Mass at Sant'Anselmo Church in Rome on Nov. 11, 2025, for the 125th anniversary of the church's consecration. Sant'Anselmo Church is part of a residential college and offices of the Benedictine Confederation, the governing body of the Order of St. Benedict. / Credit: Vatican Media.

Vatican City, Nov 12, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday celebrated Mass at a Benedictine monastery in Rome, where he urged the monks to confront modern challenges with prayer, study, and personal holiness.

Sant’Anselmo Church, located on the Aventine Hill, was consecrated on Nov. 11, 1900. It is part of a residential college and offices of the Benedictine Confederation, the governing body of the Order of St. Benedict. Saint Anselm was a Benedictine monk and doctor of the Church.

Upon his arrival at Sant’Anselmo Church, Leo was welcomed by the Abbot Primate of the Benedictines, Jeremias Schröder, who symbolically handed over the keys of the church to the pope.

The Holy Father recalled that the church was erected at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, when Pope Leo XIII “was convinced that your ancient order could be of great help to the good of all God’s people at a time full of challenges.”

“The monastery,” he continued, “has increasingly come to be seen as a place of growth, peace, hospitality, and unity, even during the darkest periods of history.”

Turning to the present day, Leo reflected on the challenges of the modern world, which “provoke and question us, raising issues never before encountered.”

He addressed the Benedictine monks directly, inviting them to respond to the demands of their vocation by “placing Christ at the center of our existence and our mission — beginning from that act of faith that leads us to recognize in him the Savior, and translating it into prayer, study, and the commitment of a holy life.”

He urged the monks of the Aventine to become “a beating heart within the great body of the Benedictine world — with the church at its center, according to the teachings of Saint Benedict.”

“In the industrious hive of Sant’Anselmo,” he added, “may this be the place from which everything begins and to which everything returns to be verified, confirmed, and deepened before God.”

The pope also reflected on the deeper meaning of the anniversary, saying that “the Dedication marks the solemn moment in the history of a sacred building when it is consecrated to be a place of encounter between space and time, between the finite and the infinite, between man and God: an open door toward eternity, where the soul finds an answer to ‘the tension between the circumstances of the moment and the light of time, of the larger horizon […] which opens us to the future as a final cause that attracts.’”

He went on to recall the teaching of the Second Vatican Council in Sacrosanctum Concilium, a constitution on the sacred liturgy, which “describes all this in one of its most beautiful pages, when it defines the Church as ‘human and divine, visible yet endowed with invisible realities, zealous in action and dedicated to contemplation, present in the world and yet a pilgrim; […] in such a way, however, that what is human in her is ordered and subordinated to the divine, the visible to the invisible, action to contemplation, the present reality to the future city toward which we are journeying.’”

“This,” the pope said, “is the experience of our lives and of the lives of all men and women of this world — searching for that ultimate and fundamental answer that ‘neither flesh nor blood’ can reveal, but only the Father who is in heaven; ultimately, a need for Jesus, ‘the Christ, the Son of the living God.’”

At the end of his homily, the Holy Father recalled that Jesus “is the one we are called to seek, and to him we are called to bring all those we meet — grateful for the gifts he has bestowed upon us, and above all for the love with which he has gone before us.”

“Then this temple,” Leo XIV concluded, “will increasingly become a place of joy, where we experience the beauty of sharing with others what we have freely received.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Swiss Guards and faithful pilgrims holding olive branches line the processional route in St. Peter’s Square for Palm Sunday celebrations, April 13, 2025. The ancient Vatican obelisk stands at the center of the square as clergy process toward the basilica. / Credit: Bénédicte Cedergren/EWTN News

Vatican City, Nov 11, 2025 / 09:30 am (CNA).

The Pontifical Swiss Guard this week opened an internal investigation to clarify an alleged act of antisemitism committed by one of its guards against two Jewish women in St. Peter’s Square, the Vatican confirmed. 

“The Pontifical Swiss Guard received a complaint regarding an incident that occurred at one of the entrances to Vatican City State in which elements interpreted as antisemitic were allegedly detected,” Holy See Press Office Director Matteo Bruni stated on Monday.

The reported incident took place during Pope Leo XIV’s Oct. 29 general audience commemorating the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the 1965 declaration on the Church’s relations with non-Christian religions.

According to a Nov. 7 report published in Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Israeli writer and theater director Michal Govrin said a Swiss Guard “hissed at” her and a female colleague, saying “les juifs, the Jews,” before “making a gesture of spitting in our direction with obvious contempt.”

The two women were part of an international Jewish delegation in Rome to participate in Nostra Aetate anniversary celebrations, which included the Oct. 29 audience with Pope Leo in St. Peter’s Square.

During that audience dedicated to interreligious dialogue, Pope Leo XIV emphasized that “the Church does not tolerate acts of antisemitism in any form” and reiterated “the Holy See’s commitment to friendship and respect towards our elder brothers in faith.”

According to the Vatican’s preliminary investigation, the complaint stems from “a dispute that arose regarding a request for a photograph while on duty.” Members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard are strictly prohibited from taking photographs with tourists or pilgrims while on duty.

Bruni on Monday explained that “the case is currently the subject of an internal verification procedure” and that this process “is being carried out in accordance with the principles of discretion and impartiality, in compliance with current regulations.”

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Swiss Guard, Eliah Cinotti, also confirmed that the alleged antisemitic incident involved “a photo taken at a duty station” in St. Peter’s Square.

“The case remains under internal investigation,” Cinotti explained to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. 

“There will be no further comments on the matter,” as the proceedings must remain “confidential,” he added.

In a Nov. 10 statement given to The Catholic Herald, Cinotti said: “The Pontifical Swiss Guard firmly distances itself from any expression or act of antisemitism.”

BALTIMORE - At their November Plenary Assembly, the bishops of the United States held a canonical consultation on a possible cause of beatification and canonization for Reverend Richard M. Thomas, a priest of the Society of Jesus. Bishop Thomas John Paprocki, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance, and Bishop Peter Baldacchino of Las Cruces, facilitated the discussion by the bishops. With 206 votes in favor, 4 votes against, and 1 abstention, the bishops affirmed their support for the advancement of the cause of beatification and canonization on the diocesan level.

The following brief biography of Father Richard Thomas, SJ, was drawn from information provided by the Diocese of Las Cruces:

Richard Thomas was born on March 1, 1928, in Seffner, Florida. He was educated in Catholic schools and graduated from Jesuit High School in Tampa. He entered the Jesuit order in 1945, and was ordained to the priesthood in San Francisco, California in 1958. In 1964, he was assigned to lead Our Lady’s Youth Center in El Paso, Texas, a ministry to the poor in south El Paso. He expanded the reach of Our Lady’s Youth Center to New Mexico and across the border to areas of Juarez, Mexico. 

On Christmas Day in 1972, prompted after reading Luke 14:12-14 where Jesus tells his followers to invite the poor - not their rich friends - to dine, Father Thomas invited a prayer group from El Paso to join him in serving dinner to the poor who lived and worked at a garbage dump in Juarez, Mexico. While Father Thomas and his group only took enough food to feed 150 people, more than 300 people came to dinner and each was served a full meal. With leftovers that were donated to three orphanages after the dinner, the group later realized that the Lord had multiplied the food; the event prompted the group to not only return to the garbage dump on a regular basis, but also led them to advocate for better income for the trash pickers, and start additional ministries to the poor such as food banks, a prisoner outreach program, a medical and dental clinic, and student scholarship assistance. It is said that while Father Thomas believed in miracles such as what happened at the Christmas dinner in 1972, he did not assign them a central place in his work or his message; instead, he chose to see them as ways that God would occasionally intervene to encourage and guide Christians to do His will. Father Thomas considered it the duty of every Christian to share with the poor and preached on Catholic social teaching and living out the Gospel values taught by Christ. 

As a gifted preacher and teacher, Father Thomas was a sought-after speaker and gave talks at conferences, seminars, and workshops around the world, and had a special charism in mobilizing lay people to get involved in the Church and in helping the poor in their local area. Father Thomas lived the virtue of fortitude heroically, having the courage of his convictions and courageously facing the opposition that arose as he did what he felt God was calling him to do. He also lived the virtue of justice in an extraordinary way. Working for a just society and championing people who were victims of inequality or oppression was an ever-present emphasis of his ministry. In trying to live a just life and work for justice for others, Fr. Thomas lived an ascetic lifestyle, profoundly exemplifying the virtue of temperance: he slept on an army cot or on the floor, lived without heating or cooling in the houses or cars he used, wore his clothes until they were threadbare, and gave away many things of his that the poor needed.

Father Richard Thomas died on May 8, 2006, in Las Cruces, after several years of declining health including a battle with cancer. He was laid to rest in the Jesuit plot of Concordia Cemetery in El Paso and leaves behind a legacy of a strong commitment to social justice and an unwavering obedience to God's word. 

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ROME (CNS) -- Pope Leo XIV was given the keys to the Church of St. Anselm on Rome's Aventine Hill, a church whose history is closely tied to his namesake.

In 1888, Pope Leo XIII entrusted a Benedictine archbishop with reopening the former College of St. Anselm and building a church, which was dedicated Nov. 11, 1900. 

Abbot Jeremias Schröder, abbot primate of the international Benedictine Confederation, gave Pope Leo XIV the keys when the pope went to celebrate an evening Mass there and mark the 125th anniversary of the church's dedication Nov. 11.

In his homily, Pope Leo said his predecessor was convinced the Benedictines "could greatly contribute to the good of the entire People of God at a time full of challenges, such as the transition from the 19th to the 20th century."

"In our own time, too, there is no shortage of challenges to face," the pope said. "The rapid changes we are witnessing provoke and question us, raising problems previously unknown."

The Benedictines and members of other monastic orders have a role to play in helping people deal with those challenges while keeping their hearts, minds and lives firmly anchored on Christ, he said.

Celebrating the anniversary of the dedication of a church, he said, "marks the solemn moment in the history of a sacred building when it is consecrated to be a place of encounter between space and time, between the finite and the infinite, between humanity and God: an open door toward eternity."

A church building, the pope said, is called to be "a place of joy where we experience the beauty of sharing with others what we have freely received."

The Benedictines have a history of doing that, he said.

"Monasticism from its very beginnings has been a 'frontier' reality, prompting courageous men and women to establish centers of prayer, work and charity in the most remote and difficult places," the pope said. Often their efforts transformed "desolate areas into fertile and rich lands, agriculturally and economically, but above all, spiritually."

Monasteries have been places of "growth, peace, hospitality and unity, even in the darkest periods of history," he said. 

Like St. Peter, St. Benedict and other saints, the pope said, "we too can respond to the demands of our vocation only by placing Christ at the center of our lives and mission, beginning with that act of faith which leads us to recognize him as the savior, and translating it into prayer, study and the commitment to a holy life."

The center of life at the monastery, he said, is the liturgy and the prayerful reading of Scripture, but also the academic research of the monks, the pastoral care they offer and the creation of a community with monks who come from all over the world.

Pope Leo prayed that the monastery and its connected university, liturgical institute and pastoral outreach would continue to be "an authentic school of the Lord's service," helping all Catholics be "the people God has made his own, that we may proclaim the marvelous works of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light."
 

BALTIMORE – The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is meeting in Baltimore this week for their plenary assembly. Earlier today, Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, was elected as Conference president, and Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville was elected as Conference vice president. They succeed Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, the Archbishop for the Military Services, USA, and Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, who are concluding their terms as Conference president and vice president, respectively.

The president and vice president were elected from a slate of 10 nominees. Archbishop Coakley was elected president with 128-109 votes over Bishop Flores in a runoff on the third ballot. In the vote for vice president, Bishop Flores was elected vice president on the first ballot from the remaining nine candidates. Both bishops will assume their respective new offices for a three-year term after the adjournment of the plenary assembly on Thursday.

Archbishop Coakley currently serves as Conference secretary, a position he has held since 2022 when he was elected to complete the term left vacant when Archbishop Broglio, who had been serving as Conference secretary was elected as president. Archbishop Coakley was then re-elected to serve a full three-year term as Conference secretary through November 2027. The bishops will vote tomorrow for a Conference secretary to complete the term that will be vacant as a result of Archbishop Coakley assuming the presidency.

Read Archbishop Coakley’s biography.

Read Bishop Flores’ biography.

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St. Martin of Tours sharing his cloak with a beggar by François Joseph Thomas De Backer. / Credit: François Joseph Thomas De Backer, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Nov 11, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

On Nov. 11, the Catholic Church honors St. Martin of Tours, who left his post in the Roman army to become a “soldier of Christ.”

Martin was born around the year 316 in modern-day Hungary. His family left that region for Italy when his father, a military official of the Roman Empire, was transferred there. Martin’s parents were pagans, but he felt an attraction to the Catholic faith, which had become legal throughout the empire in 313. He received religious instruction at age 10 and even considered becoming a hermit in the desert.

Circumstances, however, forced Martin to join the Roman army at age 15, when he had not even received baptism. Martin strove to live a humble and upright life in the military, giving away much of his pay to the poor. His generosity led to a life-changing incident, when he encountered a man freezing without warm clothing near a gate at the city of Amiens in Gaul.

As his fellow soldiers passed by the man, Martin stopped and cut his own cloak into two halves with his sword, giving one half to the freezing beggar. That night, the unbaptized soldier saw Christ in a dream, wearing the half-cloak he had given to the poor man. Jesus declared: “Martin, a catechumen, has clothed me with this garment.”

Martin knew that the time for him to join the Church had arrived. After his baptism, he remained in the army for two years but desired to give his life to God more fully than the profession would allow. But when he finally asked for permission to leave the Roman army, during an invasion by the Germans, Martin was accused of cowardice.

He responded by offering to stand before the enemy forces unarmed. “In the name of the Lord Jesus, and protected not by a helmet and buckler but by the sign of the cross, I will thrust myself into the thickest squadrons of the enemy without fear.”

But this display of faith became unnecessary when the Germans sought peace instead, and Martin received his discharge.

After living as a Catholic for some time, Martin traveled to meet Bishop Hilary of Poitiers, a skilled theologian and later canonized saint. Martin’s dedication to the faith impressed the bishop, who asked the former soldier to return to his diocese after he had undertaken a journey back to Hungary to visit his parents. While there, Martin persuaded his mother, though not his father, to join the Church.

In the meantime, however, Hilary had provoked the anger of the Arians, a group that denied Jesus was God. This resulted in the bishop’s banishment, so Martin could not return to his diocese as intended. Instead he spent some time living a life of severe asceticism, which almost resulted in his death. The two met up again in 360, when Hilary’s banishment from Poitiers ended.

After their reunion, Hilary granted Martin a piece of land to build what may have been the first monastery in the region of Gaul. During the resulting decade as a monk, Martin became renowned for raising two people from the dead through his prayers. This evidence of his holiness led to his appointment as the third bishop of Tours in the middle of present-day France.

Martin had not wanted to become a bishop and had actually been tricked into leaving his monastery in the first place by those who wanted him to the lead the local Church. Once appointed, he continued to live as a monk, dressing plainly and owning no personal possessions. In this same spirit of sacrifice, he traveled throughout his diocese, from which he is said to have driven out pagan practices.

Both the Church and the Roman Empire passed through a time of upheaval during Martin’s tenure as bishop. Priscillianism, a heresy involving salvation through a system of secret knowledge, caused such serious problems in Spain and Gaul that civil authorities sentenced the heretics to death. But Martin, along with the pope and St. Ambrose of Milan, opposed this death sentence for the Priscillianists.

Even in old age, Martin continued to live an austere life focused on the care of souls. His disciple and biographer, St. Sulpicius Severus, noted that the bishop helped all people with their moral, intellectual, and spiritual problems. He also helped many discover their calling to the consecrated life.

Martin foresaw his own death and told his disciples of it. But when his last illness came upon him during a pastoral journey, he felt uncertain about leaving his people.

“Lord, if I am still necessary to thy people, I refuse no labor. Thy holy will be done,” he prayed. He developed a fever but did not sleep, passing his last several nights in the presence of God in prayer.

“Allow me, my brethren, to look rather toward heaven than upon the earth, that my soul may be directed to take its flight to the Lord to whom it is going,” he told his followers, shortly before he died in November 397.

St. Martin of Tours has historically been among the most beloved saints in the history of Europe. In a 2007 Angelus address, Pope Benedict XVI expressed his hope “that all Christians may be like St. Martin, generous witnesses of the Gospel of love and tireless builders of jointly responsible sharing.”

This story was first published on Oct. 6, 2011, and has been updated.

Pope Leo XIV blesses a baby in St. Peter’s Square during his general audience on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 10, 2025 / 18:32 pm (CNA).

The Vatican has revealed the names of Pope Leo XIV’s favorite films, including “The Sound of Music” and “It’s a Wonderful Life,” upon announcing the Holy Father’s upcoming meeting with the world of cinema on Saturday, Nov. 15.

In total, the Vatican shared four titles of the “most significant films” for Leo XIV:

‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ (1946) by Frank Capra

The Christmas classic stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has sacrificed his dreams because of his sense of responsibility and generosity but feeling like a failure, he contemplates suicide on Christmas Eve. This prompts the intervention of his guardian angel (Henry Travers), who shows him all the good he has done for many people. 

‘The Sound of Music’ (1965) by Robert Wise

The film tells the story of a postulant at a convent in Austria in 1938.  After discerning out, the postulant (Julie Andrews) is sent to the home of Captain Von Trapp, a widowed retired naval officer (Christopher Plummer) to be the governess of his seven children. After bringing love and music to the Von Trapp family, she eventually marries the captain. As Von Tapp refuses to accept a commission in the Nazi navy, the family is forced to leave Austria in a dramatic escape. 

‘Ordinary People’ (1980) by Robert Redford

The film tells the story of the breakdown of a wealthy Illinois family after the death of one son in an accident and the suicide attempt of the other. It stars Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch, and Timothy Hutton.

‘Life Is Beautiful’ (1997) by Roberto Benigni

In this film, Benigni — whose father spent two years in a prisoner-of-war camp — plays Guido Orefice, an Italian Jewish bookstore owner who uses his imagination to protect his young son from the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp during World War II.

Nov. 15 meeting with the world of cinema 

The meeting will take place on Saturday, Nov. 15, at 11 a.m. Rome time in the Apostolic Palace of Vatican City, according to a statement from the Dicastery for Culture and Education, in collaboration with the Vatican Museums.

The event follows previous meetings with the world of visual arts (June 2023), comedy (June 2024), and the Jubilee of Artists and the World of Culture in February of this year.

The Vatican statement highlights that Pope Leo XIV “has expressed his desire to deepen the dialogue with the world of cinema, and in particular with actors and directors, exploring the possibilities that artistic creativity offers to the mission of the Church and the promotion of human values.”

Actors and directors the pope will meet

Among those who have already confirmed their participation are the Italian actresses Monica Bellucci, famous for her role as Mary Magdalene in Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” and Maria Grazia Cucinotta (“Il Postino” and “The World Is Not Enough.”)

Also joining the Holy Father will be, among others, American actress Cate Blanchett (“The Lord of the Rings,” “The Aviator”), the African-American director Spike Lee, the director Gus Van Sant (“Good Will Hunting,” “Elephant”), the Australian director George Miller, creator of the Mad Max saga, and the Italian Giuseppe Tornatore, director of “Cinema Paradiso,” for which he won the Oscar for best foreign film in 1989.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Image from trailer of the documentary biopic “Leo from Chicago.” / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 10, 2025 / 17:26 pm (CNA).

The Vatican has officially released the documentary “Leo from Chicago” about the life of Pope Leo XIV in the United States, coinciding with the sixth month of the pontificate of the first American and Peruvian pope in the history of the Catholic Church.

The documentary premiered Nov. 10 at 4 p.m. Rome time and was screened at the Vatican Film Library for journalists accredited to the Holy See Press Office. At 6 p.m. Rome time it was published on the Vatican News YouTube channels in English, Italian, and Spanish, according to a statement from the Dicastery for Communication.

The documentary was produced by the Dicastery for Communication in collaboration with the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Apostolado El Sembrador Nueva Evangelización (The Sower New Evangelization Apostolate.)

The project was led by journalists Deborah Castellano Lubov, Salvatore Cernuzio, and Felipe Herrera-Espaliat, with editing by Jaime Vizcaíno Haro. It shows various locations, including the Dolton neighborhood in suburban Chicago where the pope lived with his family, and features the memories and stories of the Holy Father’s brothers, Louis Martin and John Prevost.

Also featured are the offices, schools, and parishes run by the Augustinians, the Catholic Theological Union study center, and places frequented by Robert Prevost, such as Aurelio’s Pizza and Rate Field, the White Sox baseball stadium.

The overview includes scenes from Villanova University near Philadelphia and Port Charlotte, Florida, where the pope’s older brother lives.

The documentary features some 30 testimonies from people who knew Leo XIV in his childhood and youth; for example, when he marched in Washington, D.C., to support the pro-life cause. 

“Leo from Chicago” is the documentary that follows “Leo from Peru,” released in June, about the pope’s years in the South American country.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Pope Leo XIV addresses pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Sunday Angelus on Nov. 9, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Nov 10, 2025 / 16:06 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV warned Monday that artificial intelligence could exacerbate “antihuman ideologies” in medicine as Catholic doctors and moral theologians raise alarms about the future of AI in health care.

In a message on Nov. 10 to an international congress on “Artificial Intelligence and Medicine: The Challenge of Human Dignity,” hosted by the Pontifical Academy for Life, the pope said that ensuring “true progress” in medicine depends on keeping the dignity of every human at the forefront.

“It is easy to recognize the destructive potential of technology and even medical research when they are placed at the service of antihuman ideologies,” Leo XIV said.

Leo added that those responsible for integrating AI into medicine must remember that “health care professionals have the vocation and responsibility to be guardians and servants of human life, especially in its most vulnerable stages.”

“Indeed, the greater the fragility of human life, the greater the nobility required of those entrusted with its care,” he said.

The pope’s message came a day after another of his statements on the ethics of AI led to controversy on the social media platform X. Tech billionaire Marc Andreessen posted a mocking reference to Leo’s call on the AI industry “to develop systems that reflect justice, solidarity, and a genuine reverence for life.” After a pileup of critical replies, Andreessen apparently deleted his own post.

Pro-life concerns over AI billing in medical insurance  

The pope’s remarks on Monday come amid growing concern among Catholic doctors about how artificial intelligence could shape access to care and respect for human dignity in health care systems worldwide.

Dr. Kathleen Berchelmann, a pediatrician and founder of My Catholic Doctor, a telehealth network that connects families seeking Catholic care with like-minded providers, told CNA she is alarmed by how insurance companies are deploying AI in the U.S.

She said AI-driven billing systems are “further pushing pro-life health care providers out of the insurance market to the self-pay market, reducing access to pro-life health care in America.”

“What I see in AI and health care is a technology arms race,” Berchelmann said. “And unfortunately, the people with the big money have higher tech, and … that’s the insurance companies. That’s United Health Care, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Elevance Health, Aetna, Cigna. … These are the companies that are putting billions into utilization management, which means denials.”

On Oct. 1, Aetna and Cigna implemented AI-automated payments nationwide, a move that has led to what critics call “downcoding,” where insurers automatically downgrade doctors’ claims to lower reimbursement levels without reviewing visit details.

“In particular, in pro-life health care, we’re seeing automatic downcoding because restorative reproductive medicine, which is health care that finds root cause of infertility and treats the root cause, takes more time than a brief workup and a referral to IVF,” Berchelmann said.

“That extended time requires a higher coding. But if I do a real quick workup, I can build a lower code for that. So the predictive AI doesn’t recognize that I’m doing a better job in finding root cause of disease,” she added.

Berchelmann said she sees “tremendous potential for AI in terms of diagnostic capacity and clinical use” and hopes predictive models will demonstrate that “pro-life health care is so much cheaper than IVF.” But for now, she said, “insurance companies, employers paying for health care, and pharmaceutical companies with insurance, are all heavily using AI to not pay for your care.” 

In his message, Pope Leo acknowledged the influence of economic interests in health care and technology. 

“Given the vast economic interests often at stake in the fields of medicine and technology, and the subsequent fight for control, it is essential to promote a broad collaboration among all those working in health care and politics that extends well beyond national borders,” the pope said.  

AI not a substitute for ‘human encounter’ in medicine 

Pope Leo underlined that “technological devices must never detract from the personal relationship between patients and health care providers.”

“If AI is to serve human dignity and the effective provision of health care, we must ensure that it truly enhances both interpersonal relationships and the care provided,” he said.

Leo described the new technological advancements brought by AI as “more pervasive” than those brought by the industrial revolution, noting their potential to alter “our understanding of situations and how we perceive ourselves and others.”

“We currently interact with machines as if they were interlocutors, and thus become almost an extension of them,” he said. “In this sense, we not only run the risk of losing sight of the faces of the people around us but of forgetting how to recognize and cherish all that is truly human.” 

The three-day Vatican conference on AI and medicine, running Nov. 10–12, is one of several in recent months addressing the ethics of AI — an issue Pope Leo XIV has signaled will be a priority in his pontificate.

At the Builders AI Forum in Rome last week, which addressed the challenge of AI for Catholics and Catholic institutions in a variety of fields, medical school professors, health care company executives, insurance company directors, medical chaplains, and entrepreneurs in the field came together to discuss and debate the future of AI in Catholic health care. 

Louis Kim, the former vice president of personal systems and AI at HP, shared that the consensus among these professionals at the end of the forum was that “AI may assist but must never substitute for human encounter [in Catholic health care] and must remain clearly identifiable as non-human so that the pastoral and sacramental integrity of care is preserved.” 

Daniel J. Daly, executive director of the Center for Theology and Ethics in Catholic Health and an associate professor of moral theology at Boston College, told CNA he is concerned that if AI models used in Catholic hospitals are only trained to maximize “efficiency and profit” it could lead to “a massive failure for Catholic health care.” 

“What I worry about is that what could happen in health care is that AI replaces that embodied witness to the kingdom of God,” Daly said. “That can never happen in Catholic health care, because Catholic health care is not just about medicine. It’s also about Jesus Christ and witnessing to his healing ministry that we see in the Scripture.” 

“I think the most important thing is that whatever the AI does, that it frees us to do the works of mercy, it doesn’t free us from the works of mercy,” he added. “That is, it doesn’t replace the embodied care and ministerial care that we provide through medicine.”