3+ day, 23+ hour ago (671+ words) BEIRUT, Lebanon, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Pope Leo XIV has opted for war-torn, crisis-ridden Lebanon as part of his first official trip abroad, aiming to call for unity and to help preserve the tiny Arab country -- home to the region's largest Christian population -- while also delivering a message of peace to a conflict-ridden Middle East. Leo, elected last May as the first U.S.-born leader of the Catholic Church, is scheduled to arrive in Beirut on Sunday for the second leg of his Apostolic Journey, which will first take him to Turkey to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea. His packed schedule in Lebanon includes meetings with the country's top officials and Catholic Patriarchs and visits to the Monastery of Saint Maroun and the Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon. He also has scheduled an ecumenical and interreligious gathering, a…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago (298+ words) Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Pope Leo XIV has changed a Vatican law to now allow women and non-cardinals to lead the Vatican City administration after Pope Francis first appointed a woman for the position in November. Francis appointed Italian Sister Raffaella Petrini, 52, for the position of secretary-general of the Vatican governorate of the Vatican, but because of a 2023 law that only allowed cardinals to have the position, there have been legal issues with her appointment. Leo issued a motu proprio, a Vatican official document, that changed the law's language on Friday. In her position, Petrini oversees administrative operations such as the Vatican museums, post office, budgets, health care and police. She is the first woman in the position and the highest-ranking woman in the Vatican. Petrini wasn't invited to give the economic status report of the city-state to the meetings of cardinals…...

2+ week, 12+ hour ago (588+ words) Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Pope Leo XIV on Saturday returned 62 Indigenous people's artifacts held for more than 100 years by the Vatican to leaders of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. The pope, meeting with the high clergy members in the Vatican, fulfilled a promise made by his predecessor, Pope Francis, who died on April 21. The original inhabitants of Canada are the First Nations, Inuit and Metis, who comprise 1.8 million people, or 5% of the total population. The CCCB said in a joint statement with the Vatican that it is "committed to ensuring that these artifacts are properly safeguarded, respected and preserved." In early December, after being packaged, they will be taken to the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec, where the museum curators will examine and catalog them before they are delivered to Indigenous groups across the country. They will be returned…...

2+ week, 2+ day ago (419+ words) Nov. 13 (UPI) -- Less than half of U.S. households place an importance on religion after declining by 17% over the past decade, according to a new Gallup poll. Two-thirds of U.S. adults surveyed said religion was an important part of their daily life in 2015, Gallup reported Thursday. That percentage dropped to 49% in 2025, which Gallup said is the largest recorded decrease by any nation since 2007. "About half of Americans now say religion is not an important part of their daily life," Gallup reported. "They remain as divided on the question today as they were last year." The 17-point drop in the United States over the past decade rarely have exceeded that rate of decline, with Greece posting a 28-point drop in 2023, Italy a 23-point drop in 2022 and Poland a 22-point drop in 2023. Globally, the median regarding the importance of religion in people's daily lives has…...

2+ week, 5+ day ago (265+ words) Nov. 10 (UPI) -- The Vatican announced Monday that its armed forces plans to investigate an incident in which a member of the Swiss Guard allegedly insulted and spat at two Jewish women at the entrance of Vatican City. The alleged incident happened Oct. 29 at a side entrance to St. Peter's square, The Guardian reported. The two women were part of a Jewish delegation attending an event during which Pope Leo condemned anit-Semitism. The event marked the 60th anniversary of the Nostra aetate, which confirmed the relationship between the Catholic Church and other world religions. It also negated the idea that Jews were wholly responsible for Jesus' death. Michal Govrin, from Tel Aviv, told Kathpress, an Austrian Catholic news agency, that a Swiss Guard "noticeably hissed at us with deep contempt, 'les juifs' (the Jews)." When she challenged him, he allegedly "made an…...