Informative changes in the first trip of Pope Leo XIV, Venezuela and the German synod, from pastor to pastora, rainbows in school, the vehicle of hope, «Ite missa est».

Our Infovaticana page has repositioned some things in its presentation, our Specola appears separate and we think it facilitates more agile use. The translation service to English, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese is interesting. We start on this December 3, feast of Saint Francis Xavier.

The first international apostolic trip of Leo XIV has concluded, an itinerary that lasted from November 27 to December 2, 2025, articulated around a precise symbolic and historical objective: to commemorate the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea I.  This trip incorporated a methodological novelty in the relationship between the pontificate and the press: during the flight to Lebanon on November 30, the Pope went to the back of the plane to greet the guests and responded in advance to two questions posed by Turkish reporters, breaking the practice established by Pope Francis, which provided for the press conference only on the return flight and at the end of the apostolic trip. The Vaticanists are accustomed to the recent model, in which Pope Francis controlled times, messages, and frames with a highly centralized and preventive method, oriented toward a constructed communication to direct the interpretation of events.

Leo XIV's first press conference on board the plane is a manifesto for the press, accustomed in recent years to statements like «You are a faggot», «They are barking at the gates of Russia», «If you offend my mother, I'll punch you», «What happened in the Conclave was…».  It is already positive that Pope Leo changes the tone and places the papacy in a space of prudence, spirituality, and courtesy.  The international press received the trip with surprisingly cold , sometimes distracted , attention, far from the involvement that has usually accompanied the Pope's public appearances during the last thirteen years.  LThe response to the imam's invitation to join the prayer was a «No, thank you» : a direct response , without controversial nuances, followed by the explicit decision to continue the visit to the Muslim place of worship . That serene and contextualized refusal does not indicate closure, but ecclesiological coherence y interreligious respect. In the Islamic tradition, the prayer of a non-Muslim in a mosque can be perceived as an inappropriate or exploitative gesture , even as an unintentional parody of the sacred.

The international press largely chose minimal media coverage , decidedly less than that reserved for Pope Francis's statements, with whom many correspondents had built an economically profitable y emotionally gratifying relationship.  An increasing number of journalists decide not to fly anymore, not only because of a stifling internal climate , but also because of an operational model that has little to do with journalism and much with prefabricated logistics . The trips during the apostolic trips are carried out in groups , in minibuses organized by the Holy See , y the overnight stays are done in affiliated luxury hotels.  Coverage often reduces to an editorial copy —a copy and paste of the information published by the Vatican Press Office— , which produces a emotionless story unable to offer a genuine reading of the facts. Leo XIV disrupted the established norms of the Vaticanists, accustomed over the years to the gossip of Pope Francis, from his improvised political confidences to the acceptance of bar phrases, from the controversial passage about homosexuals on the apostolic flight to the famous «if you offend my mother, I'll give you a punch».  It seems that the  Pope closes the curtain on the gossip y reopens the stage of what the Successor of Peter has always been—and what many journalists wanted us to forget—a man of prayer, spiritual paternity, and confirmation in the faith.

The topic of Venezuela is not minor and has had repercussions in the media. It seems that finally someone is taking the Venezuela disaster seriously, while Cuba doesn't interest even the Cubans. Pope Leo on the crisis in Venezuela prefers that the United States prioritize economic pressure and dialogue, and leave any military option as a last resort. This points to a contrast with the treatment that  Pope Francis had given to the government of Nicolás Maduro, whom he considered at the time a legitimate president and received on several occasions in the Vatican on very cordial terms. “It is better to seek ways of dialogue, perhaps pressure, even economic pressure, but seeking another way to change, if that is what the United States decides to do”. Leo XIV shows himself more willing to harden the international stance toward Caracas, although without endorsing warlike actions.  The priority is “the good of the people”, and he confirmed that the Church works, through the Episcopal Conference and the nunciature, to “calm the situation”. Leo XIV appears as a shift in Vatican diplomacy: more critical of the regime, more inclined toward international pressure, but without breaking with the pacifist doctrine, thus differentiating himself from the dialoguist and political recognition line that characterized Pope Francis in his meetings with Maduro.

Another important topic is the German reform project, the Synodal Way, which has been the subject of debate with Rome for years. The German bishops and the Roman Curia maintain periodic conversations. He recognizes that, for many Catholics in Germany, certain aspects of the reform project, as it has been structured so far, do not reflect «their own hope for the Church nor their own way of living as Church».  Pope Leo warned that the voice of those who have more power should not be silenced, nor that of those who, although they are very numerous, have no place to make themselves heard and participate in the Church. «The fact that synodality is practiced in a certain way in one place and differently in another does not imply that divisions or ruptures arise. I think it is very important to remember that».  « There are great similarities, but also some clear differences, between how the Synodal Way advanced in Germany and how it could best continue in the universal Church».  He referred to the ongoing dialogue between a group of German bishops and cardinals of the Roman Curia , a dialogue in which he himself participated as a cardinal. There is an ongoing process, the Pope affirmed, «to ensure that the German Synodal Way does not deviate from what should be considered the path of the universal Church».  «I am sure it will continue. I hope that adjustments are made on both sides in Germany, but I have a lot of hope that everything will turn out well».