Pope Leo with the military chaplains.
Audience with the Military Ordinariate for Italy on the occasion of the centenary of its foundation (1926-2026). The theme: “Inter Arma, Caritas. The spiritual assistance of the Military Ordinariate between memory and prophecy”. The history of spiritual assistance to the military in Italy predates the institution of the 20th century. With the unification of Italy, spiritual service became a permanent element in the armed forces of the new Kingdom, and by 1865 the military clergy numbered 189 chaplains. After the capture of Rome, Italian laws led to the progressive elimination of the body of chaplains, which became definitive in 1878. With the First World War, military chaplains were reintroduced and in 1915 the appointment of the first field bishop. By 1918, the chaplains had grown to 2,738 : 1,350 on the front, 742 in territorial hospitals, 591 as assistant chaplains and 37 in the Navy. 435 were awarded a medal for military valor, while 93 priests died after accompanying their units in prisoner-of-war camps. The Lateran Pacts of 1929 and the subsequent law of 1936 reaffirmed their recognition. During the Second World War , many chaplains died in the exercise of their ministry; others participated in the Resistance. The decisive step came with the apostolic constitution Spirituali militum curae of 1986 , with which Saint John Paul II elevated the military ordinariates to specific ecclesiastical circumscriptions with their own statutes , assimilated to dioceses. In 1987 the statutes of the Italian ordinariate were approved; between 1996 and 1999 the first synod of the Church of the Military Ordinariate was held, and in 1998 the military seminary in Rome was founded.
The Pope recalled the concreteness of a history composed of « uniformed men and women » who, «in the luminous days of peace and in the dramatic days of war», contributed to the growth of society, « sometimes at the cost of their lives ». Leo XIV reminds them of the tradition of Saint Augustine and defines their ministry as an «amoris officium », a service of love. « If you love me, do not think of feeding yourself, but feed my sheep, as mine, not as yours; seek in them my glory, not yours ». The Pope states that it is necessary « to inspire the codes, norms and missions of military life with the essence of the Gospel », so that, in the service of security and peace, the common good of peoples is always paramount. With the motto «Inter Arma, Caritas» , Leo XIV indicated this priority: to remain present where the lives of men are put to the test, so that the Church accompanies, judges history evangelically and forms consciences capable of serving peace .
The culture of respect.
Message to Loyola University of Chicago.
Message from the Pope , in English, to the participants of the International Meeting for Peace and Reconciliation at Loyola University of Chicago. «True peace is not simply the absence of conflict, but a gift from God». The Pope expressed his gratitude for the continuity of the Building Bridges Initiative, launched in 2022 with Pope Francis, which brings together «university students, academics and leaders who promote peace in the world». «In an era increasingly marked by the wounds of war and violence, your efforts are more necessary than ever». For the Pope: «today’s Christians are called to be collaborators of peace with Christ, who in our days also wishes to share that gift with humanity». «The Lord walks with us as we work to promote harmony in our families, in our local communities, in our respective countries and throughout the world». He invites to «promote a culture of reconciliation capable of overcoming the globalization of impotence, which leads us to believe that an era free of conflicts is unattainable». «Prayer is also a powerful force for reconciliation».
Theology in an open sea.
The open sea is terrifying: both for the uncertain immensity it reveals and for the risk of losing one’s way. However, the pope Leo evoked this image in his meeting with the Theological Faculty of Apulia and the Theological Institute of Calabria on March 2. It is no longer a theology specialized in the monotonous repetition of old things, but an expert in imagining new things for the future of Catholicism. It cannot limit itself to fulfilling «academic obligations» nor take refuge in «safe harbors». As for the conciliar corpus: «The Council did not intend to resolve all the urgent problems of modern life; many of them were presented in very narrow and general terms, susceptible, therefore, to further deepenings and diverse applications»
A theology that sails on the high seas allows the entire Church to rediscover the root of its mission in the transmission of the Good News in an era where fear seems to be the only political and social code. Theology belongs more to the open system than to the closed one, since “it is never perfectly known by the human mind […] it is a goal that is never reached, a horizon that always escapes”. Regarding the contribution of liberation theology, in his biography, Pope Leo: «The way people think about what we now call liberation theology is often wrong and incomplete, because the Gospel preaches liberation, calls us all to freedom. Therefore, liberation theology, from the perspective of Gustavo Gutiérrez, means starting to look with the eyes of the poor and with the poor to understand how God is in us and among us»
The discreet activism of the Vatican with Cuba.
Trump has set out to resolve in very little time the existing hot spots of problems, some have been waiting for decades for a longed-for change. Perhaps the war in Ukraine is the last one we are seeing that fits into the conception of traditional war. The extraction of Maduro in Venezuela opens new pages on how to act surgically without the need for very expensive bombings with great human and material cost. Cuba is much more a symbol than a problem, the island, once the pearl of the Caribbean, is a dump where human life is impossible. It has been decades that no one seems interested in what happens inside it, everyone who seeks a future in their life ends up fleeing to the promised land of the United States. We may be on the verge of seeing the fall of a regime that has already fallen and has entered a failed state. It seems that it is intended to be done with negotiations and with useless violence. The government of the island, assuming that this concept exists, cannot respond to anything and everything points to us being before the Delsy system of Venezuela. The Vatican, as in the case of Venezuela, is especially active. Both the envoy from Havana and the United States ambassador on the island have visited the Holy See in recent weeks. Pope Leo expresses concern for the humanitarian crisis and the possibility of a peaceful transition.
Feminist ideology in the Church.
We already commented on issue 153 of Donne Chiesa Mondo, of March 2026, which dedicates the edition to «feminine thought in the Church» and does so with a very clear editorial line: «Not a question, but a voice » , «The Gospel beyond patriarchy » , «Not only Father «, up to the thesis that a Church «with full voice» needs female leadership. Catholic theology arises from Revelation , not from a modern theory elevated to a general criterion of judgment. A cultural category can help interpret certain historical phenomena; it cannot become the normative principle to correct the faith of the Church. When this happens, the Gospel ceases to be the measure and becomes material to be reinterpreted according to an agenda already defined elsewhere. It is strange that such nonsense has a place in the Pope’s official newspaper , while thousands of euros continue to be spent on printing a monthly magazine that adopts ideological tones and distortions toward the Church. Even more significant is that this approach translates into a self-referential enclosure, almost as if only women could speak about the feminine and the male gaze, however serious and theologically founded, should be excluded from the outset. This also explains the distancing of readers from L’Osservatore Romano and from editorial products of this type that flood the organisms of the Church and no one reads.
The magazine then carries out a very specific operation: it reduces the traditional teaching of the Church to a cultural construction. By alluding to a «natural order» as if it were an ideological mask, it implies that what the Church has taught about man, woman and sexual difference does not arise from Revelation and natural law , but from power balances sedimented over time. The editorial states that speaking of «God the Father and Sovereign» has shaped a hierarchical image. The article «Not only Father» argues that the use of a masculine and hierarchical language would have deeply affected the self-understanding of the Christian community and power relations in ecclesial contexts. This leads to proposing a symbolic revision that takes up Sophia and the image of God as mother , even arguing that changing the image of God means transforming the way we see ourselves, judge and save. And all this is published in «L’Osservatore Romano» colonized by the lexicon of institutional analysis. The risk is that the Church appears as a system to be rebalanced, not as the place where Christ saves, sanctifies and calls. It is also for this reason that this magazine ends up being harsh on Tradition e indulgent with ideology . Defending the dignity of women , as of all people, in the Church is a duty. Recognizing the intellectual, spiritual and pastoral contribution that women also offer is a duty. Denouncing unjust marginalizations is a duty. This magazine, however, does absolutely nothing of this. From dignity, we slip to structural claim , from co-responsibility to the redefinition of ministries , from the critique of distortions to the rereading of the name of God , from theological reflection to cultural militancy .
More Lefebvrian than Lefebvre.
At least that’s the impression. Sacramental distancing is now a doctrine of St. Pius X, which considers the new rites invalid or, at least, doubtful. It also distances itself from the ancient rite celebrated by others. The Fraternity asks its faithful not to accept sacraments from strangers, not even from the Pope. Some of these overestimations of the Council’s errors were already widely circulating, but «in secret», even during the double term of Monsignor Fellay, without anyone tearing their clothes to remedy them, now these positions came to light, becoming the «magisterium» official of the Fraternity. The bulletin of the Fraternity’s Parisian church: «Unfortunately, the question is not limited to the magisterial value of the conciliar teachings, but extends to the validity and legitimacy of the power of sanctification». And not only that: «both at the level of the object and the subject, the habitual acts of the conciliar power of jurisdiction are doubtful». In essence, the universal Church has been living for sixty years in uncertainty about the validity of acts of jurisdiction and sanctification.
Iran and the Vatican.
From Khomeini to Ahmadinejad, Iran has always sought the support of the Vatican to escape its isolation, and for the Church, the regime seemed a solution to avoid the collapse of the region. For the Holy See, nuclear disarmament is a universal imperative and must be achieved through dialogue and transparency, not with bombs. An explicit condemnation by the Holy See of the American and Israeli attack against Iran, perhaps right at the end of a Lenten Angelus, would not have been impossible, limited to the absurd or unreal.
The ambassador of Tehran to the Holy See, who, a few hours after the collapse of the complex where Ali Khamenei lived and commanded, declared that «he firmly expects the Vatican authorities, in particular His Holiness Pope Leo XIV, to condemn this clear aggression based on religious teachings and officially reiterate their constant calls for the promotion of peace and justice in the world and for the fight against violence, which constitute the ancient message of the prophets and sacred texts». The ambassador is a kind professor who just over a year ago published a «Comparative Study of Invocation in Islam and Christianity». «I wanted to publish it on the eve of the Jubilee, the year of forgiveness. Two-thirds of the content are quotes from the Bible and Christian commentators».
The Holy See has always maintained extremely cordial relations with Iran, first with Persia and then with the Islamic Republic. Ambassador Mokhtari explains that «with the Revolution of 1979, certain fundamentalists wanted to break relations with the Holy See. Supreme Leader Khomeini opposed it. In fact, as the first ambassador of the Islamic Republic, Sayyid Hadi Khosrowshahi, confided to me, it was Khomeini himself who sent messages to the Holy Father: they were messages of peace and invitations to coexistence with Christians».
The ambassador quotes Khomeini, but relations with the Holy See were established in 1954, during the reign of Pius XII. Pope Pacelli, who had been nuncio and then Secretary of State, was convinced of the need to forge as many relations as possible, signing treaties and concordats, establishing stable relations capable of withstanding the beginning of decolonization and the revolts of states considered unstable. «Iranian leaders operate in a psychological and cultural matrix in which religious convictions matter, but most Western leaders simply cannot interact at that level».
Iran, pleased with the Holy See’s stance, constantly highlights the warm welcome it has shown to the Catholic minority and respect for Christian rights, which in other parts of the Sunni world are little or not at all guaranteed. Cardinal Dominique Mathieu, Archbishop of Tehran-Isfahan, recently highlighted the «tolerance» of the Shiite community of Qom toward Catholics, although mainly at the «intellectual» level: collaboration between universities. Otherwise, speaking of freedom is, at minimum, exaggerated. The statement issued at the end of the audience that Francis granted to the then Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, in 2016: the Vatican recognized «the important role that Iran is called to play, together with other countries in the region, in promoting appropriate political solutions to the problems afflicting the Middle East».
During the pontificate of Benedict XVI, a low point in relations with Islam —after Regensburg, Khamenei accused the Pope of being part of the Israeli-American conspiracy aimed at fomenting conflict between religions— and a cold relationship with al-Azhar after the Pontiff’s comments following the attacks on Coptic churches at the end of 2010, the channels remained open. In 2010, Joseph Ratzinger wrote: «The Catholics of Iran and the whole world strive to collaborate with their fellow citizens to contribute loyally and honestly to the common good of the respective societies in which they live, becoming builders of peace and reconciliation. In this spirit, I express the hope that the cordial relations that already happily exist between the Holy See and Iran continue to progress, as do those of the local Church with the civil authorities. I am also convinced that the establishment of a bilateral Commission would be especially useful to address issues of common interest, including the legal status of the Catholic Church in the country».
The Holy See and Israel.
Filip Mazurczak in the magazine Crisis . Just a few months after the signing of the ceasefire in Gaza , despite the death of hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza and the ongoing slaughter of Palestinians in the West Bank , Israel, in collaboration with the United States, attacked Iran. American society and political elites have traditionally been unconditionally pro-Israel. How should Catholics behave toward Israel? During the First World War, Pope Benedict XV condemned the rampant massacre on both sides, but neither the Entente nor the Central Powers felt favored.
In the museum of the Great Synagogue of Rome we learn that Pope Paul IV established the first ghetto in Rome. The exhibition presents a looping video of the late Chief Rabbi of Rome, Elio Toaff, praising Saint John Paul II for being the first pontiff to officially visit the synagogue in 1986, shortly after a Palestinian terrorist killed an Italian Jewish child who was praying there. In Darcy O’Brien’s book , The Hidden Pope , John Paul II worked behind the scenes with his childhood intimate friend, Polish Jew, Jerzy Kluger, providentially resident in Rome since the war, to establish diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Israel in 1993.
During his visit to the Holy Land in 2009, Benedict XVI called for a two-state solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict; similarly, Popes Francis and Leo XIV condemned Israeli violence against Palestinians and called for the creation of two states. In the Catholic theory of just war, there is no justification for terrorism. John Paul II in the 2002 World Day of Peace , shortly after 9/11: «Terrorism is based on contempt for human life . For this reason, it not only commits intolerable crimes, but by resorting to terror as a political and military means, it constitutes in itself a true crime against humanity».
Proportionality is a fundamental aspect of the Catholic theory of just war. The Arab-Israeli conflict did not begin two and a half years ago, in late 19th-century Europe, the Zionist slogan was «a land without a people for a people without a land». For many Jews, immigration to Palestine (first under Ottoman rule, then under the British Mandate and, since 1948, to the State of Israel) was less an ideological statement than a desperate means to ensure their security and that of their families. This is even more true for European Jews who survived the Holocaust only to face postwar ruin, communist dictatorship in many of their countries of origin, pogroms in postwar Eastern Europe and the destruction of their centuries-old communities.
Iran is a Muslim theocracy with a dismal human rights record, but if every nation that treats its citizens reprehensibly deserves to be invaded, half the world should be attacked. In considering the conflict that has ravaged the Holy Land for nearly 80 years, it is easy to fall into the temptation to take sides. Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa has condemned Israel’s disproportionate military response. «He has achieved the unusual feat of appearing to be on both sides at once».
Censorship in Belgium.
And we are finishing , today more on the civil side. «Barbam propinqui radere, heus, cum videris, prabe lavandos barbula prudens pilos». It is well known that «when you see your neighbor’s beard being shaved, have the prudence to put yours to wash». It seems to us a very good sign that indicates where we are. The news agency 21News presumably violated «journalistic ethics», according to the Belgian Journalists’ Ethics Commission (CDJ), by publishing, on February 15 2025, the full transcript of the speech delivered the previous day by U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance at the 2025 Munich Security Conference. This far exceeds the incredible. However, according to the Ethics Commission, on March 3 of 2026, a year after its publication, 21News broke the «media cordon sanitaire», the strategy by which the country’s mainstream media deliberately isolate anyone considered a promoter or protagonist of right-wing, populist or extremist movements and cultures.
According to the Commission, the U.S. vice president «represented an antidemocratic and freedom-killing party». The news agency allowed «the individual to present his own arguments and communication strategy without distance or resistance… As a result, all or part of the public might come to believe that various claims in the speech, even if they contradicted the facts or were racist, were accurate and legitimate», with the risk, the ruling continues, of «turning public opinion against the functioning of European democracies or inciting racism, discrimination, hatred or violence against migrants». John Paul II, whom Vance quotes at the end of his speech, wrote in Evangelium Vitae that ‘the value of democracy stands or falls according to the values it embodies and promotes’».
Good reading.