Three Bits of Advice from the Pope for Newly Ordained Priests

This Is the Catholic Church’s Podcast in the USA on the Occasion of the 250th Anniversary of Independence

Rafael Manuel Tovar

The podcast aired its first episode, «Catholics and the Foundation,» on April 14. The episode, a conversation between host Mara Moser and historian Michael Breidenbach, Ph.D., author of “Our Dear Bought Liberty: Catholics and Religious Toleration in Early America,” is Associate Professor of History at Ave Maria University, and co-editor of “The Cambridge Companion to the First Amendment and Religious Liberty.”

Here’s how Pope Leo XIV’s surprise video call to Lebanese priests in a war zone went

ZENIT Staff

The encounter lasted only a few minutes, yet those present described it as deeply moving. For clergy ministering among bombed streets, damaged homes, and communities exhausted by months of violence, the brief conversation carried a significance far greater than its duration.

A Catholic priest goes to the doctor and is prescribed euthanasia twice: here’s how that unpleasant experience unfolded

ZENIT Staff

For the priest, sharing his story is not merely an act of denunciation but also a warning

She was baptized at age 98, with her 77-year-old son serving as her godfather: the touching story of a long-awaited baptism

ZENIT Staff

For those who witnessed her baptism during the Easter Vigil, the moment was not merely remarkable because she was 98 years old. It was remarkable because, after nearly a century of life, she still believed there was one more important step left to take

Twenty days before his ordination as bishop, he says no. The reason? “Personal shortcomings,” claims the honest priest

ZENIT Staff

The announcement reverberated across the Philippines, where such refusals are highly unusual in public view. Although priests sometimes decline episcopal appointments privately before they are officially announced, it is exceedingly rare for a bishop-elect to step away after preparations for ordination have already advanced so visibly

The Vatican’s London Trial Nears a Breaking Point as Legal Setbacks Threaten Financial and Institutional Disaster

ZENIT Staff

Yet after six years of investigations, arrests, trials, leaked documents, and relentless international scrutiny, the possibility now exists that none of the ten defendants originally prosecuted may ever face enforceable criminal consequences through the Vatican judicial system

A cigarette in the mouth of a statue of the Virgin Mary: the controversial act of an Israeli soldier in Lebanon

ZENIT Staff

For many Christians in the region, the cumulative effect of these incidents is generating growing anxiety about their already precarious future in the Middle East

What does it mean that the Church is a “sacrament of salvation”? Pope Leo XIV answers

ZENIT Staff

The Pope’s General Audience, May 6, 2026, on the eschatological dimension of the Church

In Praise of Books and Reading: Three Brief Reflections by Louis XIV on Printed Works

ZENIT Staff

The Pope’s Address to the Staff of the Editorial Offices of the Vatican Publishing House

Three Bits of Advice from the Pope for Newly Ordained Priests: Leo XIV’s Words to a Group of Legionaries of Christ

ZENIT Staff

After the catechesis imparted at the General Audience, the Holy Father approached the group of newly ordained priests from the Legionaries of Christ to take a group photo. Responding to their request for advice, the Pontiff said the following

US: 5th Circuit temporarily halts Biden-era abortion-by-mail scheme

ZENIT Staff

When the Biden administration removed the safeguard of in-person dispensing for the abortion drug mifepristone, it intentionally opened the door for out-of-state pro-abortion activists and doctors to mail streams of high-risk abortion drugs into pro-life states. Louisiana, which has chosen to protect the lives of unborn babies, and Rosalie Markezich, a Louisiana woman coerced into taking abortion drugs that her boyfriend obtained via mail from a doctor in California, are suing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for unlawfully approving this reckless mail-order abortion-drug scheme.

USA: Oregon slaps nearly $90K fine on Christian counselor for saying he could not bless same-sex relationships

ZENIT Staff

The Oregon Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists fined licensed counselor Frank Canepa $89,636 for answering a client’s repeated demand to personally affirm same-sex relationships. Although Canepa had seen this client for over two and a half years and had never mentioned his personal views on same-sex relationships in at least 44 other sessions in which this topic came up, the client insisted for 20 minutes in one session that Canepa personally bless her same-sex relationship. Canepa eventually told her he could not personally affirm these relationships because of his Catholic faith.

Venues of Pope Leo XIV‘s Apostolic Visit to Spain Will Include the Real Madrid Stadium, the Sanctuary of Montserrat, Parliament and Time with The Spanish Sovereigns

ZENIT Staff

Among the five dioceses that make up the itinerary, Leo XIV will travel approximately 2,500 kilometers during the six days of the trip, from Madrid to Barcelona and from Barcelona to Gran Canary Island and Tenerife. All the stages share three axes: charity, expressed in meetings with social assistance and reception organizations; the Eucharist, which will be the focus of each stage of the itinerary; and encounters with young people, civil society, and local Churches.