Leo says St. Francis repaired the Church

 

Written by Morning Keys

Here are the key Catholic stories from the weekend, led by Pope Leo XIV’s Sunday Angelus on the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi, whom he said repaired the Church by faith and fraternal love. Also inside: the Amoris Laetitia meeting opening Wednesday, Cardinal Parolin on what it takes to end wars, Brazil’s presidential runoff, Cardinal Gambetti’s move to Chieti-Vasto, a new Pedro Gabriel video, and two new posts at Where Peter Is.

Today’s Mass readings (USCCB) · Saint of the day (Vatican News): St. Faustina Kowalska

Top stories

Leo says St. Francis repaired the Church through faith and fraternal love

At the Angelus, Leo says St. Francis repaired the Church through faith and fraternal love. On the eighth centenary of the saint’s death, the pope read Sunday’s parable of the vineyard as a picture of the Church, “which we build up or damage through our choices,” and said “God never discards our lives!” Francis, he said, “repaired the Church by virtue of his faith in the Lord Jesus, healing the rifts of discord through the witness of fraternal love.” He asked for prayer for peace during the Franciscan Jubilee Year, renewed his October rosary call, and asked prayers for the Holy Land. — Vatican News (Francesca Merlo) · Full text: Holy See · America (Gerard O’Connell) · Also: Holy See Press Office

Leo entrusts this week’s Amoris Laetitia meeting to the faithful’s prayers

Leo entrusts this week’s Amoris Laetitia meeting to the faithful’s prayers. After the Angelus, the pope said the Oct. 7–14 gathering of Eastern Catholic heads and bishops’ conference presidents “will be a time of synodal discernment for identifying the steps to be taken in order to proclaim the Gospel today among families and the younger generations,” and called families “an inestimable treasure for the Church and for society.” Leo opens the meeting Wednesday; among his personal invitees are Cardinals Cupich, McElroy, Tobin, and Fernández. — Holy See Press Office (Angelus appeals) · America (Gerard O’Connell) · National Catholic Reporter (Nicole Winfield / AP)

Parolin: ending wars means moving beyond the logic of domination

Cardinal Parolin: ending wars means moving beyond the logic of domination. In a la Repubblica interview after the U.N. General Assembly, the secretary of state said peace requires leaving “the logic of domination and putting an end to inequalities,” voiced deep concern for civilians in Iran and Gaza, and called Ukraine “a real tragedy,” adding that “a people cannot be denied the right to defend itself” while urging “an immediate, comprehensive and effective ceasefire.” — Vatican News · Also: IT

Brazil heads to an Oct. 25 runoff after Flávio Bolsonaro edges Lula

Brazil heads to an Oct. 25 runoff after Flávio Bolsonaro edges Lula. With all ballots counted, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro took 47.03 percent of valid votes to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s 45.16 percent, short of an outright majority. Lula admitted he had expected to win in the first round. The campaign’s final days were shaken by a viral claim, which Bolsonaro denied, that he would strip Our Lady of Aparecida of her patronal title. — BBC · Agência Brasil · Also: Crux (Eduardo Campos Lima, on the Aparecida controversy)

Pope and Holy See

• Leo names Cardinal Gambetti archbishop of Chieti-Vasto. The 60-year-old Conventual Franciscan, vicar general for Vatican City, archpriest of St. Peter’s, and president of the Fabric of St. Peter since February 2021, succeeds Archbishop Bruno Forte, 77, opening three of the Vatican’s most visible posts. — Vatican News · Also: Holy See Press Office
• Leo tells the Teutonic College that unity with Peter’s successor is essential to credible witness. Marking the college’s 150th anniversary, the pope said closeness to St. Peter’s tomb entails unity with the Successor of Peter and the apostolic faith, “an essential element for the credibility of our witness.” — Vatican News (Deborah Castellano Lubov) · Full text: Holy See [IT]
• At Mass for the Vatican Gendarmerie, Leo says Gospel authority protects, listens, and accompanies. After 15 recruits took their oath at the Lourdes Grotto on Saturday, the pope said authority in the light of the Gospel is “expressed above all in the ability to protect, to listen, and to accompany others.” — Vatican News · Full text: Holy See [IT]
• [IT] YOUCAT Love Forever, with a preface by Leo, launches Tuesday in Rome. The Youcat Foundation presents its youth catechesis on love, relationships, and marriage Oct. 6 at the San Lorenzo International Youth Center near St. Peter’s, with Mass led by Archbishop Joseph Kennedy, DDF secretary, testimonies, and a video of Leo’s preface. — Vatican News [IT]

United States

• Cardinal Cupich: advocacy for immigrants is an act of divine worship. In an Oct. 3 homily at Old St. Patrick’s Church marking Chicago as a “City of Welcome,” Cupich said advocacy for immigrants “belongs to every single disciple of Jesus,” urging Catholics to seek Christ in shelters and processing centers and to press for immigration reform, humane enforcement, and pastoral access for detainees. — Vatican News
• As the Supreme Court opens its term, a Denver-parish preschool case awaits. In St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy, two Archdiocese of Denver parishes and Catholic parents challenge Colorado’s requirement that universal-preschool providers accept a nondiscrimination policy covering sexual orientation and gender identity, arguing it violates their free exercise of religion. — Religion News Service (The Conversation)
• Faith leaders hold vigil as ICE readies a Louisiana family-and-children facility. About 40 people marched and prayed Oct. 1 at England Airpark in Alexandria beside a planned 528-bed staging site for immigrant families and unaccompanied minors next to a deportation-flight hub; ICE described it as temporary holding ahead of flights or transfers. — Religion News Service (Robert Stewart / RNS and Verite News)

Around the World

• Cardinal Zuppi in Assisi: St. Francis reminds us war is not our destiny. Presiding at the feast-day Mass for the eighth centenary with Italian President Sergio Mattarella present, the CEI president warned against a “vulgar, overbearing and deceptive culture of power” and said, “Only when peace embraces everyone is it truly peace.” — Vatican News (Giada Aquilino)
• [IT] Cardinal Pizzaballa mourns two Gaza Christian women killed in an Israeli strike. The Oct. 3 strike on a Gaza City apartment building, aimed at a Hamas official, killed five civilians, among them two Greek Orthodox women of Gaza’s small Christian community; the Latin patriarch expressed deep sorrow and condolences as their funerals were held at St. Porphyrius Church. — Vatican News [IT] (Cecilia Seppia)
• Ethiopia’s bishops echo Leo’s Tigray appeal. Following the pope’s Sept. 30 plea for dialogue, the bishops’ conference said the Church grieves conflict in Tigray, Afar, Amhara, and Oromia, warning that “war serves only to deepen divisions and multiplies suffering,” and urged all parties toward forgiveness and reconciliation. — Vatican News (Deborah Castellano Lubov)

Video and Podcasts

• Pedro Gabriel: “Follow Tradition, Not the Pope” doesn’t work like that. In his new video, Gabriel asks who decides what tradition teaches when a papal teaching seems difficult, using the three-legged stool of Scripture, tradition, and the Magisterium to argue against setting tradition against the pope. — YouTube (Pedro Gabriel; Oct. 2)

Commentary

• Where Peter Is: Leo on Francis, he repaired the Church by faith. Reading Sunday’s Angelus, the post notes that Leo’s Francis repairs the Church not with a program or reorganization but by faith in Jesus and fraternal love, linking it to the Lourdes homily’s call to conversion. — Where Peter Is (Oct. 4)
• Where Peter Is: Leo in Lourdes, conversion starts with the Church. The post presents the pope’s Sept. 27 Lourdes homily, given the day he met French abuse survivors, saying the Church “must have the courage to begin with herself.” — Where Peter Is (Oct. 4)
• Opinion: Paul Fahey on Amoris Laetitia as a protection against spiritual abuse. Ahead of the Vatican meeting, the WPI co-founder explains why the exhortation helped move him “away from a rigid and transactional faith to a faith grounded on the gratuitous love of God,” and hosts a Substack Live on the document today at 12:30 p.m. ET. — Third Space (Paul Fahey, WPI co-founder; Oct. 3)
• Opinion: Msgr. Arthur Holquin on the unreceived teaching on the death penalty. After Tennessee’s failed execution of Christa Pike, Holquin reflects on the more than 1,000 comments drawn by his post of Leo’s line that someone against abortion but in favor of the death penalty “is not really pro-life,” and on what that says about preaching. — Liturgy and Truth (Msgr. Arthur Holquin; Oct. 4)

Also today

• Pope Leo XIV receives the President of Montenegro — Vatican News. Jakov Milatović; talks covered EU integration and Ukraine. · Also: Holy See Press Office
• At least 17, most of them Catholic pilgrims, killed in a road crash on a highway in Kenya — Andrew Kasuku, Crux (AP).
• Scotland’s Catholic bishops decry Green Party abortion push — Crux.
• Europe’s synodality supporters set out ideas for 2028 Ecclesial Assembly in Rome — Jonathan Luxmoore, National Catholic Reporter.

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Compiled from reporting available as of about 6:45 a.m. ET, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. Quotations are as published by the linked outlets. Headlines from non-English sources are our translations.

This roundup is compiled with the help of AI tools and reviewed and edited by a Where Peter Is editor before publication. Summaries reflect the reporting of the outlets linked, not the views of Where Peter Is.