Mid-City Christian: The Swiss Guard trains recruits to handle threats discreetly

“Only peace is holy”: Leo’s message to Assisi at 40

“War can never be waged in the name of God,” Pope Leo XIV said Tuesday in a video message to religious leaders gathered in Assisi. “There is no such thing as a holy war: only peace is holy.” Kept home by his recovery from lung surgery, Leo said he would have liked to be at the tomb of St. Francis, and he called for “a rejection of the religious justification of war, a spirit of mediation and dialogue.” Quoting his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, he said globalization has provoked “fundamentalist, identity-based and nationalistic reactions” rather than peace. — Vatican News · Crux (Charles Collins) · Vatican News [IT] · Vatican News [IT] (closing ceremony)

Leo will meet abuse survivors during his Latin America trip

The Holy See Press Office said Tuesday that “some meetings are planned with people who are victims of abuse by members of the clergy and the Church” during the pope’s Nov. 6–17 journey to Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru. The meetings reflect the pope’s wish “to express his closeness to those who have suffered and continue to suffer because of this violence,” the statement said. Leo met survivors privately in Madrid in June and in Lourdes in September. For more on the trip, see Claudio Iván Remeseira’s Where Peter Is feature, “Leo in the Land of Francis,” and Vatican News’ interview with a missionary in Cusco, where the pope will stop Nov. 15. — Vatican News · Where Peter Is (Claudio Iván Remeseira) · Vatican News (Cusco) · EWTN News (Victoria Cardiel)

General Audience: “A faith that does not become culture” is not fully lived

Continuing his catechesis on Gaudium et Spes, Leo said today that the relationship between faith and culture “finds its primary foundation in the Incarnation.” Quoting St. John Paul II, he said “a faith that does not become culture is a faith not fully accepted,” and urged Christians not to live the faith “in a spirit of opposition or hostility towards the world.” He also highlighted the council’s call for women’s “proper and necessary participation” in cultural life, and, in his greetings, pointed pilgrims toward All Saints and All Souls. — Full text (Vatican) · Vatican News · Holy See Press Office · Vatican News [IT] (greetings)

Pope and Holy See

Leo to Mercedes-Benz: Put innovation “at the service of human dignity.” Meeting company executives as the Vatican marks a century of the popemobile, the pope said it has “evolved from a means of transportation into an instrument of encounter.” — Vatican News
Montse Alvarado prepares to lead the Dicastery for Communication on Nov. 1. “In no way am I imposing a vision. I’m very much receiving one and executing it,” said Alvarado, 39, who will be the youngest prefect in the Curia and the first laywoman who is not a religious sister to lead a dicastery. — OSV News
The Swiss Guard trains recruits to handle threats discreetly. With everything filmed on phones, the guard has lengthened training so recruits can stop dangerous people without “being brutal or over the top,” a sergeant major said. — EWTN News (Hannah Brockhaus)

United States

Archbishop McKnight issues a pastoral letter on synodality. In “Renewal from the Heartland,” published in seven parts in The Leaven, the Kansas City in Kansas archbishop calls the faithful to “move beyond individualism” and renew decision-making “through participation, discernment, and co-responsibility,” as the archdiocese begins deanery listening sessions in November. — Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas · The Leaven (Part 1) · The Leaven (Part 2)
Could the USCCB have spared bishops the White House “manipulation”? Experts tell Brian Fraga the 12 bishops should have consulted the conference’s staff before the Oct. 22 Oval Office meeting; the USCCB said it had no role. — National Catholic Reporter (Brian Fraga)
Catholic prayer vigils and novenas for the midterms spread across the U.S. At a Detroit interfaith vigil, Archbishop Edward Weisenburger called voter suppression “an affront to God.” — National Catholic Reporter (Camillo Barone)
U.S. bishops urge the Census Bureau to withdraw rules excluding some noncitizens. The USCCB said the proposal, which would count only citizens and lawful permanent residents for apportionment, conflicts with “the equal dignity of every person,” and compared it to the Three-Fifths Compromise. — EWTN News
Denver archbishop urges prayers as the Supreme Court takes up a Catholic preschool case. Archbishop James Golka says Colorado has excluded the archdiocese’s preschools from its universal preschool program since 2023. — Catholic Herald (Christine Rousselle)

Around the World

Christian persecution worsened in 10 of 18 countries, Aid to the Church in Need says. The new “Persecuted and Forgotten?” report, launched in London, found no country improved and estimates 220 million Christians are exposed to persecution. — EWTN News (Elliot Hartley) · Vatican News [IT]
Who is behind the killings of Christians in Ethiopia? After the Ethiopian Orthodox Church reported at least 60 dead in Oromia, Luke Coppen looks at the background to the attacks; Catholic bishops have called for reconciliation. — The Pillar (Luke Coppen) · EWTN News (ACI Africa)
Israel’s election heads toward deadlock. Netanyahu’s Likud leads but his bloc appears just short of a majority, and Arab-led parties could be kingmakers. — BBC
A Kenyan sister gives Nairobi’s street children a chance at dignified lives. Sr. Caroline Ngatia of the Assumption Sisters of Eldoret runs the Dorothea Rescue Centre. — Global Sisters Report (Shadrack Omuka)

Liturgy and Church Life

The diaconate and women: Why it matters today. Fabrizio Mastrofini says the question of women deacons “should concern all of us,” while noting the final decision belongs to the pope. — Where Peter Is (Fabrizio Mastrofini)
How a 1976 Catholic dialogue in Detroit foreshadowed synodality. Michael J. O’Loughlin revisits the gathering of bishops, activists, and laypeople from 150 dioceses 50 years ago this month. — National Catholic Reporter (Michael J. O’Loughlin)

Commentary

Opinion: U.S. bishops are at a crossroads as they head into their fall assembly. Michael Sean Winters says the “old culture warrior model” is giving way to a more pastoral approach, and that Archbishop Grob’s apology showed a bishop “sincerely trying to think through how to engage the culture.” — National Catholic Reporter (Michael Sean Winters)
Opinion: My encounter with JD Vance. Sr. Nancy Sylvester, IHM, reflects on asking the vice president about immigration enforcement at a CBS town hall. — Global Sisters Report (Sr. Nancy Sylvester)