Mid-City Christian: Leo departs for his Latin America journey

Leo departs for his Latin America journey

An ITA Airways flight carrying Pope Leo XIV and accompanying journalists left Rome’s Fiumicino Airport at 7:05 a.m. Rome time, beginning a 12-day trip to Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru. He left the San Damaso Courtyard by car for the airport and is due in Montevideo about 4:30 p.m. local time (2:30 p.m. ET), with a welcome in Independence Square, a meeting with President Yamandú Orsi, and Vespers at the cathedral. Leaving Italian airspace, he sent a telegram to President Sergio Mattarella entrusting the peoples’ hopes for peace and brotherhood to Mary and the saints. The trip — about 14 flights, ten cities, nine Masses, and nearly 40 addresses in Spanish — is his first return to Latin America as pope, less than a month after lung-cancer surgery. — Vatican News (Deborah Castellano Lubov) · Holy See Press Office · Catholic Standard (Courtney Mares, CNS/OSV News) · Where Peter Is (Claudio Iván Remeseira, “Leo in the Land of Francis”)

Parolin: the Latin America visit is a witness to unity

Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin says Leo’s Nov. 6–17 journey will be “filled with memories, affection, and gratitude,” especially in Peru, and that in Latin America “there is a greater need than ever to overcome deep social polarization.” On secular Uruguay, he says Leo is not going “to reclaim lost ground, but to propose good news that is offered freely, never imposed.” In Argentina, Parolin expects him to pay tribute to Francis and speak as a father to a country marked by economic hardship. — Vatican News (Massimiliano Menichetti)

In Argentina, Leo steps into Francis’s homeland and a divided politics

NCR’s David Agren reports from suburban Buenos Aires that Leo arrives Nov. 8 in a country where Francis never made a homecoming as pope, and where affection for the late Argentine pontiff still tracks class and “la grieta,” the Peronist / non-Peronist divide. President Javier Milei has embraced the visit and declared a holiday for the arrival, while Peronist Buenos Aires Province is mobilizing pilgrims for Luján. Working-class priests say ordinary people remember Francis with affection; Archbishop Jorge García Cuerva has called for unity ahead of the visit. — National Catholic Reporter (David Agren) · Where Peter Is (Claudio Iván Remeseira)

California’s governor moves to empty the state’s death row

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Nov. 5 that he will commute all 548 California death sentences to life without parole, calling state-sanctioned killing incompatible with the state’s values. The commutations keep convictions and restitution in place and do not abolish capital punishment; the state Supreme Court must review clemency for people with more than one felony conviction. California has had a moratorium on executions since 2019 and has not executed anyone since 2006. — Vatican News

Pope and Holy See

What to expect in Uruguay, Latin America’s most secular country. Gerard O’Connell sketches Leo’s under-48-hour stop in a nation where Catholics are about 38% of the population and baptisms have plunged since 1980. The motto is “I Bring You News of Great Joy”; stops include Paysandú, Casavalle’s Our Lady of Guadalupe parish, the Catholic University of Uruguay, a Centenario Stadium vigil, and Mass at Florida’s shrine of Our Lady of the Thirty-Three. — America (Gerard O’Connell)
At Uruguay’s Catholic University, students await Leo on faith and AI. Rector Fr. Julio Fernández Techera, S.J., says artificial intelligence is “the biggest challenge” for the university and hopes Leo will address it; student Santiago Tarigo says ticket places for the visit vanished in about 20 minutes. — Vatican News (Francesca Merlo)
Leo chooses the 2027 World Day of the Sick theme: community care. “They lowered him on the stretcher in front of Jesus: The role of the community in caring for every person,” drawn from Luke’s account of the paralytic, will mark the Feb. 11, 2027, observance. The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development says every Christian community, with civil society, is called to attend to the weakness and suffering of others. — Vatican News
From today’s Holy See Press Office bulletin: the English edition listed only Leo’s departure for Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru and his telegram to Italian President Sergio Mattarella (see above). — Holy See Press Office (EN)

United States

What a Democratic Congress can — and can’t — do on immigration. Will Martino talks with advocates across the spectrum who say ICE funding is locked in through 2029 and Trump’s executive power still limits what Congress can change, even as Democrats take both chambers in January. Oversight hearings and spending leverage are the near-term tools; broader reform may wait for 2028. — America (Will Martino)
Catholics and “nones” helped power the Democratic midterm wave. Exit polls cited by RNS show Catholics shifting from a clear Republican majority in 2024 to a near-even split, while religiously unaffiliated voters grew to about 27% of the electorate and moved further left. Scholars point more to the economy and immigration experience than to a “religious election.” — National Catholic Reporter (Kathryn Post and Bob Smietana, RNS)
The Supreme Court hears Colorado’s Catholic preschool funding fight. The Archdiocese of Denver, joined by the Trump administration, asks the justices to overturn a ruling that let Colorado exclude Catholic schools that won’t admit children of same-sex couples from a state-funded preschool program. Colorado says the schools must meet the same anti-discrimination rules as every other publicly funded preschool. — Crux (Lindsay Whitehurst and Michael Kunzelman, AP)

Around the World

After a terror attack on a Jordanian church, are Christians still safe? Kevin Clarke looks at the Oct. 23 assault on St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church in Karak that killed nine and wounded more than 30, and at King Abdullah II’s insistence that the attack was on all Jordanians. Scholar Sean Yom tells America the targeting of a Christian community is rare and traumatizing in a country that has long protected its Christian minority. — America (Kevin Clarke)

Commentary

Opinion: A Catholic immigration agenda for the new Congress. J. Kevin Appleby urges oversight of ICE, protections for pastoral access and vulnerable detainees, and bipartisan bills such as Dreamer/TPS pathways and the Religious Workforce Protection Act — while warning against overreach that could backfire in 2028. — America (J. Kevin Appleby)
Opinion: Evangelization is more than words and numbers. Lavoisier Fernandes argues that proclaiming Christ begins with our own conversion, can’t be reduced to social-media metrics, and must get “hands dirty” in social justice — drawing on Mother Teresa, Francis, Benedict, and Leo. — Where Peter Is (Lavoisier Fernandes)