During Pope Leo XIV’s audience with the clergy of the Diocese of Rome, Cardinal Baldassare Reina offered an overview of the priests who serve there.

Father David Neuhaus, SJ, superior of the Jesuits in the Holy Land, lamented the suffering there in a front-page article in the June 12 edition of the Vatican newspaper.

“In March 2025, the state’s median home price was a staggering $884,350, according to the California Association of Realtors, and it’s expected to rise again this year,” the newsletter stated.

In 2023, the program had an operating deficit of $11,412,329, leading to net assets of negative $2.3 million at year’s end. Ralph McCloud, who was named director of CCHD in 2008, resigned from his position in 2024.

In his June 12 address to clergy of the Diocese of Rome (CWN coverage), Pope Leo XIV paid tribute to three 20th-century Italian priests:

A brief Vatican statement issued after the meeting said that the conversation had focused on the hope that Lebanon, “through the stabilization and reform process, would experience a new season of political harmony and economic recovery, enabling it to strengthen the ideals of coexistence among faiths and the promotion of development that characterize it.” The meeting also included a more general discussion of the need for peace in the Middle East.

The bishops’ conference issued a statement noting “with great consternation—but not real surprise—the nonsense spoken by Mr. Jean-Pierre Bemba” in which the politician had charged that the country’s bishops were plotting to destabilize the government of President Felix Tshisekedi.

The World Day of the Poor will be observed on Sunday, November 16. The papal message for the occasion was released by the Vatican on June 13.

In his message the Pope reminds readers: “The gravest form of poverty is not to know God.” He says that in our commitment to the common good, “our social responsibility is grounded in God’s creative act, which gives everyone a share in the goods of the earth.”