Joshua J. McElwee

Reuters • 18th December 2025

Pope Leo replaces New York's Cardinal Dolan in shake-up of US Church

Pope Leo replaced Cardinal Timothy Dolan as leader of the Catholic Church in New York, the Vatican announced on Thursday, sidelining a prominent U.S. Church figure in a major shake-up of the country's Catholic leadership.

Reuters • 2nd December 2025

Pope Leo, in crisis-hit Lebanon, urges faith leaders to unite for peace

Pope Leo gathered leaders of Lebanon's religious communities next to the old frontline of the country's sectarian civil war on Monday and urged peaceful coexistence in a region beset by bloodshed and tumult.

Reuters • 8th September 2025

With Gaza appeals, Pope Leo shows quiet but robust diplomatic style

Pope Leo's recent forceful statements about the war in Gaza and his strong call for a ceasefire during a meeting last week with Israeli President Isaac Herzog showed the new leader of the Catholic Church developing a robust, if quiet, diplomatic style.

Reuters • 4th June 2025

Pope Leo, in first month, makes a break in style from Francis

In his first month, Pope Leo has taken a very different approach to his predecessor Francis. Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, has led some two dozen public events since he was elected as the first U.S. pope on May 8 but not made notable appointments, nor announced plans for foreign trips, nor said where he will live at the Vatican.

Reuters • 9th May 2025

For US Cardinal Prevost, road to becoming Pope Leo was paved in Peru

Cardinal Robert Prevost may be the first person from the U.S. to become the head of the Catholic Church but his surprising election by the world's cardinals as Pope Leo XIV probably had less to do with his birthplace than his former workplace.

Reuters • 8th May 2025

Prevost, first US pope, supported Francis and shunned spotlight

Robert Prevost, the choice of the world's Catholic cardinals to serve as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Church, is the first pope from the United States and a relative unknown on the global stage.

Reuters • 8th May 2025

Pope Leo’s first appearance reveals three big clues about his papacy

From his first moments on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Leo XIV gave three important clues about what kind of leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church he will be.

Reuters • 8th May 2025

Prevost surprises as first US pope, takes name Leo XIV

Cardinal Robert Prevost, a long-time missionary in Latin America, was elected as the surprise choice to be the new leader of the Catholic Church on Thursday, becoming the first U.S. pope and taking the name Leo XIV.

Reuters • 6th May 2025

What's in a papal name? An agenda for the Catholic Church

When Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio emerged onto the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica after the conclave of March 2013, few outside his native Argentina knew who he was or what kind of pope he might be. When his papal name was announced, things became much clearer.

Reuters • 5th May 2025

Who will be the next pope? Even the cardinals don't know

Catholic cardinals entering a conclave on Wednesday to pick a new pope do not yet have a clear idea of who will emerge as Pope Francis' successor, several said, and speeches by individual clerics in meetings this week may be decisive.

Reuters • 29th April 2025

Will Catholic cardinals pick another outsider like Francis to be pope?

When Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was elected in 2013 as Pope Francis, he was a near total Vatican outsider. He had never been a Vatican official, instead spending decades in local ministry. And he came from Argentina, the first pope from the Americas.

Reuters • 28th April 2025

New pope's challenges: Budget crisis, role of women and decline in Europe

Heavy is the white mitre worn by the pope. Whoever emerges from the coming conclave as the new leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church will face a myriad of problems.

Reuters • 26th April 2025

Rome and the world bid farewell to Pope Francis with massive funeral and humble burial

Presidents, royalty and simple mourners bade farewell to Pope Francis on Saturday at a solemn funeral ceremony, where a cardinal appealed for the pontiff's legacy of caring for migrants, the downtrodden and the environment to be kept alive.

Reuters • 23rd April 2025

Who will be the next pope? Some hints to watch for

No one knows who the world's Catholic cardinals will choose to succeed Pope Francis as the new leader of the global Catholic Church. But for those watching attentively, there are sometimes hints about who might emerge as the next pontiff.

Reuters • 22nd April 2025

Pope Francis gave women Vatican roles, but held back on wider changes

One of the most long-lasting impacts of Pope Francis' pontificate may be his appointment of more women than ever before to top Vatican positions.

Reuters • 21st April 2025

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies after stroke and cardiac arrest

Pope Francis, the first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church, died on Monday after suffering a stroke and cardiac arrest, the Vatican said, ending an often turbulent reign in which he sought to overhaul an ancient and divided institution.

Reuters • 4th March 2025

Pope Francis battles pneumonia - and rumours of resignation

As Pope Francis has battled double pneumonia in hospital for nearly three weeks, talk of the 88-year-old pontiff's death or resignation has become almost commonplace. Some newspapers have published articles informing their readers about what to expect during the papal funeral. A few senior Catholic cardinals are talking openly about the possibility that Francis could follow his predecessor Benedict XVI and resign.

National Catholic Reporter • 4th April 2024

Bishop Gumbleton, longtime soul of the US Catholic peace movement, dies

Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, the Detroit prelate who for many American Catholics defined faith-based social justice activism in the post-Vatican II church, died April 4. He was 94. "To put it most succinctly, Tom lived out the peace of Christ in his complete being," said Johnny Zokovitch, Pax Christi USA's executive director, shortly after the bishop's death. "Everything that our movement strives to be was evident in Tom and how Tom lived."

National Catholic Reporter • 22nd March 2024

At UN event, Vatican presses for global ban on child surrogacy

The Vatican's mission to the United Nations pressed for an international prohibition against the practice of child surrogacy on March 20, during a panel discussion that framed arrangements where women carry others' children as exploitative and contrary to the U.N.'s landmark 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child.

National Catholic Reporter • 28th October 2023

Pope's major Vatican summit ends without action on women deacons, mention of LGBTQ Catholics

Pope Francis' high-stakes summit on the future of the Catholic Church concluded on Oct. 28 by postponing action on the possibility of ordaining women as deacons and failing to acknowledge deep tensions that surfaced in a month of debates over how the global institution should care for its LGBTQ members.