Pope Leo XIV holds his first general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday, issuing an appeal for Gaza, which he calls an “increasingly worrying and painful” situation, harming children, elderly, and the sick in particular.

(RNS) — It was a moment we had been told never to expect: An American cardinal, Robert Prevost, stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica and greeted the faithful as Pope Leo XIV.

ROME — The new Chicago-raised Pope Leo XIV faces an immediate challenge in his native country: taming the brawling U.S. tribe of Catholics, riven by political divisions that have thwarted the will of his predecessors.