Letters from Leo — the American Pope & US Politics

Letters from Leo — the American Pope & US Politics

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Florida’s MAGA Attorney Threatens to Defund Catholic Schools Over Vaccine Mandate
Florida’s attorney general gave the bishops until August 7 to accept vaccine exemptions their own doctrine calls dishonest. Nearly nine in ten of the…
 • Christopher Hale
The Godmother of Punk Meets Pope Leo XIV — and Catholic Right Revolts
The poet who eulogized Francis as a dandelion among stones sat across Leo’s desk Friday and said “Hi.” Hours later, LifeSiteNews wanted to know why she…
 • Christopher Hale
“Fall in Love, Stay in Love” — On St. Ignatius’s Feast, the Five Jesuit Values Pope Francis Lived
Five stories of the first Jesuit pope, from a teenage confession in Buenos Aires to his final Easter in St. Peter’s Square. An 800-year-old friendship…
 • Christopher Hale
Pope Francis Invited Anthony Fauci to the Vatican. MAGA Wants to Throw Him in Jail.
Fauci opened the Vatican’s 2021 “Unite to Prevent and Unite to Cure” summit, and Francis delivered its closing address. A contempt vote lands next week…
 • Christopher Hale
In NBC Interview, Pope Leo XIV Says Immigrants Are One of America’s “Greatest Wealths”
Speaking to NBC before his Concert for Peace, the pope said his American trip will come “in the next couple of years.” He spent this year’s Fourth of…
 • Christopher Hale
Pope Leo is challenging MAGA authoritarianism. Get the story no one else is telling — free in your inbox.

News & Analysis

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As Trump-Vance White House Attempts to Deport Haitian Catholics, Church Fights Back
One night after protections lapsed for more than 300,000 Haitians, a Maryland parish held a mass of solidarity — and Miami’s archbishop spent two days…
 • Christopher Hale
“Just Say Nothing” — What I Learned in Rome About Pope Leo XIV
An Irish novelist’s essay has become a key reading of this pontificate. Two weeks of Roman conversations revealed a pope building for decades — and…
 • Christopher Hale
Christians Never Retire
Pope Leo said this morning that once you find the pearl, selling everything registers as gain rather than sacrifice. Today’s Gospel is filled with…
 • Christopher Hale
On the Feast of St. Christopher, A Letter From My Heart
Today is the feast of the saint I was named for, a ferryman who carried a child across a flooding river and nearly drowned doing it. Pope Francis warned…
 • Christopher Hale
Pope Leo XIV Sends a Maronite from Beirut to the United Nations as Israeli Troops Hold Southern Lebanon
Archbishop Christophe-Zakhia El-Kassis is the first Arab country prelate ever to represent a pope at the UN, and the first Eastern Catholic in the job.
 • Christopher Hale
Nun Arrested By ICE Walking to Mass Speaks Out
Handcuffed in her habit one block from Our Lady of Sorrows, the Nigerian nurse was told no when she asked to receive Communion. ICE now wants her sent…
 • Christopher Hale
After Lawsuit Threat, Bishop Barron Falls Deeper into MAGA Abyss
Bishop Barron’s lawyers sent me a threat of legal action this week, demanding a correction about his YouTube numbers. Their letter never asks me to…
 • Christopher Hale
“Nothing Could Be Less Catholic” — Trump Is Suing the Church to Remove Shrine for Border Wall
Rep. Veronica Escobar’s Mount Cristo Rey Protection Act would halt the federal seizure of 14 acres of diocesan land beneath a 29-foot statue of Jesus.
 • Christopher Hale
“Run Like Mary Magdalene” — Pope Leo XIV’s Vision for Women in the Church
Gregory the Great turned her into a prostitute with one sermon. Fourteen centuries later, Pope Francis handed her an apostle’s feast — and from what I…
 • Christopher Hale
Pope Leo XIV’s College Years Included a Laxative Prank — and the Vatican Put It on Film
An Augustinian friar recounts the practical jokes of the international college in “Leone a Roma,” and the editors cut to a photo of young Bob Prevost…
 • Christopher Hale
Quoting Bob Dylan, Pope Leo XIV Demands Nuclear Disarmament as Trump Reignites the Iran War
In a new Vatican book out today, the pope asks whether the human species may “continue to inhabit the Earth.” One month after Trump’s Versailles peace…
 • Christopher Hale
“Lift Our Gaze Toward Heaven” — Pope Leo XIV and His Predecessors’ Celebration of Space Travel
Fifty-seven years ago tonight, Apollo 11 left Psalm 8 in the Sea of Tranquility — a gift from Paul VI. Last July, Leo XIV prayed the same psalm with the…
 • Christopher Hale

Pope Leo Takes on AI

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Pope Leo XIV’s New AI Encyclical Is Already Making a Dent in Trump’s Washington
Days after Magnifica Humanitas landed, JD Vance quoted it to Air Force cadets and Trump signed an AI order he had shelved. Pope Leo XIV is quickly…
 • Christopher Hale
Pope Leo XIV Just Quoted The Lord of the Rings Against Peter Thiel’s Empire — and Thiel Is Now Fleeing America
The man who calls his venture fund ‘the precious’ — Gollum's name for the One Ring — is in Buenos Aires, discussing the Antichrist over dinner.
 • Christopher Hale
‘The Grand Humbling’ — Silicon Valley Responds to Pope Leo XIV
Dean Ball, Doug Burgum, David Sacks, and Raymond Arroyo all came for Magnifica Humanitas this week. JD Vance praised it. The men who actually own AI…
 • Christopher Hale
“Disarm AI” — Pope Leo XIV Drops His First Encyclical on Slavery, Algorithms, and War
The pope’s first encyclical takes on autonomous weapons, the layoff cycle behind generative AI, and the algorithmic capture of democracy — and asks…
 • Christopher Hale
Pope Leo XIV’s First Encyclical Arrives Tomorrow — Here’s What We Expect
Pope Leo XIV says humanity faces a choice: the Tower of Babel or a civilization of love. Magnifica Humanitas, his first social encyclical, releases…
 • Christopher Hale
“An Eclipse of What It Means to Be Human” — Pope Leo XIV Previews AI Encyclical
At the Vatican on Friday, the American pope previewed Magnifica Humanitas — the encyclical Cardinal Michael Czerny tells CBS News will confront “control…
 • Christopher Hale
Confronting Silicon Valley, Pope Leo XIV Drops His AI Encyclical on Memorial Day With Anthropic Onstage
“Magnifica Humanitas,” the first papal encyclical on artificial intelligence, lands Monday in the Vatican’s Synod Hall — alongside an Anthropic…
 • Christopher Hale
If You Want to Understand Pope Leo’s New Encyclical, Read This First
Multiple Catholic outlets report Pope Leo XIV signed Magnifica Humanitas this morning, with public release set for later this month. The document it’s…
 • Christopher Hale
JD Vance’s Top Donor Brings His War on the Pope to Rome
The billionaire behind JD Vance’s political rise delivered invite-only Antichrist lectures blocks from the Vatican — and Catholic institutions rushed to…
 • Christopher Hale
Pope Leo XIV Tells Rome’s Priests: No AI Homilies, No TikTok Priesthood
As Block fires 4,000 workers and Anthropic battles the Pentagon, the pope delivered a message Silicon Valley should hear — stop outsourcing your soul to…
 • Christopher Hale
Tech Billionaire’s “Never Die” Religion Meets Pope Leo’s Rebuke
Bryan Johnson claims Jesus had a 2,000-year monopoly on conquering death. Now Silicon Valley’s immortality guru is boasting he can break it. But Pope…
 • Christopher Hale
Pope Leo: AI Must Serve Humanity — Not Just the Powerful Few
In a message to tech leaders, Leo insists that artificial intelligence be guided by ethics and serve the common good. It’s one of his major theme — one…
 • Christopher Hale

Pope Leo's Life & Formation

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Pope Leo XIV’s College Years Included a Laxative Prank — and the Vatican Put It on Film
An Augustinian friar recounts the practical jokes of the international college in “Leone a Roma,” and the editors cut to a photo of young Bob Prevost…
 • Christopher Hale
“John, I’m the Pope” — Viral Nikes, Car Talk, and the Disarming Humanity of Leo XIV
Fr. Jim Sichko of Lexington just handed Leo XIV his second pair of custom Nikes, and a six-year-old in Barcelona got him to admit he played American…
 • Christopher Hale
“Families Fight. But Family Is Forever.” — Pope Leo XIV’s Brother on the Year MAGA Tried to Tear the Prevosts Apart
Across EWTN, La Croix, NBC Chicago, and CNN, John Prevost talked Trump, Pete Hegseth, the bank teller, AI deepfakes, the Peeps, Bozo’s Circus, and the…
 • Christopher Hale
“Would It Matter If I Told You I’m Pope Leo?” — The Bank Teller Who Hung Up on Robert Prevost
Father Tom McCarthy, who has known Pope Leo XIV for 43 years, told the story at a parish outside Chicago this past Sunday — alongside Peeps closets…
 • Christopher Hale
“I Confessed Everything Short of Murder” — Pope Leo’s MAGA Brother Bares All
Louis Prevost’s surprise tell-all on Piers Morgan Uncensored revealed a contrite, self-reflective older brother to Pope Leo XIV — a far cry from the…
Villanova Days: How College Shaped Pope Leo XIV
Before he was the pope railing against a “throwaway culture,” he was Bob Prevost, a quiet and nerdy math major at Villanova University with a passion…
 • Christopher Hale
The Pope’s Closest Aide Is a Millennial from Peru
The charismatic young priest’s close bond with Leo — from the villages of Peru to the halls of the Vatican — has already won him a following among the…
 • Christopher Hale
How Peru Made Pope Leo XIV
New revelations from Pope Leo XIV’s years in South America show why his gentle style hides a radical vision for the Church and the world.

Letters from Leo — the American Pope & US Politics

Letters from Leo is a chronicle of how Pope Leo XIV’s papacy intersects with American politics, faith, and the digital age during the presidency of Donald Trump.
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