Letters from Leo — the American Pope & US Politics

Letters from Leo — the American Pope & US Politics

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In New Document, Vatican Says Interfaith Dialogue Is Critical to the Catholic Faith
The 8,600-word note marking sixty years of Nostra Aetate calls for “a new ethic of dialogue” with Jews, Muslims, and every religion. Bishop Strickland…
 • Christopher Hale
Pope Leo XIV Urges the Church to Listen to Those Who Don’t Show Up — and Ask Why
At the Lateran, the pope gave Francis’s synodal reform a third dimension: a hard look at what worked and what did not. The cardinals who wanted the…
 • Christopher Hale
Vatican Commission Defines Environmental Destruction as “Sin Against Creation”
Pope Leo XIV approved the 29,000-word document in July. Its release came 24 hours after MAGA commentators mocked Pope Leo XIV for praying that 2.1…
 • Christopher Hale
“You Are Not Alone” — Pope Leo XIV Sends the U.S. Bishops’ Migration Chief to Joliet
Bishop Brendan Cahill, the U.S. bishops’ migration chairman, inherits a see vacant since February; Cardinal Cupich hailed his “migrant justice.” Three…
 • Christopher Hale
Pope Leo XIV Defends Human Diversity Against the Politics of Fear
His Wednesday catechesis on Gaudium et spes warned against handing the human conscience to algorithms, then read the Council’s list of “infamies…
 • 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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In a New Book Narrated by Stephen Colbert, Pope Leo XIV Takes Aim at Neoliberalism, Hunger, and Revenge
Twelve years of homilies from the Augustinian prior general who became pope, out Tuesday from Penguin Random House — plus Father Joseph Farrell’s full…
 • Christopher Hale
Pope Leo XIV Names Another Pro-LGBT Bishop to Lead New Jersey Diocese
Cardinal Tobin ordained him. Right-wing Church Militant attacked him. Now Michael Saporito, who hosted gay Catholics at his Maplewood parish, gets…
 • Christopher Hale
Pope Leo XIV Does Tech Support and Tax Prep for His Brother in Suburban Chicago
John Prevost locked himself out of a new computer, propped his iPad on top of it, and called the Vatican. Then he told Italian TV what makes him…
 • Christopher Hale
The Son of a Librarian: Pope Leo XIV Spends His 71st Birthday at the Vatican Library
Leo opened “AQVA,” a Vatican water exhibit, two weeks after MAGA Catholics mocked his water prayer. Plus seven rare photos of the pope, one from each…
 • Christopher Hale
MAGA Attacks Pope Leo XIV After He Prays for the Dead of 9/11
The pope’s 25th-anniversary prayer drew nearly 600,000 views on X and a wall of fury led by white-nationalist podcaster Kevin DeAnna. MAGA keeps hoping…
 • Christopher Hale
Conservatives Attack Pope Leo XIV’s Newest Black Bishop, Robert Boxie, for Calling Out Racism
Pope Leo made Robert Boxie the first African American bishop ordained in the U.S. in nearly a decade. Within hours, Calvin Robinson and a swarm of…
 • Christopher Hale
How 9/11 Got Francis Elected Pope
Cardinal Egan left the 2001 Synod of Bishops to bury New York’s dead, and John Paul II gave his chair to Jorge Mario Bergoglio on the feast of St…
 • Christopher Hale
Twenty-Five Years After 9/11, America Needs a 9/12 Generation
I am writing from a bench above lower Manhattan as dusk turns to night, and I have never heard New York this quiet. Here is why I filled your inbox all…
 • Christopher Hale
“They Were Falling Into the Arms of God” — A Catholic Defense of the 9/11 Jumpers
At least 200 people jumped from the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and America agreed to look away. A Church that hangs the crucifixion over…
 • Christopher Hale
Ten Days After 9/11, Future American Pope Warned Against Seeking Revenge
Ten days after the towers fell, the new prior general preached at Santa Maria del Popolo that hatred grows where 24,000 people die of hunger every day…
 • Christopher Hale
George W. Bush Defended Islam After 9/11. Catholics Should Too.
Six days after the towers fell, a Republican president walked into a Washington mosque and said “Islam is peace.” Twenty-five years later, Pope Leo XIV…
 • Christopher Hale
Biden, Mamdani, and Hochul Join Archbishop Hicks’s 9/11 Mass After Trump and Vance Decline
The White House declined the invitation from Pope Leo XIV’s new archbishop of New York. I interviewed both Mamdani and Biden, who told me his health is…
 • 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 just handed Leo XIV a pair of custom Nikes, and we learned about Pope Leo XIV’s tech repair work for his brother. The world is meeting…
 • 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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