Leo XIV in Latin America: reasons and challenges

Pope Leo XIV’s longest journey yet, to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, is above all a homecoming to the land where he spent two decades, undertaken weeks after cancer surgery.

Antonio Spadaro SJ

November 4, 2026

Share your comments

Pope Leo XIV smiles while addressing a gathering during a General Audience in Vatican City. (Photo: Vatican Media)

Follow Global Catholic on
Google Search

Subscribe to Newsletter

On Nov. 6, Pope Leo XIV departs for Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru: twelve days, twelve flights, and two helicopter transfers, the longest journey of his pontificate.

It is, before anything else, a homecoming.

Robert Prevost lived in Peru for nearly 20 years, first as an Augustinian missionary and then as the Bishop of Chiclayo, and he took Peruvian citizenship.

Posted inNews

On Election night, the religious left is back

by Jack Jenkins - Religion News Service November 4, 2026

Democratic Senate candidate Texas state Rep. James Talarico speaks at an election night event in Austin, Texas, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. Credit: AP Photo/Eric Gay

(RNS) — Asked Tuesday night (Nov. 3) about state Rep. James Talarico’s victory in the Texas U.S. Senate race, the Rev. Jim Rigby, who has long pastored the Presbyterian church Talarico grew up in, said he was still grappling with the moment.

“It’s just too surreal,” Rigby said, who was watching the returns from home. “It’s going to take a while to completely take that in.”

But Rigby, a staunch liberal who has long advocated for immigrants and LGBTQ+ people, also reflected on what he sees as the broader dynamic of Election Night, which saw Democrats such as Talarico—himself a Presbyterian seminarian—win sweeping victories across the country.

 

The Rise of the Christian Left?

Senate victories by James Talarico and Adam Hamilton are historic, but they must be followed by action.

Dominic Preziosi

November 4, 2026

Election 202

Please email comments to letters@commonwealmagazine.org.

Rev. Adam Hamilton, newly elected Kansas senator, in Lenexa, Kansas (Photo by Emily Curiel/The Kansas City Star/TNS/Sipa USA)

“Can Democrats Reclaim the Christian Moral High Ground?” asked The New York Times Magazine in the runup to the midterms. The article was commenting on the relative abundance of pastors and seminarians running as Democratic candidates: a dozen ran for federal office as Democrats this year, with seven becoming their party’s nominees, while “on the Republican side there are only three.” That’s ten candidates in total, a tiny percentage of the nine hundred or so hopefuls who ran in this year’s midterms. This kind of trend-hunting is common in election years, but the small sample can’t support the idea that this is a watershed moment, and the partisan framing oversimplifies things.

Midterms Democratic rout could shift US bishops' priorities

 

News

Midterms Democratic rout could shift US bishops' priorities

Brian Fraga  ncr

Treatment of El-Sayed's faith, language during midterms was deeply un-Catholic

 

November 5, 2026

Treatment of El-Sayed's faith, language during midterms was deeply un-Catholic

Karen E. Park  ncr

The Vatican communications revolution gets underway

 

The Vatican communications revolution gets underway

Vatican

• ncr

  Justin McLellan

Posted inFaith and Reason

No one fully understands the role of deacons in the church—and maybe that’s a good thing

by Douglas J. Cremer November 3, 2026

Men lie prostrate during their ordination to the diaconate at the Catholic Pastoral Center in Nashville, Tenn., April 1, 2023. Credit: OSV News photo/Katie Peterson, Tennessee Register

In a wide-ranging interview with Elise Ann Allen of Crux last year, Pope Leo XIV addressed the debate over women’s ordination to the diaconate. He said he did not plan to change the church’s teaching, but that a more fundamental question must first be asked: “Why would we talk about ordaining women to the diaconate if the diaconate itself is not yet properly understood and properly developed and promoted within the church?” 

Supreme Court hears challenge to Catholic preschools' exclusion from Colorado-funded program

 

News

Supreme Court hears challenge to Catholic preschools' exclusion from Colorado-funded program

Lindsay Whitehurst, Michael Kunzelman, Associated Press  ncr