Saturday, October 17, 2026

Pope Leo speaks with Putin by telephone from hospital

Posted inVatican Dispatch

Pope Leo speaks with Putin by telephone from hospital

Pope Leo XIV gestures as he leads the Angelus prayer in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Oct. 11, 2026 / Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting on economic issues via video link at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia April 24, 2025. Credit: OSV News photo/Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev, pool via Reuters/Elisabetta Trevisan, Vatican Media/America Media Illustration

Pope Leo XIV “spoke by telephone” with Vladimir Putin, the president of the Russian Federation, from his room in the Gemelli Hospital on Oct. 16 and asked him to call for a ceasefire in Oleshky, a city in the Ukrainian region of Kherson, where the humanitarian situation is dire, the Vatican said in a note sent to the accredited media before noon EDT.

In cases of sexual assault, may we not be Doubting Thomases

 

A message is projected on the side of a Cornell University building, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, in Washington. (AP/Rahmat Gul)

In cases of sexual assault, may we not be Doubting Thomases

Pope Leo leaves hospital, returns to Vatican earlier than planned after operation

 

Pope Leo leaves hospital, returns to Vatican earlier than planned after operation

The unlikely but clear communion of the SSPX and women priests

 


The unlikely but clear communion of the SSPX and women priests 
William C Graham 
The SSPX’s newly ordained and excommunicated bishops and the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests have more in common than either side might like to admit — both placed themselves outside communion by their own act, both insist Rome is wrong, and both claim the name Catholic anyway.

The men were ordained validly but illicitly, the women invalidly — though it’s fair to ask whether that’s splitting hairs, or just another name for sexism.

The harder questions pile up from there: are both prophetic, or neither? Which has violated more canons, and does the count even matter once both have effectively edged out the pope as supreme lawgiver? 

Would a joint statement on “Rome’s wrongness” actually hold them together, or expose how little else they agree on?

Then there are a few practical questions that arise – the SSPX prays for the pope by name in the Eucharistic prayer, but with no diocese of their own, what happens at “together with N. our Bishop”? Do they put a period after “Leo, our Pope”?

The real question underneath all the questions: could the two groups ever concelebrate the Eucharist together, or even call a joint council — and if neither would sit down with the other, despite sharing the same irregular status, what does that say about where either of them is actually headed?

Read William C Graham’s in-depth analysis on questions raised about the SSPX, Women Priests, and communion. 

Access the full commentary…..

Friday, October 16, 2026

Trump calls off livestreamed execution after backlash. Have Americans finally had enough of the death penalty?

Posted inThe Weekly Dispatch

Trump calls off livestreamed execution after backlash. Have Americans finally had enough of the death penalty?

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a news conference with U.S. President Donald Trump in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington April 6, 2026. Hegseth announced Oct. 8 the execution of the wheelchair-bound Nidal Malik Hasan, convicted of the 2009 killing of 13 persons and injuring 32 others at Fort Hood in Texas, would be livestreamed Dec. 3.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a news conference with U.S. President Donald Trump in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington April 6, 2026. Hegseth announced Oct. 8 the execution of the wheelchair-bound Nidal Malik Hasan, convicted of the 2009 killing of 13 persons and injuring 32 others at Fort Hood in Texas, would be livestreamed Dec. 3. Credit: OSV News photo/Evan Vucci, Reuters

A Prayer for Pope Leo’s Recovery

 

Pope Leo XIV talks with his personal physician, Luigi Carbone, as the pontiff arrives at Rome's Gemelli Hospital Oct. 13, 2026, ahead of his surgery that afternoon to remove a lung nodule. Credit: OSV News photo/Guglielmo Mangiapane, Reuters/Illustration: America Media

Pope Leo has ‘resumed work’ three days after lung cancer surgery

Posted inVatican Dispatch

Pope Leo has ‘resumed work’ three days after lung cancer surgery

A visitor holds a rosary and a devotional item Oct. 14, 2026, outside of Rome's Gemelli hospital where Pope Leo XIV is recovering from surgery during which doctors removed his lower right lung to treat a cancerous tumor. Credit: CNS photo/Cristian Gennari

This story has been updated.

Pope Leo XIV has “resumed work” three days after undergoing a successful surgery to remove a malignant tumor from his right lung on Oct. 13, the Vatican said. His right lung has made “a good recovery,” and his overall recovery “is proceeding as expected,” according to a medical report released to the media by the Vatican Press Office at 2 p.m. (local time) on Oct. 15.

US bishops speak out on voting rights before midterm elections

 

Clockwise from top left: Archbishop Edward Weisenburger of Detroit (CNS/Lola Gomez); Bishop Daniel Garcia of Austin, Texas (OSV News/Bob Roller); Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami (OSV News/Courtesy of Georgetown University/Rafael Suanes); Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City (OSV News/Bob Roller)

US bishops speak out on voting rights before midterm elections