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Thousands fill St. Peter’s Square for the Jubilee of Youth welcome Mass on July 29, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Staff, Aug 15, 2025 / 15:59 pm (CNA).

The Vatican has included a pilgrimage by the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) on its official calendar for the 2025 Jubilee Year, despite the traditionalist Catholic group’s historically fraught relationship with the Holy See. 

The SSPX, founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in Ecône, Switzerland, to preserve traditional Catholic practices amid the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), will hold a solemn high Mass and a procession to the Basilica of St. John Lateran on Aug. 20. 

In preparation for the pilgrimage to Rome, the SSPX began a novena to the Immaculate Conception from Aug. 11–19.

The SSPX, led by Superior General Father Davide Pagliarani, views the pilgrimage as an act of fidelity to “Eternal Rome,” emphasizing its commitment to traditional liturgy, as stated in a 2024 letter by U.S. District Superior Father John Fullerton.

“Our main focus is the priesthood and its greatest treasure: the holy sacrifice of the Mass,” the SSPX website states.

The group’s inclusion during a jubilee year of celebration and forgiveness held every 25 years reflects efforts of the Church over the years to reconcile with the group amid the SSPX’s canonically irregular status.

The SSPX’s troubled history with the Vatican began with Lefebvre’s dissent from Vatican II’s changes, particularly in ecumenism and collegiality, “which insisted that the Church be ruled primarily by the democratic process and bishops’ conferences, limiting the power of the pope as sole head of the universal Church as well as each individual bishop’s autonomy within his own diocese,” according to the group’s website.  

Lefebvre’s 1988 consecration of four bishops without papal approval led to his excommunication and that of the bishops, deemed a “schismatic act” by Pope John Paul II, rendering the SSPX canonically illegitimate.

Although Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications in 2009, the group remains outside full communion with the Church.

However, recent Vatican concessions signal openness to dialogue. Pope Francis granted SSPX priests the faculty to hear confessions validly in 2015 (extended indefinitely post-2016) and authorized diocesan oversight for valid SSPX marriages in 2017.

The inclusion of the SSPX’s pilgrimage in the jubilee calendar stops short of full regularization. However, Jimmy Akin of Catholic Answers told CNA in 2024 that the lifting of excommunications implies the SSPX is not in formal schism.

But the priests of the society are “celebrating Mass without the proper permissions, creating a canonically irregular situation,” Akin said.

Monsignor Camille Perl of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei noted in 1998 that Catholics should avoid SSPX Masses unless no alternatives exist due to the group’s “schismatic mentality.”

Akin pointed out, however, that the Code of Canon Law stipulates that Catholics “can participate in the Eucharistic sacrifice and receive holy Communion in any Catholic rite.” Since SSPX is using the approved 1962 rite of the Mass, “the faithful can attend it and receive holy Communion.”

“The fact it is being celebrated in a canonically irregular situation does not change this,” Akin said. 

He pointed out that “every time a priest commits a liturgical abuse, it creates a canonically irregular situation” but that the Church “does not want the laity to have to judge which canonically irregular situations involve ‘too much’ of a departure from the law.” 

Thus the faithful’s “right to attend and receive holy Communion in any Catholic rite is protected.”

The SSPX claims it now numbers 720 priests and close to half a million faithful spread throughout the world. It hosts a number of growing ministries, including retreats and summer camps for children.

Pope Leo XIV celebrates the Mass of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Church of St. Thomas of Villanova in Castel Gandolfo, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Aug 15, 2025 / 10:43 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Thursday presided over the Mass of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Church of St. Thomas of Villanova in Castel Gandolfo, encouraging Catholics to renew the Mother of God’s song of praise — known as the Magnificat — in their own lives.

Approximately 200 people, including Castel Gandolfo Mayor Alberto de Angelis, attended the pope’s solemn Mass held at the pontifical parish to commemorate the Church’s dogma of faith that Mary was assumed, body and soul, into heaven.

Pope Leo XIV celebrates the Mass of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Church of St. Thomas of Villanova in Castel Gandolfo, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. Credit: Vatican Media

In his Aug. 15 homily, the Holy Father described Mary’s encounter with her cousin Elizabeth as a “crowning moment of her life” on earth.  

“The Magnificat, which the Gospel places on the lips of the young Mary, now radiates the light of all her days,” he said in his homily.

“One single day,” he continued, “contains the seed of every other day, of every other season.”

Highlighting the enduring significance of Mary in the life of the Church, the pope said her Magnificat, recorded in St. Luke’s Gospel, “continues to be sung in the Church ‘from generation to generation,’ at the close of every day” in the Liturgy of the Hours.

Encouraging Catholic faithful to reflect deeper on Mary’s song of praise expressed at a “decisive moment” in her vocation, the Holy Father encouraged Catholic faithful today to also give their “yes” to God.

Pope Leo XIV greets attendees at the Mass of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Church of St. Thomas of Villanova in Castel Gandolfo, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. Credit: Vatican Media

“The surprising fruitfulness of barren Elizabeth confirmed Mary in her trust,” he said in his homily. “It anticipated the fruitfulness of her ‘yes,’ which extends to the fruitfulness of the Church and of all humanity whenever God’s renewing Word is welcomed.”

According to Pope Leo, Mary’s Magnificat “strengthens the hope of the humble, the hungry, the faithful servants of God” and is renewed in the Church through the witness of its members.

“Even in our own day, the poor and persecuted Christian communities, the witnesses of tenderness and forgiveness in places of conflict, and the peacemakers and bridge-builders in a broken world, are the joy of the Church,” he said.

“They are her enduring fruitfulness, the firstfruits of the kingdom to come,” he added. “Let us be converted by their witness!”

Pope Leo’s Angelus address in Piazza della Libertà

After praying the midday Angelus prayer with crowds of people gathered in Piazza della Libertà, Pope Leo spoke of the importance to believe, with Mary, that God continues to come to the aid of people in the world.

“Mary, whom the risen Christ carried body and soul into the glory, shines as an icon of hope for her pilgrim children throughout history,” he said.

Pope Leo XIV greets visitors during the Angelus outside the Church of St. Thomas of Villanova in Castel Gandolfo, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. Credit: Vatican Media

Calling people to be pilgrims of hope in the 2025 Jubilee Year, the Holy Father spoke of the need for Christians to realize that life on earth is oriented toward God.

“On the path of life, our goal is God, infinite and eternal love, fullness of life, peace, joy, and every good thing,” he said. “The human heart is drawn to such beauty and it is not happy until it finds it.”

Entrusting the Church’s prayer for peace to the intercession of Mary, Leo told the crowds that Pope Pius XII declared the Marian dogma of the Assumption in 1950, five years after World War II ended.

Pope Leo XIV waves with a young visitor during the Angelus outside the Church of St. Thomas of Villanova in Castel Gandolfo, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. Credit: Vatican Media

“Even today, sadly, we feel powerless before the spread of violence in the world — a violence increasingly deaf and insensitive to any stirring of humanity,” he said. “Yet we must not cease to hope: God is greater than the sin of human beings.”

Partial panoramic view of Vatican environs. / Credit: 7777777kz, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 14, 2025 / 17:27 pm (CNA).

The Vatican issued an update to its public procurement regulations to streamline steps in the Holy See’s contracting processes while maintaining integrity and transparency. 

The new general executive decree was signed on Aug. 5 by the prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, Maximino Caballero Ledo, and took effect on Aug. 10. 

The decree contains the implementing regulation from Pope Francis’ 2020 apostolic letter in the form of motu proprio regarding “Norms on Transparency, Control, and Competition in the Procedures for the Award of Public Contracts of the Holy See and the Vatican City State.” The apostolic letter was later amended by the subsequent 2024 motu proprio titled “To Better Harmonize,” which updated the Holy See’s code of contracts.

Composed of eight sections and 52 articles, the decree applies the provisions of “To Better Harmonize” to outline specific rules that must be followed in the procurement process to ensure contracts are awarded fairly.

The document involves collaboration between various Vatican departments to foster greater trust among Vatican internal offices and its external contractors.

The decree reaffirms the Vatican’s mission to provide equal treatment to operators and to prevent discrimination among bidders. It also aims to promote cost effectiveness and to simplify bureaucratic steps to avoid delays.

In line with Pope Francis’ 2022 apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium, Church teachings, and Church law, the regulations draw from past experiences to emphasize transparency and responsible use of resources and ethical business practices in the execution of financial decisions and transactions.

An aerial view of the papal palace of Castel Gandolfo near Rome. The apostolic palace is a complex of buildings served for centuries as a summer residence for the pope and overlooks Lake Albano. / Credit: Stefano Tammaro/Shutterstock

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 13, 2025 / 12:50 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on the afternoon of Wednesday, Aug. 13, returned to Castel Gandolfo, where he had resided during his summer vacation in July.

The pontiff left the Vatican around 4:30 p.m. local time and traveled by car to the papal summer home where he stayed July 6–22.

Castel Gandolfo, located 15 miles from Rome on the shores of Lake Albano, has historically been the site of the papal residence during the summer. While Pope Francis decided to stay at the Vatican during the summer, Pope Leo XIV has revived the tradition.

After a day of rest, on Friday, Aug. 15, the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to celebrate Mass at the pontifical parish in Castel Gandolfo.

On Sunday, Aug. 17, at 9:30 a.m. local time, the Holy Father will arrive at the shrine in Santa Maria della Rotonda in Albano, an Italian town bordering Castel Gandolfo, to celebrate Mass with a group of poor people receiving assistance from Caritas.

After Mass, he will head to Castel Gandolfo to pray the Angelus at noon in Liberty Plaza.

In addition, according to the Diocese of Albano, he will later share lunch with 100 low-income people at Borgo Laudato Si’, an ecological and social project inspired by Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’. On Sunday afternoon, Aug. 17, the Holy Father will return to the Vatican.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Young people participate in the Mass for the first World Children’s Day in May 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 13, 2025 / 12:20 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has decided that the Pontifical Committee for World Children’s Day should be incorporated within the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life, whose prefect is Cardinal Kevin Farrell.

A rescript published by the Holy See Press Office on Aug. 13 announced the Holy Father’s recent decision, which he made after a meeting on Aug. 6 with Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, substitute for general affairs of the Vatican Secretariat of State.

On Dec. 8, 2023, Pope Francis established World Children’s Day, organized by the Dicastery for Culture and Education, saying it would be celebrated worldwide May 25–26, 2024.

On May 25 last year, thousands of children from 77 countries around the world met with the Argentine pope at Rome’s Olympic Stadium. Together, they heard various testimonies and the youngest children also had the opportunity to ask the Holy Father questions.

In November 2024, Francis established the Pontifical Committee for World Children’s Day and appointed as its president Father Enzo Fortunato, who is also director of communications for St. Peter’s Basilica and head of the press office of St. Francis of Assisi Basilica.

The next World Children’s Day will be celebrated in Rome in September 2026.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.