In October, the Catholic Church in the United States celebrates Respect Life Month, something they have been doing since 1973. Bishop Daniel E. Thomas, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Pro-Life Activities, calls Catholics to be agents of hope in his Respect Life Month statement:
Read Bishop Thomas’s full statement here.
Vatican City - Did you hear what Pope Leo XIV said about Charlie Kirk or President Donald Trump? What about his thoughts on the Rapture or whether it’s OK to be cremated?
These are just a few of the topics the pontiff has appeared to speak about at length in videos popping up every day on social media. The problem is the videos are not real, and the Vatican is struggling to fight their spread.
The Vatican’s communications team said it has reported hundreds of accounts, mostly on YouTube, posting fake, AI-created videos — called deepfakes — of Pope Leo since the start of his pontificate. But it’s an uphill battle with new accounts, videos, and images appearing as quickly as others are removed.
“We are witnessing the exponential proliferation of a series of YouTube channels with fake videos, all similar to one another, some speaking in the voice of Leo XIV, others in that of his translators, still others in the third person. All use artificial intelligence to make the pope say things he never said,” the Dicastery for Communication said in a statement to CNA.
A search for “Pope Leo” on YouTube turned up dozens of fake videos of the Holy Father purportedly making statements that range from the plausible, such as reflections on the Eucharist, to the unlikely, such as the announcement of his resignation.
Most of the videos have received no more than a few hundred views, but some of the deepfakes have started to go viral. A 25-minute video claiming the pope has broken his silence on Charlie Kirk’s murder garnered over 445,000 views in the first seven days after it was posted.
One of the first fake videos to go viral after Leo’s election appeared to show the pope reading a statement denouncing colonialism and praising Burkina Faso’s interim president, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, a military leader who came to power in a 2022 coup. CNA and the official Vatican News outlet ran fact-checking articles to warn readers about the false information. The 36-minute video, posted shortly after the pope’s election in May, received at least a million views before YouTube terminated the account that posted it.
The monthly email newsletter of the Vatican's Dicastery for Communication warns readers about the spread of fake videos of Pope Leo XIV online. Credit: Dicastery for Communication/Screenshot
Deepfake
The term “deepfake,” coined less than a decade ago, refers to videos, photos, or audio recordings altered to show people doing or saying things they have never said or done.
Leo, of course, is not the first pope to have his likeness altered in videos. In 2015, the TV host Ellen Degeneres shared a video on her show of Pope Francis pulling a white cloth out from under the candles on an altar. A still image of Francis sporting a longline white puffer coat went viral in 2023.
With technology quickly advancing to produce ever more realistic images, innocent viewers can be forgiven for mistaking fiction for fact.
Pope Leo himself recently noted an example of such confusion. In an interview with journalist Elise Ann Allen, the pope recalled his surprise when an acquaintance asked him with concern if he was all right. AI-generated photographs of the pope appearing to fall down a flight of stairs outside St. Peter’s Basilica had circulated on the internet in June. The images, which caught the attention of the fact-checking website Snopes, were “so good that they thought it was me,” Leo said.
The Vatican’s communications team warned about the proliferation of deepfakes in its monthly email newsletter in August and invited readers to report suspicious posts and videos to the dicastery.
“Unfortunately, our dicastery receives dozens of reports every day about fake accounts that use the pope’s image and voice in a very realistic way, increasingly using artificial intelligence to make the pope say words he never uttered, to portray him in situations he never actually found himself in,” the newsletter said.
“Much of our time is spent reporting, silencing, and requesting the removal of these accounts,” the message continued. “Given the sheer volume of fake material, it is impossible to publicly refute each and every one of them.”
The dicastery’s statement to CNA said that the Vatican is not only reporting fake accounts to their platforms but also is “working to raise our audience’s awareness of this new phenomenon. We believe it is essential to invest in media literacy.”
The Vatican also reminded readers to rely on official sources, such as the Vatican’s own websites, to check quotes: “If it is not there, it is most probably a fake.”
Vatican City, Sep 18, 2025 / 10:08 am
Pope Leo XIV, in his first interview since his election, signaled he may be open to future changes to the Vatican’s controversial deal with China, saying that he is in dialogue with persecuted Chinese Catholics as he weighs the future of Vatican policy toward Beijing.
The interview, conducted in English in July and published Thursday in a new Spanish-language biography, provides the clearest view yet of the 70-year-old American pope’s priorities in global politics and Vatican diplomacy, including how he sees the Church engaging with the Trump administration, the war in Gaza, and the defense of human dignity.
On China, Pope Leo said he is listening to “a significant group of Chinese Catholics who for many years have lived some kind of oppression or difficulty in living their faith freely” as he tries to get “a clearer understanding of how the Church can continue the Church’s mission.”
“I would say that in the short term, I will continue the policy that the Holy See has followed for some years now … I’m also in ongoing dialogue with a number of people, Chinese, on both sides of some of the issues that are there,” he said.
As the first pope ever to have visited mainland China, Leo, who traveled there years before his election, said he draws on his experiences with “government as well as religious leaders and laypeople.”
Leo’s comments indicate openness to a possible shift from the status quo on China since 2018, when the Holy See signed a power-sharing agreement with Beijing on the appointment of bishops. The agreement was renewed under Francis three times in the past seven years despite objections from human rights activists and reports of increased persecution of the so-called underground Church in China, which rejects government control.
“It’s a very difficult situation. In the long term, I don’t pretend to say this is what I will and will not do,” he said.
Pope Leo XIV also spoke about President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Elon Musk, while insisting that he does not want to take part in political battles.
“I don’t plan to get involved in partisan politics. That’s not what the Church is about. But I’m not afraid to raise issues that I think are real Gospel issues, that hopefully people on both sides of the aisle, as we say, will be able to listen to,” he said.
The Chicago-born pope suggested that his background gives him an advantage in dealing with other Americans, including members of the Church. Referring to relations between the Vatican and U.S. Catholic bishops, he said: “The fact that I am American means, among other things, people can’t say, like they did about Francis, ‘He doesn’t understand the United States.’” Under his predecessor Pope Francis, the U.S. bishops’ conference clashed with the Vatican over the bishops’ designation of abortion as the “preeminent priority” of their public policy agenda.
Leo said he would not hesitate to meet with Trump if the opportunity arose and said he has already spoken with Vance “about human dignity and how important that is for all people, wherever you’re born, and hopefully to find ways to respect human beings and the way we treat them in the policies and choices we make.”
“Obviously, there’s some things going on in the States that are of concern,” Leo added.
Applauding Pope Francis’ letter to U.S. bishops earlier this year criticizing the Trump administration’s policy on deportation of immigrants, he said: “I was very happy to see how the American bishops picked that up, and some of them were courageous enough to go with that. I think that approach, in general, is a better approach, that I would engage with the bishops primarily.”
“The United States is a power player on the world level, we have to recognize that, and sometimes decisions are made more based on economics than on human dignity and human support,” Leo said. “But [we have to] continue to challenge and to raise some questions and to see the best way to do that.”
“Especially about questions of human dignity, of promoting peace in the world, which [Trump] at times has made clear he wants to do, in those efforts I would want to support him,” he said.
Pope Leo XIV also mentioned Elon Musk, reserving some of his sharpest words for economic disparities and the potential “crisis” that could result from the rise of artificial intelligence.
“One … very significant [factor] is the continuously wider gap between the income levels of the working class and the money that the wealthiest receive,” he said. CEOs once earned a few times more than workers, but today “the last figure I saw, it’s 600 times more.”
He pointed to reports that “Elon Musk is going to be the first trillionaire in the world,” warning: “If that is the only thing that has value anymore, then we’re in big trouble.”
Leo also cautioned that artificial intelligence could cause a “crisis” because of its potential to accelerate shifts in the labor force. “If we automate the whole world and only a few people have the means with which to more than just survive, but to live well, have meaningful life, there’s a big problem, a huge problem coming down the line.”
Pope Leo weighed in on the debate over whether Israel’s campaign in Gaza constitutes genocide, with the pope noting that “the word genocide is being thrown around more and more.”
“Officially, the Holy See does not believe that we can make any declaration at this time about that,” he said. “There’s a very technical definition about what genocide might be, but more and more people are raising the issue, including two human rights groups in Israel have made that statement.”
Leo emphasized the importance of getting humanitarian aid, medical assistance, and food to people in Gaza, noting that the U.S. is “obviously the most significant third party that can place pressure on Israel.”
On Ukraine, Leo confirmed the Vatican had offered to host peace talks, though the offer was not accepted. “The Holy See, since the war began, has made great efforts to maintain a position that, as difficult as it might be, [is not] one side or the other, but truly neutral,” he said.
He also suggested that the Vatican might be able to help end a schism within the Orthodox world, between the patriarchs of Moscow and Constantinople, arising from disagreements over Orthodox Church leadership in Ukraine.
“If the bishop of Rome can help build bridges … I think there is certainly challenges in that, but a great service to be offered because ultimately, we do all believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and Our Savior.”
Leo acknowledged the declining role of the United Nations and the shift to bilateral dialogue in international relations. “It seems to be generally recognized that the United Nations, at least at this moment in time, has lost its ability to bring people together on multilateral kinds of issues,” he said.
He also pointed to polarization worldwide, citing a “loss of a higher sense of what human life is about.”
“The value of human life, the value of society, of the family … if we lose the sense of those values, what matters anymore?” he asked. “You oftentimes find people questioning: What is this all about and what is the meaning of life, and why should we be doing this?”
The interview appears in the Spanish-language book “León XIV: ciudadano del mundo, misionero del siglo XXI” (“Leo XIV: Citizen of the World, Missionary of the XXI Century”), a biography by Crux correspondent Elise Ann Allen, published on Sept. 18 in Spanish by Penguin Peru. English and Portuguese editions are expected in 2026.
In the book, Pope Leo, a longtime missionary in Peru before he was pope, underlines that the Church’s primary mission remains spiritual, not political.
“My role is announcing the good news, preaching the Gospel,” he said. “I don’t see my primary role as trying to be the solver of the world’s problems. I don’t see my role as that at all, really, although I think that the Church has a voice, a message that needs to continue to be preached, to be spoken and spoken loudly.”
VATICAN CITY (CNA) --Pope Leo XIV declared that nature should not be a “bargaining chip” in his message announcing the theme “Seeds of Peace and Hope” for the 10th World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, set for Sept. 1.
Drawing inspiration from Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’, released 10 years ago, the Holy Father said the “Bible provides no justification for us to exercise ‘tyranny over creation’” and should therefore not be exploited.
“Nature itself is reduced at times to a bargaining chip, a commodity to be bartered for economic or political gain,” Leo said. “As a result, God’s creation turns into a battleground for the control of vital resources.”
The pope said poor nations, marginalized societies, and Indigenous communities are destabilized and penalized as a result of conflicts over water and natural resources as well as the destruction of forests and agricultural areas.
“These various wounds are the effect of sin,” he added. “This is surely not what God had in mind when he entrusted the earth to the men and women whom he created in his image.”
In his July 2 message, the pope said three things are necessary for genuine environmental justice: prayer, determination, and concrete actions.
Leo invited Catholics to prayerfully consider the significance of seeds as a metaphor of coming of the kingdom of God in Scripture, saying: “Jesus often used the image of the seed.”
“In Christ, we too are seeds, and indeed, ‘seeds of peace and hope,’” he said. “The prophet Isaiah tells us that the Spirit of God can make an arid and parched desert into a garden, a place of rest and serenity.” Insisting that environmental justice is not an “abstract concept” or a “distant goal,” the Holy Father said “now is the time to follow words with deeds” in his message dedicated to the care of creation.
“By working with love and perseverance, we can sow many seeds of justice and thus contribute to the growth of peace and the renewal of hope,” he said.
This year, Pope Leo has twice visited sites linked to the Holy See’s integral ecology projects outside of Rome. In addition to visiting the Borgo Laudato Si’ project at Castel Gandolfo in May, he toured the proposed Vatican solar energy project site in Santa Maria di Galeria in June.
The Holy Father praised these initiatives, which serve as examples of “how people can live, work, and build community by applying the principles of the encyclical Laudato Si’.”
“I pray that Almighty God will send us in abundance his ‘Spirit from on high,’ so that these seeds, and others like them, may bring forth an abundant harvest of peace and hope,” the pope said.
Washington, D.C. - The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) recently sent a letter to federal senators and representatives urging them to defund Planned Parenthood and stop taxpayer money from funding services such as abortions and transgender procedures that “gravely violate human dignity.”
Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, Bishop Robert Barron and Toledo, Ohio, Bishop Daniel Thomas, the chairmen of the USCCB’s marriage and pro-life committees, respectively, wrote the letter Thursday, March 27, 2025, to “affirm our support for stopping taxpayer funding of the abortion and ‘gender transition’ industries.”
The letter was sent following the announcement that the Trump administration plans to freeze millions of taxpayer dollars from subsidizing abortion services via the federal Title X program.
The bishops addressed the senators on the same day hundreds of pro-life advocates went to Capitol Hill to urge Congress to cut the “funding of the abortion industry in the budget reconciliation process,” the prelates said.
“Necessary, long-standing, and historically bipartisan policies like the Hyde Amendment help prevent public funding for elective abortions themselves,” the bishops said, citing the decades-old rule that forbids federal funding of most abortions.
“Yet Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the U.S. at over 390,000 preborn children killed per year (about 40% of the total), still receives nearly $700 million annually — about a third of its revenue — from taxpayers,” they noted.
The letter further argued that federal funds to Planned Parenthood must be cut not just to limit abortion but also the gender ideology the organization promotes.
Planned Parenthood is “the nation’s second-largest provider of hormone therapy for patients attempting ‘gender transition,’” the bishops said.
“The off-label use of hormones and puberty blockers has proven to be a lucrative billion-dollar business in an ever-growing market,” they wrote. “Planned Parenthood offers ‘gender transition’ services at nearly 450 clinics across the nation, surpassing the number of its locations that perform abortions.”
Planned Parenthood itself has admitted that most of these patients leave their first visit with a hormone prescription, the bishops noted.
“As the rate of these destructive services has dramatically increased, so too has government funding,” the bishops said. They asked Congress to put the money toward supporting families in need rather than helping harmful services be carried out.
“As you consider how to best steward taxpayer resources in the weeks ahead, we call upon you to stop funding abortion and ‘gender transition’ industries that gravely violate human dignity. Instead, we urge you to prioritize the needs of struggling families so they can flourish,” the bishops said.