Justin McLellan

Smith, 79, was in Rome to perform a show in the city's Circus Maximus on July 27. Although she does not consider herself Catholic, the rock legend wore a Franciscan Tau cross during her audience with the pope.

"Pope Leo is not going to change Traditionis Custodes," said Cardinal Arthur Roche, prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, in an interview with The Tablet published July 29.

After July 29's "Concert for Peace," NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Llamas asked the pontiff about the importance of being American. "I think of myself more as the pope who happens to be American," he responded.  

As pope, Leo has repeatedly shown himself willing to stick his neck out in defense of migrants. But he spent years confronting his own migration crisis as bishop of the rural diocese of Chiclayo in northern Peru.

As Pope Leo XIV continues to rearrange Vatican personnel, his appointment of San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone on July 25 to the microstate's highest court was yet another eye-catching move.

The proceedings remain underway, the Holy See Press Office said July 22, rejecting as "completely unfounded" rumors that the case had concluded and absolved the artist and former Jesuit of any wrongdoing.

Despite the controversy surrounding synodality, the pope's ministerial record shows that the principles of a participatory church are deeply embedded in his pastor's DNA.

After the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See characterized the pope's criticism of the Iran war as the intervention of a head of state "coequal" to the U.S. president, a top Vatican communications official appeared to clap back.

A day after Pope Leo begged the group not to proceed with its illicit bishop consecration, the atmosphere was "a festive scene tinged with relief and charged with righteousness," writes NCR's Justin McLellan.

Leo, who said religion must never justify discrimination, symbolically took up the mantle of his predecessor, who placed migration at the center of his pontificate by visiting the island in July 2013.

After the Society of St. Pius X created four new bishops in defiance of Pope Leo XIV, the Vatican declared that the bishops, the men who consecrated them and the priests and laity who adhered to the schism, had been excommunicated.

"We want the faith of the church in order to remain in the church, and we want the church within the faith, even if those opposed to us refuse to understand this," said the group's superior general.

"With a sorrowful yet hopeful heart, I feel it is my duty, through the authority received from Christ, to ask you to desist from your intended act," the pope wrote.

Before placing the white woolen bands symbolizing authority around the shoulders of 35 new metropolitan archbishops, Pope Leo XIV urged the church's pastors to become "builders of unity" within the church.

Over two days, 178 of the world's cardinals gathered at the Vatican to discuss a sprawling agenda that ranged from the Catholic Church's efforts to become a more listening body to its moral teaching on war.

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, head of the Vatican's doctrine office, said the doctrine has led to church teaching being "manipulated to provide a theoretical foundation for the most unjust wars."

Pope Leo said the cardinals' two days of reflection would revolve around one central question: "How can we help our churches today to proclaim the Gospel with greater faithfulness, freedom and credibility?"

The German bishops' conference had requested "in exceptional circumstances, a duly commissioned lay member of the faithful to preach in place of the homily during the celebration of the Eucharist."

Whether due to settling into a papacy after some 13 months, or a missionary pope on familiar turf outside of Rome, Pope Leo appeared more at ease during his trip to Spain than at any other point in his pontificate.

Vice President Vance writes in his new memoir about meeting with Pope Francis just before Francis' death, and how, despite their differences, he did not share the negative views of Francis held by some conservatives.