Pope Leo XIV news notes: MARCH

“Christian love breaks down every barrier, brings close those who were distant, unites strangers, and reconciles enemies. It spans chasms that are humanly impossible to bridge, and it penetrates to the most hidden crevices of society. By its very nature, Christian love is prophetic: it works miracles and knows no limits. It makes what was apparently impossible happen. Love is above all a way of looking at life and a way of living it. A Church that sets no limits to love, that knows no enemies to fight but only men and women to love, is the Church that the world needs today.”

— Pope Leo XIV, Dilexi te, no. 120

Mass attendance — "A Sense of belonging is more important than the numbers of people in Church."

A Swiss catechist wrote to Pope Leo to express her disappointment that, despite her outreach, attendance at Mass was low. "The situation in which you live is no different from that of other countries with ancient Christian traditions," he responded in the January 2026 edition of Piazza San Pietro magazine. "The hours dedicated to catechesis are never wasted, even if there are very few participants." He cited the legacy of Saint Pope Paul VI who encouraged outreach by bearing witness to the joy of Christ's Gospel, the joy of rebirth and resurrection.

Pope Leo added "The problem is not the numbers — which, of course, make one reflect — but the increasingly evident lack of awareness in feeling part of the Church, that is, of being living members of the Body of Christ, all with unique gifts and roles, and not merely users of the sacred, of the sacraments, perhaps out of mere habit."

Pope Leo sent a fourth truckload of medicine and heaters to Ukraine in response to bishops' appeals

A fourth supply truck loaded with essential medicines and 1,000 heaters arrived in Kharkiv-Zaporizhzhia for a neighborhood of 800 families left without heat from Russian military strikes. Donations provided these supplies valued at $1,175,700 for what Pope Leo described as a humanitarian catastrophe."