Catholic News Digest – October 22, 2026

Pope Leo XIV’s doctors said Oct. 21 that the lung cancer removed in surgery on Oct. 13 was localized and had not spread. The Vatican Press Office reported that final tissue examinations and molecular biology tests identified the tumor as a lung adenocarcinoma. “No further treatment is necessary,” the doctors said. The update came after the pope’s discharge from Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Oct. 17. On Wednesday, he resumed private audiences, meeting participants in a conference on holiness and history.

At the Oct. 21 audience, Pope Leo told conference participants that the history of the world cannot be separated from the lives of the saints. Without them, he said, history would be “immeasurably poorer” and “less human.” The conference, held in Rome from Oct. 19 to 21, examined holiness through history. The meeting marked the pope’s first private audience since his surgery. Leo succeeded Pope Francis, who died earlier this year.

Pope Leo has appointed new members to the International Theological Commission, a Vatican advisory body. The National Catholic Register reported that the appointments include six women and scholars from five continents. The report also noted that several appointees have publicly dissented from settled Church teaching. The commission advises the Holy See on theological questions. The appointments have drawn attention to the range of views represented among its members and the commission’s role in theological advice to the Church.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops plans to discuss artificial intelligence, immigration and evangelization at its fall plenary assembly in Baltimore, scheduled for Nov. 16–19. The conference said the public sessions on Nov. 17 and 18 will be livestreamed. Bishops are also expected to vote on liturgical texts, canonization causes and leadership positions. Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, the conference president, is scheduled to address the assembly. The agenda includes questions affecting dioceses and wider society, from emerging technologies and migration to evangelization.

Catholic moral theologians have urged a federal appeals court to set clear limits on military uses of artificial intelligence, EWTN News reported. The scholars, including University of Dayton professor Jana Bennett, Father Michael Baggot of the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum and Loyola University Chicago professor Joe Vukov, weighed in on a dispute involving the U.S. government and a major AI company. They called for caution and responsibility in the use of military AI. Their intervention brings Catholic moral reasoning into a legal dispute over the use of automated systems in military operations.

President Donald Trump signed a law allowing clergy who previously opted out of Social Security and Medicare to opt back in, EWTN News reported. The change applies to clergy, including Catholic priests and bishops, who had chosen not to pay the taxes on ministerial income. Under the prior rules, opting out generally could not be reversed, leaving those clergy unable to receive the related benefits. The new measure gives them an opportunity to rejoin the programs. It does not change the general provision allowing ministers to opt out.

In Peru, the image of the Lord of Miracles entered the Government Palace for the first time in 40 years, EWTN News reported. The image was received in the palace courtyard on Oct. 19 by President Keiko Fujimori and her ministers. An enslaved man painted the original image on an adobe wall around 1651. It survived the devastating earthquake of 1655, an event regarded as miraculous, and devotion to the image grew in the years that followed. Its visit brought one of Peru’s best-known Catholic devotions into a formal public setting.

The National Eucharistic Congress will return to Indianapolis in 2029, organizers announced. The city hosted the 2024 congress, which drew more than 60,000 Catholics. Bishop Andrew Cozzens, chair of the congress board, said organizers hope to build on what began with that gathering. The announcement sets a date several years ahead for the next national event, which brings Catholics together for prayer and Eucharistic devotion. Parishes and dioceses have time to prepare for the gathering and continue the work begun in 2024.

The Solemnity of All Saints falls on Nov. 1. The Church’s communion of saints joins those on earth with those who have gone before them in faith. Their witness belongs to the whole Church, across generations and across the boundary between earth and heaven. May the feast lead families and communities to seek the saints’ example in lives marked by mercy, courage and care for their neighbors.