The Diocese of Corpus Christi announced today that Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop Mario Alberto Avilés, C.O. as the ninth Bishop of Corpus Christi, succeeding Bishop Wm. Michael Mulvey who has led the diocese since 2010.

The ITA Airways flight accompanying Pope Leo on his first international Apostolic Journey was forced to make an urgent safety repair over the weekend. The Airbus was a part of the more than 6,000 aircrafts requiring a software update.

The best way to describe him is as the anti-polarization pope. His biggest issues are peace and unity. He knows he’s operating in a context where very few world leaders are talking that way. It’s not a collaborative world. He’s looking at a polarized landscape and responding to it.

Pope Leo XIV met Lebanese youth in the square in front of the Maronite Patriarchate of Antioch in Bkerké on the second day of his apostolic visit to Lebanon.

Pope Leo XIV blessed a foundation stone for St. Augustine Catholic Church in Dallas during a six-day visit to Turkey and Lebanon. Driving the news: Clerics from the Catholic Diocese of Dallas were in the crowd to see the pope on Friday in Istanbul.

Pope Leo XIV told Lebanon’s bishops, clergy, and pastoral workers on Monday that Christians can remain steadfast in hope “even when surrounded by the sound of weapons,” urging them to look to the Virgin Mary as a model of faith in dark and uncertain times.

Leo's final event for the day was a Catholic Mass in Istanbul's Volkswagen Arena for the country's Catholic community, who make up 33,000 in a country of more than 85 million people, most of whom are Sunni Muslim.