Catholic News Agency

• Former Hungarian ambassador reflects on 10-year term at the Vatican

  Eduard Habsburg, Hungary's ambassador to the Holy See from 2015 to 2025, takes his leave during a farewell visit to Pope Leo XIV on Nov. 21, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media.

  Vatican City, Dec 9, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).

  Archduke of Austria Eduard Habsburg, who served as Hungary’s ambassador to the Holy See since 2015, described his post at the Vatican as “the greatest 10 years of my life.”

  Shortly before his farewell meeting with Pope Leo XIV on Nov. 21, Habsburg told EWTN News reporter Colm Flynn that after a decade on the job, he has “seen it all” and now wants to dedicate more time to his family, particularly his parents.

  “I felt that 10 years is a good term. It’s far longer than ambassadors usually have here,” he said in the exclusive interview.

  “I think I’ve seen everything you can see here, including a conclave, visits by my prime minister, exciting moments,” he added. “In a way, I’m going to miss it but also family is important.” 

  The former ambassador, whose term at the Vatican ended on Nov. 30, said he will likely continue to represent Hungary at future international events organized by the Church and pro-family groups.  

  “I’ll keep a foot in that world, so to speak, so I’m not going to totally give it up,” he said.

  Reflecting on his initial surprise at being asked to be Hungary’s ambassador to the Holy See, Habsburg, who belongs to the prominent 850-year-old European Catholic dynasty, said he “hit the floor running” when he arrived in Rome for his first post.

  On Pope Francis and his love for Hungary

  Describing his relationship with Pope Francis as “incredibly positive,” the former ambassador said the Argentine pontiff had a warm affection for the Central European nation and its people.

  “I saw it every time he met a Hungarian,” he said. “He would use Hungarian expressions. He would smile. He would be happy. He would take his time with them.”

  Though Pope Francis had not visited Hungary until 2021 for the 52nd International Eucharistic Conference, he told Habsburg that he “learned everything” about Hungary through three religious sisters who fled their country in 1956, during the Soviet occupation, to a monastery in Buenos Aires, Argentina.   

  “They have shaped Pope Francis’ outlook on Hungary and that made my work very easy,” he quipped. “He was incredibly generous.”

  Pope Francis visited Hungary a second time in 2023 for his apostolic journey to the country’s capital of Budapest from April 28–30.   

  On Pope Benedict XVI and his humor

  During the 1990s, Pope Benedict XVI, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, read Habsburg’s doctoral thesis on the topic of Thomas Aquinas and Vatican II and told him “he liked it” and that he wanted him to either make a documentary or a thriller about Thomism.

  After first meeting with Pope Francis, the former ambassador said he later met with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in the Vatican Gardens.  

  “He looked at me and said, ‘So you’re ambassador now?’” Habsburg recalled. “And then he said, ‘You know you still owe me a documentary or a thriller about Thomism.” 

  “That was the first thing he said. I was so blown away,” he said. “I still haven’t written it.”

  “That’s the one thing many people don’t realize about Pope Benedict XVI was the sense of humor that he had that we never got to see publicly,” he said.  

  Habsburg earned a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in 1999. 

  On Pope Leo XIV 

  The archduke told EWTN News he had briefly met Pope Leo XIV four times prior to his farewell visit to the pontiff on Nov. 21.  

  “I’m very impressed by him. I feel [he is] a very balanced and just man who is trying to do good,” he said of the first U.S.-born pope. 

  Noting Pope Leo’s fluency in many languages, including English, Italian, Spanish, and Latin, Habsburg commented that he believes the universal Church’s new leader “has several cultures in his heart and in his mind.”

  “And yes, we will see the things that he’ll do. We pray for him every day,” he said.

  Watch the full interview with Eduard Habsburg on theEWTN News YouTube channel.

• On solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, pope encourages renewing our ‘yes’ to God

  Pope Leo XIV prays the Angelus prayer on the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on Dec. 8, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

  ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 8, 2025 / 13:30 pm (CNA).

  Pope Leo XIV led the Angelus prayer Dec. 8 from the window of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican on the occasion of the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.

  Addressing the faithful and pilgrims in attendance in St. Peter’s Square, the pontiff commented that on Dec. 8 we express our joy because the Father of heaven wanted her to be “preserved immune from all stain of original sin.”

  “The Lord has granted to Mary the extraordinary grace of a completely pure heart, in view of an even greater miracle: the coming of Christ the Savior,” he added.

  The pope also noted that the gift of the fullness of grace in the young woman of Nazareth “was able to bear fruit because she in her freedom welcomed it, embracing the plan of God.”

  He emphasized that “the Lord always acts in this way: He gives us great gifts, but he leaves us free to accept them or not.”

  For the Holy Father, this feast also invites us to “believe as she believed, giving our generous assent to the mission to which the Lord calls us.”

  In this way, he pointed out that the miracle that happened for Mary at her conception was “renewed for us in baptism: Cleansed from original sin, we have become children of God, his dwelling place and the temple of the Holy Spirit.”

  “The ‘yes’ of the mother of the Lord is wonderful, but so also can ours be, renewed faithfully each day, with gratitude, humility, and perseverance, in prayer and in concrete acts of love, from the most extraordinary gestures to the most mundane and ordinary efforts and acts of service. In this way, Christ can be known, welcomed, and loved everywhere and salvation can come to everyone,” he emphasized.

  This storywas first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

• ‘Peace is possible,’ Pope Leo XIV says after visits to Turkey and Lebanon

  Pope Leo XIV addresses pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican for the Angelus on Dec. 7, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

  Vatican City, Dec 7, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

  Pope Leo XIV on Sunday said his apostolic journey to Turkey and Lebanon showed that “peace is possible,” pointing to renewed steps toward Christian unity and powerful encounters with the Lebanese people still seeking justice after the 2020 Beirut port explosion.

  Speaking after the Angelus to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Dec. 7, the pope recalled praying in İznik, ancient Nicaea, with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, considered first among equals among Eastern Orthodox bishops, and representatives of other Christian communities on the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea.

  Marking Sunday’s 60th anniversary of the “Common Declaration” between Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras, Leo said: “We give thanks to God and renew our dedication to journeying towards the full visible unity of all Christians.”

  In Lebanon, the pope said he encountered a “mosaic of coexistence” and met people who serve the most vulnerable by welcoming refugees, visiting the imprisoned, and sharing food with those in need. He was especially moved by meeting relatives of the victims of the Beirut port blast. “The Lebanese people were waiting for a word and a presence of consolation, but it was they who comforted me with their faith and their enthusiasm,” he said.

  The pope also expressed closeness to communities in south and southeast Asia struck by recent natural disasters, praying for victims and urging international solidarity.

  Earlier, in his Advent catechesis before the Angelus, Pope Leo reflected on John the Baptist’s call to prepare the way of the Lord. John’s severe tone, he said, still resonates because it carries God’s “plea to take life seriously” and to ready the heart for the God who judges “not by appearance, but by deeds and intentions.”

  The pope said the kingdom manifests itself gently, in the meekness and mercy of Christ described by Isaiah as a shoot rising from a seemingly dead tree trunk. He linked this surprising newness to the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, which closed 60 years ago and continues to guide the Church on its journey toward unity and renewal.

  “This is the spirituality of Advent, very luminous and concrete,” he said. “The streetlights remind us that each of us can be a little light, if we welcome Jesus, the shoot of a new world.”

• You heard of the popemobile, now meet the papal lawn mower

  Pope Leo XIV receives an electric lawn mower from Czech manufacturer Swardman during a general audience in mid-November 2025. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Swardman

  Rome Newsroom, Dec 7, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

  The Vatican’s gardeners have a new tool for maintaining the papal grounds: a custom-designed electric lawn mower bearing the Holy See’s coat of arms.

  Pope Leo XIV received the white Electra 2.0 mower during a general audience in mid-November, a gift from Czech manufacturer Swardman.

  The specially commissioned model features leather-lined handles and was hand-assembled at the company’s facility in Šardice, Czech Republic. “It was an incredibly powerful experience full of humility and respect,” Jakub Dvořák, the company’s sales manager who personally presented the gift, told CNA. “The pontiff appreciated the Vatican’s coat of arms placed on the appliance, listened with interest as we explained how it functions, and thanked us very politely.”

  The quiet, precision-cutting mower is destined for use in the Vatican Gardens or possibly at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, according to a press release from the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which facilitated the presentation.

  Founded in 2013, the company manufactures lawn care equipment that it describes as combining functionality with “timeless elegance” suited to historic settings. The Czech Embassy to the Holy See played a key role in arranging the gift, which Dvořák called “a moment of unmistakable magic.”

  Vatican gardeners will put the electric mower to work maintaining the manicured lawns that provide green respite within the world’s smallest state.

• Chris Pratt to release documentary on tomb of St. Peter

  Chris Pratt speaks at the 2016 San Diego Comic Con International for “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego. / Credit: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

  CNA Staff, Dec 6, 2025 / 12:00 pm (CNA).

  American actor Chris Pratt, best known for his roles in “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Jurassic World,” is currently filming a documentary on the Vatican Necropolis, which lies underneath Vatican City containing tombs dating from the first to fourth century A.D., at depths varying between 16 and 39 feet below St. Peter’s Basilica. 

  The film, which is being produced by Vatican Media, the Fabric of St. Peter, and AF Films, will be released in 2026 for the 400th anniversary of the inauguration and dedication of the basilica. 

  Pratt will guide viewers on a journey to discover the tomb of St. Peter through stories of faith, history, and archaeology.

  “It is an extraordinary honor to partner with Pope Leo and the Vatican on this project. St. Peter’s story is foundational to the Christian faith, and I’m deeply grateful for the trust and access granted to help bring his legacy to the screen,” Pratt told Vatican News in an interview. 

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  While Pratt is not Catholic, he and his wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger, a practicing Catholic, attend Mass regularly and are raising their children Catholic. Pratt speaks openly about his faith and the importance he places on praying daily. He has also partnered with Hallow, a Catholic prayer and meditation app, on multiple occasions and been featured in its Lent, Advent, and daily prayer challenges. 

  Through historical evidence and archaeological discoveries, viewers of the new film are invited to discover St. Peter’s burial place in the Vatican Necropolis, which was officially announced by Pope Pius XII in 1950. 

  In 1939, Pope Pius XII had workers begin excavations under the basilica in order to try to find the location of the beloved apostle’s burial place. In 1950, the pope officially announced that the location of the tomb was found, along with bone fragments likely belonging to the saint. In 1968, Pope Paul VI announced that the bone fragments found were indeed those of St. Peter. 

  St. Peter’s bones were publicly displayed for the first time in 2013 by Pope Francis. The late pontiff held the relics during a Mass at St. Peter’s Square, which marked the end of the Church’s Year of Faith.

  Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated in the second to last paragraph that Pius XII was the pope in 1968. It has been corrected to say Paul VI. (Published Dec. 8, 2025)