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@christopherjhale.bsky.social
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 59m
Pope Leo XIV finished a four-day journey through France on Monday in Metz, the city of European Union founder Robert Schuman, with a call for Europe to hold together. On Saturday he drew an estimated 800,000 people to the Champs-Élysées.
thelettersfromleo.com
Pope Leo XIV Is the Leader of the Free World
Eighty-two years after his father landed at Normandy, the American pope drew 800,000 people to the Champs-Élysées and asked Europe to hold together. Washington left the job open, and Leo took it.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 5h
“The Church is on the side of the immigrants. It used to be that we would think of the church as aligned with right-wing parties. It’s not anymore. It is on the side of unity.” — Fr. Thomas Reese, SJ
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 5h
Pope Leo XIV filled the Stade de France with 80,000 young people on Friday, in a country where only about one in twenty people goes to Mass regularly. I told BBC News it was a show of strength in one of the most secular countries in the West. France baptized a record 21,000 people this Easter.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 10h
Emmanuel Macron amplifying Pope Leo XIV from Metz is the right call. The first U.S.-born pope told France his father was in Normandy during the Second World War and said he wants to help build “a strong and united Europe.” Every strongman watching should take note.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 12h
Pope Leo XIV greets persons with special needs at the Metz Cathedral before Mass yesterday.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 15h
Beneath Marc Chagall’s windows in Metz, Pope Leo XIV told Europe its future “does not lie in uniformity, but in the harmony of differences, where the wounds of the past become openings through which light shines.”
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 18h
Pope Leo XIV rejected the charge that his criticism of France’s euthanasia law crossed the line between church and state. “We’re not entering into politics, we’re applying the Gospel to people’s lives,” he told reporters aboard the papal plane.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 21h
Asked aboard the papal plane Monday about Germany’s far right, Pope Leo XIV said its fusion with “a certain kind of religion” is “not an authentic expression of Christianity.” The values of the Gospel, he said, “are not about hatred and division.”
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 22h
Pope Leo XIV in Metz on Monday: “It is not true that those who seek revenge are stronger than those who forgive.” Donald Trump once promised his supporters, “I am your retribution.” The first U.S.-born pope preached the Sermon on the Mount instead.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
NEW: Pope Leo XIV pushed back against Silicon Valley aboard the papal plane Monday. Noting that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says he has found guardrails for AI, Leo said, “He’s the same one, however, that says there should be no limits placed and no government regulation.”
thelettersfromleo.com
“It Is Not True That Those Who Seek Revenge Are Stronger” — Pope Leo XIV Ends His France Journey in Metz
Hours after preaching against revenge, the first American pope pushed back on Nvidia’s chief over AI regulation and called Germany’s far-right religion “not an authentic expression of Christianity.”
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Pope Leo XIV with the women and men who are altar servers at his Mass in Metz today.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“Today, relations between individuals and States are becoming increasingly uncivilized. The value of keeping one’s word is dismissed; instead, people boast of lies and deceit.” — Pope Leo XIV
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
NEW: Jean-Marie Delbos, 80, was sexually abused by a priest as a boy and had not been to Mass since. On Sunday, he went to Pope Leo XIV’s Mass at Lourdes. That evening, when the pope met him and other survivors, he was so moved that he made the sign of the cross for the first time in 60 years.
substack.com
“He Took Me With Both Arms” — Pope Leo XIV Meets Abuse Survivors at Lourdes
Jean-Marie Delbos, 80, went to Mass on Sunday for the first time in 60 years. By Monday morning in Metz, the pope was telling France’s religious leaders that violence in God’s name profanes it.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“To invoke God’s name in order to justify violence or oppression is to profane that name. “Nothing that disfigures human dignity can claim to be inspired by God. Religious discourse must constantly call for the disarmament of hearts and words.” — Pope Leo XIV
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The vicar of Jesus Christ.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Pope Leo XIV stood up for reporters as Trump’s White House shut them out. When CNN’s Christopher Lamb raised his colleagues’ treatment, Leo replied: “I am very happy that here you are all welcome.” A free press deserves defenders. The pope showed up.
thelettersfromleo.com
Pope Leo XIV Calls War “the Most Terrible of Human Works,” Backs CNN on Trump’s Press Ban
A day after a judge restored CNN’s White House credentials, the pope told its Vatican correspondent that good coverage belongs to everyone. Then, in Paris, the longest English address of his papacy.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Peter Thiel called Pope Leo XIV a “woke American pope” and suggested he was a tool of the Antichrist. Here’s the background on the billionaire’s theology and his influence on the vice president.
thelettersfromleo.com
JD Vance’s Top Donor Suggests Pope Leo XIV is Antichrist
In a leaked lecture, Peter Thiel says he’s urged Vance to ignore the pope on moral questions — and simply pray for him.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Jean-Marie Delbos was sexually abused as a boy at Bétharram, a Catholic school in France, and hadn’t been to Mass in 60 years. Today he met Pope Leo XIV at Lourdes. “He took me in both arms,” Delbos said. “I never imagined it was the pope holding me.”
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“There was a time when these words brought tears to every American.” “Now they are shunned, riddled with conditions, or ignored altogether because they remind us of what we have become.” — Cardinal Robert McElroy
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“Jesus weeps all across our nation for the children who have been arrested, detained, and transported to far-off centers with terrible living conditions and cut off from their families.” — Cardinal Robert McElroy
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
NEW: Pope Francis once defended the son in today’s Gospel who refused his father, calling him “not perfect, but sincere.” Jesus has more patience with an honest doubt than with a polished show of faith.
thelettersfromleo.com
God Would Rather Hear Your Honest Doubts
At Lourdes this morning, Pope Leo XIV told 150,000 pilgrims to repent “today, not tomorrow.” In today’s parable, the son who told his father no still made it to the vineyard, and so did the town’s…
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“These refugees never broke any law.” “They are being deported because of a general desire to exclude immigrants from American society.” — Cardinal Robert McElroy
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“When our government laid siege to the city of Minneapolis with wanton violence and the killing of those who had spoken up in resistance, we were outraged.” “We could not believe that the mask had become the new symbol of American justice.” — Cardinal Robert McElroy
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“For the last year and a half, the people of the United States have witnessed the suffering of the undocumented in our midst, purposely and strategically magnified by our government, and for the most part, we have simply passed on by.” — Cardinal Robert McElroy
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
NEW: On Pope Leo’s World Day of Migrants, Cardinal McElroy told Catholics to “fight every dimension” of the Trump administration’s war on immigrants and to replace politicians who tolerate it. “In abandoning the words of Deuteronomy and of the Statue of Liberty, we are losing our soul as a nation.”
thelettersfromleo.com
On Pope Leo’s World Day of Migrants, Cardinal McElroy Indicts Trump’s War on Immigrants
Preaching on the Good Samaritan for World Day of Migrants, Washington’s archbishop named Minneapolis, a five-year-old used as bait, and a nation that “passed on by.” He told Catholics to fight every d...
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Stairway to Heaven
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Why is Peter Thiel lashing out at the pope? Because Pope Leo XIV is Peter Thiel’s worst fear. Here’s the problem for Thiel. Leo deals in a currency he doesn’t understand. There’s no ballot that removes him, no impeachment, no indictment, no deportation order, no tariff that touches him.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
“But no human law should ever make you lose the certainty of your dignity. … It is impossible to regard causing death as something normal. What is legal is not necessarily moral.” — Pope Leo XIV
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia ran this provocative headline yesterday: “The pope offers the opposite of Trump.”
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Hours before meeting abuse survivors, Pope Leo XIV told the Church in Lourdes today: “She must have the courage to begin with herself. In order to heal the deep wounds, infidelities and painful errors that have occurred within her, we must humbly place ourselves under the Lord’s purifying gaze.”
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The papal zucchetto meets the French beret.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
NEW: Pope Leo XIV called on the Catholic Church to face the wounds of the sexual abuse crisis and repent on Sunday, hours before a private meeting with seven survivors in Lourdes.
thelettersfromleo.com
Pope Leo XIV Calls the Church to Repent for Abuse at Lourdes
Hours before a private meeting with seven abuse survivors, the pope urged France’s bishops to “acknowledge failings” and told a prairie full of pilgrims that the Church’s conversion starts at home.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
“We tend to think that when the Church is talking about morality, that the only issue of morality is sexual.” “I believe there are much greater, more important issues, such as justice, equality, freedom of men and women, freedom of religion.”
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The conclave is built to withstand empires, spies, and kings. Not iPhones. Yet during the very first vote to elect Pope Leo XIV, Vatican security detected an active SIM card inside the Sistine Chapel. Someone had brought a phone. Here’s what happened next.
thelettersfromleo.com
Smuggled Phones, Double Votes, and a Battle for the Church: Inside the Conclave That Elected Pope Leo XIV
A new book reveals the minute-by-minute drama of the conclave — from a cardinal's contraband cell phone to a botched vote count — and how the reformers defeated the conservative bloc to make Leo pope.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
“War is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading.” “A diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force.”
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Peter Thiel called Pope Leo XIV a “useful idiot” for the Chinese Communists in his third attack on the pope. “If you’re evil, you’re at least competent. And if you’re evil, you’re not bad.” JD Vance credits Thiel with his conversion to Catholicism. Thiel is his biggest financial backer.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Pope Leo XIV is single-handedly rebuilding the Franco-American alliance.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
CBS News asked Pope Leo XIV if he planned to talk to Donald Trump anytime in the near future about U.S.-Israel-led war against Iran. His response: 🤷‍♂️
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The leader of the free world.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Pope Leo XIV brings in crowd sizes that Donald Trump can only lie about having.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
French children climbing trees to catch a glimpse of Pope Leo XIV.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Pope Leo XIV and Macron disagree on abortion and euthanasia. None of that has stopped them from building a real partnership around ending the wars in Iran, Ukraine, and the Holy Land. Macron has become the pope’s strongest Western ally because he keeps showing up. Trump still hasn’t called Leo.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
NEW: Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass with an estimated 800,000 people in Paris on Saturday. At a migrant house before Mass , he said the history of humanity “is not written by those who give the impression of winning by imposing themselves and ‘dominating the room,’ but by those who ‘make room.’”
thelettersfromleo.com
Drawing 800,000 in Paris, Pope Leo XIV Calls on the Church to “Make Room” for Migrants and the Poor
“No one is so poor as to have nothing to give.” Before Mass, the pope sat with migrants and told catechists to respect each person’s pace. Six altar servers with Down syndrome served his Mass.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The most famous American to ever visit Paris.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
“When we look closely, the history of the Church and of humanity is not written by those who give the impression of winning by imposing themselves and ‘dominating the room,’ but by those who ‘make room,’ initiate processes of peace, build trust and encourage life.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Peter Thiel is lashing out at the pope because he is Thiel’s worst fear. Leo deals in a currency he doesn’t understand. There’s no election, no impeachment, no indictment, no deportation order, no tariff that touches him. His authority comes from somewhere Thiel has no instrument to reach.
thelettersfromleo.com
“A Useful Idiot for the Chinese Communists” — Peter Thiel Attacks Pope Leo XIV for the Third Time
The billionaire who bankrolled JD Vance’s Senate race, and whom Vance credits with reopening the door to his faith, went after the American pope again on Thursday in Berlin. The vice president has sai...
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
America’s best export.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
NEW: Pope Leo XIV told the clergy of France in Notre-Dame on Friday that the Church cannot close in on itself, hours before 80,000 young people filled the Stade de France to hear him. “The Christian community is not a refuge into which we withdraw in order to protect ourselves from our age.”
thelettersfromleo.com
In Secular France, Young Catholics Treat Pope Leo XIV Like a Rock Star
An estimated 300,000 lined his route to Notre-Dame, where he told the clergy to put communion with Peter before personal preference. France baptized a record 21,000 people this Easter. Here is why.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
France is one of the most secular countries in the world, and 80,000 young people just sang the ancient Marian hymn Salve Regina with Pope Leo XIV in Paris. Tomorrow he celebrates Mass for a crowd expected to be nearly one million.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
NEW: On his first day in Paris, Pope Leo XIV gave an address at UNESCO mostly in English, so the world would hear him call war “the most terrible of ‘human works.’” “Instead of respecting the law, those in power invoke it when it serves their interests and disregard it when it restrains them.”
thelettersfromleo.com
Pope Leo XIV Calls War “the Most Terrible of Human Works,” Backs CNN on Trump’s Press Ban
A day after a judge restored CNN’s White House credentials, the pope told its Vatican correspondent that good coverage belongs to everyone. Then, in Paris, the longest English address of his papacy.
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