Pope Leo XIV began a summer vacation on Sunday, capping a whirlwind finale to the first half of 2026 in which he emerged as a powerful global statesman on issues from artificial intelligence to war and flexed decisive papal muscle to govern internal church problems.
Leo is spending the rest of July at the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo, the Vatican's historic summer residence south of Rome that the American pope has turned into his weekly getaway for tennis and swimming.
