Today

Pope Leo XIV has lung cancer; Pakistan's top court frees a man from death row

By The FaithDaily Desk

Good morning. Pope Leo XIV has lung cancer. Religion News Service, citing the Associated Press and a Vatican medical bulletin, reported that tests confirmed a diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma after surgery to remove part of the pope's right lung. The Vatican said the surgery was successfully completed. RNS described it as the first publicly disclosed major health problem of Leo's 17-month papacy, and said the American pontiff had offered a rare level of transparency about it. In a separate commentary, RNS wrote that Leo is teaching the church the virtue of patience, holding that the synodal process matters more than any single teaching that comes from it.

Abroad, Anglican Ink reported that the Supreme Court of Pakistan delivered its long-awaited judgment in the case of the Ayub brothers, who had spent more than a decade in prison and about nine years on death row after being falsely accused of blasphemy. The Court acquitted Amoon Ayub. Anglican Ink framed the day as one of both celebration and heartbreak.

Two reports concerned executions in the United States. RNS said a military archbishop has asked that Catholics be excused from the planned livestreamed execution of former Major Nidal Hasan at Fort Hood; the archdiocese's statement, RNS noted, adds to a list of faith leaders who have condemned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's plan to livestream it. Christianity Today published a question-and-answer interview with Wm. Paul Young, author of The Shack, about the botched execution of Christa Pike on September 30 at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. Christianity Today noted an earlier failed execution attempt at Riverbend in May involving Tony Carruthers.

In American public life, RNS listed 11 races to watch, reporting that Democratic clergy on the ballot are making some contests unexpectedly tight. Christianity Today examined Justice Samuel Alito's message to what it called the secular left and the illiberal right, returning to his 2022 abortion opinion.

Among the churches, RNS reported that R. Scott Pace was installed at Southeastern, succeeding Daniel Akin, and promised to continue the conservative mission Akin had championed in the Southern Baptist Convention. Anglican Ink reported that the Rt. Rev. Philip North, Bishop of Blackburn, used his diocesan synod address to reject talk of managed decline and to call Lancashire's churches to confident evangelism under a forthcoming "Joyful Followers of Jesus" vision. Charisma News reported that fire tore through the former Crouch Memorial Church of God in Christ in Historic South-Central Los Angeles — the third fire at the century-old building in 13 years, and perhaps its last chapter.

In matters of faith and ideas, Lutheran Witness offered a personal reflection on rediscovering October 31 as Reformation Day, and The Gospel Coalition argued that substitutionary atonement speaks to the church's abuse crisis. Charisma News reported that Andrew Jones described threats at his door and a later break-in, and said drilling beneath a suspected Noah's Ark site had found soil where competing explanations had predicted solid rock.