Pope Leo XIV met with abuse victims in Madrid and condemned pedophilia as a scourge, urging bishops to take real steps toward healing. The papal visit to Spain—the first in 15 years—also touched on political polarization in the country.
Vatican City is the world's smallest sovereign state, an enclave within Rome that serves as the administrative seat of the Catholic Church and is governed by the Holy See, itself a distinct subject of international law. It is an absolute elective monarchy led by the pope—currently Leo XIV, with Raffaella Petrini as head of the governorate—and wields global influence vastly disproportionate to its size through diplomacy, maintaining bilateral relations with most of the world's states and observer status at the United Nations. Its significance is moral, spiritual, and diplomatic rather than territorial; news readers should watch papal pronouncements on social, humanitarian, and geopolitical issues, and its role as a neutral mediator and voice on global affairs.