Pope Leo's Peace Plea, California's New Anti-Trafficking Law, El Salvador Archbishop Speaks Out, and More

Thanks for listening! Let us know what you think. God bless!

Gina Christian of OSV News catches you up on the Catholic news of the day for Aug. 11, 2025. Tune in and visit us online at osvnews.com.

In this episode:

• As U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin prepared to meet in Alaska Aug. 15, Pope Leo XIV prayed world leaders would recognize the impact their actions have on people.
  
  
• Catholics have lauded the recent signing of a state law that makes it a felony to procure sex from a 16- or 17-year-old minor in California. 
  
  
• Ukrainian child advocate Mykola Kuleba is pleading for the Vatican's assistance, after publicly highlighting what he said was one of several databases used by Russian occupation officials to market abducted Ukrainian children to Russian foster and adoption families. 
  
  
• In El Salvador, Archbishop José Luis Escobar Alas used the country's biggest Catholic feast to deliver two bold appeals to lawmakers: scrap a law reopening mining, and restore the constitutional ban on presidential reelection. 
  
  
• Pope Leo XIV approved expanded benefits for Vatican employees with children, a process begun by his predecessor, the late Pope Francis.