COMMENTARY: Italy’s ‘Medically Assisted Reproduction Law’ remains the model legislation for the legal protection of children conceived through artificial reproductive technology.

Pope Leo XIV has thanked Italy for its efforts to combat human trafficking but urged the country to remain open to welcoming and integrating migrants.

On Oct. 18, the Holy Father received the National Anti-Usury Council of Italy in the Vatican Apostolic Palace.

Pope Leo XIV walks with Italian President Sergio Mattarella during an official welcoming ceremony at the Quirinal Palace in Rome Oct. 14, 2025. The event marked the pope’s first state visit since the beginning of his pontificate. (CNS photo/courtesy of the Presidency of the Italian Republic)

Bartolo, who died in 1926 at 85 years old, first deviated from the Catholic Church after losing his mother early in life.

Pope Leo XIV has called for a "concerted effort to promote choices at all levels in favor of the family" amid falling birth rates. The American Pope’s recent plea to confront declining birth rates in Europe comes amid a mounting demographic crisis that threatens the region’s economic stability, social systems, and generational continuity.

The Italian nuns canonized are Vincenza Maria Poloni, the 19th-century founder of Verona's Institute of the Sisters of Mercy, which cares primarily for the sick in hospitals, and Maria Troncatti of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians.