🌙 VATICAN REPORT | Wednesday 21 October 2026 evening

⛪ Back in the square Pope Leo XIV returned to St Peter's Square today for the General Audience, his first since his surgery at the Gemelli on 13 October. He toured the square in the popemobile among thousands of pilgrims, in the rain, and opened his catechesis with thanks: "The first thing I would like to say is thank you! Thank you for the support of your prayers." 📖 Family and life In his catechesis on Gaudium et spes, the Pope called the family "the foundation of society" and recalled, with the Council, that "from the moment of its conception life must be guarded with the greatest care". In his greetings he remembered the Ibiza martyrs beatified on Saturday, Juan Torres Torres and 19 companions. ✝️ Saints and history In the Apostolic Palace he received participants in the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints conference: "the history of the world without the saints would be immensely poorer, that is, less human" (our translation). 🏛️ Holy See Today's only appointment was Leandro Machado Silvestre as Bishop of Guajará-Mirim, Brazil. No further official communiqués were released in the afternoon. 📌 To watch • Thursday 22: no engagement confirmed by the Press Office so far • The outcome of the histological examination, not yet announced • 22-24 October: "Church of the sheaves" conference at the Urbaniana