For years, I have turned to my next-door neighbor Kathy for help.

As conflict in the Middle East escalated with Israeli airstrikes on nuclear sites in Iran and retaliatory drone attacks on Israel, Pope Leo XIV appealed for restraint and renewed the church’s calls for nuclear disarmament and peaceful dialogue.

Democratic State Rep. Melissa Hortman, who once taught Sunday school at St. Timothy in Blaine, Minn., and was a speaker of the Minnesota House, and her husband, Mark, were shot and killed in their home early June 14 in what Gov. Tim Walz said “appears to be a politically motivated assassination.”

he June 14 celebration, organized by the Archdiocese of Chicago, included a series of short video clips and first-ever airing of Pope Leo XIV’s video message to the world’s youth at Rate Field on Chicago’s Southside.

Sport, with its demands for self-giving, collaboration and perseverance, reflects the beauty and dynamic love of God, Pope Leo XIV said.