Pope Leo’s first Holy Week and Easter in a world at war

Jesuitical

America Media

News, News Commentary, Religion & Spirituality, Spirituality, Christianity

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 April 2026

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week on a special crossover episode of “Jesuitical,” Ashley and Colleen Dulle, host of the “Inside the Vatican” podcast, speak with Gerard O’Connell, America’s senior Vatican correspondent, and his wife Elisabetta Piqué about co-writing The Election of Pope Leo XIV: The Last Surprise of Pope Francis. In “Signs of the Times,” Ashley and guest host Sebastian break down Pope Leo’s first Holy Week and how it was shaped by the conflict between the United States and Iran. They also discuss astronaut Victor Glover, the pilot of the Artemis II mission, and his Easter message from space. Finally, in “As One Friend Speaks to Another,” Ashley and Sebastian talk about how the death and resurrection of Christ can help us understand and live through the extremes of this past week’s news—the threat of Iran’s total destruction and the new heights reached by humanity in space. Links: The Election of Pope Leo XIV: The Last Surprise of Pope Francis, by Gerard O’Connell and Elisabetta Pique Excerpt: Behind the scenes of Pope Leo XIV’s election Pope Leo praises U.S.-Iran ceasefire as ‘sign of genuine hope,’ presses for peace Pope Leo: Trump’s threat to destroy Iran ‘truly unacceptable’ What photos from the Artemis II astronauts say to us in a time of war Artemis astronaut: Moon mission inspires wonder, prayer and unity You can follow us on X and on Instagram @jesuiticalshow. You can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/groups/jesuitical. Please consider supporting “Jesuitical” by becoming a digital subscriber to America magazine at americamagazine.org/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Jesuitical, a podcast from America Media for saints and sinners.
0:14.5	You can join us each week for honest conversations about the Catholic Church and our world today, sometimes over drinks.
0:21.7	I'm Ashley McKinless, and I'm joined by Sebastian Gomes. I've been resurrected back to the podcast.
0:27.1	Welcome back, and happy Easter. Thank you. Happy Easter to you. It's great to be with you.
0:31.8	It's great to be here. How was your Easter? Oh, it was great. Love the Tritome. I'm a big
0:36.5	liturgy guy now. As I get older, I just,
0:39.8	you know, I'm able to kind of fall into the symbolism and the powerful gestures that are so
0:45.3	prominent, obviously, in the liturgies during those days. So I loved it. Went to all three.
0:50.8	Always surprised to see how many Catholics show up for the Good Friday liturgy.
0:55.7	That's always great to see. Yeah, no, it was great. I usually go back to Virginia for Easter,
1:00.3	but I actually stayed in Brooklyn this year. And it was really nice to go. I also went to all three
1:04.5	Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the vigil here in Brooklyn. Well, not here in Brooklyn,
1:12.6	they're in Brooklyn. And it was great to just feel like I was, I was in my, in my home city, my new home city going through these
1:18.1	really powerful liturgy with my, with my neighbors. But I don't think anyone had a better Easter
1:23.4	than my usual co-host and his daughter, who are in Rome right now, and went to Pope Leo's
1:32.3	first Sunday Easter Mass, and little Madeline got picked up by the Pope in the Pope-Mobile
1:39.3	and got an Easter blessing, which was just so cool to see.
1:42.3	That's right, yeah. So we woke up on Easter Sunday morning to that Slack message with Zach posting the photo of Madeline getting blessed by Pope Leo and Zach yelling to him about America magazine. It was great. What a great moment for them. So happy for them, obviously. Like, I mean, that's a home run, right? When you bring your, your baby to see Pope Leo and he picks her up. Yeah, amazing. And keeping with
2:06.4	the Easter spirit, usually on this day of recording, we would have Prosecco or Champagne,
2:13.3	because as Zach always says, Christ is risen and so are the bubbles in our glasses.
2:18.9	Unfortunately, it is 11 a.m. here in New York, so a bit too early to indulge.
2:24.4	But if you're listening to this and want to crack open a bottle of champagne or Prosecco, we encourage you to do so.
	...

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