Pope Leo XIV heads off on holiday on Sunday, having spent his first two months as Catholic leader rebuilding unity and bolstering tradition after his predecessor’s unorthodox papacy.”Prudent”, “methodical” and “listening” are some of the words used by Vatican insiders who spoke to AFP to describe the approach of the first American pope, who took over on May 8 as head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.Leo was elected by cardinals following the death of Argentina’s Pope Francis, a charismatic reformer who sparked worldwide devotion but also internal Church divisions during his 12-year papacy.Francis shook things up from the outset, eschewing the ornate garb and palaces of his predecessors, but his successor has moved more carefully, emphasising tradition and unity.On the all-important symbols, Leo has returned to wearing the traditional red mozzetta — short cape — and stole over his white papal robes.He will take a summer break from July 6 to 20 at the papal palace at Castel Gandolfo, outside Rome, a longtime country residence for pontiffs that Francis declined to use.Leo is also expected to move into the papal apartments of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace in the autumn after extensive renovations, according to a Vatican source.Francis had rejected the palace in favour of a simple apartment in the Santa Marta guesthouse.On policy matters, Leo has given numerous speeches but has so far avoided taking positions that might cause offence and has made no major appointments.In public, he smiles and engages with the crowds who flock to see him in St Peter’s Square, from blessing babies to singing along to the chants of the Chicago White Sox, his favourite baseball team.But the discreet former missionary — who spent two decades in Peru before joining the Roman Curia, the Catholic Church’s governing body, in 2023 — has so far kept to the script and followed protocol.”His style is simplicity… He is a presence that does not impose itself on others,” said Roberto Regoli, a professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.”With him, rather than looking at appearances, you have to focus on the content,” he told AFP.- ‘Some relief’ -Charles Mercier, a professor of contemporary history at the University of Bordeaux, said Leo appeared keen to promote the institution over himself as an individual.”Francis had a personal charisma that he greatly emphasised through his personality. Leo seems to want to blend into an institution, the papal office, that is more than him,” he told AFP.The approach has won Leo support within the Curia.Employees who spoke to AFP described a man who was “pragmatic”, “impressively calm”, “measured and methodical”, “thoughtful” and “concerned about balance”.”He is someone who listens a lot, who needs to understand how things work before making decisions,” explained one employee of a dicastery, a Vatican government department.Even those speaking under cover of anonymity offered a broadly positive tone, reflecting how in just two months, Leo has re-engaged with the Curia.”The Curia was shaken up by Pope Francis, with reforms decided sometimes unilaterally, even in an authoritarian manner, and often badly received,” a Vatican source told AFP on condition of anonymity.The arrival of Leo — “who has a good reputation”, according to the source — “brought some relief”. “We feel that things will be fluid, less personal,” they added.A phrase Leo uttered during his first meeting with the Curia on May 24 made a lasting impression: “Popes come and go, the Curia remains.”This contrasts sharply with the criticism dealt out by Francis, who accused the Curia early in his papacy of “spiritual Alzheimer’s” and a lust for power.- Assurances -“It’s clear we’re in a phase of hug therapy,” commented a European diplomatic source.Another envoy to the Holy See added that Leo was “pursuing a unifying approach — exactly what he was elected to do”.Francis was also accused by critics of sidelining doctrine in favour of social issues, notably migration, even if he did not in fact change major tenets of Catholic belief.In his first few weeks, Leo reaffirmed the celibacy of priests, defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and urged bishops to stand firm against sexual abuse, a scandal that still roils the global Church.Despite criticising US President Donald Trump’s migration policy before becoming pope, Leo has barely mentioned the subject since taking office, although he has emphasised the importance of social justice.On the diplomatic front, Leo has renewed calls for peace in Gaza and in Ukraine.He discussed the latter conflict with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in a telephone call on June 4, where he urged the president to make a “gesture that favours peace”.Francis had not spoken to Putin since before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Just as his overtures to the Curia have been well received, Leo’s return to the traditional symbols of the papacy has been welcomed by those in the Church who accused Francis of distorting the papal office.But Mercier noted that this did not rule out change in the future.Leo is aiming for a “symbolic rebalancing that undoubtedly stems from the desire to unite the Catholic flock, which has given the impression of being polarised under Francis”, he said.But, he added, it could also be a strategy “to provide symbolic assurances to enable continued progress on the substance”.

The United States and Colombia called home their respective envoys on Thursday in an apparent acceleration of worsening ties, against the backdrop of an alleged plot against Colombia’s leftist leader.Washington went first, recalling its charge d’affaires John McNamara “following baseless and reprehensible statements from the highest levels of the Government of Colombia,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said, without giving specifics.In addition to McNamara’s recall, Bruce said the United States “is pursuing other measures to make clear our deep concern over the current state of our bilateral relationship.” She did not detail the actions.Within hours, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced he was calling home his top diplomat in Washington in response. Ambassador Daniel Garcia Pena “must come to inform us of the development of the bilateral agenda,” Petro wrote on X, such as tapping South America’s “great potential for clean energy” and the fight against “drug lords and their international finances.”   The diplomatic spat came on the heels of the resignation of Colombia’s foreign minister earlier Thursday — the latest top-ranking official to exit Petro’s government.”In recent days, decisions have been made that I do not agree with and that, out of personal integrity and institutional respect, I cannot support,” Laura Sarabia, who was also Petro’s former chief of staff, wrote on X.- Plot investigation -Colombia was until recently one of the United States’s closest partners in Latin America. But ties have sharply deteriorated.Colombian prosecutors opened an investigation this week into an alleged plot to overthrow Petro with the help of Colombian and American politicians, following the publication by the Spanish daily El Pais of recordings implicating former foreign minister Alvaro Leyva.”This is nothing more than a conspiracy with drug traffickers and apparently, the Colombian and American extreme right,” Petro said on Monday.During a speech in Bogota on Thursday, Petro said he did not think US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whom he had previously linked to the alleged overthrow attempt, was “in the midst of a coup d’etat” against his government.”I don’t believe that a government that has Iran as its enemy and nuclear weapons pointed at it… is going to start fooling around with a coup d’etat” in Colombia, he said.In late January, the United States briefly suspended consular services to retaliate for Petro’s refusal to allow US military planes to return Colombian migrants to their homeland. Petro accused the United States of treating the migrants like criminals, placing them in shackles and handcuffs. The pair issued threats and counter threats of crippling trade tariffs of up to 50 percent. A backroom diplomatic deal involving the deployment of Colombian Air Force planes to collect the migrants averted a looming trade war at the eleventh hour.Colombia’s leftist government also recently refused a US request to extradite two prominent guerrilla leaders wanted by Washington for drug trafficking.

A Salvadoran man was beaten and suffered psychological torture after being wrongly deported from the United States to a notorious prison in El Salvador, his lawyers said in a court filing.Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, 30, was summarily deported to the maximum security CECOT prison in El Salvador in March as part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on undocumented migrants.Justice Department lawyers later admitted that Abrego Garcia, who is married to a US citizen, was wrongly removed due to an “administrative error.”He was brought back to the United States last month to face human smuggling charges in the southern state of Tennessee.In a filing with a US District Court in Maryland, where Abrego Garcia resided until his deportation, his lawyers provided details about his treatment at the Salvadoran prison.”He was subjected to severe mistreatment upon arrival at CECOT, including but not limited to severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture,” they said.When he arrived, Abrego Garcia and other detainees were greeted by a prison official who reportedly said: “Welcome to CECOT. Whoever enters here doesn’t leave.”He was forced to strip and “kicked in the legs with boots and struck on his head and arms.”His head was shaved and he was struck with wooden batons while being frog-marched to a cell, leaving him with bruises all over his body.”Abrego Garcia and 20 other Salvadorans were forced to kneel from approximately 9:00 PM to 6:00 AM, with guards striking anyone who fell from exhaustion,” his lawyers said. “During this time, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia was denied bathroom access and soiled himself.”The prisoners were confined to metal bunks with no mattresses in an overcrowded cell with no windows and bright lights that remained on 24 hours a day.His lawyers said Abrego Garcia lost 31 pounds (14 kilograms) during his first two weeks in prison.Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, a close ally of US President Donald Trump, denied the claims. “The man wasn’t tortured, nor did he lose weight. In fact, photos show he gained weight while in detention,” he said Thursday in a post on X. “Apparently, anything a criminal claims is accepted as truth by the mainstream media and the crumbling Western judiciary.”Abrego Garcia was among a group of 238 Venezuelans and 23 Salvadorans deported to El Salvador by the United States on March 15.The Trump administration invoked an obscure wartime law, the 1798 Alien Enemies Act (AEA), to justify the removal of the Venezuelans, accusing them of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang involved in an “invasion” of the United States.The US Supreme Court blocked further deportations under the AEA in May, saying the deported migrants were not being given enough time to legally contest their removal.Abrego Garcia had been living in the United States under protected legal status since 2019, when a judge ruled he should not be deported because he could be harmed in his home country.His lawyers in Tennessee have taken the unusual step of asking a judge to delay his release from prison ahead of his trial on the human smuggling charges, fearing he could be taken into custody by federal immigration agents and deported again.

Mexican boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has been arrested by US immigration officers and faces deportation from the United States, the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday.Chavez, a former world champion and the son of legendary Mexican fighter Julio Cesar Chavez, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Los Angeles on Wednesday after authorities determined that he was in the country illegally, Homeland Security said in a statement.Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said the 39-year-old fighter has “an active arrest warrant in Mexico for his involvement in organized crime and trafficking firearms, ammunition and explosives.”The Mexican public prosecutor’s office said in a statement later Thursday that Mexico had issued an arrest warrant for Chavez in 2023 “for organized crime and arms trafficking.”US authorities informed Mexico that they have begun the procedure to send him home, it added.Homeland Security said Chavez is believed to have ties to the Sinaloa cartel, one of six Mexican drug trafficking groups designated as terrorist organizations by the United States.- ‘Outrageous’ -Chavez’s arrest comes days after his lopsided loss to YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in a cruiserweight bout before a sell-out crowd at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.Michael A. Goldstein, a lawyer for Chavez, told the Los Angeles Times that Chavez “was detained outside of his residence by 25 or more ICE and other law enforcement agents.””They blocked off his street and took him into custody, leaving his family without any knowledge of his whereabouts,” Goldstein said. “The current allegations are outrageous and appear to be designed as a headline to terrorize the community.”Homeland Security said Chavez had entered the United States legally in 2023 on a tourist visa that was valid until February 2024.In April last year, he applied for permanent residency based on his marriage to a US citizen “who is connected to the Sinaloa cartel through a prior relationship with the now-deceased son of the infamous cartel leader Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman.”Homeland Security said that in addition to the active warrant in Mexico, Chavez had criminal convictions in the United States, including on weapons charges in 2024 in Los Angeles.According to the statement, US Citizenship and Immigration Services told ICE that Chavez posed “an egregious public safety threat.”Donald Trump campaigned for president promising to expel millions of undocumented migrants from the United States, and he has taken a number of actions aimed at speeding up deportations and reducing border crossings.Authorities accused the administration of Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden of not making Chavez an “immigration enforcement priority.”Chavez was allowed to re-enter the United States on January 4, 2025 at the San Ysidro port of entry, Homeland Security said — while Biden was still in the White House.In a statement posted on the X account of Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., the Chavez family expressed support for Chavez Jr.”Our family is deeply dismayed by the situation,” the statement said.”In these difficult times, we reiterate our full and unconditional support for Julio.”We fully trust in his innocence and his humanity, as well as in the justice institutions in both Mexico and the United States, in which we place our hope that this situation will be clarified according to the law and truth.”- ‘Why so much violence?’ -Chavez Jr. won the WBC middleweight world title in 2011 and successfully defended it three times.He owns a record of 54-7 with one draw, but his career has also included multiple suspensions and fines for failed drug tests.Two weeks before his bout with Paul, Chavez held a public workout in California where he told the Los Angeles Times that one of his trainers had skipped the session because of fears raised by immigration arrests.”I don’t understand the situation — why so much violence?” he told the newspaper. “There are a lot of good people, and you’re giving the community an example of violence.”After everything that’s happened, I wouldn’t want to be deported,” he said.