VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- "Firmly rooted" in the Church's living tradition, the liturgical reform put forth by the Second Vatican Council grew from the need for the faithful to celebrate the liturgy more "consciously and actively," and not "as strangers and silent spectators," Pope Leo XIV said."The faithful 'cannot and must no longer remain silent and passive. Their physical presence cannot be reconciled with their spiritual absence,'" he said, quoting Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini of Milan, the future Pope Paul VI and saint, who was attending the council's first session at the time in 1962.The Council Fathers expressed "a renewed awareness of the value of the liturgy," Pope Leo said during his general audience talk in St. Peter's Basilica Aug. 26, which focused on the constitution on the sacred liturgy, "Sacrosanctum Concilium," and why the council sought to promote the liturgy's reform.  Pope Leo XIV talks to v

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- As wars multiply and the post-World War II international order comes under increasing strain, Pope Leo XIV has spent the opening months of his pontificate articulating a Catholic vision for international relations rooted in human dignity, international law and multilateral cooperation.Through his speeches, diplomatic addresses and first encyclical, "Magnifica Humanitas," the U.S. pope has consistently argued -- like his predecessors -- that lasting peace depends less on military strength than on politics grounded in the dignity of every person.This clear message comes as nationalism, unilateralism and open conflict challenge the existing international order created post-World War II, during which many of the world's superpowers focused efforts on fostering free trade, collaboration and the development of global institutions like the World Bank and United Nations.But what has changed, scholars told Catholic News Service, is the landscape itself, as the in