ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV said in his first interview as history’s first American pope that he has no intention of getting involved in U.S. politics but will raise his voice on issues of concern to the Catholic Church, including on immigration.

Leo spoke on a range of topics — from the Trump administration to the clergy sexual abuse crisis, welcoming LGBTQ+ Catholics and Vatican-China relations — in the interview, published Thursday. It was conducted by Vatican correspondent Elise Ann Allen of the news site Crux for a biography of Leo that was published Thursday in Peru, where Leo was bishop for many years.

Pope Leo XIV delivers his message in St. Peter’s Square on the occasion of the weekly general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Here are some highlights:

Welcoming the LGBTQ+ community

Leo embraced Pope Francis’ message for LGBTQ+ Catholics that “todos, todos, todos” are welcome in the Catholic Church but said that he found “it highly unlikely” the church’s core doctrine about sexuality would change anytime soon.

The Catholic Church teaches that homosexual people must be treated with dignity and respect, but that homosexual activity is “intrinsically disordered.” It opposes same-sex marriage, saying marriage is a union between a man and woman.

Pope Leo XIV arrives in St. Peter’s Square on the occasion of the weekly general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

“I think we have to change attitudes before we even think about changing what the church says about any given question,” he said.

Earlier this month, the Vatican hosted a Holy Year pilgrimage that included several LGBTQ+ Catholic groups. On Thursday, traditionalist Catholic groups announced a petition asking Leo to “confirm and reaffirm the perennial teaching of the church” on sexuality “in the face of the brazen offensive of those who demand the moral legitimization of homosexual relationships and unions.”

Ties with China

Leo said he didn’t foresee any short-term changes in the Vatican’s controversial 2018 agreement with Beijing over bishop nominations.

The Vatican under Pope Francis had inked the accord hoping it would help unite China’s estimated 12 million Catholics, long divided between those belonging to an official, state-sanctioned church and an underground church loyal to Rome.

“I in no way pretend to be wiser or more experienced than all those who have come before me,” Leo said, adding he was studying the issue and speaking with Chinese people “on both sides” about it.

The Vatican has defended the 2018 accord against criticism that Francis sold out the underground faithful, who endured decades of persecution by the Beijing authorities. The Vatican has said the deal was necessary to prevent an even worse schism in the Chinese church after China named bishops without the pope’s consent.

Sex abuse scandals

Leo said the sex abuse crisis is “a real crisis” that has not yet been solved, and that the church still hasn’t found a way to help victims heal. But he also said the rights of priests must be respected.

“Statistics show that well over 90% of people who come forward and make accusations, they are authentically victims. They are telling the truth. They are not making this up,” he said. “But there have also been proven cases of some kind of false accusation. There have been priests whose lives have been destroyed because of that.”

The pope also said the scandal “cannot become the center focus of the church.”

Leo was instrumental in helping victims of an abusive Peruvian group find justice but he has been accused by a U.S. victim advocacy group of not doing enough to help other Peruvian victims.

Trump and US politics

Leo said he recognized the influence of the United States on world affairs and mentioned migration as one of the issue important to the Catholic Church.

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He recalled a letter Francis sent to U.S. bishops earlier this year rebuking the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations of migrants. The letter took direct aim at Vice President JD Vance’s defense of the deportation program on theological grounds.

Leo praised Francis’ initiative and said U.S. bishops showed “courage” in confronting the administration, expressing hopes they would continue to take the lead on such issues.

“One of the last conversations I had with the vice president of the United States – I have not had direct conversations with or have not met the president – I talked about human dignity and how important that is for all people, wherever you’re born, and hopefully to find ways to respect human beings and the way we treat them in the policies and choices we make,” Leo said.

Leo made clear he is not a Trump supporter, adding that he and his brother Luis Prevost, a self-described “MAGA-type,” who has met the U.S. president are in “different places.”

“The United States is a power player on the world level, we have to recognize that, and sometimes decisions are made more based on economics than on human dignity and human support, but (we have to) continue to challenge and to raise some questions and to see the best way to do that,” Leo said.

Women’s voices

Leo vowed to continue appointing women to leadership positions in the church, but tamped down any hopes of ordaining women as deacons or as priests. He pointed to an ongoing study by the Vatican’s doctrine office on the issue.

“I at the moment don’t have an intention of changing the teaching of the church on the topic,” he said. “I am certainly willing to continue to listen to people.”

Vatican finances

Leo inherited a longstanding financial crunch at the Vatican, which has been running a $57 million to $68 million structural deficit, a $1.14 billion pension fund shortfall and declining donations.

The crisis hit hardest during the pandemic when the Holy See’s main source of revenue, the Vatican Museums, closed down.

But things are improving and “it is not the crisis that people have been led to believe,” Leo said.

“I’m not saying we can relax,” he said. “I don’t think the crisis is over, I think we have to continue to work on this, but I’m not losing sleep over it, and I think that it’s important that we communicate a different message.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Minnesota United head coach Eric Ramsay didn’t want to “lean into my frustration” after the 2-1 loss to Austin FC in a U.S. Open Cup semifinal on Wednesday.

Ramsay’s measured response came amid the most gut-wrenching defeat of his two-year tenure and amid a big officiating no-call midway through the first half that led to Austin taking a 1-0 lead just before the break at Allianz Field.

After a back-and-forth between them, Austin winger Osman Bukari kicked Loons’ wingback Anthony Markanich in the knee, but Bukari was only given a yellow card for the action by referee Alexis Da Silva. After not getting ejected for a red card, Bukari scored the go-ahead goal in first-half stoppage time.

“I’m not one to stand up here often and talk about refereeing, but I feel like the Bukari one, the rationale for him not being sent off is he has not kicked him hard enough,” Ramsay said from the post-game podium. “As far as I’m concerned, that action nine times out of 10 results in a (red card and a) sending off. I think it was as clear as could possibly be. I feel like that is one that we will rue and question. I’m sure we will lose some sleep over that one (Wednesday) night.”

Video: Austin winger Osman Bukari was issued a yellow card, avoiding a red from referee Alexis Da Silva, for this kick-out contact on #MNUFC defender Anthony Markanich in 25th minute.

Context: Bukari scored just before halftime to give Austin 1-0 lead in US Open Cup semifinal. pic.twitter.com/zJaHKUO5is

— Andy Greder (@andygreder) September 18, 2025

But Ramsay looked at his own team’s defensive lapses for costing them a chance to win their first trophy in hosting the national tournament’s final against Nashville SC in St. Paul on Oct. 1.

Austin’s CJ Fodrey scored in the 120th and final minute of the match for a 2-1 result. If not for Loons defenders allowing that late winner, Minnesota and Austin were only 10 seconds from going to penalty kicks.

“Ultimately we are in the game,” Ramsay said. “Penalties are there. It’s our own undoing and not one I’m going to pin on the refereeing.”

Yeboah hurt

Top MNUFC striker Kelvin Yeboah appeared to suffer a hamstring injury and exited during the first half Wednesday, forcing Ramsay to tinker with the lineup as backup Momo Dieng was ineligible to play after being “cup-tied” in a previous Open Cup appearance for Hartford Athletic. Ramsay said they won’t know severity of the injury until imaging is done Thursday. He noted it initially wasn’t too severe because the forward was able to try to stay in the match.

By MATT OTT, Associated Press Business Writer

The number of Americans applying for jobless aid last week retreated significantly after surging to a nearly four-year high a week earlier.

U.S. filings for unemployment benefits for the week ending Sept. 13 fell by 33,000 to 231,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s less than the 241,000 analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet had forecast.

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The previous week, applications surged to 264,000, their highest level since the week of Oct. 23, 2021. Last week’s figure was revised up by 1,000.

Concerns about the health of the American labor market led the Federal Reserve to cut its key interest rate by a quarter-point on Wednesday as many expected.

The rate cut is a sign that the central bank’s focus has shifted quickly from inflation to jobs as hiring has grounded nearly to a halt in recent months. Lower interest rates could reduce borrowing costs for mortgages, car loans, and business loans, and boost growth and hiring. The problem is that it can also exacerbate inflation, which remains above the Fed’s 2% target.

Last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics issued a massive preliminary revision of U.S. job gains for the 12 months ending in March, further evidence that the labor market has not been as strong as previously thought.

The BLS’s revised figures showed that U.S. employers added 911,000 fewer jobs than originally reported in the year ending in March 2025, The report showed that job gains were tapering long before President Donald Trump rolled out his far-reaching tariffs on U.S. trading partners in April.

The department issues the revisions every year, intending to better account for new businesses and ones that had gone out of business. Final revisions will come out in February 2026.

The updated figures came after the agency reported earlier this month that the economy generated just 22,000 jobs in August, well below the 80,000 economists were expecting.

Earlier this month, the government reported that U.S. employers advertised 7.2 million job openings at the end of July, the first time since April of 2021 that there were more unemployed Americans than job postings.

The July employment report, which showed job gains of just 73,000 and included huge downward revisions for June and May, sent financial markets spiraling and prompted Trump to fire the head of the agency that compiles the monthly data.

The various labor market reports have bolstered fears that Trump’s erratic economic policies, including the unpredictable taxes on imports, have created so much uncertainty that businesses are reluctant to hire.

Broader U.S. economic growth has weakened so far this year as many companies have pulled back on expansion projects amid the uncertainty surrounding the impacts of the tariffs. Growth slowed to about a 1.3% annual rate in the first half of the year, down from 2.5% in 2024.

Thursday’s unemployment benefits report showed that the four-week average of claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week volatility, fell by 750 to 240,000.

The total number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits for the previous week of Sept. 6 fell by 7,000 to 1.92 million.

Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered representative of layoffs and have mostly settled in a historically low range between 200,000 and 250,000 since the U.S. began to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic nearly four years ago.

By TERESA CEROJANO and MATT OTT, Associated Press

Strong overnight gains have Wall Street poised to open at record highs Thursday following the Federal Reserve’s first interest rate cut in nine months.

Futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.8% before the bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.7%. Nasdaq futures jumped 1.1%.

Intel shares soared more than 28% after Nvidia announced it was investing $5 billion in the California chipmaker as part of a collaboration to ramp up custom data center and personal computer products. Nvidia shares rose 2.6%.

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Cracker Barrel shares slid 8.2% after the restaurant chain said that it expects lower sales and weaker customer traffic in the coming year as the controversy over its planned logo change continues to play out.

In a conference call with investors on Wednesday, Cracker Barrel said traffic at its restaurants was down 1% in early August, before it announced it was adopting a more simplified logo that upset many of its loyal customers. The company eventually relented and went back to the old logo.

Walt Disney shares were largely unchanged after the entertainment giant announced that its ABC television division had suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show indefinitely after comments that he made about Charlie Kirk’s killing led a group of ABC-affiliated stations to say they would not air the show.

Earlier in the day, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr called Kimmel’s comments “truly sick” and said his agency has a strong case for holding Kimmel, ABC and network parent Walt Disney Co. accountable for spreading misinformation.

As expected on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve cut its main interest rate, but even more important was the set of projections that U.S. central bank officials published showing where they expect interest rates to go in upcoming years.

That indicated the typical member sees the Fed cutting the federal funds rate two more times by the end of this year and once more in 2026.

Markets initially rose after the rate cut announcement and projections, but quickly gave back gains after Fed Chair Jerome Powell stressed that the projections could change and warned against taking them as guarantees of future conditions.

What’s making things difficult for the Fed is that the job market is slowing as inflation is remaining stubbornly high. The Fed is in charge of fixing both, but it has only one tool to do that. And helping one by moving interest rates often hurts the other in the short term.

The Fed had been holding rates steady this year because of the threat that U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs will raise prices for all kinds of products. Inflation has so far refused to go back below the Fed’s 2% target, and Fed officials don’t see that happening for a few years.

In midday European trading, Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC each climbed 1.1%. Britain’s FTSE 100 added 0.3% in cautious trading ahead of a Bank of England interest rate decision later in the day.

Asian shares were mixed, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 closing nearly 1.2% to 45,303.43 as the Bank of Japan started its two-day policy meeting, with rates expected to be left unchanged.

South Korea’s Kospi added 1.4% to 3,461.30, with chipmakers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics among advancers.

The Chinese markets were down. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped nearly 1.4% to 26,544.85, while the Shanghai Composite index trimmed earlier gains, losing over 1.1% to 3,831.66.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dipped 0.8% to 8,745.20 with data released Thursday showing the jobless rate was unchanged at 4.2% in August, but headline employment fell by 5,400 while full-time jobs declined by 40,900.

India’s BSE Sensex was up 0.1%, while Taiwan’s Taiex added 1.3%.