Photos of the Week: Pope Leo’s first trip, Hong Kong fire
By Kit Doyle · December 3, 2025
(RNS) — Each week RNS presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s photo gallery includes Pope Leo XIV's first international trip, a deadly fire in Hong Kong and more.
Worshippers wave Lebanese and Vatican flags as they wait for Pope Leo XIV to celebrate Mass at the Beirut waterfront, in Beirut, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Pope Leo XIV holds a moment of prayer at the site of the 2020 Beirut port explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)
Pope Leo XIV visits the Ottoman-era Sultan Ahmed or Blue Mosque, in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Pope Leo XIV watches a performance by youths holding illuminated globes during an event in Bkerki, the seat of the Maronite Church, in Lebanon, Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
People place flowers at a memorial for the victims near the site of a deadly fire at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories, on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Buddhist monks lead a religious ceremony at the site of a deadly fire at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories, on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
People hang paper cranes near the site of the fire at Wang Fuk Court, visible in background, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
A Taoist priest offers a religious ceremony near the site of a deadly fire at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories, on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Indian sadhus participate in a ritual prayer at Sangam, the confluence of the rivers Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati, ahead of the annual Hindu religious festival Magh Mela in Prayagraj, India, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Archival photos
United Farm Workers pickets flirted with arrest in December 1973, when they picketed — and implied a complete boycott of — Schnuck's Markets, a chain of supermarkets in the St. Louis area. In mid-January, the dispute was resolved due to the prodding efforts of a Roman Catholic priest and an Episcopal Church clergyman when the food chain agreed to handle UFW-picked lettuce. The agreement was used to encourage Catholic and Episcopal populations in the area to buy UFW produce. (RNS archive photo by Richard Finke. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.)
The Rev. Dermot Doran, C.S.Sp., standing, center, inspects a shipment of medicine on board a plane bound for then-Biafra from the Portuguese island of Sao Tome in 1968. The Irish missionary who coordinated relief airlifts to Biafra believed that civilian deaths there in December would be "the greatest catastrophe of the century." (RNS archive photo. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.)
