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The air in the press room suddenly turned ice-cold, the silence so heavy it felt as if the very walls of the Vatican were holding their breath. A seasoned reporter, sensing the perfect opportunity for a headline, leaned into the microphone. “Holy Father, your thoughts on the United States?” he asked, expecting the usual platitudes about unity and peace. Pope Leo XIV didn’t blink. His gaze, piercing and ancient, locked onto the journalist for a heartbeat before he whispered a single, devastating word: “Wounded.” The press corps went deathly still, the weight of the pronouncement echoing louder than a thunderclap across the world.
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