Pope Leo XIV resumes the tradition of taking a summer vacation. But he's got plenty of homework

VATICAN CITY (AP) — In his very first sermon as pontiff, Pope Leo XIV told the cardinals who elected him that anyone who exercises authority in the Catholic Church must “make oneself small,” so that only Christ remains.

In word and deed since, Leo has seemed intent on almost disappearing into the role. The shy 69-year-old Augustinian missionary has eschewed the headline-grabbing protagonism of past pontiffs in favor of a quieter, less showy and more reserved way of being pope.

Leo will disappear further this weekend when he begins a six-week vacation in his first break since his historic election May 8. Leo is resuming the papal tradition of escaping the Roman heat for the relatively cooler climes of Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer retreat on Lake Alban, south of Rome.

People who know and work with Leo expect he will use these weeks away from the public eye and the daily grind of Vatican audiences to get his head around the most pressing problems facing the church. He's a methodical, hard-working and well-prepared manager, they say, who wants to read entire reports, not just the executive summaries, before making decisions.

Here is a look at Leo’s summer homework, the outstanding dossiers he may be studying from now until Aug. 17 in between dips in the pool, walks in the gardens and occasional Masses, prayers and visits in town.

After his election, Leo reappointed all Vatican prefects until further notice, so the Holy See machinery is still working with the old guard in place. But a few major appointments await, most importantly to fill Leo's old job as prefect of the office that vets bishop nominations.

Leo also has to decide who will be his No. 2. The Vatican secretary of state, the equivalent of a prime minister, is still Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Pope Francis' pick who was himself an unsuccessful contender in the conclave that elected Leo pope.

Even before he gets his people in place, Leo has to get a handle on one of the most pressing problems facing the Holy See: Its troubled finances. The Vatican is running a structural deficit of around 50 million to 60 million euros ($59-71 million) and has a 1 billion euro ($1.18 billion) shortfall in its pension fund.

There are plenty of high-profile clergy sex cases that festered during Francis’ pontificate that are now are on Leo's desk. History’s first American pope will be watched closely to see how he handles them, since he cannot claim ignorance about abuse or its dynamics, given the devastation the scandals have wrought in the United States.

On the eve of his vacation, he made an important appointment, naming French Bishop Thibault Verny head of the Vatican’s child protection advisory board, replacing the retiring American Cardinal Sean O'Malley.

Leo has already said it's “urgent” to create a culture of prevention in the church that shows no tolerance for any form of abuse, be it abuse of authority or spiritual or sexual abuse.

On that score, there is no case more pressing than that of the Rev. Marko Rupnik, a famous mosaic artist who was belatedly thrown out of the Jesuits after its superiors determined he sexually, psychologically and spiritually abused two dozen adult women and nuns. Even though the case didn’t involve minors, it became a toxic problem for Francis because of suggestions Rupnik received favorable treatment at the Vatican under the Jesuit pope.

Nearly two years after Francis caved into pressure to reopen the Rupnik file, the Vatican has finally found external canon lawyers to hear the case, the head of the Vatican’s doctrine office, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, told reporters last week. As recently as March, Fernandez had said he was having trouble finding any willing candidates. Now that Francis is dead, the case may be less politically delicate, even as the priest's supporters maintain his innocence.

Leo has already sent a signal, with Vatican News removing Rupnik's artwork from its website.

Another legal headache facing Leo is what to do about Cardinal Angelo Becciu and the Vatican’s “trial of the century,” which is heading into the appeals phase in September. The city-state’s criminal tribunal in 2023 convicted Becciu and eight other people of a variety of financial crimes stemming from the Holy See’s bungled 350 million euro ($412 million) investment in a London property.

But the trial was itself problematic, with defense claims that basic defense rights weren’t respected since Francis intervened on several occasions in favor of prosecutors. In the months since the verdicts were handed down, there have been new revelations that Vatican gendarmes and prosecutors were apparently in regular touch with a woman who was coaching the star witness into testifying against Becciu. The once-powerful cardinal has denounced the contacts as evidence that his conviction was orchestrated from the start, from the top.

Leo, a canon lawyer, may want to steer clear of the whole thing to try to give the tribunal the impression of being independent. But Leo will ultimately have to decide what to do with Becciu, who recused himself from the conclave but remains a cardinal with a very unclear status.

Leo has said his priority as pope is unity and reconciliation in the church. Many conservatives and traditionalists hope that means he will work to heal the liturgical divisions that spread during Francis' 12-year papacy, especially in the U.S., over the old Latin Mass.

Francis in 2021 restricted access for ordinary Catholics to the ancient liturgy, arguing that its spread was creating divisions in the church. In doing so, Francis reversed his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, who in 2007 had relaxed restrictions on its celebration.

Cardinal Raymond Burke, a figurehead of the conservative and traditionalist camp, told a recent conference on the Latin Mass that he had spoken to Leo about the need to “put an end to the present persecution of the faithful” who want to worship according to the old rite.

“It it is my hope that he will as soon as it is possible take up the study of this question and try to restore the situation as it was” under Benedict's reform, Burke said.

Leo has also identified artificial intelligence as a pressing issue facing humanity, suggesting a document of some sort might be in the works.

Also under study is when he will start traveling, and where.

Leo has a standing invitation to undertake Francis’ last, unfulfilled foreign commitment: Marking the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea, Christianity’s first ecumenical council, with a visit to Turkey. Leo has already said a visit is in the works, possibly in late November.

Beyond that, Leo has received plenty of invitations: Vice President JD Vance extended a Trump invitation to visit the U.S., but Leo demurred and offered a noncommittal “at some point.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy invited him to visit Kyiv, but the Vatican under Francis had refused a papal visit there unless one could also be arranged to Moscow.

Leo’s old diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, meanwhile, is waiting for their bishop to come home, and then there's Argentina, which never got a papal visit from the first-ever Argentine pope.

The residents of Castel Gandolfo, meanwhile, are aching for a pope to return. Francis had decided not to use the retreat and instead spent his 12 papal summers at home, in the Vatican. The town has recovered from the economic hit of pope-free summers, after Francis instead opened the papal palace and gardens to the public as a museum year-round.

But townsfolks cannot wait for Leo to take up residence and enjoy the town's gorgeous lake views and quiet starry nights. It's the perfect place for a pope to rest, read, write and think in private, they say.

“Remember, many encyclicals were written here,” noted the Rev. Tadeusz Rozmus, the town’s parish priest.

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.

A view of the Papal or Apostolic Palace, a historic summer retreat for popes in the lakeside town of Castel Gandolfo, about 30 kilometers southeast of Rome, where Pope Leo XIV will be spending a short period of rest, is seen on Wednesday, July 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Father Tadeusz Rozmu walks in the San Tommaso da Villanova church of the town of Castel Gandolfo, a historic summer retreat for popes about 30 kilometers southeast of Rome, where Pope Leo XIV will be spending a short period of rest, is seen Wednesday, July 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

A view of the Albano Lake, about 30 kilometers southeast of Rome, where Pope Leo XIV will be spending a short period of rest in the nearby historic summer retreat for popes of Castel Gandolfo, Wednesday, July 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Father Tadeusz Rozmu walks in the San Tommaso da Villanova church of the town of Castel Gandolfo, a historic summer retreat for popes about 30 kilometers southeast of Rome, where Pope Leo XIV will be spending a short period of rest, is seen Wednesday, July 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

A view of the Albano Lake, about 30 kilometers southeast of Rome, where Pope Leo XIV will be spending a short period of rest in the nearby historic summer retreat for popes of Castel Gandolfo, Wednesday, July 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Customers have lunch at restaurants in the town of Castel Gandolfo, a historic summer retreat for popes about 30 kilometers southeast of Rome, where Pope Leo XIV will be spending a short period of rest, as seen Wednesday, July 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

FILE - Pope Leo XIV arrives in St. Peter's Square to hold his weekly general audience, at the Vatican, Wednesday, June 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)

A view of the Papal or Apostolic Palace, a historic summer retreat for popes in the lakeside town of Castel Gandolfo, about 30 kilometers southeast of Rome, where Pope Leo XIV will be spending a short period of rest, is seen Wednesday, July 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

NEW YORK (AP) — Reviving a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump wants a one-year, 10% cap on credit card interest rates, a move that could save Americans tens of billions of dollars but drew immediate opposition from an industry that has been in his corner.

Trump was not clear in his social media post Friday night whether a cap might take effect through executive action or legislation, though one Republican senator said he had spoken with the president and would work on a bill with his “full support.” Trump said he hoped it would be in place Jan. 20, one year after he took office.

Strong opposition is certain from Wall Street in addition to the credit card companies, which donated heavily to his 2024 campaign and have supported Trump's second-term agenda. Banks are making the argument that such a plan would most hurt poor people, at a time of economic concern, by curtailing or eliminating credit lines, driving them to high-cost alternatives like payday loans or pawnshops.

“We will no longer let the American Public be ripped off by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Researchers who studied Trump’s campaign pledge after it was first announced found that Americans would save roughly $100 billion in interest a year if credit card rates were capped at 10%. The same researchers found that while the credit card industry would take a major hit, it would still be profitable, although credit card rewards and other perks might be scaled back.

About 195 million people in the United States had credit cards in 2024 and were assessed $160 billion in interest charges, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says. Americans are now carrying more credit card debt than ever, to the tune of about $1.23 trillion, according to figures from the New York Federal Reserve for the third quarter last year.

Further, Americans are paying, on average, between 19.65% and 21.5% in interest on credit cards according to the Federal Reserve and other industry tracking sources. That has come down in the past year as the central bank lowered benchmark rates, but is near the highs since federal regulators started tracking credit card rates in the mid-1990s. That’s significantly higher than a decade ago, when the average credit card interest rate was roughly 12%.

The Republican administration has proved particularly friendly until now to the credit card industry.

Capital One got little resistance from the White House when it finalized its purchase and merger with Discover Financial in early 2025, a deal that created the nation’s largest credit card company. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is largely tasked with going after credit card companies for alleged wrongdoing, has been largely nonfunctional since Trump took office.

In a joint statement, the banking industry was opposed to Trump's proposal.

“If enacted, this cap would only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives," the American Bankers Association and allied groups said.

Bank lobbyists have long argued that lowering interest rates on their credit card products would require the banks to lend less to high-risk borrowers. When Congress enacted a cap on the fee that stores pay large banks when customers use a debit card, banks responded by removing all rewards and perks from those cards. Debit card rewards only recently have trickled back into consumers' hands. For example, United Airlines now has a debit card that gives miles with purchases.

The U.S. already places interest rate caps on some financial products and for some demographics. The Military Lending Act makes it illegal to charge active-duty service members more than 36% for any financial product. The national regulator for credit unions has capped interest rates on credit union credit cards at 18%.

Credit card companies earn three streams of revenue from their products: fees charged to merchants, fees charged to customers and the interest charged on balances. The argument from some researchers and left-leaning policymakers is that the banks earn enough revenue from merchants to keep them profitable if interest rates were capped.

"A 10% credit card interest cap would save Americans $100 billion a year without causing massive account closures, as banks claim. That’s because the few large banks that dominate the credit card market are making absolutely massive profits on customers at all income levels," said Brian Shearer, director of competition and regulatory policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, who wrote the research on the industry's impact of Trump's proposal last year.

There are some historic examples that interest rate caps do cut off the less creditworthy to financial products because banks are not able to price risk correctly. Arkansas has a strictly enforced interest rate cap of 17% and evidence points to the poor and less creditworthy being cut out of consumer credit markets in the state. Shearer's research showed that an interest rate cap of 10% would likely result in banks lending less to those with credit scores below 600.

The White House did not respond to questions about how the president seeks to cap the rate or whether he has spoken with credit card companies about the idea.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who said he talked with Trump on Friday night, said the effort is meant to “lower costs for American families and to reign in greedy credit card companies who have been ripping off hardworking Americans for too long."

Legislation in both the House and the Senate would do what Trump is seeking.

Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., released a plan in February that would immediately cap interest rates at 10% for five years, hoping to use Trump’s campaign promise to build momentum for their measure.

Hours before Trump's post, Sanders said that the president, rather than working to cap interest rates, had taken steps to deregulate big banks that allowed them to charge much higher credit card fees.

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., have proposed similar legislation. Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent political target of Trump, while Luna is a close ally of the president.

Seung Min Kim reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.

President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, Jan. 9, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

FILE - Visa and Mastercard credit cards are shown in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)