Pope Leo XIV closed the Catholic Church’s Holy Year on Tuesday by urging Christians around the world to help people in need and treat foreigners with kindness.

Leo, who has repeatedly stressed the importance of caring for immigrants during his papacy thus far, said at a Vatican ceremony that the record 33.5 million pilgrims who visited Rome during the Holy Year should have learned not to treat people as mere «products.»

«Around us, a distorted economy tries to profit from everything,» Leo said. «After this year, will we be better able to recognize a pilgrim in the visitor, a seeker in the stranger, a neighbor in the foreigner?»

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Holy years, or jubilees, typically happen every 25 years, considered to be a time of peace, forgiveness and pardon. Pilgrims to Rome can enter special «Holy Doors» at four Rome basilicas and attend papal audiences throughout the year.

Leo shut the special bronze door at St. Peter’s Basilica on Tuesday morning, which officially marked the end of the Holy Year.

The next Holy Year is not expected before 2033, when the Catholic Church may hold a special one to mark 2,000 years since the death of Jesus.

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Pope Leo XIV said the record pilgrims who visited Rome during the Holy Year should have learned not to treat people as mere «products.» (Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP via Getty Images))

On Monday, the Vatican and Italian officials said pilgrims to Rome for the 2025 jubilee came from 185 countries, with the majority from Italy, the U.S., Spain, Brazil and Poland.

The 2025 jubilee was opened by the late Pope Francis, who died in April, and closed by Leo, who was elected in May, making him the first American pope.

It was a historical rarity not seen in 300 years for it to be opened by one pope and closed by another. The last jubilee held under two different popes was in the year 1700, when Innocent XII opened the Holy Year that was then closed by Clement XI.

Pope Leo XIV shut the special bronze door at St. Peter’s Basilica on Tuesday morning, which officially marked the end of the Holy Year. (Gregorio Borgia/AP)

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Leo, who has promised to keep Francis’ signature policies such as welcoming gay Catholics and discussing women’s ordination, echoed his predecessor’s frequent criticisms of the global economic system during his remarks on Tuesday.

The markets «turn human yearnings of seeking, traveling and beginning again into a mere business,» Leo said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Una premisa de ciencia ficción se volvió inesperadamente plausible en los laboratorios de la Universidad de Florida: la saga Jurassic Park imaginó que un mosquito podía contener el secreto genético de especies extintas, y ahora un estudio real demostró que estos insectos almacenan una biblioteca de ADN de casi todos los animales de su entorno. El hallazgo, publicado en la revista Scientific Reports, podría transformar las estrategias de monitoreo de biodiversidad en reservas naturales y parques alrededor del mundo.

Durante ocho meses, un equipo encabezado por Lawrence Reeves, entomólogo de la Universidad de Florida, capturó más de 50.000 mosquitos en la Reserva DeLuca, ubicada al sur de Orlando. El objetivo era claro: analizar sus comidas de sangre para identificar qué animales forman parte de su dieta y, por lo tanto, del ecosistema local. El resultado fue contundente. El análisis de más de 2.000 muestras permitió detectar el ADN de 86 especies diferentes de vertebrados, que incluyen mamíferos, aves, reptiles y anfibios.

Los mosquitos habían picado desde las ranas más pequeñas hasta animales de gran tamaño como ciervos y vacas. La dieta abarcó especies arbóreas, migratorias, residentes, nativas, invasoras y en peligro de extinción. Entre los grandes ausentes solo figuró la pantera de Florida, un mamífero tan escaso que los investigadores no lograron encontrar mosquitos que se hubieran alimentado de él.

El método de estudio, que analiza el ADN presente en la sangre ingerida por los mosquitos, promete superar las limitaciones de los relevamientos tradicionales, los cuales suelen requerir biólogos expertos, trampas y extensas jornadas de campo.

“Los estudios de biodiversidad son esenciales para la conservación, pero las encuestas de campo son costosas, demandan mucho trabajo y requieren experiencia taxonómica”, explicó Hannah Atsma, coautora de la investigación, en un comunicado oficial de la Universidad de Florida.

Esta técnica permitió detectar cerca de un 80% de los vertebrados de la reserva que se sabe forman parte de la dieta de los mosquitos. El equipo identificó especies como rattlesnakes, águilas calvas, coyotes, nutrias, sapos y tortugas de tierra. Solo los animales que viven bajo tierra, como el topo oriental, no aparecieron en las muestras, probablemente porque los mosquitos no logran acceder a ellos.

Durante la temporada húmeda, cuando la población de mosquitos se multiplica, el método mostró una eficacia similar o superior a la de los monitoreos convencionales. En un artículo complementario dirigido por Samantha Wisely, investigadora de la Universidad de Florida, se concluyó que “los mosquitos comparan favorablemente con los métodos tradicionales en la estación de lluvias”.

El método todavía debe probarse en otros ecosistemas, pero su bajo costo y su capacidad para captar una muestra amplia de especies lo convierten en una alternativa atractiva para el seguimiento de la fauna silvestre. “Podemos capturar vertebrados que van desde las ranas más pequeñas hasta los animales más grandes, como ciervos y vacas”, remarcó Reeves.

El estudio reveló que los mosquitos pueden ser aliados inesperados en la conservación de especies y la gestión de ecosistemas. “Los mosquitos no hacen mucho para dar la impresión de que son un elemento importante de los ecosistemas, pero en sus ecosistemas juegan roles clave”, subrayó Reeves.

La investigación descarta la posibilidad de revivir especies extintas a partir del ADN de un mosquito fosilizado, como plantea la saga de Jurassic Park.

Sin embargo, confirma la capacidad de estos insectos para actuar como “archivos biológicos” y aportar datos precisos sobre la presencia y hábitos de los vertebrados en una región. Analizar la sangre de los mosquitos puede proporcionar una instantánea ecológica completa del área que recorren.

El avance del equipo de la Universidad de Florida abre una nueva vía para el monitoreo de fauna silvestre, especialmente en épocas y lugares donde los recursos son escasos. El análisis genético de los mosquitos podría integrarse a programas de conservación y gestión ambiental en todo el mundo, dando un uso inesperado a uno de los insectos menos apreciados por los seres humanos.

The Wyoming Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a pair of laws restricting abortion access violate the state constitution, including the country’s first explicit ban on abortion pills.

The court, in a 4-1 ruling, sided with the state’s only abortion clinic and others who had sued over the abortion bans passed since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, which returned the power to make laws on abortion back to the states.

Despite Wyoming being one of the most conservative states, the ruling handed down by justices who were all appointed by Republican governors upheld every previous lower court ruling that the abortion bans violated the state constitution.

Wellspring Health Access in Casper, the abortion access advocacy group Chelsea’s Fund and four women, including two obstetricians, argued that the laws violated a state constitutional amendment affirming that competent adults have the right to make their own health care decisions.

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Voters approved the constitutional amendment in 2012 in response to the federal Affordable Care Act, which is also known as Obamacare.

The justices in Wyoming found that the amendment was not written to apply to abortion but noted that it is not their job to «add words» to the state constitution.

«But lawmakers could ask Wyoming voters to consider a constitutional amendment that would more clearly address this issue,» the justices wrote.

Wellspring Health Access President Julie Burkhart said in a statement that the ruling upholds abortion as «essential health care» that should not be met with government interference.

«Our clinic will remain open and ready to provide compassionate reproductive health care, including abortions, and our patients in Wyoming will be able to obtain this care without having to travel out of state,» Burkhart said.

Wellspring Health Access opened as the only clinic in the state to offer surgical abortions in 2023, a year after a firebombing stopped construction and delayed its opening. A woman is serving a five-year prison sentence after she admitted to breaking in and lighting gasoline that she poured over the clinic floors.

Wellspring Health Access opened as the only clinic in the state to offer surgical abortions in 2023, a year after a firebombing stopped construction. (AP)

Attorneys representing the state had argued that abortion cannot violate the Wyoming constitution because it is not a form of health care.

Republican Gov. Mark Gordon expressed disappointment in the ruling and called on state lawmakers meeting later this winter to pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting abortion that residents could vote on this fall.

An amendment like that would require a two-thirds vote to be introduced as a nonbudget matter in the monthlong legislative session that will primarily address the state budget, although it would have significant support in the Republican-dominated legislature.

«This ruling may settle, for now, a legal question, but it does not settle the moral one, nor does it reflect where many Wyoming citizens stand, including myself. It is time for this issue to go before the people for a vote,» Gordon said in a statement.

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Gov. Mark Gordon expressed disappointment in the ruling. (Getty Images)

One of the laws overturned by the state’s high court attempted to ban abortion, but with exceptions in cases where it is needed to protect a pregnant woman’s life or in cases of rape or incest. The other law would have made Wyoming the only state to explicitly ban abortion pills, although other states have implemented de facto bans on abortion medication by broadly restricting abortion.

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Abortion has remained legal in the state since Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens blocked the bans while the lawsuit challenging the restrictions moved forward. Owens struck down the laws as unconstitutional in 2024.

Last year, Wyoming passed additional laws requiring abortion clinics to be licensed surgical centers and women to receive ultrasounds before having medication abortions. A judge in a separate lawsuit blocked those laws from taking effect while that case moves forward.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.