ROME — Pope Francis has centered his Lenten message for 2024 on the Book of Exodus, choosing “Through the Desert God Leads Us to Freedom” as its main theme to encourage the faithful that the season is a journey from bondage to spiritual renewal and freedom. The pope framed this reflection on the departure of […]
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis announced the start of a Year of Prayer on Sunday in preparation for the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year. In his Angelus address, the pope said that a Year of Prayer starting on Jan. 21 will be “a year dedicated to rediscovering the great value and absolute need for prayer […]
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The devil is sly and sneaky like a serpent and subtly entices people to sin, Pope Francis said at his weekly general audience Dec. 27. Beginning a new series of audience talks about vices and virtues, the pope said that evil grows “when one begins to fantasize about it, to nurse […]
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A Catholic priest can bless a gay or other unmarried couple as long as it is not a formal liturgical blessing and does not give the impression that the Catholic Church is blessing the union as if it were a marriage, the Vatican doctrinal office said. The request for a blessing […]
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis extolled Wednesday the “apostolic zeal” of St. Daniele Comboni, an Italian missionary priest and bishop who fought to end slavery in Africa. Comboni witnessed “the horror of slavery” as a missionary in the mid-19th century in what is now Sudan. In his writings, he spoke of slavery more than 450 […]
Most World Youth Day pilgrims will say the highlight of the international event is closing Mass with the pope on Sunday morning. St. John Paul II began the tradition in 1985. It has been continued by Pope Benedict XVI and now Pope Francis. “The closing Mass was great,” said Sarah Leahy, youth minister for Our […]
Pope Francis offered his condolences after at least 55 people died in wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui. The pope sent a condolence telegram on Friday expressing his sadness and solidarity with all who are suffering due to the destruction caused by the wildfires, which have destroyed hundreds of buildings and left scores missing […]
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops welcomed the news from the Holy See’s General Secretariat of the Synod of the delegates appointed for the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops to be held this October. The two episcopal conferences serve as the coordinating […]
ROME — Pope Francis’ doctors expect the pope to be discharged from the hospital “in the next few days,” according to the Vatican. The 86-year-old pope is currently recovering in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital one week after he underwent a three-hour surgery for an incisional hernia. A team of surgeons removed scar tissue and operated on […]
VATICAN CITY — One of Pope Francis’ last gestures before undergoing abdominal surgery on Wednesday was to pray before a relic of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. A relic of the French Carmelite nun, also known as St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, was present on the platform in front of St. Peter’s Basilica during the […]
