Pope prays that Easter joy would break through gloom of sin, war, strife April 9, 2023By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Easter, Feature, News, Vatican, World News On a bright spring morning, Pope Francis prayed that Christians would experience the joy of Easter and allow Christ’s resurrection to be “the light that illumines the darkness and the gloom in which, all too often, our world finds itself enveloped.”
Pope at Easter: Roll away the stone of sadness, encounter the Risen Lord April 8, 2023By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Easter, Feature, News, Vatican, World News Easter is the time “to roll away the stone of the tombs in which we often imprison our hope and to look with confidence to the future, for Christ is risen and has changed the direction of history,” Pope Francis said as he celebrated the Easter Vigil Mass.
Holy Week is time for spring cleaning, including spiritually, pope says April 5, 2023By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Feature, Lent, News, Vatican, World News During Lent this year, residents of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where Pope Francis lives, decided to clean out their closets and give away things other people could use. “You can’t imagine how much stuff there was,” the pope said.
Pope names Dominican sister to lead Academy of Social Sciences April 3, 2023By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Feature, News, Vatican, World News Pope Francis has named Dominican Sister Helen Alford, dean of the faculty of social sciences at the Angelicum University in Rome, to be president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.
Fraternity as a pro-life issue: Academy publishes theological reflections April 2, 2023By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Feature, News, Respect Life, Vatican, World News If “liberty, equality and fraternity” are essential for human thriving, as has been generally accepted in the West since the Enlightenment, then the last element needs as much attention as the first two, including in Catholic theology, said leaders of the Pontifical Academy for Life.
As pope leaves hospital, he comforts couple, jokes with reporters April 1, 2023By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Feature, News, Vatican, World News The 86-year-old pope, who had been hospitalized since March 29 for treatment of bronchitis, stopped his car and got out to greet well-wishers and reporters waiting outside the hospital.
Additional charges filed in Vatican finance trial March 31, 2023By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Feature, News, Vatican, World News The Vatican’s prosecuting attorney has leveled additional charges against four of the defendants who have been on trial since July 2021 for their alleged roles in the Vatican’s failed investment in a property in London.
Responding to Indigenous, Vatican disavows ‘doctrine of discovery’ March 30, 2023By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Feature, News, Vatican, World News The Catholic Church formally “repudiates those concepts that fail to recognize the inherent human rights of Indigenous peoples, including what has become known as the legal and political ‘doctrine of discovery,'” a Vatican statement said.
Pope hospitalized for respiratory infection, Vatican says March 29, 2023By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Feature, News, Vatican, World News Pope Francis went to Rome’s Gemelli hospital March 29 for “some previously planned tests,” the Vatican press office said, providing no further details.
Confession is ‘encounter of love’ that fights evil, pope tells priests March 26, 2023By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Feature, News, Vatican, World News, Worship & Sacraments In a world where “there is no shortage of hotbeds of hatred and revenge,” Pope Francis told priests and seminarians that “we confessors must multiply the ‘hotbeds of mercy,'” by making it easy for people to access the sacrament of reconciliation.
Memorial to modern Christian martyrs opens in Rome March 24, 2023By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Feature, News, Saints, Vatican, World News The Community of Sant’Egidio, which cares for the basilica and the shrine, hosted an event March 23 to dedicate a new exposition space among the ruins in the crypt as a museum and memorial to the new martyrs of both the 20th and 21st centuries.
Pope calls European bishops to be prophetic voices for peace March 23, 2023By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Crisis in Ukraine, Feature, News, Vatican, World News While promoting dialogue and building relationships with leaders of the European Union contribute to peace, bishops in EU countries also must be prophetic in denouncing war and encouraging all possible efforts to restore peace, Pope Francis said.