Holy Year pilgrimage is chance to begin again, pope says January 14, 2025By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Jubilee 2025, News, Vatican, World News A holy year is an opportunity to start fresh with one’s relationship with God and with other people, Pope Francis told thousands of pilgrims.
Pope looks back on his life, urges people to look to future with hope January 14, 2025By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Books, Feature, News, Vatican, World News While calling himself an “old man” and saying he never expected to be pope this long, Pope Francis said he still has dreams for the future.
Italian bishops say don’t automatically exclude gay men from seminary January 13, 2025By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: News, Vatican, Vocations, World News The Italian bishops’ new program of priestly formation, approved by the Vatican, repeats a prohibition against admitting to the seminary men with “deep-seated homosexual tendencies,” but also says that being gay does not automatically exclude a candidate.
U.S. sister killed in the Amazon honored at Rome ‘new martyrs’ shrine January 13, 2025By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: News, Vatican, World News “It’s quite an honor for her to be here with the likes of St. Oscar Romero,” Tom Stang said after a relic of his sister was placed on an altar in Rome alongside a relic of the martyred archbishop from El Salvador.
Pope offers prayers for those impacted by L.A. wildfires January 13, 2025By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Disaster Relief, News, Vatican, World News “I am praying for all of you,” Pope Francis said, using his televised Sunday Angelus address to speak directly to the people impacted by the wildfires in Southern California.
Pope to diplomats: Sweep away ‘clouds of war,’ let ‘winds of peace’ blow January 9, 2025By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Feature, Jubilee 2025, News, Vatican, World News During the Holy Year 2025, the international community should strive “to overcome the logic of confrontation and embrace instead the logic of encounter,” Pope Francis told ambassadors and other diplomats accredited to the Holy See.
Grow in hope, share it with others, cardinals says as he opens Holy Door January 6, 2025By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Jubilee 2025, News, Vatican, World News During the Holy Year 2025, Catholics are called not only to grow in the virtue of hope, but also to share it with others, said U.S. Cardinal James M. Harvey, archpriest of Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.
Pope names Consolata Missionary as the first woman dicastery prefect January 6, 2025By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: News, Vatican, Vocations, World News Pope Francis has appointed Consolata Missionary Sister Simona Brambilla to be the first woman to lead a Vatican dicastery, naming her prefect of the Dicastery for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life.
Migrants, refugees, victims of war have a right to education, pope says January 2, 2025By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Immigration and Migration, News, Vatican, World News Pope Francis has asked Catholics around the world to pray with him in January that migrants, refugees and victims of war will have a chance for an education.
Vatican says 13 missionaries were killed in 2024 December 30, 2024By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Missions, News, Religious Freedom, Vatican, World News Thirteen Catholic “missionaries” were killed in 2024, most of them during the commission of a robbery, but several obviously were targeted for the church work they did.
Pope Francis’ 2024: Turning 88, praying for peace, presiding over synod December 28, 2024By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Feature, News, Vatican, World News Pope Francis, who celebrated his 88th birthday Dec. 17, mostly uses a wheelchair instead of walking and presides over rather than concelebrates most public liturgies. Still, he had a 2024 full of important engagements, the longest trip of his papacy and major preparations for the Holy Year 2025, which he is set to open Dec. 24.
Don’t lose hope, pope says as he opens Holy Door at Rome prison December 27, 2024By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Jubilee 2025, News, Vatican, World News Wearing red vestments for the feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, Pope Francis knocked on the door of the church in Rome’s Rebibbia prison complex and walked over its threshold.
