Junno Arocho Esteves

Pope Francis will not preside over the traditional end-of-the-year prayer service nor the New Year’s Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica due to “painful sciatica,” the Vatican said.

As the fifth anniversary of his apostolic exhortation “Amoris Laetitia” approaches, Pope Francis announced that the Catholic Church will dedicate more than a year to focusing on the family and conjugal love.

After a boat carrying refugees was allegedly denied entry into Trinidad and Tobago and subsequently shipwrecked, Venezuelan bishops said the treatment of migrants fleeing the country constitutes a serious human rights violation.