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Pope Francis speaks to staff and students from St. Paul Theological School in Catania, Italy, during an audience at the Vatican Dec. 6, 2024. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Studying theology in Sicily means fighting Mafia, pope says


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Catholic News Service Filed Under: News, Vatican, World News

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The study of theology must include reference to the context in which its students live and will minister, Pope Francis said, so in Sicily that means it must have something to say about the Mafia.

“The mission of a theological school cannot ignore the territory in which it is located,” the pope said Dec. 6 during a meeting with staff and students from St. Paul Theological School in Catania, an ancient port city on the Italian island of Sicily.

“Your land has wonderful natural and artistic beauty,” the pope told them, but it also is “unfortunately threatened by Mafia speculation and corruption, which hold back development and impoverish resources,” often leading young people to flee the island or to join criminal gangs.

“The Mafia always impoverishes, always,” he said.

“Sicily needs men and women who can look to the future with hope and train the new generations to be free and transparent in caring for the common good, to eradicate old and new poverty,” the pope said, urging the students to work to build “in this world the kingdom of love and justice” promised by Christ.

The theological school, the pope said, must be a place that trains academics and pastoral workers to serve the people of Sicily, especially the poor and the many migrants who land on the island from North Africa.

Sicily “has always been a crossroads of peoples,” he said. “I urge you to be welcoming, to be creative in fraternity.”

“Please,” the pope told them, “let us not extinguish the hope of the poor, of those poor who are migrants.”

Pope Francis also urged the students and staff to value the diversity found at the theology school, recognizing the gifts that each person brings to the school community and to the local church.

“Over the years, there has been an increasing number of female students, who now have tasks of pastoral responsibility or religious or academic teaching in your ecclesial communities,” the pope noted. “This, too, is a sign of the times in an area where women have often been devalued in their social role. But let us not forget that Sicily is the homeland of the martyr saints Agatha and Lucia, who were ‘seeds’ of robust faith, capable of renewal and of generating ever new witnesses” for Christ.

Ahead of pope’s surgery, Mexican bishops brought plight of country’s missing persons to pontiff

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Days before Pope Leo XIV announced that he would undergo surgery at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, the Mexican bishops’ conference presented him with a book documenting the cases of people who have gone missing in the country.

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Continue Reading Ahead of pope’s surgery, Mexican bishops brought plight of country’s missing persons to pontiff

Pope Leo urges Ukraine-Russia humanitarian cooperation as Russian strike kills children at playground

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Pope Leo XIV spoke by phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, expressing hope that Ukraine and Russia will cooperate on humanitarian aid and evacuations for civilians in the southern Ukrainian city of Oleshky, the Vatican said.

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Continue Reading Pope Leo urges Ukraine-Russia humanitarian cooperation as Russian strike kills children at playground

Pope Leo XIV’s brother shares his own cancer battle, the role of faith and his 1 request

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While Pope Leo XIV was recovering from an Oct. 13 surgery to remove the lower lobe of his right lung where doctors found cancer, his oldest brother Louis Prevost was in a Florida hospital receiving treatment for a blood cancer that had become very active after seven years of being at a “low level.”

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Pope Leo returns to Vatican window for Angelus saying prayers sustained him after cancer surgery

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One week after Pope Leo XIV first revealed to the world that he would be undergoing lung surgery, the pope returned to the window of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace Oct. 18, thanking Catholics worldwide for their prayers five days after undergoing lung cancer surgery.

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Continue Reading Pope Leo returns to Vatican window for Angelus saying prayers sustained him after cancer surgery

Pope Leo XIV discharged from hospital early following lung cancer surgery

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Pope Leo XIV was discharged from the hospital Oct. 17 after doctors deemed him fit to return to the Vatican four days after lung cancer surgery.

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Continue Reading Pope Leo XIV discharged from hospital early following lung cancer surgery

As pope faces cancer, biographers say it’s too early to predict changes to his papacy

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Papal biographers agree that assessments of Pope Leo XIV’s future ministry remain premature following his recent lung surgery and cancer diagnosis, while praising his personal disclosure as a major, irreversible shift toward transparency regarding papal health.

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Continue Reading As pope faces cancer, biographers say it’s too early to predict changes to his papacy

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