Taking up the spirit of the recently inaugurated Holy Year 2025, the Cuban government has announced the release of 553 people currently serving prison sentences.

People and institutions can protect children by changing what they buy and what they invest in, Pope Francis said.

As Christian churches prepare to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity will focus on affirming the Nicene Creed and its expression of the faith Christians share.

Climate change and poverty are “the sick fruit” of pride, selfishness and a “blind war” humanity has declared against itself and the planet, Pope Francis said.

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.

The Vatican’s top diplomat met with papal representatives to various Middle Eastern countries to discuss possible avenues toward peace in the region and the state of the Catholic Church there.

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.

Pope Francis has named three U.S. experts — two women and an abbot — to be members of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, a position once reserved for cardinals and bishops.

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.

“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.