Exchanging Christmas gifts and organizing holiday parties are all well and good, but Christians should contemplate the scene of Jesus’ birth to recover what is truly important during the Christmas season, Pope Francis said.

With song, cake and circus performers, Pope Francis celebrated his 87th birthday in festive style at the Vatican.

A Catholic priest can bless a gay or other unmarried couple as long as it is not a formal liturgical blessing and does not give the impression that the Catholic Church is blessing the union as if it were a marriage, the Vatican doctrinal office said.

The Vatican City State criminal court sentenced Cardinal Angelo Becciu to five years and six months in prison on two counts of embezzlement and one of aggravated fraud but found him not guilty of abuse of office or witness tampering.

When St. Francis of Assisi staged the first Nativity scene 800 years ago, he did so to remind people of the powerful, awe-inspiring truth that God became human in Jesus, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis condemned the Israeli military’s killing of two Christian women sheltering at a Catholic parish in Gaza and an attack on a convent, noting that in the current fighting “unarmed civilians are targets for bombs and gunfire.”

Women who have conceived a child out of wedlock and have the courage to choose life for their baby “should be encouraged to have access to the healing and consoling power of the sacraments,” said the head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The Christmas season is a reminder to Christians that despite hardships, God chose to join himself to humanity and still remains by its side, Pope Francis said.

Jesus does not wait for sinners to change their lives before he welcomes them, said the preacher of the papal household.

The Vatican Museums has launched an initiative to give visitors — online and in person — a “backstage” peek into the secrets, curiosities and insights discovered by their art restorers.