“It is very sad to see the church as if it were a parliament,” which is what happens when Catholics rely more on their personal opinions than on the Holy Spirit, Pope Francis said.

Diocesan bishops must have Vatican authorization to allow the celebration of the pre-Vatican II Mass in a parish church, to establish a new “personal parish” for devotees of the old Mass or to allow its celebration by a priest ordained after July 2021 when Pope Francis issued rules restricting the celebration, he said.

The church is called to pray, preach the Gospel and be attentive to God’s word in all circumstances, but even more so in the time of war, explained both the Vatican’s ambassador to the United Nations and the U.S. archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

Persecution has led to people spreading — not forgetting — the Gospel to the many places they go, Pope Francis said.

Catholics need to ask themselves whether their communities are a “concrete sign of unity and love” or simply a group of people who happen to live near each other or, worse, a collection of folks ranked according to wealth, Pope Francis said.

Meeting Feb. 17 with a group of Mexican entrepreneurs, the pope urged them to pay special attention to their relationship with God so they may be signs of God’s presence in the world of finance.

The text of the pope’s message focused on seeing Lenten penance and the synodal experience both as arduous journeys that lead to the wondrous experience of Christ’s divine light and splendor.

ROME (OSV News) — A series of deadly raids by Israeli authorities in the West Bank and attacks on Jewish civilians in the first month of the new year have made the goal of a lasting peace in the Holy Land seemingly unattainable. The Jan. 26 raid in the West Bank city of Jenin, which […]

“I am close to you, and I pray for you,” Pope Francis told the Turkish people reeling from earthquakes that killed nearly 42,000 people in Turkey and neighboring Syria, according to figures updated Feb. 16.

Pope Francis told Jesuits working in Congo that he had taken seriously the promise he and all Jesuits make to not seek offices of authority and power in the church and, in fact, he twice declined becoming a bishop.