If seminarians want to advance in their discernment and practice of religious life they must place the Eucharist at the center of their formation, Pope Francis wrote.

With the help of a woman Anglican bishop, a Salesian sister and a consecrated virgin, Pope Francis and his international Council of Cardinals devoted the first morning of their February meeting “to deepening their reflection, begun last December, on the role of women in the church,” the Vatican press office said.

– Pope Francis expressed his hopes that Lunar New Year celebrations would offer opportunities for people to experience warm friendships and to show care.

Michelle O’Neill of the Sinn Féin party is the first Catholic to head the region’s government.

In a letter addressed to “my Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel,” Pope Francis expressed his heartbreak at the violence unleashed by the Hamas attack on Israel in October and he repeated the Catholic Church’s condemnation of all forms of antisemitism and anti-Judaism.

When a priest or other minister changes the words, gestures or material prescribed for the celebration of the sacraments, he can “rob” the faithful of what they deserve and make the sacrament invalid, the dicastery said in a note published Feb. 3.

An upcoming webinar series hosted by a U.S. bishop will explore synodality through the prism of Jesus Christ’s words at the Last Supper.

For those Catholics actively ministering to the poor, congressional spending and saving priorities — when measured against the concerns of Catholic social teaching — might appear imbalanced.

During Poverty Awareness Month, OSV News talked with Catholic Charities offices across the country — in Virginia, Mississippi and Nevada — to learn how they help feed a hungry nation.

After candlelight filled a darkened St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis asked consecrated men and women not to let their spirits “doze off” while waiting to encounter the Lord but to keep their hearts awake in anticipation “like an eternal flame.”