Vatican News

CNA Staff, Nov 20, 2024 / 14:30 pm (CNA).

Vietnam, a country with one of the highest abortion rates in the world, spearheaded a United Nations initiative this week on the health care needs of infants born prematurely.

While the event in honor of World Prematurity Day aimed to spotlight the need for better care for preterm infants, a bioethicist is pointing to the irony of a country grappling with widespread abortion leading the charge.

“It’s a completely mixed message,” Joseph Meaney, a senior fellow at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, told “EWTN News Nightly” on Tuesday.

Advances in neonatal intensive care have made possible the survival of smaller and younger infants. The is Curtis Zy-Keith Means, who was born at 21 weeks and one day in Birmingham, Alabama. 

Vietnam’s laws allow unrestricted abortion procedures up to the 22nd week of pregnancy, but enforcement against later-term abortions remains lax. 

A identified the Southeast Asian nation as having the second-highest abortion rate in the world. Hanoi’s Central Obstetrics Hospital reported in 2014 that in Vietnam were terminated each year.

Meaney pointed out to “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Tracy Sabol that “in one part of the hospital, they are delivering babies … and trying to keep them alive in the neonatal intensive care units, and in other parts of the hospital, they’re killing those same babies at the same age of gestation.”

Meaney noted that studies have found that women who have undergone multiple abortions face a of premature birth and miscarriage in subsequent pregnancies. 

was established in 2008 to raise awareness about the challenges of premature births, which is the leading cause of death for children under 5. It is estimated that 13.4 million babies are born prematurely every year, according to UNICEF, which called for universal access to high-quality care for preterm babies in honor of the day.

“Of course, if they’re concerned about infant mortality, the highest rate of infant mortality is killing babies through abortion,” Meaney said.

Catholics in Vietnam help manage special cemeteries for victims of abortion, including one in the Archdiocese of Hanoi in which 46,000 unborn children are buried and another in Xuan Loc Diocese where more than 53,000 are buried, according to La Croix International. 

A Catholic charity called the collects the remains of unborn children from state-run hospitals and private clinics, noting that the group used to gather 25-40 aborted fetuses each day to bury.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, more than 1.6 million abortions were performed in Vietnam between 2015 and 2019.

Asked by Sabol how premature births might be reduced in the U.S. and around the world, Meaney said: “One thing would be to have fewer abortions.”

As well, “actually having the hospitals help the mothers to continue their pregnancies” would help, he said.

“When they’re at risk of premature birth, the amount of days involved is very important. Just a few more days can really increase the likelihood the child will survive,” Meaney said.

“To actually have the hospitals willing to admit mothers who are in danger of premature birth” could help lower such incidences, he said.

Vatican City, Nov 20, 2024 / 13:25 pm (CNA).

To mark 1,000 days since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, Pope Francis shared the “testimony of faith” of a Ukrainian student at his general audience on Wednesday, underscoring the power of faith, love, and hope amid the tragedy of violence.

In a letter to the Holy Father, the student, whose name was not announced, expressed the desire for the pope and all pilgrims at the Wednesday audience to know of the faith — and not just the sufferings — of the people of Ukraine.

“I thank God because, through this pain, I am learning greater love. Pain is not only a road to anger and despair; if based on faith, it is a good teacher of love,” the student wrote.

Describing the horrors of war that killed family members and thousands of other men, women, and children, the student said that if one suffers because of pain it “means that you love.”

“When you speak of our pain, when you remember our thousand days of suffering, speak of our thousand days of love, too, because only love, faith, and hope give a real meaning to our wounds,” the letter to the Holy Father read.

Visibly moved by the letter and the pope’s gesture to share the testimony of faith with hundreds of pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square, Olena Zelenska, wife of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, met and personally greeted the pope at the conclusion of the audience.

During the Wednesday audience, Pope Francis announced that Blessed Carlo Acutis and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, two young Italian Catholics popularly known for their vibrant faith and desire for holiness, will be  during the Church’s jubilee.  

The long-anticipated announcement was confirmed by Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni that the two blesseds will be canonized on separate dates. Acutis’ canonization is scheduled during the Church’s Jubilee of Teenagers from April 25–27, 2025, and Frassati’s canonization will take place during the Jubilee of Youth from July 28–Aug. 3, 2025.    

Choosing World Children’s Day, celebrated annually on Nov. 20, to make an additional surprise announcement, the pope shared that the Vatican will hold an international meeting to promote the dignity and rights of children on Feb. 3, 2025. 

“It will be an occasion on how we can better protect children, especially children who live without rights, who are abused and exploited and live also in situations of war,” he said on Wednesday.  

To celebrate the occasion and special announcement, the Holy Father invited several boys and girls from the Community of Sant’Egidio to come and receive his paternal blessing and take a group photo.

The Vatican has also released details of the new Pontifical Committee for the World Day of Children on Wednesday. Pope Francis has appointed Father Enzo Fortunato, OFM, the president of the newly-established committee tasked with promoting the Catholic Church’s mission to advocate for children’s rights.  

“Family, church, and state exist for children, not the other way around,” the pope said in a Nov. 20 chirograph. “From birth, every human being is the subject of inalienable, inviolable, and universal rights.”

Speaking about the beauty of different personal and communal charisms found in the Church, Pope Francis stressed that Catholics need to “immediately dispel” the misunderstanding of identifying these “jewels” of the Holy Spirit as “spectacular and extraordinary gifts and capabilities.”

“Instead they are ordinary gifts that assume extraordinary value if inspired by the Holy Spirit and embodied with love in the situations of life,” he told those gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

“Such an interpretation of the charism is important,” the pope said.

Vatican City, Nov 20, 2024 / 12:55 pm (CNA).

The Vatican has updated the liturgical book regulating the funeral rite of popes, simplifying some of the rituals at Pope Francis’ request.

The second edition of the (“Order of Funerals for Roman Pontiffs”) is a revision of the version published in 2000 and used for the funerals of Pope John Paul II in 2005 and in 2023.

Among the changes in the new edition, according to Vatican News, is the elimination of the use of three coffins of cyprus, lead, and oak, and the possibility for a deceased pope to be buried outside of the Vatican basilica.

Another change is that the public viewing before the funeral will take place with the remains already in a simple, wooden coffin, not on a raised bier, as was previously done. The ascertainment of the pope’s death will also happen in the pope’s chapel, not his room.

Pope Francis “has stated on several occasions the need to simplify and adapt certain rites so that the celebration of the funeral of the bishop of Rome may better express the faith of the Church in the risen Christ,” the master of papal ceremonies, Archbishop Diego Ravelli, told Vatican News. 

“The renewed rite,” Ravelli said, “also needed to emphasize even more that the funeral of the Roman pontiff is that of a pastor and disciple of Christ and not of a powerful person of this world.”

Rome Newsroom, Nov 20, 2024 / 05:58 am (CNA).

Pope Francis announced Wednesday that Blessed Carlo Acutis and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, two young Catholics beloved for their vibrant faith and witness to holiness, will be canonized during two major jubilee celebrations dedicated to young people.

The surprise announcement came at the conclusion of the pope’s weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square as Francis celebrated World Children’s Day. 

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni later confirmed that Acutis’ canonization will occur during the Church’s taking place April 25–27, 2025, and Frassati’s canonization will take place during the from July 28–Aug. 3, 2025.

According to the Diocese of Assisi, Acutis’ canonization Mass is expected to take place on Sunday, April 27, at 10:30 a.m. local time in St. Peter’s Square.

Both soon-to-be saints are beloved by many Catholic young people for their enthusiastic pursuit of holiness. The two canonizations are expected to bring many young people to the Eternal City in 2025 for the Catholic Church’s Jubilee of Hope.

Acutis, an Italian computer-coding teenager who died of cancer in 2006, is known for his great devotion to the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

Born in 1991, Acutis is the first millennial to be beatified by the Catholic Church. Shortly after his first Communion at the age of 7, Acutis told his mother: “To always be united to Jesus: This is my life plan.”

To accomplish this, Acutis sought to attend daily Mass as often as he could at the parish church across the street from his elementary school in Milan.

Acutis called the Eucharist “my highway to heaven,” and he did all in his power to make this presence known. His witness inspired his own parents to return to practicing the Catholic faith and his Hindu au pair to convert and be baptized.

Acutis was a tech-savvy kid who loved computers, animals, and video games. His spiritual director has recalled that Acutis was convinced that the evidence of Eucharistic miracles could be persuasive in helping people to realize that Jesus is present at every Mass.

Over the course of two and a half years, Acutis worked with his family to put together an exhibition on Eucharistic miracles that premiered in 2005 during the Year of the Eucharist proclaimed by Pope John Paul II and has since gone on to be displayed at thousands of parishes on five continents.

Many of Acutis’ classmates, friends, and family members have testified how he brought them closer to God. Acutis was a very open person and was not shy about speaking with his classmates and anyone he met about the things he loved: the Mass, the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, and heaven.

He is remembered for saying: “People who place themselves before the sun get a tan; people who place themselves before the Eucharist become saints.”

Acutis died at the age of 15 in 2006, shortly after being diagnosed with leukemia. Before he died, Acutis told his mother: “I offer all of my suffering to the Lord for the pope and for the Church in order not to go to purgatory but to go straight to heaven.”

Thousands of people visited Acutis’ tomb in Assisi following his beatification in the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi on Oct. 10, 2020.

Since his beatification, Catholic schools from the Australian outback to England have been named after Acutis, as well as countless ministries and parish initiatives.

Pope Francis encouraged young people to imitate Acutis in prioritizing “the great gift of the Eucharist” in his message for the upcoming diocesan World Youth Days.

Frassati, who died at the age of 24 in 1925, is also beloved by many today for his enthusiastic witness to holiness that reaches “to the heights.”

The young man from the northern Italian city of Turin was an avid mountaineer and Third Order Dominican known for his charitable outreach.

Born on Holy Saturday, April 6, 1901, Frassati was the son of the founder and director of the Italian newspaper La Stampa.

At the age of 17, he joined the St. Vincent de Paul Society and dedicated much of his spare time to taking care of the poor, the homeless, and the sick as well as demobilized servicemen returning from World War I.

Frassati was also involved in the Apostleship of Prayer and Catholic Action. He obtained permission to receive daily Communion.

On a photograph of what would be his last climb, Frassati wrote the phrase “Verso L’Alto,” which means “to the heights.” This phrase has become a motto for Catholics inspired by Frassati to strive for the summit of eternal life with Christ.

Frassati died of polio on July 4, 1925. His doctors later speculated that the young man had caught polio while serving the sick.

John Paul II, who beatified Frassati in 1990, called him a “man of the eight beatitudes,” describing him as “entirely immersed in the mystery of God and totally dedicated to the constant service of his neighbor.”

The Vatican has yet to announce the recognition of the second miracle attributed to Frassati, which made his canonization possible.

The confirmation of the miracle from the Vatican, along with the announcement of the specific date of Frassati’s canonization Mass, are expected in the future.

CNA Staff, Nov 19, 2024 / 13:30 pm (CNA).

In a letter sent to Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, apostolic nuncio to Ukraine, on Nov. 19, Pope Francis expressed his great sorrow for the suffering of the people of Ukraine, who have now endured 1,000 days of war since the outbreak of the violent conflict there in 2022.

The letter was published in Italian by L'Osservatore Romano on Nov. 19. 

Addressing his representative in “beloved and tormented Ukraine,” the Holy Father said he wished “to embrace all its citizens, wherever they may be,” and acknowledged the extreme hardships the Ukrainian people have suffered under “large-scale military aggression” for the past 1,000 days. 

The pope told the nuncio, whom he addressed as “brother,” that his words are meant to express solidarity with the people of Ukraine and to convey “a heartfelt invocation to God,” who he said is “the only source of life, hope, and wisdom, so that he may convert hearts and make them capable of starting paths of dialogue, reconciliation, and harmony.”

Francis quoted Psalm 121: “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth,”  recalling how every day at 9 a.m., Ukrainians observe a “minute of national silence” for the victims of the conflict.

“I join them, so that the cry that rises to heaven, from which help comes, may be stronger,” the pope wrote.

He went on to pray that the Lord will “console our hearts and strengthen the hope that, while he collects all the tears shed and will ask for an account of them, he remains beside us even when human efforts seem fruitless and actions not sufficient.”

The pope ended the letter to the archbishop by entrusting the Ukrainian people to God and blessing them, “beginning with the bishops and priests, with whom you, dear brother, have remained alongside the sons and daughters of this nation throughout these 1,000 days of suffering.”

Vatican News released a short video to mark the 1,000th day of war in Ukraine:

CNA Staff, Nov 18, 2024 / 18:15 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis’ call for an investigation into claims that a genocide may be happening in Gaza has garnered criticism. 

In a passage of a new book published ahead of the 2025 Jubilee Year and released on Sunday, Pope Francis noted that according to some experts, “what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide” and called for a careful investigation, according to .

The book by Hernán Reyes Alcaide is titled “Hope Never Disappoints: Pilgrims Toward a Better World” and was written for the occasion of the 2025 Jubilee, which is scheduled to begin Christmas Eve. It includes interviews with Pope Francis and will be released Nov. 19 in Italy, Spain, and Latin America by Edizioni Piemme Publishers. It will be published in other languages at a later date.

Pope Francis said in the book that, “according to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide. It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.”

“In the Middle East, where the open doors of nations like Jordan or Lebanon continue to be a salvation for millions of people fleeing conflicts in the region: I am thinking above all of those who leave Gaza in the midst of the famine that has struck their Palestinian brothers and sisters given the difficulty of getting food and aid into their territory,” Pope Francis continued.

Israel’s ambassador to the Holy See pushed back against the claim.

Yaron Sideman to the pope’s comments on X, highlighting the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Israeli citizens by Hamas and pointing to Israel’s right to self-defense.

“There was a genocidal massacre on 7 October 2023 of Israeli citizens, and since then, Israel has exercised its right of self-defense against attempts from seven different fronts to kill its citizens,” Sideman . “Any attempt to call it by any other name is singling out the Jewish state.” 

In a Nov. 18 , the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), a global coalition combating antisemitism, also criticized the pope’s remarks, calling them “an eighth front” of the war against Israel.

“The State of Israel is currently facing a war of intended annihilation on seven fronts, and these remarks look like a possible opening of an eighth front, from of all places, the Vatican, which can also lead to the spilling of Jewish blood around the world,” Sacha Roytman, CEO of CAM. “For a pope who appears to prize even-handedness and peace, we see that the Jewish state once again appears to be the exception.” 

In December 2023, South Africa filed a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice for alleged violations against the Genocide Convention, according to . The court has yet to rule on the charges. 

A United Nations Special Committee on Nov. 14 released a claiming that “Israel’s warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide, with mass civilian casualties and life-threatening conditions intentionally imposed on Palestinians there.”

“Since the beginning of the war, Israeli officials have publicly supported policies that strip Palestinians of the very necessities required to sustain life — food, water, and fuel,” the committee stated. “These statements along with the systematic and unlawful interference of humanitarian aid make clear Israel’s intent to instrumentalize lifesaving supplies for political and military gains.”

Pope Francis on Nov. 14 met with several hostages recently freed from months of captivity in Gaza. Sixteen people attended the meeting last Thursday. One attendee, a young boy, gave the pope a football jersey with the name “Tal Shoham,” the name of a family member who was taken hostage along with his wife, children, mother-in-law, and other relatives, Vatican News.

On Oct. 7, 2023, 1,200 people died after Islamic terrorists , taking 252 people hostage. According to , Palestinian health authorities say more than 41,500 people have been killed by Israel in Gaza.

Vatican City, Nov 18, 2024 / 17:45 pm (CNA).

Nov. 18 is celebrated in the Catholic Church as the feast day of the Dedication of the Basilicas of Sts. Peter and Paul. Here are three things to know about the historical, architectural, and spiritual significance of these two papal basilicas.  

In the fourth century, the world’s first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine, commissioned the construction of two separate basilicas over the burial sites of St. Peter and St. Paul to enable the public veneration of the two great apostles, martyrs, and evangelizers of Rome.

After Christianity was legalized in the Roman Empire following the Edict of Milan issued by Constantine in 313, construction of the first Basilica of St. Peter began in 319 and was consecrated by Pope Sylvester on Nov. 18 in 326. Historical records indicate that Sylvester consecrated the first basilica built by Constantine dedicated to the apostle St. Paul on Nov. 19 around the year 330.

The masses of pilgrims who came to pray at the tombs of the “Prince of the Apostles” and the “Apostle to the Gentiles” required constant repairs, renovations, and expansion of the two basilicas built by Constantine.

In 1506, Pope Julius II ordered the demolition of the original basilica dedicated to St. Peter to construct the second Basilica of St. Peter, which still stands today. Pope Urban VIII solemnly consecrated the magnificent Basilica of St. Peter 120 years later on Nov. 18, 1626.  

Over the centuries the basilica dedicated to St. Paul underwent several renovations and two major reconstructions. The current Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls is the third basilica built above the apostle’s burial site. In 1854 — after the great fire of 1823 and over 30 years of construction work — Pius IX consecrated the newly-built basilica and fixed Nov. 18 as its commemoration date.

With histories that span nearly two millennia, both the Basilica of St. Peter and the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls bear the marks of changing architectural designs dating back from the Paleo-Christian period to the present day.

The world-famous 16th-century Basilica of St. Peter, visited by millions of tourists and pilgrims yearly, took over 100 years to construct and was heavily influenced by Western artistic styles of the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

Designed by the Italian architect and sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the 94-foot-tall bronze canopy, known as the , is a Baroque masterpiece that towers above the central altar and stands directly above the tomb of St. Peter. To highlight the primacy of Peter among the apostles, the baldacchino features sculptures of cherubs holding the papal tiara as well as the “keys to the kingdom of heaven,” which Jesus entrusted to St. Peter and his successors. Bernini also designed the keyhole shape of St. Peter’s Square.

Throughout its history, the Roman basilica dedicated to St. Paul was a testimony to the Catholic Church’s ancient past. Before the 1823 fire, the basilica housed artworks and historical artifacts from the Paleo-Christian, Byzantine, Renaissance, and Baroque periods.

Reconstructed to be identical to the basilica destroyed by fire, the art and architecture of St. Paul Outside the Walls has taken its inspiration from different architectural styles dating back from the 11th century to contemporary designs of the 21st century.

The holy door of this major basilica was designed by Enrico Manfrini in preparation for the 2000 Jubilee Year. Inside this door stands the Byzantine door, created in 1070, depicting scenes of the life of Christ and the first Christians.

The burial sites of the two patron saints of Rome remain significant places of pilgrimage for Christians.

St. Peter’s Basilica and St. Paul Outside the Walls, two of the four papal basilicas of Rome, are visited by millions of tourists for their historical, architectural, and artistic importance. For Christian pilgrims, the two major basilicas hold a greater spiritual significance that links their faith in Jesus and his Church to two of its most faithful apostles who led the way for Christians throughout the ages through their teachings and witness.

On the June 29 solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, Pope Francis invited all of the Catholic faithful to imitate their example and “open the doors” of the Church during the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope. 

“The jubilee will be a time of grace, during which we will open the holy door so that everyone may cross the threshold of that ‘living sanctuary’ who is Jesus,” the Holy Father said in his homily.

The holy door in the Basilica of St. Peter opens on Christmas Eve to usher in the jubilee year. The holy door of St. Paul Outside the Walls will open on Jan. 5, 2025.

Vatican City, Nov 17, 2024 / 13:46 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis was joined by thousands of pilgrims in the Vatican on Sunday to celebrate the eighth annual World Day of the Poor to renew the Church’s commitment to “be close to the suffering” through spiritual and material works of charity. 

Before the Sunday Mass celebration in St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis blessed 13 statues of keys, representing the 13 Houses Campaign of the FamVin Homeless Alliance as a sign of solidarity and the Church’s dedication to care for the poor and marginalized.

Each of the 13 “keys” blessed by the pope is dedicated to a specific country in which the FamVin Homeless Alliance — a charitable organization founded in 2017 and inspired by the legacy of St. Vincent de Paul — has built a home dedicated to the poor: in Syria, Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, the Central African Republic, Chile, Costa Rica, Italy, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine.

Throughout the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope, families from each of these 13 countries will meet with Pope Francis and receive the blessed statue dedicated to the poor of their country. 

During his homily and Angelus address, the Holy Father repeated his plea for Catholics to show their closeness to the poor through gestures of care infused with human warmth and tenderness.

“[To] those who give alms I always ask two things,” the pope said to the thousands of pilgrims gathered inside St. Peter’s Basilica for the eighth annual World Day of the Poor Mass. The theme of the commemoration was “The Prayer of the Poor Rises Up to God.” 

“Do you really touch the hands of these people or do you just throw the coins into their hands? Do you look into their eyes when you are giving some help and doing alms — do you look directly in their eyes or are you looking somewhere else?” he asked.     

Amid the “hour of darkness” — times of desolation and anguish — described in Sunday’s Gospel and readings, Pope Francis said, “a great proclamation of hope” is truly present for those who have put their trust in God.

“Jesus invites us to have a deeper look, to have eyes capable of reading within the events of history,” he explained. “An unshakable hope shines forth on this World Day of the Poor!”

Warning against the temptation of despair, laziness, and despondency, the pope said “we cannot condemn ourselves to powerlessness” in the face of poverty, inequality, and injustice. 

Pope Francis stressed that the poor and marginalized “have no choice but to continue to wait” and urged the Church to work with governments and international organizations to support them.

“Otherwise, the Christian faith is reduced into a harmless devotion that does not disturb the powers that be and is incapable of generating a serious commitment to charity,” the pontiff said. 

After praying the Angelus in Latin with the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square, the pope reiterated his homily message to live in solidarity with the poor through prayer and action, especially for “families who struggle to make ends meet.”

“Dear brothers and sisters, let us not forget that the poor cannot wait.”

Following Sunday Mass and the Angelus, 1,300 economically disadvantaged men, women, and children living in Rome joined Pope Francis for lunch inside the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall.

The Italian Red Cross provided both meals and entertainment at this year’s World Day of the Poor luncheon with the pope. Three hundred forty volunteers served guests lasagna with vegetables, beef meatloaf with spinach and cheese, potatoes, fruit, and dessert.

Priests of the Congregation of the Mission, also known as the Vincentian Fathers, gifted each guest with backpacks containing food and hygiene items to bring home with them after their lunch with the pope.

Enugu, Nigeria, Nov 17, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Vatican-based Nigerian Church leader has urged priests to avoid lengthy homilies, saying a homily should not be an exhibition of “theological acrobatics” but rather a reflection of the priest’s prayer life and a clear, concise proclamation of the Gospel.

In his keynote address during the 12-day centenary celebrations of Nigeria’s , Arinze emphasized the importance of priests delivering homilies that are deeply rooted in Scripture, liturgical texts, and sound theology. 

“A homily well prepared should last around 10 minutes. A university lecture of 45 minutes is for a different setting. A homily is not a display of theological acrobatics nor a harangue about money,” the cardinal said during a Nov. 13 event.

A homily, Arinze added, “is not an exposition of the local political climate nor a social disquisition on the economic hardships of the people. It should be the sharing of the prayer life of the priest for the past week in the presence of the Lord Jesus in the holy Eucharist.”

He explained that the major points of the homily are best put in writing and that the language of a homily should be clear — “not an admixture of English and the local language, nor an exhibition of the preacher’s ability to navigate in idioms.”

“A poor homily is an offense against the Word of God and against God’s people gathered to hear his word,” the cardinal said.

In his address titled “The Impact of Formations House on Education in Nigeria,” Arinze reflected on the priestly vocation and the role of seminaries in preparing future priests.

“It is expected that the seminary will train the future priest to be a good pastor of God’s people. He is the spiritual director of individual Catholics and of their associations … [h]is patient attendance at their meetings, where he delivers well-prepared addresses, is one of the ways in which he serves them,” the cardinal continued. “Lay leaders remain necessary according to the nature of each association. But the priest is their irreplaceable shepherd. As a good shepherd, he is neither in front nor behind his people; he is in their midst. As the pope would put it, he has the smell of the sheep.”

Arinze noted the alarming trend of young people drifting from the Catholic faith, turning instead to African traditional religions and other superstitions. 

“In many parts of our country, Nigeria, there is a lamentation that many young people today are rather poor in their knowledge of the Catholic faith. Many of them relapse into practices of the African traditional religion,” he said.

“They may engage in real idol worship; they believe in charms; they consult fortune tellers and some go so far as to kill even a relative in the hope that that will attract big money. It is not a surprise if such young people keep away from the sacraments.”

Arinze continued: “The problem is not solved by blaming the catechists for a job not well done. Some Nigerian dioceses have a remarkable increase in the number of their priests … Suppose such a diocese adopts the policy that a priest is to be the teacher of religion in every class in schools primary or secondary. It is not below the dignity of the priest to teach the young about God and religion. Moreover, the teenagers need answers to life’s challenges.”

“The seminary also has the role of preparing its [students] to be good preachers. A priest should be a convinced announcer of the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ.”

In his keynote address at the beginning of the 12-day centenary celebrations, Arinze reflected on the challenge of inculturation in the Catholic Church in Nigeria.

The cardinal pointed to ongoing efforts in the Church to respect local cultures, including the adoption of local names in baptism and hymns in Indigenous languages. 

However, he underscored the need for a more thorough and careful process of inculturation, involving bishops, theologians, and cultural experts. 

“For an element of culture to be inculturated, the bishops’ conference of the area or country in question has first to set up a multidisciplinary study commission of experts in theology, liturgy, scriptural studies, ethnology, psychology, and music. Such a high-powered commission will have to sift the many sides of an indicated custom or tradition and, if it considers it ripe, make recommendations to the bishops’ conference,” he said.

“Inculturation is very demanding on a local Church,” Arinze pointed out. “It is not a one-man affair. It is not the fruit of someone’s over-fertile imagination, which concocts an idea on Saturday evening and forces it down the throat of the innocent and unsuspecting Sunday Mass congregation the following morning.”

As Bigard Memorial Seminary enters its second century of formation, Arinze expressed gratitude for its successes, calling on future generations of seminarians and priests to continue the work of evangelization and faith integration. 

“Bigard Memorial Seminary has come a long way in 100 years in preparing clergy for evangelization. It has done a good job!” the cardinal said. “May the Lord of the harvest continue to bless and guide this respected alma mater of ours as it walks into its second century. May the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Apostles, intercede for Bigard.” 

Bigard Memorial Major Seminary in Enugu was founded in Onitsha in 1922 and officially opened in 1924. It was moved to its current location in 1951. It was named after benefactors Stephanie and Jeanne Bigard, a French mother and daughter who were foundresses of the Pontifical Society of St. Peter the Apostle, who donated the funds for the main building.

In 1982, Pope John Paul II visited Bigard Memorial Major Seminary, the first Nigerian seminary to receive such a guest. 

CNA Newsroom, Nov 16, 2024 / 15:00 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis wants dioceses worldwide to shine a spotlight on their “saints next door” every year on Nov. 9.

In a letter released by the Vatican in Italian on Saturday, the pope established an annual commemoration of saints, blessed, venerables, and servants of God in local dioceses worldwide, set to begin with the upcoming jubilee.

“I exhort particular Churches, starting from the upcoming 2025 Jubilee, to remember and honor these figures of holiness each year,” Pope Francis wrote.

The initiative aims to help Catholics around the world rediscover and maintain the memory of those extraordinary disciples of Christ who have witnessed the presence of the risen Lord and continue to guide the faithful in those dioceses today.

He signed the letter at St. John Lateran on Nov. 9, the feast day of the basilica’s dedication.

While the pontiff chose this feast day for the yearly remembrance, he emphasized that he was not adding another liturgical celebration to the Church calendar.

Instead, the pope explained, he called on local dioceses to promote appropriate initiatives outside the liturgy or recall these figures within it, such as during homilies.

Pope Francis connected the initiative to his 2018 apostolic exhortation on the universal call to holiness.

The 2018 letter emphasized how sanctity manifests in everyday life through various examples, including married couples living their faith while being open to life, young people following Jesus with enthusiasm, and living the evangelical counsels.

“We are frequently tempted to think that holiness is only for those who can withdraw from ordinary affairs to spend much time in prayer. That is not the case,” the pope wrote in his . “We are all called to be holy by living our lives with love and by bearing witness in everything we do, wherever we find ourselves.”

According to the letter released Saturday, episcopal conferences may develop pastoral guidelines for implementing this commemoration.

The Vatican expects millions of pilgrims to travel to Rome for the 2025 Jubilee Year but also renewed spiritual initiatives in dioceses across the globe.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

CNA Newsroom, Nov 16, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Saturday warned of a “worrying and complex” rise in youth mental health challenges, including self-harm and suicide, while calling for a new “educational alliance” to address what he described as not just a cultural but an “anthropological metamorphosis” in society.

Speaking to members of Italy’s National Youth Council at the Vatican on Nov. 16, the pope emphasized the need for comprehensive support structures amid what he called an “epochal change” affecting young people.

“As we know — even from recent news — the challenges that concern you are many: the dignity of work, family, education, civic engagement, care for creation, and new technologies,” the pope said.

“The increase in acts of violence and self-harm, up to the most extreme gesture of taking one’s life, are signs of a worrying and complex distress,” Francis warned.

The pontiff’s remarks came as the youth council marked its 20th anniversary. Francis noted with approval their “Quarta Rilevazione dell’Indice di Fiducia” (“Fourth Trust Index Survey”), showing that hope remained the predominant “inner attitude” among Italian youth.

“We often meet disillusioned people because they look to the future with skepticism and pessimism,” Francis observed. “It is important therefore to know that Italian young people can be artisans of hope because they are capable of dreaming.”

Calling for what he termed a “village of education,” the pope urged creating networks of “human and open relationships” that place the person at the center while investing in the formation of those who will serve the community.

The pope connected his message to the upcoming 2025 jubilee year, which he noted he had announced with the words “La speranza non delude!” (“Hope does not disappoint!”).

In addressing the youth representatives serving as a consultative body at local, national, and European levels, Francis emphasized their role in giving voice “to all, especially those who have no voice.”

He highlighted challenges, including dignity of work, family life, education, civic engagement, environmental care, and new technologies.

The pope concluded by referencing Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, asking the youth leaders if they knew of him and encouraging them to learn from “his consistency and his courage.”

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, born April 6, 1901, to a prominent Italian family, died July 4, 1925, at age 24.

The young Third Order Dominican could be declared a saint during the Catholic Church’s 2025 jubilee year, according to recent statements by the prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

St. John Paul II, who declared Frassati a patron for World Youth Days, called him “the man of the beatitudes” for exemplifying these blessings in his daily life. According to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Frassati has become “a significant global patron for youth and young adults,” with a special significance for young Catholics in the United States.

Rome Newsroom, Nov 15, 2024 / 17:30 pm (CNA).

Nov. 14 marked the closing of the diocesan phase of the cause for the beatification of Father Pedro Arrupe, the 28th superior general of the Society of Jesus.

After more than five years of exhaustive research into the life, virtues, and reputation for holiness of the renowned Spanish Jesuit, mentor, and “spiritual father” of Pope Francis, of the process was concluded at the Lateran Palace in Rome.

Arrupe served as the 28th superior general of the Society of Jesus from 1965 to 1983. In the 1970s, he emphasized social justice as one of the main focal points of Jesuit apostolic work.

Since February 2019, more than 70 witnesses from Spain, Rome, and Japan — where he lived for 27 years as a missionary — have been questioned by the tribunal of the vicariate of Rome. 

Arrupe survived the atomic bomb that fell on Hiroshima in 1945 and devoted himself to caring for the injured in a field hospital set up in the novitiate.

Now the documents and minutes collected by the historical commission will be handed over to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, which will evaluate a possible miracle attributed to his intercession, a crucial step toward his prospective beatification.

The ceremony, which was held on the day that would have marked the 117th anniversary of Arrupe’s birth, was presided over by Cardinal-elect Baldassare Reina, vicar general of the Diocese of Rome.

Also present at this solemn ceremony were members of the Society of Jesus such as superior general Father Arturo Sosa Abascal and the postulator of the cause, Father Pascual Cebollada, who took an oath to have faithfully fulfilled his mission and emphasized Arrupe’s preference “for the poor and the fight for justice” as a result of his fervent prayer.

Notary Marcello Terramani was also present, as were members of the diocesan tribunal; Monsignor Giuseppe D’Alonzo, episcopal delegate; and Father Giorgio Ciucci, promoter of justice.

Reina praised the Jesuit leader, emphasizing his efforts to put the Second Vatican Council into practice as well as his profound obedience and fidelity to the Church and the popes.

He also highlighted his evangelizing mission and his “preferential option” for the poor and needy, resulting in the Jesuit Refugee Service that he founded in 1980.

Sosa referred to the long hours that Arrupe spent in prayer every day. When the priest was asked where he found the time to do so, he usually replied that “it’s simply a matter of priorities.”

The ceremony held in Rome also reflected on his charism and good relationship with those who didn’t belong to the Catholic Church. Arrupe’s efforts to get laypeople to assume responsibilities were also highlighted, as well as his welcoming nature.

After reviewing the documents from the diocesan phase, the Vatican dicastery will study the possibility of declaring Arrupe “venerable,” a title that Pope Francis can bestow upon him if it is determined that he lived a holy and virtuous life.

If this occurs, the next step would be beatification, which would grant him the title of “blessed.” This requires that at least one miracle be attributed to his intercession. For canonization and for him to be proclaimed a saint, a second miracle must be confirmed.

During his private meeting with priests of the Society of Jesus on his trip to Singapore last September, Pope Francis expressed his desire to have the Spanish Jesuit declared a saint.

Vatican City, Nov 15, 2024 / 12:45 pm (CNA).

As Rome’s temperatures drop and the jubilee year approaches, Pope Francis has asked the city’s priests and religious to open any vacant facilities on their property to the homeless and those at risk of homelessness.

Noting the housing issues that could be caused by the large influx of pilgrims expected for the jubilee in 2025, the pope asked for “a courageous gesture of love” in a letter published Nov. 15.

“I want all diocesan realities that own real estate to offer their contribution to stem the housing emergency,” he said, “with signs of charity and solidarity to generate hope in the thousands of people in the city of Rome who are in a condition of housing precariousness.”

The pontiff asked all Church realities, including movements, religious orders, and diocesan churches, to offer any vacant apartments or guesthouses to those who may need them.

He recalled the jubilee year’s theme of hope, which he said “comes from love and from feeling loved,” and said the Church’s social teaching makes clear everyone’s right to land, a home, and work.

“In view of the jubilee, I have asked my diocese to give a tangible sign of attention to housing issues so that, alongside the welcome given to all the pilgrims who will be coming, forms of protection will be activated for those who do not have a home or who are in danger of losing it,” Francis said.

The jubilee, or holy year, which will formally open on Dec. 24, has impacted the ever-growing number of tourist and short-term rentals in Rome, leading to a housing shortage for Rome’s residents, according to experts.

According to some estimates, since 2018, the number of short-term apartment rentals, such as Airbnb, has grown from 17,000 to 30,000.

“Rome’s real estate market is going through a period of increasing pressure due to the scarcity of residential housing and the increase in tourist rentals,” Rome real estate expert Silvia Dri told the financial journal Milano Finanza in October.

“This situation creates difficulties for families and students, who are forced to look for solutions increasingly far from the center or to share living spaces,” she added. 

In October, Pope Francis due to the exodus of residents from the historic center.

The high influx of tourists has also had an impact on the pastoral needs of the area, which now has only 35 Catholic parishes, many with few parishioners, he wrote.

Vatican City, Nov 15, 2024 / 10:05 am (CNA).

The Pontifical Academy for Life discussed the global financial system in light of the social doctrine of the Catholic Church and crises that have impacted the world at a meeting titled “Common Good: Theory and Practice” on Thursday evening in Vatican City.

The event, opened by Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, welcomed and introduced guest panelists Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley and Mariana Mazzucato, professor of economics of innovation and public value at University College London.

The participants gathered to discuss the multifaceted and interconnected impacts of war, technology, health crises, and the environment on politics and the global economy.

During the two-hour exchange both women spoke of the value of Catholic social teaching — including solidarity; call to family, community, and participation; and the preferential option for the poor and vulnerable — in providing “clear objectives” for the creation of policies ultimately aimed at serving and protecting people.

Highlighting the difference between the classic economic theory on “public goods” and the Catholic concept of the common good, Mazzucato — also the founder-director of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose — stressed that, in order to improve the current “global financial architecture,” it is necessary to first consider the dignity of the person.

“The way we talk to each other, the way we respect each other, the way we value each other matters in the way that we then approach the goals,” she said. “It holds the system to account.”

“We do not currently have the action that we require globally to treat these [health and environmental] problems collectively, systematically, and in an economy-wide way,” she asserted at the conference.

Speaking on the great political, economic, and technological divide between Global North and Global South countries, Mottley said food and water insecurity in parts of the world are largely due to the lack of political will or collective action. 

“We can find a way to put a man on the moon but we cannot find a way to distribute the ample food and water that exists on earth,” Mottley said. “All of these things are man-made. They need to be solved [and] require moral, strategic leadership.”

Mottley stated that many people are skeptical of rethinking the global financial system in a “fundamental way” because they have become “used to the status quo.” However, she believes a reformed system is “within our reach” if individuals, multinational organizations, and governments take appropriate action.

“I believe that it is not only appropriate for us to speak about the pursuit of the common good,” she said, “but it is now important for us to flesh out and map out how it can happen and how it must happen.” 

In a message to participants of the Nov. 14 conference, Pope Francis said the “search for the common good and justice are central and essential aspects of any defense of every human life, especially the most fragile and defenseless, with respect for the entire ecosystem that we inhabit.” 

The pope said the common good is “one of the cornerstones of the social doctrine of the Church” that must primarily be understood as a “communion of faces, stories, and people” and not idea or an abstract ideology disconnected from reality.

“We need solid economic theories that assume and develop this theme in its specificity, so that it can become a principle that effectively inspires political choices (as I indicated in my encyclical ) and not just a category so much invoked in words but ignored in deeds,” he wrote. 

Vatican City, Nov 14, 2024 / 13:50 pm (CNA).

Catholic cardinals this week donned virtual reality headsets at the premiere of an innovative art exhibit that opened this week for the 2025 Jubilee Year showcasing contemporary art inspired by artificial intelligence.

The exhibit, titled “Interconnected Hearts: Taiwan Contemporary Art Exhibition 2024,” is hosted at the Republic of China’s Embassy to the Holy See, just steps away from St. Peter’s Square. It features art created by three Taiwanese artists using 3D scanning, virtual reality (VR), machine learning, and AI technologies.

Among the first to try out the VR headsets at the exhibit’s premiere on Nov. 11 was 84-year-old Cardinal Silvano Maria Tomasi, the pope’s special delegate to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, the prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education, described the art exhibition as “intriguing and extremely innovative.”

Using VR headsets by META, Tolentino experienced a piece by Hung Yu Hao, which digitally unites architectural elements from Taiwan and St. Peter’s Square in a shared virtual space. 

“The works that are before our eyes today flow from the creativity of human genius, enhanced by the use of artificial intelligence,” the Portuguese cardinal said.

Taiwan’s embassy to the Holy See sponsored the art exhibit as a testament to Pope Francis’ commitment to examining AI’s ethical implications, both in his message for the World Day for Peace 2024 and in the pope’s speech to the G7 in Puglia.

At the exhibit’s opening, Ambassador Matthew Lee highlighted how Taiwan is “at the vanguard of AI technology with advanced ingenuity and human resources.”

Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te has declared his commitment to transforming Taiwan into an “AI Island.”

The ambassador noted that the exhibit, which will run through Feb. 14, 2025, has been officially added to the jubilee cultural events calendar by the Dicastery for Evangelization.

“The Chinese title of the art exhibition, ‘心信相連,’ expresses that the hearts of the faithful are connected with God, filled with faith to God, and therefore forging an unwavering trust in God,” Lee said.

As the Vatican embraces new technology, the Church remains mindful of AI’s ethical implications. Cardinal Tolentino noted that Pope Franics has described AI’s potential to lead to “a cognitive-industrial revolution. 

Tolentino added that this “new magnificent tool” must “always be at the service of the weakest and most needy and never a tool of domination, domination, and oppression.”

“Only in this way will we humans affirm and strengthen our humanity,” the cardinal said.

A high-tech week for the oldest institution in the world also featured a Vatican collaboration with Microsoft. 

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith , developed using advanced AI, which allows virtual visitors worldwide to explore the basilica’s art and history.

“It is literally one of the most technologically advanced and sophisticated projects of its kind that has ever been pursued,” said Smith, who has been a leading partner in the Vatican’s AI-ethics initiatives. 

The Microsoft president also announced the launch of an educational expected in January 2025 and on the terrace of St. Peter’s Basilica for the Catholic Church’s jubilee year.

Vatican City, Nov 14, 2024 / 11:55 am (CNA).

Archbishop Domenico Battaglia of Naples, a late addition to the pope’s roster of new cardinals to be created next month, has commanded headlines for years for his strong stand against organized crime in southern Italy.

Battaglia’s reputation as a close to has also led some to view him as Pope Francis’ Italian counterpart, christening him the “Bergoglio of South Italy.”

Pope Francis announced earlier this month that he had to the list of new cardinals he will create in a ceremony at the Vatican on Dec. 7.

When Battaglia, or “Don Mimmo,” as he likes to be called, was tapped at the end of 2020 to lead Naples, one of southern Italy’s most important dioceses, he was already almost four years into leading another Church territory in the Campania region — Cerreto Sannita-Telese-Sant’Agata de’ Goti — with its estimated 88,000 Catholics at the time.

Now he is leading over 1.4 million Catholics in the Archdiocese of Naples, where he wasted no time in speaking up against the Camorra, the region’s most prominent organized crime group, after his installation in February 2021.

In a statement published online in October 2021, Battaglia responded to a spate of deadly violence in Naples with an appeal for members of organized crime groups to “be converted.” 

“They are killing Naples! The trail of blood that is crossing the city these days, causing death to young lives and terror and anguish to entire neighborhoods, streets, families, cannot leave us indifferent,” .

Battaglia’s anti-Mafia initiatives include hands-on outreach to the city’s most affected districts and developed with members of civil society and the private sector.

From Day 1 in Naples, Battaglia signaled his priorities for the archdiocese: Before his installation Mass in the cathedral, he made a pilgrimage to visit the impoverished neighborhoods of the city.

In a letter to the people of Naples ahead of his consecration, the cardinal-designate wrote that “it is to the least of these that the Lord entrusts the dream of a Church faithful to the Gospel, which makes us share the salt of every pastoral project, which trusts not in structures and programs, but in the mercy of the Father.”

Battaglia grew up in Italy’s deep south in Calabria — the region from which originates the deeply-rooted ‘Ndrangheta crime group.

As a young priest in the Diocese of Catanzaro-Squillace, where he was ordained in 1988, Battaglia served in a center for addicts, a community he has continued to advocate for in the intervening years.

He is also outspoken in his support of victims of domestic violence, the elderly, and .

The soon-to-be cardinal is a good friend of another well-known figure and social activist in the Church in Italy, .

The 79-year-old priest of Turin is the founder of the associations Gruppo Abele, which helps people with drug and other addictions, and Libera, which combats the abuses of criminal organizations like the Mafia.

“It is oftentimes easy to live our faith inside a church, inside a temple. It is much more difficult to live the faith outside the door of that temple, inside our homes, in our daily lives,” Battaglia said in February 2021.

“But today more than ever we need to return to being credible because only credibility really helps us to live to the fullest the beauty of the Gospel. All together we are called out that door to proclaim the beauty of the Gospel that changes lives, that fills our lives.”

“Faith is the ability to choose, to fight for the human against all that is inhuman,” he continued. “Nothing is more important in life than stooping down so that another by grasping your neck can rise up.”

Vatican City, Nov 13, 2024 / 13:05 pm (CNA).

Catholic leaders from across Europe are in Rome this week to discuss how the Church can best protect children from sexual abuse and how to help those who have already been hurt by it.

The Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM) is hosting a conference on safeguarding in the Catholic Church in Europe from Nov. 13–15.

The gathering, taking place in the center of Rome at the headquarters of the PCPM, includes participants — bishops, priests, religious, and laymen and laywomen — from 25 countries in Europe.

Safeguarding practices and strategies, how Church law and civil law interact, how to better help victims, and how to develop safeguarding networks are some of the topics the conference will address.

Vatican leaders and representatives from the European bishops’ conferences commission (COMECE) are also attending the meeting, which will include a keynote address Nov. 14 from  Archbishop John J. Kennedy, secretary of the Vatican’s office responsible for the discipline of priests guilty of abuse.

In a message to conference participants Nov. 13, Pope Francis said attendees’ “commitment to this cause [of safeguarding against abuse] is a sign of the Church’s continuing efforts to protect the most vulnerable in our midst.”

The pontiff wrote that he is praying for the conference, which he hopes will be “a source of fruitful insights” and that their exchanges “will contribute to a safer and more compassionate Church” and a “deeper commitment to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults within the Church.”

“In a particular way, I encourage the initiatives made to provide comfort and assistance to those who have suffered as a sign of the Church’s concern for justice, healing, and reconciliation,” Francis said.

At the end of October, the Vatican’s safeguarding commission issued its assessing the Catholic Church’s policies and procedures to prevent abuse in dioceses worldwide from Africa to Oceania.

The report noted that in Europe, there are positive advances toward greater safeguarding frameworks and measures within the Church, with numerous good practices in place, but “the differences in response strategies between bishops and religious can present opportunities for growth and improvement.”

Under challenges, the report identified a lack of data on abuse prevalence in many countries, some frustration with the way cases are handled in the canonical system, and disparities between Western and Eastern Europe in the availability and quality of child-sensitive counseling and care for victims.

“In [European] nations that have experienced very complex crises or that have developed an in-depth public dialogue on abuses, there is a clear trend toward establishing more structured and responsive systems for dealing with abuse within the Church,” the report said.

Vatican City, Nov 13, 2024 / 12:35 pm (CNA).

The Vatican and Microsoft have created a 3D digital model of St. Peter’s Basilica using the latest in artificial intelligence to offer a new way to experience the nearly of the tomb of St. Peter.

Accessible worldwide at , the free interactive platform allows anyone in the world to “visit” the virtual 3D model of St. Peter’s Basilica, generated using AI from more than 400,000 high-resolution images of the basilica taken by drones using advanced photogrammetry techniques.

Microsoft’s Vice Chair and President launched the 3D “digital twin” of the basilica at a press conference this week at the Vatican.

“It is literally one of the most technologically advanced and sophisticated projects of its kind that has ever been pursued,” Smith said.

The digital platform expands access to people who may never have the opportunity to visit the Vatican but can now experience the beauty, history, and spiritual significance of one of the most important churches in the world.

The model makes it possible to “see this basilica as I think no generation has ever seen it before,” Smith said. 

The Microsoft president also announced the launch of an educational Minecraft game exploring St. Peter’s Basilica expected in January 2025 and a new immersive in-person exhibition on the terrace of St. Peter’s Basilica for the Catholic Church’s jubilee year.

The virtual experience goes beyond just showcasing the baroque splendor of today’s St. Peter’s Basilica, harnessing technology to take viewers back in time to its ancient origins from Nero’s Circus to the ancient St. Peter’s Basilica built by Constantine.

It begins with Caligula’s first-century construction of a circus on Vatican Hill and the placement of an Egyptian obelisk at its center. That obelisk, now in St. Peter’s Square, witnessed centuries of history — from Rome’s bloody persecutions of Christians and the crucifixion of Peter to massive papal Masses with tens of thousands of pilgrims today.

“As you will see when you go through the exhibit or if you look at the webpage, it’s fundamentally a story in three chapters,” Smith explained. “The first chapter, in my view, begins exactly where it should — we are here today because St. Peter was here 2,000 years ago.”

“So the first chapter of the story brings to life in new ways … the story of his life, the story that is told in the Gospels.”

The covers the transformations of the site of St. Peter’s tomb over the course of nearly 2,000 years from Peter’s burial and the construction of a church to its place as a center of Christian pilgrimage.

Around A.D. 160, a small funerary monument known as the “Trophy of Gaius” was built over Peter’s grave, becoming a pilgrimage site. When Constantine legalized Christianity in the fourth century, he ordered a massive basilica to be built over this tomb, leveling the necropolis beneath. 

The virtual tour allows one to imagine what it would have been like to visit the old St. Peter’s Basilica built by Constantine, one of the ancient world’s most important sanctuaries, “a magnificent sepulcher … to which countless people from every part of the Roman Empire come,” Eusebius of Caesarea described in the fourth century.

More than 1,175 years after the completion of the original St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Julius II laid the first stone of the new Vatican basilica in 1506. Construction of the present St. Peter’s Basilica took more than a century, inspiring works by artists like Bramante, Michelangelo, and Bernini. The basilica will celebrate the 400th anniversary of its consecration in 2026.

One of the most exciting aspects of the 3D digital model is that it provides the opportunity for people who might never have the opportunity to visit the Vatican to see and experience St. Peter’s Basilica, Smith explained.

“We’re taking this story to the world,” he said.

The new virtual platform serves as an educational resource that brings St. Peter’s Basilica to students, teachers, and historians worldwide, providing interactive tools and audio guides in multiple languages. 

Through immersive 3D tours, online visitors can navigate the basilica’s mosaics, the cupola, the underground necropolis, and Peter’s tomb. The digital model, or “digital twin,” captures areas typically off-limits to visitors, providing a detailed look at the basilica’s art, architecture, and history.

The concept of a “digital twin” — a digital counterpart of a physical object — is commonly used in the manufacturing industry. For the basilica, however, it’s a way to expand human understanding by capturing and sharing cultural heritage.

“When you think about this partnership, I think it’s as extraordinary as the project itself, because it brings together one of the oldest and most important institutions in the world with the newest technology that humanity has created,” Smith said.

For those planning a jubilee pilgrimage to Rome, the Vatican will soon open a new exhibition titled “Pétros ení” (“Peter is here”) using the 3D digital model developed by Microsoft and the . This ticketed, immersive experience, designed for the jubilee year, takes visitors on a journey through the basilica’s history.

The exhibit starts up on the terrace of St. Peter’s Basilica behind its massive dome designed by Michelangelo and continues inside some of the basilica’s previously unvisited upper passageways, allowing visitors to look down at the basilica’s Altar of St. Michael below. 

The exhibit’s interactive digital displays showcase the intricate details of the interior of St. Peter’s dome up close and two round theaters immerse visitors in what it would have been like to visit the basilica in different moments throughout the centuries.

In January 2025, Microsoft will release a version of St. Peter’s Basilica to reach younger audiences. In this digital replica, students will be able to navigate the basilica, explore its architecture, and learn its history through Minecraft’s interactive environment. This version will allow students to “walk” through the basilica with their character and explore its features as part of their gameplay.

“Many schools now use Minecraft to teach a wide variety of skills or capabilities,” Smith said, expressing hope that the Minecraft edition of St. Peter’s Basilica will become a unique resource for Catholic and secular schools alike, offering new ways to engage with history and art.

The digital twin also provides the Vatican with new tools for conservation. Using advanced algorithms from Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab, the virtual model has revealed previously undetected cracks, missing tiles in mosaics, and other signs of wear that will help caretakers preserve the basilica.

“Our AI for Good Lab developed a special AI algorithm so it could scan these images and identify where there is, say, a crack in the wall,” Smith explained. 

The conservators “who are responsible for the preservation of this extraordinary building, who work on its restoration, now have all of this data and the power of AI to enable them to work even better,” he added.

Pope Francis got a preview of the new digital model of St. Peter’s Basilica during a meeting with the Microsoft team and the the organization responsible for the conservation and maintenance of St. Peter’s Basilica.

The pope encouraged the basilica’s caretakers to adopt technologies “that encourage not only people’s interactive participation but especially their awareness of the sacred place, which is a space for meditation.”

He said technological tools demand creativity and responsibility to be governed and used constructively.

“This house of prayer for all peoples has been entrusted to us by those who have preceded us in faith and apostolic ministry,” Francis said in reference to St. Peter’s Basilica. “Therefore, it is a gift and a task to care for it, in both a spiritual and material sense, even through the latest technologies.”

Vatican City, Nov 13, 2024 / 09:50 am (CNA).

Pope Francis told pilgrims present at his general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday that the Blessed Virgin Mary does not focus on herself but on her son, Jesus.

“Mary is always the mother that brings us to Jesus,” the Holy Father said. “Mary does not only point to herself. She points to Jesus.”

Continuing his catechesis on the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the Church as Jesus’ bride, Pope Francis invited his listeners to reflect on the Mother of God’s presence and special role among Jesus’ apostles.

“The disciples were gathered around Mary, the mother of Jesus,” the pope said, reflecting on the passage of the Acts of Apostles read to hundreds of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square. 

“Her presence is different and unique among them all,” he continued. “Between her and the Holy Spirit there is a unique and eternally indestructible bond that is the very person of Christ himself, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.”

During his Nov. 13 general audience, Pope Francis said that Mary’s support for Christian communities is not one that is confined to the past but has persisted “in every age of our history.”

“The Mother of God is an instrument of the Holy Spirit in his work of sanctification,” he said. “Mary is the one who said ‘yes’ to God and, with her example and by her intercession, pushes us to say ‘yes’ to him too.”

As “the first disciple and figure of the Church,” the Holy Father hopes that Christians today will allow Mary to “see Jesus,” “open our hearts” to him, and “arise in haste” to help others in need.  

Describing Mary, the pope echoed the words of the patron of his pontificate, St. Francis of Assisi: “Daughter and handmaid of the heavenly Father, the almighty King, Mother of our most high Lord Jesus Christ, and spouse of the Holy Spirit.”

“The unique relationship between Mary and the Trinity could not be illustrated in simpler words,” he said.

Before concluding his Wednesday audience and imparting his paternal blessing for pilgrims, the Holy Father concluded his general audience with renewed petitions for peace and prayer.

“Let us not forget Ukraine, let us not forget Palestine, Israel, Myanmar, and so many countries at war,” he urged. “Let us not forget the group of Palestinians who were shot dead. Innocent people.” 

“We pray for peace. There is so much need for peace. My blessing to [you] all,” he said.

Vatican City, Nov 13, 2024 / 09:20 am (CNA).

Referencing the concept of “climate finance,” Pope Francis said in a message to the U.N. climate summit on Wednesday that ecological debt and foreign debt both impact a nation’s future.

Francis warned that both foreign debt and ecological debt are “mortgaging the future” of nations.

“Efforts should be made to find solutions that do not further undermine the development and adaptive capacity of many countries that are already burdened with crippling economic debt,” the pope’s message said.

A “New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance” is one of the goals of the COP29 — the 29th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change — taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 11–22.

Climate finance refers to local, national, or transnational financing that supports climate change mitigation actions.

Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who is representing the Holy See at the conference, read the pope’s message to the assembly on Nov. 13.

In his message, Francis said there is considerable indifference toward environmental problems in the modern era: “We cannot wash our hands of it, with distance, with carelessness, with disinterest. This is the real challenge of our century.”

“Indifference,” he underlined, “is an accomplice to injustice.”

The U.N.’s climate change conference, known as the “Conference of the Parties” (COP), has been held annually since 1995 to discuss the goals of the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The Holy See joined the UNFCCC and the 2015 Paris Agreement in 2022.

Pope Francis said the Holy See continues to support the endeavors of the COP29, especially in the area of integral ecology education and in raising awareness of the environmental problem as a human and social issue.

“It is essential to seek a new international financial architecture that is human-centered, bold, creative, and based on the principles of equity, justice, and solidarity,” the pontiff said.

“A new international financial architecture that can truly ensure for all countries, especially the poorest and those most vulnerable to climate disasters, both low-carbon and high-sharing development pathways that enable everyone to reach their full potential and see their dignity respected,” he said.

Vatican City, Nov 12, 2024 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis will have lunch on Sunday, Nov. 17, at the Vatican with 1,300 people “who hold a privileged place in God’s heart” as part of celebrations to mark the eighth World Day of the Poor.

This year’s lunch, organized by the Dicastery for the Service of Charity in collaboration with the Italian Red Cross, will be held inside the Paul VI Hall as a sign of the Holy Father’s desire to be close with “those who are most in need: the poor, the marginalized, the suffering, and the forgotten.” 

In anticipation of the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope, Pope Francis’ for the eighth World Day of the Poor stressed the importance for the Catholic faithful to be aware of the presence and needs of the “poor whom we encounter daily.”

“As we journey toward the holy year, I urge everyone to become pilgrims of hope, setting tangible goals for a better future. Let us not forget to keep ‘the little details of love’ (, 145): stopping, drawing near, giving a little attention, a smile, a caress, a word of comfort,” he wrote.

Since establishing the World Day of the Poor in 2016, which is celebrated each year one week before the solemn feast of Christ the King, the pope has held the annual tradition of welcoming Rome’s poor into the Vatican to dine with him and be served lunch.

Last year, the Dicastery for the Service of Charity worked alongside Hilton Hotels and the Community of Sant’Egidio to provide approximately 1,200 lunches — which included cannelloni, meatballs with tomato sauce, cauliflower purée, tiramisu, and small pastries — for refugees, the homeless, and men and women who are suffering economic disadvantage.

Other services provided by the Dicastery for the Service of Charity in the lead-up to the Nov. 17 celebration of the World Day of the Poor include free health care services at the Vatican. 

From Nov. 11–16, the Madre di Misericordia clinic offers those in need with emergency services, internal medicine, flu vaccines, blood tests, swabs, and dressings as well as specialized medical visits including dentistry, surgery, and cardiology.

Reflecting on the theme of this year’s World Day of the Poor, “The Prayer of the Poor Rises Up to God (cf. Sir 21:5),” the Holy Father insisted that care for those in need must not stop at providing material aid only. 

“We need to make the prayer of the poor our own and pray together with them,” he said. “The worst discrimination that the poor suffer is the lack of spiritual care.”

“The great majority of the poor have a special openness to the faith; they need God and we must not fail to offer them his friendship, his blessing, his word, the celebration of the sacraments and a journey of growth and maturity in the faith. Our preferential option for the poor must mainly translate into a privileged and preferential religious care,” he continued, citing his 2013 apostolic exhortation .

Vatican City, Nov 12, 2024 / 10:15 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has called for the expansion of the Vatican library and archives to a building outside Vatican City to make more “available this precious patrimony.”

In a letter dated Oct. 29 and issued on Tuesday, the pope declared that part of the archives and library be moved to a building on extraterritorial Vatican property at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran.

The building where the documents and books will be housed in the future is also used for Rome’s major seminary.

“The centuries-old care for the custody of the acts and documents concerning the government of the universal Church, combined with a commitment to the development and dissemination of culture, are the characteristic features of the activity of the Vatican Archives and Library,” Pope Francis wrote in a papal chirograph.

According to the letter, renovations will be undertaken to prepare the space. Francis has also asked for the creation of a commission of representatives from the Secretariat of State, the Vatican Apostolic Archives, and the Vatican Library to decide what categories of documents should be transferred to the new location.

In July, Pope Francis appointed Augustinian Father Rocco Ronzani as the new prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Archive.

Previously known as the Vatican’s “secret archive,” it contains 53 miles of underground shelving preserving documentation from historic papacies, ecumenical councils, conclaves, and Vatican nunciatures, or embassies, around the world.

The Vatican Library, according to its website, “preserves over 180,000 manuscripts (including archival units), 1,600,000 printed books, about 9,000 incunabula, over 300,000 coins and medals, more than 150,000 prints, thousands of drawings and engravings, and over 200,000 photographs.”

In its current form the library dates to the 14th century, though there is evidence the Catholic Church has had a library and archive from as early as the 300s.

Pope Leo XIII opened the archive to scholars in 1881. Qualified researchers can request permission to visit and view specific documents in both the archive and the library.

ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 11, 2024 / 15:05 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis on Nov. 9 Father Roberto Pasolini, OFM Cap, as the new preacher of the Papal Household, replacing Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, 90, who held that position for 44 years.

, who was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope Francis in 2020, has been preacher of the Papal Household since 1980, when he was appointed by St. John Paul II.

His successor is a professor of biblical exegesis at the Theological University of Northern Italy in Milan and is now tasked with giving the Friday meditations of Advent and Lent, among other tasks, as Cantalamessa did for years, serving three popes (John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis) and the Vatican Curia.

Pasolini was born on Nov. 5, 1971, in Milan and just turned 53. According to the Vatican Press Office, he made his perpetual vows in the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor Capuchin on Sept. 7, 2002, and was ordained a priest on Sept. 23, 2006.

The Franciscan earned a doctorate in biblical theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and has been a professor of biblical languages ​​and sacred Scripture at the Laurentianum Interprovincial Theological Institute of the Capuchins in Milan and Venice. He works with the Archdiocese of Milan in the formation of religion teachers and with the Italian Conference of Major Superiors.

Pasolini is the author of various articles and books on biblical spirituality and dedicates himself to the preaching of spiritual retreats and exercises.

Vatican City, Nov 11, 2024 / 14:05 pm (CNA).

To mark the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the image of Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii on Nov. 13, Pope Francis has encouraged Catholics to contemplate the life of Christ “through the gaze of Mary” during the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope.

“It is providential that the jubilee of the image of Our Lady of Pompeii coincides with the imminent jubilee year, focused on Jesus our hope,” the pope said in a to Archbishop Tommaso Caputo of Pompeii. 

“The rosary, a simple instrument within everyone’s reach, can support the renewed evangelization to which the Church is called today,” the Holy Father asserted. 

“We are aware of how it is necessary to rediscover the beauty of the rosary in families and in homes. This prayer is of aid in building peace, and it is important to propose it to the young so that they do not hear it as repetitive and monotonous but as an act of love that never tires of being poured out.” 

In addition to the 150th anniversary of the arrival and veneration of the image of Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii, this year also marks the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea.

“With the 17th centenary of the Council of Nicaea (325), which gave particular prominence to the divine-human mystery of Christ in the light of the Trinity, it is good to rediscover the rosary, in this perspective, in order to assimilate the mysteries of the Savior’s life,” the pope shared with Caputo.

In an interview with EWTN Vaticano, Caputo, who is also the pontifical delegate for Pompeii’s Shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Holy Rosary, emphasized that the rosary is “a prayer rooted in the Gospel [and] in the word of God.” 

Approximately 3 million pilgrims travel to the Shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Holy Rosary each year to venerate the image of Our Lady of Pompeii, which depicts the Mother of God and the Child Jesus giving rosaries to St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena.

Calling the shrine’s founder, Blessed Bartolo Longo, “an apostle of the rosary” whose faith was reinvigorated by the motto “If you seek salvation, spread the rosary,” Pope Francis said he hopes Catholics will continue his “most beautiful spiritual legacy” throughout the world.

According to Caputo, the mission of Blessed Bartolo Longo to spread devotion to Our Lady and the rosary is known worldwide, “as there are many churches dedicated to Our Lady of Pompeii across the Americas, Asia, Europe, and even Africa and in the Middle East.”

In his message, the pope highlighted the need for people to “find comfort and hope in the gentle face of the heavenly mother.”

“May the Lord speak again today, to humanity in need of rediscovering the path of concord and fraternity, through the message of Our Lady of Pompeii,” the Holy Father shared.

“It is my hope that her numerous devotees scattered throughout the world will adhere ever more faithfully to the Lord, bearing witness to their brothers and sisters, especially those most in need.”

Vatican City, Nov 11, 2024 / 11:30 am (CNA).

At the Vatican on Monday, Pope Francis recalled the hospitality and peacemaking of St. Bernard of Aosta, the patron saint of mountaineers and Alpine travelers who lived one millennium ago and gave his name to the St. Bernard dog breed.

Bernard, also known as St. Bernard of Menthon, lived from about 1020–1081 in what are now the countries of France, Switzerland, and Italy. 

A priest and missionary to mountain villages, he created the Great St. Bernard Hospice to help pilgrims crossing the treacherous Pennine Alps and founded the institute of consecrated life known as the Canons Regular of the Hospitaller Congregation of Great Saint Bernard.

Addressing members of the Canons Regular of Great Saint Bernard in the Apostolic Palace on Nov. 11, Pope Francis said he was happy to celebrate the end of the group’s “jubilee year dedicated to the centenary of the proclamation of St. Bernard of Aosta as patron saint of mountaineers, travelers, and inhabitants of the Alps, as well as the ninth centenary since his canonization and the first millennium since his birth.”

The pontiff recalled St. Bernard’s gifts of preaching and hospitality, in particular the “charitable adventure” for which he is best known: “taking care of pilgrims and wayfarers who were crossing the Alpine passes near Mont Blanc — passes that still bear his name today — to enter Italy from France and Switzerland, and vice versa, on international journeys.”

Noting that some of the consecrated canons regular are ski instructors and guides in the Alps, the pope drew on the symbolism of a mountain climber’s tools — the pickaxe and the rope — in his speech.

“St. Bernard’s pickaxe was the word of God, with which he was able to break into the coldest and most hardened hearts; his rope was the community, with whom he walked — and helped others to walk — even along risky paths, to reach the destination,” he said.

The pope also recalled another important story in the life of St. Bernard: when he tried to encourage peace by convincing Emperor Henry IV to not wage war against Pope Gregory VII.

Already sick, the saint ultimately died soon after his return from the unsuccessful journey to Pavia to speak with the emperor. 

The fact that St. Bernard did not manage to keep the peace “makes him even more noble in our eyes,” Francis said, “because it shows him engaged in a delicate and uncertain undertaking, with no guarantee of success.” 

“To promote peace, without being discouraged, even in the face of defeat — and how much we need this courage even now,” the pope said. 

CNA Staff, Nov 11, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

On Nov. 11, the Catholic Church honors St. Martin of Tours, who left his post in the Roman army to become a “soldier of Christ.”

Martin was born around the year 316 in modern-day Hungary. His family left that region for Italy when his father, a military official of the Roman Empire, was transferred there. Martin’s parents were pagans, but he felt an attraction to the Catholic faith, which had become legal throughout the empire in 313. He received religious instruction at age 10 and even considered becoming a hermit in the desert.

Circumstances, however, forced him to join the Roman army at age 15, when he had not even received baptism. Martin strove to live a humble and upright life in the military, giving away much of his pay to the poor. His generosity led to a life-changing incident, when he encountered a man freezing without warm clothing near a gate at the city of Amiens in Gaul.

As his fellow soldiers passed by the man, Martin stopped and cut his own cloak into two halves with his sword, giving one half to the freezing beggar. That night, the unbaptized soldier saw Christ in a dream, wearing the half-cloak he had given to the poor man. Jesus declared: “Martin, a catechumen, has clothed me with this garment.”

Martin knew that the time for him to join the Church had arrived. After his baptism, he remained in the army for two years but desired to give his life to God more fully than the profession would allow. But when he finally asked for permission to leave the Roman army, during an invasion by the Germans, Martin was accused of cowardice.

He responded by offering to stand before the enemy forces unarmed. “In the name of the Lord Jesus, and protected not by a helmet and buckler, but by the sign of the cross, I will thrust myself into the thickest squadrons of the enemy without fear.”

But this display of faith became unnecessary when the Germans sought peace instead, and Martin received his discharge.

After living as a Catholic for some time, Martin traveled to meet Bishop Hilary of Poitiers, a skilled theologian and later canonized saint. Martin’s dedication to the faith impressed the bishop, who asked the former soldier to return to his diocese after he had undertaken a journey back to Hungary to visit his parents. While there, Martin persuaded his mother, though not his father, to join the Church.

In the meantime, however, Hilary had provoked the anger of the Arians, a group that denied Jesus was God. This resulted in the bishop’s banishment, so Martin could not return to his diocese as intended. Instead he spent some time living a life of severe asceticism, which almost resulted in his death. The two met up again in 360, when Hilary’s banishment from Poitiers ended.

After their reunion, Hilary granted Martin a piece of land to build what may have been the first monastery in the region of Gaul. During the resulting decade as a monk, Martin became renowned for raising two people from the dead through his prayers. This evidence of his holiness led to his appointment as the third bishop of Tours in the middle of present-day France.

Martin had not wanted to become a bishop and had actually been tricked into leaving his monastery in the first place by those who wanted him to the lead the local Church. Once appointed, he continued to live as a monk, dressing plainly and owning no personal possessions. In this same spirit of sacrifice, he traveled throughout his diocese, from which he is said to have driven out pagan practices.

Both the Church and the Roman Empire passed through a time of upheaval during Martin’s tenure as bishop. Priscillianism, a heresy involving salvation through a system of secret knowledge, caused such serious problems in Spain and Gaul that civil authorities sentenced the heretics to death. But Martin, along with the pope and St. Ambrose of Milan, opposed this death sentence for the Priscillianists.

Even in old age, Martin continued to live an austere life focused on the care of souls. His disciple and biographer, St. Sulpicius Severus, noted that the bishop helped all people with their moral, intellectual, and spiritual problems. He also helped many discover their calling to the consecrated life.

Martin foresaw his own death and told his disciples of it. But when his last illness came upon him during a pastoral journey, he felt uncertain about leaving his people.

“Lord, if I am still necessary to thy people, I refuse no labor. Thy holy will be done,” he prayed. He developed a fever but did not sleep, passing his last several nights in the presence of God in prayer.

“Allow me, my brethren, to look rather toward heaven than upon the earth, that my soul may be directed to take its flight to the Lord to whom it is going,” he told his followers, shortly before he died in November 397.

St. Martin of Tours has historically been among the most beloved saints in the history of Europe. In a 2007 Angelus address, Pope Benedict XVI expressed his hope “that all Christians may be like St. Martin, generous witnesses of the Gospel of love and tireless builders of jointly responsible sharing.”

Vatican City, Nov 10, 2024 / 11:34 am (CNA).

During his Angelus address Sunday, Pope Francis asked his listeners to consider the qualities necessary for good leadership.

“Brothers and sisters, can we ask ourselves: How do I behave in my fields of responsibility? Do I act with humility, or do I vaunt my position? Am I generous and respectful with people, or do I treat them in a rude and authoritarian way?” he asked pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square. 

Reflecting on Sunday’s Gospel reading from St. Mark, Pope Francis said that Jesus denounced people esteemed in the temple, including scribes, who possessed a “hypocritical attitude” and “feigned piety” to attract attention and gain approval from people.

“People revered them beyond appearances, however their behavior often did not correspond to what they said. They were not coherent.” 

In contrast to the “corrupt” behavior of some temple officials, the Holy Father highlighted the qualities of Jesus’ leadership that should be imitated by all Christians, particularly those who hold positions of responsibility.

“Indeed with his word and example, as we know, he taught very different things about authority. He spoke about it in terms of self-sacrifice, humble service, maternal and paternal tenderness toward people, especially [toward] those most in need,” the pope elaborated.  

During his Nov.10 Angelus address, the Holy Father also encouraged Christians to turn to Our Lady and seek her intercession to overcome the temptation of imposing one’s will, might, and authority over others who are weaker than ourselves.

“May the Virgin Mary help us fight the temptation of hypocrisy in ourselves,” he prayed from the window of the Apostolic Palace.

Following the Angelus prayer in Latin, Pope Francis continued to ask people to pray for the victims of flash floods in Valencia, Spain, and asked them to consider contributing toward charitable and disaster relief efforts in the country to assist families.   

The Holy Father also prayed for communities in Flores, Indonesia, following recent volcanic eruptions that have forced thousands to flee their homes. 

He also expressed his concern and hope for the people of Mozambique to not “lose trust in justice and in democracy” after weeks of deadly violence following the country’s Oct. 9 general elections.

The ongoing conflicts affecting Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Myanmar, and Sudan were also included in the prayers of the Holy Father on Sunday.

“Let us pray for peace throughout the world today,” he said.

Rome Newsroom, Nov 9, 2024 / 11:00 am (CNA).

As Germany marks the 35th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall this year, key witnesses are highlighting the crucial role played by St. John Paul II in bringing about the peaceful revolution that transformed Europe.

“I am absolutely convinced that without Pope John Paul II, German reunification would not have been possible,” Martin Rothweiler, director of EWTN Germany, told CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.

Rothweiler was in Rome on the historic night of Nov. 9, 1989, when East German citizens began crossing freely through the Berlin Wall for the first time in nearly three decades.

“It seemed surreal,” Rothweiler recalled. “Watching people climb over the wall, seeing masses streaming from East to West Berlin — it was simply incredible. We had grown up accepting the division as unchangeable: the Eastern Bloc, the West, the Warsaw Pact on one side, NATO on the other. It all seemed set in concrete — literally.”

The late Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne, who died in 2017 and was a close friend of John Paul II, offered similar testimony in a 2016 EWTN interview: “Without him, there would have been no Solidarity movement in Poland. I seriously doubt whether communism would have fallen without John Paul II. His contribution to communism’s collapse cannot be overestimated.”

Even after becoming pope in 1978, John Paul II continued supporting opposition movements behind the Iron Curtain. After surviving an assassination attempt in 1981 — widely believed to have been orchestrated by Soviet-bloc security services — he decided to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, fulfilling a request made by Our Lady at Fátima.

Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, who served as John Paul II’s personal secretary for decades, emphasized the spiritual dimension of these historical events. In a 2016 interview with EWTN, he explained: “From the moment of that consecration, a process began that culminated in freedom for nations oppressed by communism and Marxism. Our Lady had both requested this consecration and promised that freedom would follow.”

“After this event, the world became different,” Dziwisz added. “Not only did the Iron Curtain fall, but also Marxism in the world, which was especially rooted in universities and circles worldwide.”

The impact of John Paul II’s role was acknowledged even by secular leaders. Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl recalled a decisive moment during the pope’s 1996 visit to reunified Berlin. Walking through the Brandenburg Gate — once a symbol of division — the pope turned to Kohl and said: “Mr. Chancellor, this is a profound moment in my life. That I, a pope from Poland, stand here with you, the German chancellor, at the Brandenburg Gate — and the gate stands open, the Wall is gone, Berlin and Germany are united, and Poland is free.”

Perhaps the most striking testimony came from an unexpected source: Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, who acknowledged that without John Paul II’s influence, the peaceful revolution of 1989 might never have occurred.

The legacy of those events resonates today as Europe again faces conflict. On March 25, 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, Pope Francis chose to renew John Paul II’s consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

“We have strayed from the path of peace,” Francis said during the ceremony at St. Peter’s Basilica. “We have forgotten the lessons of the last century’s tragedies and the sacrifice of millions who fell in the World Wars.”

As war continues in Ukraine two years later, John Paul II’s example offers a reminder that transformative change often comes unexpectedly. The Polish pope, canonized by Francis in 2014, demonstrated throughout his life that faith and peaceful resistance could overcome seemingly immovable obstacles — even walls that divided nations.

The Berlin Wall stood from 1961 to 1989 as the most visible symbol of the Cold War division of Europe. The communist East German regime called it the “Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart,” but for most of the world, it represented the Iron Curtain that Winston Churchill had warned about.

More than 100 people died trying to cross from East to West Berlin before the Berlin Wall came down in November 1989.

Rothweiler, who later brought EWTN to Germany in 2000, sees John Paul II’s influence continuing today through Catholic media. “His legacy reminds us that spiritual power can transform political realities,” he told CNA Deutsch.

“The fall of the Berlin Wall wasn’t just about politics — it was about the triumph of human dignity and faith over oppression.”

CNA Newsroom, Nov 9, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis announced on Saturday that St. Isaac of Nineveh, a seventh-century Assyrian bishop venerated across Christian traditions, will be added to the Roman Martyrology.

The pope made the announcement on the occasion of a Vatican meeting with Mar Awa III, Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East.

The gathering on Nov. 9 commemorated two milestones: Almost 30 years since the was signed, ending a 1,500-year doctrinal dispute, and 40 years since the first historic meeting between a pope and an Assyrian patriarch.

Quoting from the Second Vatican Council’s the pope emphasized that both Churches share “the same faith, handed down by the apostles,” even if expressed differently.

Francis pointed to recent achievements in Catholic-Assyrian dialogue, such as the 2001 agreement on the Anaphora of Addai and Mari, an ancient Eucharistic prayer recognized for its apostolic roots, and the 2017 joint statement on sacramental life.

A 2022 document titled “The Images of the Church in the Syriac and Latin Patristic Traditions” laid further for mutual understanding.

“Theological dialogue is indispensable in our journey toward unity,” Francis said. “The unity we yearn for is unity in faith,” he added, stressing that such dialogue must be grounded in truth and charity.

Pope Francis’ decision to add St. Isaac to the Martyrology follows a recommendation from the recent Synod on Synodality to from other Christian traditions in the Catholic liturgical calendar.

Turning to the plight of Middle Eastern Christians, Pope Francis prayed for their continued witness in a region scarred by conflict.

“Through the intercession of St. Isaac of Nineveh, united to that of the Blessed Virgin Mary, mother of Christ, Our God and Savior, may the Christians of the Middle East always bear witness to the risen Christ in those war-torn lands,” he said.

St. Isaac of Nineveh, also known as Isaac the Syrian, was a revered Christian mystic, monk, and bishop. He was celebrated for his profound writings on asceticism, compassion, and interior spiritual life, profoundly influencing Christian spirituality across Eastern and Western traditions.

Francis closed the meeting by inviting all present to pray the Our Father in their own languages and traditions, underscoring the shared spiritual heritage that binds these ancient Churches.

Adding St. Isaac of Nineveh to the Catholic Martyrology, the pope noted, is a reminder of the common roots and shared faith of both Churches, one that has endured through centuries of separation.

Vatican City, Nov 9, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Bishop Luis Marín de San Martín is one of the key figures of the Synod on Synodality. Pope Francis appointed him undersecretary of the event, which the Spanish prelate says he has experienced as “an offer of grace” and a call “to personal conversion.”

With the recent meeting in Rome already concluded and the final document issued, the bishop emphasized in a conversation with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, that synodality “is a constitutive dimension of the Church,” so that, despite the fact that the assembly is over, “the process continues.”

The prelate noted that this dimension “is not an achievement” or something that is acquired, but “it exists and has always existed.” He affirmed that “the Church ‘is’ synodal” and that in this stage of “implementation” it is therefore intended to develop this dimension, “to draw out consequences and to make it concrete in the life of the Church.”

For the Augustinian, “is not a recipe book for measures or a code of laws,” but rather “it opens doors, indicates paths to travel, and encourages processes” with “diverse speeds, developments, and concrete expressions, because there are geographical and cultural differences,” although with the same “deposit of faith: one Lord, one faith, one baptism.”

During these four years, he explained, he has tried to “listen to the voice of the Spirit to discern how to be faithful to the Lord and how to live and bear witness to the Gospel in today’s world.” 

He also envisages it as an opportunity for profound renewal, which “comes from the experience of the risen Christ” and is also oriented toward the mission in today’s world, taking up cultural diversity and different challenges, “but always in communion.”

Regarding the proposal of the final document to revise canon law in a “synodal key,” Marín stated that “the Code of Canon Law is a practical instrument.” In this sense, he reiterated that “the deposit of faith does not change, but the laws of the Catholic Church are being renewed, so that they adapt better and are more helpful in the salvific mission that has been entrusted to her.”

“A revision of the 1983 code is requested, taking into account current ecclesiological development, so that it can provide forms, structures, and procedures in a synodal key,” he explained.

In a statement to ACI Prensa, the bishop said “there is a commission of canon lawyers that is working” to review the existing structures and processes so that they are more effective.

Among the topics reviewed, Marín mentioned “the obligatory nature of diocesan and parish pastoral councils; developing ways for the collaboration of laypeople, thus integrating the variety of ministries; expanding the possibilities of laypeople exercising ministries,” or establishing “new regional or continental structures, such as ecclesial assemblies,” as well as “determining the way to carry out transparency, accountability, and evaluations.”

Another consequence of the Synod on Synodality is the request for greater participation of the laity in the “decision-making processes” and that this be done through new synodal structures and institutions.

For the prelate, the participation of the laity is not a concession “but a consequence of baptism,” so that “they must assume all the responsibility that corresponds to them, withoutlaicizing the clergy or clericalizing the laity.”

The synod undersecretary emphasized that every baptized person “must feel involved in the life and mission of the Church and participate in the discernment for decision-making, seeking her good.” A co-responsibility that, he pointed out, is differentiated, since “each person participates in accordance with his or her different ministries and functions.”

Referring to , he pointed out that “the model is not the pyramid, nor the sphere, but the .”

“The bishop and the parish priest, in order to make decisions, have the duty to consult and listen in order to discern, such that that the participating bodies have to exist and function. They will then make the decisions that correspond to them by their ministry and they will explain the decisions taken.”

Marín insisted on the need to clarify the decision-making processes and co-responsibility, since there are issues “in which the decision corresponds only to the bishop or the parish priest and others that can be taken in other instances.”

However, “there is a need to clarify the decision-making processes and co-responsibility,” the bishop added.

“Authority in the Church must always be understood and exercised as a service. Likewise, it is important to keep in mind the principle of subsidiarity; matters must be resolved at the level closest to those concerned,” the synod undersecretary explained.

With regard to the participation of women in the Church, according to Marín, the document proposes, above all, “the need for women to assume their proper role in the Church, including participation in ministries,” noting that until recently, “surprisingly, lay ministries were open only to men.”

Marín clarified that the same applies to positions of responsibility, “which can be occupied by laypeople, whether men or women.”

“In the Roman Curia there are already women in the secretariat of some dicasteries and nothing prevents them from presiding over others in the future, as laymen already do today.”

The prelate said that in some places “women perform many pastoral and administrative tasks, as well as governance, and it is appropriate to pursue this direction further.”

Regarding paragraph 60 of the synod’s final document, he said it “also raises the issue of the diaconate, which is an ordained ministry and not a lay one. It is clear that there were deaconesses in the early Church. But was it an ordained ministry? What were their functions? Was it the same in all the local Churches? To further explore the issue, Pope Francis . The work of studying it continues,” he noted.

In this regard, Marín emphasized that “it’s important to note that this does not mean access to the priesthood and the episcopate; only the topic of the diaconate is being studied, which is a degree of the sacrament of holy orders, but which, as the [Second Vatican] Council recalls, is not oriented toward the priesthood but toward the ministry (deacons are not priests, as are priests and bishops). The synod asks for further clarification,” he pointed out.

One of the paragraphs that received the most votes against it was No. 27 on “studying how to make liturgical celebrations an expression of synodality.” The proposal received 312 votes in favor (87.8%) and 43 against (12.1%).

“Given the importance of the relationship between liturgy and synodality,” Marín continued, “it is suggested that a study group be entrusted with the task of making liturgical celebrations more expressive of synodality.”

“In my view,” he continued, ”it refers above all to three lines of further study: how to strengthen communion, so that those celebrating are the community united in the risen Christ and not a sum of disconnected, unknown and solitary individuals; how to promote differentiated participation, avoiding considering ourselves mere spectators; how to involve all of us in the shared mission, in evangelization. In short, I believe that the key is in how to live and make present the love (caritas), which identifies us as Christians.”

The undersecretary also noted that the assembly asked for “clarification on what the criteria are for the selection of bishops and how the local Church should enter into the selection process.”

Along these lines, he indicated that it is “necessary to overcome the mentality of ‘power’ and develop that of ‘service.’ There is no doubt that the more closed in a group is, the greater the risk of elitism, which is why a greater involvement of the people of God is requested.”

However, he emphasized that there are practical difficulties, especially in large dioceses, where knowledge of possible candidates is limited. “Other difficulties we find in participation: only believers? Those who practice [the faith]? Everyone? Also in the way of conducting the consultation, avoiding election campaigns and pressure from organized groups.”

“The principle is clear: to broaden the consultation and allow for greater participation. But an in-depth study, proceeding calmly, is required. That’s why the pope has created a working group on this subject. Let us await its conclusions,” Marín indicated.

As for those who, “with goodwill, feared a change in doctrine, they have already seen that this is not the case. The deposit of faith does not change and cannot change. It’s a matter of going deeper into it, formulating its expression and developing it in the time at hand, as the Church has done throughout its history,” Marín affirmed.

“The synodal process arises from the action of the Holy Spirit and necessarily requires conversion of the heart. If not, we will understand nothing. The common thread that links the different parts of the document is, in fact, an invitation to conversion: called by the Spirit to conversion; conversion in relationships; conversion in processes; conversion in interconnectivity; conversion for the mission. For this, it is necessary that love be, truly, the common thread,” he concluded.

Vatican City, Nov 9, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

For the first time in over a century, the historic Chair of St. Peter, a wooden throne symbolizing the pope’s magisterial authority, has been removed from its gilded bronze reliquary in St. Peter’s Basilica to be displayed for public veneration. 

Pilgrims and visitors can now behold this storied relic directly in front of the basilica’s main altar, just above the tomb of St. Peter, where it will remain on display until Dec. 8, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.

The last major public viewing of the chair occurred in 1867, when Pope Pius IX exposed the Chair of Peter for the veneration of the faithful for 12 days on the 1,800th anniversary of the martyrdoms of St. Peter and St. Paul, according to Pietro Zander, head of the Necropolis and Artistic Heritage Section of the Vatican. 

It was the first time that the centuries-old wooden throne had been exhibited to the public since 1666 when it was first encased within Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s monumental bronze sculpture under the stained-glass Dove of the Holy Spirit window at the basilica’s apse.

Formally known as the Cathedra Sancti Petri Apostoli, or more simply as Cathedra Petri, the chair has held a revered place in Catholic tradition over the centuries, representing papal authority from St. Peter to the present.

“The chair is meant to be understood as the teacher’s ‘cathedra,’” art historian Elizabeth Lev told CNA. “It symbolizes the pope’s duty to hand down the teaching of Christ from generation to generation.”

“It’s antiquity [ninth century] speaks to a papacy that has endured through the ages — from St. Peter who governed a church on the run trying to evangelize with the might of the Roman Empire trying to shut him down, to the establishment of the Catholic Church and its setting down of roots in the Eternal City, to our 266th successor of St. Peter, Pope Francis,” she explained.

The wooden chair itself is steeped in history. According to the Vatican, the wooden seat was likely given by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles the Bald to Pope John VIII in A.D. 875 for the emperor’s Christmas coronation in the old St. Peter’s Basilica. A depiction of the emperor appears on the crossbeam of the chair, and its ivory panels illustrate the labors of Hercules along with other scenes from Greek mythology.

The informational sign near the chair in St. Peter’s Basilica informs visitors that “shortly after the year 1000, the Cathedra Petri began to be venerated as a relic of the seat used by the apostle Peter when he preached the Gospel first in Antioch and then in Rome.”

The Fabric of St. Peter, the organization responsible for the basilica’s upkeep, maintains that “it cannot be ruled out that this ninth-century imperial seat may have later incorporated the panel depicting the labors of Hercules, which perhaps originally belonged to an earlier and more ancient papal seat.”

Before returning the chair to its place within Bernini’s monumental reliquary, Vatican experts will conduct a series of diagnostic tests with the Vatican Museums’ Cabinet of Scientific Research. The ancient seat was last removed and studied from 1969 to 1974 under Pope Paul VI but was not shown to the public.

The recent restoration of Bernini’s works in the basilica, funded by the Knights of Columbus in preparation for the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year, made it possible for the chair to be moved from the bronze sculpture in August.

Pope Francis got a sneak peak of the relic in early October and a photo of the moment — showing him sitting in a wheelchair before the Chair of St. Peter — quickly went viral. Afterward, the pope requested that the relic be displayed for public veneration.

Francis ultimately decided that the Chair of St. Peter — a symbol of the Church’s unity under the instruction of Christ — would be unveiled for the public at the closing Mass for the Synod on Synodality.

“Pope Francis has been exceptionally generous to the faithful about displaying relics,” Lev said. “He brought out the bones of St. Peter shortly after his election, he had the Shroud of Turin on view in 2015, and now he has taken the Chair of Peter out for veneration in the basilica.” 

“In our virtual age, where much confusion reigns between what is real and what is not, Pope Francis has encouraged us to come face to face with these ancient witnesses of our faith and our traditions.”

The Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, celebrated each year on Feb. 22, dates back to the fourth century. St. Jerome (A.D. 347–420) spoke of his respect for the “Chair of Peter,” writing in a letter: “I follow no leader save Christ, so I enter into communion with … the Chair of Peter, for this I know is the rock upon which the Church is built.”

As Pope Benedict XVI explained in a 2006 : “‘Cathedra’ literally means the established seat of the bishop, placed in the mother church of a diocese, which for this reason is known as a ‘cathedral.”

“It is the symbol of the bishop’s authority and in particular, of his ‘magisterium,’ that is, the evangelical teaching which, as a successor of the apostles, he is called to safeguard and to transmit to the Christian community,” he said.

When a bishop takes possession of the particular Church that has been entrusted to him, he sits on the cathedra, Benedict explained: “From this seat, as teacher and pastor, he will guide the journey of the faithful in faith, hope, and charity.”

“The Church’s first ‘seat’ was the upper room, and it is likely that a special place was reserved for Simon Peter in that room where Mary, mother of Jesus, also prayed with the disciples,” he added.

Benedict XVI described Peter’s ministry as a journey from Jerusalem to Antioch, where he served as bishop, and ultimately to Rome. He noted that the See of Rome, where Peter ultimately “ended his race at the service of the Gospel with martyrdom,” became recognized as the seat of his successors, with the cathedra representing the mission entrusted to Peter by Christ.

“So it is that the See of Rome, which had received the greatest of honors, also has the honor that Christ entrusted to Peter of being at the service of all the particular Churches for the edification and unity of the entire people of God,” he said.

Bernini’s monumental reliquary for the chair, commissioned by Pope Alexander VII and completed in 1666, is one of the most iconic artworks in St. Peter’s Basilica. Bernini encased the wooden relic within a bronze-gilded throne, dramatically raised and crowned by a stained-glass depiction of the Holy Spirit, symbolized as a dove, surrounded by sculpted angels.

The bronze throne is supported by massive statues of four doctors of the Church — two from the West, St. Augustine and St. Ambrose, and two from the East, St. John Chrysostom and St. Athanasius — symbolizing the unity of the Church through the ages, bringing together the teachings of both the Latin and Greek Church Fathers. And at the top of the throne, cherubs hold up a papal tiara and keys symbolizing papal authority.

On the chair itself, there are three gold bas-reliefs representing the Gospel episodes of the consignment of the keys (Matthew 16:19), “feed my sheep” (John 21:17), and the washing of the feet (John 13:1-17).

The ongoing restoration of Bernini’s monument at the Altar of the Chair, along with the recently finished restoration of the baldacchino, is significant not only in light of the 2025 Jubilee Year but also the upcoming 400th anniversary of the consecration of the current St. Peter’s Basilica in 2026.

“Celebrating the ‘Chair’ of Peter,” Benedict XVI said, “means attributing a strong spiritual significance to it and recognizing it as a privileged sign of the love of God, the eternal Good Shepherd, who wanted to gather his whole Church and lead her on the path of salvation.”

Vatican City, Nov 9, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

The most important church in Rome, the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, is celebrating its 1,700th anniversary on Nov. 9.

The church is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome and the seat of the bishop of Rome, the pope. The adjoining palace served as the papal residence until the 14th century.

The anniversary of the dedication has been commemorated as a feast day by the whole Catholic Church since 1565 due to its importance as the “mother and head of all churches of the city and the world.”

A Latin inscription in the basilica proclaims this point in Latin: “Omnium ecclesiarum urbis et orbis mater et caput.”

“By honoring the basilica, one intends to express love and veneration for the Roman Church, which, as St. Ignatius of Antioch affirms, ‘presides over the charity’ of the entire Catholic communion,” Pope Benedict XVI .

The Archbasilica of St. John Lateran was built after the promulgation of Emperor Constantine’s Edict of Milan, which in 313 granted Christians freedom to practice their religion. 

Pope Sylvester I dedicated the archbasilica on Nov. 9 in the year 324. St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist became the church’s patrons in the sixth century, but it is called St. John Lateran because it was built on property donated by the Plautii Laterani family during the Roman Empire.

The Diocese of Rome celebrated the 1,700th anniversary with , including concerts, Masses, and religious-cultural talks about the history of the archbasilica and the adjoining Lateran Palace.

The jubilee will conclude on Saturday with a Mass celebrated by the diocese’s new vicar general, Cardinal-designate Baldassare Reina.

In 2008, the now-deceased on the feast of the Dedication of Rome’s Lateran Basilica in his Sunday Angelus address.

The Emperor Constantine, Benedict XVI recalled, “gave Pope Miltiades the old property of the family of the Laterans and built the basilica, baptistery, and the residence of the bishop of Rome, where the popes lived until the Avignon period.”

Pope Benedict noted the importance of the material building in which communities gather to praise God, and said, “every community has the duty to guard with care its own sacred building, which constitutes a precious religious and historical patrimony.”

“Let us invoke the intercession of Most Holy Mary to help us become, like her, a ‘house of God,’ a living temple of love,” he said.

Vatican City, Nov 8, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Microsoft President Brad Smith is set to unveil an artificial intelligence-enhanced project focusing on St. Peter’s Basilica during a press conference at the Vatican on Nov. 11.

This initiative, titled “The Basilica of St. Peter’s: AI-Enhanced Experience,” is a collaboration between Microsoft and the , the organization responsible for the conservation and maintenance of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Since Smith Microsoft’s AI for Cultural Heritage program in 2019, the tech company has worked on a number of projects that provided digitally enriched ways to explore art, architecture, and historical sites through artificial intelligence.

Microsoft developed the in Greece, which used AI to digitally reconstruct the birthplace of the Olympic Games, offering an immersive exploration of the ruins.

Similarly, Microsoft partnered with Iconem to create in France using AI and 3D modeling to capture the intricate details of the Catholic pilgrimage site.

Other companies have also provided virtual reality experiences of historically significant churches in past years, including a 3D immersive exhibition of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre called the “Tomb of Christ” in the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently spoke in Rome on Oct. 23 after the company announced a 4.3 billion euro (about $4.64 billion) investment in Italy over the next two years to expand its hyperscale cloud data center and artificial intelligence infrastructure, which will make the Italian cloud region one of Microsoft’s largest data center regions in Europe and a strategic hub in the spread of AI innovation in the Mediterranean.

Microsoft also announced a collaboration with the municipality of Rome to develop “Julia,” an AI-based virtual assistant that will help the over 35 million visitors expected in the Italian capital for the upcoming 2025 Jubilee Year.

Jubilee pilgrims will be able to ask Julia, a virtual city guide, questions via WhatsApp about cultural heritage sites as well as suggestions for accommodations and restaurants to taste typical Roman and Italian cuisine.

The St. Peter’s Basilica project will not be the first time that the Vatican has partnered with Microsoft on matters of artificial intelligence.

Years before the widely popular release of the GPT-4 chatbot system, developed by the San Francisco startup OpenAI, the Vatican was already heavily involved in the conversation of artificial intelligence ethics, hosting multiple high-level discussions with scientists and tech executives on the ethics of artificial intelligence since 2016.

In February 2020, Smith took part in a Vatican event called “renAIssance: For a Humanistic Artificial Intelligence,” where he signed the Vatican’s artificial intelligence ethics pledge, the , along with IBM Executive Vice President John Kelly III.

Since then the pope has hosted other tech leaders, including Chief Executive of Chuck Robbins, who also signed the Vatican’s artificial intelligence ethics pledge, in Rome.

The Rome Call, a document by the Pontifical Academy for Life, underlines the need for the ethical use of AI according to the principles of transparency, inclusion, accountability, impartiality, reliability, security, and privacy.

Pope Francis chose artificial intelligence as the theme of his, which recommended that global leaders adopt an international treaty to regulate the development and use of AI. Francis became the in June when he was invited to speak to world leaders about AI ethics.

In July, Father Paolo Benanti, a member of the United Nations’ advisory body on AI and adviser to Pope Francis on ethics and technology, in Washington to speak with Smith.

In an with GeekWire following the Vatican’s AI conference in 2023, Smith reflected on how having religious leaders in the room at a technology conference “adds an extraordinary dimension to the conversation.”

“You can ask whether this was having religious leaders in a technology meeting or technology leaders in religious conversation; both are true. … It forces one to think about and talk about the need to put humanity at the center of everything we do,” Smith said.

Vatican City, Nov 7, 2024 / 11:25 am (CNA).

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and other Holy See leaders have shared their well wishes for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump following his resounding election victory this week, conveying their hopes for wise leadership on both domestic and international affairs.

“We wish him great wisdom, because this is the main virtue of rulers according to the Bible,” Parolin said at an event in Rome.

“I believe that, above all, he has to work to be the president of the whole country and so overcome the polarization that has occurred, which can be very, very clearly felt at the moment,” he indicated.

Trump obtained a decisive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 presidential vote, surpassing the 270 electoral votes needed to return for a second term to the White House.

In addition to working toward unity among people within the U.S., Parolin also expressed his hope for Trump to “be an element of détente and pacification in the current conflicts that are bleeding the world.”

“Let’s hope, let’s hope. I believe that not even he has a magic wand,” Parolin said. 

“To end wars, a lot of humility is needed, a lot of willingness is needed. It really is necessary to seek the general interests of humanity rather than concentrate on particular interests.”

While Pope Francis and Donald Trump have not seen eye to eye on issues including migrants or the environment, Vatican Undersecretary for the Dicastery for Culture and Education Father Antonio Spadaro, SJ, told Italian journalists Nov. 6 that the Vatican intends to “seek dialogue” with the U.S. leader. 

“Catholics don’t have homogenous party affiliations or political convictions in the United States or anywhere else,” he said. “It’s held the compass of values steady, but without taking sides, precisely to avoid a spurious mixing of religion with politics.”

“The perspective of the Holy See is always broad, international, recognizing that the United States has an important role in avoiding [so] that the conflicts currently under way in the world, from martyred Ukraine to martyred Palestine, don’t get worse,” Spadaro said. “It’s necessary to find solutions.”

Following Trump’s election, speculation around his foreign policy measures have been in the media again, with particular attention being given to his to end the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. 

In the run-up to the election, the American leader repeatedly stated that he would end the conflict in “.”

Vatican City, Nov 7, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis’ personal travel agent — the priest who organizes his trips around the world — is one of the 21 clerics who will be made a cardinal at a consistory at the Vatican in December.

The pontiff introduced Father George Jacob Koovakad to the world in 2021 as someone who is “always smiling.”

In late 2021, Koovakad, a Vatican diplomat, became the coordinator for papal travels, working in the section for general affairs of the Secretariat of State to arrange Francis’ trips, including his recent historic visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Singapore. 

The 51-year-old cardinal-designate is from Chethipuzha in the southern Indian state of Kerala. He is part of the Syro-Malabar Church, one of the Catholic faith’s Eastern-rite Churches.

Koovakad explained in an Oct. 25 interview with Vatican News that the Syro-Malabar Church originates with the apostle St. Thomas, who brought the Christian faith to India in the first century.

“I come from this vibrant community where the faith is passed down through generations as a family treasure,” he said.

The cardinal-designate noted that he was brought up in a Catholic environment where daily Mass was encouraged and he prayed evening prayers daily with his parents and grandparents.

“It was this life of faith in my family that helped me discover my vocation to the priesthood,” Koovakad said. He was also inspired by an uncle who is a priest and religious and by his former archbishop, Mar Joseph Powathil, who instilled in him “a deep love for the Church,” the priest said.

The soon-to-be cardinal was ordained a priest in 2004. Soon after, he moved to Rome, where he received a doctorate in canon law in 2006 from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross with a doctoral thesis on “The Obligation of Poverty for Secular Clerics in the Codes of Canon Law.”

The topic of Koovakad’s thesis reflects his personal dedication to the poor, according to the priest and diplomat’s brother-in-law, Mathew M. Scaria, who told UCA News last month that Koovakad “is compassionate to the poor.”

“Pope Francis’ love for the poor and marginalized has always resonated with me, and we share this common outlook,” Koovakad told Vatican News. “I also entered the seminary with a desire to help the poor, in whom we encounter the privileged presence of Jesus Christ.”

The cardinal-designate entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 2006, holding various positions in nunciatures in Algeria, South Korea, Iran, Costa Rica, and Venezuela until 2020.

After joining the Vatican’s Secretariat of State in the summer of 2020, in the fall of 2021 Koovakad, who had been given the honorary title of “monsignor,” took over the job of planning trips for Pope Francis.

The role includes visiting countries to study their safety and to set up logistical details, such as the pope’s agenda.

“As a Christian, my joy knows no bounds, and it is this joy that helps me overcome any difficulties that arise [in this job],” Koovakad said in the Vatican News interview. “Personally, I like to view the papal visits as pilgrimages of the successor of Peter. Seen in this way, the great responsibilities are managed through prayer and close and harmonious cooperation with all the individuals involved.”

He said being a cardinal will bring additional responsibilities, but “I believe I can do all things through him who strengthens me, even in my weaknesses.”

Being a cardinal will also help him as papal travel agent by giving him “more authority in dealing with high-ranking ecclesiastical and civil authorities,” he noted.

Pope Francis while aboard the papal plane from Rome to Budapest, Hungary, in September 2021 announced that Koovakad would be replacing Bishop Dieudonné Datonou as trip organizer. Noting Datonou’s nickname as “the sheriff on duty,” Francis said Koovakad would be “a sheriff with a smile.”

Father Robinson Rodrigues, spokesperson of India’s bishops’ conference, told UCA News Koovakad’s nomination as cardinal “is a great recognition for the Indian Church to have one more cardinal, especially based in the Vatican.”

Koovakad can play “a vital role” in protecting the interests of the Indian Church, he said.

Prior to receiving a red hat at a Vatican ceremony on Dec. 7, Koovakad will be consecrated a titular archbishop in Changanassery Cathedral on Nov. 24. He is the first Syro-Malabar priest to be elevated to cardinal directly from the priesthood, according to the Church’s spokesperson.

Vatican City, Nov 6, 2024 / 11:15 am (CNA).

Opening his Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square with a prayer to Our Lady of the Forsaken (Virgen de los Desamparados), the patroness of Valencia, Spain, Pope Francis asked people to pray for the victims of flash floods in Spain.

“I wished to greet the Virgen de los Desamparados,” the pope told the crowds of pilgrims at the Vatican after placing a white rose before her statue. “Today, in a special way, let us pray for Valencia and for the other areas of Spain that are suffering because of the water,” the Holy Father said.

More than 200 people have been confirmed dead in Valencia since heavy rains hit the eastern province of Spain last week. An additional 90 people were reported missing after severe floods swept through the city, destroying homes and personal property, businesses, roads, and other public infrastructure.

Following his prayer to the Virgin Mary for the people of Spain, the pope continued his catechesis on the Holy Spirit and the Church, focusing on the theme of Christian prayer: “We pray to receive the Holy Spirit, and we receive the Holy Spirit in order to truly pray; that is, as children of God, not as slaves.” 

Asking his listeners to reflect on St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, which highlighted the need to learn from the Holy Spirit to “pray as we ought,” the Holy Father emphasized that prayer should not come from a place of fear and punishment but from the freedom and spontaneity of a child who trusts in God.

“Each one of us have little ones — children [who are either] nephews, nieces, or [sons and daughters] of friends — and they always receive good things from us,” he said. “And as [God] the father, will he not give good things to us?”

According to the Holy Father, the only “power” people have with God is prayer, as “he does not resist prayers.” He said it is the Holy Spirit who teaches the Church and each Christian how to pray.

“He testifies to us that we are children of God and puts on our lips the cry ‘Abba, Father!’” the pope said. “It is God who prays within us.”

“True prayer,” according to the Holy Father, is when one allows the Holy Spirit to come to the aid of our weakness and intercede for us “according to God’s will.”

“Jesus says first seek the kingdom of God and all these things will be given you besides,” the pope said. “Instead, we seek something above and beyond — namely our own interests — and we completely forget to ask for the kingdom of God.”

Turning his attention to the needs of those suffering around the world, including the sick and elderly, Pope Francis asked his listeners to pray for those in war-torn countries at the conclusion of his Nov. 6 general audience.

“We must not forget martyred Ukraine that suffers so much. We must not forget Palestine and Israel. The other day 153 civilians were killed. It’s very sad. We must not forget Myanmar, and we must not forget Valencia in Spain,” he said.

Vatican City, Nov 5, 2024 / 11:40 am (CNA).

The Vatican last week opened a center to welcome pilgrims and tourists before they visit St. Peter’s Basilica. 

The space, which was inaugurated Oct. 31, is intended to provide practical, artistic, and spiritual information to visitors of the Vatican basilica — especially during moments of higher than usual influx, as expected during the 2025 Jubilee Year.

Pope Francis said in who hear confessions at St. Peter’s Basilica that the church has over 40,000 visitors a day. 

The welcome center will also offer support for visitors with physical disabilities and sell official St. Peter’s Basilica-branded objects. 

The “Official Area,” as the Vatican is calling the center, is located about a five-minute walk from St. Peter’s Square at the far end of the main thoroughfare leading to the basilica — at the address Via della Conciliazione 3a.

The Vatican has partnered with two Italian organizations, the nonprofit BeHuman and the for-profit company Civita Mostre e Musei, to create the welcome center, which will also have priests, religious, and laypeople available for spiritual discussions, “listening, and empathy,” a press release said.

The Vatican also plans to use the visitor center to provide educational opportunities for children and teenagers, and will host school visits during the 2025 holy year.

In his Oct. 24 audience with Franciscan priests of the Friars Minor Conventual, who are entrusted with hearing confessions in St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis said that while many people come to the Vatican “to pray at the tomb of the first of the apostles, to confirm their faith and their communion with the Church, to entrust dear intentions to the Lord… Others, even of different faiths, enter it as ‘tourists,’ attracted by the beauty, the history, the charm of the art.”

“But in everyone there is one great quest, conscious or unconscious: the quest for God, beauty, and eternal goodness,” he said.

Rome Newsroom, Nov 5, 2024 / 10:50 am (CNA).

Pope Francis warned against “Coca-Cola spirituality” at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome on Tuesday, where minutes earlier the rector had highlighted the witness of imprisoned-then-exiled Nicaraguan Bishop Rolando Álvarez as an example of authentic Christian courage.

Speaking at the university’s Dies Academicus celebration, the pope told faculty and students to avoid becoming “disciples of Coca-Cola spirituality,” using the metaphor to warn against superficial approaches to faith formation.

“Have you asked yourselves where you are going and why you are doing the things you are doing?” the pope challenged his audience on Nov. 4.

“It is necessary to know where one is going without losing sight of the horizon that unites each one’s path with the current and ultimate end.”

Jesuit Father Mark A. Lewis, rector of the Gregorian University, opened the event by noting that, who studied at the university, “preaches the Gospel with courage and remains in solidarity with his priests, his flock, and all those who are deprived of their human rights.”

Drawing on the example of St. Francis Xavier, the pope emphasized the need to “be missionaries out of love for our brothers and sisters and to be available to the Lord’s call.”

He urged the academic community to avoid “pretensions that turn God’s project into something bureaucratic, rigid, and without warmth, superimposing agendas and ambitions over the plans of providence.”

The pope called for putting “heart” into formation work, warning that without it, education becomes either “arid intellectualism or perverse narcissism.”

“When the heart is missing, you can see it,” Francis emphasized.

The pope called for a university with “the smell of the people” that promotes imagination and reveals God’s love, “who always takes the first step in a world that seems to have lost its heart.”

He lamented that the “world is in flames” due to the “madness of war, which covers every hope with the shadow of death.”

Francis urged the community to “open the gaze of the heart” and seek unity in diversity through exchanging gifts, calling for greater study of Eastern traditions. He urged avoiding abstract ideas born in offices and promoting “contact with the life of peoples, the symbols of cultures, and the cries of suffering of the poor.”

“Touch this flesh, walk in the mud, and get your hands dirty,” he emphasized.

The visit marked a significant development in the university’s history, coinciding with the recent integration of three institutions — the Collegium Maximum, the Pontifical Biblical Institute, and the Pontifical Oriental Institute — under papal directive.

Founded in 1551 as the Roman College by St. Ignatius of Loyola, the Gregorian University currently serves 2,952 students from 121 countries studying theology, philosophy, canon law, psychology, and anthropology, among other disciplines.

After leaving the university, the pope privately visited Italian political figure Emma Bonino at her Rome apartment. Bonino, 76, who was recently hospitalized for respiratory and heart issues, is known as a leading voice in Italy’s pro-abortion movement. Pope Francis has repeatedly condemned abortion in the strongest terms. The Vatican press office confirmed the visit took place but offered no additional information.

Vatican City, Nov 5, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has added the Italian archbishop of Naples, Domenico Battaglia, to the list of new cardinals he will create at a consistory at the Vatican on Dec. 7.

The Vatican said Monday afternoon that Francis had added the Naples archbishop to the list of 20 other new cardinals. The announcement comes almost two weeks after one of the pope’s original picks, at the beginning of October, declined the honor of the red hat.

Pope Francis accepted the request of Indonesian Bishop Paskalis Bruno Syukur, OFM, in order to “continue growing in priestly life and in service to the Church and the people of God,” according to an Oct. 22 message from the Holy See Press Office.

With the inclusion of Battaglia, there will again be 21 new members added to the College of Cardinals at the December consistory.

The 61-year-old Battaglia became archbishop of Naples in December 2020. Prior to the appointment, he was bishop of Cerreto Sannita-Telese-Sant’Agata de’ Goti, a diocese in Italy’s southern Campania region, from 2016-2020.

Before that, Battaglia was a parish priest in another southern Italian archdiocese, Catanzaro-Squillace, where he was called “Don Mimmo” and known as a “street priest” who cared for the marginalized.

During his tenure in Naples, the archbishop has spoken out strongly in the southern Italian city.

As archbishop of Naples, Battaglia also celebrates the twice annual at which an ampoule containing the relic of the blood of the third-century martyr St. Januarius is examined to confirm if the miracle of liquefaction has taken place.

Battaglia will be one of five Italian bishops to be made a cardinal at the next consistory; four of the five Italians are under 80 and can participate as cardinal-electors in a future conclave to choose the next pope.

The ceremony to create the new cardinals will take place in St. Peter’s Basilica on Dec. 7.

The following day, on the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8, Francis and the entire College of Cardinals will celebrate a Mass of thanksgiving together in the Vatican basilica.

Vatican City, Nov 4, 2024 / 14:00 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis on Monday accepted the resignation of Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki and named Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Jeffrey Grob to be his successor.

With the Nov. 4 appointment, the 63-year-old Grob will be returning to his birth state of Wisconsin. The prelate was born to dairy farmers in the town of Cross Plains in 1961.

Listecki, who has served as Milwaukee’s archbishop since 2010, submitted his resignation to the pope on his 75th birthday, March 12, as required by canon law.

The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Milwaukee spans 10 counties in southeastern Wisconsin. The territory has approximately 550,000 Catholics — about 23% of the population — and 184 parishes.

After growing up in rural Wisconsin, Grob was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1992. He also served as a judge in the archdiocesan tribunal after receiving a licentiate — and later a doctorate — in canon law.

He also holds a licentiate in sacred theology and a doctorate in philosophy.

Grob served as judicial vicar for the Chicago Archdiocese for two years before he was named its chancellor in 2017.

Pope Francis appointed Grob an auxiliary bishop of Chicago in September 2020.

Vatican City, Nov 4, 2024 / 11:35 am (CNA).

Pope Francis celebrated a Mass for deceased cardinals and bishops in St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday morning, saying they were “shepherds and models for the Lord’s flock” who loved the Church in their own way.

Seven Catholic cardinals and 123 Catholic bishops died within the last 12 months. 

“Our remembrance becomes a prayer of intercession for our dear brothers, elect members of the people of God. They were baptized into the death of Christ in order to rise with him,” the pope said in his homily at the Mass. It is the pope’s custom to offer for the prelates who passed away during the past year.

“Having broken the bread of life on earth may they now enjoy a seat at his table,” he continued. “Let us pray that they may exult in eternal communion with the saints and we, with firm hope, let us look forward to rejoicing with them in heaven.”

During the homily, the Holy Father invited more than 200 people present at the Monday Mass — including cardinals, bishops, priests, men and women religious, and laypeople — to meditate on the word “remember” in the account of Christ’s crucifixion recorded in St. Luke’s Gospel.

“‘Ricordare’ in Italian means to lead back to the heart [or] to carry in the heart,” the pope shared. “That man crucified alongside with Jesus transformed his dire pain into a prayer: ‘Carry me in your heart, Jesus.’”

Emphasizing the significance of Our Lord’s heart, the Holy Father said Jesus always listens to the prayers of defenseless sinners.

“This criminal who dies as a ‘disciple of the last hour’ desired only one thing: to find a welcome heart,” he said. “Christ’s heart, pierced by pain, was laid open to save the world. [He has] an open heart, not a closed heart. Dying himself, he was open to the voice of a dying man.”

“Jesus dies with us because he died for us,” Pope Francis repeated to the congregation.

Sitting in front of a covered Altar of the Chair of St. Peter, the Holy Father implored his listeners to have a merciful and compassionate heart like Jesus.

“How do we carry people in our hearts? How do we remember those right at our side throughout our lives? Do you judge? Do you divide? Or do [you] welcome?” the pope asked. 

“Dear brothers and sisters, by turning to the heart of God, men and women of today and of every age can find hope for salvation,” the Holy Father insisted. “The Lord is close to us.” 

“Jesus, remember us! Jesus, remember us!”

Six U.S. bishops were among the deceased clergy remembered during the Mass held in the Vatican: Bishop Raymond Emil Goedert of Chicago; Bishop Francisco González Valer of Washington, D.C.; Bishop Thomas John Gumbleton of Detroit; Bishop Daniel Patrick Reilly of Worcester, Massachusetts; Bishop Edward James Slattery of Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Bishop Basil Harry Losten of Stamford, Connecticut, of the Ukrainians.

Vatican City, Nov 3, 2024 / 13:35 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis on Sunday spoke about Jesus’ teaching that “all things must be done with love,” something, he said, that is essential for the faith of each person.

Every Sunday at noon, the pope appears at a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square to give a brief spiritual reflection before leading the Angelus, a traditional Marian prayer, in Latin.

Speaking to thousands of people gathered in the sunny Vatican square on Nov. 3, Francis commented on the day’s Gospel passage, which recounts one of Jesus’ many discussions in the temple of Jerusalem. In the scene, a scribe asks Jesus: “Which is the first of all the commandments?”

The question, the pontiff said, is a good one, and “essential for us too, for our life and for the journey of our faith.”

“Indeed, we too at times feel lost among so many things and ask ourselves: But, in the end, what is the most important thing of all? Where can I find the center of my life, of my faith?” he said. “Jesus gives us the answer, putting together two commandments that are the primary ones: the love of God and the love of neighbor. And this is the heart of our faith.”

The pope underlined that when the Lord comes again, he will first and foremost ask us how we loved.

“It is important, then, to fix in our hearts the most important commandment,” he continued. “Love the Lord your God, and love your neighbor as yourself. And to carry out every day an examination of conscience and ask ourselves: Is love for God and neighbor the center of my life? Does my prayer to God impel me to go out to my brothers and sisters and love them gratuitously? Do I recognize the presence of the Lord in the faces of others?”

Pope Francis quoted from his newest encyclical, , which is on the Sacred Heart: “We all — as we know — need to return to the heart of life and faith, because the heart is ‘the radical source of their strengths, convictions.’”

“And Jesus tells us that the source of everything is love, that we must never separate God from man,” he said. “The Lord says to the disciple of every time: In your journey, what counts are not the exterior practices, such as burnt offerings and sacrifices, but the readiness of heart with which you open yourself to God and to brethren in love.”

“We can do many things, but do them only for ourselves and without love, and this will not do; we do them with a distracted heart or even with a closed heart, and this will not do. All things must be done with love,” he emphasized.

After the Angelus, Pope Francis asked for prayers for Valencia, a region in southeast Spain that was hit by devastating flash flooding on Oct. 29. Caused by a torrential downpour, the worst flooding the country has seen in decades has killed at least 214 people, while dozens are still missing, according to authorities.

The pope also praised the Italian group “Emergency,” which promotes Article 11 of the Italian Constitution and says: “Italy rejects war as an instrument of aggression against the freedom of other peoples and as a means for the settlement of international disputes.”

“May this principle be implemented all over the world: May war be banished and issues be addressed through law and negotiations. Let weapons be silenced and space be made for dialogue. Let us pray for tormented Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, Myanmar, and South Sudan,” Francis said.

CNA Newsroom, Nov 2, 2024 / 08:34 am (CNA).

Pope Francis marked All Souls’ Day with a Mass at a Roman cemetery on Saturday, making a special visit to the “Garden of Angels.”

More than 100 faithful gathered with Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri at the Laurentino Cemetery, the city’s third-largest burial ground, to welcome the pope.

Upon arrival, Francis laid white roses on a memorial stone marking the Garden of Angels and silently prayed for several moments.

The garden, established in 2012, provides a dedicated space for families grieving the loss of children, including those lost to miscarriage.

The pope was also greeted by mothers from the “Sparks of Hope” association who have lost children. Each presented him with a white scarf as a symbolic embrace from them and their deceased children.

During his visit, he also met with Stefano, a father who lost his daughter Sara during pregnancy in 2021, Vatican News .

The pope‘s prayer intention for the month of November is a child.

This marked Francis’ second visit to the Laurentino Cemetery’s Garden of Angels, having previously celebrated All Souls’ Day Mass there in 2018.

The pope did not deliver a homily during Mass, instead observing moments of silent prayer. Before the final blessing, he offered a special prayer for the deceased, asking God to “open the arms of your mercy and receive them into the glorious assembly of the holy Jerusalem.”

After Mass, the pope performed the traditional blessing of the graves.

Pope Francis’ choice of the Laurentino Cemetery continues his tradition of celebrating All Souls’ Day in different Roman cemeteries.

For All Souls’ Day in 2023, Mass was offered at the small , which contains 426 Commonwealth burials from the Second World War.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the pope opted and celebrate Mass for the faithful departed in the Church of Our Lady of Mercy, which is surrounded by the Teutonic Cemetery — the burial place of people of German, Austrian, and Swiss descent, and particularly members of the Archconfraternity to the Sorrowful Mother of God of the Germans and Flemings.

In 2019, the pope celebrated Mass , while in 2022 he privately visited the Teutonic Cemetery again but offered Mass for deceased bishops and cardinals — another papal custom during the week of All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days.

On Sunday, Nov. 3, Pope Francis will again lead the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square, as he does every Sunday at noon.

The following morning, on Nov. 4, he will preside at a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica for the repose of the souls of the bishops and cardinals who died during the previous year. It is the pope’s practice to always offer this Mass sometime during the first week of November.

CNA Staff, Nov 2, 2024 / 05:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of November is for those who have lost a child.

“What can we say to parents who have lost a child? How can we console them? There are no words,” the Holy Father said in a video released Oct. 31.

He pointed out that “when one spouse loses the other, they are a widower or a widow. A child who loses a parent is an orphan. There’s a word for that. But when a parent loses a child, there’s no word. The pain is so great that there’s no word.”

“And it’s not natural to outlive your child. The pain caused by this loss is especially intense,” he said. “Words of encouragement are at times banal or sentimental, they’re not helpful. Spoken with the best intention, of course, they can end up aggravating the wound.”

The pope explained that in order to comfort parents who have lost a child, “we need to listen to them, to be close to them with love, to care responsibly for the pain they feel, imitating how Jesus Christ consoled those who were afflicted.”

“And those parents who are sustained by their faith can certainly find comfort in other families who, by suffering such a terrible tragedy as this, have been reborn in hope.”

He concluded with a prayer: “Let us pray that all parents who mourn the loss of a son or daughter find support in their community and may receive peace of heart from the Spirit of Consolation.”

Pope Francis’ prayer video is promoted by the , which raises awareness of monthly papal prayer intentions.

CNA Staff, Nov 1, 2024 / 17:05 pm (CNA).

In his on the solemnity of All Saints, Pope Francis spoke about the “identity card” of the Christian.

Referring to the Gospel passage for the day, the beatitudes from the Gospel of Matthew, the Holy Father posed the question: “And what is the identity card of the Christian? The beatitudes. It is our identity card, and also the way of holiness.”

The pope pointed out that “Jesus shows us a path, that of love,” and this serves as “both a gift from God and our response.”

Referencing St. Paul, the pope explained that this is a gift from God because “it is he who sanctifies. And this is why the Lord is the first we ask to make us holy, to make our heart similar to his.”

The Holy Father reminded the faithful that God does not impose his holiness upon us, rather “he sows it in us, he makes us taste its flavor and see its beauty, but then he awaits our response.”

The pope tied this explanation back to the saints of the Church and how we see these traits lived out in each of them. He highlighted the lives of St. Maximilian Kolbe, who took the place of a father condemned to death in Auschwitz; St. Teresa of Calcutta, who lived her life serving the poorest of the poor; and St. Oscar Romero, a bishop who while celebrating Mass was killed for speaking out against social injustices.

Pope Francis pointed out the saints he likes to call “the saints ‘next door,’ the everyday ones, hidden, who go forward in their daily Christian life.”

“Brothers and sisters, how much hidden saintliness there is in the Church!  We recognize so many brothers and sisters formed by the beatitudes: poor, meek, merciful, hungry and thirsty for justice, workers for peace,” he said. “They are people ‘filled with God,’ incapable of remaining indifferent to the needs of their neighbor; they are witnesses of shining paths, possible for us too.”

He concluded by asking the faithful to ponder these questions: “Do I ask God, in prayer, for the gift of a holy life? Do I let myself be guided by the good impulses that his Spirit inspires in me? And do I commit myself personally to practicing the beatitudes of the Gospel, in the environments in which I live?”

Following the Angelus, Pope Francis expressed his closeness to the people of Chad, especially the families of the victims of the on a military base, as well as those affected by severe flooding in Spain, considered one of the worst natural disasters in that country’s modern history.

The Holy Father also asked the faithful to continue to pray for Ukraine as well as for the people of Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Myanmar, Sudan, and all those suffering because of war, which he reminded listeners “is always a defeat, always!”

Vatican City, Nov 1, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis’ new encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus is packed with testimonies from the saints of prayer and devotion to the heart of Christ throughout the centuries.

, meaning “He Loved Us,” describes how devotion to the heart of Christ “reappears in the spiritual journey of many saints” and how in each one the devotion takes on new hues. The most frequently quoted saints in the encyclical are St. Thérèse of Lisieux, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, St. Francis de Sales, St. Vincent de Paul, and St. John Paul II, but more than two dozen saints are quoted in all.

The encyclical explains how the Church Fathers’ descriptions of the wounded side of Christ as the wellspring of the life of grace later began to be associated with his heart, especially in monastic life.

It adds that “devotion to the heart of Christ slowly passed beyond the walls of the monasteries to enrich the spirituality of saintly teachers, preachers, and founders of religious congregations, who then spread it to the farthest reaches of the earth.”

Here are 20 saints devoted to the Sacred Heart as described by the pope’s new encyclical:

St. Francis de Sales was deeply moved by Jesus’ words “Learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart” (Mt 11:29). He writes in the “Introduction to the Devout Life” that the ordinary trials of life — such as “the tiresome peculiarities of a husband or wife” or a headache or toothache — when accepted lovingly, “are most pleasing to God’s goodness.” In his letters, Francis wrote about Christ’s open heart, seeing it as an invitation to dwell within and trust completely in God’s grace, describing it as “a heart on which all our names are written.”

“Surely it is a source of profound consolation to know that we are loved so deeply by Our Lord, who constantly carries us in his heart,” he said in a Lenten homily on Feb. 20, 1622.

St. John Henry Newman chose “Cor ad cor loquitur” (“Heart speaks to heart”) as his motto, a phrase drawn from a letter by St. Francis de Sales. He experienced Christ’s Sacred Heart most powerfully in the Eucharist, where he sensed Jesus’ heart “beat[ing] for us still” and prayed: “O make my heart beat with thy heart. Purify it of all that is earthly, all that is proud and sensual, all that is hard and cruel, of all perversity, of all disorder, of all deadness. So fill it with thee, that neither the events of the day nor the circumstances of the time may have power to ruffle it, but that in thy love and thy fear it may have peace.”

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque is perhaps the saint most associated with the Sacred Heart of Jesus because of a series of apparitions of Christ in Paray-le-Monial, France. In the first message Alacoque received, she described how the Lord “asked for my heart, which I asked him to take, which he did and then placed myself in his own adorable heart, from which he made me see mine like a little atom consumed in the fiery furnace of his own.” In subsequent messages, “he revealed to me the ineffable wonders of his pure love and to what extremes it had led him to love mankind” and how “ his pure love, with which he loves men to the utmost” is met with “only ingratitude and indifference.”

Alacoque wrote in one of her letters: “It is necessary that the divine heart of Jesus in some way replace our own; that he alone live and work in us and for us; that his will … work absolutely and without any resistance on our part; and finally that its affections, thoughts, and desires take the place of our own, especially his love, so that he is loved in himself and for our sakes. And so, this lovable heart being our all in all, we can say with St. Paul that we no longer live our own lives, but it is he who lives within us.”

St. Claude de La Colombière was a French Jesuit priest and confessor of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. He helped develop devotion to the Sacred Heart, combining the experiences of St. Margaret Mary with the contemplative approach of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Claude meditated on the attitude of Christ toward those who sought to arrest and put him to death: “His heart is full of bitter sorrow; every violent passion is unleashed against him and all nature is in turmoil, yet amid all this confusion, all these temptations, his heart remains firmly directed to God.”

St. Gertrude of Helfta, a Cistercian mystic, writes of a time in prayer in which she leaned her head on the heart of Christ and heard his heart beating. She reflected that the “sweet sound of those heartbeats has been reserved for modern times, so that hearing them, our aging and lukewarm world may be renewed in the love of God.”

St. Mechtilde, another Cistercian mystic, shared St. Gertrude’s intimate devotion to the heart of Jesus. The encyclical lists her as among “a number of holy women, [who] in recounting their experiences of encounter with Christ, have spoken of resting in the heart of the Lord as the source of life and interior peace.”

St. Vincent de Paul emphasized that “God asks primarily for our heart,” teaching that the poor can have more merit by giving with “greater love” than those with wealth who can give more. He urged his confreres to “find in the heart of Our Lord a word of consolation for the poor sick person.” The constitutions of his congregation underline that “by gentleness we inherit the earth. If we act on this, we will win people over so that they will turn to the Lord. That will not happen if we treat people harshly or sharply.” For him, embodying the “heart of the Son of God” meant going everywhere in mission and bringing the warmth of Christ’s love to the suffering and poor.

St. Catherine of Siena wrote that the Lord’s sufferings are impossible for us to comprehend, but the open heart of Christ enables us to have a lively personal encounter with his boundless love. Catherine’s “Dialogue on Divine Providence” records a conversation she had with God in which he said to her: “I wished to reveal to you the secret of my heart, allowing you to see it open, so that you can understand that I have loved you so much more than I could have proved to you by the suffering that I once endured.”

St. John Paul II described Christ’s heart as “the Holy Spirit’s masterpiece” and saw it as foundational for building a “civilization of love.” In a general audience in the first year of his papacy, John Paul II spoke about “the mystery of the heart of Christ” and shared that “it has spoken to me ever since my youth.” Throughout his pontificate, he taught that “the Savior’s heart invites us to return to the Father’s love, which is the source of every authentic love.”

“The men and women of the third millennium need the heart of Christ in order to know God and to know themselves; they need it to build the civilization of love,” John Paul II said in 1994.

St. Bernard preached on the importance of loving Jesus with “the full and deep affection of all your heart.” He described Christ’s pierced side as a revelation of the outpouring of the Lord’s love from his compassionate heart. In the year 1072, he preached: “Those who crucified him pierced his hands and feet … A lance passed through his soul even to the region of his heart. No longer is he unable to take pity on my weakness. The wounds inflicted on his body have disclosed to us the secrets of his heart; they enable us to contemplate the great mystery of his compassion.”

St. Bonaventure presents the heart of Christ as the source of the sacraments and of grace. In his treatise “Lignum Vitae,” Bonaventure that in the blood and water flowing from the wounded side of Christ, the price of our salvation flows “from the hidden wellspring of his heart, enabling the Church’s sacraments to confer the life of grace and thus to be, for those who live in Christ, like a cup filled from the living fount springing up to life eternal.”

St. John Eudes wrote the propers for the Mass of the Sacred Heart and was an ardent proponent of the devotion. describes how St. John Eudes convinced the bishop of the Rennes Diocese in France to approve the celebration of the feast of the “Adorable Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ,” the first time that such a feast was officially authorized in the Church. The following year, five more bishops in France authorized the celebration of the feast in their dioceses.

St. Charles de Foucauld made it his mission to console the Sacred Heart of Jesus, adopting an image of the cross planted in the heart of Christ as his emblem. He consecrated himself to Christ’s heart, believing that he must “embrace all men and women” like the heart of Jesus. He made a promise in 1906 to “let the heart of Jesus live in me, so that it is no longer I who live, but the heart of Jesus that lives in me, as he lived in Nazareth.”

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that the phrase “heart of Christ” can refer to sacred Scripture, “which makes known his heart.” The encyclical quotes St. Thomas Aquinas’ theological exposition of the Gospel of St. John in which he wrote that whenever someone “hastens to share various gifts of grace received from God, living water flows from his heart.”

St. Thérèse of Lisieux felt an intimate bond with Jesus’ heart. At age 15, she could speak of Jesus as the one “whose heart beats in unison with my own.” One of her sisters took as her religious name “Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart,” and the monastery that Thérèse entered was dedicated to the Sacred Heart. She wrote in a letter to a priest: “Ever since I have been given the grace to understand also the love of the heart of Jesus, I admit that it has expelled all fear from my heart. The remembrance of my faults humbles me, draws me never to depend on my strength, which is only weakness, but this remembrance speaks to me of mercy and love even more.”

St. John of the Cross viewed the image of Christ’s pierced side as an invitation to full union with the Lord. In his poetry, he portrayed Christ as a wounded stag, comforted by the soul that turns to him. John sought to explain that in mystical experience, the infinite love of the risen Christ “condescends” to enable us, through the open heart of Christ, to experience an encounter of truly reciprocal love. 

The encyclical repeatedly quotes St. Ambrose, who offered a reflection on Jesus as the source of “living water.” He wrote: “Drink of Christ, for he is the rock that pours forth a flood of water. Drink of Christ, for he is the source of life. Drink of Christ, for he is the river whose streams gladden the city of God. Drink of Christ, for he is our peace. Drink of Christ, for from his side flows living water.”

St. Augustine “opened the way to devotion to the Sacred Heart as the locus of our personal encounter with the Lord,” according to . “For Augustine, Christ’s wounded side is not only the source of grace and the sacraments but also the symbol of our intimate union with Christ, the setting of an encounter of love.” In his “Tractates on the Gospel of John,” Augustine reflects on how when John, the beloved disciple, reclined on Jesus’ bosom at the Last Supper, he drew near to the secret place of wisdom.

In his “Spiritual Exercises,” St. Ignatius encourages retreatants to contemplate the wounded side of the crucified Lord to enter into the heart of Christ. Ignatius founded the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits, which has promoted devotion to Jesus’ divine heart for more than a century. The society was consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1871.

St. Daniel Comboni saw the heart of Jesus as the source of strength for his missionary work in Africa. He founded the Sons of the Sacred Heart Jesus, which today are known as the Comboni Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as well as the Comboni Missionary Sisters. The saintly missionary once said: “This divine heart, which let itself be pierced by an enemy’s lance in order to pour forth through that sacred wound the sacraments by which the Church was formed, has never ceased to love.”

Vatican City, Oct 31, 2024 / 15:10 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis received in audience on Wednesday members of “,” a program of accompaniment for the spiritual and emotional healing of women and men who suffer the consequences of having chosen abortion.

The members of the initiative, which has spread to most Latin American countries, aim to help those who seek “reconciliation and forgiveness” and experience God’s mercy.

Since 1999, these “companions” — whom the Holy Father referred to as “angels” — have been caring for the “other victims of abortion,” those who have decided to end the lives of their children.

Project Hope came about from women and also men asking for help “with tears in their eyes and expressing the need to know how to cope with unbearable pain.”

The goal of the project is to help the parents work out their grief “with the help of trained professionals and through an approach of acceptance, understanding, and confidentiality, which seeks to facilitate the encounter of the mother and father with their child who was the victim of an abortion.”

During the Oct. 30 audience at the apostolic palace in the Vatican, Pope Francis expressed his joy at receiving those who for 25 years have been accompanying women whose suffering, according to the pontiff, “is indescribable.”

For the Holy Father, “the arrival of each newborn is often synonymous with a joy that overwhelms us in a mysterious way and that renews hope.”

“It’s as if we perceived, without knowing how to explain it, that every child announces the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, of God’s desire to make his dwelling in our hearts,” he added.

Looking at the Scriptures, Pope Francis said the Lord “wanted us to share in a pain that, because it is the antithesis of that joy, shocks us brutally.”

“A cry is heard in Ramah, sobbing and bitter weeping: Rachel is weeping for her children, and she refuses to be consoled for her children — they are no more!” the Holy Father read. 

The first cry, Pope Francis said, quoting an ancient author, “referred to children, the holy innocents, and their pain ceased with death, while the bitter weeping was the lament of mothers that is always renewed when they remember.”

He also referred to the flight to Egypt of the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph due to Herod’s order to kill newborns to explain “that such a great evil drives Jesus away from us, prevents him from entering our home, from having a place in our inn.”

“But we must not lose hope,” the pope reminded. “Evil does not have the last word; it is never definitive. Like the angel in St. Joseph’s dream, God announces to us that, after this desert, the Lord will return to take possession of his house.”

The pontiff also commented that the people who are part of Project Hope are like “that angel.”

“I truly thank you for it,” he said.

He also invited them to trust “in the firm hand of St. Joseph so that these sisters of ours can find Jesus in their desolation.”

“With him they will reach the warm and safe home of Nazareth, where they will experience inner silence and the peaceful joy of seeing themselves welcomed and forgiven in the bosom of the Holy Family,” he concluded.

Vatican City, Oct 31, 2024 / 10:55 am (CNA).

Pope Francis encouraged members of Italy’s Educational Commitment Movement of Catholic Action (MIEAC) on Thursday to not be afraid to propose high Christian ideals to young people in a secularized society.

“Christian education crosses unexplored terrain, marked by anthropological and cultural changes, on which we are still seeking answers in the light of the Word of God,” the Holy Father said to participants of MIEAC’s national congress at a private audience held in the Vatican.

MIEAC is an educational project connected to Italy’s Catholic Action that was established in 1990 with the aim of fostering the integral development of young people in all its dimensions: existential, spiritual, affective, cultural, social, and political.

During the Thursday audience, the pope praised MIEAC members for their dedication amid the “labyrinths of complexities” affecting human relationships in today’s society and encouraged them to “carry forward an idea and a practice of education that effectively puts the person at the center.”

“The educational service that defines your movement brings with it, today perhaps even more than in the past, the challenge of operating on a human and Christian level,” he said. “This is precisely the right perspective in which to continue the journey of your movement. Go forward!”

Looking to the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope, the Holy Father said it is necessary for teachers to sow hope in the world by paying “special attention to children, adolescents, [and] young people.”

“We must look at them with trust, with empathy, I would like to say with the gaze and heart of Jesus. They are the present and the future of the world and of the Church,” he shared.

“Ours is the task — entirely educational — to accompany them, support them, encourage them and, with testimony, to show them the good path that leads to being ‘fratelli tutti’ [all brothers].”

The Holy Father also insisted that the education of children is a task and process that needs the initiative and support of different people from church-related and secular institutions.

“It is important not to remain alone but to build and strengthen fruitful relationships with the various subjects of the educational process: families, teachers, social workers, managers and sports trainers, catechists, priests, religious men and women, without neglecting collaboration with public institutions,” the pope said.

The pope’s last message to MIEAC members was to “educators with a big heart” to follow the example of their founder, Venerable Giuseppe Lazzati, “a credible teacher and witness, a model of a Christian educator” who was foremost moved by love of God and others.

“Through educational processes we express our love for others, for those who are close to us or entrusted to us; and, at the same time, it is essential that education be founded, in its method and its aims, on love. Always educate with love!”

Vatican City, Oct 30, 2024 / 15:25 pm (CNA).

Theologians and others involved in the October gathering of the Synod on Synodality met this week to offer their expert opinions on the synodal process as it moves into the “reception” or implementation phase.

The academic congress — “From the Council to the Synod: Rereading a Church’s Journey, 60 Years on Since Lumen Gentium (1964–2024)” — was hosted by the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome from Oct. 28–30.

“We are still in this synodal process, and with the approval of the final document, in fact, the third phase of the synod opens, which is that of reception,” said Father Dario Vitali, a theology professor and theological coordinator at the Synod on Synodality assemblies.

Speaking during the conference’s opening Oct. 28, Vitali said: “It will be the Churches above all that will do the work [of implementation], but it also becomes important to have an event like this in which theological experts and canonists who participated in the synod sessions can offer their reflection after having served in the assembly, a reflection based on expertise.”

The congress, which immediately followed the monthlong gathering of the second session of the Synod on Synodality at the Vatican, featured many of the experts who presented at four during the synodal assembly.

Those included theologians Father Gilles Routhier, Father Carlos Galli, Cardinal-designate Archbishop Roberto Repole, Thomas Söding, and canonists Myriam Wijlens and Father José San José Prisco.

Synod leadership also participated in the three-day academic event, including the synod’s general secretary, Cardinal Mario Grech, and the synod’s special secretaries Jesuit Father Giacomo Costa and Father Riccardo Battochio.

“It is urgent to foster dialogue between pastors and those engaged in theological research,” Grech said in his opening remarks Oct. 28.

“We could say that for something that closes, there is something else that opens,” he continued. “The final document that is the mature fruit of the consensus reached is now returned to the holy people of God, because there is circularity between the universal Church and local Churches.” 

“The stage of celebration ends and the stage of reception begins,” he said.

On the second day of the conference, which was focused on the theme of synodality and the role of the bishop, French Canadian theologian Routhier highlighted how “bishops’ conferences are not simply a grouping of hierarchs,” that is, bishops, “but express the ‘communio ecclesiarum,’” the communion of Churches.

Wijlens said in her presentation that “with this synod, Pope Francis has invited us to enter into a process of reconfiguration of the active principles of the Church,” and “the people of God have entered into this new path,” which represents a “Church on the move where canonical norms must provide for the implementation of this path and not stifle it.”

The third day of the conference was titled “The Church and Her Institutions: A Reinterpretation from a Synodal Perspective.” 

Grech spoke at length about the connections between the Second Vatican Council and the Synod on Synodality and said he was joyful that Pope Francis chose , allowing it to participate “in the ordinary magisterium of the successor of Peter.”

“It seems to me that I can say that Vatican II has been the inspirational model, the certain horizon for the path accomplished until today, a sort of compass to orient the path of the Church, our path,” the synod leader said.

“It is not out of place,” he continued, “to speak of the synod as a moment of mature, or at least more mature, reception of the council.”

“It could be said that the final document re-proposes the ecclesiological doctrine of the council. In fact, one catches here an advance in line with the council but one that significantly advances the council’s doctrine,” Grech said.

“But the final document does not just take up the council: It rethinks it, translates it, embodies it in processes,” he added. “As in the case of the third part, devoted to the conversion of processes, here participation in decision-making processes is a matter that the council had not intended to touch.”

Vatican City, Oct 30, 2024 / 10:40 am (CNA).

Pope Francis addressed thousands of international pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday, urging them not to turn the sacrament of confirmation into their “last rites” as Catholics but to use it as “the beginning of an active participation in the Church.”

Continuing his catechetical series on the Holy Spirit and the Church, the Holy Father during his Wednesday general audience said confirmation is a “gift of God” and a “milestone” that should not mark a departure from the Church for Catholics.

“People say that it is the ‘sacrament of goodbye’ because once young people have done it they leave,” he said. “They come back for weddings. That’s what people say.”

The pope suggested that lay faithful “who have had a personal encounter with Christ and have had some experience of the Spirit” could reignite their own faith by helping other Catholics to better prepare for confirmation, which is the sacrament of the Holy Spirit “par excellence.”  

Reflecting on the accounts of the confirmation of the first Christians, recorded in the Acts of the Apostles and in St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, Pope Francis said it is God himself who anoints believers.

“He has put his seal upon us and given the Spirit in our hearts,” he told the crowds present in St. Peter’s Square. “The theme of the Holy Spirit as the royal seal with which Christ marks his sheep is at the basis of the doctrine of the indelible character conferred by this rite.”

“Confirmation is for all the faithful what Pentacost was for the entire Church. It strengthens the baptismal incorporation into Christ and the Church, and the royal consecration to the prophetic, royal, and priestly mission,” he added.

During the Wednesday audience, the Holy Father expressed his desire that Catholics will “remove the ashes of habit and disengagement” to become “bearers of the flame of the Spirit” in the upcoming 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope.

Drawing attention to the solemnity of All Saints’ Day, celebrated on Nov. 1, the pope reminded his listeners that those who have gone before, who now enjoy “heavenly glory” and are “by the Father’s side,” wish to also be in communion with us and to guide us in our journey toward heaven.

After greeting pilgrims belonging to different language groups — including Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish — and expressing his closeness with the young, sick, elderly, and newlyweds, the pope exhorted all people to continue to pray for peace in the world.

“We pray for peace. War is continuing to grow,” he said. “Let us think of the countries that are suffering so much: tormented Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, Myanmar, North Kivu [in Congo], and so many other countries that are suffering from war.”

“Peace is a gift of the Spirit and war is always a defeat. Nobody wins in war, everybody loses. Let’s pray for peace, brothers and sisters.”