Vatican News

Vatican City, Jul 26, 2024 / 17:26 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis and Athletica Vaticana, the official Holy See sports association, have invited all athletes participating in the 2024 Olympic Games to harness the “great social power of sport” to unite people and be witnesses of peace, particularly during these times of international tensions and conflict.  

Around 300,000 spectators welcomed thousands of athletes representing 206 countries at the opening ceremony of this year’s summer games in Paris today.

The ceremony to open the two-week international festival took place at 7:30 p.m. in Paris (1:30 p.m. ET). The Olympic Games, which take place between July 26 and Aug. 11 this year, are expected to draw approximately 800,000 tourists to France and an additional one billion viewers who wish to watch the sports events on TV or other digital channels. 

During his Sunday Angelus address on July 21, Pope Francis expressed his hope that this year’s Olympics will bring athletes and spectators together and “peacefully unite people from different cultures.”

“I hope that this event may be a beacon of the inclusive world we want to build and that athletes, with their sporting testimony, may be messengers of peace and authentic models for young people,” the Holy Father said.    

Over 10,000 athletes from around the world will compete in 32 different sports in this year’s summer games. This year’s Olympics will debut surfing, sport climbing, skateboarding, and also breakdancing.

The Paralympic Games will also take place in Paris this year from Aug. 28 - Sept. 8. Approximately 4,400 athletes will participate in 22 sports — including sitting volleyball and wheelchair basketball — in venues across the city such as at the Eiffel Tower, the Château de Versailles, and the Grand Palais. 

Athletica Vaticana sent an open letter addressed to Olympians and Paralympians yesterday on the vigil of the opening ceremony and encouraged all athletes to “win the medal of fraternity” this summer.  

“The Olympics and Paralympics can be strategies for peace and antidotes to war games,” reads the letter. “The Games can be opportunities for hope.” 

Prior to the Olympics opening ceremony, a Mass of Peace was celebrated on July 19 in France. Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris and Archbishop Emmanuel Gobilliard of Digne concelebrated the Mass which was attended by the president of the International Olympic Committee, athletes. and diplomats. 

Since the inception of the modern-day Olympics in 1896, Paris has twice been selected to host the summer games. This year marks 100 years since Paris first hosted the Olympics in 1924. 

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 25, 2024 / 18:30 pm (CNA).

On July 25, 1968, St. Paul VI published , an encyclical on the regulation of birth and the dangers involved in the use of artificial contraceptive methods and their imposition as state policy. At the time the encyclical was rejected by many even within the Catholic Church.

The document, published at the beginning of the sexual revolution, continues to draw mixed reactions, which is why it's necessary to take a closer look at five key points that allow us to better understand the encyclical, the context in which it was written, its prophetic message, and its validity even today. 

Various priests, theologians, and laypeople frequently claim the encyclical only belongs to the ordinary magisterium of a pope and that as such, its content could change with another pope who comes later. However, has been reaffirmed by the pontiffs who succeeded Paul VI.

St. John Paul II that “what is taught by the Church on contraception does not belong to a matter freely disputable between theologians. Teaching the opposite is equivalent to misleading the moral conscience of the spouses.”

Furthermore, that the Catholic doctrine on contraception belongs to the moral doctrine of the Church and that this has been proposed “with uninterrupted continuity” because it is “a truth that cannot be disputed.”

Therefore, the doctrine of an encyclical belongs to the ordinary magisterium, however, if it is exercised continuously and definitively, it is irreformable, even if it is not infallible.

Various notable Catholics have characterized the encyclical as “prophetic and still pertinent.”

In 1968, the discussion about the negative impact of artificial contraceptives was just in its infancy; however, the document not only meant a concrete response to the debate surrounding sexual ethics, “but it meant at the time, and still means, a refusal of the Church, clear and explicit, to bow to the proposals and demands of the sexual revolution,”

In 2018, the late archbishop of Warsaw, Henryk Hoser, noted that the voice of St. Paul VI in about contraceptives, as he “predicted that their application would open the easy way to marital infidelity and the general decrease in births.”

Furthermore, the archbishop stressed that the encyclical is always relevant because conjugal love, “physical or spiritual, must combine these two dimensions” and that it must always be a love “free of selfishness.”

Similarly, Spanish priest Javier “Patxi” Bronchalo stated in 2022 that about the increase in marital infidelity, moral degradation, the general loss of dignity of women, and ideological colonization through government policies.

According to at the Vatican Apostolic Archive, should have been originally published on May 23, 1968, but then St. Paul VI decided to publish it on July 25.

This measure was taken by the pope, despite the fact that the document was already printed in Latin under the title (Of Children to Be Born), because he considered that it was very dense in doctrine and that it was not pastorally adequate.

After some changes to the original document, Paul VI “took the entire pastoral section and added a series of very sensitive points that still reveal his imprint today.”

Some accuse St. Paul VI of having published the encyclical without consulting the bishops. However, reveals the opposite. During the 1967 Synod of Bishops, the pope asked all prelates to share with him their position on the issue.

Of the almost 200 bishops participating in the synod, only 26 responded in the period from Oct. 9, 1967, to May 31, 1968. Of this group, 19 expressed themselves in favor of contraceptives and only seven against them.

Of these seven, the best known and most important were the venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen and the then-archbishop of Krakow, Poland, Karol Wojtyla, who would become St. John Paul II, who always wanted to be remembered as “the pope of the family,” during the canonization of the Polish pope in 2014.

The then-secretary of state, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, said that “on the morning of July 25, 1968, Paul VI celebrated the Mass of the Holy Spirit, asked for light from on high and signed: He signed his most difficult signature, one of his most glorious signatures. He signed his own passion.”

, being rational about sex does not evoke an indiscriminate and complete autonomy of the intimate life of the couple nor the use of artificial means to control births but rather the exercise of the virtue of chastity.

“The acquired virtue of chastity penetrates with reasonableness the exercise of sexual life when the latter is legitimate,” the Jesuit priest wrote, citing St. Thomas Aquinas in the

“By encouraging periodic continence and the regulation of births without artificial control, Paul VI rightly exalts a humble and complete rationalization of the sexual sphere subjected to the knowledge of human reason and to the control of freedom helped by grace,” the priest pointed out.

“He does not appeal to instincts,” the Jesuit explained, “which are common to men and to other animals and which are deprived of reason, but he appeals to man’s freedom, through which man resembles pure spirits such as angels are.”

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

Pope Francis on Thursday appointed Father Kevin Kenney as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. 

The bishop-elect, born and raised in Minneapolis, currently serves as parish priest of St. Olaf Parish as well as administrator of Sts. Cyril and Methodius Parish within the archdiocese. 

In an interview with The Catholic Spirit, the official news service of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Kenney said he was only informed of the Holy Father’s desire to appoint him bishop late last month and is grateful to continue his work as a “missionary” of Jesus Christ.

“Every time I now pass a picture of Pope Francis, I thank him for the new and blessed adventure that is ahead,” the 64-year-old bishop-elect said.

“I thought to myself, ‘I began as a missionary and now I will end as a missionary, going into the world in a new way, to proclaim and live the good news of Jesus Christ.”

Kenney’s missionary spirit was forged when he moved to Chicago to join the Claretian Missionaries, a religious community of priests and brothers founded by St. Anthony Marie Claret. He served as a lay volunteer and volunteer director with the community in the 1980s.

It was during his years of service and spiritual formation with the Claretian Missionaries in Chicago that Kenney discerned his call to be a missionary in his home diocese. According to The Catholic Spirit he entered formation with the Claretians and studied at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

After five years in formation, he discerned that he was called to diocesan priesthood, entered the St. Paul Seminary, and was ordained a priest of the archdiocese in 1994. 

Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis said Pope Francis has chosen “such a fine pastor” and looks forward to working more closely with Kenney.

“I am grateful that the Holy Father has recognized in Bishop-elect Kenney the same exceptionally compassionate priestly heart that I have come to know in the nine years that I have been serving here [in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis],” Hebda said in a statement.

The archbishop added that Kenney, also known as “RevKev” in St. Olaf’s Parish, has vast experience and is popular with the Latino community. According to The Catholic Spirit, Kenney served as vicar for Latino Ministry in St. Paul and Minneapolis from 2010 to 2018.

This morning, Hebda introduced the new bishop-elect to the local faithful at the Archdiocesan Catholic Center in St. Paul. Kenney emphasized the importance of welcoming everyone at church, even the homeless.

He said that when he first arrived at St. Olaf, there were security guards at the church doors.

“I realized, as I was taken back by it, everyone is, especially the homeless, especially those who are suffering in one way or another in their life,” he said.

Kenney said that the homeless population had been “riled up,” but when the security guards were no longer there, he said, the tension immediately dropped.

“People need to be respected for who they are. A simple hello, a simple good morning, a simple smile,” he said. “As they came through the door, they left then everything outside to have a place where they could come to feel safe, to use the restroom, to get a drink of water, to get some clothes, food, whatever it is that we could offer, and to appreciate them and acknowledge them, and not just to brush them off and to pretend they weren’t there, but to be able to keep our doors open to welcome them.” 

Vatican City, Jul 24, 2024 / 17:15 pm (CNA).

The Vatican on July 24 approved the “spiritual experience” connected to the Sanctuary of Maccio located in Italy, making it the fifth public announcement of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) since the office for the discernment of “alleged supernatural phenomena” on May 17.

The DDF recognized the “action of the Holy Spirit” in the mystical experiences and spiritual writings of Italian father and music teacher Gioacchino Genovese, which highlight the centrality of the Holy Trinity as the “source of mercy.”

In 2000, Genovese reportedly had mystical experiences during times of prayer in which he perceived the love of the Holy Trinity through the merciful gaze of Jesus Christ. Initially keeping his intellection visions to himself, he later began to open up about his prayer life with others. Devotion among Catholics around his “intellectual visions” began to spread throughout the Diocese of Como.

“The Church is called to rediscover more and more in the gestures of Christ that infinite mercy of the triune God, who in the writings of Mr. Genovese is called by the name ‘Trinity Mercy,’” reads the letter signed by DDF prefect Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández.

“This is the center of all the messages because, ultimately, it is the center of revelation: ‘And the heart of revelation is this: God, trinity of love, one God, gift that gives himself in our humanity, in Jesus walks with us.’”

Fernández granted the sanctuary a “nulla osta,” meaning the spiritual experiences connected to the sanctuary “do not contain theological or moral elements contrary to the doctrine of the Church.”

In the letter addressed to Cardinal Oscar Cantoni, bishop of Como, Fernández also outlined further considerations regarding specific “expressions” contained within Genovese’s writings that have the potential to cause confusion or be “interpreted in a way contrary to the Catholic faith.”

Before the Genovese’s texts can be published and further disseminated, they must first be granted a “nihil obstat” (“no objection”) by the Holy See.

Since 2005, Genovese’s writings have inspired local Catholic faithful to pray at the Sanctuary of Maccio, located in the Diocese of Como, and contemplate the Church’s teachings on the Trinitarian God, whose mercy is made manifest through the incarnation, passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Citing the words and works of both St. John Paul II and Pope Francis on the theological and spiritual significance of mercy for the Church, the DDF stated: “Mr. Genovese’s spiritual experience is in line with the rediscovery of the centrality of the Most Holy Trinity for the faith and Christian life that occurred in the last century.

St. John Paul II, also known as the “mercy pope,” wrote his second encyclical letter titled (Rich in Mercy) in 1980. He also instituted Divine Mercy Sunday, celebrated on the second Sunday of Easter, and canonized St. Faustina Kowalska on the same day on April 30, 2000. 

In 2015, Pope Francis opened the to “point out the path that we [in the life of the Church] are called to follow in the future.” Inthe papal bull announcing the holy year, the Holy Father wrote: “With our eyes fixed on Jesus and his merciful gaze, we experience the love of the Most Holy Trinity. The mission Jesus received from the Father was that of revealing the mystery of divine love in its fullness.”

To date, the Vatican has made public declarations on five cases of supernatural phenomena that have taken place in different countries in Europe. Three of the five cases, which have taken place in Italy — including the shrine dedicated to in a village in Calabria — have been given the seal of approval by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Vatican City, Jul 23, 2024 / 13:23 pm (CNA).

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin met with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday at the end of a diplomatic visit to the country.

Zelenskyy wrote in a post on X that he had “a meaningful meeting” with Parolin and is “grateful for [the] cardinal’s support of our country and people.”

Earlier the same day, Parolin toured the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv and met some of its young patients.

The country’s largest pediatric hospital partially reopened early last week, one week after it was seriously damaged on July 9.

Russia has denied responsibility for the attack, which reportedly injured dozens of children receiving treatment at the hospital.

According to Zelenskyy, he and Parolin mainly discussed the decisions of the international summit on peace in Ukraine held in Switzerland in June and the Vatican’s role in facilitating peace. 

Zelenskyy also said they spoke about Russia’s ongoing aerial attacks and the humanitarian situation in the country as well as the outcomes of the president’s meeting with Pope Francis during the G7 in Italy last month.

The Secretariat of State said in a post on X that Parolin, in his meeting with Zelenskyy, “reiterated the pope’s closeness and commitment to finding a just and lasting peace.”

Parolin also met with Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, and the president of the Parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, on Monday.

Tuesday marked the last full day of Parolin’s . It was the diplomat’s first visit to the country since the outbreak of war with Russia in 2022.

He also celebrated Mass for Latin-rite Ukrainian Catholics at the Marian shrine of Berdychiv on Sunday, traveled to the severely-damaged port city of Odesa, and met with Catholic and Orthodox leaders, including Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Vatican City, Jul 22, 2024 / 10:48 am (CNA).

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin is in Ukraine this week for what is the diplomat’s first visit to the country since the start of the Russian invasion in 2022.

In the first half of his July 19–24 visit, Parolin stopped briefly in Lviv before traveling to Odesa, a southern port city, and to the northern city of Berdychiv, where he celebrated a Mass for the conclusion of a pilgrimage of Latin-rite Ukrainian Catholics.

The afternoon of July 21, the secretary of state met with Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, at the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Kyiv. 

The rest of the trip will include meetings with other religious and civil authorities, including Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“The message I brought from the pope is one of closeness,” Parolin said, according to Vatican News. The cardinal recalled Pope Francis’ many references to a “martyred Ukraine.”

“From the very beginning, the pope has manifested a very great closeness, a very great participation in the pain and suffering of this people,” Parolin said, adding that he comes to the war-torn country to bring Pope Francis’ closeness “in person.” 

The pontiff, he said, “shares the pain but above all would like to be able to help open” paths for a solution to the war.

In Odesa, one of Ukraine’s worst-hit cities since the start of the war, Parolin visited the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Cathedral, where he met with lay Catholics and local clergy as well as representatives of the government and of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

According to Vatican News, the cardinal said he was bringing “the closeness, the presence, and the blessing of the Holy Father Francis,” who is “following your situation with so much attention, with so much worry and so much pain.”

“As Christians, we should not lose hope,” including the hope that “by the grace of the Lord, who is able to touch even the hardest of hearts … a way to a just peace can be found,” Parolin said.

In Odesa, the secretary of state also visited the Greek-Catholic Parish of St. Michael and the Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration, which was damaged in a Russian missile attack last year.

On Sunday, July 21, Parolin celebrated Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Berdychiv. The Mass marked the conclusion of a pilgrimage by Latin-rite Catholics of the Diocese of Lviv.

The intention of the Mass was for an immediate end to the ongoing war in Ukraine, Parolin told Vatican News.

In his homily at Mass, he encouraged Ukrainian Catholics to “never lose trust and hope in God, especially today, when it seems that evil has the upper hand, when the horrors of war and the pain of the many victims and the massive destruction undermine faith in divine goodness, when our arms fall off and we no longer even have strength to pray.”

Parolin’s homily was delivered in Ukrainian by Lviv Auxiliary Bishop Edward Kawa, Vatican News reported.

The secretary of state’s homily concluded with a prayer to the Virgin Mary for a “peaceful and sure future.”

“Oh Blessed Mother, grant that children and young people may have a peaceful and sure future, that families may be places of love, that the elderly and the sick may receive comfort and relief in their suffering, that those defending their homeland may be protected from the attacks of evil, that prisoners of war may return to embrace their loved ones, and that the victims may be welcomed into the kingdom of heaven,” he prayed.

Vatican City, Jul 21, 2024 / 10:06 am (CNA).

Pope Francis will spend four days at the end of September in the small European countries of Luxembourg and Belgium, where he will greet royal leaders, prime ministers, professors and students, and Catholics in some of the countries’ historic palaces, cathedrals, and universities.

The pontiff will make a one-day stop in Luxembourg on Sept. 26 before visiting three cities in Belgium to mark the 600th anniversary of the Catholic universities of Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve from Sept. 26–29.

The European visit will take place just under two weeks after Francis lands back in Rome at the end of the most ambitious journey of his pontificate: a 12-day trip to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Singapore.

The full schedule of Pope Francis’ visit to the two constitutional monarchies of Luxembourg and Belgium is below.

The first day of Pope Francis’ trip will be dedicated to visiting Luxembourg, a small landlocked country in Western Europe with an estimated population of 672,000 people.

Luxembourg is the seat of several institutions of the European Union, including the Court of Justice of the European Union, the highest judicial authority.

After his arrival, Francis will visit the grand duke of Luxembourg, Henri, at his official residence, the Grand Ducal Palace. Henri’s wife, Grand Duchess María Teresa, is one of only a few royal women with a papal privilege allowing her to wear white when meeting the pope.

The pontiff will then meet with the prime minister of the grand duchy before addressing members of the government, civil society, and the diplomatic corps at a Luxembourg administrative building, Cercle Cité.

Luxembourg has just one ecclesiastical territory, the Archdiocese of Luxembourg, which is led by Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the relator-general of the Catholic Church’s present Synod on Synodality.

In 2021, the archdiocese was estimated to have almost 457,000 Catholics, which is 73% of the population.

After lunch on Sept. 26, Francis will hold an audience with the Luxembourg Catholic community in the Gothic 17th-century Notre-Dame Cathedral before taking a 55-minute flight to the neighboring country of Belgium.

The Royal Castle of Laeken in Brussels, built in the late 1700s, is the residential palace of the king and queen of Belgium. Since 1999, it has been the home of King Philippe and Queen Mathilde and their family.

Francis will meet King Philippe at the castle on the morning of Sept. 27. Philippe’s wife, Mathilde, as a Catholic queen, also has the “privilège du blanc” when meeting the pope.

The pope’s brief meeting with Belgium’s royal leader will be followed by appointments with the country’s prime minister and other governmental authorities.

The day’s schedule will close with a papal address to professors at KU Leuven, a Catholic research university, to mark the 600th anniversary of its founding. At KU Leuven, classes are mainly taught in Dutch and some English.

On his second full day in Belgium, Pope Francis will meet with clergy members and religious brothers and sisters in the Koekelberg National Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Brussels.

After lunch, he will make the just under one-hour drive to visit Louvain-la-Neuve, a university city about 18 miles southeast of the capital city.

The town hosts the French-language Catholic University of Leuven, which split from KU Leuven in the late 1960s.

Pope Francis will spend the afternoon meeting with university students in Louvain-la-Nueve before holding a private audience with Jesuits at St. Michel College back in Brussels.

On his final day in the Low Countries on Sept. 29, the pontiff will celebrate Sunday Mass in King Baudouin Stadium before departing shortly before 1 p.m. local time for Rome.

Vatican City, Jul 21, 2024 / 07:30 am (CNA).

Do not be consumed by “the anxiety of doing” but spend time in rest and silent prayer to receive God’s grace, Pope Francis said on Sunday.

The pontiff told Catholics, especially those in ministry, to beware of “the dictatorship of doing” during his weekly reflection and Angelus on July 21.

The Angelus is a Marian prayer traditionally recited at three different hours throughout the day: at 6 a.m., noon, and 6 p.m.

“It is only possible to have a compassionate gaze, which knows how to respond to the needs of others, if our heart is not consumed by the anxiety of doing, if we know how to stop and how to receive the grace of God in the silence of adoration,” Pope Francis said on a hot and humid day during the peak of summer in Rome.

Addressing the large crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square, Francis said we are often “held prisoner by haste.” He called it an important warning, especially for those in engaged in ministry and pastoral service in the Church.

“Am I able to stop during my days? Am I capable of taking a moment to be with myself and with the Lord, or am I always in a hurry for things to do?” he said from a window of the Apostolic Palace.

He added that sometimes families are forced to live a frenetic pace; for example, when a father has to work from dawn until dusk to put food on the table. But this is a social injustice, he said, and we should help families in this situation.

The pope’s brief remarks focused on the day’s Gospel passage, which demonstrates how Jesus is able to combine both rest and compassion for others.

In the Gospel, Jesus invites his apostles to “come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while,” but when they get out of the boat, they find the crowd already waiting for them.

Jesus’ “heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things,” the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 6, says.

“These may seem like two incompatible things — resting and being compassionate — but they actually go together,” Pope Francis underlined.

Jesus is concerned for his disciples’ tiredness, the pontiff said, because he is aware of the danger of our ministries and lives falling victim to an over concern with “things to do and with results.”

“We become agitated and lose sight of what is essential,” he emphasized.

Francis also explained that the rest proposed by Jesus is not “an escape from the world, a retreat into a merely personal well-being,” but a rest that helps us to have more compassion for others.

“Only if we learn how to rest can we have compassion,” he said.

After leading the Angelus, the pope spoke about the Summer Olympic Games, set to start in Paris on July 26, and the Paralympics, which will follow in August.

Sports, he said, have “a great social force, capable of peacefully uniting people of different cultures.”

“I hope that this event can be a sign of the inclusive world we want to build and that the athletes, with their sporting testimony, will be messengers of peace and good role models for young people,” he added.

Francis also recalled the tradition from ancient Greece of the “Olympic Truce,” noting that such an initiative would be an opportunity to “demonstrate a sincere desire for peace.”

Vatican City, Jul 18, 2024 / 12:15 pm (CNA).

The Vatican has granted a plenary indulgence to anyone who visits a sick, lonely, or disabled elderly person on the fourth annual World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly on July 28.

Those who are grandparents or elderly themselves can also receive a plenary indulgence, as well as anyone who participates in religious functions connected to the celebration, as long as the usual conditions are fulfilled.

The usual conditions to obtain a plenary indulgence are to be detached from all sin, to receive sacramental confession and holy Communion, and to pray for the pope’s intentions.

An indulgence is a grace granted by the Catholic Church through the merits of Jesus Christ to remove the temporal punishment due to sin. It applies to sins already forgiven and cleanses the soul as if just baptized.

Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, the head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, sent a decree July 18 granting the plenary indulgences.

A person who cannot leave his or her home due to sickness, infirmity, or another serious reason can also obtain the plenary indulgence if they “unite themselves spiritually to the sacred functions” of the day, “offering to the merciful God the prayers, pains, or sufferings of their lives, especially during the various celebrations which will be broadcast through the media,” De Donatis decreed.

The major penitentiary also asked priests to make themselves available to hear confessions “in a ready and generous spirit” so that Catholics may more easily have “the opportunity to attain divine grace through the power of the keys of the Church.”

The World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly, initiated by Pope Francis in 2021, is held on the fourth Sunday of July, which falls near the July 26 feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne, the grandparents of Jesus.

In 2024, the day will be celebrated on July 28 with the theme: “Do Not Cast Me Off in My Old Age” — taken from .

The Vatican , saying it was Pope Francis’ desire “to call attention to the fact that, sadly, loneliness is the bitter lot in life of many elderly people, so often the victims of the throwaway culture.”

In 2023, Pope Francis marked the day with , affirming in his homily that old age is a “blessed time.”

“How much we need a new bond between young and old,” the pope said on July 23 last year, “so that the sap of those who have a long experience of life behind them will nourish the shoots of hope of those who are growing. In this fruitful exchange we can learn the beauty of life, build a fraternal society, and in the Church, be enabled to encounter one another and dialogue between tradition and the newness of the Spirit.” 

In order to obtain a plenary indulgence, the following conditions must be fulfilled:

1. Detachment from all sin, even venial.

2. Sacramental confession, holy Communion, and prayer for the intentions of the pope. These three conditions can be fulfilled a few days before or after performing the works to gain the indulgence, but it is appropriate that Communion and the prayer take place on the same day that the work is completed.

A single sacramental confession is sufficient for several plenary indulgences, but frequent sacramental confession is encouraged in order to obtain the grace of deeper conversion and purity of heart.

For each plenary indulgence that is sought, however, a separate holy Communion and a separate prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father are required.

The prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father is left up to the choice of the individual, but an Our Father and Hail Mary are suggested.

Vatican City, Jul 18, 2024 / 11:45 am (CNA).

Pope Francis visited the kids participating in the Vatican’s annual summer camp on Thursday morning, answering their questions and releasing biodegradable balloons into the sky.

The day camp for children of Vatican employees is in its fourth year. It is taking place June 17–July 26 inside Vatican City in a newly-built area with sports facilities and a swimming pool dedicated to St. Joseph.

According to the Holy See Press Office, Pope Francis met both the kids and counselors of “Youth Summer at the Vatican” on July 18.

The pope answered some of the questions and comments of the children and spoke about the importance of having good family relationships, including with grandparents, the Vatican said, adding that Francis also urged the kids to work for peace, because promoting peace “is the most beautiful thing in life.”

The pontiff and camp attendees then said a prayer together before launching colorful, biodegradable balloons into the air. The Vatican said the message, “You, dear boy, dear girl, are precious in God’s eyes,” was stamped on the balloons “with the hope that the message will reach as many people as possible.”

Earlier in the morning, Pope Francis had met the camp’s benefactors at his Santa Marta residence.

The camp is organized around the 2024 theme of “Knights Errant,” guided by an interpretation of the story of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza from the Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. 

The camp’s activities include prayer, team sports, swimming and water games, dancing, and creative and educational workshops for ages 5–13.

Started in 2020, the camp is an initiative of the Vatican Governorate in response to the pope’s wish to welcome children to the Vatican in the style of St. John Bosco’s oratories.

Vatican City, Jul 18, 2024 / 10:18 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Thursday added two new vice directors to the senior management of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication.

Massimiliano Menichetti, 53, is a 20-year veteran of Vatican News, where he has served in a number of leadership roles, including deputy editor-in-chief, manager of the multimedia publishing center, and coordinating chief of Vatican Radio-Vatican News. He has also been a journalism lecturer at Italian universities and co-authored a book in 2017 on the Vatican trial known as “Vatileaks 2.”

Menichetti joins two other vice directors in the editorial department, working under director Andrea Tornielli, who joined the Vatican communications team in 2018 after coordinating the “Vatican Insider” webpage for the Italian newspaper La Stampa.

Former Italian TV director Francesco Valle, 52, has been named vice director of the general affairs office of the dicastery. He started working for Vatican communications in 2023 as manager for commercial activities.

Valle will work under Paolo Nusiner, who has led the general affairs office of the Dicastery for Communication since 2015. 

Nusiner, who was formerly president of the Italian Catholic daily Avvenire for 18 years, is also president of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, with campuses in cities throughout Italy, and president of the Tiber Island-Gemelli Island Hospital in Rome.

has been led since 2018 by Paolo Ruffini, the first layman to be named prefect of a department of the Roman Curia. Father Lucio Adrián Ruiz is the dicastery’s secretary.

Others include Andrea Monda, director of the Vatican’s long-running newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, and Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office.

Nataša Govekar, a theologian from Slovenia, heads the communication dicastery’s theological-pastoral department.

Govekar is also a member of the directorial team of the Centro Aletti, an art and theological center in Rome founded by the disgraced Father Marko Rupnik.

Also on Thursday, the Vatican’s publishing house signed an agreement with a Catholic university press in Rome to help with the editorial production of some of its publications.

The Libreria Editrice Vaticana (LEV) will assist the Urbaniana University Press with “the editorial management of the scientific production” of the university’s historic publishing service, according to a July 18 press release.

Part of the Pontifical Urbaniana University, the Urbaniana University Press is the successor to a historic publishing house from the 17th century — the Propaganda Fide Polyglot Printing House.

Propaganda Fide is the historic name of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization, which is focused on missionary work and assisting missionary territories in the Church.

Four years after the then-sacred congregation was founded in 1622, Pope Urban VIII created the “Polyglot Printing Office of Propaganda Fide” for the publication of Catholic texts in diverse, non-Latin languages, according to Agenzia Fides.

According to the missionary-focused news agency, which is under the Dicastery for Evangelization, the first volume printed by the Polyglot Printing House “was probably a Greek version of the ‘Guía de Pecadores’ by the Dominican Luigi da Granada, written in 1588."

This work “was followed by works on grammar, law, controversies, and spirituality, all aimed at serving the missionaries in the East,” Agenzia Fides reported.

“With publications in multiple languages, the Polyglot Printing House laid the foundations for intercultural communication and an unprecedented dissemination of the Christian message and knowledge,” according to a press statement from the Dicastery for Communication and the Urbaniana University Press.

“This mission is more relevant today than ever in an increasingly interconnected world,” the statement continues, noting the press’ present-day commitment to increasing cultural and scientific publications in languages such as Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Konkani.

According to the press release, the agreement of the two presses to join editorial forces on some publications fulfills the instructions in article 183 of Pope Francis’ 2022 apostolic constitution , to unify “the Holy See’s activities in the area of communication so that the entire system consistently responds to the needs of the Church’s evangelizing mission.”

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 16, 2024 / 16:50 pm (CNA).

Father Marko Ivan Rupnik is a former Jesuit priest whose artwork decorates Catholic churches, chapels, and shrines around the world, including the Redemptoris Mater chapel in the Vatican and the major seminary of Rome. He is accused of having committed serious sexual, spiritual, and psychological abuse of women for decades and his case is currently being investigated by the Vatican.

Rupnik, 69, was born in 1954 in Zadlog, Slovenia. During his youth he studied at the School of Fine Arts in Rome and at the Pontifical Gregorian University, where he earned a doctorate with a thesis on the theological significance of modern art in the light of Russian theology.

In the 1980s in his native country with the nun Ivanka Hosta he founded the Loyola Community, where he allegedly abused nuns.

He is also the founder of the Centro Aletti spiritual art workshop in Rome, from where many of the accusations of abuse have also come.

According to released by the Society of Jesus, the first accusations against Rupnik were received in October 2018 for giving absolution in confession to an accomplice in a sin against the Sixth Commandment.

In May of the following year, the investigation led by the Society of Jesus considered the accusations credible and a file was sent to the Congregation — now the Dicastery — for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), which launched a criminal administrative process.

In May 2020, the Vatican confirmed the facts and declared Rupnik to be in a state of “latae sententiae” (automatic) excommunication. The excommunication lasted only two weeks, as it was lifted by a CDF decree that same month.

In June 2021, new accusations came in regarding Rupnik and some members of the Loyola Community, so the Society of Jesus established a preliminary investigation and imposed restrictions on the priest.

The CDF stated in October 2022 that the statute of limitations had expired and that no trial could proceed despite the Jesuits urging the Vatican to begin criminal proceedings.

However, in December 2022, the case was in the news again after the appearance of new alleged victims of Rupnik in Rome, this time related to the Aletti Center.

In his capacity as Vatican commissioner for the Loyola Community, , the now assistant for consecrated life of the Holy Father, Bishop Daniele Libanori, confirmed the veracity of the abuse against the nuns of which Rupnik is accused.

The Society of Jesus in June 2023, and the Diocese of Koper, Slovenia, in August 2023.

In October 2023, Pope Francis on the case and ordered that the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith begin a judicial process, after detecting “serious problems in the way the case was handled.”

In February, of Rupnik made their first public appearance and shared their heartrending testimony at a press conference in Rome.

Although expelled from the Jesuits, Rupnik continues to appear as a Jesuit and Vatican consultant

Rupnik has created numerous religious works of art around the world and is especially known for his easily recognizable mosaics.

In 1996, St. John Paul II entrusted him with the renovation of the mosaic in the Redemptoris Mater chapel in the apostolic palace in the Vatican.

Three years later, the “Pilgrim Pope” presided over the rite of dedication of the chapel, where Rupnik and his team had restored the Wall of the Incarnation, the Wall of the Ascension and Pentecost, and the Wall of the Parousia.

In February 2011, Rupnik’s Aletti Center renovated the main chapel inside the building of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference in Madrid.

Also in the Spanish capital, the Slovenian priest decorated the main sacristy, the chapter house, and the Blessed Sacrament chapel in the Almudena Cathedral.

In addition, the priest artist did the art for the main altar wall of the shrine to the Holy Trinity in Fátima, Portugal, located in front of the site of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary, and his work is also found at the Lourdes shrine in France.

In Italy, Rupnik designed the ramp and crypt of the lower Church of St. Pio of Pietrelcina, in San Giovanni Rotondo, where thousands of Catholic faithful come to venerate Padre Pio.

He also decorated the chapel of the Pontifical Major Roman Seminary in Italy with his famous mosaics; the Manresa Cave shrine in Spain, where the artist painted 90 faces of biblical figures; the Church of Our Lady of the Southern Cross in Australia; ; and the Knights of Columbus’ Holy Family Chapel in New Haven, Connecticut.

Rupnik was the author of the logo of the Jubilee of Mercy convened by Pope Francis on Dec. 8, 2015, and was also commissioned to create the official image for the 10th World Meeting of Families that took place in Rome from June 22–26, 2022.

Earlier this month, the bishop of Lourdes, France, Jean-Marc Micas, stated that the Rupnik mosaics should be removed, but he refrained from making a final decision on their fate

Cardinal Seán O'Malley, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and a member of the C9 council of cardinals that advises Pope Francis, that “pastoral prudence would prevent displaying artwork in a way that could imply either exoneration or a subtle defense” of those of accused of abuse. 

The cardinal’s letter appeared a week after the prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication, Paolo Ruffini, defended the use of his art.

Ruffini noted that there is no official verdict yet and that “anticipating a decision is something that, in our opinion, is not good.” Furthermore, he asserted that “removing, erasing, destroying art has never been a good choice.”

At the same time, the lawyer for the alleged victims, Laura Sgrò, called for the removal of the mosaics in a letter written on behalf of five complainants and addressed to the bishops.

The Knights of Columbus announced July 10 that located in the two chapels of the National Shrine of St. John Paul II in Washington, D.C., and in the chapel in the Knights’ headquarters in New Haven, Connecticut.

Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly told EWTN News that his work will be covered at least until the Vatican’s formal investigation is completed.

Rome Newsroom, Jul 16, 2024 / 11:24 am (CNA).

The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has accepted the decree of a bishop approving the spiritual activities of a shrine at the site of alleged Marian apparition “Our Lady of the Rock” in southern Italy.

It is the DDF’s fourth public pronouncement related to alleged apparitions since for the discernment of “alleged supernatural phenomena” in May. The new regulations stated the local bishop after investigating and judging alleged apparitions and connected devotions.

In a published Tuesday, the DDF said it had taken note of Bishop Francesco Oliva’s “positive report on the spiritual good that is taking place” at the Shrine of the Madonna dello Scoglio (“Our Lady of the Rock”) in the southern Italian diocese of Locri-Gerace and confirmed the bishop’s declaration that nothing prevents Catholics from visiting and participating in its devotions and liturgies.

The dicastery stressed that while it affirmed the bishop’s recognition of the spiritual experience at the shrine, it should be in no way construed as a judgment of the supernatural quality of the alleged apparitions of “Our Lady of the Rock.”

The letter is signed by DDF prefect Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández and was approved by Pope Francis in a July 5 audience.

The Marian shrine in Santa Domenica, a tiny village in the Italian region of Calabria, was built around a boulder, the site of Mary’s alleged appearances to 18-year-old Cosimo Fragomeni from May 11–14, 1968, as he was returning home from working in the fields.

Officially constructed in 2016, the sanctuary has come to be known locally as “the little Lourdes of Calabria” and has seen an ever-growing number of pilgrims and visitors, many of whom come seeking physical healing.

Fragomeni is still living and has recounted his alleged mystical experiences in approximately 30 letters. He receives visitors for brief personal meetings twice a week.

The DDF instructed the local bishop, who has jurisdiction over the shrine, to be clear in his decree that approval of the spiritual activity of the shrine does “not imply any judgment — either positive or negative — on the lives of the persons involved in this case” and any further messages from the seer should be made public only with his approval.

The Vatican’s doctrinal office confirmed the “nihil obstat” judgment of the diocesan bishop given that, as he informed them, “no critical or risky elements have emerged, much less problems of obvious gravity” at the alleged Marian apparition site, but “instead, there are signs of grace and spiritual conversion.”

According to the May 17 norms, a “nihil obstat” judgment means: “Without expressing any certainty about the supernatural authenticity of the phenomenon itself, many signs of the action of the Holy Spirit are acknowledged ‘in the midst’ of a given spiritual experience, and no aspects that are particularly critical or risky have been detected, at least so far.”

In its letter, the DDF quoted Oliva’s letter to the dicastery, which explained that “the fruits of Christian life in those who frequent the Rock [i.e., the shrine] are evident, such as the existence of the spirit of prayer, conversions, some vocations to the priesthood and religious life, testimonies of charity, as well as a healthy devotion and other spiritual fruits.”

“In the secularized world in which we live, in which so many spend their lives without any reference to transcendence, the pilgrims who approach the Shrine of the Rock are a powerful sign of faith,” the DDF’s letter said.

“Their presence before the Virgin, who for them becomes a clear expression of the Lord’s mercy, is a way of acknowledging their own inadequacy to carry out the labors of life and their ardent need and desire for God,” it continued. 

“In such a truly precious context of faith, a renewed proclamation of the kerygma can continue to enlighten and enrich this experience of the Spirit.”

CNA Newsroom, Jul 16, 2024 / 09:35 am (CNA).

Archbishop Georg Gänswein, former personal secretary to Pope Benedict XVI, has spoken about his new appointment as apostolic nuncio to Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, describing it as “a new possibility” to carry out his apostolate “in a completely different area.”

In an interview on the sidelines of the “Benedict XVI Forum” in Altötting, Bavaria, the prelate said he was approaching the role “with confidence, with trust in God, but also with great joy.”

“I see the appointment as a new opportunity,” Gänswein, who will turn 68 on July 30, told EWTN. “I gladly accept it, even if the dear God now wants me to be there, which I hadn’t thought of at all.”

The archbishop acknowledged that he had never worked in a nunciature before and did not come from the so-called “diplomatic career” track. However, he noted that in his roles as private secretary and prefect of the Papal Household, he had “a lot of contact with the diplomatic world.”

Regarding potential challenges in his new post, Gänswein said: “The Baltic countries are of course very important geopolitically, also for Europe. I don’t have any concrete ideas yet where my priorities will be. That will emerge, and I’m looking forward to it.”

The Baltic states have a rich, with Lithuania for its strong Catholic identity. However, the region faces significant geopolitical challenges, especially in light of Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.

Speaking to EWTN, Gänswein emphasized a spiritual approach when asked how he was preparing for the assignment: “I take it all into prayer and I’m already trying to read a little about the countries, to inquire. Everything else, I think, will become apparent.”

The archbishop acknowledged the geopolitical situation in the region, particularly its proximity to the ongoing war in Ukraine. NATO has significantly, sending thousands of soldiers from Germany and other nations in response to Russia’s heightened threat — despite on European defense.

While admitting he had no personal experience of the situation, the German prelate said: “If you say that’s where the front is, and our loving God wants me there, then I’ll gladly go there. If it’s the front, it’s the front. In any case, it’s a place where Our Lord will also be active.”

The interview took place at the first-ever “Benedict XVI Forum” in Altötting, the famous Marian pilgrimage site in Bavaria. The event, which took place from July 10–15 and was visited by Cardinal Kurt Koch and several experts, explored the Apostles’ Creed using Joseph Ratzinger’s 1968 bestseller “Introduction to Christianity,” reported, CNA’s German-language news partner.

Gänswein spoke to EWTN of his deep connection to the place, recalling Benedict XVI’s visit there as pope in 2006.

“When I arrived here yesterday, I had the impression it was only the day before yesterday,” he said. “It was also beautiful weather, but it was so full of emotions, so full of the spirit that is palpable here, the spirit of the Mother of God. It’s like flipping a switch.”

The diplomatic posting marks a new chapter for Gänswein, following a period of uncertainty after Benedict XVI’s death. In June 2023, he was ordered to without a new assignment, which sparked much speculation about his future role in the Church. 

Reflecting on his years of service to Benedict XVI on the weekend, Gänswein described it as “a matter of conscience” to pass on the late pope’s legacy. 

“Because that is a great gift for Catholics, the Church, and people,” he said. “And to cultivate this gift is one of my great inner tasks, which I am happy to continue to do — and I hope — for a long time to come.”

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

The Vatican has said that two women have been hired for the specialized maintenance crew of St. Peter’s Basilica for the first time in its 500-year history.

While women have worked for the Fabbrica di San Pietro — the department that oversees maintenance, restoration, and repairs of the Vatican’s papal basilica — before, it is the first time women are officially part of the “Sanpietrini” maintenance staff, according to Vatican News.

Two teams of Sanpietrini “work simultaneously on a daily basis to fulfill their principal tasks of reception, stewardship, cleaning, and maintenance of the Vatican basilica and its facilities respectively,” the basilica’s website .

The two Italian women, 21 and 26 years of age, studied masonry and decorative and ornamental plastering at the basilica’s newly relaunched School of Fine Arts and Traditional Trades.

The Vatican basilica’s art and trades school started in 2022 to train up new laborers in artisanal artistic skills. The courses and room and board are offered to students without cost.

Father Enzo Fortunato, communications director for St. Peter’s Basilica, said the presence of women in the Fabbrica is not entirely new — there were women mosaic artists who worked in the Vatican’s mosaic studio for many years — but their entrance in the Sanpietrini corps is a novelty.

According to Vatican News, in the 1500s, some women and orphans who inherited family businesses from their deceased husbands or fathers were also employed by the Fabbrica under the same conditions as the deceased, male breadwinner.

In the past 500 years, other women in the artistic trades were also hired by the Fabbrica, which was founded with the laying of the foundation stone of St. Peter’s Basilica on April 18, 1506. 

The maintenance crew takes its name from “sanpietrini,” also spelled “sampietrini,” the Italian name for the small, square stones that pave St. Peter’s Square and other historic streets in the center of Rome. 

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 15, 2024 / 11:49 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has written the preface to the book “Women and Ministries in the Synodal Church,” authored by three theologians and two cardinals who participated in C9, this past February at the Vatican.

The theologians, , are Salesian Sister Linda Pocher, professor of Christology and Mariology at the Auxilium in Rome, who also wrote the book’s introduction; Jo Bailey Wells, a female Anglican bishop and undersecretary-general of the Anglican Communion; and Giuliva Di Berardino, consecrated woman of the Ordo Virginum of the Diocese of Verona in Italy, liturgist, teacher, and organizer of spirituality courses and spiritual exercises.

The cardinals are Jean-Claude Hollerich, archbishop of Luxembourg and relator general of the Synod on Synodality, ; and Seán Patrick O’Malley, archbishop of Boston and president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

The preface was , the Vatican newspaper.

In the text, the Holy Father laments that “the drama of abuse has forced us to open our eyes to the plague of clericalism, which does not only concern ordained ministers but also a distorted way of exercising power within the Church into which everyone can fall: even laypeople, even women.”

The pontiff notes that “a certain suffering of ecclesial communities regarding the way in which the ministry is understood and lived is not a new reality.”

Pope Francis then states: “Listening to them without judgment and without prejudice, we realize that in many places and in many situations they suffer precisely because of the lack of recognition of what they are and what they do and also of what they could do and be if only they had the space and the opportunity.”

“The women who suffer the most are often the closest, the most available, prepared and ready to serve God and his kingdom,” he noted.

“Reality, however, is always greater than the idea,” the pope states, “and when our theology falls into the trap of clear and distinct ideas it inevitably transforms into a procrustean bed (arbitrary standard), which sacrifices reality, or part of it, on the altar of the idea.”

The issue of women in the Church appears in the (working document) for the second phase of the Synod on Synodality, which will take place in October at the Vatican.

The text highlights “the need to give fuller recognition” to the charisms and vocations of women who “by virtue of baptism are in a condition of full equality, receive the same outpouring of gifts of the Spirit and are called to the service of the mission of Christ.”

In an interview with EWTN News, Salesian Sister Laura Pocher pointed out that “at this moment the debate on this issue [the female diaconate] is very hot and various scientific publications are appearing from the theological point of view that address this topic and the positions are very diverse.”

“There are many positions on this and the pope has also expressed himself in an interview saying that he does not plan to ordain women,” she added.

In May, the Holy Father gave an interview to CBS News anchor Norah O’Donnell, who asked him if a Catholic girl could ever become a deacon and member of the clergy.

“However, the possibilities are fundamentally three,” Pocher said. “The first is to do nothing and continue as we are. Some believe that this is the best option, because they know that in the first centuries there were women deacons, but with the sources we have it is not possible to reconstruct exactly what this diaconate consisted of.”

The second possibility mentioned by the Salesian theologian is “a form of diaconate without ordination, because it is important from an institutional point of view to recognize the service of women in the Church and thus give a form of ministries at the established age [for ordination].” 

“The third possibility, the most radical, is to also give women the possibility of being ordained deacons. Just as we have deacons, married men who are not priests,” she said.

Then, she continued, “an ordained diaconate which should not because of this be a first step toward priestly ordination, but which would allow for a recognized service within the Church, for example in the guidance of communities.”

When asked if the issue was discussed , Pocher said yes, although “it is not a possibility on the synod agenda and the pope is not very favorable, because this issue of the ordination of women is a bit like the elephant in the room.”

In the theologian’s opinion, “not everyone thinks about it but often there is no courage to speak because it is a very conflictive issue and it seemed to us that in the spirit with which the pope guides these meetings of the council [C9] it was important to put the difficult things on the table.”

Although the topic of the female diaconate does not appear in , Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the Synod on Synodality, said in that Pope Francis has asked the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) to study women’s participation and leadership in the Catholic Church, including the possibility of women deacons, to publish a document on the subject.

Prior to this assignment for the DDF, Pope Francis had created two commissions to study deaconesses in the Catholic Church: that was closed without reaching a consensus, and after the majority of participants in the Amazon Synod

In , Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation following the 2019 synod, the pope encouraged women to participate in the Church but not in the ordained ministries of the diaconate or priesthood.

Vatican City, Jul 14, 2024 / 09:30 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Sunday urged Christians to be an example to others of how to live a sober, nonmaterialistic lifestyle in peace with one’s community.

“It is important to know how to guard sobriety, to know how to be sober in the use of things — sharing resources, skills, and gifts, and doing without excess. Why? To be free: Excess enslaves you,” the pope said in his Angelus address on July 14.

The pope addressed the problems of materialism in his comments before praying the Angelus, a Marian prayer he leads every week on Sundays.

Speaking from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, he reflected on the Sunday Gospel, from Mark 6, focusing on Jesus’ instructions to his apostles to “take nothing for the journey” as he sent them forth to preach.

“Let’s pause for a moment on this image,” he said. “The disciples are sent together, and they are to take only what is necessary with them.”

A large crowd attended the Angelus despite the powerful noon sun raising temperatures in the stone-paved square well into the 90s Fahrenheit.

Many people wore hats or held umbrellas to shade themselves from the rays, and despite the heat, still gave an enthusiastic welcome to the pope when he appeared at the window of the Apostolic Palace.

Pope Francis invited those present to reflect on “what happens in our families or communities when we make do with what is necessary, even with little...”

“Indeed, a family or a community that lives in this way creates around it an environment rich in love, in which it is easier to open oneself to faith and the newness of the Gospel, and from which one leaves better, one leaves more serene,” he said.

“If, on the other hand,” he pointed out, “everyone goes his or her own way, if what counts are only things — which are never enough — if we do not listen to each other, if individualism and envy prevail ... the air becomes heavy, life difficult, and encounters become more an occasion of restlessness, sadness, and discouragement, than an occasion for joy.”

“Envy is a deadly thing, a poison,” the pope added, while noting that “communion, harmony among us, and sobriety are important values, indispensable values, for a Church to be missionary at all levels.”

After praying the Angelus in Latin, Pope Francis spoke about Sea Sunday, which the Church is commemorating July 14.

Sea Sunday is the day the Church remembers and prays for , often in dangerous and lonely conditions.

“On Sea Sunday, let us pray for those who work in the maritime sector and for those who take care of them,” Francis urged.

He also asked Our Lady of Mount Carmel, whose , to “comfort and obtain peace for all populations who are oppressed by the horror of war.”

“Please, let us not forget tormented Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, and Myanmar,” the pontiff said.

Rome Newsroom, Jul 14, 2024 / 08:49 am (CNA).

The Holy See has condemned acts of violence in the wake of that injured former U.S. president Donald Trump and others and left one dead at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on July 13.

A brief statement provided to CNA by Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni on July 14 said the Holy See expressed “concern about last night’s episode of violence, which wounds people and democracy, causing suffering and death.”

The comment also said the Holy See “is united to the prayer of the U.S. bishops for America, for the victims, and for peace in the country, that the motives of the violent may never prevail.”

Pope Francis did not comment on the incident during his weekly public appearance for the Angelus at noon on Sunday.

Political leaders from around the globe against political violence and in support of democracy after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, Saturday evening. 

In a July 13, Trump said a bullet pierced the upper part of his right ear. After receiving treatment at a nearby hospital, the former president flew to New Jersey under Secret Service protection late Saturday night.

The FBI has identified the Trump rally shooter as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. Crooks, who carried no ID and was identified with DNA analysis, was killed by a Secret Service sniper at the rally, according to officials.

Vatican City, Jul 12, 2024 / 11:25 am (CNA).

Pope Francis will join Rome’s celebrations this year of the fourth-century Marian miracle that inspired the construction of St. Mary Major Basilica.

Each year white rose petals fall from the ceiling of the papal Marian basilica in commemoration of a miraculous snowfall in Rome on Aug. 5 in the year 358 A.D.

The Vatican has announced that Pope Francis will witness this unique Roman tradition marking the anniversary of the “Miracle of the Snow” during vespers at St. Mary Major Basilica on the evening of Aug. 5.

According to tradition, the Virgin Mary appeared to both a nobleman named John and to Pope Liberius (352–366) in a dream foretelling the August snow and asking for a church to be built in her honor on the site of the snowfall. The church was rebuilt by Pope Sixtus III (432–440), after the Council of Ephesus in 431 declared Mary to be the mother of God.

The Basilica of St. Mary Major has a special significance for Pope Francis, who recently revealed that he and that a “place is already prepared.”

Pope Francis visited the Marian basilica on the first day of his pontificate to entrust his ministry to the Mother of God before the icon of Mary known as the “Salus Populi Romani,” or “Mary, Protector of the Roman People.”

The pope has returned to pray before the Marian icon each time he has departed for an international trip.

Among the four major papal basilicas in Rome, St. Mary Major is the only one that has maintained its original structure. Mosaics dating back to the fifth century can be seen in the central nave of the basilica, which also houses the relic of the holy crib from the birth of Christ.

Rome will prepare for the anniversary of its papal Marian basilica with a triduum of prayer Aug. 2–4.

Celebrations on Aug. 5 will begin with a Mass at 10 a.m. presided over by Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, the archpriest of the St. Mary Major. Monsignor Emilio Nappa, the president of the Pontifical Mission Societies, will close the festivities with another Mass at 7 p.m. 

To attend the vespers with Pope Francis at the basilica at 5:30 p.m., free tickets from the Vatican will need to be reserved in advance.

Vatican City, Jul 12, 2024 / 09:18 am (CNA).

Pope Francis received a top-ranking member of the Russian Orthodox Church for private discussions at the Vatican this week.

The Holy See Press Office confirmed on July 12 that the pope received Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, the head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, on Thursday afternoon.

Metropolitan Anthony is essentially the “foreign minister” of the Moscow Patriarchate and considered to be second only to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow.

The Vatican has yet to release any photos or details regarding the discussions between the pope and Russian metropolitan. 

The meeting took place two days after Pope Francis expressed his “great sorrow” over Russia’s attacks on two hospitals in Kiev, including Ukraine’s largest children’s medical center.

As the Russian Orthodox Church’s chief ecumenical officer, Anthony has met Pope Francis twice since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The pope kissed the Orthodox metropolitan’s pectoral cross during a brief encounter after a Wednesday general audience in May 2023 and had a “lengthy conversation” with Anthony shortly after he was appointed in 2022.

Pope Francis has wanted to meet with the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine.

The two have not met since their historic first meeting in the Havana airport in February 2016 — the first meeting between a pope and a patriarch of Moscow.

A between the two leaders in Jerusalem in June 2022 was canceled following a video call between the pope and the Russian patriarch in March of that year.

The Russian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church with an estimated 150 million members, accounting for more than half of the world’s Orthodox Christians.

Rome Newsroom, Jul 11, 2024 / 11:40 am (CNA).

The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on Thursday released new information about its 1974 ruling on alleged apparitions in Amsterdam connected to the “Lady of All Nations” devotion.

The DDF said July 11 that due to “persistent doubts” about the alleged Dutch apparitions, which took place in the 1940s and 1950s, it was revealing that in 1974, the doctrinal office voted unanimously that they were not supernatural and would not be further investigated.

While the Vatican’s judgment on the non-supernatural nature of the apparitions has been known for 50 years, the DDF for the first time that the decision involved a unanimous negative vote by the cardinals participating in the doctrine office’s ordinary session on March 27, 1974.

Both negative judgments — on the supernatural quality of the alleged apparitions and on whether to investigate them further — were approved by Pope Paul VI on April 5, 1974.

The dicastery’s noted that while in the past, “as a rule” it had not made public the details of decisions of this nature, it was now choosing to communicate the information “so that the holy people of God and its pastors may draw the appropriate conclusions.”

“The Lady of All Nations” is the Marian title given to alleged visions that Ida Peerdeman, a secretary living in the Dutch capital Amsterdam, claimed to have received between 1945 and 1959.

In 1956, Bishop Johannes Huibers of Haarlem declared that after an investigation he had “found no evidence of the supernatural nature of the apparitions.” 

The Holy Office, a forerunner of the DDF, approved the bishop’s verdict a year later. The DDF, then known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, confirmed the judgment in 1972 .

Peerdeman was born on Aug. 13, 1905, in Alkmaar, in the Netherlands. She claimed that on March 25, 1945, she saw her first apparition of a woman bathed in light who referred to herself as “the Lady” and “Mother.” 

In 1951, the woman reputedly told Peerdeman that she wished to be known as “The Lady of All Nations.” That year, the artist Heinrich Repke created a painting of “the Lady,” depicting her standing on top of a globe in front of a cross.

The series of 56 alleged visions concluded on May 31, 1959.

Bishop Johannes Hendriks of Haarlem-Amsterdam also in December 2021 after consulting with the Vatican.

The bishop said that the Vatican regarded the title “Lady of All Nations” for Mary as “theologically acceptable,” but “the recognition of this title cannot be understood — not even implicitly — as the recognition of the supernaturality of some pheno­mena from which it seems to have come.”

Alongside the clarification, the bishop issued a further explanation that “devotion to Mary as the Lady and Mother of All Nations is good and valuable; it must, however, remain separate from the messages and the apparitions.”

Rome Newsroom, Jul 10, 2024 / 10:33 am (CNA).

Pope Francis urged artificial intelligence leaders on Wednesday to “protect human dignity in this new era of machines.”

In a message to an AI ethics conference in Hiroshima, Japan, with leaders from Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, the United Nations, and representatives from all major world religions, the pope underlined that artificial intelligence has implications for the future of war and peace in our world.

The Holy Father called for a ban on lethal autonomous weapon systems — a class of weapons that use computer algorithms to independently target and employ weapons without manual human control of the system.

“No machine should ever choose to take the life of a human being,” Francis said in the message published July 10.

The pope underscored the symbolic importance of discussing AI ethics at the atomic bombing site in Hiroshima, a place that serves as a reminder of the consequences that can arise from advancing technology without considering the full implications.

“It is crucial that, united as brothers and sisters, we remind the world that in light of the tragedy that is armed conflict, it is urgent to reconsider the development and use of devices like the so-called ‘lethal autonomous weapons’ and ultimately ban their use,” Francis said, renewing in Italy in June.

“This starts from an effective and concrete commitment to introduce ever greater and proper human control.”

The two-day conference in Hiroshima brought together tech industry leaders with representatives of world religions including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Bahá’í, and other Eastern religions.

Brad Smith, the vice chair and president of Microsoft, said that Hiroshima, with its profound place in human history, has served as “a compelling backdrop to help ensure a technology created by humanity serves all of humanity and our common home.”

In one of the opening speeches for the conference, Rabbi Eliezer Simcha Weisz said that “as individuals of faith, we carry a unique responsibility to infuse our pursuit of AI with moral clarity and ethical integrity.”

More than 150 participants from 13 countries took part in the event co-organized by the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life, Japan’s Religions for Peace Japan, the Abu Dhabi Forum for Peace, and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel’s Commission for Interreligious Relations.

Speakers included Amandeep Singh Gill, the U.N. secretary-general’s envoy on technology; Father Paolo Benanti, a professor of technology ethics at the Pontifical  Gregorian University in Rome; and a survivor of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima.

The Vatican has been heavily involved in the conversation on artificial intelligence ethics, hosting high-level discussions with scientists and tech executives on the ethics of artificial intelligence since 2016.

The pope has hosted IBM executive John Kelly III, Microsoft’s Smith, and Chuck Robbins, the chief executive of Cisco Systems, in Rome — each of whom has signed the Vatican’s artificial intelligence ethics pledge, the .

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 2024 peace message, which recommended that global leaders adopt an international treaty to regulate the development and use of AI.

At the G7 summit in June, the pope stressed that human dignity requires that the decisions of artificial intelligence (AI) be under the control of human beings.

“We need to ensure and safeguard a space for proper human control over the choices made by artificial intelligence programs: Human dignity itself depends on it,” Pope Francis said at the summit.

Vatican City, Jul 9, 2024 / 15:05 pm (CNA).

Synod organizers revealed Tuesday that Pope Francis has asked the Vatican’s doctrine office to study women’s participation and leadership in the Catholic Church, including the possibility of women deacons, with the view of publishing a document on the subject.

At a Vatican press conference on July 9, Cardinal Mario Grech said the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) is studying “the women’s diaconate” within the context of its in-depth study of ministries in coordination with the General Secretariat of the Synod. 

While the female diaconate is off the table for discussion at the second Synod on Synodality assembly in October, according to the working document, or , published today, the topic will be included in the Vatican’s study on women’s leadership.

“The Holy Father has notified the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to study issues, including also the issue of ministries. And speaking of ministries there is also the theme of the women’s diaconate,” Grech said.

“The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith will study this theme — not only the theme of diaconate — but the theme of ministries,” he added. The cardinal did not make any mention of the possibility of women being ordained to the priesthood.

After Grech’s comments at the press conference, the Vatican confirmed that the DDF has already begun to study “theological and canonical questions around specific ministerial forms.” 

The in-depth study led by will focus particularly on the “the question of the necessary participation of women in the life and leadership of the Church” with a view of “publishing a specific document” on the topic.

The DDF study is one of announced by Pope Francis earlier this year. The Vatican published the names of the members of each study group today, as well as a description of the DDF group, which is referred to as “Group Five.”

Pope Francis was asked about the possibility of women becoming deacons or clergy in a recent interview with “60 Minutes” to which with a firm “no.”

At the Vatican press conference, synod organizers also highlighted the proposal for a new “ministry of listening and accompaniment,” which will be up for discussion in the Synod on Synodality’s final assembly in October.

The or guiding document for the second session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, called the proposed ministry a reminder that “listening and accompaniment is an ecclesial service.”

“It seems appropriate to create a recognized and properly instituted ministry of listening and accompaniment, which would make this characteristic feature of a synodal Church an enduring and tangible reality,” the states.

“An ‘open door’ of the community is needed, allowing people to enter without feeling threatened or judged.”

When asked at the press conference whether the proposal of a new ministry of listening and accompaniment might be a step toward more “bureaucratization” of the Church, Grech underlined that the purpose of the ministry would be to “educate the community” to make progress in its service of listening and accompaniment.

The secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops added that all Catholics are invited to proclaim the Word and to be catechists, but this does not make the existence of ministries of readers and catechists within the Church a “bureaucratization.”

Grech also announced that the Secretariat of the Synod will soon publish a “theological aid” to supplement the , which will provide theological and canonical analyses on the to help the synod participants to “recognize and understand the roots and implications of what is contained therein.” 

During the press conference, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ, the relator general of the Synod on Synodality, said the reports submitted to synod organizers by bishops’ conferences around the world show that the multiyear synod process “has been and still is a time of grace that is already bearing numerous fruits in the life of the Church.”

“From Kenya to Ireland, from Korea to Brazil, reports underline this renewed dynamism that listening offered and received is bringing to communities,” he said.

Hollerich pointed to how he has observed a difference between the reports the General Secretariat received from bishops’ conferences at the beginning of the Synod on Synodality to the reports submitted this year by 108 bishops’ conferences.

“If the first ones emphasized more the resistance and opposition to the synodal process; these reports emphasize more the weariness and fatigue of a path of conversion that is not immediate,” he said.

The cardinal added that he views this as evidence of “a maturation in the synodal journey,” noting that many bishops’ conferences identified fruits from their local synod experience.

The Oct. 2–27 gathering of the Synod on Synodality will mark the end of the discernment phase of the Church’s synodal process, which Pope Francis opened in 2021.

Participants in the fall meeting, including Catholic bishops, priests, religious, and laypeople from around the world, will prepare and vote on the Synod on Synodality’s advisory final document, which will then be given to the pope, who decides the Church’s next steps and if he wishes to adopt the text as a papal document or to write his own.

The third phase of the synod — after “the consultation of the people of God” and “the discernment of the pastors” — will be “implementation,” according to organizers.

“The synod is already changing our way of being and living the Church regardless of the October assembly,” Hollerich said.

Vatican City, Jul 9, 2024 / 14:35 pm (CNA).

The Vatican published Tuesday the names of the members of 15 study groups doing deeper analyses on questions such as women deacons, the ministry of bishops, and synodal formation for future priests from last year’s session of the Synod on Synodality.

Some of the groups were formed , who asked the dicasteries of the Roman Curia to collaborate with the General Secretariat of the Synod to deepen the theological, pastoral, and canonical reflections on certain themes that emerged during the synodal assembly in October 2023.

Additional study groups were also created to provide deeper theological analysis of “five perspectives” ahead of the second session of the synod, to be held at the Vatican Oct. 2–27. 

The, the guiding document for the October 2024 assembly, makes reference to these study groups throughout.

The groups “are entrusted with the task of delving into 10 themes emerging from the [summary report of the first session] and identified by the pope at the end of an international consultation. These study groups, made up of pastors and experts from all continents, use a synodal working method,” the document said.

Here is the full list of study group members as presented by the Vatican:

1. Professor Péter SZABÓ, professor of canon law in the Post-Gradual Institute of Canon Law in Budapest (HUNGARY), consultor of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches, coordinator

2. Cardinal Claudio GUGEROTTI, prefect of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches

3. Archbishop Laurent ULRICH, archbishop of Paris and ordinary for the Eastern Faithful residing in France and lacking the hierarchy of their own Church “sui iuris” (FRANCE)

4. Archbishop Cyril VASIL’, SI, archbishop of Kosice for Catholics of the Byzantine Rite (SLOVENIA)

5. Archbishop Boghos Levon ZEKIYAN, archbishop of Istanbul, Constantinople, of the Armenians (TURKEY)

6. Archbishop Borys GUDZIAK, archbishop of Philadelphia of the Ukrainians (U.S.A.)

7. Archbishop Michel JALAKH, OAM, secretary of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches

8. Bishop Joseph SRAMPICKAL, bishop of the Eparchy of Great Britain of the Syro-Malabars (GREAT BRITAIN)

9. Bishop Flaviano Rami AL-KABALAN, apostolic visitor for the Syrian Catholic Faithful residing in Europe and procurator of the Syrian Catholic Church in Rome (ITALY)

10. Father Filippo CIAMPANELLI, undersecretary of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches

11. Father John D. FARIS, corepiscop of the Maronite Church (LEBANON)

12. Father Daniel GALADZA, official of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches

13. Dr. Daoud Boutros TAYEH, secretary-general of the Pastoral Council of the Maronite Eparchy of Jounieh (LEBANON).

1. Dr. Sandie CORNISH, professor of Social Doctrine of the Church in the Australian Catholic University in North Sydney (AUSTRALIA), member of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development, coordinator

2. Cardinal Michael CZERNY, SI, prefect of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development

3. Father Francis MAZZITELLI, FDP, head of the Office of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity

4. Sister Maria CIMPERMAN, RSCJ, professor of Theological Ethics and Consecrated Life in the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, U.S.A.

5. Dr. Joseph GUNN, executive director of the Oblate Centre, A Voice for Justice in Saint Paul University in Ottawa (CANADA)

6. Dr. Mauricio LÓPEZ OROPEZA, vice president of the Amazon Ecclesial Conference

7. Dr. Leocadie LUSHOMBO, professor of theological ethics in the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, U.S.A.

8. Professor Agnes BRAZAL, professor of theology in De La Salle University in Manila (PHILIPPINES)

1. Dr. Kim DANIELS, director of Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life in Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. (U.S.A.), coordinator

2. Archbishop Rino FISICHELLA, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization (Section for Fundamental Issues of Evangelization in the World)

3. Dr. Paolo RUFFINI, prefect of the Dicastery for Communication

4. Bishop Paul Desmond TIGHE, secretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education

5. Father Lucio Adrián RUIZ, secretary of the Dicastery for Communication

6. Father Antonino SPADARO, SI, undersecretary of the Dicastery f o r Culture and Education

7. Sister Nathalie BECQUART, Xavière, undersecretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod

8. Father Joseph BORG, professor of media and communications in the University of Malta (MALTA)

1. Cardinal José COBO CANO, archbishop of Madrid ( SPAIN), coordinator

2.  Cardinal Jean-Claude HOLLERICH, SI, archbishop of Luxembourg (LUXEMBOURG), general rapporteur of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops

3. Cardinal Lazarus HEUNG-SIK, prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy

4. Father Eamonn MCLAUGHLIN, assistant undersecretary of the Dicastery for the Clergy for the Office of Formation.

5. Father Mario ANTONELLI, rector of the Pontifical Lombard Seminary in Rome (ITALY)

6. Father Hubertus BLAUMEISER, director of the magazine Ekklesíaand member of the Study Center of the Focolare Movement (ITALY), consultor of the Dicastery for the Clergy

7. Father Andrew RECEPCIÓN, spiritual director of the Pontifical Philippine College in Rome (ITALY)

8. Father Guy BOGNON, PSS, secretary-general of the Pontifical Missionary Work of St. Peter the Apostle

9. Dr. María Lia ZERVINO of the ServidoraAssociation, council member of the Movement, consultant to the Dicastery for Bishops and the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue

The in-depth study of the issues at hand — particularly the question of the necessary participation of women in the life and leadership of the Church — has been entrusted to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, under the coordination of the secretary for the Doctrinal Section, Monsignor Armando MATTEO, and in dialogue with the Secretariat General of the Synod. The dicastery has initiated its study according to the procedures established in its own Rules of Procedure, with a view to the publication of an appropriate document.

1. Cardinal Joseph William TOBIN, CSR, archbishop of Newark (U.S.A.),

2. Cardinal Luis Antonio G. TAGLE, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization (Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches)

3. Cardinal João BRAZ DE AVIZ, prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life

4. Cardinal Kevin Joseph FARRELL, prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life

5. Cardinal Robert Francis PREVOST, OSA, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops

6. Sister Simona BRAMBILLA, MC, secretary of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life

7. Archbishop Luis MARÍN DE SAN MARTÍN, OSA, undersecretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod

8. Dr. Linda GHISONI, undersecretary of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life

1. Archbishop Felix GENN, bishop of Münster (GERMANY), member of the Dicastery for Bishops, coordinator

2. Cardinal Luis G. TAGLE, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization (Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches)

3. Cardinal Jean-Claude HOLLERICH, SI, archbishop of Luxembourg (LUXEMBOURG), general rapporteur of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops

4.  Cardinal Leonardo Ulrich STEINER, OFM, archbishop of Manaus (BRAZIL), vice president of the Amazon Ecclesial Conference

5. Cardinal Mario GRECH, secretary-general of the General Secretariat of the Synod.

6. Cardinal Robert Francis PREVOST, OSA, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops

7. Cardinal Claudio GUGEROTTI, prefect of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches

8. Father Samuele SANGALLI, undersecretary of the Dicastery for Evangelization (Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches)

9. Father Giacomo COSTA, SI, president of the “San Fedele Cultural Foundation” in Milan (ITALY), Special Secretary of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops

10. Sister Hermenegild MAKORO, CPS, former secretary-general of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Southern Africa (SOUTH AFRICA)

11. Dr. Karlijn DEMASURE, head of the Centre for Safeguarding Minors and Vulnerable Persons in Saint Paul University in Ottawa (CANADA)

12. Dr. María Lia ZERVINO of the Association, council member of the Movement, consultant to the Dicastery for Bishops and the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue

1. Bishop Filippo IANNONE, O Carm, president of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, coordinator

2. Father Ivan KOVAČ, undersecretary of the Dicastery for Bishops

3. Father Samuele SANGALLI, undersecretary of the Dicastery for Evangelization (Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches)

4. Father Markus GRAULICH, SDB, undersecretary of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts

5. Father Erwin José Aserios BALAGAPO, head of the Office of the Dicastery for Evangelization (Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches).

6. Father Francesco PANIZZOLO, OFM Conv, head of the Office of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (Disciplinary Section)

1. Cardinal Oswald GRACIAS, archbishop of Bombay (INDIA),

2. Cardinal Mario GRECH, secretary-general of the General Secretariat of the Synod

3. Archbishop Antonio FILIPAZZI, apostolic nuncio to Poland

4. Archbishop Salvatore PENNACCHIO, president of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy

5. Archbishop Luciano RUSSO, secretary for Papal Representations (Secretariat of State)

6. Father Joseph MURPHY, undersecretary for the Diplomatic Role Personnel of the Holy See (Secretariat of State)

7. Father Angelo TOGNONI of the Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, official of the Section for the Diplomatic Role Personnel of the Holy See (Secretariat of State)

8. Professor Myriam WIJLENS, professor of canon law in the Universität Erfurt (GERMANY), Consultant of the General Secretariat of the Synod

1. Archbishop Carlos Gustavo CASTILLO MATTASOGLIO, archbishop of Lima (PERU) and ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, coordinator

2. Archbishop Filippo IANNONE, O Carm, president of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts

3. Father Piero CODA, professor of dogmatic theology in the University Institute “Sophia” in Loppiano (ITALY), secretary-general of the International Theological Commission

4. Father Maurizio CHIODI, professor of moral theology at the Pontifical Theological Institute “John Paul II” in Rome (ITALY)

5. Father Carlo CASALONE, SI, professor of moral theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome (ITALY) and coordinator of the Scientific Section of the Pontifical Academy for Life

6. Sister Josée NGALULA, RSA, professor of dogmatic theology in the Université Catholique du Congo in Kinshasa (DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO), member of the International Theological Commission

7. Professor Stella MORRA, professor of fundamental theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome (ITALY) and consultor of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith

1. Bishop Paul ROUHANA OLM, auxiliary bishop for Sarba of the Eparchy of Joubbé, Sarba ,and Jounieh (LEBANON), coordinator

2. Sister Nathalie BECQUART, Xavière, undersecretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod

3. Father Juan USMA GÓMEZ, head of the Office of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Christian Unity.

4. Father Anthony T. CURRER, official of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Christian Unity

5. Father Hacynthe DESTIVELLE, OP, official of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Christian Unity

6. Father Lawrence IWUAMADI, dean of the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey (SWITZERLAND)

7. Father Jorge Alejandro SCAMPINI, OP, professor of ecumenical theology in the Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina in Buenos Aires (ARGENTINA)

8. Professor Astrid KAPTIJN, professor of canon law in the Université de Fribourg (SWITZERLAND), consultant of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches

9. Professor Teresa Francesca ROSSI, professor of ecumenical theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome (ITALY)

Five Perspectives to Deepen Theologically in View of the Second Session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops

1. Father Riccardo BATTOCCHIO, president of the Italian Theological Association (ITALY), special secretary of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, coordinator

2. Father Dario VITALI, professor of dogmatic theology in the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome (ITALY), coordinator of the theological experts of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, coordinator

3. Archbishop Roberto REPOLE, archbishop of Turin and bishop of Susa (ITALY)

4. Father Alphonse BORRAS, professor emeritus of canon law in the Université Catholique de Louvain (BELGIUM), consultor of the General Secretariat of the Synod

5. Father Carlos María GALLI, dean of the faculty of theology in the Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina in Buenos Aires (ARGENTINA), member of the International Theological Commission

6. Father Gilles ROUTHIER, professor of theology in the Université Laval (CANADA), consultor of the General Secretariat of the Synod

7. Sister Maria CIMPERMAN, RSCJ, professor of theological ethics and consecrated life in the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, U.S.A.

1. Father Riccardo BATTOCCHIO, president of the Italian Theological Association (ITALY), special secretary of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, coordinator

2. Father Dario VITALI, professor of dogmatic theology in the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome (ITALY), coordinator of the theological experts of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, coordinator

3. Bishop Shane A. MACKINLAY, bishop of Sandhurst (AUSTRALIA)

4. Father Pedro BRASSESCO, assistant secretary-general of the Latin American Bishops’ Council (COLOMBIA)

5. Sister Birgit WEILER, MMS, professor of theology in the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú in Lima (PERU)

6. Professor Rafael LUCIANI, professor of theology in the Universidad Católica “Andrés Bello” in Caracas (VENEZUELA), member of the Theological- Pastoral Commission of CELAM

7. Professor Péter SZABÓ, professor of canon law in the Post-Gradual Institute of Canon Law in Budapest (HUNGARY), consultor of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches

8. Professor Myriam WIJLENS, professor of canon law in the Universität Erfurt (GERMANY), consultant of the General Secretariat of the Synod

1. Father Riccardo BATTOCCHIO, president of the Italian Theological Association (ITALY), special secretary of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, coordinator

2. Father Dario VITALI, professor of dogmatic theology in the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome (ITALY), coordinator of the theological experts of the 15th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, coordinator

3. Father Clarence S. DAVEDASSAN, professor of moral theology in the Catholic Research Centre in Kuala Lumpur (MALAYSIA)

4. Father Gaby Alfred HACHEM, professor of theology in the Université Saint- Esprit in Kaslik (LEBANON), member of the International Theological Commission

5. Father José SAN JOSÉ PRISCO, dean of the faculty of canon law in the Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca (SPAIN)

6. Father Hacynthe DESTIVELLE, OP, official of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Christian Unity

7. Professor Catherine E. CLIFFORD, professor of systematic theology in Saint Paul University in Ottawa, CANADA.

1. Father Piero CODA, professor of dogmatic theology in the University Institute “Sophia” in Loppiano (ITALY), secretary-general of the International Theological Commission, coordinator

2. Father Giacomo COSTA, SI, president of the “San Fedele Cultural Foundation” in Milan (ITALY), special secretary of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, coordinator

3. Father Philippe BORDEYNE, dean of the Pontifical Theological Institute “John Paul II” in Rome (ITALY), member of the Governing Council of the Pontifical Academy for Life

4. Father Matteo VISIOLI, professor of canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome (ITALY)

5. Father Ormond RUSH, professor of theology in the Australian Catholic University in Brisbane (AUSTRALIA), consultant to the General Secretariat of the Synod

6. Father Paul BÉRÉ, SI, professor of biblical sciences in the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome (ITALY), consultor of the General Secretariat of the Synod

7. Father Christoph THEOBALD, SI, professor emeritus of fundamental and dogmatic theology in the Facultés Loyola in Paris (FRANCE)

8. Father María Clara Lucchetti BINGEMER, professor of fundamental theology in the Pontificia Universidade Católica in Rio de Janeiro (BRAZIL), consultant of the General Secretariat of the Synod

1. Father Piero CODA, professor of dogmatic theology in the University Institute “Sophia” in Loppiano (ITALY), secretary-general of the International Theological Commission, coordinator

2. Father Giuseppe BONFRATE, professor of dogmatic theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome (ITALY), consultant of the General Secretariat of the Synod, coordinator

3. Bishop Jean-Marc EYCHENNE, bishop of Grenoble, Vienne (FRANCE)

4. Father Felix WILFRED, professor emeritus of theology in the State University of Madras, director of the Asian Centre for Cross-Cultural Studies in Chennai (INDIA)

5. Sister Josée NGALULA, RSA, professor of dogmatic theology in the Université Catholique du Congo in Kinshasa (DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO), member of the International Theological Commission

6. Professor Antonio AUTIERO, professor emeritus of moral theology at the Universität Münster (GERMANY)

7. Professor Ana María CELIS BRUNET, director of the Department of Canon Law in the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago de Chile (CHILE)

1. Dr. Kim DANIELS, director of Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life in Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. (U.S.A.)

Vatican City, Jul 9, 2024 / 13:56 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis was spotted visiting his optometrist near the Spanish Steps on Monday afternoon.

According to Italian newspaper Il Messaggero, the pope went to the eyewear store of Alessandro Spiezia to change out the lenses of his glasses after noting he was having difficulty reading his homily at a Mass over the weekend.

“I apologize for reading like this, but the sun moves everything for me,” Francis said in the northern Italian city of Trieste on July 7.

Photos of Francis’ approximately half-hour stop at the optometrist showed him surrounded by a crowd of lucky bystanders, who happened to catch sight of the pontiff during one of his rare secret excursions outside the Vatican walls.

After being driven up to the shop in his white Fiat 500, the pope had his vision tested and bought new lenses with the correct prescription but asked to keep the glasses frames he already had, Il Messaggero reported.

He also visited the same optometrist, located just a few steps from Piazza del Popolo in Rome’s historic center, in 2015. At the time, the pope needed to repair an arm of his eyeglasses.

According to Il Messaggero, Spiezia and his family, including son, Luca, and wife, Annamaria, have become friends of the pope over the years of his pontificate — even visiting him with other optometrists at his Santa Marta residence every year on the Dec. 13 feast of St. Lucy, a patron saint of the blind.

Pope Francis frequently wears glasses, especially when reading speeches, and had eye surgery for cataracts in 2019.

Rome Newsroom, Jul 9, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The guiding document for the final part of the Synod on Synodality, published Tuesday, focuses on how to implement certain of the synod’s aims while laying aside some of the more controversial topics from last year’s gathering, such as women’s admission to the diaconate.

“Without tangible changes, the vision of a synodal Church will not be credible,” the , or “working tool,” says.

The six sections of the roughly 30-page document will be the subject of prayer, conversation, and discernment by participants in the second session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, to be held throughout the month of October in Rome.

Instead of focusing on questions and “convergences,” as in last year’s , “it is now necessary that ... a consensus can be reached,” said a FAQ page from synod organizers, also released July 9, answering a question about why the structure was different from .

The guiding document for the first session of the Synod on Synodality in 2023 covered such hot-button topics as women deacons, priestly celibacy, and LGBTQ outreach.

By contrast, this year’s text mostly avoids these subjects while offering concrete proposals for instituting a listening and accompaniment ministry, greater lay involvement in parish economics and finances, and more powerful parish councils.

“It is difficult to imagine a more effective way to promote a synodal Church than the participation of all in decision-making and taking processes,” it states.

The working tool also refers to the formed late last year to tackle different themes deemed “matters of great relevance” by the synod’s first session in October 2023. These groups will continue to meet through June 2025 but will provide an update on their progress at the second session in October.

The possibility of the admission of women to the diaconate will not be a topic during the upcoming assembly, the said.

The new document was presented at a July 9 press conference by Cardinals Mario Grech and Jean-Claude Hollerich, together with the special secretaries of the synodal assembly: Jesuit Father Giacomo Costa and Father Riccardo Battocchio. 

“The synod is already changing our way of being and living the Church regardless of the October assembly,” Hollerich said, pointing to testimonies shared in the most recent reports sent by bishops’ conferences.

The Oct. 2–27 gathering of the Synod on Synodality will mark the end of the discernment phase of the Church’s synodal process, which Pope Francis opened in 2021.

Participants in the fall meeting, including Catholic bishops, priests, religious, and laypeople from around the world, will use the as a guide for their “conversations in the Spirit,” the method of discussion introduced at the 2023 assembly. They will also prepare and vote on the Synod on Synodality’s advisory final document, which will then be given to the pope, who decides the Church’s next steps and if he wishes to adopt the text as a papal document or to write his own.

The third phase of the synod — after “the consultation of the people of God” and “the discernment of the pastors” — will be “implementation,” according to organizers.

The 2024 also addresses the need for transparency to restore the Church’s credibility in the face of sexual abuse of adults and minors and financial scandals.

“If the synodal Church wants to be welcoming,” the document reads, “then accountability and transparency must be at the core of its action at all levels, not only at the level of authority.”

It recommends effective lay involvement in pastoral and economic planning, the publication of annual financial statements certified by external auditors, annual summaries of safeguarding initiatives, the promotion of women to positions of authority, and periodic performance evaluations on those exercising a ministry or holding a position in the Church.

“These are points of great importance and urgency for the credibility of the synodal process and its implementation,” the document says.

The greater participation of women in all levels of the Church, a reform of the education of priests, and greater formation for all Catholics are also included in the text.

Bishops’ conferences, it says, noticed an untapped potential for women’s participation in many areas of Church life. “They also call for further exploration of ministerial and pastoral modalities that better express the charisms and gifts the Spirit pours out on women in response to the pastoral needs of our time,” the document states.

Formation in listening is identified as “an essential initial requirement” for Catholics, as well as how to engage in the practice of “conversation in the Spirit,” which was employed in the first session of the Synod on Synodality.

The document says the need for formation has been one of the most universal and strong themes throughout the synodal process. Interreligious dialogue also is identified as an important aspect of the synodal journey.

On the topic of the liturgy, the says there was “a call for adequately trained lay men and women to contribute to preaching the Word of God, including during the celebration of the Eucharist.”

“It is necessary that the pastoral proposals and liturgical practices preserve and make ever more evident the link between the journey of Christian initiation and the synodal and missionary life of the Church,” the document says. “The appropriate pastoral and liturgical arrangements must be developed in the plurality of situations and cultures in which the local Churches are immersed …”

Dubbed the “Instrumentum Laboris 2,” the document released Tuesday has been in preparation since early June when approximately 20 experts in theology, ecclesiology, and canon law held a closed-door meeting to analyze approximately 200 synod reports from bishops’ conferences and religious communities responding to what the called “the guiding question” of the next stage of the Synod on Synodality: “How to be a synodal Church in mission?”

After the 10-day gathering, “an initial version” of the text was drafted based on those reports and sent to about 70 people — priests, religious, and laypeople — “from all over the world, of various ecclesial sensitivities and from different theological ‘schools,’” for consultation, according to the .

The 16th Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod, together with consultants of the synod secretariat, finalized the document.

According to the working tool, soliciting new reports and feedback after the consultation phase ended is “consistent with the circularity characterizing the whole synodal process.” 

“In preparation for the second session, and during its work, we continue to address this question: How can the identity of the synodal people of God in mission take concrete form in the relationships, paths, and places where the everyday life of the Church takes place?” it says.

The document says “other questions that emerged during the journey are the subject of work that continues in other ways, at the level of the local Churches as well as in the 10 study groups.”

According to the guiding document, the second session of the Synod on Synodality can “expect a further deepening of the shared understanding of synodality, a better focus on the practices of a synodal Church, and the proposal of some changes in canon law [there may be yet more significant and profound developments as the basic proposal is further assimilated and lived].”

“Nonetheless,” it continues, “we cannot expect the answer to every question. In addition, other proposals will emerge along the way, on the path of conversion and reform that the second session will invite the whole Church to undertake.”

The says: “Synodality is not an end in itself … If the second session is to focus on certain aspects of synodal life, it does so with a view to greater effectiveness in mission.”

In its brief conclusion, the text states: “The questions that the asks are: how to be a synodal Church in mission; how to engage in deep listening and dialogue; how to be co-responsible in the light of the dynamism of our personal and communal baptismal vocation; how to transform structures and processes so that all may participate and share the charisms that the Spirit pours out on each for the common good; how to exercise power and authority as service. Each of these questions is a service to the Church and, through its action, to the possibility of healing the deepest wounds of our time.”

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

Last month, the Diocese of Rome closed its investigation into the virtues and reputation for holiness of Chiara Corbella Petrillo, a 28-year-old wife and mother who died in 2012 from cancer after delaying treatment until after the birth of her son. 

Chiara is known for her joy and simple faith — which persevered even after the young bride and her husband, Enrico Petrillo, experienced the devastating loss of their first two children shortly following birth.

“One of the fundamental characteristics of Chiara’s faith: She was never ostentatious, she was not someone who went around saying ‘I am good,’” Chiara’s father, Roberto Corbella, told CNA at the for the diocesan phase of her cause for beatification at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran on June 21.

With the closing of the diocesan phase, documented testimonies and other materials will now be sent to the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints for further scrutiny. The next step in the process will be for the pope to recognize her as someone who lived a life of heroic virtue and declare her venerable.

Chiara was “always smiling, loved a joke … always ready to find the bright side of things. And she didn’t take herself too seriously,” Corbella recalled.

“The fact that we see that so many people in the world rely on her helps us to accept [her death] better, in the sense that it’s clear that I would rather ... still have her sitting on my lap,” he said with tears in his eyes. “But seeing so many people ask for her help certainly makes us accept everything much better.”

Below is a lightly edited version of CNA’s full interview with Roberto Corbella.

Roberto Corbella: I think Chiara was the daughter everyone would wish to have — a very cheerful child, very attentive to everything around her, people, but also animals, things. She was very curious and took care of everything around her. Always smiling, loved a joke, so always ready to find the bright side of things. And she didn’t take herself too seriously.

I have so many beautiful memories. Maybe the moment I always remember with the most joy is after lunch, when Chiara had the habit of sitting on my knee. She would do this even as a grown up, even after she was married. When she would come to lunch at our house, after lunch [she would sit on my knee]. It was her way of showing affection.

Chiara was always very careful to not let us see her suffer. When she felt very bad during her illness, she would go back into her room saying she didn’t feel very well. She never complained, never let us see [her suffering]. Actually, she minimized what she was going through, so we only partially realized what her real situation was. But certainly, yes, she taught me to understand that everything is relative in life. We complain daily — “It’s so hot today” — everyone complains. And then in a little while, we will complain it is too cold. There are some things that are part of life that are natural. Chiara was able to bear them, clearly because of her great faith. 

I always say that we are lucky parents, because every day, watching the news, we hear of young kids who have died in violent situations ... Meanwhile, she left us with a smile, meanwhile, she left after telling us all, “I love you.”

Then, the fact that we see that so many people in the world rely on her, helps us to accept [her death] better, in the sense that it’s clear that rather than being here today doing this [interview], I would rather still have her sitting on my lap. But seeing so many people ask for her help certainly makes us accept everything much better. 

Well, yes. I always say that I was the most secular of the family, because Chiara, her sister, her mother, they always attended church. I was one of what Pope Francis calls “the Sunday Catholics.” I would go to Mass, but I was just doing the expected things, though, not particularly driven. I often find myself questioning. The road is very long, at least for me, so I’m trying to learn.

I would say [Chiara lived the faith] very simply and very naturally. From when she was a very young child, her mom brought her, together with her sister, to a prayer group. So she grew up in this group of children who met regularly, prayed and so on, and so she developed a very strong inner faith. Both her and her sister would find time to devote to prayer every day. They would lock themselves in their room in silence. It was more of a listening prayer than a verbal prayer. This marked her throughout her life — then there were evolutions: Her adult life, during the period of her relationship [with future husband Enrico] she leaned on the friars in Assisi; there she did vocation courses with the [youth center] and ... There she came back to give witness talks after losing her first child. And there she returned when she was in crisis with Enrico [during their engagement], and then there they got married. So she matured. But one of the fundamental characteristics of Chiara’s faith: She was never ostentatious, she was not someone who went around saying “I am good...”

She had relationships with everybody, even people absolutely contrary to the faith. And she didn’t discount [their lack of faith] but she didn’t judge anybody or criticize anybody. It was more her example, her knowing how to listen, that made an impact. So a simple faith. Chiara was what you call a “fresh-faced” girl or “the girl next door.” She was very simple: jeans, a T-shirt. Compared to her sister or her mother, her makeup took 30 seconds, so she was always very quick. I think that’s what gets transmitted more, especially to young people. Today Chiara is appreciated because they see her as one of them. I always say if she was still here today she would blend in with the others. 

I would say maybe the most relevant message in these times is the message of peace. Chiara as a child lived through the war in Yugoslavia. She was very little, seeing the news on the television, and she was very upset to see these people who were affected. So today she would have a hard time accepting what is going on around the world in so many places and which unfortunately many people are helping to fuel. Therefore I think we need to lower the tensions and try to think about peace. 

Francesco recently turned 13 years old and he’s already as tall as his grandma ... He is very much like Chiara. When he was very small, not just physically, but his gifts, his characteristics, his creative abilities, and so on. Otherwise, he’s a 13-year-old, so wild and used to doing what 13-year-olds do. But a nice grandson. We also have three other grandchildren.

Vatican City, Jul 8, 2024 / 11:33 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Ryan Jimenez to lead the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Agaña on the island of Guam, transferring the 52-year-old Filipino from the neighboring Northern Mariana Islands.

The July 6 move may mark the beginning of a more stable period for the Church on the U.S. island territory after the archdiocese suffered bankruptcy, a sex abuse scandal involving one former archbishop, and the premature departure of another archbishop for unspecified medical reasons.

A local Catholic leader said the archbishop-elect has a “tough job ahead” of him, Pacific Daily News reported.

“He is taking over an archdiocese that is in the throes of getting out of bankruptcy. He needs to win the confidence of our faithful as we work collectively to settle our debt to the victims of clergy sex abuse and their families,” David Sablan, president of the group Concerned Catholics of Guam, told the Guam newspaper July 7.

“Bishop Jimenez has his work cut out for him,” Sablan added.

Jimenez will fill a seat left vacant by Archbishop Michael Byrnes, who formally resigned as head of the Agaña Archdiocese in March 2023 after dealing with medical issues.

Byrnes, who is from Detroit, had succeeded former Agaña Archbishop Anthony Apuron, following his removal by Pope Francis after the Vatican found him guilty of the sexual abuse of minors in 2019.

Jimenez comes from the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa, a suffragan diocese of Agaña, which he has led since June 2016.

Chalan Kanoa is the diocese covering the Northern Mariana Islands, a commonwealth and unincorporated territory of the United States in the northwestern Pacific Ocean.

The 14 Northern Mariana Islands are part of a crescent-shaped archipelago that also includes the separate U.S. territory of Guam, the southernmost island.

According to 2022 statistics, the Archdiocese of Agaña has over 148,000 Catholics, totaling more than 87% of the population.

While still formally archbishop, Apuron was relieved of his pastoral and administrative authority in June 2016 following accusations he had sexually abused minors. Four months later, in October 2016, Pope Francis appointed Byrnes coadjutor archbishop of Agaña.

Apuron was found guilty of several abuse-related charges by the Vatican’s then-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in March 2018. The conviction was upheld on appeal in February 2019, and the final sentencing was announced April 4, 2019.

Apuron was deprived of his office as archbishop of Agaña; forbidden from using its insignia, including the bishop’s miter and ring; and banned from living within the jurisdiction of the archdiocese. He was not removed from ministry and remains a priest under Church law.

In January 2019, the archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in federal court in the wake of numerous sex abuse allegations. The move, decided upon in November 2018, allowed the archdiocese to avoid trial and to begin to reach settlements in the abuse lawsuits, which amounted to over $115 million.

Byrnes, who succeeded Apuron in April 2019, went on extended leave from his duties in December 2022 for unspecified medical reasons. His resignation was accepted in March 2023.

Jimenez was born in Dumaguete City in the Philippines on Dec. 18, 1971. 

He did initial studies in the Philippines before volunteering as a religion teacher to high school students in remote areas of his country. 

Jimenez later immigrated to the United States, where he completed his seminary training at St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in California, completing a bachelor’s degree and two master’s degrees in divinity and theology in 2003.

He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa in 2003. In the mid-1990s, he had served the diocese as a teacher at the only Catholic school on the island of Rota.

In 2010, right before his 39th birthday, Jimenez was named apostolic administrator of Chalan Kanoa, becoming the spiritual leader of the over 43,000 Catholics of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

He was recently awarded a doctorate in divinity from Fordham University.

Vatican City, Jul 6, 2024 / 09:05 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has named an Augustinian priest as the new prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Archive, which preserves Church documents dating back to the eighth century.

The Vatican announced on July 5 that Father Rocco Ronzani, a patristics professor from Rome, will serve as the head of what was formerly called the Vatican’s “secret archive.”

The Vatican Apostolic Archive contains 53 miles of underground shelving preserving documentation from historic papacies, ecumenical councils, conclaves, and Vatican nunciatures, or embassies, around the world.

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

Many historians researching World War II have come to the Vatican’s underground stacks since 2020 when Pope Francis opened the archives of the pontificate of Pius XII.

The Vatican archive also contains the original 1530 letter addressed to Pope Clement VII requesting permission for an annulment for King Henry VIII so that he could marry Anne Boleyn.

Pope Francis changed the name of the archive, which had been known as the Vatican Secret Archive since the 17th century, to Vatican Apostolic Archive in 2019 to avoid the negative associations that accompany modern interpretations of the word “secret.”

As the new prefect, Ronzani succeeds Archbishop Sergio Pagano, who worked in the Vatican archives for 45 years, serving as prefect since 1997.

Pagano recently published a book titled “Secretum,” which describes some of the noteworthy historical “nuggets” documented in the archives from the Galileo trial to when Napoléon Bonaparte’s troops raided the Vatican archive in 1810.

The former prefect will take up a new role as the assessor for the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences.

Ronzani was born in Rome on Feb. 21, 1978. He entered the Order of St. Augustine in 1997 and was ordained a priest in 2004. He holds a doctorate in theology and patristic sciences from the Pontifical Patristic Institute Augustinianum in Rome, where he currently teaches.

He serves as a consultant to the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints and as the current director of the historical archives for the Augustinians’ Italian province.

CNA Staff, Jul 5, 2024 / 13:10 pm (CNA).

The Pontifical Academy for Life has released a guide that it says will help the faithful in discussing the “religious and moral ethical implications” surrounding euthanasia, assisted suicide, and other controversial end-of-life topics.

The Vatican Publishing House released the brief booklet on July 2, Catholic News Service (CNS) The pontifical academy “distributed the booklet to every bishop in Italy,” with the book as of yet available only in Italian.

The Vatican publisher describes the document as a “little end-of-life lexicon,” one that offers “a series of explanatory and in-depth entries” in order to foster “a language understandable even to the uninitiated” regarding end-of-life matters.

The document is meant to “[help] those who are trying to disentangle these issues,” in part by avoiding “that component of disagreement that depends on an inaccurate use of the notions implied in the discourse.”

The topics “are presented through the lens of Catholic understanding and are connected by several fundamental tenets, such as the Christian meaning of life, death, freedom, responsibility, and care,” CNS said in its report.

CNS reported that the guide covers a variety of issues including comas, palliative care, pain management, euthanasia, organ donation, and “artificial nutrition and hydration,” among other matters.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia — who serves as the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life — urged the faithful to pursue “heartfelt and in-depth dialogue” on life issues rather than “prepackaged and partisan ideologies.”

The Catholic Church in recent years has taken strong stances against government policies such as euthanasia that devalue human life.

Bishops in , , and have urged the defeat of numerous euthanasia and assisted suicide proposals.

Pope Francis has similarly urged respect for life instead of euthanasia, to “accompany people toward death, but not provoke death or facilitate assisted suicide.”

“You don’t play with life, neither at the beginning nor at the end. It is not played with!” he

Vatican City, Jul 5, 2024 / 11:46 am (CNA).

Pope Francis will travel more than 20,000 miles over the course of seven flights during his ambitious 12-day trip to four countries in Southeast Asia and Oceania this September.

At the age of 87, the Holy Father is set to take on his most ambitious international trip yet, which will be the longest of his 11-year pontificate.

The Vatican published Friday the full schedule for the pope’s trip to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Singapore from Sept. 2 to 13.

The first stop on his Southeast Asia tour is Indonesia, home to the largest Muslim population in the world, where he will preside over an interfaith meeting in Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque.

After a 13-hour flight and day of rest in the Indonesian capital, Francis will meet with the country’s President Joko Widodo on Sept. 4 and deliver a speech to political leaders at the Istana Merdeka Presidential Palace. 

The pope will also visit Jakarta’s Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption to meet with bishops, priests, religious sisters, and seminarians after meeting privately with local Jesuits. 

More than 29 million Christians live in Indonesia, 7 million of whom are Catholic, while Indonesia’s 229 million Muslims make up more than 12% of the global Muslim population. Nearly all of Indonesia’s Muslims are Sunni.

The pope’s second full day in Jakarta begins with an interreligious meeting in the Istiqlal Mosque, the ninth-largest mosque in the world. 

Pope Francis will conclude his time in Indonesia with a Mass on the evening of Sept. 5 in Jakarta’s Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, which has a seating capacity of 77,000, after meeting with beneficiaries from local charitable organizations.

On Sept. 6, he will travel nearly 3,000 miles to Papua New Guinea’s sprawling capital of Port Moresby.

Pope Francis will visit local ministries that care for street children and persons with disabilities on his first full day in Papua New Guinea on Sept. 7, which also includes a speech to the local political authorities and an address to the local clergy at the Shrine of Mary Help of Christians.

The following day, the pope will meet with Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape before presiding over Sunday Mass in Port Moresby’s Sir John Guise Stadium.

He will then fly to Vanimo, a city in the northwesternmost province of Papua New Guinea, where he will greet local missionaries and address local Catholics in front of the Holy Cross Cathedral before flying back to the capital city Sunday night.

Pope Francis will travel on Sept. 9 to the small country of East Timor, which has a population that is more than 97% Catholic. 

In Dili, the country’s capital, Pope Francis will visit children with disabilities, meet local clergy and religious in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, give a speech at the Presidential Palace, and preside over Mass in the Esplanade of Taci Tolu over the course of two days.

The pope’s final stop before returning to Rome will be the island of Singapore, the country with the highest GDP per capita in Asia and the second-highest population density of any country in the world.

Pope Francis will be welcomed to Singapore’s world-renowned Changi International Airport on Sept. 11. He will meet President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Sept. 12 before presiding over Mass in Singapore’s SportsHub National Stadium, the third stadium Mass of the trip. 

On his last day in Asia, the pope will preside over an interreligious meeting with young people in Singapore’s Catholic Junior College and visit a group of elderly people. He will make the 6,000-mile journey back to Italy on a chartered Singapore Airlines flight scheduled to land in Rome at 6:25 p.m. on Sept. 13.

The nearly two-week venture will be the pope’s first international trip in 2024. Francis has slowed down his travel schedule in recent months as health and mobility issues, from a knee injury to recurring bronchitis, have forced him to cancel some public appearances, including his last planned foreign visit to Dubai. 

Pope Francis is also scheduled to make a four-day trip to Belgium and Luxembourg at the end of September.

Rome Newsroom, Jul 5, 2024 / 09:35 am (CNA).

The Vatican has officially excommunicated Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith announced Friday.

Viganò was found guilty of the canonical crime, or delict, of , or the refusal to submit to the pope or the communion of the Church, at the conclusion of the Vatican’s extrajudicial penal process on July 4.

The Vatican’s doctrine office announced the (automatic excommunication) on July 5, citing Viganò’s “public statements manifesting his refusal to recognize and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the Church subject to him, and of the legitimacy and magisterial authority of the Second Vatican Council.”

The former papal nuncio to the United States is now excommunicated, the most serious penalty a baptized person can incur, which consists of being placed outside the communion of the faithful of the Catholic Church and denied access to the sacraments. 

The ruling comes after Viganò to appear before the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to face charges of schism last week.

The former Vatican diplomat — who garnered headlines in 2018 for that senior Church officials covered up abuses committed by former cardinal — has repeatedly rejected the authority of Pope Francis since then and has on him to resign.

In a lengthy shared on social media June 28, Viganò accused Pope Francis of “heresy and schism” over his and his overseeing of the on the appointment of bishops.

He also said he has “no reason to consider myself separate from communion with the holy Church and with the papacy, which I have always served with filial devotion and fidelity.”

“I maintain that the errors and heresies to which [Francis] adhered before, during, and after his election, along with the intention he held in his apparent acceptance of the papacy, render his elevation to the throne null and void,” Viganò wrote.

Viganò, who has been in hiding for years, announced on social media June 20 that he had been summoned to Rome to

The specific charges outlined against Viganò, according to a document he himself posted, involved making public statements that allegedly deny the fundamental elements necessary to maintain communion with the Catholic Church. This included denying the legitimacy of Pope Francis as the rightful pontiff and the outright rejection of the Second Vatican Council.

In response to the charges, Viganò said in a June 21 statement that he had not sent any materials in his defense to the Vatican, noting that he did not recognize the authority of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith “nor that of its prefect, nor that of the person who appointed him.”

Viganò’s excommunication can only be lifted by the Apostolic See.

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 5, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The city of Rome will host an international pilgrimage of the association of altar servers “” (CIM) from July 29 to Aug. 3.

The German Bishops’ Conference stated in a July 2 press release that the theme for the 13th pilgrimage is “With You,” an expression taken from the Book of Isaiah. 

Nearly 50,000 altar servers from various countries including Germany, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Slovakia, France, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia, Switzerland, Ukraine, and Hungary will participate in this event.

In addition, they will be accompanied by the president of the CIM, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the archbishop of Luxembourg.

Some 35,000 altar servers are expected from Germany, who will be accompanied by the president of the youth commission of the German Bishops’ Conference, Auxiliary Bishop Johannes Wübbe, as well as numerous members of the German Bishops’ Conference.

The event will begin July 29 at the Maria S. Bambina Institute in Rome and will conclude with an audience with Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square on July 30 at 6 p.m. local time.

The activities of the pilgrimage will be coordinated by the press office of the German Bishops’ Conference.

Rome Newsroom, Jul 3, 2024 / 10:55 am (CNA).

The Vatican will publish next week the guiding document for discussions at the final assembly of the Catholic Church’s yearslong Synod on Synodality.

The , or “working tool” for the upcoming 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, will be presented at a July 9 press conference by Cardinals Mario Grech and Jean-Claude Hollerich, together with the special secretaries of the synodal assembly. 

Dubbed the “Instrumentum Laboris 2,” the document has been in preparation since early June, when approximately 20 experts in theology, ecclesiology, and canon law held a closed-door meeting to analyze synod reports from dioceses and religious communities.

The will guide the discussions at an assembly at the Vatican in October. The monthlong gathering is the second session of a two-part assembly of the . The first session was held in October 2023.

The second October assembly is a continuation of the multiyear Synod on Synodality, which began in October 2021 and has included stages of discernment and discussion at various levels of the Church. 

The fall meeting will bring together Catholic bishops, priests, religious, and laypeople from around the world to discuss topics included in the and to prepare the synod’s final document.

This is the second of the Synod on Synodality. of 50 pages was published last year ahead of the synod’s October 2023 assembly.

The 2023 Vatican assembly produced a 41-page , while the 2024 assembly is expected to vote on a “final report,” which will then be sent to Pope Francis for consideration.

The third phase of the Synod on Synodality — after “the consultation of the people of God” and “the discernment of the pastors” — will be “implementation,” .

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 3, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

As every year during summer vacation time, the Vatican does not schedule any public, private, or “special” audiences for Pope Francis in the Vatican, including the general audience on Wednesdays.

The Vatican usually suspends such audiences on only two occasions: during the month of July and the week when the pontiff carries out his spiritual retreat at the Vatican.

The Holy See’s press office announced in a statement that the Holy Father’s agenda will resume on Aug. 7.

However, during this usual period of rest, Pope Francis will lead the Angelus on Sundays from the window of the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican.

Although the Holy Father doesn’t spend the summer at the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo as popes have traditionally done, this year, as confirmed by the master of papal liturgical ceremonies, he will have a greater rest than in previous years.

Pope Francis will not preside at any public Mass , from July 8 to Sept. 1.

After this well-deserved rest, Pope Francis will travel to for 11 days in September and will also visit at the end of the same month. In October, the second and final session of the Synod of Synodality will take place in Rome.

CNA Staff, Jul 2, 2024 / 14:15 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of July is for the pastoral care of the sick. 

“The anointing of the sick is not a sacrament only for those who are at the point of death. No. It is important that this is clear,” the Holy Father said in a video message released July 2. 

“When the priest draws near a person to perform the anointing of the sick, it is not necessarily to help them say goodbye to life. Thinking this way means giving up every hope,” he said, adding: “It means taking for granted that after the priest the undertaker will arrive.”

The pope urged the faithful to “remember that the anointing of the sick is one of the ‘sacraments of healing,’ of ‘restoration,’ that heals the spirit.”

“And when a person is very ill, it’s advisable to give them the anointing of the sick. And when someone is elderly, it’s good that they receive the anointing of the sick,” he said.

He concluded with a prayer: “Let us pray that the sacrament of the anointing of the sick grant the Lord’s strength to those who receive it and to their loved ones, and that it may become for everyone an ever more visible sign of compassion and hope.”

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

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 1, 2024 / 14:50 pm (CNA).

With the publication of new regulations, Pope Francis has made it clear that employees of must profess the Catholic faith, wear decent and appropriate clothing, and not have visible tattoos or piercings, among other requirements.

The Office of the Holy See has published a on the Statute and Regulations of the Chapter of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, which determines the norms for the staff of the Fabric of St. Peter, the entity responsible for the conservation and maintenance of St. Peter’s Basilica. A chirograph is an order signed by the pope.

All employees must comply, including the so-called “sampietrini,” those in charge of admittance, surveillance, cleaning, and maintenance of the Vatican basilica.

The document, published on June 29, establishes that employees must “take care of their outward appearance in accordance with the demands and customs of the work environment.”

The Holy Father thus determined that “visible tattoos on the skin and piercings are prohibited.” Likewise, employees must “wear decent clothing appropriate to the activity they are going to perform.”

It will also be mandatory for them to “profess the Catholic faith and live according to its principles” as well as demonstrate that they are married in the Church by presenting a “canonical marriage certificate.” They must also provide baptism and confirmation certificates and demonstrate that they have no criminal record.

The chirograph also states that members of the Fabric staff “commit to observing exemplary religious and moral conduct, even in their private and family life, in accordance with the doctrine of the Church.”

“Staff are required to behave politely while on duty, [be] respectful of the sacred place, and act ... properly toward others and [in consideration of] the surroundings,” the document reads.

Also, “special care will be taken to observe the pontifical secret, in accordance with current regulations.”

Likewise, without prior authorization from the archpriest in charge of the basilica, “no one may issue statements and interviews, not even through digital instruments and platforms, regarding the people, activities, environments, and guidelines of the Fabric.”

Furthermore, Article 10 establishes that the staff is obliged to strictly observe confidentiality and will not be able to “provide to anyone who does not have the right to it information about events or news that they have learned due to their work or service.”

Rome Newsroom, Jul 1, 2024 / 12:10 pm (CNA).

The College of Cardinals gave a positive vote to the canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis on Monday after Pope Francis recognized last month a second miracle attributed to the millennial’s intercession — the final step before his canonization date can be set.

Pope Francis said July 1 that the date for the canonization Mass of the computer-coding teenager will be announced at a later time, the Vatican said.  

Acutis could be canonized during the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year.

The College of Cardinals assented to the canonizations of 15 people, including Blessed Carlo Acutis, during a consistory at the Vatican on the morning of July 1.

The pope decreed that the 14 other blesseds, which includes the 11 “Martyrs of Damascus,” will be declared saints .

Acutis, who died in 2006 at the age of 15, was beatified in a ceremony at the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi on Oct. 10, 2020.

In a May 23 decree, Pope Francis approved a second miracle through the Italian boy’s intercession, paving the way for him to become the first millennial saint.

A 21-year-old woman from Costa Rica, Valeria Valverde, was miraculously healed through Acutis’ intercession after she was close to dying from a serious head injury sustained in a bicycle accident while studying in Florence in 2022.

After the woman underwent an emergency craniotomy to reduce intracranial pressure, the family was told that her situation was very critical and that she could die at any moment, according to the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

Six days after the accident, Valverde’s mother went on a pilgrimage to Assisi to pray for the healing of her daughter at the tomb of Blessed Carlo Acutis, leaving a written note.

On that same day, Valverde began to breathe on her own and on the following day she recovered the use of her upper limbs and partly recovered her speech.

Valverde was discharged from the intensive care unit 10 days after her mother’s pilgrimage and underwent further tests that showed that the hemorrhagic right temporal cortical contusion in her brain had completely disappeared.

Contrary to medical predictions, Valverde spent only one week in physical therapy and on Sept. 2, 2022, two months after her accident, she went on a pilgrimage to Acutis’ tomb in Assisi with her mother to celebrate her complete healing.

Rome Newsroom, Jul 1, 2024 / 11:15 am (CNA).

At a July 3 appeal hearing, lawyers for former Vatican auditor Libero Milone and his recently deceased former deputy Ferruccio Panicco will argue that Cardinal Angelo Becciu acted as an official of the Vatican, not as a private individual, when he put pressure on the two men to resign their posts in 2017 under threat of prosecution.

“For me, Ferruccio’s family, and my family this is tremendously important,” Milone told journalists at a June 19 briefing about his appeal, claiming he and Panicco were “threatened and expelled for doing our jobs” and he is now essentially un-hireable due to the damage to his reputation.

Milone is preparing to go before the Vatican’s appeals court after his lawsuit was rejected earlier this year by a lower court for a “misplaced claim” against the Secretariat of State. Judges said the Secretariat of State was not liable for his ousting because he was employed by the pope and Becciu was acting alone when he forced the auditor from his job and accused him of “spying” on his personal finances.

Milone, who argues he uncovered illegal accounting practices and conflicts of interest while merely carrying out his remit to audit Vatican finances, told CNA he is the victim of “false and malicious accusations” and asked why he was never arrested if, as the Vatican said at the time of his ousting, they had ample evidence he was guilty of espionage.

In 2022, the ex-Vatican auditor and his deputy sought 9.3 million euros (about $10 million) in compensation from the Vatican’s Secretariat of State and office of auditor general, now led by the other of Milone’s two former deputies, for loss of reputation and the inability to find new work due to the slanderous nature of their removal.

The lawsuit also included a demand of 3.5 million euros (about $3.8 million) for the loss of Panicco’s personal medical records, which Milone maintains led to the auditor’s premature death from cancer in June 2023 after having to repeat exams, thus delaying treatment. 

The Vatican’s court of first instance ordered Milone to pay almost 50,000 euros (about $54,000) and Panicco’s estate 64,000 euros (about $69,000) and said in its Jan. 24 rejection of the lawsuit that the Secretariat of State cannot be held liable for Milone’s dismissal because it was Pope Francis who was responsible for his employment, and the court cannot judge papal decisions, while Becciu acted in a personal capacity.

Milone and his lawyers, however, called this argument a “smoke screen” during a meeting with journalists in June and said they have documents they claim prove the Secretariat of State’s integral role in his hiring and, ultimately, in his forced resignation, which Becciu, then sostituto of the Secretariat of State, has taken credit for.

They added that they hope in their appeal to enter into the facts of the case and expressed disappointment at the lawsuit having been originally blocked for a prejudicial reason.

Becciu himself is currently in appeal proceedings after he was sentenced to more than five years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of over $8,000 after he was convicted on counts of embezzlement and abuse of office in December 2023.

Milone’s preliminary appeal hearing July 3 will be before a court of three judges: Spanish Archbishop Alejandro Arellano Cedillo, president of the Court of Appeal; Father Pietro Milite; and Italian civil judge Riccardo Turrini Vita.

CNA has seen a copy of the document explicitly hiring Milone as auditor general of the Vatican, which is signed by Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

According to the ex-auditor general, it is ludicrous that the Vatican court argued Becciu acted as a private individual, not as an official of the Secretariat of State, when on the morning of June 19, 2017, when he was told by Becciu he had lost the faith of the pope, he was meeting the second-in-command of the Secretariat of State in the Apostolic Palace on a matter of business, namely, to discuss work contracts for employees in his office.

After the preliminary hearing on July 3, it is unknown how many hearings the appeal court will hold and how long the judges will take to give a verdict. 

Under Vatican law, both the prosecution and the defense can appeal verdicts, and second appeals are also possible.

Milone and his lawyers, Romano Vaccarella and Gianni Merla, said they will appeal their case to the Vatican’s supreme court and even bring it before the International Court of Justice in the Hague if necessary.

“I’m never giving up for myself and for Ferruccio,” Milone told CNA and other journalists in June.

Rome Newsroom, Jul 1, 2024 / 08:50 am (CNA).

Pope Francis will celebrate a Mass of canonization for 14 people, including the 11 “Martyrs of Damascus,” on Sunday, Oct. 20, the Vatican announced Monday.

The pope declared the date of the canonization, which will take place during the 2024 assembly of the Synod on Synodality, after the College of Cardinals voted to approve the canonizations of 15 people on the morning of July 1.

The date of the much-anticipated canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis will be set at a later time, according to the July 1 press release.

The were murdered “out of hatred for the faith” in Damascus, Syria, some time during the night of July 9–10, 1860. The event took place during the persecution of Christians by Shia Druze, which spread from Lebanon to Syria and resulted in thousands of victims.

A Druze commando entered a Franciscan convent in the Christian quarter of Bab-Touma (St. Paul) in the Old City of Damascus and massacred the friars Manuel Ruiz López, Carmelo Bolta, Nicanor Ascanio, Nicolás M. Alberca y Torres, Pedro Soler, Engelbert Kolland, Francisco Pinazo Peñalver, Juan S. Fernández, and three laymen who were biological brothers — Francis, Abdel Mohti, and Raphaël Massabki.

Upon refusing to renounce their Christian faith and convert to Islam, the 11 were brutally killed, some beheaded with sabers and axes, others stabbed or clubbed to death. The martyrs were beatified in 1926.

One of two women to be canonized on Oct. 20 is Blessed Elena Guerra, known as “an apostle of the Holy Spirit.”

A friend of Pope Leo XIII and the teacher of St. Gemma Galgani, (1835–1914) is known for her spiritual writings and her passionate devotion to the Holy Spirit.

Canadian sister Blessed Marie-Léonie Paradis, founder of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family, will also be declared a saint on Oct. 20. Born Virginie Alodie on May 12, 1840, in L’Acadie, Quebec, the blessed founded her institute, whose purpose was to collaborate with and support the religious of Holy Cross in educational work, in 1880 in New Brunswick.

Today her sisters work in over 200 institutions of education and evangelization in Canada, the United States, Italy, Brazil, Haiti, Chile, Honduras, and Guatemala.

Italian Blessed Giuseppe Allamano, who will also be canonized Oct. 20, founded two religious congregations: the Consolata Missionaries (for men) and the Consolata Missionary Sisters (for women).

Born in 1851, Allamano was deeply influenced by the spirituality of the Salesians and St. John Bosco as well as his uncle, St. Joseph Cafasso, a noted priest and spiritual director who was known as one of Turin’s “social saints.” 

Rome Newsroom, Jun 30, 2024 / 09:59 am (CNA).

Pope Francis prayed for the intercession of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on Sunday to convert “the hearts of those who want war” to projects of dialogue and peace.

On the last day of June, a month that the Catholic Church , the pope asked people to continue praying for Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, Myanmar, and other parts of the world where there is much suffering caused by war.

Pope Francis also asked people to remember the suffering of persecuted Christians during his on June 29. 

“Today we remember the . We too live in a time of martyrdom even more than in the first centuries,” he said.

“In many parts of the world, many of our brothers and sisters suffer from discrimination and persecution because of their faith, thus fertilizing the Church. Others face a ‘martyrdom with white gloves.’ Let us support them and be inspired by their witness to the love of Christ.”

Reflecting on in which Jesus healed a bleeding woman and raised a girl from the dead, the pope urged everyone to remember that the Lord draws close to our suffering and wounds.

“In the face of bodily and spiritual sufferings, of the wounds our souls bear, of the situations that crush us, and even in the face of sin, God does not keep us at a distance,” Pope Francis said.

“On the contrary, he draws near to let himself be touched and to touch us, and he always raises us from death. He always takes us by the hand to say: daughter, son, arise!”

Pope Francis asked people to reflect on whether they keep a distance from people who are suffering or draw close to them to offer them a helping hand to lift them up in imitation of Jesus. 

He urged people to look to the heart of God so that the Church and society do not exclude anyone but offer everyone the opportunity to “be welcomed and loved without labels [and] without prejudice.”

“Let us fix in our hearts this image Jesus gives us: God is one who takes you by the hand and lifts you up, one who lets himself be touched by your pain and touches you to heal you and restore your life. He does not discriminate against anyone because he loves everyone,” Francis said.

“Let us pray to the Holy Virgin. May she who is the mother of tenderness, intercede for us and for the whole world.”

Vatican City, Jun 29, 2024 / 09:45 am (CNA).

On the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, Pope Francis invited the Catholic faithful — including the who received their blessed pallium today — to “open the doors” of the Church and follow the example of the two great apostles of Rome so that all people can know and experience the love of God.

“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 preached during his homily at the papal Mass celebrated in Vatican City on June 29.

Reflecting on the Mass readings of the day, addressing thousands gathered within St. Peter’s Basilica amid scaffolded renovation projects in preparation for the upcoming 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope, Pope Francis emphasized the significance of “deliverance” and the grace of God in the lives of these two great evangelizers.

When St. Peter was freed from prison he “realizes that it is the Lord who opens the doors. He always goes before us. The doors of the prison opened by themselves by the power of God,” the pope said.

Following his dramatic conversion after encountering the risen Christ in Damascus, Pope Francis said St. Paul discovered the “grace of weakness” and ended his forceful persecution of the Church. The experience of Paul’s own weaknesses led him to lean on God’s strength when he preached the Gospel.

“Paul employs the image of ‘open doors’ in his journey to Antioch with Barnabas,” he said. “They gathered the Church together and declared all that God had done with them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.”

During his homily, the Holy Father reminded the cardinals, archbishops, priests, religious men and women, and lay faithful present at Mass to “learn the wisdom of opening doors” and to not succumb to “a consoling, inward-looking religiosity.”

“Today some movements in the Church present us with a disillusioned spirituality,” he said. “On the contrary, the encounter with the Lord ignites in the life of all a burning zeal for evangelization.”

Following the celebration of the Mass, Pope Francis individually presented 33 of the 42 recently appointed metropolitan archbishops their pallium, a vestment made of lamb’s wool that symbolizes their authority and unity with the pope’s pastoral mission to evangelize and care for the people of God.

The metropolitan archbishops who were able to attend the papal Mass in Vatican City were seated next to the bronze station of St. Peter, also adorned in liturgical vestments this day, as a reminder of their own ministerial authority and responsibility of service to the Church.

In spite of the 93-degree-Fahrenheit heat, thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square to be present for the pope’s special Angelus address for the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul.

“We see St. Peter depicted holding two large keys, as in the statue here in this square,” he said. “Those keys represent the ministry of authority that Jesus entrusted to him in the service of all the Church. Because authority is a service, and authority that is not service is dictatorship.”

He also encouraged his listeners to help everyone “find the way” to enter the house of God by cultivating virtues that would serve others, such as patience, constancy, and humility.

“The mission that Jesus entrusts to Peter is not that of barring the doors to the house, permitting entry only to a few select guests, but of helping everyone find the way to enter, in faithfulness to the Gospel of Jesus. For everyone: Everyone, everyone, everyone can enter!”

Following his address, Pope Francis gave his special greetings to all the people of Rome, for whom today is a prominent holiday, but particularly expressed his closeness to those who are sick, elderly, alone, or in prison. He also asked for prayers for those who are wounded and suffering because of war. 

“I greet each one and invite everyone to have the experience of Peter and Paul — that the love of Christ that saves lives will push them to share this life with joy and gratuity,” he said.

Rome Newsroom, Jun 29, 2024 / 05:00 am (CNA).

For the past 500 years, the Vatican has celebrated the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul with a bang with a spectacular fireworks show influenced by Michelangelo and Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

While many associate fireworks with the Fourth of July, the Vatican had already been celebrating this week with fireworks for nearly 300 years at the time when Americans were signing the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Each year on June 29, fireworks are launched from atop Castel Sant’Angelo, the papal fortress originally commissioned by Roman Emperor Hadrian, in celebration of the co-patron saints of Rome, St. Peter and St. Paul. 

The fireworks show, called “The Girandola,” has captured the imagination of many artists over the centuries whose sketches and paintings illustrate the event with more pizzazz than the myriad of iPhone photos of fireworks today.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) in New York has multiple images of the Vatican fireworks in its collection, including a by Giovanni Ambrogio Brambilla of Castel Sant’Angelo bursting with flames at every level as a crowd looks on from the relative safety of the other side of the Tiber River.

According to Rome-based art historian Elizabeth Lev, the Girandola fireworks display dates back to the pope who built the Sistine Chapel and opened the Capitoline Museums, Pope Sixtus IV, Francesco della Rovere.

“In 1481 he decided to give the Romans a theatrical display of lights and sound that would rival the other great cities of Italy — Venice and Florence,” Lev told CNA.

Pope Julius II continued the tradition in the early 16th century. His papal master of ceremonies, Paride di Gassis, described the fireworks display, saying it looked as “if the sky itself was tumbling down.”

While there are competing theories as to the extent and dates of Michelangelo’s participation in the fireworks display, Lev points to the publication of one of the first printed books on metallurgy in Europe, “De La Pirotechnia,” written by Vannoccio Biringuccio in 1536, which gave us the terms “Roman candle” and “Catherine Wheel” still used for fireworks today.

“At that time, Pope Paul III was living in the Castel Sant’Angelo, Michelangelo was working on the Last Judgment and myriad other assignments. The last chapter of ‘De La Pirotechnia’ discusses fireworks, and it would make sense to pair the famous technician with Michelangelo, who had … embraced his talents as a painter as the consultant for color and effects,” she said.

“The culmination with the 4,000 to 6,000 rockets creating a fountain of fire sounds like the kind of effect Michelangelo would have enjoyed, although we have no words from him on the subject nor drawings of projected displays.”

According to the MET, the Vatican held the fireworks show each year in celebration of Easter, the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, and whenever a new pope was elected.

The great Baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who gave us the fountains in Piazza Navona, the , and the sculpture of St. Teresa in Ecstasy, also designed fireworks in his spare time.

“A producer of plays amid his many other activities, Bernini loved the movement that fire, water, light, and air could bring to art,” Lev said.

Bernini designed fireworks in 1641 inspired by the eruption of the Stromboli volcano off the north coast of Sicily, indicating the number of rockets and colors that would achieve the best effect, she explained.

“With his fiery personality and passionate love for dramatic effects, it would be safe to say that the Girandola was made for Bernini and Bernini was made for the Girnadola,” Lev added.

Charles Dickens later witnessed the Vatican fireworks show during his 1844–45 visit to Italy in which he stayed in Rome during Holy Week.

Dickens described the “great display of fireworks from Castle of St. Angelo” in his 1846 book “Pictures from Italy.”

“The show began with a tremendous discharge of cannon; and then, for 20 minutes or half an hour, the whole castle was one incessant sheet of fire, and labyrinth of blazing wheels of every color, size, and speed: while rockets streamed into the sky, not by ones or twos, or scores, but hundreds at a time,” he wrote.

“The concluding burst — the Girandola — was like the blowing up into the air of the whole massive castle, without smoke or dust,” Dickens said.

The Roman tradition continued through the end of the 19th century, when it was decided to suspend it due to extensive damage done to the historic rooms within Castel Sant’Angelo. However, the fireworks show was revived in 2008 and now lights up the Eternal City each year as it celebrates its patron saints.

The firework show will take place this year at 9:30 p.m. on June 29 and will last about 20 minutes to conclude a day of festivities, prayers, and processions in Rome.

ACI Prensa Staff, Jun 28, 2024 / 17:10 pm (CNA).

On the occasion of the feast of the holy protomartyrs of Rome, which the Church celebrates every June 30, the traditional Mass and Eucharistic procession took place in Vatican City.

Holy Mass, celebrated on June 27 in the Church of Our Lady of Mercy at the Teutonic Cemetery, was offered by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Culture.

At the end, a solemn Eucharistic procession took place, with the accompaniment of the Pontifical Musical Band along the avenues of Vatican City.

Members of the Pontifical Academy Cultorum Martyrum, numerous faithful, representatives of the Swiss Guard, and the gendarmerie as well as members of the Association of Sts. Peter and Paul participated in this traditional procession.

On June 30, the Church commemorates , who died during the first persecution against the Catholic Church, which was unleashed in the second half of the first century.

They suffered terrible torments and gave their lives just to call themselves “Christians,” followers of Jesus of Nazareth.

Consequently, they were granted the title of “protomartyrs” — a term from ancient Greek — which means “first martyrs” or “first witnesses.”

Rome Newsroom, Jun 28, 2024 / 16:40 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis will bless vestments known as “pallia” during Mass on the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on Saturday, June 29.

Each blessed pallium — bands made of white wool adorned with six black silk crosses — will be placed on the shoulders of the 42 new metropolitan archbishops who were appointed during the last year, including two Americans. 

Only metropolitan archbishops and the Latin-rite patriarch of Jerusalem are imposed with the white pallium with black crosses as a symbol of communion, authority, and unity with the pope and his pastoral mission to be a shepherd for the people of God.

The for select bishops began in the sixth century, but it was not until the ninth century that all metropolitan bishops were mandated to wear the woolen vestment.

Since 2015, the imposition of the pallia on metropolitan archbishops , rather than at the Vatican, as a sign of “synodality” with local churches.

Two Americans — Archbishop Thomas Robert Zinkula of Dubuque, Iowa, and Archbishop Christopher J. Coyne of Hartford, Connecticut — will receive the pallium this year.

Following the announcement of Zinkula’s appointment, Jim Thill, a deacon at Holy Spirit Parish in Dubuque, told the : “He is my idea of a shepherd for the Church. He is highly educated and has had a lot of accolades, but he has never lost the common touch. He is just one of the people.”

In May as he officially assumed the office of archbishop of Hartford, Coyne to “strive everyday to be a faithful image of the Good Shepherd, who welcomes the lost and protects those who struggle.”

The following metropolitan archbishops were appointed during the past year and will receive the pallium:

1. Cardinal Archbishop Protase Rugambwa of Tabora, Tanzania

2. Archbishop Jozef Jonáš Maxim of Prešov of the Byzantines, Slovakia

3. Archbishop Rui Manuel Sousa Valério, SMM, patriarch of Lisbon, Portugal

4. Archbishop João Santos Cardoso of Natal, Brazil

5. Archbishop Guy Desrochers, CSR, of Moncton, Canada

6. Archbishop Gustavo Bombín Espino, OSST, of Toliara, Madagascar 

7. Archbishop Ciro Miniero of Taranto, Italy

8. Archbishop Thomas Robert Zinkula of Dubuque, Iowa 

9. Archbishop Zdenko Križić, OCD, of Split-Makarska, Croatia

10. Archbishop Linus Neli of Imphal, India

11. Archbishop Héctor Rafael Rodríguez Rodríguez, MSC, of Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic

12. Archbishop Gregório Ben Lâmed Paixão, OSB, of Fortaleza, Brazil

13. Archbishop Prosper Kontiebo, MI, of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso 

14. Archbishop Fernando Natalio Chomalí Garib of Santiago de Chile, Chile 

15. Archbishop Víctor Hugo Basabe of Coro, Venezuela

16. Archbishop Florencio Roselló Avellanas, OdeM, of Pamplona and Tudela, Spain

17. Archbishop Giorgio Ferretti of Foggia-Bovino, Italy 

18. Archbishop Biagio Colaianni of Campobasso-Boiano, Italy

19. Archbishop Herwig Gössl of Bamberg, Germany 

20. Archbishop Udo Markus Bent of Paderborn, Germany

21. Archbishop Vincent Aind of Ranchi, India 

22. Archbishop Abel Liluala of Pointe-Noire, Democratic Republic of Congo

23. Archbishop Gélase Armel Kema of Owando, Democratic Republic of Congo

24. Archbishop Davide Carbonaro, OMD, of Potenza-Muro Lucano-Marsico Nuovo, Italy 

25. Archbishop Josef Nuzík of Olomouc, Czech Republic 

26. Archbishop Luis Alberto Huamán Camayo, OMI, of Huancayo, Peru

27. Archbishop Rex Andrew C. Alarcon of Caceres, Philippines 

28. Archbishop Riccardo Lamba of Udine, Italy

29. Archbishop Gabriel Blamo Jubwe of Monrovia, Liberia 

30. Metropolitan Archbishop Hironimus Pakaenoni of Kupang, Indonesia

31. Archbishop Josafá Menezes da Silva of Aracaju, Brazil

32. Archbishop Félicien Ntambue Kasembe, CICM, of Kananga, Democratic Republic of Congo

33. Archbishop Raphael p’Mony Wokorach, MCCJ, of Gulu, Uganda

34. Archbishop Carlos Alberto Breis Pereira, OFM, of Maceió, Brazil

35. Archbishop Gherardo Gambelli of Florence, Italy

36. Archbishop Christopher J. Coyne of Hartford, Connecticut

37. Archbishop José Mário Scalon Angonese of Cascavel, Brazil

38. Archbishop Sergio Hernán Pérez de Arce Arraigada, SC, of Concepción, Chile 

39. Archbishop Ignace Bessi Dogbo of Abidjan, Ivory Coast

40. Archbishop Paulus Budi Kleden, SVD, of Ende, Indonesia

41. Archbishop Elect Mosese Vitolio Tui, SDB, of Samoa-Apia, Samoa

42. Archbishop Benjamin Phiri of Ndola, Zambia

CNA Staff, Jun 28, 2024 / 15:05 pm (CNA).

The pope’s top adviser on sexual abuse by clergy is asking Vatican officials not to use art by a former Jesuit priest accused of sexually abusing women — even as some Church officials continue to do so. 

Cardinal Seán O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston and head of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, sent a letter to the dicasteries that govern day-to-day affairs of the Roman Curia expressing hope that “pastoral prudence would prevent displaying artwork in a way that could imply either exoneration or a subtle defense” of those of accused of abuse. 

“We must avoid sending a message that the Holy See is oblivious to the psychological distress that so many are suffering,” O’Malley wrote in a letter to leaders of the Curia on Wednesday, June 26,. 

The letter — which was made public Friday, June 28, one day before O’Malley turns 80 and therefore must give up his Vatican posts — refers to Father Marko Rupnik, 69, a Slovenian priest and former Jesuit whose mosaic art decorates Catholic churches around the world. 

Rupnik has been accused by about two dozen women, mostly former nuns, of sexually abusing them during the past three decades. He has not publicly responded to the accusations. 

Vatican News, an official news outlet of the Holy See, of a mosaic of St. Irenaeus made by Rupnik with a note that the original is in the office of the papal nuncio in Paris. 

Vatican News also published images of Rupnik’s art on May 26, June 1, and June 7, as the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, .

Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, defended using Rupnik’s art during an appearance in Atlanta on June 21, arguing that removing it wouldn’t help his accusers.

“I think that, as Christians, we have to understand that the closeness to the victims is important, but I don’t know that this is the way of healing: again and again talking about this problem of art that is healing others maybe, I don’t know, but maybe, yes. Maybe yes,” Ruffini said, as the Register .

“There are people that are praying in sanctuaries of many churches all around the world” in front of Rupnik’s mosaics, he said.

In June 2023, the Jesuits Rupnik from the society, saying that they found the credibility of allegations against him to be “very high” and that the priest had refused “to come to terms with his past” and “to enter a path of truth.” 

A lawyer who represents five of the priest’s accusers said this week she sent a letter to bishops of dioceses where the priest’s mosaics are displayed asking them to remove them “out of respect for the victims and for the very nature of the place of prayer.” 

“Father Rupnik … is accused by numerous women of having inflicted spiritual, psychological, physical, and sexual abuse on them, and his mosaics, which are found in the places where every believer gathers in prayer to have contact with the Father, cause disturbance in the hearts of the faithful,” states the letter by Italian lawyer Laura Sgrò.

Rupnik incurred an automatic excommunication in 2019 for giving absolution to a woman he had sex with — an offense seen by the Vatican as an abuse of the sacrament of confession. But the excommunication was lifted after only a month, and afterward, in 2020, Rupnik preached a Lenten meditation for fellow clerics in Rome, including Pope Francis. 

Pope Francis is a Jesuit, as Rupnik was until last year, and the two have reportedly been on friendly terms in the past. 

The outcry over Rupnik led Pope Francis to in January 2023 that he “had nothing to do with” how Rupnik’s case had been handled. 

Rupnik is currently a priest of the Diocese of Koper in his native Slovenia. 

Many of the accusations against the priest were initially dismissed because they are beyond the Vatican’s ordinary statute of limitations for abuse of adults. But in October 2023, Pope Francis the statute of limitations in this case, allowing the Vatican’s investigation of Rupnik to proceed.

CNA Staff, Jun 28, 2024 / 14:45 pm (CNA).

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò on Friday said he will not participate in a Vatican summons to face charges of schism, reiterating his claims that Pope Francis is not the legitimate pope of the Catholic Church. 

The archbishop had previously revealed he received an email from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith informing him of the trial. The deadline for Viganò to appear before the Vatican expired today.

The former papal nuncio to the United States — who garnered headlines in 2018 for that senior Church officials covered up abuses committed by former cardinal — has repeatedly rejected the authority of Pope Francis since then and has on him to resign. 

In a lengthy shared on social media June 28, Viganò accused Pope Francis of “heresy and schism” over his and his overseeing of the on the appointment of bishops. 

He also said he has “no reason to consider myself separate from communion with the holy Church and with the papacy, which I have always served with filial devotion and fidelity.”

“I maintain that the errors and heresies to which [Francis] adhered before, during, and after his election, along with the intention he held in his apparent acceptance of the papacy, render his elevation to the throne null and void,” Viganò wrote. 

Viganò, who has been in hiding for years, announced on social media June 20 that he had been summoned to Rome to  

Schism is a canonical crime defined in the Code of Canon Law as “the withdrawal of submission to the supreme pontiff or from communion with the members of the Church subject to him.” Heresy, on the other hand, is “the obstinate denial or doubt, after baptism, of a truth which must be believed by divine and Catholic faith.”

The specific charges outlined against Viganò, according to a document he himself posted, involve making public statements that allegedly deny the fundamental elements necessary to maintain communion with the Catholic Church. This includes denying the legitimacy of Pope Francis as the rightful pontiff and outright rejection of the doctrines established during the Second Vatican Council.

Viganò had previously in a June 21 statement said he has “no intention of subjecting myself to a show trial,” further saying he has not sent any materials in his defense to the dicastery, “whose authority I do not recognize, nor that of its prefect, nor that of the person who appointed him.”

ACI Prensa Staff, Jun 27, 2024 / 16:15 pm (CNA).

During an audience with Pope Francis on June 27, the priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Dehonians) received devotional counsel from the Holy Father: They should make frequent visits, in humble silence, to their chapels for quiet prayer.

The audience took place on the occasion of the 25th general chapter of the congregation. Addressing the priests, Pope Francis invited them to make chapter decisions that take into account the value of sacramental life, “of being assiduous in listening to and meditating on the word of God, of the centrality of personal prayer and community, especially adoration, as a means of personal and fraternal growth and also as a service to the Church.”

“May the chapel be the most frequented room in your religious houses, especially as a place of humble and receptive silence and quiet prayer, so that the beats of the heart of Christ may guide the rhythm of your days, modulate the tones of your conversations, and sustain the zeal of your charity,” the Holy Father told the assembled priests.

The pope also stressed that the heart of Jesus “beats with love for us from eternity and his pulse can join ours, restoring us to calm, harmony, energy, and unity, especially in difficult moments.”

The Holy Father encouraged the priests not to be afraid in difficult times and to be close to the Lord “so that unity can be achieved in times of temptation.”

For this to happen, he stressed, “we need to give him space, with fidelity and constancy, silencing in us vain words and useless thoughts, and bringing everything before him.”

Pope Francis reiterated that gossip “is a plague, it seems small, but it destroys from within. Be careful. Never gossip about another, never! There is a good remedy for chatter: Bite your tongue, so that your tongue becomes swollen and doesn’t let you speak.”

The pope also highlighted the importance of prayer and said that without it there is no progress, “you’re not up on your feet: neither in religious life, nor in the apostolate! Without prayer nothing is done.”

Later, Pope Francis addressed the following questions to the priests: “How can we be missionaries today, in a complex time, marked by great and multiple challenges? How can you say, in the various areas of the apostolate in which you operate, something significant to a world that seems to have lost its heart?”

“Here is the secret of a credible proclamation, of an effective proclamation: letting the word ‘love’ be written, like Jesus, in our flesh, that is, in the concreteness of our actions, with tenacity, without being stopped by judgments that afflict us, distressing problems and the evil that wounds, with inexhaustible affection for each brother and sister, in solidarity with Christ the Redeemer in his desire to make reparation for the sins of all humanity.”

ACI Prensa Staff, Jun 27, 2024 / 15:45 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis received on June 27 the members and advisers of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America (CAL), to whom he proposed imitating the example of St. Juan Diego to “build bridges of reconciliation, inclusion, and fraternity.”

In his welcoming address, the Holy Father recalled that “the Second Vatican Council has called us to a profound renewal.”

Quoting Benedict XVI, the pope noted that the reform of the Church is always an “ablatio”: “a removal, so that the ‘nobilis forma’(noble form), the face of the Bride, and along with it also that of the Bridegroom, the living Lord, becomes visible.”

Only in this way, the Holy Father continued, “does the divine penetrate and only in this way does a congregation arise, an assembly, a meeting, a purification, that pure community that we long for: a community in which one ‘I’ is no longer against another ‘I.’”

The Holy Father explained that with the apostolic constitution he wanted precisely to collaborate with this “ablatio” to renew the Roman Curia and, among other things, make the CAL a “diakonía” (service) that allows the Church in Latin America to experience the pastoral care and affection of the successor of Peter.

The pontiff noted that the CAL is currently called to be “an active subject that promotes the necessary transformation that we all need, that is, to help with discretion, prudence, and effectiveness so that we live synodality, to walk together moved by the Spirit of the Lord in Latin America."

The pope said that in this way they must promote with all their interlocutors, both in the Holy See and in CELAM (the Latin American Bishops’ Conference), CEAMA (the Ecclesial Conference of Amazonia), CLAR (the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious), the bishops’ conferences, and all the ecclesial organizations that directly or indirectly serve the Church in Latin America, “a synodal style of thinking, feeling, and doing.”

To accomplish this, he invited the members and advisers of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America to have St. Juan Diego as a source of inspiration: “As we know, he was an extremely modest and simple Indigenous man. The Virgin doesn’t choose him because of his erudition, because of his organizational capacity, or because of his relationship with power.”

“On the contrary, Holy Mary of Guadalupe is moved because he knows he is very small. The awareness of his inability, accompanied by the discovery of the great love and closeness that the Virgin Mary has for him, allows St. Juan Diego to go look for the bishop and helps him to speak to him with charity and clarity about what the Lady from heaven asks of him.”

Pope Francis noted that the bishop, who also has a ministry to fulfill, requests a sign to be able to believe him. “St. Juan Diego obeys and finds on Tepeyec Hill the sign that was sought.” 

According to the Holy Father, in these scenes “we can see with simplicity and depth simultaneous synodality and communion.”

“The faithful layman announces the good news, trusting fundamentally in the ecclesial and supernatural dimension of his mission, and not so much in his own strengths. This is a beautiful experience of synodal conversion! This same trust also allows him to accept, without complications, the responsibility that the bishop has within the community.”

For Pope Francis, the result of this exercise of synodality and communion “is not only the roses that appear in front of everyone, not only is it the miraculous image printed on the saint’s tilma, but the beginning of a process of fraternal reconciliation between peoples who are inimical to each other.”

“This is the inspiring style,” the Holy Father said, “that CAL must promote throughout the Latin American region and, when required, even beyond it. Inspire, do not impose. Inspire, motivate, and engender freedom so that each ecclesial and social reality may discern its own path, also following the movements of the Spirit, in communion with the universal Church.”

“CAL must build bridges of reconciliation, of inclusion, of fraternity! Bridges that allow ‘walking together’ to be not a mere rhetorical expression but an authentic pastoral experience!” the pontiff exclaimed.

Finally, in view of the 2025 Jubilee, Pope Francis encouraged the commission members to invite the people of God to “be on pilgrimage and announce the message of hope that the entire region is urged to hear and rediscover.”

“May Holy Mary of Guadalupe sustain us and encourage us to persevere in the joint effort to make the Church a community increasingly in the style of Jesus,” he said.

CNA Staff, Jun 27, 2024 / 14:20 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis this week called on the faithful to a conversion of heart that extends Christian charity to all of God’s creation and urged them to commit themselves to protecting the environment.

The Holy Father made the remarks as part of  delivered ahead of the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. That observance, , is held on Sept. 1 every year. 

Christians, the pope said, bear witness to their faith in part “by caring for the flesh of suffering humanity.” Christianity acknowledges that “everything is ordered to the glory of God,” Francis said; the spirit of “universal fraternity and Christian peace,” he argued, “should also be extended to creation.”

The Holy Spirit “guides us and calls us to conversion,” Francis said, “to a change in lifestyle in order to resist the degradation of our environment and to engagement in that social critique which is above all a witness to the real possibility of change.”

Care for creation, the pope said, is not merely an ethical issue but a theological one, one that is marked by the “act of love” in which God created human beings. 

“To hope and act with creation, then, means to live an incarnational faith, one that can enter into the suffering and hope-filled ‘flesh’ of others, by sharing in the expectation of the bodily resurrection to which believers are predestined in Christ the Lord,” the pope said. 

By living out this imperative, “our lives can become a song of love for God, for humanity, with and for creation, and find their fullness in holiness,” he wrote. 

The theme for the 2024 day of prayer is “Hope and Act with Creation,” with the motif drawn from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans.

The pope  that the day offers the faithful “a fitting opportunity to reaffirm their personal vocation to be stewards of creation, to thank God for the wonderful handiwork which he has entrusted to our care, and to implore his help for the protection of creation as well as his pardon for the sins committed against the world in which we live.” 

The establishment of the day in 2015 was also seen as a sign of unity with the Orthodox Church, which established Sept. 1 as a day to celebrate creation in 1989.