Vatican News

Vatican City, Jan 21, 2025 / 16:30 pm (CNA).

In less than a month and a half, Pope Francis will install Franciscan nun Raffaella Petrini as head of the General Secretariat of the Government of the Vatican City State.

The change will take effect in March when Petrini, who currently serves as secretary in the same department, replaces Spanish z, who will turn 80 in a month and a half.

The news was made public by the Holy Father during on the Italian television program “Che Tempo Che Fa” (“What’s the Weather Like?”).

“We now have many women. For example, to select bishops on the commission there are three women selecting new bishops. The vice president of the Vatican Governorate, who will be governor in March, is a nun. In the Dicastery of the Economy, the vice president is a nun with two degrees … Women know how to manage things better than us,” he said.

Petrini was born in Rome on Jan. 15, 1969. She graduated with a degree in political science from the Guido Carli International University of Studies and obtained a doctorate from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, where she currently works as a professor. She joined the Vatican Curia as an official in the former Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

This appointment follows others the pontiff has made to increase the profile of women in leadership positions in the Catholic Church. Earlier this month, Pope Francis appointed the first woman to head a Vatican department, , former superior general in Italy of the Consolata Missionaries.

Brambilla currently heads the dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life together with Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, who has been named pro-prefect.

In 2022, Pope Francis confirmed the nun Alessandra Smerilli as prefect and undersecretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, a position she shares with Cardinal Michael Czerny. Both had already been interim directors of this body since Jan. 1 following the departure of Cardinal Peter Turkson.

Since 2016 the Vatican Museums have also been headed by a woman, Barbara Jatta, and in 2015 the pope appointed Mariella Enoc head of the Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital.

ACI Prensa Staff, Jan 21, 2025 / 14:15 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis on Monday emphasized the ecumenical vocation shared by Christians during an audience held at the Vatican with Finnish representatives of various Christian denominations who have made a pilgrimage to Rome on the occasion of the feast of St. Henry, celebrated Jan. 19.

The Jan. 20 meeting took place in the Vatican Apostolic Palace and was attended by the head of the Finnish Orthodox Church, Archbishop Elia of Helsinki, as well as Catholic Bishop Raimo Goyarrola of the Diocese of Helsinki and Bishop Matti Salomäki of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

The Holy Father stressed that bearing witness to the incarnate love of Christ “is our ecumenical vocation, in the communion of all the baptized.”

As part of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and the 2025 Jubilee Year, the pontiff stressed that St. Henry, the patron saint of Finland, represents an icon of hope “that finds its sure and firm foundation in God.”

As a messenger of peace, he continued, St. Henry “urges us to never cease lifting up our prayers for the precious and fragile gift of peace.”

At the same time, he pointed out that he is “a symbol of the unity given by God,” since his feast day continues to unite “Christians from different churches and ecclesial communities in the common praise of the Lord.”

He also applauded the fact that this pilgrimage is accompanied by the choir of the Sanctae Mariae Chapel, recalling that “whoever sings, prays twice.”

He then referred to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed shared by Christians as an “extraordinary musical score of faith” and a “symphony of truth,” with Jesus Christ at the center.

“Whoever listens to this ‘symphony of truth’ not only with their ears but [also] with their hearts will be touched by the mystery of God, who bends down toward us, full of love, in his Son,” he said.

To express with confidence the “filial vocation” of ecumenism, Pope Francis invited those present to pray the Lord’s Prayer.

Vatican City, Jan 20, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

In an important move for the Catholic Church in Texas on Monday, Pope Francis named Austin Bishop Joe Vásquez to replace 75-year-old Cardinal Daniel DiNardo as head of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.

DiNardo, who was made a cardinal in 2007 and who led the U.S. bishops’ conference as president from 2016–2019, turned 75 — the standard retirement age for Catholic bishops — in May 2024.

The 67-year-old Vásquez is returning to the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, where he served as an auxiliary bishop from 2002–2010. The bishop is coming back to the archdiocese almost exactly 15 years after moving 160 miles to the northwest to lead the Diocese of Austin.

The Mexican-American bishop also served as apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Tyler from November 2023 to December 2024, after Pope Francis

The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston serves 1.7 million Catholics in 146 parishes across 10 counties in southeastern Texas. Houston is the fourth-largest city in the U.S.

According to the archdiocese, the local Church is multicultural, with members coming from every continent. Liturgies are held in 14 different languages.

Vásquez, whose seminary education included five years in Rome studying at the Pontifical Gregorian University, was ordained a priest for the Diocese of San Angelo in 1984.

He grew up the oldest of six children in the small town of Stamford in west-central Texas.

Vásquez has served as a consultant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities and as lead bishop for Region X for the V National Encounter for Hispanic/Latino Ministry (V Encuentro).

CNA Newsroom, Jan 20, 2025 / 06:29 am (CNA).

Pope Francis sent a message to Donald Trump on the occasion of his inauguration as the 47th president of the United States on Monday, offering prayers for “wisdom, strength, and protection” in the exercise of his duties and invoking blessings upon the “beloved American people.”

In the message, released by the Holy See Press Office on Jan. 20, the pontiff expressed hope that under Trump’s leadership, the American people would “prosper and always strive to build a more just society.”

“Inspired by your nation’s ideals of being a land of opportunity and welcome for all, it is my hope that under your leadership the American people will prosper and always strive to build a more just society, where there is no room for hatred, discrimination, or exclusion,” Francis wrote.

The pope acknowledged the “numerous challenges” facing the human family, including “the scourge of war,” and asked God to guide Trump’s efforts in “promoting peace and reconciliation among peoples.”

The message concluded with the Holy Father invoking “an abundance of divine blessings” upon Trump, his family, and “the beloved American people.”

One day earlier — on Sunday — Pope Francis criticized potential plans for mass deportations in the United States during a wide-ranging Italian .

“If this is true it is a disgrace because it makes the poor unfortunate who have nothing pay the price of imbalance. This is not how things are solved,” the pope said on Italian broadcaster Nove’s “Che Tempo Che Fa” program on Jan. 19, speaking about plans to deport immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally.

CNA Newsroom, Jan 19, 2025 / 22:26 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis criticized potential plans for mass deportations in the United States under President-elect Donald Trump during a wide-ranging Italian television interview on Sunday.

“If this is true it is a disgrace because it makes the poor unfortunate who have nothing pay the price of imbalance. This is not how things are solved,” the pope said on Italian broadcaster Nove’s “Che Tempo Che Fa” program on Jan. 19, speaking about plans to deport immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally.

The U.S. bishops said in November they would if Trump does advance the proposal in a way that undermines human dignity.

There are an estimated 11.7 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., according to July 2023 statistics from the .

Francis also announced that Sister Raffaella Petrini will become the first female president of the Vatican City State governorate this March, elevating her from her current position as secretary-general.

“The work of women in the Curia has progressed slowly but effectively. Now, we have many,” Pope Francis said during the televised conversation.

The appointment of Petrini will take effect following the retirement of Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga from his current position as president of the governorate.

“Women manage better than we do,” he asserted, reported , CNA’s Italian-language news agency.

The appointment follows that as prefect of the Dicastery for Consecrated Life.

The Holy Father also addressed ongoing conflicts in Ukraine, Palestine, and Israel during the interview. “War is always a defeat,” the pontiff proclaimed, emphasizing the vital importance of negotiations and peace-building efforts.

Reflecting on the , Pope Francis stressed that pilgrimages to Rome’s Holy Door must be undertaken with genuine religious intent: “If you come to Rome and visit the Holy Door as a tourist, without a religious purpose, it serves no purpose.”

The interview marked the pope’s third appearance on the program.

Vatican City, Jan 19, 2025 / 10:35 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Sunday thanked the mediators who brokered the latest ceasefire deal in Gaza, which came into effect on Jan. 19. 

After praying the Angelus with thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square, the Holy Father said the ceasefire is an “important result” for the city, which has endured more than one year of fighting since Israel declared war on Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. 

“In recent days it was announced that the ceasefire in Gaza will come into effect today. I express my gratitude to all the mediators. It is a good job to mediate so that peace is made. Thank you to the mediators!” the pope exclaimed on Sunday.

“I hope that what has been agreed will be respected immediately by the parties,” he added.

During his Angelus address, the Holy Father also expressed his hope that all hostages “may finally return home and embrace their loved ones” and for the opening of humanitarian corridors into Gaza.    

“I pray a lot for them and for their families,” he told his listeners on Sunday. “I also hope that humanitarian aid will reach the people of Gaza, who so urgently need it, even faster and in large quantities.”

Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, Francis has consistently called for the release of all Israeli and Palestinian hostages and urged leaders to advance “dialogue, reconciliation, and peace.”  

“Both the Israelis and the Palestinians need clear signs of hope: I trust that the political authorities of both of them, with the help of the international community, may reach the right solution for the two states,” he said. 

In addition to those suffering in Palestine and Israel because of war, the Holy Father also reminded people to “pray always” for those in Ukraine, Myanmar, and other countries ravaged by conflict and violence. 

Speaking on the significance of the Jubilee Year of Hope and the recent release of more than 550 , the Holy Father also reiterated the need for “gestures of great hope” to extend to those in jail.

“I hope that in the coming months, we will continue to undertake initiatives of this type, which instill confidence in the journey of people and populations,” he said on Sunday.

To mark the octave of Christian unity — which began on Jan. 18 and concludes on the Jan. 25 feast of the conversion of St. Paul — the Holy Father prayed: “Let us not cease to invoke from God the precious gift of full communion between all the Lord’s disciples.”

CNA Newsroom, Jan 18, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

As millions of pilgrims are expected for the jubilee year in Rome, Pope Francis praised the patient service of the Swiss Guard and support for their families on Saturday.

Speaking at an audience marking the 25th anniversary of the Pontifical Swiss Guard Foundation, the pope how the guards’ patient service has become increasingly vital for managing pilgrim visits.

“Over time, the work of the Swiss Guard has changed considerably, but its aim remains always that of protecting the pope,” Francis said.

“This also involves contributing to the welcome of the many pilgrims from all over the world who wish to meet him. And this takes patience, and the guards have it!”

The foundation, established during the Great Jubilee of 2000, provides crucial support for guard families, particularly in education and professional development.

“I like the fact that the guards get married; I like the fact they have children, they have a family,” the pope said, noting the growing number of married guards with children. “This is very important, very important.”

Beyond family support, the foundation helps ensure the guards’ operational readiness through training programs and equipment updates. It also maintains contact with former guards who have returned home after Vatican service.

“I am in contact with some of those who remain very, very close to the Vatican, to the Church,” Francis said. “Sometimes they call on the phone, send something; when they pass through Rome, they visit me. It is a beautiful connection that I cherish.”

The pope pointed to the foundation’s work as exemplary of necessary collaboration within the Church. “No reality can proceed alone,” he said. “It is important to collaborate. We must all help each other and support each other.”

Concluding the audience, Francis expressed “heartfelt gratitude” for the foundation’s 25 years of support and requested prayers while assuring the members of his own prayerful remembrance.

The Pontifical Swiss Guard, founded in 1506 by Pope Julius II, is among the oldest active military units in continuous operation. The first significant event of the 2025 Jubilee Year will be the World Communications Day gathering, scheduled for Jan. 24–26, expected to draw thousands of media professionals to Rome.

Vatican City, Jan 17, 2025 / 12:50 pm (CNA).

Italian farmers, who are among this year’s pilgrims of hope for the 2025 Jubilee, brought their animals to the Vatican on Friday to be blessed by Cardinal Mauro Gambetti on the feast of St. Anthony the Abbot.

Several farmers from across the country transported horses, cattle, goats, geese, chickens, and rabbits to a makeshift stable set up in front of St. Peter’s Square to celebrate the Jan. 17 feast day of the patron saint of farmers and animals.

St. Anthony the Abbot — also known as St. Anthony of the Desert or St. Anthony the Great — was a fourth-century hermit known for his asceticism and is considered the father of Christian monasticism. His holy life in the Egyptian desert was also recorded by St. Athanasius in “.”

Following the morning Mass celebration inside St. Peter’s Basilica, Gambetti personally greeted livestock breeders attending this year’s festival, thanking them for their care of God’s creation.

“God cherishes his creation. He cares for the animals, the plants, because these create the conditions for life to continue and flourish, especially intelligent life, the life of humankind,” Gambetti told crowds outside St. Peter’s Square.

“God cares for each of you, especially you who have responded to his original call to cultivate and care for his creation,” he continued.

Fulvio, a horse breeder from the northern part of the Lazio region, told EWTN News that the blessing of the animals on St. Anthony’s feast day is important for him and his family.

“This event is the blessing of the animals, and as we care for our animals it is very important for us to receive this blessing for our animals,” he shared. “St. Anthony is an inspirational figure for us — he is the protector of our farm.”

Each year, the Italian state police lead a parade down Via della Conciliazione, the main street leading toward the Vatican, to St. Peter’s Square as part of the day’s celebrations.

Vatican City, Jan 17, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis is being treated for a contusion on his right forearm after falling at his residence, the latest of several recent health challenges for the 88-year-old pontiff.

The incident comes just weeks after he suffered a facial injury and battled a cold during the Christmas season.

Francis spent much of the past decade as pope in relatively good health but has dealt with several painful medical conditions over the last few years.

Here is a timeline charting Pope Francis’ recent health concerns:

A bout of sciatic pain in the keeps Pope Francis from presiding at the Vatican’s liturgies on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

Francis has suffered from sciatica for a number of years; he spoke about it during an in-flight press conference returning from a trip to Brazil in July 2013.

“Sciatica is very painful, very painful! I don’t wish it on anyone,” he said about the condition, which starts in the lower back and can cause pain running down the back of the thigh and leg to the foot.

Pope Francis cancels three more public appearances at the due to sciatic nerve pain.

A problem with his colon lands the pope on July 4.

Pope Francis undergoes surgery to relieve stricture of the colon caused by diverticulitis. The three-hour surgery includes a left hemicolectomy, the removal of one side of the colon.

The pope spends 11 days in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital recovering from the surgery.

Pope Francis shares that he was having problems with his knee.

“Excuse me if I stay seated, but I have a pain in my leg today ... It hurts me, it hurts if I’m standing,” the pope tells journalists from the Jerusalem-based Christian Media Center on Jan. 17.

Francis tells the crowd at his general audience that the reason he is unable to greet pilgrims as usual is because of a temporary “problem with my right leg,” an inflamed knee ligament.

Pope Francis s two public events at the end of February due to knee pain and doctors’ orders to rest.

In the month that follows, he receives help going up and down stairs but continues to walk and stand without assistance.

During a trip to Malta, Pope Francis uses a lift to disembark the papal plane. A special lift is also installed at Malta’s Basilica of St. Paul in Rabat so Francis can visit and pray in the crypt grotto without taking the stairs.

On the return flight on April 3, Francis : “My health is a bit fickle, I have this knee problem that brings out problems with walking.”

At the Vatican’s Good Friday service, the pope does not lie prostrate before the altar as he has done in the past.

He also does not celebrate the Easter Vigil Mass on April 16 or participate in the paschal candle procession but sits in the front of the congregation in a white chair.

On April 22 and April 26, Francis’ agenda is cleared for medical checkups and rest for his knee. The following day, the pope tells pilgrims at his general audience that his knee prevents him from standing for very long.

Pope Francis also begins to remain seated in the popemobile while greeting pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square.

On April 30, he says that his doctor has ordered him not to walk.

The pope says at the beginning of the month that he will undergo a on his knee, “an intervention with infiltrations,” by which he may have meant a therapeutic injection, sometimes used to relieve knee pain caused by ligament tears.

Two days later, he in public for the first time since his July 2021 colon surgery. Throughout May he continues to use the wheelchair and avoids most standing and walking.

Francis also undergoes more than two hours of rehabilitation for his knee every day, according to an Argentine archbishop close to the pontiff.

The treatment “is giving results,” then-Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández ites on Twitter on May 14 after he has a private meeting with Francis.

Other than his knee, “he’s better than ever,” Fernández adds.

Earlier, Lebanon’s tourism minister says that a reported papal visit to the country in June was postponed .

The pope does stand for long periods of time when celebrating a May 15 Mass in St. Peter’s Square. Afterward, a seminarian from Mexico catches a moment of lightheartedness between pilgrims and the pope as he greets them from the popemobile. Someone thanks the pope for being present at the Mass, despite his knee pain, to which Francis s: “Do you know what I need for my knee? A bit of tequila.”

In early June, the Vatican s Pope Francis’ planned visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan for health reasons. The trip was planned for July 2–7 but is put off “at the request of his doctors, and in order not to jeopardize the results of the therapy that he is undergoing for his knee,” according to the Vatican.

Less than a week later, the Vatican s that Pope Francis will not preside over the June 16 Corpus Christi Mass because of his knee problems and “the specific liturgical needs of the celebration.”

Pope Francis s on his health and speaks about the effects of old age in general terms during his June 15 general audience.

“When you are old, you are no longer in control of your body. One has to learn to choose what to do and what not to do,” the pope says. “The vigor of the body fails and abandons us, even though our heart does not stop yearning. One must then learn to purify desire: Be patient, choose what to ask of the body and of life. When we are old, we cannot do the same things we did when we were young: The body has another pace, and we must listen to the body and accept its limits. We all have them. I too have to use a walking stick now.”

Toward the end of the month, on June 28, Pope Francis walks with a cane to meet bishops from Brazil and ells them: “I have been able to walk for three days.”

On Aug. 4, the Vatican s that Massimiliano Strappetti, a Vatican nurse, has been appointed as Pope Francis’ “personal health care assistant.”

José María Villalón, the head doctor of the Atlético de Madrid soccer team, is recruited to assist Pope Francis with his knee problems. He says the pope is “a very nice and very stubborn patient in the sense that there are surgical procedures that he does not want” and that “we have to offer him more conservative treatments so that he will agree to them.”

In an published by the Associated Press on Jan. 25, Pope Francis announces that his diverticulitis has returned. He emphasizes that he is in “good health” and that, for his age, he is “normal.”

On Feb. 23 the Vatican s that Pope Francis has a “strong cold.” The pope distributes copies of his speeches at two morning appointments rather than reading them aloud as usual.

On March 29 the Vatican announces that Pope Francis is expected to remain in a hospital in Rome for “some days” due to a respiratory infection. It had announced earlier in the day that he was in the hospital for previously scheduled medical checkups.

Pope Francis undergoes a to repair an incisional hernia on June 7.

A team of surgeons removes scar tissue and operates on a hernia in the pope’s abdominal wall at the site of a previous surgical incision in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital. 

The pope is discharged on June 16 after an recovering from the operation.

Pope Francis comes down with a according to the Vatican. The pope cancels his scheduled meetings and goes to the hospital on Nov. 25 for precautionary testing.

The CT scan at the hospital rules out pneumonia but shows that the pope has lung inflammation that is “causing some breathing difficulties,” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni tells journalists on Nov. 27.

The pope is as he recovers. A bandage holding in place a cannula for intravenous treatment can be seen on the pope’s right hand as he gives the , the Casa Santa Marta, rather than from the usual window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter’s Square. 

“Today I cannot appear at the window because I have this problem of inflammation of the lungs,” the pope says in the on Nov. 26.

Pope Francis with the president of Paraguay the following day. The Vatican releases photos of the pope’s meeting with the Paraguayan president showing the pope smiling and using a cane to walk.

According to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, Pope Francis hit his chin on a bedside table on the morning of Dec. 6, causing a large hematoma on the lower right side of his cheek. Despite the visible bruising, he continues with his scheduled appearances, including the consistory for the the following day.

The pope is also sick with a cold right before Christmas. At Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Dec. 24, he is seen wearing what appears to be hearing devices.

The Vatican says on Jan. 16 that Pope Francis n on his right forearm after falling at his residence that morning. Photos from his scheduled audiences show his arm tied up in a white sling.

While the arm was not fractured in the accident, it was braced “as a precautionary measure,” the brief communication says.

ACI Prensa Staff, Jan 16, 2025 / 15:45 pm (CNA).

A musical that tells the story of St. Bernadette, visionary of Our Lady of Lourdes, made its debut in Rome on Jan. 14. The premiere was reserved for a select group of guests: 1,600 people from low-income families.

The Office of the Papal Almoner, headed by Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, invited more than a thousand low-income people and refugees to enjoy the show in the large auditorium located on Via della Conciliazione, the wide avenue that leads to St. Peter’s Square.

On Tuesday afternoon, the thousands of guests presented their tickets, distributed at the soup kitchens and in the communities where they live, to enjoy this live performance that has been a success in France and that, starting Jan. 16, will be included in the official program of the 2025 Jubilee of Hope.

At the end of the musical, members of the Missionaries of Charity order founded by St. Teresa of Calcutta offered each guest a bag of food.

Krajewski emphasized in a statement to that it is “very beautiful to think that the poor will see the premiere since, after all, “even in the Gospel” they are given priority.

Fatima Lucarini, the musical’s producer in Italy, expressed her desire to present the premiere to the poor of Rome, an initiative that she was able to share with the Holy Father during a private meeting they had Dec. 12, 2024, at the Vatican.

The musical for pilgrims coming to Rome during the Jubilee of Hope. The show will then be performed in other Italian cities such as Naples, Bari, and Turin. It is also expected to come to the United States and Latin America in 2026.

Premiered in France in 2019, “” shows the plight and perseverance of Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year-old girl who experienced mystical encounters with the Virgin Mary in the grotto of Massabielle.

In that grotto, Bernadette saw a lady dressed in white who later identified herself as the Immaculate Conception.

The play is directed by the renowned Canadian stage director Serge Denoncourt and the starring role is played by the French singer Eyma.

The visionary of Our Lady of Lourdes died at the age of 35 after leaving Lourdes to join the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity in Nevers, France.

Vatican City, Jan 16, 2025 / 09:30 am (CNA).

The Vatican’s top diplomat has called the gradual release of 553 prisoners in Cuba “a sign of great hope” at the beginning of the Catholic Church’s jubilee year.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, also commented on U.S. President Joe Biden’s commutation of death sentences for 37 death row inmates, expressing hope that there will be more “gestures of clemency” from governments throughout the 2025 holy year.

Jubilee years in the biblical tradition included the liberation of slaves and the forgiveness of debts, as described in the Book of Leviticus, which proclaimed liberty and restoration every 50 years as a divine act of justice and mercy.

The Cuban government’s of the prisoner release dated Jan. 14 cited “the spirit of the Ordinary Jubilee of 2025” and noted Pope Francis’ mediation in the negotiations, in which the U.S. State Department agreed to to secure the release of the political prisoners.

“It is significant that Havana authorities linked this decision directly to Pope Francis’ appeal,” Parolin in an interview published by Vatican News during his visit to France.

Pope Francis has repeatedly called for “gestures of clemency” during the holy year, the cardinal added, particularly in the jubilee’s papal bull , which specifically asked governments to implement forms of amnesty or pardon, as well as programs to help former prisoners reintegrate into the community.

“I propose that in this jubilee year governments undertake initiatives aimed at restoring hope; forms of amnesty or pardon meant to help individuals regain confidence in themselves and in society; and programmes of reintegration in the community, including a concrete commitment to respect for law,” Francis wrote in the papal bull.

“In every part of the world, believers, and their pastors in particular, should be one in demanding dignified conditions for those in prison, respect for their human rights and above all the abolition of the death penalty, a provision at odds with Christian faith and one that eliminates all hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation,” the pope added.

Parolin noted that the 2024 year “closed with the commutation by the president of the United States of dozens of death sentences to life sentences, and with the news that Zimbabwe had abolished capital punishment.”

One day before the start of the Church’s jubilee year on Christmas Eve, Biden commuted the sentences of , changing their sentences from execution to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Since then, two prisoners have rejected the commutation in the belief that it could put them at a legal disadvantage in appealing their cases on the claim of innocence.

The African nation of Zimbabwe approved a law on Dec. 31, 2024, resulting in the resentencing or commutation in about 62 prisoners. Globally, 113 countries have fully abolished capital punishment, according to Amnesty International.

“We hope that this 2025 will continue in this direction and that the good news will multiply, especially with the truce for the many conflicts still ongoing,” Parolin said.

Vatican City, Jan 16, 2025 / 08:30 am (CNA).

The Vatican said Thursday that Pope Francis had suffered a “contusion” on his right forearm after falling at his residence that same morning.

While the arm was not fractured in the accident, it was braced “as a precautionary measure,” the brief communication said.

Pope Francis’ arm, tied up in a white sling, was visible in photos taken on the morning of Jan. 16 in the apostolic palace during his scheduled audiences.

The 88-year-old pope was also mildly injured in a fall in December. According to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, on the morning of Dec. 6, 2024, Francis hit his chin on his nightstand, causing a large hematoma on the lower right side of his cheek.

Francis was also sick with a cold right before Christmas.

The illness and both falls did not stop the pontiff from keeping his as usual busy schedule.

On the morning of Jan. 16, he met with the Bektashi Islamic leader of Tirana, Albania, His Grace Haji Dede Edmond Brahimaj; Nosipho Nausca-Jean Jezile, chairwoman of the World Food Security Committee; Alvaro Lario, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development; Archbishop-elect Alberto Torriani of Crotone-Santa Severina; and a group of Argentine priests studying in Rome. 

Pope Francis has increasingly shown his age in recent years, as he now almost always uses a wheelchair to move around and has occasional problems with breathlessness. At Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Dec. 24, 2024, he could be seen wearing what appeared to be hearing devices.

In 2017, Pope Francis also suffered a fall while visiting the South American country of Colombia. He slipped and hit his cheek and eyebrow on the popemobile while reaching to greet a child.

Madrid, Spain, Jan 16, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which runs Jan. 18–25, takes on special significance this year because of the 1,700th anniversary of the first ecumenical council in history, the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325.

On Jan. 25, the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, Pope Francis will conclude this week of prayer with vespers in St. Paul Outside the Walls Basilica at 5:30 p.m. Rome time.

In addition, on Thursday, Jan. 23, at 6 p.m., the Diocese of Rome will organize a traveling vigil involving three different places of worship: the Lutheran church located at 70 Via Sicilia, St. Andrew Orthodox Church at 153 Via Sardegna, and St. Camillus de Lellis Parish at 41 Via Piemonte.

According to a statement released by the Vicariate of Rome, this is not simply a prayer vigil but “a brief pilgrimage in three stages” with biblical meditations intended for evangelicals, Orthodox, and Catholics.

“This giving of gifts also represents circularity, communion, and diversity within the same faith,” said Monsignor Marco Gnavi, head of the office for ecumenism and interreligious dialogue of the Diocese of Rome.

The prayers and reflections for this event were drafted by the brothers of the Monastic Community of Bose in northern Italy together with an international group appointed by the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity and the Faith and Order Commission of the Ecumenical Council of Churches. 

The theme for the week, “Do You Believe This?” (Jn 11:26), is inspired by the dialogue between Jesus and Martha during Jesus’ visit to the home of Martha and Mary in Bethany after their brother Lazarus had died as recounted in John’s Gospel.

According to Gnavi, the theme chosen this year “is central, because today not only the churches but also the peoples must face many forms of real death, which also involves division, separation, to the point of conflict and the massacre of innocents.”

Even in one’s personal life, the priest continued, “many are alone and, in the uncertainty of the present, the need for answers arises.”

“The dialogue between Jesus and Martha shows how in every man and woman there is an implicit or explicit question about faith. These words also help us to remember the anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, which gave us this profession of faith that unites us all in baptism,” he concluded.

Rome Newsroom, Jan 16, 2025 / 05:00 am (CNA).

At Pope Francis’ request, the Vatican will now pay a monthly bonus of 300 euros (about $309) per family to employees of the city-state who have three or more children, giving credibility to his frequent about countries’ low.

A Jan. 15 press release from the Vatican Governorate called the child bonus the pope’s “personal initiative” and said that Francis “supports large families and offers them financial assistance.”

The economic measure applies only to employees working for the Governorate of the Vatican City State, who will receive the monthly payment until the offspring’s 18th birthday or 24th birthday if enrolled in university studies.

Francis has also determined that the city-state’s three days of paid parental leave for new fathers — whether through birth, adoption, or fostering — be extended to five days.

The changes went into effect Jan. 1.

The “baby bonus” initiative is the latest in the Vatican’s efforts to make itself a more family-friendly employer. Late last year, the city-state announced its intention to open an on-site for employees’ children ages 3 months to 3 years.

Since 2020, the Vatican has also run for the children of staff. Kids ages 5–13 can attend the day camp, which usually runs for several weeks in July and as of 2024 includes a new sports facility and swimming pool.

Pope Francis , all the children of Vatican staff and Swiss Guards, in the Sistine Chapel on Sunday. The group baptism is a papal custom for the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

Vatican City, Jan 15, 2025 / 10:50 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Wednesday called for a global commitment to eradicate child labor, saying injustices committed against “the invisible little ones” are a gross violation against God’s commandments.

The Holy Father told groups of pilgrims attending his Jan. 15 general audience that they should be aware that millions of children — “the most beloved of the Father” — are trafficked for organ harvesting, to become child brides, or are forced to work as slaves, drug dealers, prostitutes, and for the porn industry.

“This is very bitter in our societies,” he told pilgrims gathered inside the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall. “Unfortunately, there are many ways in which children are abused and mistreated.”

“Child abuse, of whatever nature, is a despicable and heinous act,” he continued. “It is not simply a blight on society. No, it is a crime!”

During the address, the pope decried the widening social divide that has left many children even more vulnerable to exploitation.

“Widespread poverty, the shortage of social support tools for families, the increased marginality in recent years along with unemployment and job insecurity are factors that burden the youngest with the highest price to pay,” he lamented on Wednesday.

To eliminate the reality of forced child labor, the pope said it is “necessary to awaken the consciences” of individuals, institutions, and nations to work in solidarity to protect vulnerable boys and girls.

“When we purchase products that involve child labor — how can we eat and dress, knowing that behind that food and those garments there are exploited children who work instead of going to school?” the Holy Father asked. 

“Awareness of what we purchase is a first act in order not to be complicit,” he emphasized. 

Praising the wisdom of countries and international organizations that have enacted policies to protect children’s rights, the pope stressed that they must “shift their investments to companies that do not use or permit child labor.”

The Holy Father also implored journalists to raise awareness of the issue and to help find solutions: “Don’t be scared, criticize these things!”   

Asking for the intercession of St. Teresa of Calcutta, the pope prayed that the “mother to the most disadvantaged and forgotten boys and girls” will help all those committed to denouncing child labor.

“With the tenderness and attention of her gaze, she can accompany us to see the invisible little ones, the too many slaves of a world that we cannot abandon to its injustices,” he said.

Before imparting his final blessings to pilgrims following a circus performance inside the Paul VI Hall, the pope expressed his closeness with the victims of the Jan. 3 Myanmar earthquake. 

Following the disaster, the country’s Kachin state was struck by a on Monday that killed at least a dozen people and displaced several families.

He also asked people to continue to pray for the many countries at war, including Ukraine, Palestine, and Israel, reminding his listeners that “war is always a defeat” with a high human cost.

“Let us pray for the conversion of the hearts of weapons manufacturers because their products help people to kill,” he said.

ACI Prensa Staff, Jan 15, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The Vatican City State has toughened sanctions for those who try to illegally enter its territory in areas where free access is not allowed.

In a issued last month by the Holy See, the monetary sanctions and prison sentences for those who violate the strict security regulations of Vatican City have been considerably increased.

The document, signed by Cardinal Fernando Vérguez Alzaga, president of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, provides for monetary fines ranging from 10,000 to 25,000 euros (about $10,200 to $25,700) and prison sentences ranging from one to four years. 

These fines will apply especially to those who enter by means of violence, threats, or deception, bypassing border controls or security systems. In addition, those who enter with expired permits or do not meet the established requirements will receive administrative sanctions ranging from 2,000 to 5,000 euros (about $2,060 to $5,145).

The decree emphasizes that the penalties can be increased if the crime is committed with firearms, corrosive substances, by a person in disguise, or by several people together. Likewise, if illegal access is made in a vehicle, the penalty can increase by up to two-thirds.

The document also stipulates that unauthorized overflight of Vatican airspace, including through the use of drones, may be punished with prison sentences from six months to three years in addition to a fine that could reach 25,000 euros (about $26,000).

Anyone convicted of illegal entry will be banned from entering Vatican territory for a period of up to 15 years. If this sanction is breached, the offender may be punished with a prison sentence of one to five years.

In addition, the Vatican’s promoter of justice may summon any person who has committed an offense to appear before the court the day after receiving the complaint or immediately after questioning him.

Vatican City is the smallest state in the world and currently has a population of just over 800 inhabitants. The city-state covers 0.17 square miles. If it were perfectly square, the Vatican would be less than a half mile by a half mile.

The Vatican City State includes areas with free access, such as St. Peter’s Basilica or the Vatican Museums, which require prior security checks.

However, there are other entrances flanked by high walls, such as Porta Santa Ana, Piazza del Sant’Uffizio, or Porta Perugino, reserved for authorized personnel or visitors with special permits.

Rome Newsroom, Jan 14, 2025 / 14:00 pm (CNA).

The Vatican City State’s first decree regulating the use of artificial intelligence quietly came into effect this month prohibiting discriminatory uses of AI and establishing a special commission to oversee “experimentation” with the new technology at the Vatican.

The decree titled was enacted by the Pontifical Commission of Vatican City State and came into effect on Jan. 1 following a low-profile publication on the Vatican government’s the day before Christmas Eve.

The new regulations set strict prohibitions on uses of AI within Vatican state institutions but do not apply to the entire Roman Curia. 

Among the banned practices are employing AI systems that compromise Vatican City security, implementing AI systems that exclude persons with disabilities from accessing its features, and using AI to draw “anthropological inferences with discriminatory effects on individuals.”

The 13-page decree also forbids AI applications that create social inequalities, violate human dignity, or use “subliminal manipulation techniques” that cause physical or psychological harm to people.

Furthermore, any use of AI that conflicts with the mission of the pope, the integrity of the Catholic Church, or the Vatican’s institutional activities is prohibited.

In an effort to oversee compliance, the decree establishes a five-member “Commission on Artificial Intelligence,” comprising officials from Vatican City’s legal, IT, and security departments. 

This commission is tasked with monitoring AI activities, preparing implementation laws, issuing biannual reports on AI within Vatican City and areas governed under the Lateran Treaty. 

The commission will also evaluate proposals for AI experimentation to ensure alignment with the decree’s ethical framework.

The Vatican guidelines draw inspiration from the European Union’s AI Regulation, which came into force in August, emphasizing a risk-based approach to AI applications. 

While safeguarding existing Vatican laws on data protection and copyright, the decree reinforces principles of transparency, inclusion, and ethical responsibility. It mandates that AI systems prioritize Vatican security, data protection, nondiscrimination, economic sustainability, and care for the environment.

AI-generated content within the Vatican must be clearly labeled as “IA” (intelligenza artificiale), ensuring transparency and distinguishing human creativity from machine outputs. The Vatican also retains copyright over such works.

The decree states that “the use of artificial intelligence must not limit the decision-making power of the subjects responsible for the organization, functioning, and coordination of the personnel of the governorate of the Vatican City State by the administration.”

In addition to outlining general principles, the decree provides specific guidelines for sectors such as health care, cultural heritage, judicial activity, and administrative procedures.

In Vatican courts, AI systems may only be used for research, while the decree stipulates that the actual judicial activity of interpreting the law must be reserved for human judges.

Pope Francis’ advocacy for ethical AI governance has been a driving force behind these new regulations. The decree reflects , as outlined in the Vatican’s a document calling for transparency, accountability, and social justice in artificial intelligence.

Pope Francis has previously called for an and last year to

Despite the prohibitions, the guidelines affirm that “science and technology are a product of human creativity understood as a gift from God and have remedied countless evils that afflicted and limited human beings.” 

Additional Vatican laws implementing the AI regulations and guidelines are expected by the end of 2025.

Madrid, Spain, Jan 14, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

“,” the autobiography of Pope Francis, hit the shelves of Italian bookstores Tuesday and will be on sale starting Jan. 16 in more than 100 countries.

The book marks the first time a pope has provided a first-person narration of the episodes that have marked his entire life, in this case from his childhood in Argentina in a family of Italian immigrants to becoming the successor of St. Peter.

Published by Random House in its 320-page English edition, the book is the result of six years of work and was written with the collaboration of journalist Carlo Musso, who helped the Holy Father tell his story.

In addition to his memoirs, in the book the pope takes up issues such as war and peace, immigration, the environmental crisis, social policy, sexuality, and the future of the Catholic Church. All of this under the rubric of hope, a theme that is also being highlighted during the 2025 Jubilee.

In a recent interview, Pope Francis said the book was originally planned to be published following his death. “But since I’m not dying (he laughs), they’re afraid that it will lose relevance and they decided to do it now,” the Holy Father explained last December with Argentine journalist Bernarda Llorente.

The pontiff, according to the excerpts released by the publishing house, begins his memoirs with an episode that marked his destiny: the sinking of the transatlantic ship Princesa Mafalda, known as the

His grandparents, together with his father, Mario, bought tickets to sail on the ship that left Genoa on Oct. 11, 1927, bound for Buenos Aires. However, they ultimately didn’t board the vessel because they were unable to sell their belongings in time. “That’s why I am here now; you can’t imagine how many times I have thanked Divine Providence for it,” the pontiff recounts in his autobiography.

He also brings up memories from his childhood at “531 Membrillar Street” in the Flores neighborhood of Buenos Aires, as well as the friendships he forged there, including with a prostitute known as “La Parota,” who decided to change her life and leave the streets to care for the elderly.

The Holy Father devotes a large amount of space in his autobiography to reflecting on the value of a sense of humor to deal with sadness and “healthy irony” as a medicine to counter narcissism.

“Irony is medicine, not only to elevate and enlighten others but also for oneself, because self-irony is a powerful tool to overcome the temptation of narcissism. Narcissists continually look in the mirror, they get all primped up, they observe themselves over and over again, but the best advice in front of a mirror is always to laugh at oneself. It will do us good,” the pope comments in the book.

Throughout its pages, the reader will even find some jokes told by the pope himself. The Italian newspaper gave a preview of one of them:

“And they also told me one that concerns me directly, that of Pope Francis in America. It goes more or less like this: As soon as he lands at the New York airport for his apostolic trip to the United States, Pope Francis finds an enormous limousine waiting for him. He is a little embarrassed by all that pomp, but then he thinks that he hasn’t driven in ages, and never a car like that, and in short he says to himself: Well, when will I get another chance? He looks at the limousine and asks the driver: ‘Would you let me try it?’ And the driver: ‘Look, I’m really sorry, Your Holiness, but I just can’t do it, you know the procedures, the protocols…’ 

“But you know how they say the pope is when he gets something into his head; in short he insists and insists, until the guy gives in. Pope Francis then gets behind the wheel on one of those major streets and ... gets a taste for it, starts to press on the accelerator: going 50, 80, 120... Until a siren is heard and a police car pulls up alongside him and stops him. 

“A young policeman approaches the tinted window, the slightly intimidated pope rolls it down and the man turns pale. ‘Excuse me a minute,’ he says, and goes back to his car to call the station. ‘Chief... I think I have a problem.’ And the chief says, ‘What problem?’ ‘Well, I stopped a car for speeding... but there’s a really important guy in it.’ ‘How important? Is he the mayor?’ ‘No, chief, more than the mayor...’ ‘And who is more than the mayor? The governor?’ ‘No, more...’ ‘But is he the president?’ ‘More, I think...’ ‘And who could possibly be more important than the president?’ ‘Look, chief, I don’t know exactly who he is, but I’ll just tell you that the pope is his chauffeur!’”

Vatican City, Jan 12, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Sunday celebrated the feast of the Baptism of the Lord by baptizing 21 babies in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel and praying the Angelus with pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square. 

Before baptizing the babies of Vatican staff and Swiss Guards on Sunday morning, the Holy Father said parents must serve children with sacraments and prayers.

“Today, each of you parents and the Church herself give the greatest, greatest gift: the gift of faith to children,” he told families gathered inside the Sistine Chapel.

“Let us ask the Lord that they grow in faith, a true humanity, in the joy of the family,” he prayed.

In his Jan. 12 Angelus address, the Holy Father said Christians should know and celebrate the date of their baptisms as a “new birthday” that commemorates their “birth in the Spirit of God.” 

“This is very important! Think: On what day was I baptized? If we don’t remember, when we get home, let’s ask our parents and godparents the date of our baptism,” he said to hundreds of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

“Don’t forget! This is a job to do at home: the date of my baptism,” he insisted.

Recalling Sunday’s liturgy of the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the Holy Father said during his Angelus address: “In revealing himself as Father through the Son, God establishes a privileged place to enter into dialogue and communion with humanity. It is the face of the beloved Son.”

The pope said Christians should be able to recognize God by contemplating “the face and voice of God” through the humanity of Jesus Christ and through other baptized people.

“So let us ask ourselves: Do we feel loved? Do I feel loved and accompanied by God or do I think that God is distant from me?” he asked pilgrims. “Are we capable of recognizing his face in Jesus and in our brothers and sisters?”

After praying the Angelus with pilgrims from the window of the Apostolic Palace, the pope asked people to continue their prayers for those in need around the world.

“I am close to the inhabitants of Los Angeles County, California, where devastating fires have broken out in recent days. I pray for all of you,” he said.

“Let us also invoke his intercession as we pray for peace in Ukraine, in the Middle East, and throughout the world,” he added.

Madrid, Spain, Jan 12, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

At the end of this month, Rome will host the first jubilee event of the holy year to take place following the opening of the Holy Doors: the Jubilee of the World of Communications.

Media professionals from different countries will gather Jan. 24–26 in the Eternal City to take part in this event, with including an audience with Pope Francis.

Journalists, video producers, editors, graphic designers, and social media managers all are invited to make this pilgrimage to Rome to renew their faith and experience the graces granted by the 2025 Jubilee of Hope.

After an event to welcome the participants and a penitential liturgy on the evening of Jan. 24 at 5:30 p.m. local time, the gathered communicators will take part in a Mass in St. John Lateran Basilica for the feast day of St. Francis de Sales, the patron saint of journalists and writers.

On Jan. 25, a pilgrimage will begin at 8 a.m. local time to the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica. Since the door was opened by Pope Francis on Dec. 24, more than from all over the world have already passed through it.

At the end of the Mass, attendees will go to the Vatican to take part in a meeting at 10 a.m. local time led by the Filipino journalist Maria Ressa and Irish writer Colum McCann. Later, at 12:30 p.m. the audience with Pope Francis will take place in Paul VI Hall.

On Saturday afternoon, the Dicastery for Communication is offering a cultural and spiritual meeting, also in Paul VI Hall, followed by a live broadcast of vespers presided over by the Holy Father in St. Paul Outside the Walls Basilica to conclude the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Later, the documentary “Green Lava” will be shown.

Only those with an invitation will be able to take part in an event for young communicators titled “Uniting Communicators for a Shared Journey.”

Other conferences and events have also been organized, including a talk at the Lateran Palace titled “Journalism as a Mission: Giving Voice to the Voiceless on the Outskirts of Humankind,” organized by the Vicariate of Rome, and “Communicating Hope and Peace” organized by the Office of Social Communication of the Italian Bishops’ Conference to be held at Santa Maria in Trastevere basilica.

There will also be a roundtable organized by the Pauline Family at Regina degli Apostoli alla Montagnola Basilica and a meeting with Vaticanists at LUMSA University, organized by the Spanish Bishops’ Conference.

Finally, on Jan. 26, the media professionals will participate in the Sunday of the Word of God Mass presided over by Pope Francis at 9:30 a.m. local time in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

CNA Newsroom, Jan 11, 2025 / 16:17 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis made an unannounced visit to Fondazione Roma on Jan. 11, where he praised the foundation’s charitable work supporting humanitarian projects worldwide.

Founded on principles of solidarity and subsidiarity, is a cornerstone of Italy’s philanthropic landscape.

During his Saturday afternoon visit to the foundation’s headquarters at Palazzo Sciarra Colonna, the pope met with leadership and blessed a small chapel within the historic building, ACI Stampa, CNA‘s Italian-language news partner.

According to a statement released after the visit, Francis expressed gratitude for the foundation’s “profound institutional commitment,” emphasizing “the importance of providing free access across all sectors, especially in culture.”

In a lighter moment, the pontiff underscored the value of humor in life, sharing his daily habit of reciting a prayer for having a sense of humor — often attributed to St. Thomas More — as in .

Foundation President Franco Parasassi recalled the pope’s to Palazzo Cipolla to view Marc Chagall’s “White Crucifixion.”

The foundation, established in 1500 as the Monte di Pietà di Roma through a papal bull of Pope Paul III, continues its mission of solidarity and subsidiarity through projects across five sectors: health care, scientific research, assistance to vulnerable social groups, education and training, and arts and culture.

During the visit, the foundation gave Francis an overview of its far-reaching humanitarian initiatives. These include disaster relief efforts in Argentina’s Bahia Blanca region, aiding populations affected by recent devastating storms, and maternal health projects in Togo’s Archdiocese of Lomé, where they are providing ultrasound equipment for pregnant women.

Additional initiatives address socio-health care challenges in Bethlehem, support war-affected populations in Lebanon and Ukraine, and strengthen traditional collaborations with Caritas and the Diocese of Rome, particularly aiding peripheral parishes.

CNA Newsroom, Jan 11, 2025 / 07:15 am (CNA).

Pope Francis kicked off the first Saturday jubilee audience of 2025 by urging pilgrims to embrace hope as a divine strength that enables new beginnings, drawing inspiration from St. John the Baptist.

Speaking to pilgrims gathered in the Vatican’s audience hall on Jan. 11, the pontiff emphasized that hope is not merely a character trait but rather a theological virtue that represents “strength to be asked for” from God.

“Many of you are here in Rome as ‘pilgrims of hope,’” Pope Francis said.

“Indeed, the jubilee is a new beginning, the possibility for everyone to start anew from God. With the jubilee we start a new life, a new phase.”

The pope highlighted how the Latin word “virtus” means strength, explaining that hope, therefore, comes as a gift from God rather than existing as a mere habit or personality characteristic.

The Catholic Church teaches that hope is one of the three theological virtues — along with faith and charity — which the hearts of the faithful.

Drawing connections to the feast of the on , Francis reflected on John the Baptist as a “great prophet of hope,” noting how people flocked to him “longing for a new beginning.”

“Just as we today pass through the Holy Door, so John proposed to cross the river Jordan, entering the Promised Land as Joshua had done the first time,” the pope said, connecting the biblical narrative to the current jubilee year.

Pope Francis concluded with special greetings to English-speaking pilgrims, invoking God’s blessings of “wisdom, strength, and peace” upon them and their families.

The jubilee audience marked the beginning of regular Saturday gatherings that will welcome pilgrims from around the world throughout the 2025 Jubilee Year.

The first major calendar event of the 2025 holy year is the Jubilee of the World of Communications, scheduled for Jan. 24–26. The Vatican expects thousands of journalists and media professionals from around the world to come to Rome for the occasion.

CNA Newsroom, Jan 11, 2025 / 06:15 am (CNA).

Pope Francis expressed his condolences Saturday to Los Angeles communities affected by devastating wildfires that have destroyed homes and churches, including the historic Corpus Christi Catholic Church.

In a telegram released by the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the pope said he was “saddened by the loss of life and the widespread destruction” caused by the fires near Los Angeles.

The pontiff entrusted “the souls of the deceased to the loving mercy of Almighty God” and sent “heartfelt condolences to those who mourn their loss.”

President Joe Biden canceled his upcoming — which would have included a meeting with Pope Francis — to address the ongoing crisis in Southern California.

Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, addressing the tragedy during a special Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on Thursday, called on Catholics to become “instruments” of God’s love amid the devastation.

The archdiocese has  to help the community.

The fires began Tuesday and spread rapidly due to dry conditions and hurricane-force Santa Ana winds. Multiple blazes remained unchecked across thousands of acres as firefighters worked to gain control.

Among the destroyed structures was . However, in what some consider miraculous, a Virgin Mary statue survived the blaze that consumed one parishioner’s home — the only item left standing after the fire reduced the building to ashes.

The archdiocese is coordinating with local Catholic agencies to provide resources to those affected by the fires.

Rome Newsroom, Jan 11, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A new tour of the Vatican Gardens at the pope’s summer palace in Castel Gandolfo is opening in the spring for jubilee pilgrims who wish to escape the crowds in Rome for a day and immerse themselves in the natural beauty of God’s creation.

On the wooded slopes of the Alban Hills, overlooking the blue waters of a small volcanic crater lake, the papal residence and gardens at Castel Gandolfo was a favorite summer retreat for popes for centuries.

With the Church’s 2025 Jubilee, these papal gardens will turn a new chapter as the setting for one of Pope Francis’ most ambitious ecological projects.

In the spring, the Vatican will open a new tour of the gardens as part of the Borgo Laudato Si’ initiative, a project years in the making that aims to put the principles for integral development outlined in the pope’s environmental encyclical into practice.

“Pope Francis believes that he does not need all this space for his summer vacation,” Donatella Parisi, the initiative’s spokesperson, explained during a preview tour of the gardens. 

“He believes that so much beauty, so much wonder, so much richness should be shared with humanity.” 

Visiting pilgrims will have the opportunity to taste the produce of Borgo Laudato Si’s organic farm, where olive oil will be pressed from the estate’s 1,400 olive trees and a vineyard will produce wine using advanced, pesticide-free techniques.

Honey, herbal teas, and medicinal plants will also be harvested from the property, where cows will provide organic cheese and other dairy products, including ice cream.

“The farm will become an educational farm,” Parisi said. “Everything that is grown will be shared with the jubilee pilgrims.”

The gardens have long been a place of tranquility. Roman Emperor Domitian (A.D. 81–96) first built a lavish country villa on the site, the ruins of which are included in the tour. Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius both visited this ancient villa, according to the Vatican.

The property was later adopted as the popes’ summer residence in the 1600s. Pope Urban VIII (1623–1644) was the first pope to spend his summer holiday in the palace.

Among the gardens’ 3,000 plants from 300 species is a 700-year-old oak tree and meticulously maintained hedges that reflect centuries of papal stewardship.

Today the Vatican Gardens at Castel Gandolfo are accessible via a 45-minute train ride south from Rome. The Borgo Laudato Si’ property includes more than 86 acres of gardens and 49 acres of agricultural land.

The opening of the new tour marks the 10th anniversary of the publication of and the 800th anniversary of St. Francis of Assisi’s “Canticle of the Sun.”

Signs have been placed throughout the gardens with reflections on topics from “silence” to “water” to foster moments of contemplation of both creation and Creator. 

“What we want to offer to all visitors … is an immersive experience in the principles of ,” Parisi said. 

Central to this experience is the integration of ecological education, circular economy practices, and environmental sustainability. 

The gardens have undergone significant transformations to align with these goals. Solar panels have been installed on the site. Rainwater harvesting systems and restructured fountain plumbing aim to achieve zero water waste, while electric vehicles will eventually replace gas-powered transport.  

The water system is a major focus, according to Parisi. “There will be rainwater harvesting cisterns put in for the first time. The energy will all be sustainable,” she said. Agriculture will follow conservation and generative practices. 

At the heart of the Borgo Laudato Si’ is a commitment to social justice. “A specific request of Pope Francis is that this place be a home for people in a vulnerable condition,” Parisi explained. 

The project offers job training for marginalized groups, including refugees, former prisoners, survivors of human trafficking, and individuals with disabilities. “This is a mandate that is very close to Pope Francis’ heart,” she said. 

An American priest, Father Manuel Dorantes, recently took the reins as the director of the Borgo Laudato Si’s Center for Higher Education. The pastor from the Archdiocese of Chicago began a four-year term at the center on Dec. 1.

Before taking up the post, Dorantes expressed hope that the initiative will “create tangible examples of the Church’s contribution to the care of our common home and to the integral development of the human person.”

The educational opportunities extend to children and students, who will have the opportunity to participate in summer schools, workshops, and ecological awareness programs.

Cardinal Fabio Baggio, who oversees the project, sees it as a model for future initiatives. 

In a preview of the project last fall, Baggio said: “The beauty of the Barberini Villa and the Pontifical Villas gardens becomes the natural setting for the development of a place of ‘integral ecology,’ open to all people of goodwill.”

Vatican City, Jan 10, 2025 / 14:20 pm (CNA).

Cardinal George Pell, whose untimely death shocked the Catholic world two years ago on Friday, is remembered by his biographer for his faithfulness under pressure, his reform efforts, and for being “a builder” — both at the Vatican and in the two archdioceses he led in his homeland of Australia.

“He had a reformist mindset... Pell would look around and think, well, what is to be done? What can we do? ... Why are so many children and teenagers leaving Catholic schools not practicing [the faith]? ... Why are vocations down so badly? He was, I’d say, a practical reformer,” Tess Livingstone told CNA in an interview. 

An Australian journalist and author, Livingstone’s definitive biography on the formidable cardinal was published by Ignatius Press on Nov. 4, 2024.

Speaking to CNA in Rome on Jan. 10, the second anniversary of Pell’s death from cardiac arrest following a hip replacement surgery at age 81, Livingstone listed off the many institutions and spaces Pell helped build during his nearly six decades of service to the Church.

Both at the Archdiocese of Melbourne from 1996–2001 and then in Sydney from 2001–2014 — a historically notable move of territories for an archbishop, never done before in Australia — Pell established Catholic universities, seminaries, colleges, and university chaplaincies. 

He restored a chapel and built a sculpture garden in Melbourne. He was also the driving force behind the creation of textbooks for religious education from preschool through 12th grade in the Melbourne Archdiocese.

In Rome, Pell built the Domus Australia, a Catholic church and guesthouse in Rome.

The author said that to characterize the cardinal as unpopular or disliked in his own land “is too much of a generalization. Many, many people recognize his qualities.”

“He was a very articulate contributor to the public square in Australia,” Livingstone said. “He had a weekly column in the nation’s biggest-selling newspaper, The Sunday Telegraph. He was known and respected by non-Catholics as well as Catholics.”

“And,” she added, “there was intense anger at the legal process in Victoria” for convicting Pell of sexual abuse despite having received no complaints against him prior to the Victoria police’s own investigation in “Operation Tethering.” 

There was “no great surprise when he was exonerated seven-nil by the High Court” for the sexual abuse conviction, she said.

“George Cardinal Pell: Pax Invictis” (“Peace to the Unconquered”), builds on a 2002 biography by Livingstone to tell the complete story of the cardinal’s life from his childhood in Ballarat, Victoria, to his leadership of Australia’s two most important archdioceses, to his reform of Vatican finances in Rome.

The biography also addresses his final years, including what critics have called an unjust trial and conviction followed by 13 months in prison including eight months in solitary confinement — along with what advocates describe as an unnecessarily cruel ban on offering Mass — before he was vindicated when Australia’s highest court quashed the conviction.

Pell’s biographer said one aspect of the down-to-earth cardinal that is “overlooked and underplayed” was his concrete attention to the poor.

“Because he was doctrinally orthodox, people overlook his very practical, not just advocacy for the poor in common with Pope Francis, but his actual practical action for the poor,” Livingstone said.

He ran Caritas, the Catholic aid agency in Australia, for nine years while he was a Catholic archbishop, she said, and he had to reform the money that was given to the Philippines, some of which was going to communist groups. 

As part of this work, he traveled several times to the Philippines, Cambodia, and India, and to other challenged places “at very difficult times.”

The effort he put into a proper management of the Australian charity’s finances was a big part of his motivation when he accepted Pope Francis’ appointment to be the inaugural head of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy in 2014.

“He took Francis’ preference for the poor very seriously,” Livingstone said, “and he wanted more [money] to be available for the poor and he wanted less spent on administration and bureaucracy at the Vatican.”

She explained that he also wanted to see more of Peter’s Pence, the pope’s personal charitable fund, go to the poor.

“When he looked into it, more than 75% of the money collected for Peter’s Pence was being used for other purposes, other than helping the poor,” she noted. “And he said, look, I’d like over time a plan to reduce that from 75 to 50 to 25%. He was practical like that.”

The cardinal was also a personal friend to the poor, both in Sydney and Rome. While he was not the sort to “wear his charity on his sleeve,” he would take care of some of the homeless, one man in particular, who hung around the area close to his Rome apartment, the biographer described.

“As he would say, ‘I occasionally give him a few bob.’ In fact, he was very generous to him,” the author said.

Livingstone said she thinks the prelate will also be remembered for how he handled the incredible challenge of over a year in prison, most of it in solitary confinement, while maintaining his faith and his poise.

“He was a model of grace under pressure and faith under pressure,” she said. “He certainly drew on his reserves of faith” and his vast knowledge — acquired through decades of voracious reading — of saints, Scripture, and thinkers.

She explained that he could only have six books at a time while in jail, including his Bible and his breviary, but yet, in his now-published prison journals, “he wrote extensively … quotes from saints, other scriptural passages … other observations of other Church leaders. His faith was enormously strong during that time.”

Despite a “pretty tough regime” that included not being allowed to say the Mass, “the strength of his faith shone through.”

Livingstone recalled that the cardinal’s prayer style, in her assessment, was “traditional,” not in the Traditional Latin Mass sense, but in that he “stuck to the prayers he knew as a child” and those he learned as a seminarian. “He told me once he prayed mainly to Our Lord rather than to saints to intervene. Apart from Our Lady.”

“They said the rosary in the home when he was growing up,” she noted. “I think in later years, he stuck with the rosary. Maybe not always every day, but certainly many days, especially when he was going through bad times.”

She explained that one of Pell’s “first big battles” when he took over the seminary in Melbourne was to have the seminarians pray night prayers every night and to attend daily Mass. “He liked order in the students’ prayer lives.”

And despite the cardinal’s “extraordinary character,” Livingstone said he was also “very human.”

“There’s a section at the end of the prison diaries where he’s quoting St. Francis De Sales saying he wants to end his life with no enmity towards anyone, he wants everything settled, etc. etc. And then he just goes on to add: ‘Hot pie for lunch. Great.’”

Vatican City, Jan 10, 2025 / 12:35 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis told a group of children receiving treatment for cancer in Poland they are “witnesses of hope” to those around them.

During a Jan. 10 audience at the Vatican, the pope greeted cancer patients, ranging in age from young children to adolescents, who are on a pilgrimage from the city of Wrocław, in western Poland, to Rome.

“Thank you for coming, you are brave! And so you are witnesses of hope for us adults and for your peers,” Francis said. “I am happy that you were able to organize this pilgrimage of yours in this jubilee year focused on hope. It is a year in which God wants to grant us special graces.”

The children received by Pope Francis on Friday morning are receiving treatment at a pediatric oncology clinic, “Cape of Hope,” opened in Wrocław in 2015. It is part of the national Wrocław Medical University.

The children were accompanied on their pilgrimage by their parents, nurses, doctors, a priest, and Honorary Consul of Luxembourg in Poland Krzysztof Bramorski.

“As I came to meet you, I felt a joy in my heart because we have the opportunity to give hope and love to each other,” the pontiff said in his remarks in the apostolic palace.

“You, dear children and young people, are signs of hope for me,” he continued. “Why? Because I am sure that Jesus is present in you. And where he is, there is hope that does not disappoint! Jesus took our sufferings upon himself, out of love, and then we too, through his love, can join him when we suffer.”

True friends share each others’ joy and pain, just as Jesus does, Francis said.

Another sign of Jesus’ friendship with the children is the love and presence of their parents and all who help take care of them, he added.

Madrid, Spain, Jan 10, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

During the Jan. 8 general audience held in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Pope Francis and those in attendance enthusiastically enjoyed a circus performance that included acrobatics and the unexpected appearance of two animatronic elephants, which quickly became the center of attention.

The picture of the Holy Father with the elephants inevitably evokes the memory of Annone, a majestic 4-year-old albino elephant from India, who five centuries ago was the pet of Pope Leo X and lived in the Vatican Gardens.

In the Spanish-language book “The Vatican As It Has Never Been Told to You,” journalist Javier Martínez-Brocal narrates the details of the unusual friendship between the pontiff who belonged to the Medici family and this elephant that crossed the seas from Lisbon to Italy as a gift from King Manuel I of Portugal.

Manuel de Aviz gave this imposing animal to the successor of St. Peter to celebrate the beginning of his pontificate. The name Annone referred to the Carthaginian general who in the First Punic War opposed fighting against Rome. Therefore, according to Martínez-Brocal, “it was a poetic way of presenting himself as a cordial ally.”

Members of the Curia and Roman citizens crowded the streets to witness Annone’s arrival, who was greeted by the pope himself near Castel Sant’Angelo. In a carefully prepared reception, and after receiving a signal from its trainer, the elephant knelt three times before Leo X. The pontiff reigned from 1513–1521.

Then the animal filled its trunk with water and spewed it over the cardinals and the people, drawing laughter and applause. The elephant became a symbol in Rome, parading in processions and special events, although only the pontiff’s most trusted men were allowed to approach it.

The animal lived in the Vatican Gardens in the Belvedere area, although it was later moved to an enclosure in the passageway that connects Castel Sant’Angelo with the Vatican. Annone died two years after his arrival due to angina pectoris. The story goes that Leo X himself accompanied him in his last moments and that he was buried in the Cortile del Belvedere, a complex of buildings north of St. Peter’s Basilica.

His memory was honored by the pope himself, who went so far as to compose an epitaph about him. Even the famous painter Raphael, whose studio was close to where the animal lived, immortalized, in at least four sketches, the white elephant that amazed Rome.

The monk Friar Giovanni da Verona also painted a drawing of the pachyderm, which can now be seen in the Vatican Museums, in one of Raphael’s rooms. Annone also inspired the American historian Silvio Bedini, author of the book “”

A year after Annone’s arrival in Rome, Manuel I of Portugal gave Pope Leo X  another exotic animal named Ganda, a rhinoceros from India that he had received as a gift from a Gujarati sultan.

But Rome never saw Ganda, as the vessel carrying the animal was shipwrecked near Genoa.

CNA Staff, Jan 10, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (COP), a major U.S. Jewish organization, recently called on Pope Francis, who has frequently called for peace and decried the targeting of civilians, to “refrain from making incendiary comments” about the war between Israel and Hamas.

Leaders of the group said in a  dated Dec. 30 that they are concerned about recent comments Pope Francis has made “regarding Israel’s defensive war against Hamas.”

“We appreciate and share your concern for the suffering of innocent civilians and desire to spread peace and compassion around the world. However, statements you have made … only serve to distort Israel’s legitimate military campaign and fuel antisemitism and unjust targeting of the Jewish state,” the leaders wrote, referring to comments he made during his  to the Roman Curia on Dec. 21.

“Yesterday the [Latin] patriarch [of Jerusalem] was not allowed into Gaza, as had been promised; and yesterday children were bombed. This is cruelty. This is not war. I wanted to tell you this because it touches my heart,” the pope  as reported by the Vatican.

The pope’s statement “does not acknowledge Israel’s right to defend itself in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 massacre where Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 innocent civilians and took 251 hostages, 101 of whom still remain captive,” the Jewish leaders wrote.

“Further, it does not acknowledge Hamas’ use of human shields and civilian infrastructure for terror purposes, putting the entire population of Gaza at risk.”

This is not the first time that a Catholic leader’s statements on the Israel-Hamas war have drawn criticism. Israel’s embassy to the Holy See in June defended Israel’s “right to defend itself” following a statement by Catholic leaders in the Holy Land that suggested Israel’s ongoing campaign in Gaza is not a “just war.”

Rome Newsroom, Jan 9, 2025 / 13:30 pm (CNA).

At the height of World War II, as the Allies coordinated their strategy, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill suggested involving the pope in peace negotiations. The proposal drew a mocking response from Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin: “The pope? How many divisions does the pope have?”

Decades later, the Soviet empire collapsed — aided, in part, by papal diplomacy. Today, the Holy See’s diplomatic service remains a unique force in international relations.

“The popes have been calling for peace on an international platform since at least the beginning of the 20th century,” EWTN Senior Vatican Analyst Francis X. Rocca said. “Pope Benedict XV tried and failed to bring a negotiated end to the first World War. Half a century later, St. Paul VI went to the United Nations and famously called for ‘no more war.’ His successors have followed suit.”

Pope Francis’ diplomatic initiatives extend beyond his weekly appeals for peace from St. Peter’s Square. In 2024, he addressed the G7 summit in Italy, calling for new ethical guidelines to govern artificial intelligence development. Rocca noted that Francis’ distinctive contribution has been “to link military conflict to social justice questions and particularly the environment.”

The pope’s diplomatic engagement spans multiple fronts. At his annual meeting with the diplomatic corps in 2023, he advocated for human dignity and condemned surrogacy as “deplorable.”

“The path to peace calls for respect for life, for every human life, starting with the life of the unborn child in the mother’s womb,” Francis declared, describing surrogacy as “a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs.”

The Vatican’s diplomatic influence operates through both public statements and private channels.

“The Holy See’s great advantage as a diplomatic actor is that it is neutral, sovereign but not aligned, allowing it to communicate with different sides in a conflict,” Rocca explained. He pointed to Pope Francis’ instrumental role in facilitating the 2014 rapprochement between the United States and Cuba as a notable success.

With diplomatic relations spanning more than 180 sovereign states, the Holy See maintains one of the world’s most extensive diplomatic networks. However, some challenges have tested even papal diplomacy’s limits.

“One of the biggest diplomatic challenges that Pope Francis has faced has been the Vatican’s dialogue with China,” said Courtney Mares, CNA Rome correspondent. The relationship has been particularly complex since 2013 when Francis’ papacy began concurrently with Xi Jinping’s rise to power.

The Catholic Church in China was long divided between the underground Church loyal to Rome and the government-sanctioned Catholic Association. In 2018, the Vatican signed a provisional agreement with Beijing regarding bishop appointments, though the process was not smooth.

“Almost immediately after this agreement was signed, there were reports of increased persecution of the underground Catholic community,” Mares noted. Despite concerns over human rights violations and breaches of the agreement, the Vatican renewed it in 2024 for another four years.

The pope’s approach to current conflicts has drawn both praise and criticism. In the Gaza war, his calls for a ceasefire and hostage release, combined with criticism of Israel, have sparked controversy. Similarly, his stance on Ukraine has sometimes frustrated Catholic leadership there, notably when he appeared reluctant to directly condemn Russian aggression.

Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Community of Sant’Egidio, which partners with the Vatican on humanitarian issues, emphasized Francis’ genuine commitment to peace. The pope has backed words with action, dispatching Cardinal Matteo Zuppi on peace missions to Kyiv, Moscow, Washington, and Beijing to address peace initiatives and humanitarian concerns.

“The risk is that we become desensitized to war,” Riccardi warned, comparing the pope’s persistent peace advocacy to “the rooster crowing and awakening Peter: Humanity has become like Peter, enslaved to violence, accustomed to violence.”

As this modern “rooster,” Pope Francis continues to echo his message in his 2020 encyclical : “Every war leaves our world worse than it was before. War is a failure of politics and of humanity, a shameful capitulation, a stinging defeat before the forces of evil.”

Vatican City, Jan 9, 2025 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis delivered his annual “state of the world” address on Thursday, asking ambassadors accredited to the Holy See to pursue a “diplomacy of hope” in the 2025 Jubilee Year, and decrying a polarization that he said led to the assassination attempt of former president Donald Trump.

“We see increasingly polarized societies marked by a general sense of fear and distrust of others and of the future, which is aggravated by the continuous creation and spread of ‘fake news,’ which not only distorts facts but also perceptions,” the pope said.

“This phenomenon generates false images of reality, a climate of suspicion that foments hate, undermines people’s sense of security, and compromises civil coexistence and the stability of entire nations. Tragic examples of this are the attacks on the chairman of the government of the Slovak Republic and the president-elect of the United States of America,” he continued.

Unable to read his full address due to a persistent cold, the 88-year-old pontiff asked an aide to deliver his prepared remarks to the diplomats at the Hall of Blessings in Vatican City on Jan. 9.

Describing the gathering with the diplomatic corps in the Vatican as “a family event,” the Holy Father commenced his speech urging government leaders and representatives to “serve the common good” and to work toward the “integral human development” of all peoples.

“My prayerful hope for this new year is that the jubilee may represent for everyone, Christians and non-Christians alike, an opportunity also to rethink the relationships that bind us to one another, as human beings and political communities,” the pope said in his prepared speech to the diplomatic corps.

Referring to diplomacy as a “vocation” to “foster dialogue with all parties,” the pope said political leaders are called to be heralds of peace, truth, forgiveness, freedom, and justice.

During his speech, the Holy Father cited Chapter 61 of the Book of Isaiah as the root of his proposed “diplomacy of hope” for 2025: “Christ came ‘to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (cf. Is 61:1-2a).’”

“Only in this way is it possible to break the chains of hatred and vengeance that bind and to defuse the explosive power of human selfishness, pride, and arrogance, which are the root of every destructive determination to wage war,” the pope told diplomats on Thursday morning.

Circling the globe in his yearly address, the Holy Father raised his concerns about the growing social and political tensions in different parts of the world, particularly in Ukraine and the Holy Land.

“My wish for the year 2025 is that the entire international community will work above all to end the conflict that, for almost three years now, has caused so much bloodshed in war-torn Ukraine and has taken an enormous toll of lives, including those of many civilians,” he said.

For the Holy Land, the pope renewed his call for a ceasefire and the release of all hostages in Gaza. He also prayed that Jerusalem be the “city of encounter” for Christians, Jews, and Muslims. 

“My prayerful hope is that Israelis and Palestinians can rebuild the bridges of dialogue and mutual trust, starting with the smallest, so that future generations can live side by side in the two states, in peace and security,” he said.

The Holy Father also expressed concern for Global South countries burdened by debts imposed upon them by Global North nations and international corporations.

“I ask the wealthier nations to forgive the debts of countries that will never be able to repay them. This is not simply an act of solidarity or generosity but above all an act of justice,” he implored. 

Though Francis recognized the “undoubted benefits” of advances in communications technology and artificial intelligence in his speech, he also highlighted its potential to threaten pathways of peace in society.

“They can be misused to manipulate minds for economic, political, and ideological ends,” he stated. “Its limitations and dangers cannot be overlooked, since it often contributes to polarization, a narrowing of intellectual perspectives, a simplification of reality, misuse, anxiety, and, ironically, isolation.”

The pope also spoke of the dangers of an unbridled consumerism that “threatens to subvert the order of values inherent in the creation of relationships, education, and the transmission of social mores.” 

Emphasizing the duty to care for society’s “weakest and most vulnerable,” the Holy Father reiterated the need to protect life “at every moment, from conception to natural death.”

“No child is a mistake or guilty of existing, just as no elderly or sick person may be deprived of hope and discarded,” he stated.

Vatican City, Jan 8, 2025 / 12:35 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis used his first general audience of the year to address the scourge of exploitation and violence against children, urging Christians worldwide not to remain indifferent to their pain and suffering.

Putting a spotlight on the “scourge of child labor,” the Holy Father lamented that there are “too many children forced to work” who are unable to smile, dream, or nurture their talents.

“In every part of the globe, there are children who are exploited by an economy that does not respect life, an economy that, in so doing, consumes our greatest store of hope and love,” he said on Wednesday.

Speaking to hundreds of international pilgrims gathered inside the Paul VI Hall in Vatican City, the pope said society — especially Christians “who recognize themselves as children of God” — must not turn a blind eye to the plight of vulnerable children. 

“[Christians] cannot accept that our little sisters and brothers, instead of being loved and protected, are robbed of their childhood, of their dreams, victims of exploitation and marginalization,” he said.

In spite of great technological advancements, the Holy Father said, such progress has often disregarded the dignity of children, “who are a gift from God,” and failed to address their current and future needs. 

“Today we want to turn our gaze toward Mars or toward virtual worlds, but we struggle to look in the eye a child who has been left at the margins and who is exploited or abused,” he said.

“The century that generates artificial intelligence and plans multiplanetary existences has not yet reckoned with the scourge of humiliated, exploited, mortally wounded childhood,” he continued.

Before extending his greetings to different pilgrim groups from around the world, the pope prayed: “Let us ask the Lord to open our minds and hearts to care and tenderness, and for every boy and every girl in the world to be able to grow in age, wisdom, and grace, receiving and giving love.”

At the end of the pope’s first general audience since the opening of the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope, 50 members of CirCAfrica, a circus company currently on tour in Rome, performed a short extract from their show for the pope and pilgrims inside the Paul VI Hall.

Praising circus artists’ mission of “doing good and making us laugh,” the Holy Father, who was seen tapping his feet to the music during the show, thanked the dancers, acrobats, and jugglers from various African nations for making him and others “laugh like children.” 

ACI Prensa Staff, Jan 8, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has marked another milestone in his pontificate by appointing, for the first time in the history of the Catholic Church, a woman to head a Vatican dicastery. She is Italian nun Sister Simona Brambilla, of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Brambilla, who will turn 60 on March 27, of the same dicastery since October 2023. At that time, she was the second woman to hold such a position, after to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development in 2021.

Moreover, just last month, on Dec. 13, 2024, Brambilla was appointed by the pope to be of the General Secretariat of the Synod, which “is responsible for the preparation and realization of the Ordinary General Assembly” of the Synod of Bishops.

Regarding this appointment, the Italian nun said: We have lived and are living an experience of the Spirit, which impels the Church to walk together, in mutual listening and mutual edification. From this experience there is no going back.”

“We go forward; and we go inward, deeper, involved and caught up in a spiral movement that, with strength and gentleness, brings us to the essentials of who we are as Christians: brothers and sisters in Christ, lightened, disarmed, and freed from the various armors and vestments we may be wearing,” she added. 

A few years earlier, in July 2019, Brambilla and six other women of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Brambilla, who as secretary to the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter and of the Most Holy Trinity in Arlington, Texas, served for 13 years as superior general of the Consolata Missionaries.

She joined the congregation in 1988 and was sent to Mozambique as a missionary. The nun was also the order’s first general councillor. This experience allowed her to write a thesis on evangelization and inculturation in the African country and to obtain a doctorate in psychology in 2008 at the Gregorian Institute of Psychology, where she also taught.

The nun is also a professional nurse, practicing at the hospital in Merate, Italy.

In October 2023, in , CNA’s Italian-language news partner, the nun shared that “the experience of fruitful contact with different realities, peoples, cultures, particular Churches, forms of Consecrated Life in Africa, America, Asia, and Europe has transformed me and strengthened in me the awareness that the encounter with others is a source of growth, of exchange of gifts, of grace” with the call to “sow the Gospel” and make it germinate everywhere.

In that interview, Brambilla answered the question on what can be done to renew consecrated life as follows: “I feel the need and desire to study with those who have much more knowledge and wisdom than me and who have long offered their skills and their energies of mind, heart, and soul to accompany the paths of consecrated men and women in different fields.”

In this way, she continued, she will be able to help others better, also considering the importance of listening to “everyone, their various experiences and paths, is a fundamental step to let the Spirit guide us, to open our hearts, our inner senses to his light… so that he may show us his ways, to walk with them together.”

The nun also highlighted the importance of “littleness” when questioned about the lack of vocations in the Church, offering as a point of reference in Kazakhstan.

Brambilla quoted, among others, the following passage: “the Gospel says that being ‘little,’ poor in spirit, is a blessing, the first beatitude, because smallness humbly gives us the power of God and leads us to not base our ecclesial activity on our own capacities. This is a grace! I repeat: There is a hidden grace in being a small Church.”

In January 2024, the new prefect gave in which she said that her appointment as secretary of the Dicastery for Consecrated Life “finds its place within an ecclesial path that is increasingly synodal, open, inclusive, dialogical, and evangelical” and in which she noted what Pope Francis had a year ago.

“The Church needs Mary in order to recover her own feminine face, to resemble more fully the woman, Virgin and Mother, who is her model and perfect image, to make space for women and to be ‘generative’ through a pastoral ministry marked by concern and care, patience and maternal courage,” the pope said at that time in the excerpt cited by the nun.

Asked whether her appointment would “demasculinize” the Catholic Church, the new prefect emphasized that “this is a reflection to be continued and expanded by everyone but also to be translated into an effective practice that certainly passes through a greater participation of women at the various levels of the life of the Church.”

It also requires “a careful study of the feminine dimension of the Church and of the mission in the broadest sense: models and dynamics of thought, affection, sensitivity, spirituality, action, mission that embody the two vital dimensions, the feminine and the masculine, and take into account the necessary, beneficial, and blessed interaction between the two.”

Despite the questions it may have raised, Brambilla’s appointment does not contradict Church teaching. Although the ministerial priesthood is reserved for men, the Church recognizes the equal dignity and complementarity of men and women.

Pope Francis has emphasized the need for a “more incisive female presence in the Church” and this appointment is a step in that direction. Brambilla’s appointment does not entail sacramental functions reserved for the priesthood but rather an administrative and pastoral leadership role that reflects the richness of the gifts and abilities that women bring to the Church, as demonstrated by the long history of influential women in Catholicism.

Rome Newsroom, Jan 7, 2025 / 14:45 pm (CNA).

In a move that raised eyebrows among Vatican observers, Pope Francis on Monday created an unprecedented leadership structure at the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life by appointing both a nun as prefect and a cardinal as pro-prefect — a solution that begs clarity in law and theology.

The unusual decision to has sparked discussion about the intersection of traditional Church hierarchy and Pope Francis’ vision for reform.

The office of pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life is not provided for in the constitution , which regulates the functions of the Roman Curia.

However, Pope Francis instituted the office ad hoc when he the cardinal as pro-prefect and the nun — the secretary until now — as prefect of the dicastery.

It has not been stated how there will be a balance of power between the new prefect and the pro-prefect. However, speaking of a relationship of subordination with a cardinal who would be the “second in rank” to the prefect does not seem to be a correct reading. What is the logic that pushed Pope Francis to make this choice?

Throughout history, there has been a broad, complex, and sometimes controversial reflection on the relationship between the power of orders, which is received with ordination and which enables one to administer certain sacraments — such as presiding over the Eucharist — and the power of governance, which gives authority over a part of the people of God, such as a diocese, a religious order, or even a parish. 

For a long time, it was believed that the two powers were distinct and that it was possible to exercise them separately — St. Thomas Aquinas shared this position, too. 

As regards the Roman Curia, it was believed that all those who carried out their service in it received their power directly from the pope, who conferred authority on them regardless of whether or not they were ordained. This also applied to cardinals, whose authority derived from papal creation — ​​which is not a sacrament. The pope chooses the cardinals as collaborators and advisers of the pope in the government of the Church. 

This approach has characterized the history of the Church for a long time, so much so that there have been cardinals who were not priests — for example, Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli, Vatican secretary of state from 1848 to 1876, was ordained deacon but was not a priest. Further back in time, there were cardinals appointed at a young age who only received orders after a long time, and even popes who were only deacons at the time of their election to the papal throne. 

In the past, some abbots had not even been ordained priests and governed an ecclesiastical district, or there were figures who seem strange to us but who responded to this logic, such as the so-called bishops-elect, who governed dioceses without receiving episcopal consecration but did so because of their election. Other examples include the so-called mitered abbesses, “women with the pastoral staff,” who exercised their authority over a territory and the faithful. 

Over time, however, another approach has emerged that goes back to the Church of the first millennium: The power of government is closely linked to the sacrament of holy orders, so it is not possible to exercise one without the other except within certain limits, which are rather narrow. 

Hence, Pope John XXIII in 1962 decided that all cardinals should be ordained archbishops with the motu proprio

This is the approach of the Second Vatican Council, which is found, for example, in , No. 21, in the Explanatory Note at No. 2, and in the two Codes of Canon Law, the Latin and the Eastern one.

Vatican II authoritatively reiterated that the episcopate is a sacrament and that by episcopal consecration, one becomes part of the College of Bishops, which, together with and under the authority of the pope, is the subject of supreme power over the entire Church.

This approach was followed in the two Curia reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council: Pope Paul VI’s constitution (1967) and Pope John Paul II’s (1988). John Paul II delineated the Curia into congregations and pontifical councils, which in lay terms might be defined as “ministries with portfolio” and “ministries without portfolio.”

The congregations had to be governed by cardinals because they participated in the decisions of the universal Church with the pope and, therefore, their heads had to have the rank of first advisers to the pope. The pontifical councils, on the other hand, could also be led by archbishops, but in any case, by ordained ministers because they still had to be in collegiality with the bishop of Rome — that is, the pope.

The apostolic constitution , with which Pope Francis reformed the Curia in 2022, departed from this approach. There was no longer a distinction between congregations and pontifical councils, which were all defined as dicasteries. Therefore, there was no longer a difference in who could be the head of the dicastery, a position that could also go to a layperson. 

However, when presenting the reform of the Curia on March 21, 2022, the then-Father Gianfranco Ghirlanda — created cardinal by Pope Francis in the consistory of Aug. 27, 2022 — explained that there were still some dicasteries in which it was appropriate for a cardinal to lead and noted that the “constitution does not abrogate the Code of Canon Law, which establishes that in matters that concern clerics, clerics are the ones to judge.” 

In practice, the canonical mission was no longer given by order but by the pope’s decision. This is why a layman like Paolo Ruffini could be at the head of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication.

This is the heart of the debate: Are there offices that can be exercised only by papal appointment, or are there offices that, despite papal appointment, can be exercised only if one is ordained?

The question arises when a pro-prefect supports Sister Brambilla. The Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life has various competencies, but all competencies are generic acts of government that can be exercised without priestly ordination. There are situations of clerics’ judgment, though, and likely it was thought that these decisions cannot be managed without an ordination.

Thus, the figure of the pro-prefect was created. The definition of pro-prefect seems, however, to be used improperly. The document describes two pro-prefects who are the heads of the two sections of the Dicastery for Evangelization. That is because these two pro-prefects lead the sections of the dicastery “in place of” (i.e., pro-) pope, who is considered the prefect of the dicastery.

In other cases, a prelate who did not yet have the rank to hold the office formally was appointed pro-prefect. For example, when Angelo Sodano was appointed Vatican secretary of state on Dec. 1, 1990, he was still an archbishop. He was thus appointed pro-secretary of state because the Apostolic Constitution provided that the secretary of state was always to be a cardinal. Sodano retained the title of pro-secretary of state until the consistory of June 28, 1991, when he was created cardinal and formally took the title of secretary of state starting July 1, 1991. 

Pro-prefect Artime, however, is already a cardinal and does not exercise jurisdiction in place of the pope. If anything, he works alongside the prefect, Sister Brambilla. His role is more co-prefect, and it remains to be seen whether the pope will appoint a secretary for the dicastery to understand the organizational chart.

The choice to place an ecclesiastic alongside the prefect reflects some religious orders, which have “brothers” (consecrated laypeople) at their helm but are appointed alongside figures with sacramental authority.

Therefore, Pope Francis would have chosen to follow a path already followed by religious congregations for the governance of the Church. This is not new. Pope Francis, for example, also intervened in the governance crisis of the Order of Malta precisely by operating on the order as if it were only a religious and monastic entity, authoritatively imposing the new constitutions in September 2022 and establishing that the Holy Father needs to confirm the election of the grand master of the order.

Even the Council of Cardinals, established by Pope Francis at the beginning of his pontificate in 2013, resembles the general council that supports the government of the Jesuit General.

Many of these settings are given by Pope Francis’ main legal adviser, Cardinal Ghirlanda, also a Jesuit, who personally of the Order of Malta and the reform — as well as various other reforms, such as that of the statutes of the Legionaries of Christ.

Pope Francis established an innovation in the Roman Curia without outlining it with a precise law, leaving the management of the competencies to subsequent decisions, not using the criteria of the government of the Curia but rather those of the religious congregations. It seems “inside baseball.”

However, it speaks of a small revolution — or potentially a misuse of terms that could cause some confusion in the future.

Rome Newsroom, Jan 7, 2025 / 11:30 am (CNA).

Pope Francis accepted Tuesday the early resignation of French Bishop Dominique Rey of Fréjus-Toulon following years of Vatican scrutiny over the ordination of clerics using pre-Vatican II liturgical books and other concerns.

Bishop François Touvet, appointed coadjutor bishop of the same diocese in November 2023, now automatically succeeds Rey.

In a , Rey, who has led the diocese since 2000, said he was recently informed by the nuncio, the pope’s ambassador in France, that Pope Francis wanted him to submit his resignation after he had encouraged him not to resign in December 2023.

While Rey added that he does not know what changed in the intervening year, “faced with misunderstandings, pressures, and polemics that are still harmful to the unity of the Church, the ultimate criterion of discernment for me remains that of obedience to the successor of Peter.”

The Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon in the south of France last month after all ordinations in the diocese were halted by the Vatican in June 2022 following a fraternal visit by Archbishop (now Cardinal) Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille.

The ordinations of six seminarians from the traditionalist community Missionaries of Divine Mercy took place in the Collegiate Church of Saint-Martin in Lorgues on Dec. 1, 2024.

In his announcement ahead of the ordinations, Touvet said they were “the fruit of a trusting and peaceful dialogue maintained with the superior of the community [of the Missionaries of Divine Mercy] and the Dicastery for Divine Worship [and the Discipline of the Sacraments].”

Pope Francis appointed Touvet a coadjutor bishop of Fréjus-Toulon , putting him in charge of economic and real estate management, religious communities, and the training of priests and seminarians.

The Vatican requested the suspension of ordinations in the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon in the summer of 2022 due to “questions that certain Roman dicasteries were asking about the restructuring of the seminary and the policy of welcoming people to the diocese,” according to an announcement by Rey at the time.

Known for his support of the Traditional Latin Mass, Rey had also ordained diocesan clerics using the 1962 Roman Pontifical.

After Pope Francis promulgated , the 2021 motu proprio restricting the celebration of Mass in the extraordinary form of the Roman rite, Rey highlighted the concerns of some priests and communities present in his diocese who offered Mass according to the old rite. 

Rey said in his Jan. 7 statement, , that “just as I have always tried to respond to the calls for the new evangelization of St. John Paul II, then to the encouragements of Benedict XVI to welcome and form priestly vocations, and finally to the orientations of Francis, I have agreed, in this case, to hand over the pastoral charge that had been entrusted to me in 2000 by John Paul II.”

“As I reach my 25th year of episcopate in service of the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon, I thank God for the blessings and missionary fruits,” he added.

Rey announced he will celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving in the diocese on Feb. 1.

Vatican City, Jan 7, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).

More than half a million people have passed through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, two weeks after its Christmas Eve opening. 

Pope Francis, the first “pilgrim of hope” to cross the Holy Door’s threshold, inaugurated the 2025 Jubilee Year by opening the papal basilica’s door on Dec. 24, 2024. 

Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization Archbishop Rino Fisichella said the great number of pilgrims marks “a very significant beginning” for the which will conclude on Jan. 6, 2026. 

“Hundreds of groups of faithful have already made their pilgrimage,” Fisichella said in a Jan. 7 media statement released by the Dicastery for Evangelization. 

“The dicastery is working tirelessly to ensure that pilgrims receive a welcome and an experience that lives up to their expectations,” he added.

Holy See and Italian authorities are collaborating to welcome an estimated 30 million people expected to come to Rome throughout the jubilee year.

“Preparations are underway all over the world to reach Rome in the coming months, with many children, young people, adults, and the elderly who have already entered the jubilee climate with the celebrations for the opening of the holy year,” Fisichella said.

Jubilees — a tradition celebrated in the Catholic Church since 1300 — are filled with special spiritual, artistic, and cultural events for people intending to come to Rome for pilgrimage. 

An important part of the jubilee is the opportunity to receive a plenary indulgence — a grace granted by the Catholic Church through the merits of Jesus Christ to remove the temporal punishment due to sin — by passing through a “Holy Door.”

Besides the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica, the other four Holy Doors of the 2025 Jubilee are located at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, the Basilica of St. Mary Major, the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, and in Rome’s Rebibbia prison.

“The thousands of people who filled the four papal basilicas during the days of the celebrations for the opening of the Holy Doors” reflects the “great desire” among pilgrims to participate in the Church’s jubilee festivities, according to the Dicastery for Evangelization.

The first major calendar event of the 2025 holy year is the Jubilee of the World of Communications to be held from Jan. 24–26. Thousands of journalists and media professionals from around the world are expected to come to Rome for the occasion.

Rome, Italy, Jan 7, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).

Franciscan Capuchin Father Roberto Pasolini is very comfortable with public speaking — it’s basically his job as a Scripture expert called on to give talks and lead retreats around Italy.

Yet, just late last year, he began a new adventure, one he finds a bit more intimidating: preaching to Vatican employees, cardinals, and the pope during Lent and Advent.

On Nov. 9 last year, Pope Francis named Pasolini the next preacher of the Papal Household, succeeding 90-year-old Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, who held the post for 44 years.

The 53-year-old Pasolini said the call to become the pope’s preacher was a big surprise and caused him “a great deal of fear.”

“The fact that God is calling me, at this moment, to go right into the heart of the Church, in front of the pope, the cardinals, the people who support the Christian institution, to speak such important, meaningful words, it scares me,” he told CNA during an interview at the Capuchin General House in Rome on Dec. 11, 2024.

“On the other hand, I also felt a great alignment with what was already happening [in my life],” he noted, “because I have always been following words, reading texts, and searching reality for the meaning that can give clarity to our existence.”

After receiving the news about the new role, Pasolini had just under a month before he gave his first Advent meditation to the Roman Curia on Dec. 6, 2024, the first of three he delivered on the December Fridays leading up to Christmas.

“During Advent, since the call was very recent, [I was] immediately trying to rummage through my pockets to find some words, some reflections that in recent years maybe I’ve already prepared a bit around the theme of the Incarnation, Advent, and Christmas,” he said about preparing his meditations.

The position of preacher of the Papal Household has existed in a stable way since the pontificate of Pope Paul IV in the mid-1500s. In 1743, Pope Benedict XIV established that the role should always go to a member of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchins.

On following the long and celebrated legacy of Cantalamessa, Pasolini said he is trying not to compare himself too much and plans to bring his own contribution, “giving catecheses that are maybe a little bit more narrative and more biblical than the theological genre that Father Raniero [Cantalamessa] used.”

“I think I will not hold back my humanity, which is the humanity of a much younger friar than Father Raniero, to communicate also through a language and a way of address that corresponds more to people of my age,” he said.

“I will try as much as possible to be natural, to remain myself,” he added, “and to continue to do what basically I have been doing until now: announce, with all my heart, with all the intelligence of which I am capable, the mystery of God.”

Before becoming a priest or preacher, Pasolini grew up in northern Italy, passionately following his favorite soccer team, Milan.

He grew up Catholic, but as a teenager, the priest experienced the desire to distance himself from the faith. “So I took my time off from God, and I did some years in which I sought the meaning of my life elsewhere, outside the parish and Church context in which I had grown up,” he explained.

Pasolini described those years as good, though difficult: “Because when we distance ourselves from God, on the one hand we feel a little bit free, and on the other hand we find that we still don’t know how to use our freedom well.”

“They were also years of choices that led me to suffer, to realize the darkness that was inside me,” he noted. 

The priest’s journey back to the faith began unexpectedly while studying information sciences at a university in Milan. 

Traveling one day on the city’s subway, he found a copy of the Gospel of St. Matthew, a free giveaway inside a newspaper, and started reading it. Little by little, he found his way back to the Church.

“I felt the desire to go to confession and then to participate in the Eucharist and to involve myself a little bit in my parish life, which I had hastily dismissed,” he said. “And that was kind of the time when I started to comprehend again the mystery of faith, the mystery of the Church, but especially the beauty of the Gospel, the love of Christ.”

As Pasolini was rediscovering the faith and experiencing more and more God’s love for him, he felt the growing desire to share this beauty with others.

It was during this time that he “met” St. Francis of Assisi through his writings, he said. 

“I found his style, his way of life, so beautiful, so simple, so inspired by the Gospel, that I got curious and tried to go and meet the friars in Milan,” the priest explained. “And little by little, going there, I felt my desire to live my baptism become concrete through embracing that form of life together with other brothers. And so I graduated [from university], left everything, and entered the convent.”

It was not long after entering the Capuchins that the friar’s superiors noticed the centrality of the word of God in “my life, my days, my way of speaking, my way of praying,” Pasolini elaborated. And so, after his initial formation for religious life and the priesthood, he was sent to Rome to study at the Pontifical Biblical Institute.

This, he said, was the beginning of “a second calling within my first calling” to be not only a priest friar but also an expert in sacred Scripture.

During his years of biblical formation, Pasolini studied in Rome and Jerusalem and was awarded a doctorate for a thesis on the Gospel of Mark.

He described that time as “seven years of wonderful formation in the word of God … which definitely defined me as a friar and a biblical scholar, and then as a preacher, able to draw from Scripture the resources to proclaim the Gospel, the kingdom of God, to others.”

According to Pasolini, the best preparation for preaching can and should begin long before standing at the ambo.

“For years, before I started the preaching ministry, I got into the habit of meditating on God’s word every day for me first of all — for my heart, for my life,” he said. “This habit of doing ‘lectio divina,’ as we would say today, accustomed me to stand before God, every day, as one who listens to him, receives a word, and tries to respond to this word.”

“So,” he continued, “when I became a priest and started giving homilies and catechesis, I would just tell others what God and I had already said to each other during prayer. Of course, in a somewhat organized form, because maybe God and I said some things to each other in prayer that are not really good to be told to everyone.”

“But … the best preparation to give a homily, to give a catechesis, is to let God’s word touch your heart personally,” he said to priests and others who preach publicly. “Then, if we have allowed ourselves to be touched, we will surely be able to touch the hearts of others.”

Vatican City, Jan 6, 2025 / 12:05 pm (CNA).

The star the Magi followed to find the Christ Child is a symbol of God’s love for all people and not a sign of the power and fame of those who think of themselves as “stars,” Pope Francis said on Epiphany.

In his homily at Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Jan. 6, the pope said the Magi “were satisfied by a different kind of light, symbolized by the star, which illumines and warms others by allowing itself to burn brightly and be consumed.”

“The star,” he continued, “speaks to us of that unique light that can show to all people the way to salvation and happiness, namely that of love. This is the only light that can make us happy.”

The solemnity of the Epiphany marks when the Magi, also called the Wise Men or three kings, arrived at the birthplace of Jesus bearing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. , when the Magi, who had been guided by a star from the east, found the child Jesus, they “prostrated themselves and did him homage.”

Italy and the Vatican celebrate Epiphany on the traditional date of Jan. 6, while in the United States, its celebration has been moved to the Sunday between Jan. 2 and Jan. 8.

Pope Francis in his homily explained that the light that makes us truly happy is, above all, “the love of God, who became man and gave himself to us by sacrificing his life.”

He asked Catholics to think about how they can be this same light for others, becoming with God’s help “a mutual sign of hope, even in the darkest nights of our lives.”

“Are we radiant with hope? Are we able to give hope to others with the light of our faith?” he said.

Part of the papal Mass for Epiphany, after the proclamation of the Gospel, was the announcement by a deacon of the dates of “moveable feasts” in the Catholic Church in 2025, beginning with Easter Sunday, which will be April 20. 

“From Easter flow all holy days,” the deacon said, as he also proclaimed the dates of Ash Wednesday (March 5), the Ascension of the Lord (May 29), Pentecost (June 8), and the first Sunday of Advent (Nov. 30). These are “moveable feasts” because their observance falls on different calendar dates in different years.

In his homily, the pontiff also recalled two other characteristics of the Star of Bethlehem: that it was visible to everyone and that it pointed the way.

“The star, which shines in the sky and offers its light to all, reminds us that the Son of God came into the world to encounter every man and woman on earth, whatever ethnic group, language, or people to which they belong, and that he entrusts to us that same universal mission,” he underlined.

Francis reiterated that “God calls us to reject anything that discriminates, excludes, or discards people and instead to promote, in our communities and neighborhoods, a strong culture of welcome, in which the narrow places of fear and denunciation are replaced by open spaces of encounter, integration, and sharing of life.”

The star is in the sky not to be “distant and inaccessible,” he said, “but so that its light may be visible to all, that it may reach every home and overcome every barrier, bringing hope to the most remote and forgotten corners of the planet.”

That the Star of Bethlehem indicates a direction is also a helpful point of reflection during the Jubilee Year 2025, the pope said.

He noted that one of the main features of the newly-begun holy year is pilgrimage, and the light of the star “invites us to undertake an interior journey that, as St. John Paul II wrote [], frees our hearts from all that is not charity, in order to ‘encounter Christ fully, professing our faith in him and receiving the abundance of his mercy.’”

“By looking at the star, we can also renew our commitment to be women and men of ‘the Way,’ as Christians were referred to in the first years of the Church,” Pope Francis said.

In his meditation before the Angelus shortly after Mass, the pope asked Christians to reflect on whether they are more like the shepherds and Magi who actively sought Jesus or those who, despite living in Jerusalem, remained at “their ‘desks.’”

“Are we more similar to the shepherds, who on the very night [of Christ’s birth] itself go in haste to the grotto, and the Magi from the east, who set out confidently in search of the Son of God made man; or are we more similar to those who, despite being physically very close to him, do not open the doors of their heart and their life, remaining closed and insensitive to Jesus’ presence?” he said.

After leading the traditional Marian prayer, which he did standing at a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, Francis offered his warm wishes to the Eastern Christians who will celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7.

“I assure in a special way my prayer for those who suffer as a result of ongoing conflicts. May Jesus, prince of peace, bring peace and serenity to all of them!” he said.

Vatican City, Jan 6, 2025 / 09:25 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has named for the first time a woman, Sister Simona Brambilla, to head a dicastery of the Roman Curia, continuing to add to the number of women in leadership roles at the Vatican, a hallmark of his pontificate.

The 59-year-old Brambilla, a member and former superior general of the Consolata Missionary Sisters, has been secretary of the Vatican department for religious and consecrated life since October 2023.

Pope Francis appointed the Italian sister prefect of the department on Monday. She will lead the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life together with Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, who was named pro-prefect on Jan. 6.

A Spaniard, the 64-year-old Fernández concluded a decade as rector major of the Salesians last year. The appointment of an ordained bishop as pro-prefect of the same dicastery was necessary because Church law calls for ordination in order to carry out certain governing powers.

Brambilla, who trained as a nurse before entering religious life, was a missionary in Mozambique in the late 1990s. She then returned to Italy, where, with her advanced degree in psychology, she taught at the Pontifical Gregorian University in its Institute of Psychology. She was head of the institute of Consolata Missionary Sisters from 2011 until May 2023. 

Brambilla joins several other religious and non-religious laywomen appointed by Pope Francis to important posts in the Vatican, including Franciscan Sister Raffaella Petrini, the first woman to hold the second-ranking post in the government of the Vatican City State.

Other high-ranking women at the Holy See are Sister Alessandra Smerilli, secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development; Sister Nathalie Becquart, an undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops; and laywomen Gabriella Gambino and Linda Ghisoni, undersecretaries of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life.

A number of women are also secretaries of some of the Roman Curia’s commissions and councils.

Last month, Pope Francis also named Brambilla a member of the 16th Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod alongside Argentinian laywoman María Lía Zervino. They are the only women and non-bishops on the 17-member council.

In the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Brambilla and Fernández will be assisted by two undersecretaries, Father Aitor Jiménez Echave, CMF, and Sister Carmen Ros Nortes, NSC.

Rome Newsroom, Jan 6, 2025 / 06:08 am (CNA).

Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Robert McElroy, bishop of San Diego, to lead the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., the Vatican announced Monday.

The 70-year-old cardinal, who holds doctorates in moral theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University and in political science from Stanford, succeeds Cardinal Wilton Gregory, 77, whose age-related resignation was simultaneously accepted by the pope on Monday. McElroy will lead the archdiocese that serves over half a million Catholics in southern Maryland and the U.S. capital.

In his nearly 10 years as bishop of California’s southernmost diocese, McElroy has been vocal on a number of controversial issues at the intersection of politics and Church life. He is considered by many to also be the U.S. cardinal whose thinking most aligns with Pope Francis.

Outspokenly progressive, McElroy is now poised to take over the ecclesiastical territory of the nation’s capital just as Donald Trump is sworn in for a second term as president of the United States.

Shortly after Trump’s inauguration for his first term in 2017, a gathering of faith-based groups that if Trump was the candidate of “disruption,” then similar disruption is needed to build a better society.

“Well now, we must all become disruptors,” the bishop said, referencing the use of military force to deport undocumented migrants and the portrayal of refugees and Muslims as enemies.

In the political area, McElroy has been most outspoken on the subject of immigration. 

Speaking at an interfaith prayer vigil in front of the U.S. federal courthouse in downtown San Diego in 2021, McElroy decried Congress’ failure to create paths to legalization for some of the U.S.’ 11 million undocumented migrants.

“We can’t stand by anymore and watch our political processes — broken as they are — destroy the dreams and the hopes of the refugees and the immigrants who have not only come here and lived here but have helped build our nation and make it better,” he said.

He is also a frequently-heard voice in the “Eucharistic coherence” debate, in which he has often criticized what he sees as, in the U.S., the prioritization of abortion over other social concerns, such as the death penalty and care for migrants and the environment.

In recent years, McElroy has also asserted that to deny holy Communion to pro-abortion Catholic politicians is to weaponize the Eucharist for a political end.

In a May 5, 2021, essay, he decried what he called “a theology of unworthiness” to receive the Eucharist, whereby those who practice it focus too strongly, in his view, on discipline.

McElroy also supports women deacons for the Church and is a vocal supporter of LGBT-identified Catholics.

Born in San Francisco on Feb. 5, 1954, McElroy grew up in San Mateo County. He was ordained a priest in 1980 and served as an auxiliary bishop to San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone starting in 2010.

In 2015, Pope Francis tapped McElroy to lead the San Diego Diocese. He was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope Francis in an August 2022 consistory after undergoing a successful coronary bypass surgery the year prior.

Before starting seminary, McElroy studied history at Harvard University, going on to also earn a master’s degree in American History from Stanford University.

After his ordination as a priest, he also earned a licentiate (similar to a master’s degree) in sacred theology and doctorates in moral theology and political science.

Rome, Italy, Jan 5, 2025 / 10:42 am (CNA).

American Cardinal James Harvey opened the Holy Door at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls on Sunday, completing the opening of all five Holy Doors in Rome for the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee of Hope.

Pilgrims who visit Rome during the jubilee, a holy year celebrated every 25 years, will have the opportunity to  by passing through the doors.

“The opening of the Holy Door marks the salvific passage opened by Christ through his incarnation, death, and resurrection, calling all members of the Church to be reconciled with God and with one another,” Harvey said.

The ceremony began in the basilica’s column-lined courtyard with the ancient sound of a shofar, a ram’s horn historically used by the ancient Israelites to announce jubilee years, as recorded in the Bible.

Harvey offered a prayer, asking that Christians live the jubilee year with the faith of the Apostle Paul, “so that captivated by the love of Christ and converted by his mercy we may proclaim to the world the Gospel of grace.”

He then pushed open the heavy bronze doors, pausing for a moment of silent prayer at the threshold before entering as the congregation sang  “Pilgrims of Hope.”

Harvey, a Milwaukee native and archpriest of the basilica, presided over the Mass for the opening of the Holy Door. The 75-year-old cardinal formerly served as the prefect of the papal household for Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

“With the opening of the Holy Door this morning at the Papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls … we crossed the threshold of the sacred temple with immense joy because, in a symbolic way, we passed through the door of hope,” Harvey said during his homily.

The Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, one of Rome’s four papal basilicas, is built over the tomb of St. Paul and was first consecrated in 324 by Pope Sylvester. It has long been a significant site of pilgrimage, and during the jubilee, it will play a central role as one of the five Holy Door locations designated by the pope.

“By crossing the threshold of this basilica with faith, we enter the time of mercy and forgiveness so that according to the right expression of our holy patron St. Paul, the way of hope that does not disappoint may be opened to every woman and every man,” Harvey said.

Pope Francis chose “Pilgrims of Hope” as the theme of the 2025 Jubilee Year. In  (“Hope Does Not Disappoint”), the papal bull announcing the jubilee, Pope Francis described hope as a virtue that “does not deceive or disappoint because it is grounded in the certainty that nothing and no one may ever separate us from God’s love.”

In his homily, Harvey reflected on the virtue of hope, quoting Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical : “We have been given hope, trustworthy hope, by virtue of which we can face our present: the present, even if it is arduous, can be lived and accepted if it leads towards a goal, if we can be sure of this goal, and if this goal is great enough to justify the effort of the journey.”

“‘The good news,’ the Christian message, is the announcement of this accomplished reality of Jesus Christ died, risen, and glorified. He is our hope,” Harvey added.

The jubilee, the first ordinary one since the Great Jubilee of 2000, is expected to draw millions of pilgrims to Rome. The other four Holy Doors of the 2025 Jubilee are located at St. Peter’s Basilica, the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, the Basilica of St. Mary Major, and — for the first time in the history of jubilees — inside Rome’s Rebibbia Prison.

“The dark door of time, of the future, has been thrown open. The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life,” Harvey said, quoting .

Harvey explained that hope is “a theological virtue because it’s infused by God and has God as its guarantor. It’s not a passive virtue which merely waits for things to happen. It’s a supremely active virtue that helps make them happen.”

“The Church invites each pilgrim to undertake a spiritual journey in the footsteps of faith, and the Church strongly hopes that it may reignite the flame of hope,” he said.

The Holy Door at St. Paul’s will remain open until Dec. 28, 2025. “St. Paul left us these precious words when he wrote to the Romans, ‘May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit,’” Harvey said.

“The cross of Christ, the glorious symbol of victory over sin and death, is our unique hope,” he said.

“To radiate hope, to be sowers of hope … is certainly the most beautiful gift that the Church can give to all humanity, especially at this moment in its history,” the cardinal added.

Vatican City, Jan 5, 2025 / 09:35 am (CNA).

In his Sunday Angelus address, Pope Francis encouraged Christians to be “messengers of hope” in the jubilee year by saying “‘yes’ to life.”

Umbrellas dotted St. Peter’s Square on the rainy Sunday afternoon as jubilee pilgrims braved the weather to hear Pope Francis give his Angelus message. The pope commended the crowd for their bravery in standing out in the rain and urged them to bring God’s light to their families and communities during the 2025 Jubilee of Hope.

“Let us not be afraid to throw open bright windows of closeness to those who are suffering, of forgiveness, of compassion, and reconciliation,” Pope Francis said from the window of the Apostolic Palace on Jan. 5.

“This invitation resounds in a particular way in the jubilee year that has just begun, urging us to be messengers of hope with a simple but concrete ‘yes’ to life with choices that bring life.”

Reflecting on the prologue of John’s Gospel, the pope reminded the faithful that Jesus, the word incarnate, is “the light that shines in darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Pope Francis said the Gospel “reminds us, then, how powerful is God’s love, which is not overcome by anything and which, despite obstacles and rejections, continues to shine and illuminate our path.”

The pope added that we are living in a time of “great need for light, for hope, and a need for peace” in which “men at times create situations so complicated that it seems impossible to get out of them.”

He underlined the eternal nature of God’s love, saying: “God never stops. He finds a thousand ways to reach everyone, each and every one of us, wherever we are, without calculation and without conditions, opening even in the darkest nights of humanity windows of light that the darkness cannot obscure.”

At the start of the new year, Francis encouraged everyone to reflect on their capacity to bring light into the lives of others: “How can I open a window of light in my environment and in my relationships? Where can I be a glimmer of light that lets God’s love pass through? What is the first step I should take today?”

Pope Francis invoked the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary as he led the crowd in the Angelus prayer in Latin, urging Christians to follow Our Lady’s example. “May Mary, star that leads to Jesus, help us to be shining witnesses of the Father’s love for everyone,” he said.

Pope Francis also prayed for war-torn regions of the world, calling on Catholics to continue praying for peace in Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Myanmar, and Sudan.

“May the international community act firmly so that humanitarian law is respected in conflicts,” he said. “No more striking schools, hospitals; no more hitting workplaces! Let us not forget that war is always a defeat, always.”

CNA Newsroom, Jan 4, 2025 / 08:58 am (CNA).

Pope Francis warned that bullying in schools prepares students for war rather than peace in a powerful appeal to Catholic educators gathered at the Vatican on Saturday.

Speaking to approximately 2,000 Italian teachers, educators, and parents, the pontiff repeatedly emphasized his message against bullying, having participants pledge “No bullying!” during the audience.

“If at school you wage war among yourselves, if you bully girls and boys who have problems, you are preparing for war, not peace,” Francis told the Paul VI Audience Hall gathering.

The meeting on Jan. 4 marked the 80th anniversary of the Italian Association of Catholic Teachers and the 50th anniversary of the Association of Catholic School Parents. Francis used the occasion to outline “God’s pedagogy” of closeness, compassion, and tenderness.

Warning against a “remote pedagogy, distant from people,” the Holy Father stressed that effective education requires proximity and engagement. He illustrated this point with an anecdote about a family he had heard about, where parents and children sat together at a restaurant but remained fixated on their mobile phones instead of conversing.

“Please, in families, let’s talk!” the pope implored, emphasizing that “family is dialogue, it is dialogue that makes us grow.”

The papal address coincided with the beginning of the jubilee journey, which Francis noted has “much to say” to the world of education. He called educators to be “pilgrims of hope” who devote themselves with trust and patience to human growth.

“Their hope is not naive,” Francis explained. “It is rooted in reality and sustained by the conviction that every educational effort has value and that every person has dignity and a vocation worthy of being cultivated.”

The pontiff concluded by encouraging the formation of a “pact between associations” to better witness to the Church’s presence both in and for schools, reminding participants once more to stand firm against bullying.

The Holy Father’s strong message against bullying came on the same day he addressed another group of Catholic educators, the Union of St. Catherine of Siena Missionary Teachers, where he emphasized the importance of joyful witness in Catholic education.

Speaking to the teaching sisters in the Vatican’s Clementine Hall, what he called “vinegar faces,” saying stern countenances drive people away from the faith. The dual addresses highlighted the pope’s vision for Catholic education: combining warm, welcoming pedagogy with firm opposition to behaviors that undermine human dignity and peace.

CNA Newsroom, Jan 4, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Pointing to the perils of pastoral pessimism, Pope Francis urged a congregation of teaching sisters on Saturday to cultivate joy in their ministry, warning them that stern countenances drive people away from the faith.

“Many times in my life I have encountered nuns with a vinegar face, and this is not friendly, this is not something that helps to attract people,” the pope said.

Speaking to participants in the General Chapter of the Union “St. Catherine of Siena” of School Missionaries in the Vatican’s Clementine Hall, Francis emphasized three essential qualities for religious educators: holiness, preparation, and friendliness.

The congregation, marking its centenary year, chose as its chapter theme “Understanding the present to comprehend together the future of the Union as it journeys with the Church” — an approach Francis praised as being “in line with the legacy” left by their founder, Venerable Luigia Tincani.

The pope quoted St. John Paul II’s 1995 description of their founding vision, which called for “constant commitment to one’s own sanctification, a serious theological and professional preparation, and a lifestyle that is friendly and loving toward everyone, especially young people.”

Francis particularly emphasized the Dominican motto that shapes their educational ministry: “contemplata aliis tradere” (to hand on to others the fruits of contemplation).

The pope also delivered a strong warning against gossip in religious communities. “Please, distance yourself from gossip. Gossip kills, gossip poisons,” he said. “Please, no gossip among you, none. And to ask this of a woman is heroic, but come on, let’s go forward, and no gossip.”

During an exchange about vocations, when sisters indicated they had “a dozen” novices worldwide, Francis encouraged them to actively seek new apostolates. “Look for a vocational apostolate, look for it!” he urged.

The Union of St. Catherine of Siena Missionary Teachers was founded in Italy in 1925 by Tincani. Following the spiritual heritage of St. Catherine of Siena and the Dominican tradition of combining contemplation with education, the congregation focuses on promoting Christian humanism through education, serving in schools and universities across several continents.

ACI Prensa Staff, Jan 3, 2025 / 15:20 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis on Friday welcomed a group of children and young people from the Italian Union of Blind and Partially Sighted People in the Vatican’s Clementine Hall, encouraging them to be pilgrims of hope during the 2025 Jubilee Year.

At the beginning of his Jan. 3 audience, the Holy Father encouraged those present to repeat the “Pilgrims of Hope” theme of the 2025 Jubilee, getting louder and louder each time until he was satisfied with their enthusiastic response and congratulated them with a “bravo!”

Pope Francis then encouraged them to be “people on the journey” who always have the desire to continue, “never stopping, never arriving, always with the desire to move forward.”

In his talk, the pontiff recalled that a pilgrim is more than a traveler, because he has a particular goal: “A holy place, which draws him, which motivates him, which sustains him in his fatigue.”

In the case of the ordinary Jubilee of 2025, he said, the goal is a Holy Door “that allows us to enter into new life, free from the slavery of sin, free to love and serve God and neighbor.”

The pilgrim is also distinguished from the traveller, the pope said, because he is eager “to encounter Jesus, to know him, to listen to his word, which gives meaning to life, which fills it with a distinct joy, a joy that does not remain ‘outside,’ on the surface, but fills the heart and warms it, a joy that is peace, goodness, tenderness.”

Pope Francis then proposed examples of saints who show that “only Jesus can give this joy,” citing Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, who is this year; St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi; and St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus.

The pontiff concluded by saying that pilgrims of hope are “children and young people who have encountered the Lord Jesus and have journeyed with him, and he is the hope for every man, for every woman, and also for the world.”

By following this path, Pope Francis added, “we too will become small signs of hope for those we meet.”

CNA Staff, Jan 2, 2025 / 12:40 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of January is for the right to an education.

“Today we’re experiencing an ‘educational catastrophe,’ the Holy Father said in a video released Jan. 2. “This is no exaggeration. Due to wars, migration, and poverty, some 250 million boys and girls lack education.”

“All children and youth have the right to go to school, regardless of their immigration status,” he added.

The pope called education “a hope for everyone.”

“It can save migrants and refugees from discrimination, criminal networks, and exploitation — so many minors are exploited! It can help them integrate into the communities who host them.”

He pointed out that “education opens the doors to a better future.”

“In this way, migrants and refugees can contribute to society, either in their new country or in their country of origin, should they decide to return,” he said.

The Holy Father urged the faithful to never forget “that whoever welcomes the foreigner welcomes Jesus Christ.”

He concluded with a prayer: “Let us pray for migrants, refugees, and those affected by war, that their right to an education, which is necessary to build a more human world, might always be respected.”

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

Vatican City, Jan 2, 2025 / 09:40 am (CNA).

Pope Francis offered his condolences after 15 people were killed in New Orleans when a U.S. Army veteran drove a pickup truck with an Islamic State flag into a crowd celebrating the New Year.

The pope sent a condolence message to New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond on Jan. 2 offering prayers for the souls of the deceased as well as the healing and consolation of the injured and bereaved. 

“His Holiness Pope Francis was deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and injury caused by the attack that took place in New Orleans,” said the message sent on the pope’s behalf by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

“In assuring the entire community of his spiritual closeness, His Holiness commends the souls of those who have died to the loving mercy of Almighty God and prays for the healing and consolation of the injured and bereaved. As a pledge of peace and strength in the Lord, the Holy Father sends his blessing.”

The New Orleans attack is being investigated as an act of terrorism by the FBI, which believes that the driver, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, did not act alone. Jabbar was killed in a shootout with police after driving a truck with an explosive device into a crowd of people celebrating the new year in New Orleans’ French Quarter three hours after midnight.

President Joe Biden said Wednesday evening that the driver had posted videos to social media saying that he was inspired by the Islamic State group in the hours before what Biden called the “heinous act.”

About 30 other people were injured by the New Orleans attack, including two police officers wounded by gunfire from the suspect, according to Reuters. 

Among the 15 victims were a mother of a 4-year-old, an 18-year-old aspiring nurse from Mississippi, and a student-athlete who was visiting home for the holidays.

“Our prayers go out to those killed and injured in this morning’s horrific attack on Bourbon Street,” Aymond said in a brief statement released on the archdiocese’s .

“This violent act is a sign of utter disrespect for human life,” he said. “I join with others in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans in offering prayerful support to the victims’ families. I give thanks for the heroic duty of hundreds of law enforcement and medical personnel in the face of such evil.”

FBI officials have said they are also looking for any links with a separate incident in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day in which one person was killed and seven people were injured when a rented Tesla Cybertruck exploded into flames outside of the Trump International Hotel.

ACI Prensa Staff, Jan 2, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

A jubilee is one of the most significant events of the Catholic Church that occurs only every 25 years.

With the beginning of the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope, there are many questions the faithful may ask: What can the jubilee contribute to my life of faith? What is a Holy Door? What is a jubilee church? How can I participate if I don’t go on pilgrimage to Rome? The answers to these and other questions will help Catholics understand the value of this exceptional time of grace.

Why is the jubilee such an important event for Catholics? The answer is simple: It offers an extraordinary opportunity to attain salvation and experience that God’s holiness can transform us. Ultimately, it is a gift that helps us reach heaven.

Why? Because it makes available to the faithful all the easy means to obtain benefits from the “treasury” of the Church, for example, a plenary indulgence, which returns the soul to the state it was in when it received baptism.

Speaking with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Father Giuseppe Bonomo, an Italian priest at the Atri Cathedral in Teramo, Italy — where there is a Holy Door instituted by Pope St. Celestine V — emphasized that the jubilee is also a unique time for “personal and community conversion.”

In fact, during each month of the year, one or more jubilees dedicated to different groups will be celebrated in Rome. In January, for example, there is the Jubilee of the World of Communications, in February the Jubilee of Artists, in April the Jubilee of Teenagers, in May the Jubilee of Confraternities. You can consult the calendar .

In the sacrament of penance sins are forgiven. However, the temporal punishment required by divine justice remains. The indulgence grants the remission of all temporal punishment in purgatory, so that if a person dies after receiving this gift, he or she goes directly to heaven.

The immense value and profound significance that this “treasure” contains makes it a privilege reserved for specific places and times designated for it to be granted. This is where the greatness of the jubilee year lies, a time when the opportunities to obtain it are multiplied — even twice in one day!

Although there is a rule that only one plenary indulgence , during the jubilee year a second one can be obtained if it is done for the souls in purgatory, i.e., the second one will be applicable only to the deceased.

To obtain the jubilee indulgence it is important first to know how it is granted (the requirements) and second, where (the specific place or times) it is granted. With the arrival of the Jubilee of Hope, the Vatican noted :

“All the faithful, who are truly repentant and free from any affection for sin, who are moved by a spirit of charity and who, during the holy year, purified through the sacrament of penance and refreshed by holy Communion, pray for the intentions of the supreme pontiff, will be able to obtain from the treasury of the Church a plenary indulgence, with remission and forgiveness of all their sins, which can be applied in suffrage to the souls in purgatory,” the document states.

During the year 2025, Catholics will be able to obtain the indulgence on pilgrimages to any holy place of the jubilee, those churches designated for this purpose. In Rome, in addition to the four main basilicas, there are

The Eternal City is undoubtedly the center of the 2025 Jubilee, and during the year it expects to welcome 30 million people. However, if one cannot go on pilgrimage to Rome, there are many other ways to obtain the indulgence and experience a true conversion and strengthening of faith.

Bonomo explained to ACI Prensa that any Catholic who wishes can do so in his or her own city. “You must ask your bishop how many churches there are in your diocese” with these qualifications, he explained. 

“There are many jubilee churches! And of course you can obtain the plenary indulgence in these churches,” he said.

You can also obtain it if you visit sacred places such as Marian shrines or other basilicas. You can check which ones .

It can also be received by performing works of mercy and penance, such as visiting those in need or in difficulty (the sick, prisoners, the lonely elderly, etc.), even by abstaining, at least for one day, from “trivial distractions,” such as social media and “superfluous consumption.”

In addition, those who cannot participate in pilgrimages for “serious reasons” can gain the indulgence if they recite “the Our Father, the Profession of Faith in any approved form, and other prayers in conformity with the objectives of the holy year … offering up their sufferings or the hardships of their lives.”

Pope Francis officially inaugurated the 2025 Jubilee of Hope by opening the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica . Passing through a Holy Door during the jubilee symbolizes entry into a new life in Christ and the beginning of a journey of conversion.

Bonomo noted that Holy Doors “can be permanent or not.” The first category includes only nine in the whole world: “The most famous is that of St. Peter in the Vatican, followed by those of the three major basilicas in Rome: St. John Lateran, St. Paul Outside the Walls, and St. Mary Major.”

“But there are also others outside Rome, such as the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela [Spain], the Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio in L’Aquila [Italy], the Basilica-Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Québec [Canada], the Atri Cathedral [Italy], and Sacred Heart Cathedral in New Delhi [India],” he added.

Furthermore, the Italian priest explained that “the basilicas with permanent Holy Doors have their own statutes.” For example, “the Basilica of Atri is open every year from Aug. 14–22, while those in Rome are open only during a jubilee year,” he continued.

In the case of Santiago de Compostela, a holy year occurs when July 25, the saint’s feast day, falls on a Sunday. During that year, the plenary indulgence can be obtained at the cathedral.

Nonpermanent Holy Doors are those that are opened only for a specific jubilee year, as on Dec. 26, 2024, when for the first time in the jubilee tradition, Pope Francis opened a Holy Door, located on the outskirts of Rome.

Ten years ago, during his trip to the Central African Republic, Pope Francis opened , a gesture made shortly after the beginning of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy to encourage “peace in this country and the world.” In addition, on Dec. 18 of that year he opened the Holy Door of Charity in a reception center in Termini in Rome.

During the Extraordinary Jubilee of 2015, Pope Francis granted the opening of the Holy Door also in cathedral churches and allowed the dioceses to establish Holy Doors. This, however, will not happen in 2025, since this year the rules for an ordinary jubilee are followed and not an extraordinary one.

CNA Newsroom, Jan 1, 2025 / 16:17 pm (CNA).

The pealing of a precious ancient bell marked a momentous beginning to the 2025 Jubilee Year at Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major, where Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas opened the Holy Door on Jan. 1, the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.

The Lithuanian cardinal, in December 2024, presided over the ceremony at Rome’s preeminent Marian shrine, where the “Bell of the Lost” rang out across the Eternal City from atop the Esquiline Hill.

In his homily, Makrickas emphasized the bell’s spiritual significance, noting how it has called pilgrims to prayer since the Church’s first jubilee and continues to serve as a sonic symbol of Mary’s guidance, much like the “Star of the Sea” that illuminates the darkness.

“Every pilgrim who crosses the threshold of the Holy Door of this first Marian shrine of the West during the jubilee year will pray before the icon of the Mother of God, Salus Populi Romani, and before the sacred crib of Jesus,” the cardinal said during his homily.

The papal basilica, also known as the “Bethlehem of the West,” houses both the and . Makrickas highlighted how these sacred objects connect to Pope Francis’ document “,” which announced the jubilee year.

Quoting the papal bull, the cardinal reminded the faithful that pilgrims are especially invited to “make a prayer stop at the Marian shrines of the city to venerate the Virgin Mary and invoke her protection.”

The basilica’s location at the center of a star-shaped road network symbolically evokes the Star of Bethlehem, Makrickas noted, reflecting its 1,600-year mission to serve as “a bright star, at the service of the True Light, pointing to the Savior, true God and true man, born of the Virgin Mary.”

The cardinal concluded his homily by entrusting the jubilee year to the Mother of God, praying that she might lead all pilgrims to Jesus, “the fullness of time, of all time, of everyone’s time.”

CNA Newsroom, Jan 1, 2025 / 08:33 am (CNA).

Cardinal Angelo Amato, the former prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints who oversaw numerous significant canonizations including that of Mother Teresa, died Dec. 31. He was 86.

A member of the Salesians of Don Bosco, Amato served the Holy See in key positions spanning four decades.

In a telegram announcing his death, Pope Francis on Wednesday praised the “edifying witness of this spiritual son of St. John Bosco who for many years spent himself with human refinement and generosity for the Gospel and the Church.”

The pope’s message, sent to Father Stefano Martoglio, vicar of the Rector Major of the Salesians, highlighted Amato’s “priestly spirit and theological preparation” through which he served the Holy See, particularly in the then-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

The funeral Mass will be celebrated Jan. 2 at 2 p.m. at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica, with Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re as the main celebrant. Pope Francis will preside over the final commendation and farewell.

Born in Molfetta, Italy, on June 8, 1938, Amato made his first religious profession in 1956 and was ordained a priest in 1967.

His scholarly path led him to roles in theological education, including positions at the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Pontifical Salesian University, where he served as dean. His academic journey included time in Greece, where he conducted research on Orthodox theology.

Pope John Paul II appointed him secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2002, and Pope Benedict XVI later named him prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in 2008. Benedict created him a cardinal in 2010.

“Faithful to his motto ‘Sufficit gratia mea,’ [‘’] even in recent times marked by suffering, he abandoned himself to the goodness of the Heavenly Father,” Pope Francis noted in his message.

CNA Newsroom, Jan 1, 2025 / 07:30 am (CNA).

Pope Francis marked the Angelus prayer on the first day of 2025 by calling on Christian nations to set an example through debt relief for the world’s poorest countries and renewing his passionate plea for peace in global conflict zones.

Speaking from the window of the Apostolic Palace to what the Vatican reported as approximately 30,000 faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, the pontiff connected the Church’s World Day of Peace with the upcoming jubilee year, emphasizing debt forgiveness as a concrete path to peace.

“The first to forgive debts is God, as we always ask him when praying the ‘Our Father,’” Francis said. “And the jubilee calls for translating this forgiveness to the social level, so that no person, no family, no people may be crushed by debt.”

The pope encouraged “the leaders of countries with Christian traditions to set a good example by canceling or reducing as much as possible the debts of the poorest countries.”

Reflecting on global conflicts, Francis expressed gratitude for those working toward dialogue and negotiations in war zones. He specifically mentioned Ukraine, Gaza, Israel, Myanmar, and Kivu, a region in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that has suffered from prolonged violence and instability.

“Brothers, sisters, war destroys, it always destroys! War is always a defeat, always,” the pope emphasized.

Francis reflected on the day’s Gospel reading from Luke 2:16-21, which recounts the shepherds’ arrival at the manger in Bethlehem. He drew attention to both what the shepherds saw — the child Jesus, whose name in Hebrew means “God saves” — and what remained unseen: Mary’s heart that “treasured and meditated on all these things.”

“God chose to be born for us,” Francis said. “The Lord came into the world to give us his very life.” He connected this divine choice to what he called “the hope of redemption and salvation” that beats in Mary’s maternal heart for all creation.

Earlier in the day, the and the protection of human life at St. Peter’s Basilica, calling for “a firm commitment to promote respect for the dignity of human life, from conception to natural death” in his New Year’s Day homily.