Advertisement
On the feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth Sunday, Pope Francis encouraged families to get off their cell phones and talk to one another.
On Christmas, Pope Francis prayed for Christ to bring light to the instability in Iraq, Lebanon, Venezuela, Yemen, Ukraine, Burkina Faso, and other parts of the world experiencing conflict.
Pope Francis and the United Nations Secretary General António Guterres recorded a video message together at the Vatican Friday in which the two leaders urge the importance of religious freedom, human dignity, and environmental protection.
The elderly are crucial in a society respectful of the rights of all, Pope Francis told leaders and members of Italy’s National Association of Elderly Workers on Monday.
Appointed Saturday, December 14 to shepherd the people of God in Kenya’s Kericho Diocese by the Holy Father, Bishop Alfred Rotich, the retired Military Ordinariate Local Ordinary was born in the same diocese 62 years ago to a family of 13 children. This is part of the Rift Valley region, a place whose weather pattern, warm temperate climate and slightly acidic soil is appropriate for agriculture, with inhabitants engaged in large scale tea farming as their main cash crop.
On Gaudete Sunday, Pope Francis celebrated a Filipino Christmas tradition in St. Peter’s Basilica -- the Simbang Gabi Christmas novena.
As Pope Francis blessed children's nativity scene figurines Sunday, the pope said that the Advent season is a time of conversion to make space in one’s heart for Christ to come and fill it with joy.
Fifty years ago on Dec. 13, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was ordained a Jesuit priest in Argentina. As pope, he will celebrate his ordination anniversary Friday by honoring one of his early spiritual mentors, Fr. Miguel Angel Fiorito.
On Thursday, December 12, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of two African Prelates and made three Episcopal appointments for the Church in Africa that included the transfer of the Local Ordinary of South Sudan’s Torit diocese, Bishop Stephen Ameyu to Juba Archdiocese and the naming of Fr. Daniel Nzika and Fr. Julius Yakubu Kundi as new Bishops in the Congo and Nigeria respectively.
Pope Francis celebrated Dec. 12 Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, at which the pope mentioned that through the apparition, Mary revealed herself to be the mother of all humanity.
Pope Francis said Thursday that the often hidden holiness lived out in everyday life is a true light within the Church.
Pope Francis has expressed his condolences to the families of the two priests, formators at Saint John Vianney Seminary in Pretoria, South Africa, who died in the December 3 road accident and made known his prayerful solidarity with the two others who survived the Tuesday afternoon tragedy.
Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Gabriel Sayaogo, who has been the Local Ordinary of Burkina Faso’s Manga diocese, the new Archbishop of Koupéla, an Archdiocese in the Eastern region of the West African country where Archbishop Séraphin François Rouamba has been the Shepherd.
For the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, Pope Francis Sunday venerated a statue of the Virgin Mary located in Rome’s Piazza di Spagna, reciting a prayer he wrote for the occasion.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Catholic Church has partnered with the Church of Christ of Congo (ECC) to preserve the tropical forest in line with Pope Francis’ Encyclical Letter ‘Laudato si’ which calls on the Church and the world to acknowledge the urgency of our environmental challenges and to join him in embarking on a new path.
On Sunday, December 1, at the three-in-one event marking 25 years since the inauguration of the Congolese Catholic Chaplaincy in Rome, 25th anniversary of the beatification of Catechist and martyr Isidore Bakanja, and the feast of Blessed Marie-Clémentine Anuarite Nengapeta, citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) residing in the Italian capital pleaded with Pope Francis, who had joined them for a special Mass, to have Blessed Anuarite and Blessed Bakanja canonized.
Ahead of the Vatican Christmas tree lighting Dec. 5, Pope Francis expressed hope that the nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square will serve as a reminder of what Christmas is truly about.
Pope Francis decried the mistreatment of migrants and said that he is shocked by anti-immigration narratives within Europe during a conversation with Jesuits in Thailand published Thursday.
Pope Francis said Tuesday that disabled people make important contributions to humanity, and called discrimination against them a sin. The pope added that disabled people are not members of humanity's minor “leagues.”
With the legal effect of the new Apostolic Constitution governing institutions that offer Vatican-approved degrees into its second academic year for many such academic and formation entities in Africa, heads of these Church institutions of higher learning across the continent including Chancellors, Rectors, Presidents and Deans of faculties met in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi to strategize the aligning of the administration of their respective facilities with the new norms contained in the document of Pope Francis, “Veritatis Gaudium” (the joy of truth).