by Courtney Mares Rome Newsroom, May 24, 2021 / 06:00 am Fourteen people died in a cable car crash in northern Italy Sunday after the cable carrying the passengers up a mountain near Lake Maggiore suddenly snapped. Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, the president of the Italian bishops’ conference, expressed the “closeness …

by Courtney Mares Vatican City, May 21, 2021 / 04:30 am America/Denver (CNA). The Vatican announced Friday that the Synod of Bishops on synodality has been postponed to 2023, with a two-year consultative preparatory phase involving Catholic dioceses worldwide. The synod on synodality will officially open with a “diocesan phase” …

by Courtney Mares Vatican City, May 17, 2021 / 06:00 am America/Denver (CNA). Pope Francis has appointed Fr. Stephen Chow, S.J. as the next bishop of Hong Kong. Chow, 61, has served as the provincial of the Jesuits’ Chinese Province since 2018. In that role, he led the Jesuit order …

by Courtney Mares Rome Newsroom, May 9, 2021 / 05:40 am America/Denver (CNA). Blessed Rosario Livatino, a Catholic judge brutally killed by the mafia in 1990, was beatified Sunday in the Cathedral of Agrigento, Sicily. Pope Francis commended the beatification of the young judge, calling him a “martyr of justice …

by Courtney Mares Vatican City, May 8, 2021 / 06:40 am America/Denver (CNA). Pope Francis called for the “temporary suspension of intellectual property rights” for COVID-19 vaccines in his video message to the “Vax Live” concert co-chaired by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. “The coronavirus has produced death and suffering, …

By Courtney Mares Vatican City, May 6, 2021 / 12:00 pm America/Denver (CNA). Thirty-four new Swiss Guards were sworn in Thursday in an elaborate ceremony in Vatican City in which the guards promised to protect the pope, even “sacrificing if necessary also my own life.” Gian Andrea Bossi, a 20-year-old …

by Courtney Mares Rome, Italy, May 3, 2021 / 13:00 pm America/Denver (CNA). Catholic parishes across Italy and as far away as the Philippines celebrated what would have been the 30th birthday of Blessed Carlo Acutis on Monday. Acutis, who was born on May 3, 1991, became the first millennial …

by Courtney Mares Vatican City, May 3, 2021 / 07:00 am America/Denver (CNA). The Vatican announced Monday that Pope Francis will open an event on Italy’s demographic winter as the country’s birth rate has hit a historic low. Pope Francis will give the opening remarks for the General States of …

by Courtney Mares Vatican City, Apr 30, 2021 / 05:00 am America/Denver (CNA). Pope Francis sent a video message for the beatification on Friday of José Gregorio Hernández, a Venezuelan doctor who served the poor during the Spanish flu pandemic. “The beatification of Dr. Hernández is a special blessing of …

by Courtney Mares Rome, Italy, Apr 26, 2021 / 06:40 am America/Denver (CNA). Fr. Livinius Esomchi Nnamani, who was ordained to the priesthood in his hospital room on Holy Thursday with special permission from Pope Francis, has died of leukemia at the age of 31. The young priest’s funeral was …