by CNA Staff Vatican City, Dec 23, 2021 / 09:53 am Pope Francis will beatify the “smiling pope” John Paul I on Sept. 4, 2022. Vatican News, the website overseen by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, said on Dec. 23 that the pope who reigned for only 33 days would be beatified …

by CNA Staff Vatican City, Dec 23, 2021 / 04:25 am Pope Francis on Thursday accepted the resignation of Cardinal Peter Turkson as prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. He named the 75-year-old Canadian Jesuit Cardinal Michael Czerny as the interim head of the dicastery pending the appointment …

by Hannah Brockhaus Vatican City, Dec 18, 2021 / 04:36 am The Vatican issued Saturday further strict guidelines on the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass, in response to questions about the motu proprio Traditionis custodes. The explanatory document, which bans confirmations and ordinations according to pre-Vatican II Roman Missals, was published …

by CNA Staff Denver Newsroom, Dec 18, 2021 / 07:53 am New moves by Pope Francis mean changes for Catholics dedicated to the Traditional Latin Mass —and for the priests and bishops responsible for these communities. Even though these Catholics represent a relative small minority of believers, the changes have …

by CNA Staff Greccio, Italy, Dec 17, 2021 / 04:00 am In 2019, Pope Francis issued an apostolic letter on the meaning and importance of the Christmas nativity scene. He signed the document, Admirabile signum (“Enchanting image”), on Dec. 1 that year, at the Shrine of the Nativity in Greccio, a hilltown in the …

by Hannah Brockhaus Vatican City, Dec 17, 2021 / 01:00 am “There is only one thing that really makes us age, grow old interiorly: not age, but sin,” Pope Francis said in 2017, during a speech about the Virgin Mary. As Francis turns 85 on Dec. 17, his ninth birthday …

by Hannah Brockhaus Vatican City, Dec 13, 2021 / 06:00 am The Vatican’s liturgy office on Monday issued a rite and guidelines for the institution of lay catechists in the dioceses of the Catholic Church. Pope Francis created the lay ministry of catechist in May with the release of the motu proprio Antiquum …

by CNA Staff Vatican City, Dec 12, 2021 / 04:47 am Pope Francis expressed his closeness on Sunday to the victims of tornadoes that struck at least six U.S. states, killing scores of people. Speaking after his Angelus address on Dec. 12, he referred to the tornadoes that left a …

by CNA Staff Vatican City, Dec 8, 2021 / 05:45 am Pope Francis highlighted “the beauty of Mary’s heart” in his Angelus address on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. The pope said on Dec. 8 that the Blessed Virgin Mary’s encounter with the Angel Gabriel, described in St. Luke’s Gospel, revealed …

by CNA Staff Athens, Greece, Dec 6, 2021 / 04:20 am Pope Francis urged young people in Athens on Monday not to be “prisoners of the cell phone,” but to truly share their lives with others. Speaking in a school sports hall in a suburb of the Greek capital on …