By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis announced an extraordinary jubilee, a Holy Year of Mercy, to highlight the Catholic Church’s “mission to be a witness of mercy.” “No one can be excluded from God’s mercy,” the pope said March 13, marking the second anniversary of …

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — When Pope Francis went out onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica for the first time, he said he did not prepare what he was going to say, but “I felt deeply that a minister needs the blessing of God, but …

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Christians either love God and their neighbor or they are hypocrites; there is no middle ground, Pope Francis said. “Jesus says, ‘Whoever is not with me is against me.’ Well, can’t there be a compromise — a bit here and a …

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY  — Hearing a Catholic’s confession should be awe-inspiring for a priest, an experience that makes him look at his own life and willingness to convert, Pope Francis told a group of seminarians, new priests and priests who hear confessions in the major …

By Mark Pattison Catholic News Service WASHINGTON — Within two years of becoming pope, Pope Francis now has an effect named after him. This “Francis effect” provides both comfort and challenges to Catholics, according to a panel of U.S. Catholic leaders speaking during a March 10 teleconference organized by Faith …

  By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Don’t pack it in or shift into cruise control, Pope Francis told his fellow seniors. Today’s frenetic world, especially young people and families, needs the older generation’s prayers, wisdom and gifts to give them the encouragement, hope and faith they …

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY  — Opening one’s heart to God’s forgiveness means also being willing to forgive others, Pope Francis said. “If I am not capable of forgiving, I’m not capable of being forgiven,” he said March 10 in the homily at his early morning Mass …

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY  — On International Women’s Day, Pope Francis thanked women, “who in thousands of ways, witness to the Gospel and work in the church.” The pope’s comments March 8 preceded a five-hour celebration in the Vatican of the ways Christian women minister to …

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Christian faith and a moral life are responses to God’s mercy and not the result of “titanic” human effort, Pope Francis said. In meetings and Masses March 7-8, the pope repeatedly returned to the theme of the church as an agent …

By Catholic News Service WASHINGTON  — Two years after he was elected pope, Pope Francis’ popularity rating among U.S. Catholics is at 90 percent, surpassing Pope Benedict XVI’s best-ever popularity, and rivaling that of St. John Paul II. Pope Francis, who is scheduled to visit Washington, New York and Philadelphia …