Apr 25, 2024 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Cindy Wooden , Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — When Jesus called himself the “good shepherd,” he was telling people not only that he was their guide, but that they were important to him and “that he thinks of each of us as the...
Apr 24, 2024 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Cindy Wooden , Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis met briefly with Chuck Robbins, CEO of Cisco Systems — the U.S. digital communications conglomerate — after Robbins signed on to the “Rome Call for AI Ethics,” a...
Apr 15, 2024 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Justin McLellan , Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Humanity must have more direct contact with nature to counter the modern lifestyles that are destroying the planet, Pope Francis said. Respecting and loving the earth as well as seeking direct...
Apr 10, 2024 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Cindy Wooden | Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — While intense feelings or drive — passions — are natural, Christians know they must be tamed and channeled toward what is good, Pope Francis said. The virtue of fortitude, “the most...
Apr 2, 2024 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Carol Glatz , Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Governments must eliminate laws discriminating against women and help guarantee women’s human rights, Pope Francis said. “Let us respect women. Let us respect their dignity, their basic...
Mar 29, 2024 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Cindy Wooden | Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Just before some 1,500 priests, bishops and cardinals renewed their priestly promises, Pope Francis asked them to embrace “compunction,” which he said was “an aspect of the spiritual...
Mar 28, 2024 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Cindy Wooden , Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — As a statue of Jesus bearing his cross is carried through the streets of Sonsonate, El Salvador, on Good Friday, Pope Francis asked Catholics to respond to Jesus’ love with contemplation and a...
Mar 27, 2024 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Cindy Wooden , Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis told Catholics in the Holy Land that he knows Holy Week this year is “so overshadowed by the Passion and, as yet, so little by the Resurrection.” In a letter published March...
Mar 15, 2024 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Justin McLellan , Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Faced with decades of rising secularism, the Catholic Church must invest in families and in strengthening other forms of community to transmit the faith, Pope Francis said. “The big issue...
Mar 14, 2024 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Cindy Wooden , Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A pope’s ministry is meant to last his lifetime, Pope Francis said, and, at least until now, he has not considered resigning. However, he wrote in a new book, if he were seriously impaired, he...
Mar 13, 2024 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Justin McLellan | Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The saints are not unreachable “exceptions of humanity” but ordinary people who worked diligently to grow in virtue, Pope Francis said. It is wrong to think of the saints as “a...
Mar 11, 2024 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Cindy Wooden , Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Christians should pray for the grace to look at others with the same mercy and care with which Jesus looks at them, Pope Francis said. “No one is perfect. We are all sinners, we all make...
Mar 4, 2024 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Cindy Wooden , Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Making the world a better place for everyone starts with prayer and little steps like saying hello, sorry or thank you, Pope Francis said in a letter to the world’s children. “Our world...
Mar 4, 2024 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Holy Spirit sparks the inner outrage and courage needed to confront injustice and unacceptable situations, and to try to change them, Pope Francis said. “With admiration, we see this courage in...
Feb 27, 2024 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Justin McLellan Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — This Lent, Christians should become “seekers of light” by keeping their sights set on the light of Jesus through prayer and participating in the sacraments, Pope Francis said. “This...
Feb 8, 2024 | Digital Update stories, Pope Francis & Vatican
ABOVE: Pope Francis gives his blessing at the conclusion of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops’ last working session on Oct. 28, 2023, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Vatican Media) By Sr. Katie Eiffe, contributing writer The First Session of...
Jan 30, 2024 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Justin McLellan VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Keeping the Catholic faith and caring for the poor, sick and afflicted are inseparable, Pope Francis said. Tending to the concrete and spiritual needs of the world’s marginalized “is not only humanitarian, like...
Jan 30, 2024 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis asked thousands of Italian children preparing for confirmation to be witnesses of God’s love. “Go to Jesus, meet him, and then tell everyone how good it is to be with Jesus, because he loves us and is...
Jan 30, 2024 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Addictions, fear, impossible perfectionism, consumerism and the inability to choose and love life are just some of the traps the devil uses to take away people’s freedom, Pope Francis said. The devil “wants to take...
Jan 29, 2024 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A television or radio network that calls itself Catholic must help people overcome their prejudices, seek the truth with charity and build bridges between people, Pope Francis said. Meeting Jan. 29 with employees of TV2000...
Jan 29, 2024 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Justin McLellan VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis asked people to never forget the Rwandan genocide which killed more than 800,000 people almost 30 years ago. “Ah that genocide! It was terrible, terrible,” the pope told members of an Italian...
Jan 22, 2024 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Justin McLellan VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A journalist’s reporting about the Catholic Church should not aim to polarize people or push certain positions, but to seek and share the truth, Pope Francis said. Journalists have an obligation to ground their work...
Jan 22, 2024 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis praised the legacy of an Italian priest who looked for ways the Catholic Church could make sure the poor were not left further behind in the world. “And with wisdom and love,” the late Father Lorenzo...
Jan 19, 2024 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The obligation to care for creation is not only about the environment, “it has to do with human life, as the Creator conceived and arranged it,” Pope Francis told a group from northern Italy dedicated to...
Jan 3, 2024 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Justin McLellan VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Temptation — a constant in spiritual life — is an opportunity for Christians to remember that Jesus is close to them, supports them and lifts them up when they fall, Pope Francis said. “We all have...
Jan 3, 2024 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) — War is madness, Pope Francis said, calling for prayers for all people in the world affected by today’s conflicts. “Let us not forget the people at war,” he said at the end of his general audience in the Paul...
Dec 11, 2023 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Away in a cave near Greccio, Italy, St. Francis of Assisi had the first Nativity scene — a live one — staged for the faithful on Christmas Eve in 1223. A 15th-century fresco now decorating the cave inspired the...
Dec 4, 2023 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The world needs people to build alliances that are not against others, but are in favor of everyone, Pope Francis told faith leaders at the U.N. Climate Change Conference being held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. “It is...
Nov 6, 2023 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) — With every act of charity and serving others, Christians must always try to “disappear” so that only the Lord and his love appear before the people they serve, Pope Francis said. “Reveal, in service and in...
Nov 6, 2023 | Pope Francis & Vatican
By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Charismatic renewal movements should provide support and advice to bishops and priests by accompanying, guiding and deepening the faith of all those who take part in their initiatives and communities, Pope Francis said....
