Inviting all faithful to practice Christian love every day, Pope Francis on Sunday canonized 35 new saints, nearly all of them martyrs, holding them up as models who “point the way”. To the over 35,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square for the Canonization Mass, he said “They did not say a fleeting ‘yes’ to love, they said ‘yes’ with their lives [...]
Pope Francis will declare 33 martyrs and 2 others from Brazil, Mexico, Spain and Italy, as the Catholic Church’s new saints on Sunday at a Canonization Mass in Rome’s St. Peter’s Square. They include 30 so-called “Matryrs of Natal”, including priests and lay people, who were killed in 1645 in a wave of anti-Catholic persecution by Dutch [...]
His now traditional inflight press conference was cut short by turbulence, but Pope Francis managed to answer numerous questions on current issues, including climate change, immigration, and the ongoing crisis in Venezuela. The first questions were asked by Colombian reporters, regarding the Apostolic Visit. Asked what concrete steps Colombians can take to overcome the divisions and hatred caused by decades of [...]
Pope Francis celebrated Holy Mass in Monza Park for the people of the Archdiocese of Milan, Italy on Saturday during a pastoral visit, reflecting on the annunciation of Jesus as a message of joy at the peripheries of society. The Holy Father invited them to be joyful members of God’s people and to avoid “speculating” on [...]
January 31, 2017, on the Knights of Malta... I left off my last report, on the complicated and tumultuous story of the Knights of Malta (Letter #5 this year) with a "to be continued." I would like to write more, but at this moment there is not much that can be said. We know this: Grand [...]
January 20, 2017, Friday -- Ten Found Safe Some good news from central Italy. Ten survivors have now been dug out of tons of snow and are alive and well after an avalanche buried a mountain hotel at about 5 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon. Rescuers are continuing to look for another 20 people who are thought [...]
January 19, 2017, Thursday -- Avalanche and Prayer Further heartbreaking news from central Italy. Yesterday morning four earthquakes hit central Italy. We could feel the tremors here in Rome, just slightly. At first it seemed that no one had been hurt. Then came the news that as many as 30 people had been buried in snow [...]
September 18, 2016, Sunday -- The Face of Christ and Unity "Seeking the Face of Jesus must be the longing of all of us Christians... If we persevere in our quest for the Face of the Lord, at the end of our earthly pilgrimage, he, Jesus, will be our eternal joy, our reward and glory for [...]
· The General Audience dedicated to prayer for the people struck by an earthquake that shook central Italy. · Within hours of an earthquake that devastated areas of central Italy early Wednesday morning, 24 August, Pope Francis expressed “heartfelt sorrow” and “closeness to all those present in the zones affected”, to “those who have lost loved [...]
The entrance to the Crypt of Original Sin in Matera Matera is a small town in southern Italy famous for two things: its astonishing rock churches (named a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1993) and its poverty. There is hardly an electric light or a wire in sight. The panorama, the hollow cave-rooms gaping [...]