French victims of abuse by Bernard Preynat, a priest accused of pedophilia, sent a letter to Pope Francis on Monday to request for a private audience. “We wish, Holy Father, that you can be a guiding light in our night and that you take the time to get to know us,” read the letter, sent Read more
In a powerful symbolic gesture that is sure to resonate across the globe from Europe to the United States and Australia, Pope Francis will wash the feet of 12 refugees on Holy Thursday in Rome. He will do so on March 24, at a center that assists migrants in the city. The Vatican has not Read more
Pope Francis on Tuesday said Blessed Mother Teresa of Kolkata will become a saint on Sept. 4. Affectionately known as the “saint of the gutter” for her unconditional love for the poor, abandoned and marginalized, Mother Teresa earned several international honors, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. She was beatified in 2003 by Read more
On Monday night I was in the diocese of New Ulm, Minnesota, to give the annual Bishop Raymond Lucker lecture. Lucker served as the bishop there for a quarter-century, from 1976 to 2000, and is remembered in New Ulm primarily as a caring pastor who loved his people and his place. Nationally, however, Lucker is Read more
Pope Francis marked his third day as pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church by distributing 40,000 copies of the Gospel of Luke in St. Peter’s Square. During his weekly blessing on Sunday, Pope Francis reinforced his message of mercy by telling the faithful about the Biblical story of the adulterous woman whom Jesus refused to Read more
Pope Francis announced through a video message on Sunday, March 13, the winner of the Global Teacher Prize, a US$1 million award presented by the Varkey Foundation. “I would like to congratulate the teacher Hanan al-Hroub for winning this prestigious prize due to the importance that she gave to the ‘playing’ part in the education Read more
Pope Francis will visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in July. He will visit the former Nazi death camp in southern Poland on July 29, on the third day of his visit to the country. Two of his predecessors have also visited the camp, John Paul II – himself Polish – in 1979 and retired pope Read more
The Vatican will appoint Archbishop Christophe Pierre to be the new ambassador to the United States, replacing an ambassador whose tenure has sparked controversy, reports say. The Jesuit news organization America and longtime Vatican reporter Sandro Magister said Thursday that they expect Pierre will be appointed the Apostolic Nuncio, though the Holy See has not Read more
Pope Francis has imposed new rules governing the establishment and management of funds for the advancement of investigations into the lives of people proposed for sainthood. The new financial accountability regulations came after reports of gross abuses on the use of donations from the faithful. At least two books by Italian journalists revealed that the Read more
The Vatican will hold a consistory on March 15 to approve the canonization of five men and women, including Blessed Teresa of Kolkata. The meeting, also known as an “ordinary public consistory,” formally ends the process of approving a new saint. Vatican observers expect that Blessed Teresa’s canonization will take place on Sept. 4, the Read more