Vatican News

Pope Francis urges Catholic educators to teach inclusive integral ecology

Vatican City, Feb 20, 2020 / 10:08 am (CNA).- Pope Francis called for an educational revolution Thursday, telling the Congregation for Catholic Education that more effort needs to be made to accelerate the inclusiveness of education.

Ecology and fraternity are an integral part of education, Pope Francis told the Catholic education leaders ahead of the pope’s Global Compact on Education taking place May 14.

London to Malta via Rome: Following the money in Vatican financial scandals

Vatican City, Feb 19, 2020 / 02:30 pm (CNA).- The Vatican raid conducted on the chief prosecutor of the Church’s Apostolic Signatura sheds light on a network of companies and businessmen at the center of interrelated Vatican financial scandals.

Eastern Catholic bishops in US have particular pastoral concern for immigrants

Vatican City, Feb 19, 2020 / 12:01 pm (CNA).- In the United States, Eastern Catholics face many of the same challenges as Latin rite Catholics, but the Eastern Catholic Churches are particularly concerned about growing anti-immigrant rhetoric and the plight of Christians overseas, a Ukrainian Catholic archbishop said Wednesday.

The U.S.-based Eastern Catholic bishops are in Rome for their ad limina visit to the Vatican and to the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul Feb. 17-21.

Pope Francis: The meek are not pushovers

Vatican City, Feb 19, 2020 / 04:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis said Wednesday that a meek Christian is not weak, but defends his faith and controls his temper.

“The meek person is not accommodating, but is a disciple of Christ who has learned to defend another land well. He defends his peace, defends his relationship with God, and defends his gifts, preserving mercy, fraternity, trust, and hope,” Pope Francis said Feb. 19 in Paul VI Hall.

Pope Francis approves Caritas Internationalis’ new statutes

Vatican City, Feb 18, 2020 / 01:26 pm (CNA).- The Vatican announced Feb. 17 that Pope Francis had approved changes to Caritas Internationalis’ governing statutes and internal rules.

The new statutes had been in effect since May 2019 after a decree from the Vatican Secretariat of State approved changes made by the general assembly of Caritas.

Vatican official raided over London property deal investigation

Vatican City, Feb 18, 2020 / 09:06 am (CNA).- Vatican authorities have seized documents and computers belonging to a senior curial official as part of an investigation into financial misconduct, the Holy See announced on Tuesday.

In new series, Pope Francis offers insights on the Nicene Creed

Rome, Italy, Feb 17, 2020 / 03:00 pm (CNA).- An Italian television station released on Monday the first in an eight part series of interviews designed to highlight reflections from Pope Francis on the Nicene Creed.

In the first interview of the series, Pope Francis countered arguments that Satan is a symbol or an expression of psychological issues.

500 years later, Raphael tapestries rehung in Sistine Chapel

Vatican City, Feb 17, 2020 / 11:07 am (CNA).- Five hundred years after the death of Renaissance artist Raphael, the Vatican Museums has returned the tapestries he designed to their original place in the Sistine Chapel for just one week.

“The value of these tapestries is above all the fact that they complete the religious message of the [Sistine] Chapel,” Alessandra Rodolfo, the exhibit’s curator, told CNA Feb. 17.

Francis requires year of missionary work for future diplomat priests

Vatican City, Feb 17, 2020 / 05:09 am (CNA).- Pope Francis has requested that priests in formation for the Holy See’s diplomatic service be required to spend one year in missionary work, the Vatican announced Monday.

The pope has asked the change to go into effect for the 2020/2021 academic year. He called for the curriculum update in a letter to the president of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, Bishop Joseph Marino.

Pope Francis: God's law brings freedom

Vatican City, Feb 16, 2020 / 06:26 am (CNA).- God gives the grace both to follow his law exteriorly and to accept it in one’s heart, which is what gives true freedom from passion and sin, Pope Francis said in his Angelus address Sunday.

“Let’s not forget this: living the Law as an instrument of freedom, which helps me to be freer, which helps me not to be a slave to passions and sin,” the pope said Feb. 16.

Retreat House Bandra