Vatican News

Vatican abuse trial: Witnesses say allegations about youth seminary were ignored

Vatican City, Feb 25, 2021 / 08:00 am (CNA).- Witnesses at the fifth hearing in a trial for alleged abuse and cover-up at a Vatican youth seminary testified on Wednesday to an unhealthy culture of ridicule and abuse of power.

The witnesses also alleged that reports of sexual abuse were ignored or dismissed by authority figures, including the cardinal in charge of St. Peter’s Basilica. 

Pope Francis’ new doctor is a specialist in aging

Vatican City, Feb 24, 2021 / 07:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis on Wednesday named a specialist in aging to be his personal doctor, after his previous physician died earlier this year.

Roberto Bernabei, 69, is from Florence, Italy, and is a professor of internal medicine and geriatrics at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome.

He is also director of the School of Specialization in Geriatrics at the same university.

Pope Francis praises ‘exemplary witness’ of Italian ambassador killed in Congo

Vatican City, Feb 24, 2021 / 04:15 am (CNA).- Pope Francis expressed his condolences on Tuesday after three people were killed in an attack on a United Nations convoy traveling in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Luca Attanasio, the Italian ambassador to Congo, died of his wounds from the attack. Vittorio Iacovacci, an Italian Carabinieri officer, and Moustapha Milambo, their Congolese driver, were also killed.

From Pius XI to Pope Francis: A history of Spiritual Exercises at the Vatican

Vatican City, Feb 22, 2021 / 07:00 am (CNA).- For nearly 100 years, popes have set aside time for an annual retreat and meditation on spiritual exercises. 

Pope Francis and the Roman Curia began a weeklong Lenten retreat Sunday, but for the first time since the Second Vatican Council, this retreat is not taking place as a time of communal prayer due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Pope Francis honors sacrifice of medical workers who died in coronavirus pandemic

Rome Newsroom, Feb 21, 2021 / 07:03 am (CNA).- Pope Francis on Saturday expressed his gratitude for the sacrifice of medical workers, especially those who have died in the coronavirus pandemic.

“The example of so many of our brothers and sisters, who have risked their lives to the point of losing them, inspires deep gratitude in all of us, and is a cause for reflection,” the pope said in a letter Feb. 20.

Pope Francis: Christian life 'is a battle against the spirit of evil'

Vatican City, Feb 21, 2021 / 05:35 am (CNA).- Like Jesus was tempted by Satan in the desert, Christians must be prepared to battle evil, knowing that “with faith, prayer, and penance,” the victory is assured, Pope Francis said Sunday.

In his weekly Angelus address, the pope reflected on the day’s Gospel reading from St. Mark, which says “the Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan.”

Pope Francis visits writer and Holocaust survivor in Rome

Rome, Italy, Feb 20, 2021 / 11:05 am (CNA).- Pope Francis on Saturday visited the home of the writer and Holocaust survivor Edith Steinschreiber Bruck in Rome.

The 89-year-old Bruck is Hungarian-born, but has lived in Italy since her early 20s. She survived the Nazi concentration camps in Auschwitz and Dachau, where she was sent with her parents, two brothers, and a sister at the age of 12.

Pope Francis advances causes of nuns who died in Ebola outbreak

Vatican City, Feb 20, 2021 / 09:10 am (CNA).- Pope Francis has recognized the heroic virtue of three Italian religious sisters who died from Ebola in Africa during the 1995 outbreak.

Sr. Floralba Rondi, Sr. Clarangela Ghilardi, and Sr. Dinarosa Bellerini were members of the Sisters of the Poor, Palazzolo Institute, and were sent as missionaries to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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