Vatican City, Dec 20, 2016 / 01:50 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After 12 people were killed when a truck rammed into crowds at a Berlin Christmas market, the German bishops have voiced their sorrow, and have invited people to join them in praying for the victims and their families.

“The news from Berlin has deeply shaken me,” Cardinal Reinhard Marx, president of the German Bishops Conference, said in a Dec. 20 statement following the incident.

Vatican City, Dec 18, 2016 / 01:09 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope emeritus Benedict XVI praised the founder of the EWTN Global Catholic Network on Thursday.

“Mother Angelica was a great woman, very brave,” he said Dec. 15.

He had greeted the editorial staff of the EWTN-backed Italian-language news agency ACI Stampa, who met him to give him a Christmas card.

Mother Angelica passed away on Easter Sunday 2016 at the age of 92.

Vatican City, Dec 17, 2016 / 08:53 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- There’s a Christmas reason to speak always about the poor and about mercy, Pope Francis told a benefit concert Saturday.

“At times someone says to me ‘But Father, you always speak about the poor and about mercy.’ Yes, I say. But this is not a malady. It’s simply the way that God had revealed himself,” the Pope said in a Dec. 17 video message.

Vatican City, Dec 17, 2016 / 07:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis kicked off his 80th birthday by having breakfast with a group of homeless from around St. Peter’s and inviting them to Mass – but his giving didn’t stop there.

Throughout the day birthday treats and a special Christmas gift will be given to the poor and needy in soup kitchens and shelters throughout Rome in the name of the Pope in honor of his special day.