Vatican News

Pope: In Confession we encounter God's immense mercy

Vatican City, Aug 2, 2015 / 09:59 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Delivering his weekly Angelus address in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, Pope Francis said that while everyone feels shame before going to Confession, this grace helps us to be open to God’s forgiveness.

“There are people who are afraid of approaching Confession, forgetting that there, we do not encounter severe judgement, but the immensely merciful Father,” the Roman Pontiff said Aug. 2, speaking to the crowds who had braved the hot Roman sun.

A childhood friendship that shaped JPII's love for the Jewish community

Vatican City, Aug 2, 2015 / 04:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Saint John Paul II's historic embrace of former chief rabbi of Rome Elio Toaff welcomes visitors to a new Vatican exhibition on the late Pope's compelling relationship with the Jewish people.

The moment is reminiscent of an earlier, childhood friendship that likely laid the foundation for many of the symbolic acts that John Paul II would make toward Jews as Pope.

Vatican bails on questionable anti-human trafficking initiative

Vatican City, Jul 30, 2015 / 03:50 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Faithful to its commitment against human trafficking, the Holy See has left the board of an initiative it helped to found, as questions have been raised around both its effectiveness and its chairman's possible use of the Pope to raise funds.

Together with Anglican and Muslim leaders, the Vatican launched the Global Freedom Network in March 2014, hoping to eradicate human trafficking by 2020.

Pope Francis to handpick new doctor ahead of Cuba, US trip

Vatican City, Jul 29, 2015 / 06:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As the five-year term for Pope Francis' personal doctor comes to an end, the Pope is expected to choose a new one soon who will accompany him during his upcoming visit to Cuba and the United States.

Patrizio Polisca, doctor to Benedict XVI and president of the medical commission for the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints, was until recently the Pope’s personal doctor and head of the Vatican City State's healthcare services.

With a tap on an iPad, Pope Francis registers for World Youth Day 2016

Vatican City, Jul 26, 2015 / 12:38 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis has invited the youth of the world on pilgrimage to World Youth Day 2016--and on Sunday he became the first pilgrim to register himself.

“Today we open registration for the thirty-first World Youth Day, to be held next year in Poland,” he said. “I invite the youth of the world to live this pilgrimage that will be going to Krakow.”

 The youth will be “participating in this moment of grace for their communities,” he said.

Pope Francis: Let Jesus satisfy your hunger for God

Vatican City, Jul 26, 2015 / 10:33 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Jesus Christ’s miraculous multiplication of the loaves shows that he offers “fullness of life for hungry man,” Pope Francis said Sunday. He encouraged everyone to offer what little they have to God so that God can multiply their gifts and good deeds.

“Jesus satisfies not only material hunger, but the most profound of hungers, the hunger for meaning in life, the hunger for God,” the Pope said in his remarks before the Angelus July 26.

What Pope Francis might be planning to tell the UN in New York

Vatican City, Jul 23, 2015 / 12:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- At a meeting with U.S. mayors at the Vatican this week, Pope Francis hinted at themes he could discuss with the United Nations during his September visit to the states.

 

Among the most important was the issue of human trafficking, which he said can be a “rebound effect” of environmental degradation. 

 

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