Vatican City, Mar 23, 2021 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis on Tuesday highlighted St. Alphonsus Liguori as a model of moral teaching, particularly the formation of well-formed consciences.

The pope issued a letter March 23 marking the 150th anniversary of Pope Pius IX’s proclamation of Liguori as a Doctor of the Church on March 23, 1871 and reflected on the example that the 18th century saint provides for evangelization today.

CNA Staff, Mar 22, 2021 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis on Monday encouraged students at Rome’s Pontifical Filipino College to welcome “the opportunities that the Lord gives you to follow him,” even while they are away from their beloved homeland.

Speaking in the Vatican’s Clementine Hall March 22, the pope congratulated the college, which hosts diocesan priests from the Philippines studying at pontifical universities in Rome, on its 60th anniversary.

Vatican City, Mar 22, 2021 / 05:30 am (CNA).- The restriction of private Masses in the upper side chapels of St. Peter’s Basilica went into force Monday.

The basilica was quiet on March 22 without the usual murmur of prayers in many languages being offered to God in the sacrifice of the Mass at the tombs of saints.

A person entering the basilica at 8:30 a.m. would not have seen any Masses taking place in the empty side chapels.

Vatican City, Mar 20, 2021 / 10:15 am (CNA).- The Vatican announced Saturday it had appointed the former commander general of Italy’s financial police force as president of the foundation overseeing a scandal-ridden dermatological hospital in Rome.

Saverio Capolupo, 70, served from 2012 to 2016 as the commander general of the Guardia di Finanza, a militarized police force responsible for dealing with financial crime and smuggling.