Vatican News

Even the saints had sin in their past, Pope Francis recalls

Vatican City, Jan 19, 2016 / 12:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Even great saints had at times succumbed to sin, Pope Francis said Tuesday during his Mass at the chapel of the Santa Marta residence.

“During the Christian journey, the journey the Lord has invited us to undertake, there is no saint without a past and no sinner without a future,” the Pope said in his Jan. 19 homily, according to Vatican Radio's translation.

Every migrant has a story and culture of value, Pope Francis says

Vatican City, Jan 17, 2016 / 05:19 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Sunday Pope Francis offered special greetings to 6,000 migrants and refugees who were gathered in S. Peter’s Square, telling them not to be discouraged by negative experiences, but rather to find hope in the Lord.

“Dear migrants and refugees, each one of you carries within yourself a story, a culture, of precious value; and often unfortunately experiences of misery, oppression and fear,” the Pope said Jan. 17.

'How good it is for brothers to be together' – a papal history in synagogues

Vatican City, Jan 15, 2016 / 04:07 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On Sunday Pope Francis will become the third pontiff to cross the threshold of the Major Temple in Rome, the most important and significant synagogue in the city.

Thirty years have passed since the historic visit of John Paul II in 1986, and in these decades the relationship between Jews and Catholics has become closer, more intense, and, because of this, not absent of difficulty.

Pope Francis kicks off monthly works of mercy with surprise visits

Vatican City, Jan 15, 2016 / 01:05 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- True to form, the pope of the surprise papal visit dropped by two different nursing homes in Rome unannounced on Friday. The visits kicked off the Pope’s monthly works of mercy, which he plans to do on Fridays during the Jubilee Year of Mercy.

The Pope’s first visit on Friday, Jan. 15 was to the Bruno Buozzi Retirement Home on Via di Torre Spaccata, on the outskirts of Rome, which houses 33 elderly people.

Pope Francis invites 2,000 homeless, migrants to circus

Vatican City, Jan 14, 2016 / 03:35 pm (Aid to the Church in Need).- On Thursday afternoon the office for papal charities offered a unique charity event for Rome's marginalized: an entire circus organized especially for them.

The poor, homeless, refugees and a group of prisoners were treated to the special entertainment, which was offered to them free of charge at the Rony Roller Circus. The company had made all of its 2,000 seats available for the occasion.

A 'gay lobby' at the Vatican? One cardinal says it's real, and Pope Francis is responding

Vatican City, Jan 13, 2016 / 04:13 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The influential Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga has acknowledged the presence of a “gay lobby” in the Vatican. In a new interview, he says that Pope Francis has adopted a gradual approach to address it – and that Catholic teaching won’t change.

The Honduran newspaper El Heraldo asked the cardinal whether there actually was an attempted or successful “infiltration of the gay community in the Vatican.”

Nothing can stop God's mercy – not even sin, Pope says

Vatican City, Jan 13, 2016 / 04:34 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Wednesday Pope Francis launched a new series of catechesis on mercy for his general audiences, telling pilgrims that the love and forgiveness of God can’t be overcome by anything, including our sin.

“In the Book of Exodus, God defines himself as the God of mercy.  This is his name, through which he reveals to us his face and his heart,” the Pope said in his Jan 13 general audience.

Pages