By Kate Quiñones CNA Staff, Dec 19, 2024 / 19:45 pm U.S. President Joe Biden accepted an invitation to visit Pope Francis next month and discuss efforts to advance peace, the White House announced on Thursday. Biden, the country’s second Catholic president, is set to travel to Rome from Jan. 9–12 …

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — On Pope Francis’ 88th birthday, two major newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean published two different excerpts from his new book on hope. The New York Times published the pope’s words on the importance of humor as a “guest essay” in its opinion section, …

By Kate Quiñones CNA Staff, Dec 16, 2024 / 17:50 pm When a seminarian was injured while playing basketball in 2017, he had no idea it would one day contribute to the cause for canonization of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. Father Juan Gutierrez, 38, then a seminarian at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, …

By Marinella Bandini Bethlehem, Dec 15, 2024 / 06:00 am Just a short walk from the Grotto of the Nativity in the Holy Land is the only white-stone grotto in the entire area of Bethlehem. Commonly known as the “Milk Grotto,” its color and name are tied to a legend going …

By Tyler Arnold Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 13, 2024 / 17:45 pm Cardinal Blase Cupich of the Archdiocese of Chicago in a letter published this week in the archdiocesan newspaper urged Catholics to stand while receiving holy Communion and not make gestures that draw attention to oneself. In the letter, published in the Chicago …

By Nicolás de Cárdenas ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 14, 2024 / 08:00 am In 1944, Father Patrick O’Connor, an Irish priest and member of the Missionary Society of St. Columban, published “I Knew a Miracle: The Story of John Traynor, Miraculously Healed at Lourdes.” In the book he recounts how, during …

by Kate Olivera Denver Newsroom, Dec 8, 2021 / 03:00 am Mary, under her title of the Immaculate Conception, has been patroness of the United States since the mid-19th century. But her protection of the nation dates back to its earliest history. One of the first Catholic churches in what …

By Jonah McKeown CNA Staff, Dec 6, 2024 / 09:25 am The Catholic bishops of New Mexico this week articulated a strongly worded statement against a policy of mass deportation of unauthorized immigrants, a policy that President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to enact. “A mass deportation policy will not fix the broken …

By Tyler Arnold Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 5, 2024 / 15:10 pm Republican Sen. Josh Hawley this week warned the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to not destroy federal records including documents related to the investigation of traditionalist Catholics or the convictions of numerous pro-life …

by Hannah Brockhaus Rome Newsroom, Dec 6, 2021 / 06:00 am St. Nicholas, whose feast day is celebrated on Dec. 6, is well known as possibly the real-life inspiration for the beloved Christmas character of Santa Claus. Not a lot is known about the historical Nicholas, who was bishop of …