by Courtney Mares Vatican City, Jun 1, 2021 / 10:00 am Pope Francis has asked people to pray throughout June for young people preparing for the life-long journey of marriage. “Getting married and sharing one’s life is something beautiful,” Pope Francis said in a video message published June 1. “It …

by Courtney Mares Vatican City, Jun 1, 2021 / 05:00 am The Vatican published Tuesday major revisions to Book VI of the Code of Canon Law, which covers penal law in the Church, including sanctions related to clerical sexual abuse. The revisions, which have been more than a decade in …

by Courtney Mares Vatican City, May 30, 2021 / 06:00 am On the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Pope Francis said unity is essential to Christian life because God is a communion of love. “This mystery of the Trinity was revealed to us by Jesus himself,” Pope Francis said …

by Courtney Mares Vatican City, May 25, 2021 / 08:00 am Pope Francis launched Tuesday the Vatican’s seven-year Laudato Si action plan to implement environmental sustainability in different sectors of the Church from religious orders to Catholic schools and hospitals. “We need a new ecological approach that can transform our way …

by Courtney Mares Rome Newsroom, May 24, 2021 / 06:00 am Fourteen people died in a cable car crash in northern Italy Sunday after the cable carrying the passengers up a mountain near Lake Maggiore suddenly snapped. Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, the president of the Italian bishops’ conference, expressed the “closeness …

by Courtney Mares Vatican City, May 21, 2021 / 04:30 am America/Denver (CNA). The Vatican announced Friday that the Synod of Bishops on synodality has been postponed to 2023, with a two-year consultative preparatory phase involving Catholic dioceses worldwide. The synod on synodality will officially open with a “diocesan phase” …

by Courtney Mares Vatican City, May 17, 2021 / 06:00 am America/Denver (CNA). Pope Francis has appointed Fr. Stephen Chow, S.J. as the next bishop of Hong Kong. Chow, 61, has served as the provincial of the Jesuits’ Chinese Province since 2018. In that role, he led the Jesuit order …

by Courtney Mares Rome Newsroom, May 9, 2021 / 05:40 am America/Denver (CNA). Blessed Rosario Livatino, a Catholic judge brutally killed by the mafia in 1990, was beatified Sunday in the Cathedral of Agrigento, Sicily. Pope Francis commended the beatification of the young judge, calling him a “martyr of justice …

by Courtney Mares Vatican City, May 8, 2021 / 06:40 am America/Denver (CNA). Pope Francis called for the “temporary suspension of intellectual property rights” for COVID-19 vaccines in his video message to the “Vax Live” concert co-chaired by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. “The coronavirus has produced death and suffering, …

By Courtney Mares Vatican City, May 6, 2021 / 12:00 pm America/Denver (CNA). Thirty-four new Swiss Guards were sworn in Thursday in an elaborate ceremony in Vatican City in which the guards promised to protect the pope, even “sacrificing if necessary also my own life.” Gian Andrea Bossi, a 20-year-old …