Vatican defends finance trial, says rights being respected
ROME — Lawyers for defendants in a big Vatican financial trial asked the Holy See newspaper on Friday to correct the record after it ran a front-page editorial this week largely defending the investigation and insisting that the rights of the defense were being respected. The letter to L’Osservatore Romano editor Andrea Monda was signed […]
Drug companies urged to share vaccine tech, make vaccines in poor nations
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The global North is getting not only vaccinated but receiving booster shots as well to protect against the coronavirus. Meanwhile, in poorer nations, only 6% have gotten as much as a first shot. If COVID-19 and its emerging variants are to be stopped, poor nations need not only the capacity to manufacture […]
Surging COVID cases make for another subdued Christmas Day
ROME — Christians around the world celebrated their second COVID-19 Christmas as surging infections in many countries overwhelmed hospitals, canceled flights and curbed religious observances Saturday, a point in the pandemic when coronavirus vaccines were more available than ever. While some countries in Asia imposed restrictions to try to contain the highly contagious omicron variant, […]
This year Catholics have a dual Mass obligation the weekend of Dec. 25-26
MIAMI — If you go to Christmas Mass on Saturday, do you still have to go to Sunday Mass the next day? Is Jan. 1, the solemnity of Mary, a holy day of obligation this year? Normally, when there’s a few days’ gap between Christmas Day and the Sunday following, Mass attendance is not that […]
Full Text: Pope Francis’ Christmas Urbi et Orbi Blessing 2021
Courtesy photo Pope Francis gives his Christmas ‘Urbi et Orbi’ blessing Dec. 25, 2021. In the Urbi et Orbi blessing, Pope Francis asks world leaders to be open to dialogue: “For God himself, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is dialogue, an eternal and infinite communion of love and life.”
Pope’s Christmas Urbi Et Orbi Blessing: ‘Today, the Love That Moves the Sun and Stars Became Flesh’
Vatican Media. Pope Francis gives his Christmas ‘Urbi et Orbi’ blessing Dec. 25, 2021, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. The Pope began his ‘Urbi et Orbi’ address with a reflection on the Christ Child, and prayed for peace in ‘the Middle East and the whole world’
Pope Francis: Christmas Message Urbi et Orbi (To the City and the World) (Vatican Press Office)
“The Word of God, who created the world and who gives meaning to history and to humanity’s journey, became flesh and came to dwell among us,” Pope Francis said at the beginning of his message, delivered to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Christmas Day (video). “He came like a whisper, like the murmur […]
25 December 2020: Fr. Reginald Foster, OCD – R.I.P. – 1st Anniversary of death
In your kindness please pray for the repose of the soul of a priest friend who died one year ago, today, Christmas Day. Fr. Reginald Foster, OCD, was a famous Latinist. He was a complicated guy and not always easily … Read More →
Pope Francis at Midnight Mass: God comes into the world in littleness.
This is what we should ask Jesus for at Christmas: the grace of littleness.
Pope Francis prays Christmas will bring yearning for peace, dialogue
“The Word became flesh in order to dialogue with us,” he insisted. “God does not desire to carry on a monologue, but a dialogue. For God himself—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—is dialogue, an eternal and infinite communion of love and life.”