Why the pope prays the Angelus publicly on Sundays

Pope Francis after praying the Angelus in the Vatican’s apostolic palace on March 29, 2020. Credit: Vatican Media. / null Vatican City, Jan 4, 2022 / 04:30 am (CNA). It all started more than 67 years ago with Luigi Gedda, an Italian Catholic doctor, political activist, and influential lay leader. In a Marian Year, Gedda, […]

Pope Francis: Visiting the sick is a Christian imperative

Pope Francis visits the Bambino Gesù di Palidoro hospital in Rome, Italy, on Jan. 5, 2018. / Vatican Media. Vatican City, Jan 4, 2022 / 05:05 am (CNA). In a message ahead of the World Day of the Sick, Pope Francis reminded Catholics that caring… […]

Northern Ireland archbishop expresses ‘sadness and loss’ over partition anniversary

Ireland’s primate expressed his “personal sense of sadness and loss” at the partition of Ireland during his New Year message. Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh is the Primate of All Ireland, and his archdiocese includes territory on both sides of the border that divides the island between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. 2021 […]

With foreign donation license denied, Missionaries of Charity ration food

Since Christmas, the Missionaries of Charity have been strictly rationing the food and daily use items for their regular 600 beneficiaries at their motherhouse and Shishu Bhavan, a children’s orphanage. On Jan. 2, the breakfast of tea, bread, and eggs was cut short by an hour. “As long as you did it to one of […]

Advocates: U.N. conference a chance to reduce threat of nuclear weapons

The last time delegates from around the world met to review progress toward disarmament under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 2015, they came away with no consensus on how to move forward. At the time, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom — urged by Israel — stymied the adoption […]

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton was born Elizabeth Bayley in New York in 1774, the daughter of Dr. Richard Bayley — the first professor of anatomy at Columbia College — and Catherine Charlton, daughter of an Anglican minister. Elizabeth’s mother died when Elizabeth was only three years old. Her father remarried and Elizabeth got along very […]

Sunday Scripture readings, Jan. 30, 2022: ‘Before I formed you …’

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time 1) Jer 1:4-5, 17-19 Psalm 71:1-6, 15-17 2) 1 Cor 12:31-13:13 or 1 Cor 13:4-13 Gospel: Lk 4:21-30 The biblical prophets met with varying degrees of acceptance and rejection. The classic example of a rejected prophet is Jeremiah. Many of the people he prophesied to thought he was mistaken about […]

Pope Francis: Visiting the Sick is a Christian Imperative

Vatican Media. Pope Francis visits the Bambino Gesù di Palidoro hospital in Rome, Italy, on Jan. 5, 2018. “The ministry of consolation is a task for every baptized person, mindful of the words of Jesus: ‘I was sick and you visited me.’”