Pope baptizes 16 babies in Sistine Chapel after year’s break

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis baptized 16 babies in the splendor of the Sistine Chapel on Sunday, resuming a decades-old Vatican tradition which had been interrupted last year by the pandemic. Francis told the parents of the nine girls and seven boys whom he formally ushered into the Catholic church through baptism that their duty […]

Amid tensions, Bosnian Serbs celebrate outlawed holiday

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Amid Bosnia’s greatest political crisis since the end of its 1992-95 interethnic war, the country’s Serbs celebrated an outlawed holiday Sunday with a provocative parade showcasing armored vehicles, police helicopters and law enforcement officers with rifles, marching in lockstep and singing a nationalist song. Addressing several thousand spectators gathered in Banja […]

Displaced Kentucky parishioners attend Masses in makeshift church

OWENSBORO, Kentucky — Celebrating Mass in a 20-by-25-foot metal outbuilding on Dec. 24, 2021, for the displaced community of Resurrection Parish in Dawson Springs, the image that came to mind for Owensboro Bishop William F. Medley was “there was no room at the inn.” But parishioners did find room in a structure shared by a […]

Mask mandates return in several dioceses as omicron variant surges

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The rapid spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus has led bishops in dioceses nationwide to reimpose mask mandates for students and staff at schools as well as for Mass attendees regardless of vaccination status. Since mid-December, the mandates have been put in place in the archdioceses of Miami and Boston […]

Pope Francis appeals for end to violence in Kazakhstan

Pope Francis delivers his Angelus address overlooking St. Peter’s Square, Jan. 9, 2022. / Screenshot from Vatican News YouTube channel. Vatican City, Jan 9, 2022 / 05:15 am (CNA). Pope Francis appealed on Sunday for an end to violence that has … […]

FOLLOW AND LIVE THE JOYS AND SORROWS OF THE HOLY FAMILY

When we think of the Holy Family, our minds generally tend to the Christ Child, the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph. Over the centuries we often see in paintings a somewhat broader view which includes Mary’s mother, St. Anne or also her father St. Joachim, or perhaps St. Elizabeth and young forerunner St. John the […]

Pope Francis appeals for end to violence in Kazakhstan

Pope Francis delivers his Angelus address overlooking St. Peter’s Square, Jan. 9, 2022. / Screenshot from Vatican News YouTube channel. Vatican City, Jan 9, 2022 / 05:15 am (CNA). Pope Francis appealed on Sunday for an end to violence that has claimed dozens of lives in Kazakhstan. Speaking after reciting the Angelus on Jan. 9, […]