VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia in September, 2015 will serve as a forum for debating issues on the agenda for the world Synod of Bishops at the Vatican the following month, said the two archbishops responsible for planning the Philadelphia event.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis will address the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Nov. 25.The Parliament’s president, Martin Schultz, made the announcement Sept. 11, and the Vatican immediately confirmed it.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – In light of “countless requests from every part of the world,” Pope Francis has approved putting SS. John Paul II and John XXIII on the Church’s universal calendar of feast days. Called the General Roman Calendar, it is the universal schedule of holy days and feast days for the Latin rite of the Catholic Church.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Presiding over the wedding of 20 couples in St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis celebrated marriage as the union of a man and woman playing complementary roles during their common journey through life. “This is what marriage is all about: man and woman walking together, wherein the husband helps his wife to become ever more a woman, and wherein the woman has the task of helping her husband to become ever more a man,” the pope said Sept. 14. “Here we see the reciprocity of differences.”
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Vatican confirmed that Pope Francis is planning to visit Turkey “in the last days of November” but said the length of his trip and his agenda in the country have yet to be determined. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, made the announcement to reporters Sept. 12, noting that a formal invitation from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had arrived at the Vatican earlier the same day.
WASHINGTON (CNS) – United in the suffering of their people, five Catholic and Orthodox patriarchs from the Middle East urged Westerners to take action to help ensure that Christians and other minorities can remain in the Middle East.
JERUSALEM (CNS) – Gazans are frustrated that, despite all the sacrifice and loss of life, nothing has changed for them, except perhaps having more fishing rights, said a Catholic aid official.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis mourned the deaths of three Xaverian Missionary Sisters of Mary, who were murdered in two separate attacks in their residence in Burundi.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis’ choice of Albania as the destination of his first international trip in Europe reflects his trademark pastoral approach: Head to the peripheries, bring healing to the suffering.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – War is just “senseless slaughter” and should never be seen as inevitable or a done deal, Pope Francis said.
