Becoming a member of the broad, unique body of the College of Cardinals is both a great honor and an invitation to help promote a renewal of the Catholic Church’s mission of evangelization, some new cardinals said.
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Becoming a member of the broad, unique body of the College of Cardinals is both a great honor and an invitation to help promote a renewal of the Catholic Church’s mission of evangelization, some new cardinals said.
To the delight of many, and perhaps the consternation of a few, the wheelchair-bound Pope Francis defied persistent rumors Sunday by not announcing his resignation during a visit to the tomb of the last pontiff to voluntarily step down before Pope Benedict XVI, instead offering locals a message of mercy and consolation amid suffering.
On Saturday Pope Francis created 20 new cardinals, including 16 under the age of 80 and thus eligible to vote for the next pope. It was Pope Francis’ eighth consistory, and whenever we get a new crop of Princes of the Church, several chronic misconceptions tend to head once more into the breach.
In a ceremony to create 20 new cardinals, Pope Francis encouraged the College of Cardinals to have the same spiritual zeal for all people, whether they are in positions of power or ordinary Christians.
Even if the garments are hand-me-downs, like the one Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires wore when Pope John Paul II made him a cardinal, the label is almost always the same.
Right now, we’re in the middle of what I’ve taken to calling “World Series Week” on the Vatican beat. We tend to reserve the “Super Bowl” metaphor for transition events, i.e., the death or resignation of a pope, but this is basically the next step down in terms of significance and media interest.
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, who was expected to meet Pope Francis at the Congress of World and Traditional Religions in Kazakhstan, will not attend the interreligious gathering in September, a senior Russian Orthodox bishop said.
Much has changed in the world since the seminal World Youth Day 1993 event in Denver put the event firmly on the map among North American Catholics.
Marking the six-month anniversary of the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine, Pope Francis renewed his appeal for prayers for an end to “the horror of war.”
Pope Francis said he is doing everything he can for Ukraine, saying the world was witnessing “cruelty.”