Pope Francis closed a marathon of activities and messages over the weekend May 31 with a livestreamed Mass on the feast of Pentecost, insisting the Holy Spirit is a gift from God that unites and for whom distinctions such as “conservative” or “progressive” have no meaning.
Yesterday, my wife and I did something we, along with most people in Rome, haven’t been able to do since March 8: We went to Mass. (We also went out to lunch for the first time in two months and 10 days, enjoying a gorgeous Roman spring day and a fine meal, but that’s a story for another time.)
China, in a sense, has become the third rail of geopolitics, in the sense that anything it touches automatically becomes controversial, from cell phones (“are they spying?”) to the coronavirus (“are they lying?”)
Pope Francis created a new commission that will confront the challenges the world is facing in battling the coronavirus pandemic and what it will inevitably face in its aftermath, the Vatican announced.
Pope Francis Easter Sunday prayed for those suffering due to either global conflict or the coronavirus, saying Christ’s resurrection brings both light and hope to the darkness of an oppressed and suffering world.
Pope Francis celebrates the Easter Vigil in a dark and nearly empty St. Peter’s Basilica.
The COVID-19 quarantines, lockdowns and stay-at-home orders are the perfect opportunity for conversion: for individuals, for the church and for governments, Pope Francis said in an interview.
The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments has approved a special “Mass in the Time of Pandemic” to plead for God’s mercy and gift of strength in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
On Friday, March 27, under a persistent light rain coming down from a gray Roman sky, and facing an empty St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis imparted a special Urbi et Orbi, the blessing “to the City [of Rome] and to the World” that is normally only given on Christmas and Easter.
As many of the restrictions imposed early on by Italy to fight the COVID-19 coronavirus begin to be adopted elsewhere, the number of Catholics unable to get to Mass, or at least strongly discouraged from leaving the house to do so, is growing.
