In a letter to the US bishops, the pontiff explicitly condemns the expulsion plan that “identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality.” He appeals to Catholics not to give in to “narratives that discriminate and cause unnecessary suffering”. For him, “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests.” He warns that looking only at national identity “distorts social life and imposes the will of the strongest as the criterion of truth”.
Pope Francis was present for this morning's the Jubilee of the Armed, Police and Security Forcesin St Peter's Square, despite bronchitis. In his comments during the Angelus, he spoke of armed service ‘only for self-defence, never to impose dominion over other nations’ and ‘observing international conventions’. An invitation to be vigilant against the temptation of the ‘spirit of war’.
The pontiff released a message today on the occasion of International Day of Prayer and Awareness against Human Trafficking, which the Church will celebrate tomorrow, feast day of Saint Josephine Bakhita. Millions of people in the world are still victims of modern slavery. For Francis, we must learn from young people “to stand alongside the victims and survivors” without becoming accustomed to injustice”.
Pope Francis released his reflection for the event slated for 19 October in the jubilee year. Even “the most developed areas” are in crisis today, but the Gospel can “restore us to a whole, healthy, redeemed humanity.” Francis thanks the missionaries ad gentes and calls for experiencing evangelisation as a “communitarian process”.
Francis, who appeared chilled in the Paul VI Hall, again turned his thoughts to the countries ‘suffering from war’, also mentioning Jordan. To the Polish pilgrims, he invited them to pray for consecrated people in poor and conflicted countries: for many people they are ‘proof that God always remembers them’. The catechesis - read by an official of the secretariat of state - on the Visitation: ‘The Magnificat: praise of faith, hope and joy’.
World leaders met in the Vatican for the World Meeting on Children’s Rights, issuing an appeal for more to be done to implement international conventions and not remain indifferent to the rising number of children without protection. The pontiff announced that he will write a document dedicated to children to “give continuity to this commitment”.
Today, the feast day of the Presentation in the Temple, Francis expressed closeness to bishops to encourage “young couples not to be afraid of bringing children into the world.” Tomorrow the Vatican will host an international summit on children's rights in the presence of world leaders, including from the Middle East and the rest of Asia, centred on “the most pressing questions regarding the life of the little ones.” The pontiff also reiterated his opposition to war, which “destroys everything, it destroys life and induces us to disregard it.”
Best known for kung fu, the monks are the custodians of Zen Buddhism in China. The meeting with the pontiff comes a few days after their temple in Henan held a world conference on meditation and its contribution to peace and the development of relations between peoples.
At the general audience in the Paul VI Hall the appeal for the region of North Kivu, the region of the Democratic Republic of Congo occupied by the M23 rebels supported by Rwanda: ‘Let the violence to people and their property cease’. In the catechesis the example of St Joseph: ‘Let us ask with him the grace to dream God's dreams and responsibly welcome Christ’.
Pope Francis at the Angelus spoke of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp: "The horror cannot be forgotten". In Sudan the "most serious humanitarian crisis in the world". On the Word of God Sunday: "It is alive: walk with us". Catholic Action youth: "It would be nice if the great of the Earth also passed through the Holy Door".
The appeal in the speech delivered this morning in Rome to participants in the Jubilee of Communications. The warning by Filipino Nobel Maria Ressa: ‘Today's powers exploit the great media platforms to make us doubt everything and paralyse people’. Writer Colum McCann: ‘The distance between enemy and neighbour is shortened only by listening to their story’.
Francis picked the 51-year-old cardinal from Kerala, coordinator of apostolic journeys, to succeed Card Ayuso Guixot who passed away last November. This makes him the first Asian at the helm of the Vatican body. In his first statements, he focuses on the path of fraternity and the form of inculturation developed by Fr Roberto De Nobili in India starting in 1500. The Syro-Malabar Church shared with AsiaNews her joy of a fellow member given this task.
The pope’s message for the 59th World Day of Social Communications, observed on 1 June, is released on the feast day of Saint Francis de Sales, patron saint of writers and journalists. In it, Francis calls for a form of “communication that can heal the wounds of our humanity”, which is even more important in this Holy Year in order to “spread hope, even when it is difficult”.
At the audience in the Paul VI Hall, Pope Francis recalled the days - Jan. 18-25 - dedicated to prayer for ecumenism. Again a call for peace in Ukraine, Palestine, Israel and Mynamar. Relief for Gaza's Holy Family parish: “I called yesterday, they were happy. There are 600 people in there." Los Angeles community entrusted to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Catechesis on the Annunciation: 'Mary does not seek outside but inside'.
At the Angelus, Pope Francis hails the truce, after 15 months of intense and incessant appeals for peace, hopeful that “what has been agreed will be respected immediately by the parties”. Today Hamas is set to free three young Israeli women, with a list of about 90 Palestinian prisoners still not available. The pontiff calls for humanitarian aid to reach Gaza “faster and in large quantities.”
Meeting pilgrims in the Paul VI Hall he recalled the millions of children exposed to dangerous activities despite their young age or kidnapped for organ transplants. Proximity to the populations of Kachin State in Myanmar where landslides have sown death and destruction. ‘We pray for the conversion of the hearts of arms manufacturers’.
From the window of the Apostolic Palace Bergoglio invited us to think about the date of the first sacrament: ‘If you do not remember, ask your parents, the godparents’. 21 children baptised this morning in the Sistine Chapel: ‘Today they are in charge’. Prayer for Los Angeles and for peace ‘in Ukraine, the Middle East and the whole world’.
In the Vatican, Francis met with the diplomatic corps at the Holy See for the traditional exchange of greetings. In his address, the pontiff expressed hope for peace in Ukraine in 2025, as he did for Palestine and Israel so that the two may “live side by side". In Syria and Lebanon, the Christian community should help the two countries pursue “a path of stability.”
At today's audience in Paul VI Hall, Bergoglio began 2025 with the first of two catechesis dedicated to the youngest. He condemned the scourge of child labour, exploitation and abuse: ‘May every boy and girl grow up receiving and giving love’. After Epiphany the invitation to ‘reflect light with one's life’.
Todayfrom St Peter's Basilica, marking the Solemnity of the Epiphany, Francis spoke of the star. The three kings follow ‘another kind of light’: that of love, not of power. Let the journey to Bethlehem be an example to be ‘light for others’. At the Angelus the Christmas greeting to the Churches of the East.
During the Angelus, Francis appealed once again to the international community to uphold humanitarian law in the bloody conflicts that still rage in the world. “No more striking schools, hospitals; no more hitting workplaces! Let us not forget that war is always a defeat, always!”
On the first day of the year, Pope Francis urges the faithful to protect life "from conception to natural death,” so that everyone “may look with hope to the future’.” In Mary’s name, the pontiff mentioned mothers with hearts “full of pain” because of war.
An Indian Jesuit from Goa, he is the superior of the community of the Vatican Observatory. He told AsiaNews that his “field of research is the origins of galaxies” billions of years ago, studying “the complexity and beauty of the universe”. Tools exist to find answers about “what exists outside the solar system”.
Today, Feast of the Holy Family, Francis pointed to the nucleus of Nazareth as a 'model'. After Jesus' return to the Temple, Mary "does not accuse, does not judge, but seeks to understand". Closeness to the families of the at least 177 victims of the Muan plane crash in South Korea. The third Holy Door of the Jubilee opened this morning in Rome at the basilica of St John Lateran.
Today, the Feast of St Stephen, Pope Francis visited a prison, a “cathedral of pain”, home for 285 inmates. He led Holy Mass at the Church of Our Father. In his homily, the pontiff said that “Hope never disappoints!” At the Angelus in St Peter's, he called for the cancellation of the debt of “oppressed” countries.
In the Urbi et Orbi message, the Pope's gaze falls on a humanity wounded by wars on every continent and at Christ, as the true Door to be crossed in the Jubilee year that has just begun. ‘May Christmas bring comfort to those in Myanmar who are forced to flee their homes’. Thanks ‘to the missionaries scattered around the world, who bring light and comfort to so many people in difficulty’.
Crossing the Holy Door of St Peter's Basilica in his wheelchair, on Christmas Eve, the pope launched the Holy Year 2025. "For Christian hope is not a cinematic “happy ending” which we passively await: it is the promise of the Lord to be welcomed here and now. May a new time be opened for the Earth disfigured by the logic of profit, for the poorest countries burdened by unjust debts, for the prisoners of old and new slavery’.
Speaking over giant screens from Santa Marta, the pontiff blessed the “Bambinelli” and expressed words of sorrow for Gaza in St Peter's Square. “So much cruelty, children machine-gunned,” he lamented. This morning Patriarch Pizzaballa reached the Parish of the Holy Family after he was stopped yesterday. In his Gospel commentary about the gift of life, Francis stressed that “No child is a mistake.”
In his greetings to the Roman Curia, the pontiff spoke again about what is happening in Gaza, where Patriarch Pizzaballa was prevented from making a Christmas visit. For Christmas Francis urges the members of the Curia to nurture humility and speak well and not ill of others, like God who does not bless “from above, but in the flesh.”
At the Wednesday audience, the pontiff began his reflection on Christ's childhood. The meanings related to genealogy are explained with women's names at the start of the Gospel of Matthew. "No one gives life to himself, but receives it as a gift from others,” he said. For Christmas, the pontiff is encouraging the faithful to put up a nativity scene at home. “This,” Francis said, “is an important element of our spirituality and culture”. He also called for prayers for peace in the Middle East, Ukraine and Myanmar.