ROME — Pope Francis made a visit on Thursday to one of the largest prison complexes in Italy, opening a special “Holy Door” for the 2025 Catholic Holy Year, in what the Vatican said was the first such action by a Catholic pontiff. Speaking to hundreds of inmates, guards and staff at the Rebibbia prison … Read more
Rome is preparing for a Holy Year, which sees millions of pilgrims arrive in the city on a journey of self-reflection, renewal and gratitude. The Rome Jubliee takes place every 25 years, and now, the incredible city has invested over £3 billion and has constructed more than a thousand sites for the one upcoming. Pope … Read more
Shortly before his 88th birthday, the head of 1.4 billion Catholics is treating himself to a new set of wheels: a custom-made vehicle from Mercedes-Benz that for the first time is emission free. Popes have been driven around in special cars for almost 100 years, but Pope Francis is now one of the first heads … Read more
With a tape measure around his neck and thimble on his finger, Raniero Mancinelli slides a needle into a black cassock with red piping destined for a Catholic cardinal. “It takes two or three days to make an outfit: taking the measurements, cutting it out, and putting it all together,” according to the 86-year-old Italian, … Read more
Keralite priest George Jacob Koovakad and Pope Francis In a grand consistory held in the Vatican Saturday, 51-year-old Keralite priest George Jacob Koovakad was elevated to the rank of cardinal by Pope Francis. Koovakad will be remembered in history as the first priest to be directly elevated as a cardinal from India. The other cardinals … Read more
“He judged everything from the perspective of the property entrepreneur he had been before politics,” she wrote of Trump. “Each property could only be allocated once. If he didn’t get it, someone else did. That was also how he looked at the world.” “For him, all countries were in competition with each other, in which … Read more
The Catholic Church will soon get its first millennial saint, an Italian teenager who designed websites for the church, Pope Francis announced Wednesday. Carlo Acutis, a 15-year-old who died of leukemia in 2006, will be canonized in April next year, the pope said at his weekly audience in the Vatican. Acutis was beatified in 2020 … Read more
Rome — A major Vatican meeting gathering clerics and laity across the globe to discuss the future of the Catholic Church closes this weekend, thwarting discussion of women becoming priests or deacons in the world’s largest Christian denomination. But that didn’t stop a half-dozen Catholic women from “ordination” in a secret ceremony in Rome that … Read more
Others say the field of discussion has been narrowed to the point of meaninglessness. “Given that the Synod is about developing processes of communication, discernment, and decision-making within the church, it would be surprising for anything substantive to arise from it — on LGBTQ+ or other issues,” said Cristina Traina, a progressive activist and assistant … Read more
A French trading ship that sank in the 17th century with treasure on board is being brought back to life in a workshop in Madagascar with every stroke of Rafah Ralahy’s small wood sander. Ralahy, eyes sparkling behind his glasses, has learned in 30 years as a craftsman at Le Village, a model ship making … Read more
