Priests must recognize that it is a privilege to administer the sacrament of reconciliation and grant absolution, Pope Francis wrote.
Vatican
The number of Catholics and permanent deacons in the world rose in 2023, while the number of seminarians, priests, men and women in religious orders, and baptisms all declined, according to Vatican statistics.
Those who work to keep children and vulnerable adults safe are serving and honoring Christ, Pope Francis said in a written message.
In his last written message from Rome’s Gemelli Hospital before returning to the Vatican, Pope Francis greeted bishops and the faithful from the Archdiocese of Naples on their Holy Year pilgrimage.
Pope Francis spent the night without a breathing mask, the Vatican press office said March 18, indicating that his need for supplemental oxygen continues to diminish.
A painting of Christ being laid in the tomb, long hidden under layers of overpainting and forgotten by history, will once again be visible to the public in an upcoming exhibit at the Vatican.
For the first time since Pope Francis was hospitalized in mid-February, the Vatican press office released a photograph of him March 16; the image shows him concelebrating Mass that morning in the chapel of his suite of rooms at Rome’s Gemelli hospital.
Pope Francis spent the 12th anniversary of his election to the papacy undergoing physiotherapy at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, but he was well enough to celebrate it in little ways.
Pope Francis’ condition continues to be stable and a chest x-ray “confirmed the improvements recorded in the previous days,” his doctors said, but without saying his double pneumonia had cleared up completely.
As Pope Francis prepared to spend the 12th anniversary of his election at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, people at the Vatican and around the world were responding to his most frequent personal request.