The call to faith in Jesus always is a call to service and mission, Pope Francis told seminarians, priests and staff of the Pontifical North American College.
Pope Francis
Pope Benedict XVI “spread and testified to” the Gospel his entire life, Pope Francis told tens of thousands of people gathered Jan. 5 for his predecessor’s funeral Mass.
The Jan. 5 funeral Mass for Pope Benedict XVI will be a papal funeral with a few changes to fit with the fact that he was not the reigning pope and has not left behind a “sede vacante.”
Two days after Pope Francis told people retired Pope Benedict was “very sick” and in need of prayers, the Vatican said he again had had a restful night and was able to participate in the celebration of Mass in his room.
Saying that retired Pope Benedict XVI was “very sick,” Pope Francis asked people to offer special prayers for him.
The day after Christmas the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, which emphasizes how the story of Jesus’ birth is not a “fairy tale,” but a call to live as witnesses of the Gospel, Pope Francis said.
The interconnected “moral, social, political and economic crises” facing the world cannot be solved if individuals and nations continue to focus only on their own, immediate interests, Pope Francis said in his message for World Peace Day 2023.
True love of God or love of another person should lead to a sense of freedom, not to a need to possess or control, Pope Francis said.
Stopping to gaze at and perhaps pray before a Nativity scene is one of the best ways to remember the real meaning of Christmas, Pope Francis said.
Presenting the Ratzinger Prize to a French Jesuit theologian and a Jewish law professor, Pope Francis paid tribute to his predecessor and his theological work.