St. John's Catholic Church

Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, speaks at a May 2, 2023, press conference. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/ACI Prensa

Vatican City, Jul 18, 2024 / 10:18 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Thursday added two new vice directors to the senior management of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication.

Massimiliano Menichetti, 53, is a 20-year veteran of Vatican News, where he has served in a number of leadership roles, including deputy editor-in-chief, manager of the multimedia publishing center, and coordinating chief of Vatican Radio-Vatican News. He has also been a journalism lecturer at Italian universities and co-authored a book in 2017 on the Vatican trial known as “Vatileaks 2.”

Menichetti joins two other vice directors in the editorial department, working under director Andrea Tornielli, who joined the Vatican communications team in 2018 after coordinating the “Vatican Insider” webpage for the Italian newspaper La Stampa.

Former Italian TV director Francesco Valle, 52, has been named vice director of the general affairs office of the dicastery. He started working for Vatican communications in 2023 as manager for commercial activities.

Valle will work under Paolo Nusiner, who has led the general affairs office of the Dicastery for Communication since 2015. 

Nusiner, who was formerly president of the Italian Catholic daily Avvenire for 18 years, is also president of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, with campuses in cities throughout Italy, and president of the Tiber Island-Gemelli Island Hospital in Rome.

Existing Vatican communications leadership

The Dicastery for Communication has been led since 2018 by Paolo Ruffini, the first layman to be named prefect of a department of the Roman Curia. Father Lucio Adrián Ruiz is the dicastery’s secretary.

Others on the management team include Andrea Monda, director of the Vatican’s long-running newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, and Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office.

Nataša Govekar, a theologian from Slovenia, heads the communication dicastery’s theological-pastoral department.

Govekar is also a member of the directorial team of the Centro Aletti, an art and theological center in Rome founded by the disgraced Father Marko Rupnik.

Vatican publishing house signs deal

Also on Thursday, the Vatican’s publishing house signed an agreement with a Catholic university press in Rome to help with the editorial production of some of its publications.

The Libreria Editrice Vaticana (LEV) will assist the Urbaniana University Press with “the editorial management of the scientific production” of the university’s historic publishing service, according to a July 18 press release.

Part of the Pontifical Urbaniana University, the Urbaniana University Press is the successor to a historic publishing house from the 17th century — the Propaganda Fide Polyglot Printing House.

Propaganda Fide is the historic name of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization, which is focused on missionary work and assisting missionary territories in the Church.

Four years after the then-sacred congregation was founded in 1622, Pope Urban VIII created the “Polyglot Printing Office of Propaganda Fide” for the publication of Catholic texts in diverse, non-Latin languages, according to Agenzia Fides.

According to the missionary-focused news agency, which is under the Dicastery for Evangelization, the first volume printed by the Polyglot Printing House “was probably a Greek version of the ‘Guía de Pecadores’ by the Dominican Luigi da Granada, written in 1588."

This work “was followed by works on grammar, law, controversies, and spirituality, all aimed at serving the missionaries in the East,” Agenzia Fides reported.

“With publications in multiple languages, the Polyglot Printing House laid the foundations for intercultural communication and an unprecedented dissemination of the Christian message and knowledge,” according to a press statement from the Dicastery for Communication and the Urbaniana University Press.

“This mission is more relevant today than ever in an increasingly interconnected world,” the statement continues, noting the press’ present-day commitment to increasing cultural and scientific publications in languages such as Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Konkani.

According to the press release, the agreement of the two presses to join editorial forces on some publications fulfills the instructions in article 183 of Pope Francis’ 2022 apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium, to unify “the Holy See’s activities in the area of communication so that the entire system consistently responds to the needs of the Church’s evangelizing mission.”

Father Marko Rupnik, SJ. / Credit: Vatican News/Screenshot

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 16, 2024 / 16:50 pm (CNA).

Father Marko Ivan Rupnik is a former Jesuit priest whose artwork decorates Catholic churches, chapels, and shrines around the world, including the Redemptoris Mater chapel in the Vatican and the major seminary of Rome. He is accused of having committed serious sexual, spiritual, and psychological abuse of women for decades and his case is currently being investigated by the Vatican.

Rupnik’s career

Rupnik, 69, was born in 1954 in Zadlog, Slovenia. During his youth he studied at the School of Fine Arts in Rome and at the Pontifical Gregorian University, where he earned a doctorate with a thesis on the theological significance of modern art in the light of Russian theology.

In the 1980s in his native country with the nun Ivanka Hosta he founded the Loyola Community, where he allegedly abused nuns.

He is also the founder of the Centro Aletti spiritual art workshop in Rome, from where many of the accusations of abuse have also come.

Six years since the first allegations

According to a timeline released by the Society of Jesus, the first accusations against Rupnik were received in October 2018 for giving absolution in confession to an accomplice in a sin against the Sixth Commandment.

In May of the following year, the investigation led by the Society of Jesus considered the accusations credible and a file was sent to the Congregation — now the Dicastery — for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), which launched a criminal administrative process.

In May 2020, the Vatican confirmed the facts and declared Rupnik to be in a state of “latae sententiae” (automatic) excommunication. The excommunication lasted only two weeks, as it was lifted by a CDF decree that same month.

In June 2021, new accusations came in regarding Rupnik and some members of the Loyola Community, so the Society of Jesus established a preliminary investigation and imposed restrictions on the priest.

The CDF stated in October 2022 that the statute of limitations had expired and that no trial could proceed despite the Jesuits urging the Vatican to begin criminal proceedings.

However, in December 2022, the case was in the news again after the appearance of new alleged victims of Rupnik in Rome, this time related to the Aletti Center.

In his capacity as Vatican commissioner for the Loyola Community, dissolved in December 2023, the now assistant for consecrated life of the Holy Father, Bishop Daniele Libanori, confirmed the veracity of the abuse against the nuns of which Rupnik is accused.

The Society of Jesus expelled Rupnik in June 2023, and the Diocese of Koper, Slovenia, incardinated him in August 2023.

In October 2023, Pope Francis lifted the statute of limitations on the case and ordered that the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith begin a judicial process, after detecting “serious problems in the way the case was handled.”

In February, two alleged victims of Rupnik made their first public appearance and shared their heartrending testimony at a press conference in Rome.

Although expelled from the Jesuits, Rupnik continues to appear as a Jesuit and Vatican consultant in the 2024 Pontifical Yearbook.

World-famous artist

Rupnik has created numerous religious works of art around the world and is especially known for his easily recognizable mosaics.

In 1996, St. John Paul II entrusted him with the renovation of the mosaic in the Redemptoris Mater chapel in the apostolic palace in the Vatican.

Three years later, the “Pilgrim Pope” presided over the rite of dedication of the chapel, where Rupnik and his team had restored the Wall of the Incarnation, the Wall of the Ascension and Pentecost, and the Wall of the Parousia.

In February 2011, Rupnik’s Aletti Center renovated the main chapel inside the building of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference in Madrid.

Also in the Spanish capital, the Slovenian priest decorated the main sacristy, the chapter house, and the Blessed Sacrament chapel in the Almudena Cathedral.

In addition, the priest artist did the art for the main altar wall of the shrine to the Holy Trinity in Fátima, Portugal, located in front of the site of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary, and his work is also found at the Lourdes shrine in France.

In Italy, Rupnik designed the ramp and crypt of the lower Church of St. Pio of Pietrelcina, in San Giovanni Rotondo, where thousands of Catholic faithful come to venerate Padre Pio.

He also decorated the chapel of the Pontifical Major Roman Seminary in Italy with his famous mosaics; the Manresa Cave shrine in Spain, where the artist painted 90 faces of biblical figures; the Church of Our Lady of the Southern Cross in Australia; the Aparecida Shrine in Brazil; and the Knights of Columbus’ Holy Family Chapel in New Haven, Connecticut.

Rupnik was the author of the logo of the Jubilee of Mercy convened by Pope Francis on Dec. 8, 2015, and was also commissioned to create the official image for the 10th World Meeting of Families that took place in Rome from June 22–26, 2022.

Should Rupnik’s artworks be removed or not?

Earlier this month, the bishop of Lourdes, France, Jean-Marc Micas, stated that the Rupnik mosaics should be removed, but he refrained from making a final decision on their fate in the face of “strong opposition.”

Cardinal Seán O'Malley, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and a member of the C9 council of cardinals that advises Pope Francis, asked in a letter that “pastoral prudence would prevent displaying artwork in a way that could imply either exoneration or a subtle defense” of those of accused of abuse. 

The cardinal’s letter appeared a week after the prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication, Paolo Ruffini, defended the use of his art.

Ruffini noted that there is no official verdict yet and that “anticipating a decision is something that, in our opinion, is not good.” Furthermore, he asserted that “removing, erasing, destroying art has never been a good choice.”

At the same time, the lawyer for the alleged victims, Laura Sgrò, called for the removal of the mosaics in a letter written on behalf of five complainants and addressed to the bishops.

The Knights of Columbus announced July 10 that it will cover the Rupnik mosaics located in the two chapels of the National Shrine of St. John Paul II in Washington, D.C., and in the chapel in the Knights’ headquarters in New Haven, Connecticut.

Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly told EWTN News that his work will be covered at least until the Vatican’s formal investigation is completed.

This story was first published in December 2023 and has been updated by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, presides over a press conference on Friday, May 17, 2024, on the Vatican’s new document on Marian apparitions. / Credit: Rudolf Gehrig/EWTN News

Rome Newsroom, Jul 16, 2024 / 11:24 am (CNA).

The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has accepted the decree of a bishop approving the spiritual activities of a shrine at the site of alleged Marian apparition “Our Lady of the Rock” in southern Italy.

It is the DDF’s fourth public pronouncement related to alleged apparitions since issuing norms for the discernment of “alleged supernatural phenomena” in May. The new regulations stated the local bishop must consult and receive final approval from the Vatican after investigating and judging alleged apparitions and connected devotions.

In a July 5 letter published Tuesday, the DDF said it had taken note of Bishop Francesco Oliva’s “positive report on the spiritual good that is taking place” at the Shrine of the Madonna dello Scoglio (“Our Lady of the Rock”) in the southern Italian diocese of Locri-Gerace and confirmed the bishop’s declaration that nothing prevents Catholics from visiting and participating in its devotions and liturgies.

The dicastery stressed that while it affirmed the bishop’s recognition of the spiritual experience at the shrine, it should be in no way construed as a judgment of the supernatural quality of the alleged apparitions of “Our Lady of the Rock.”

The letter is signed by DDF prefect Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández and was approved by Pope Francis in a July 5 audience.

The Marian shrine in Santa Domenica, a tiny village in the Italian region of Calabria, was built around a boulder, the site of Mary’s alleged appearances to 18-year-old Cosimo Fragomeni from May 11–14, 1968, as he was returning home from working in the fields.

Officially constructed in 2016, the sanctuary has come to be known locally as “the little Lourdes of Calabria” and has seen an ever-growing number of pilgrims and visitors, many of whom come seeking physical healing.

Fragomeni is still living and has recounted his alleged mystical experiences in approximately 30 letters. He receives visitors for brief personal meetings twice a week.

The DDF instructed the local bishop, who has jurisdiction over the shrine, to be clear in his decree that approval of the spiritual activity of the shrine does “not imply any judgment — either positive or negative — on the lives of the persons involved in this case” and any further messages from the seer should be made public only with his approval.

The Vatican’s doctrinal office confirmed the “nihil obstat” judgment of the diocesan bishop given that, as he informed them, “no critical or risky elements have emerged, much less problems of obvious gravity” at the alleged Marian apparition site, but “instead, there are signs of grace and spiritual conversion.”

According to the May 17 norms, a “nihil obstat” judgment means: “Without expressing any certainty about the supernatural authenticity of the phenomenon itself, many signs of the action of the Holy Spirit are acknowledged ‘in the midst’ of a given spiritual experience, and no aspects that are particularly critical or risky have been detected, at least so far.”

In its letter, the DDF quoted Oliva’s letter to the dicastery, which explained that “the fruits of Christian life in those who frequent the Rock [i.e., the shrine] are evident, such as the existence of the spirit of prayer, conversions, some vocations to the priesthood and religious life, testimonies of charity, as well as a healthy devotion and other spiritual fruits.”

“In the secularized world in which we live, in which so many spend their lives without any reference to transcendence, the pilgrims who approach the Shrine of the Rock are a powerful sign of faith,” the DDF’s letter said.

“Their presence before the Virgin, who for them becomes a clear expression of the Lord’s mercy, is a way of acknowledging their own inadequacy to carry out the labors of life and their ardent need and desire for God,” it continued. 

“In such a truly precious context of faith, a renewed proclamation of the kerygma can continue to enlighten and enrich this experience of the Spirit.”

Archbishop Georg Gänswein was the personal secretary of the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. / Credit: Bohumil Petrík

CNA Newsroom, Jul 16, 2024 / 09:35 am (CNA).

Archbishop Georg Gänswein, former personal secretary to Pope Benedict XVI, has spoken about his new appointment as apostolic nuncio to Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, describing it as “a new possibility” to carry out his apostolate “in a completely different area.”

In an interview with EWTN News on the sidelines of the “Benedict XVI Forum” in Altötting, Bavaria, the prelate said he was approaching the role “with confidence, with trust in God, but also with great joy.”

“I see the appointment as a new opportunity,” Gänswein, who will turn 68 on July 30, told EWTN. “I gladly accept it, even if the dear God now wants me to be there, which I hadn’t thought of at all.”

The archbishop acknowledged that he had never worked in a nunciature before and did not come from the so-called “diplomatic career” track. However, he noted that in his roles as private secretary and prefect of the Papal Household, he had “a lot of contact with the diplomatic world.”

Regarding potential challenges in his new post, Gänswein said: “The Baltic countries are of course very important geopolitically, also for Europe. I don’t have any concrete ideas yet where my priorities will be. That will emerge, and I’m looking forward to it.”

The Baltic states have a rich Catholic history, with Lithuania particularly notable for its strong Catholic identity. However, the region faces significant geopolitical challenges, especially in light of Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.

‘If it’s the front, it’s the front’

Speaking to EWTN, Gänswein emphasized a spiritual approach when asked how he was preparing for the assignment: “I take it all into prayer and I’m already trying to read a little about the countries, to inquire. Everything else, I think, will become apparent.”

The archbishop acknowledged the geopolitical situation in the region, particularly its proximity to the ongoing war in Ukraine. NATO has significantly increased its presence, sending thousands of soldiers from Germany and other nations in response to Russia’s heightened threat — despite divergent views on European defense.

While admitting he had no personal experience of the situation, the German prelate said: “If you say that’s where the front is, and our loving God wants me there, then I’ll gladly go there. If it’s the front, it’s the front. In any case, it’s a place where Our Lord will also be active.”

Reflecting on Benedict’s legacy

The interview took place at the first-ever “Benedict XVI Forum” in Altötting, the famous Marian pilgrimage site in Bavaria. The event, which took place from July 10–15 and was visited by Cardinal Kurt Koch and several experts, explored the Apostles’ Creed using Joseph Ratzinger’s 1968 bestseller “Introduction to Christianity,” reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.

Gänswein spoke to EWTN of his deep connection to the place, recalling Benedict XVI’s visit there as pope in 2006.

“When I arrived here yesterday, I had the impression it was only the day before yesterday,” he said. “It was also beautiful weather, but it was so full of emotions, so full of the spirit that is palpable here, the spirit of the Mother of God. It’s like flipping a switch.”

The diplomatic posting marks a new chapter for Gänswein, following a period of uncertainty after Benedict XVI’s death. In June 2023, he was ordered to leave the Vatican without a new assignment, which sparked much speculation about his future role in the Church. 

Reflecting on his years of service to Benedict XVI on the weekend, Gänswein described it as “a matter of conscience” to pass on the late pope’s legacy. 

“Because that is a great gift for Catholics, the Church, and people,” he said. “And to cultivate this gift is one of my great inner tasks, which I am happy to continue to do — and I hope — for a long time to come.”

Statue of St. Peter in front of St. Peter's Basilica. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jul 15, 2024 / 12:45 pm (CNA).

The Vatican has said that two women have been hired for the specialized maintenance crew of St. Peter’s Basilica for the first time in its 500-year history.

While women have worked for the Fabbrica di San Pietro — the department that oversees maintenance, restoration, and repairs of the Vatican’s papal basilica — before, it is the first time women are officially part of the “Sanpietrini” maintenance staff, according to Vatican News.

Two teams of Sanpietrini “work simultaneously on a daily basis to fulfill their principal tasks of reception, stewardship, cleaning, and maintenance of the Vatican basilica and its facilities respectively,” the basilica’s website says.

The two Italian women, 21 and 26 years of age, studied masonry and decorative and ornamental plastering at the basilica’s newly relaunched School of Fine Arts and Traditional Trades.

The Vatican basilica’s art and trades school started in 2022 to train up new laborers in artisanal artistic skills. The courses and room and board are offered to students without cost.

Father Enzo Fortunato, communications director for St. Peter’s Basilica, said the presence of women in the Fabbrica is not entirely new — there were women mosaic artists who worked in the Vatican’s mosaic studio for many years — but their entrance in the Sanpietrini corps is a novelty.

According to Vatican News, in the 1500s, some women and orphans who inherited family businesses from their deceased husbands or fathers were also employed by the Fabbrica under the same conditions as the deceased, male breadwinner.

In the past 500 years, other women in the artistic trades were also hired by the Fabbrica, which was founded with the laying of the foundation stone of St. Peter’s Basilica on April 18, 1506. 

The maintenance crew takes its name from “sanpietrini,” also spelled “sampietrini,” the Italian name for the small, square stones that pave St. Peter’s Square and other historic streets in the center of Rome. 

Pope Francis meets with the Council of Cardinals on Feb. 5, 2024, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 15, 2024 / 11:49 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has written the preface to the book “Women and Ministries in the Synodal Church,” authored by three theologians and two cardinals who participated in the meeting of the Council of Cardinals, C9, this past February at the Vatican.

The theologians, noted Vatican News, are Salesian Sister Linda Pocher, professor of Christology and Mariology at the Auxilium in Rome, who also wrote the book’s introduction; Jo Bailey Wells, a female Anglican bishop and undersecretary-general of the Anglican Communion; and Giuliva Di Berardino, consecrated woman of the Ordo Virginum of the Diocese of Verona in Italy, liturgist, teacher, and organizer of spirituality courses and spiritual exercises.

The cardinals are Jean-Claude Hollerich, archbishop of Luxembourg and relator general of the Synod on Synodality, who in 2023 stated that “over time” the pope could allow the ordination of women; and Seán Patrick O’Malley, archbishop of Boston and president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

Pope Francis’ preface

The preface was published in its entirety in L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper.

In the text, the Holy Father laments that “the drama of abuse has forced us to open our eyes to the plague of clericalism, which does not only concern ordained ministers but also a distorted way of exercising power within the Church into which everyone can fall: even laypeople, even women.”

The pontiff notes that “a certain suffering of ecclesial communities regarding the way in which the ministry is understood and lived is not a new reality.”

Pope Francis then states: “Listening to them without judgment and without prejudice, we realize that in many places and in many situations they suffer precisely because of the lack of recognition of what they are and what they do and also of what they could do and be if only they had the space and the opportunity.”

“The women who suffer the most are often the closest, the most available, prepared and ready to serve God and his kingdom,” he noted.

“Reality, however, is always greater than the idea,” the pope states, “and when our theology falls into the trap of clear and distinct ideas it inevitably transforms into a procrustean bed (arbitrary standard), which sacrifices reality, or part of it, on the altar of the idea.”

Women in the Church and the female diaconate

The issue of women in the Church appears in the Instrumentum Laboris (working document) for the second phase of the Synod on Synodality, which will take place in October at the Vatican.

The text highlights “the need to give fuller recognition” to the charisms and vocations of women who “by virtue of baptism are in a condition of full equality, receive the same outpouring of gifts of the Spirit and are called to the service of the mission of Christ.”

In an interview with EWTN News, Salesian Sister Laura Pocher pointed out that “at this moment the debate on this issue [the female diaconate] is very hot and various scientific publications are appearing from the theological point of view that address this topic and the positions are very diverse.”

“There are many positions on this and the pope has also expressed himself in an interview saying that he does not plan to ordain women,” she added.

In May, the Holy Father gave an interview to CBS News anchor Norah O’Donnell, who asked him if a Catholic girl could ever become a deacon and member of the clergy. “No,” was Pope Francis’ firm response.

‘Three possibilities’ for women in the Catholic Church

“However, the possibilities are fundamentally three,” Pocher said. “The first is to do nothing and continue as we are. Some believe that this is the best option, because they know that in the first centuries there were women deacons, but with the sources we have it is not possible to reconstruct exactly what this diaconate consisted of.”

The second possibility mentioned by the Salesian theologian is “a form of diaconate without ordination, because it is important from an institutional point of view to recognize the service of women in the Church and thus give a form of ministries at the established age [for ordination].” 

“The third possibility, the most radical, is to also give women the possibility of being ordained deacons. Just as we have deacons, married men who are not priests,” she said.

Then, she continued, “an ordained diaconate which should not because of this be a first step toward priestly ordination, but which would allow for a recognized service within the Church, for example in the guidance of communities.”

When asked if the issue was discussed at C9 in February, Pocher said yes, although “it is not a possibility on the synod agenda and the pope is not very favorable, because this issue of the ordination of women is a bit like the elephant in the room.”

In the theologian’s opinion, “not everyone thinks about it but often there is no courage to speak because it is a very conflictive issue and it seemed to us that in the spirit with which the pope guides these meetings of the council [C9] it was important to put the difficult things on the table.”

Pope Francis and deaconesses in the Church

Although the topic of the female diaconate does not appear in Instrumentum Laboris 2, Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the Synod on Synodality, said in a July 9 press conference that Pope Francis has asked the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) to study women’s participation and leadership in the Catholic Church, including the possibility of women deacons, to publish a document on the subject.

Prior to this assignment for the DDF, Pope Francis had created two commissions to study deaconesses in the Catholic Church: one in 2016 that was closed without reaching a consensus, and the second in 2020 after the majority of participants in the Amazon Synod expressed themselves in favor of the issue.

In Querida Amazonia, Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation following the 2019 synod, the pope encouraged women to participate in the Church but not in the ordained ministries of the diaconate or priesthood.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Pope Francis waves to crowds before his noon Angelus address during a hot day in Rome on July 14, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jul 14, 2024 / 09:30 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Sunday urged Christians to be an example to others of how to live a sober, nonmaterialistic lifestyle in peace with one’s community.

“It is important to know how to guard sobriety, to know how to be sober in the use of things — sharing resources, skills, and gifts, and doing without excess. Why? To be free: Excess enslaves you,” the pope said in his Angelus address on July 14.

The pope addressed the problems of materialism in his comments before praying the Angelus, a Marian prayer he leads every week on Sundays.

Speaking from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, he reflected on the Sunday Gospel, from Mark 6, focusing on Jesus’ instructions to his apostles to “take nothing for the journey” as he sent them forth to preach.

“Let’s pause for a moment on this image,” he said. “The disciples are sent together, and they are to take only what is necessary with them.”

A large crowd attended the Angelus despite the powerful noon sun raising temperatures in the stone-paved square well into the 90s Fahrenheit.

Many people wore hats or held umbrellas to shade themselves from the rays, and despite the heat, still gave an enthusiastic welcome to the pope when he appeared at the window of the Apostolic Palace.

Pope Francis invited those present to reflect on “what happens in our families or communities when we make do with what is necessary, even with little...”

“Indeed, a family or a community that lives in this way creates around it an environment rich in love, in which it is easier to open oneself to faith and the newness of the Gospel, and from which one leaves better, one leaves more serene,” he said.

“If, on the other hand,” he pointed out, “everyone goes his or her own way, if what counts are only things — which are never enough — if we do not listen to each other, if individualism and envy prevail ... the air becomes heavy, life difficult, and encounters become more an occasion of restlessness, sadness, and discouragement, than an occasion for joy.”

“Envy is a deadly thing, a poison,” the pope added, while noting that “communion, harmony among us, and sobriety are important values, indispensable values, for a Church to be missionary at all levels.”

After praying the Angelus in Latin, Pope Francis spoke about Sea Sunday, which the Church is commemorating July 14.

Sea Sunday is the day the Church remembers and prays for all those who work at sea, often in dangerous and lonely conditions.

“On Sea Sunday, let us pray for those who work in the maritime sector and for those who take care of them,” Francis urged.

He also asked Our Lady of Mount Carmel, whose feast day is July 16, to “comfort and obtain peace for all populations who are oppressed by the horror of war.”

“Please, let us not forget tormented Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, and Myanmar,” the pontiff said.

Facade of St. Peter's Basilica. / Credit: Nils Huber/Unsplash

Rome Newsroom, Jul 14, 2024 / 08:49 am (CNA).

The Holy See has condemned acts of violence in the wake of the shooting that injured former U.S. president Donald Trump and others and left one dead at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on July 13.

A brief statement provided to CNA by Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni on July 14 said the Holy See expressed “concern about last night’s episode of violence, which wounds people and democracy, causing suffering and death.”

The comment also said the Holy See “is united to the prayer of the U.S. bishops for America, for the victims, and for peace in the country, that the motives of the violent may never prevail.”

Pope Francis did not comment on the incident during his weekly public appearance for the Angelus at noon on Sunday.

Political leaders from around the globe have spoken out against political violence and in support of democracy after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, Saturday evening. 

In a statement posted to Truth Social July 13, Trump said a bullet pierced the upper part of his right ear. After receiving treatment at a nearby hospital, the former president flew to New Jersey under Secret Service protection late Saturday night.

The FBI has identified the Trump rally shooter as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. Crooks, who carried no ID and was identified with DNA analysis, was killed by a Secret Service sniper at the rally, according to officials.

Rose petals fall in St. Mary Major Basilica Aug. 5, 2017 to commemorate the "miracle of the snow." / Daniel Ibanez/CNA.

Vatican City, Jul 12, 2024 / 11:25 am (CNA).

Pope Francis will join Rome’s celebrations this year of the fourth-century Marian miracle that inspired the construction of St. Mary Major Basilica.

Each year white rose petals fall from the ceiling of the papal Marian basilica in commemoration of a miraculous snowfall in Rome on Aug. 5 in the year 358 A.D.

The Vatican has announced that Pope Francis will witness this unique Roman tradition marking the anniversary of the “Miracle of the Snow” during vespers at St. Mary Major Basilica on the evening of Aug. 5.

According to tradition, the Virgin Mary appeared to both a nobleman named John and to Pope Liberius (352–366) in a dream foretelling the August snow and asking for a church to be built in her honor on the site of the snowfall. The church was rebuilt by Pope Sixtus III (432–440), after the Council of Ephesus in 431 declared Mary to be the mother of God.

The Basilica of St. Mary Major has a special significance for Pope Francis, who recently revealed that he wishes to be buried in this basilica and that a “place is already prepared.”

Pope Francis visited the Marian basilica on the first day of his pontificate to entrust his ministry to the Mother of God before the icon of Mary known as the “Salus Populi Romani,” or “Mary, Protector of the Roman People.”

The pope has returned to pray before the Marian icon each time he has departed for an international trip.

Among the four major papal basilicas in Rome, St. Mary Major is the only one that has maintained its original structure. Mosaics dating back to the fifth century can be seen in the central nave of the basilica, which also houses the relic of the holy crib from the birth of Christ.

Rome will prepare for the anniversary of its papal Marian basilica with a triduum of prayer Aug. 2–4.

Celebrations on Aug. 5 will begin with a Mass at 10 a.m. presided over by Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, the archpriest of the St. Mary Major. Monsignor Emilio Nappa, the president of the Pontifical Mission Societies, will close the festivities with another Mass at 7 p.m. 

To attend the vespers with Pope Francis at the basilica at 5:30 p.m., free tickets from the Vatican will need to be reserved in advance.

Pope Francis meets with Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk at the Vatican on Aug. 5, 2022. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jul 12, 2024 / 09:18 am (CNA).

Pope Francis received a top-ranking member of the Russian Orthodox Church for private discussions at the Vatican this week.

The Holy See Press Office confirmed on July 12 that the pope received Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, the head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, on Thursday afternoon.

Metropolitan Anthony is essentially the “foreign minister” of the Moscow Patriarchate and considered to be second only to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow.

The Vatican has yet to release any photos or details regarding the discussions between the pope and Russian metropolitan. 

The meeting took place two days after Pope Francis expressed his “great sorrow” over Russia’s attacks on two hospitals in Kiev, including Ukraine’s largest children’s medical center.

As the Russian Orthodox Church’s chief ecumenical officer, Anthony has met Pope Francis twice since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The pope kissed the Orthodox metropolitan’s pectoral cross during a brief encounter after a Wednesday general audience in May 2023 and had a “lengthy conversation” with Anthony shortly after he was appointed in 2022.

Pope Francis has wanted to meet with the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine.

The two have not met since their historic first meeting in the Havana airport in February 2016 — the first meeting between a pope and a patriarch of Moscow.

A planned second meeting between the two leaders in Jerusalem in June 2022 was canceled following a video call between the pope and the Russian patriarch in March of that year.

The Russian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church with an estimated 150 million members, accounting for more than half of the world’s Orthodox Christians.