Catholic News Service

Reflecting on crises still unfolding in Syria and Iraq, Pope Francis encouraged every effort — big or small — to help foster peace there and help Christians remain.

The trees from which it is produced are in severe decline and one species in particular — the boswellia papyrifera — risks going extinct in the next 50 years.

The sacrifice of five Catholic priests who gave their lives ministering to people in Shreveport during the 1873 yellow fever epidemic will now be recognized with the formal opening of their sainthood cause.

Pope Francis sought the intercession of the first Indigenous saint of the Americas as COVID-19 continued to devastate many Latin American countries.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, was hospitalized Dec. 8 in preparation for a scheduled surgery to treat an enlarged prostate, the Vatican press office confirmed.

Praying to God in times of joy and sorrow is a natural, human thing to do because it connects men and women to their father in heaven, Pope Francis said.

With the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe closed for her feast to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Pope Francis said Catholics still can receive a plenary indulgence Dec. 11 and 12 for their Marian devotion if they follow certain conditions.

Addressing pilgrims in St. Peter's Square on the feast of the Immaculate Conception Dec. 8, the pope said the grace "to be totally free from sin" is a gift from God and the "fullness of holiness" given to Mary from the beginning.

President-elect Joe Biden's Catholic faith came less into play than the values he and Pope Francis share at a Georgetown University-convened online panel examining how U.S.-Vatican relations could be shaped under the Biden administration.

Federal executions are at odds with Advent as a season "of anticipated redemption" and must be stopped, said the chairmen of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' domestic policy and pro-life committees.

Even though the world is facing a pandemic that may limit many people's ability to celebrate the sacraments, particularly those people who are in isolation, quarantining or hospitalized with COVID-19, confession by phone is still most likely invalid, said Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary.

Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, said the program must be reopened for first-time applicants and the period of protection for DACA recipients must be reinstated to its initial two-year extension.

From his studio window of the apostolic palace, the pope indicated the 92-foot-tall spruce tree already standing in the square and the work underway setting up this year's Nativity scene. "These two signs of Christmas are being prepared, to the delight of children and adults, too," in many homes around the world, he said.

The ministry of a Catholic bishop must reflect the Catholic Church's commitment to Christian unity and must give ecumenical engagement the same kind of attention as work for justice and peace, said a new Vatican document.

"Creating a fully accessible parish requires not only the removal of architectural barriers, but above all, helping parishioners to develop attitudes and acts of solidarity and service toward persons with disabilities and their families," the pope said in his message marking the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Dec. 3.

The network, long seen as a Jesuit ministry, supports "the evangelizing mission of the Holy Father through prayers" and should encourage "a mission of compassion for the world," said the preamble to the new foundation's statutes.

Heroic trust in the Holy Spirit and a firm resolve to move forward "on mission" are at the heart of the Archdiocese of Detroit's transition to "families of parishes," Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron said Nov. 22 in a new pastoral note.

While sin may distort and disfigure the image of Christ that every person bears, it does not completely erase it, nor does it remove people from God's abundant mercy, Pope Francis said.

For more than three decades, leaders of the Archdiocese of Montreal failed to properly treat the complaints and the red flags periodically raised about Fr. Brian Boucher, said a report prepared by retired Quebec Superior Court Judge Pepita G. Capriolo. Instead, church authorities seemed intent on covering the priest's behavior to protect his and the church's reputation, she wrote.

Guaranteeing justice for all men and women is not possible while a few people control most of the world's wealth and everyone else's right to a dignified life is disregarded, Pope Francis said.