VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Health care professionals who help expectant mothers have a vocation that is an ode to life, Pope Francis said. And for people of faith, prayer is also “a hidden but effective medicine,” he said, “because it heals the soul.” The pope met a group of obstetricians, gynecologists and other health care…
ROME (CNS) — Smiles, laughter, prayer and strategizing abound at the Bishops’ Office for U.S. Visitors to the Vatican. Just a few blocks from Rome’s famous Trevi Fountain, the visitors’ office is where hundreds of Americans — and not only — go on Tuesday afternoons to pick up their tickets for the pope’s weekly general…
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Christians are called to follow Mary’s example by responding to God’s love with action, reaching out to others instead of withdrawing from the world, Pope Francis said. Reflecting on Mary’s visit to her pregnant cousin Elizabeth after learning that she will bring the Messiah into the world, he said that “this…
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A nerdy love of science fiction, a yearning for adventure, a passion for science and a foundation of Jesuit education all helped in some way to lead a man from Detroit, Michigan, to become a master of meteorites and the head of the Vatican Observatory. Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, who has…
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — It is unacceptable that a child’s right to life and a dignified childhood should be sacrificed to “the idols” of power, profit, ideology and nationalistic self-interest, Pope Francis told a group of world experts and leaders. “A childhood denied is a silent scream condemning the wrongness of the economic system, the…
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The way consecrated women and men live their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience can offer light and hope to a world looking for authentic relationships marked by love and self-giving, Pope Francis said. Celebrating vespers Feb. 1, the eve of the feast of the Presentation of the Lord and of…