The eight cardinals named by Pope Francis to begin work on ways to reorganize the Roman Curia are predominantly active archbishops of very large archdioceses, but they also have a wide range of pastoral and organizational experiences and skills.
The first name released of someone killed in the April 15 explosions at the Boston Marathon was that of 8-year-old Martin Richard, whose picture in newspapers showed him grinning broadly, apparently at his first Communion.
While some Catholics would like to undo the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, others basically are trying to build a monument to it rather than fully live its teachings, Pope Francis said.
Construction should begin soon on a large guesthouse for families on pilgrimage to the Holy Land and an international center dedicated to promoting Catholic teaching on the family.
Within hours of two explosions taking place near the finish line of the Boston Marathon April 15, Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley sent a message of prayer and support for those injured, their loved ones and those who experienced the trauma of the tragedy.
Pope Francis responded to the bombings in Boston by invoking peace for the souls of the departed, consolation for the suffering and strength for emergency and medical personnel.
Aware of the sign of the times, the Catholic Church is reaching out and assigning greater responsibility to the growing Latino Catholic population, said a group of U.S. Catholic Latino leaders.
In a short speech just a few days before the conclave that elected him pope, then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio told his fellow cardinals that the next pontiff “must be a man who, from the contemplation and adoration of Jesus Christ, helps the church to go out to the existential peripheries, helps her to be the fruitful mother who gains life from ‘the sweet and comforting joy of evangelizing.'”
Christians escaping the two-year civil war in Syria will soon have their own humanitarian aid camp in which to live, the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency of Turkey told local media.
The Catholic faith is not centered simply on a book — the Bible — but on Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh, Pope Francis said.