After issuing revised guidelines for preparing for the next world Synod of Bishops, leaders of the synod’s General Secretariat held online meetings with the presidents and general secretaries of national and regional bishops’ conferences.
Pilgrims and well-wishers gathered at Rome’s Gemelli hospital to greet Pope Francis as he made his first public appearance in a week after undergoing intestinal surgery, appearing on the 10th-floor balcony of his suite of rooms at the hospital on 11 July.
Pope Francis is continuing to recover following surgery for diverticular stenosis performed on the evening of 4 July. The second morning after surgery, the Holy Father read the newspapers and got out of bed to walk and his routine follow-up exams are good. By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service.
While the suffering brought on by the coronavirus pandemic continues to make headlines, Pope Francis has recently highlighted another serious illness plaguing today’s world that deserves attention.
Writing to vulnerable Catholics, Pope Francis said that God is close to them and still has plans for their lives. “I was called to become the bishop of Rome when I had reached, so to speak, retirement age, and thought I would not be doing anything new,” said the pope, in conjunction with World Day for Grandparents and the elderly. By Cindy Wooden, CNS
The Pontifical Academy for Life has released a new document on how the pandemic has impacted people with disabilities and their caregivers.
Pope Francis has last week appointed Australian Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Tito Yllana as the new Apostolic Nuncio to Israel and Cyprus and Apostolic Delegate in Jerusalem and Palestine. By Vatican News.
On the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ Pope Francis said that the church of the perfect and pure is a room where there isn’t a place for anyone; the church with open doors that celebrates around Christ is, on the other hand, a large hall where everyone, the righteous and sinners, can enter. By Carol Glatz/CNS.
A series of laws and procedures to protect children, promote the investigation of allegations of clerical sexual abuse and punish offenders are included in a heavily revised section of the Code of Canon Law.
A coalition of lay Christians have responded to Burmese Cardinal Charles Bo’s call for Prayer for the Church and Peoples of China.