Pilgrims cheer after the Way of the Cross during World Youth Day in 2016 at Blonia Park in Krakow, Poland. Young men and women can live a true experience of the church by joining together and reconnecting with the past, Pope Francis told Catholic young people in his message for the local observances of World Youth Day 2017. Photo: CNS/Paul Haring. Pope Francis has told young people that ...

Muslim doorkeeper Wajeeh Nuseibeh stands outside the closed Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem’s Old City. Nuseibeh closed and locked the doors on 25 February after heads of Christian Churches in the Holy Land announced they were closing of the doors of the Church for an undisclosed period of time. Photo: CNS/courtesy Nuseibeh family. By Judith Sudilovsky Jerusalem’s most famo...

Orphan children are seen during an art lesson about solidarity in Douma, Syria. Pope Francis has told a group of children and young people at the Vatican that often when people are unable to love or accept a child with problems or illness, it is because they are too weak themselves to be able to bear someone else’s vulnerabilities. Photo: CNS/Mohammed Badra. By Carol Glatz When people...

The first approved miracle necessary for his beatification has cleared two of the three stages necessary for Archbishop Sheen to be declared “blessed.” Photo: CNS/Gregory Shemitz. The case involving the transfer of the remains of Archbishop Fulton Sheen from New York to Peoria, Illinois, has been sent back to the original court by the New York Court of Appeals for an evidentiary hearing....

Pope Francis uses incense as he celebrates Mass at the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome on 28 January. Photo: CNS/Remo Casilli, Reuters. By Carol Glatz A relationship with Mary, the mother of God, is not “optional” for Christians, Pope Francis said, because Jesus points to her as a source of protection and guidance. Wherever people have opened their doors to Mary, “the devil does...

The Catholic Church in Australia and around the world will recommit to fighting slavery and human trafficking in the coming days as it celebrates the feast of St Josephine Bakhita. Photo: Supplied. The Catholic Church in Australia and around the world will recommit to fighting slavery and human trafficking in the coming days as it celebrates the feast of St Josephine Bakhita. Pope Fra...

Pope Francis performs an impromptu wedding ceremony for LatAm Airlines employees Carlos Ciuffardi Elorriaga, 41, and Paula Podest Ruiz, 39, aboard the pontiff’s flight from Santiago, Chile, to Iquique. Photo: CNS / L’Osservatore Romano. By Cindy Wooden and Junno Arocho Esteves Love was literally in the air as Pope Francis performed an impromptu wedding ceremony at 36,000 feet aboard h...

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelisation, talks to women religious gathered in Chicago in September 2017 about the church’s need for “a profound renewal of our catechesis.” Photo: CNS/Simone Orendain. By Simone Orendain The head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelisation said Catholics “need a profound ren...

Pope Francis arrives to celebrate Mass at O’Higgins Park in Santiago, Chile, on 16 January 2018. Photo: CNS/Paul Haring. By Junno Arocho Esteves The beatitudes are not cheap words for those who think they know it all, yet do not commit to faith, Pope Francis has said, celebrating his first public Mass in Chile. They are the fruit of a hopeful heart that yearns for peace and happin...

Pope Francis recognised that Pope John Paul I, who served only 33 days as Pope, lived the Christian virtues in a heroic way. Photo: L’Osservatore Romano. By Junno Arocho Esteves and Cindy Wooden, contributing from Rome Pope Francis recognised that Pope John Paul I, who served only 33 days as Pope, lived the Christian virtues in a heroic way. The Vatican announced Pope Francis’ deci...