Catholic News Agency
Pope Francis says he’s more concerned about human intelligence than AI
Vatican City, Jan 27, 2025 / 11:35 am (CNA).
Pope Francis said Monday that he is more concerned about the development of human intelligence than artificial intelligence.
Speaking to Church communications professionals in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace, the 88-year-old pope emphasized the need for a human-centered approach to communication, especially in spreading the Gospel.
Francis reflected on the concept of “networking,” harkening back to the biblical imagery of fishermen’s nets and Jesus’ call to Peter to “become a fisher of men.” He said that responding to Jesus’ invitation requires “skills, knowledge, and resources” to build a network that can provide information that frees people from “the sea of despair and disinformation.”
“Let us think of how much we could accomplish together — thanks to the new tools of the digital era and to artificial intelligence — if instead of turning technology into an idol, we were more committed to networking,” the pope said.
Pope Francis greets a visitor at a meeting with Church communications officials at the Vatican, Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. Credit: Vatican Media“What worries me — more than artificial intelligence — is natural intelligence, the intelligence that we must develop,” he said.
Pope Francis urged communicators to examine their methods and motivations, warning against being seduced by the temptations of “self-promotion and the celebration of our own initiatives.” He also stressed the importance of fostering hope in a world often marked by despair and division.
“Let us ask ourselves: What do we do to sow hope in the midst of all the despair that surrounds and challenges us? What do we do to overcome the virus of division that undermines our communities? Is our communication inspired by prayer? Or do we limit ourselves to communicating about the Church by merely following the rules laid down by corporate marketing?”
Pope Francis called on communicators to demonstrate “that hope is not an illusion” and to promote forgiveness.
“Christian communication is about showing that the kingdom of God is near. It is present here and now, like a miracle that can be experienced by every person and by every culture,” he said.
“Communicating, for us, is not a tactic. It is not a technique. It is not the repetition of catchphrases or slogans,” he added. “Communicating is an act of love. Only an act of selfless love can produce networks of goodness.”
Pope Francis is hugged by a visitor at a meeting with Church communications officials at the Vatican, Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. Credit: Vatican MediaThe meeting followed the conclusion of the Catholic Church’s Jubilee of the World of Communications, which drew more than 10,000 participants from 138 countries, according to Vatican News.
Pope Francis reminded the audience that Catholic communications is something that must extend beyond Church boundaries.
“Catholic communication is not something isolated; it is not just for Catholics. It is not a fenced-in area where we can keep to ourselves, a sect where we can talk to each other,” he said. “It is the open space of a living witness that knows how to listen to and interpret the signs of the kingdom.”
“Today the Lord often knocks from the inside because he wants us, as Christians, to let him out. Too often we keep the Lord to ourselves. We must let the Lord out — he is knocking at the door to be let out — and not keep him somewhat ‘enslaved’ for own purposes. … Go forward with courage and the joy that comes from evangelizing.”
Pope Francis: Suffering becomes ‘occasion for transformative encounter’ with God
CNA Newsroom, Jan 27, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis emphasized how suffering can become “an occasion for a transformative encounter” with God in a new message released Monday, describing three distinct ways the divine draws close to those experiencing illness and hardship.
In his message for the 2025 World Day of the Sick — signed Jan. 14 at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran — the pontiff pointed to presence, gift, and sharing as profound paths of providential companionship during times of trial.
He also addressed all those “who are ill or who care for the suffering,” telling them: “Your journey together is a sign for everyone: ‘a hymn to human dignity, a song of hope.’”
The 88-year-old pope wrote from personal experience, having faced several health challenges in recent years, including knee problems requiring a wheelchair, respiratory infections, and, most recently, a fall resulting in a forearm contusion.
“In times of illness, we sense our human frailty on the physical, psychological, and spiritual levels,” the pope wrote. “Yet we also experience the closeness and compassion of God, who, in Jesus, shared in our human suffering.”
Francis emphasized that God’s first way of being close is through presence, noting that suffering “becomes an occasion for a transformative encounter, the discovery of a solid rock to which we can hold fast amid the tempests of life.”
Addressing the second aspect — gift — Francis cited Venerable Madeleine Delbrêl, emphasizing that hope comes primarily from the Lord as “a gift to be received and cultivated.” The pontiff has previously pointed to the prayerful witness of the French writer, poet, essayist, social worker, and mystic.
In the message released Monday, the pope explained that the third dimension of divine closeness manifests through sharing, particularly in health care settings where mutual enrichment often occurs between patients, medical staff, and family members.
The pope concluded his message with a special word of gratitude to health care workers and those who care for the sick, calling their shared journey “a hymn to human dignity, a song of hope.”
He entrusted all who are ill to the intercession of Mary, Health of the Sick, and asked for prayers for himself.
The World Day of the Sick is traditionally celebrated on Feb. 11, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.
Why Cardinal Czerny and sculptor Timothy Schmalz brought ‘Angels Unawares’ to the Vatican
Rome Newsroom, Jan 26, 2025 / 09:45 am (CNA).
Canadians Cardinal Michael Czerny and sculptor Timothy P. Schmalz on Thursday in Rome spoke about evangelization through art as part of festivities linked to the Jan. 24–26 Jubilee of the World of Communications, emphasizing that words are not necessary to share the Catholic faith with others.
Czerny, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, said Schmalz’s statue Angels Unawares, which was installed in St. Peter’s Square in 2019 to commemorate the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, silently yet eloquently depicts the experience of millions of people throughout history.
“More often than not, you have the impression that people are looking for themselves — they’re looking for their ancestors, they’re looking for their people, and they find them,” Czerny shared with some 350 conference participants.
“I think in this way this sculpture communicates something which, as we know now, is also highly political if not violent [at times], without words and without labels,” the cardinal said.
Canadians Cardinal Michael Czerny and sculptor Timothy P. Schmalz on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025, in Rome speak about evangelization through art as part of festivities linked to the Jan. 24–26 Jubilee of the World of Communications, emphasizing that words are not necessary to share the Catholic faith with others. Credit: Kristina Millare/CNASpeaking about the 140 figures of Angels Unawares, Schmalz said Czerny’s request for the sculpture had given him the opportunity to depict the “mosaic of emotions” experienced by migrants and refugees from different times and places.
“I have joy, I have happiness, but I also have despair represented,” he said. “Hopefully some of those faces, some of those expressions, will touch the people that see it.”
The biblical verse “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Heb 13:2) was what inspired Schmalz to place an angel at the center of his artwork.
“You can only see the wings because of the crowd of people,” he explained. “I thought that’s a discreet, subtle way of giving a visual translation to that beautiful passage of Scripture — because it is discreet.”
Czerny described the angel in the middle of Schmalz’s sculpture as a symbol of the “beautiful truth” experienced by those who have welcomed migrants and refugees.
“They will always tell you that they received more than they gave,” he shared. “That this person or this family who would have somehow come into their lives is a gift from God.”
“At the same time, if you talk with a migrant or refugee who has had the good fortune of bumping into someone inspired by the Gospel, or at least by human motivations, they will say they were saved by an angel — that an angel came into our life,” he continued.
Toward the end of the meeting on evangelization through art, the Canadian cardinal reiterated the pope’s call to uphold the dignity of those who have left their homelands.
“Pope Francis says — which I think is a great balance between our [Catholic] teaching and reality in the world — that we are obliged to welcome, protect, promote, and integrate migrants and refugees to the capacity of our society,” he said.
Word of God Sunday: Scripture expert explains why the Bible is ‘modern,’ how to preach well
Rome Newsroom, Jan 26, 2025 / 08:35 am (CNA).
A Scripture expert who is now the official preacher of Pope Francis has explained what makes the Bible “modern” and why knowledge of the word of God is important for evangelization.
“The revelation of God is offered within a great variety of stories, tales, situations that correspond closely to life,” Father Roberto Pasolini, OFM Cap, told CNA in an interview last month.
People today are always thinking in terms of stories, whether that is Instagram “stories” or films or TV, he continued. “Because stories are places where we recognize ourselves immediately,” while it is sometimes harder to see ourselves in “more abstract, theoretical, and dogmatic formulations.”
“And so in this way, I think, the Bible is very modern as a resource for proclaiming the mystery of God,” he said.
On Jan. 26, the Catholic Church commemorates the Sunday of the Word of God, established by Pope Francis in 2019.
Francis, for the occasion, presided over a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in which he conferred the ministry of lector on 40 Catholics from four continents, including one layperson from Iceland.
The Mass was the concluding event of the three-day Jubilee of the World of Communications, part of the Catholic Church’s Jubilee of Hope in 2025.
Pasolini, who was appointed preacher of the papal household in November 2024, succeeding Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa after 44 years, has a doctorate in sacred Scripture.
He said he considers himself very fortunate to have spent so many years in deep scriptural study, including several years in Rome and in Jerusalem.
According to the Franciscan Capuchin friar, “the Church has been experiencing since fairly recently — certainly since the Second Vatican Council onward — a theological renewal due to the rediscovery of the word of God contained in the Scriptures as the place to draw on in order to build an adequate theology.”
“The advantage that a person who knows the Scriptures has is to be able to place himself at a level where the understanding of God’s revelation is still very narrative, and therefore also very open and inclusive,” he said.
As a priest who also leads retreats and speaks publicly, Pasolini’s advice for preaching well is “first of all, to learn, especially in the years of theological, spiritual, or priestly formation, to do meditation on God’s word in a free way. That is, not to get used to doing things only when we have to do them for others.”
He explained how for years before his own preaching ministry began, he nurtured a habit of meditating on the word of God every day “for me, first of all, for my heart, for my life.”
“This habit of doing ‘lectio divina,’ as we would say today, accustomed me to stand before God every day as one who listens to him, receives a [message], and tries to respond to this [message],” he explained. “So, when I became a priest and started giving homilies and catechesis, I would just tell others what God and I had already said to each other during prayer.”
Pasolini added that he would organize what came to him in that dialogue with God, as the technical aspects of communication also should not be ignored, and he would not share everything that was said in prayer: “But I mean that the best preparation to give a homily, to give a catechesis, is to let God’s word touch your heart personally. Then, if we have allowed ourselves to be touched, we will surely be able to touch the hearts of others.”
Never forget Auschwitz horrors, Pope Francis says ahead of 80th anniversary
CNA Newsroom, Jan 26, 2025 / 07:30 am (CNA).
Ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Pope Francis emphasized that the horrors of Auschwitz “must never be forgotten or denied” while also making passionate pleas for peace in current global conflicts.
Speaking after the Angelus prayer on Sunday, the pontiff noted that this year marks 80 years since the liberation of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp.
“The horror of the extermination of millions of Jewish people and others of different faiths during those years must never be forgotten or denied,” he said on Jan. 26.
The pope noted that many Christians were also killed in Nazi death camps, “among whom there were numerous martyrs.” He renewed his “appeal for everyone to work together to eradicate the scourge of antisemitism, along with every form of discrimination and religious persecution.”
“Together, let us build a more fraternal, just world, educating young people to have hearts open to all, in the spirit of fraternity, forgiveness, and peace,” the pontiff urged.
Addressing ongoing conflicts, Francis spoke at length about the crisis in Sudan, which began in April 2023, describing it as “the most severe humanitarian crisis in the world” with “dramatic consequences even in South Sudan.”
“I stand close to the people of both countries and invite them to fraternity, solidarity, to avoid all forms of violence, and not to allow themselves to be manipulated,” the pope declared. He called on warring parties to “stop hostilities and accept to sit at the negotiating table,” urging the international community to support peace talks and facilitate humanitarian aid.
The Holy Father also expressed profound concern about the situation in Colombia’s Catatumbo region, where armed conflicts have forced over 30,000 people from their homes. “I express my closeness to them, and I pray,” he said, emphasizing the urgent need for a peaceful resolution.
In his meditation before the Angelus, Francis offered a profound reflection on the Gospel passage from Luke describing Jesus’ visit to the synagogue in Nazareth. The pope suggested that Catholics might sometimes be “too close” to Jesus to recognize his true identity as Savior, drawing a parallel that resonates particularly in traditionally Catholic cultures.
“We have grown up with him, in school, in the parish, in catechism, in a country with Catholic culture... And so for us too, he is a Person who is close — ‘too’ close,” the pope explained, drawing parallels between the reaction of Jesus’ contemporaries and modern believers.
“This event also happens for us today,” the pontiff observed. “We too are challenged by the presence and words of Jesus; we too are called to recognize in him the Son of God, our Savior.”
The pontiff posed a direct challenge to the faithful: “Do we sense the unique authority with which Jesus of Nazareth speaks? Do we recognize that he is the bearer of a proclamation of salvation that no one else can give us?”
Connecting his reflection to the current jubilee year, Francis explained that only when believers acknowledge their need for salvation can this truly become a “year of grace.” This recognition, he suggested, is essential for experiencing the full meaning of the jubilee celebration.
The pope also marked World Leprosy Day, encouraging everyone to integrate sufferers of Hansen’s disease into society. His appeal highlighted the ongoing need for social inclusion and support for those affected by the disease.
Before concluding, Francis greeted media professionals who had come to Rome to participate in the Jubilee of the World of Communications, encouraging them to “always be narrators of hope.”
The pope concluded by encouraging Catholics to turn to Mary, “Mother of God and our mother,” asking for her help in recognizing Jesus and avoiding being scandalized by his humanity and love for the poor.
The pope offered his final customary blessing after leading the faithful in the Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square.
Pope marks Word of God Sunday amid 2025 jubilee events: ‘God’s Word walks with us’
CNA Newsroom, Jan 26, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis marked the Sunday of the Word of God by installing 40 Catholics from multiple continents as lectors during a special Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica, including faithful from Iceland to the Philippines.
The Jan. 26 celebration concluded the three-day Jubilee of the World of Communications, part of the Jubilee of Hope in 2025. The Mass highlighted this year’s theme, “I Hope in Your Word,” drawn from Psalm 119.
“The word of God is alive: Through the centuries it walks with us and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, it is at work in history,” Pope Francis said during his homily. “The Lord is always faithful to his promise, which he maintains out of love for humanity.”
Newly installed lectors from 11 countries hold liturgical books during the Jan. 26, 2025, Word of God Sunday Mass at St. Peter's Basilica. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNAThe newly installed lectors included representatives from Albania (4), Argentina (3), Austria (5), Bolivia (1), Brazil (4), Philippines (5), Iceland (1), Italy (6), Mexico (5), Poland (1), and Slovenia (5).
During his homily, Francis emphasized five key aspects of Christ’s mission that characterize the Gospel message. “The Gospel is a word of joy, summoning us to mutual acceptance and fellowship, as we make our pilgrim journey toward the kingdom of God,” the pontiff declared.
The pope noted that while Christ’s salvation is not yet fully realized, as evidenced by ongoing global conflicts, “wars, injustice, pain, and death will not have the final word over the peoples of the earth and our history: for the Gospel is a living and certain word that never disappoints.”
Clergy from around the world attend the Jan. 26, 2025, Word of God Sunday Mass at St. Peter's Basilica. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNAEstablished by Pope Francis through his 2019 apostolic letter Aperuit Illis, the Sunday of the Word of God is celebrated annually on the third Sunday in Ordinary Time. This observance aims to strengthen Catholics’ connection with sacred Scripture and emphasize the living nature of God’s word in the Church’s life.
Speaking directly to the new lectors, Francis emphasized their role in the Church’s mission: “The Lord has not spoken to us as silent listeners, but as his witnesses, called to evangelize at all times and in every place.”
The celebration was particularly significant as it marked the convergence of the Word of God Sunday with the Jubilee for the World of Communications, emphasizing the Church’s commitment to both preserving and proclaiming the Gospel message in contemporary society.
“Let us respond with ardor to the joyful announcement of Christ!” Francis said, encouraging the faithful to bring “good news to the poor, proclaiming release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, letting the oppressed go free and announcing the year of the Lord’s favor.”
View of St. Peter's Basilica during the Jan. 26, 2025 Word of God Sunday Mass, which concluded the Vatican's Jubilee of Communications. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNAThe pope closed by reminding the congregation that when Scripture is read, studied, and prayed with, “we do not simply receive information about God; rather, we welcome the Spirit who reminds us of all that Jesus said and did.”
Vatican’s blessing guidelines: global responses to Fiducia Supplicans a year later
Rome Newsroom, Jan 26, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
The final day of the Jubilee of the World of Communications, which ran from Jan. 24–26, coincides with the one-year anniversary of Pope Francis’ meeting with participants of the plenary session of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) following the release of Fiducia Supplicans — the Vatican’s declaration on the pastoral meaning of blessings.
Though the initial tidal wave of controversy surrounding Fiducia Supplicans has largely died down, for many, the Vatican’s document on “pastoral and spontaneous blessings” caused more confusion than clarity on the Church’s long-standing teachings on human sexuality, morality, and the sacrament of marriage.
The close of the special jubilee for communicators provides an opportunity to reflect on the impact of Fiducia Supplicans and Vatican communications — particularly sensitive communications delivered by the office responsible for defending and promoting Catholic doctrine — to people living in various historical, socio-cultural, and political contexts around the world.
North AmericaThe National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister new partner, reported Fiducia Supplicans did not cause too many complications for the Catholic priests in the United States. Following the Register’s survey of all 177 Latin-rite dioceses in the U.S., “virtually none reported receiving either complaints or comments from priests or other people regarding practices stemming from the document,” the Register reported.
A spokesman for Father Peter Karalus, vicar general of the Diocese of Buffalo, New York, told the Register that after initial discussions on the Vatican document with the diocese’s presbyteral council and other consultative bodies, there had “not been any follow-up discussions or requests for discussion.”
The 21 dioceses that responded to the Register’s inquiry also reported that blessings offered by priests are not tracked.
In Mexico, the Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM) asked priests and parishioners to avoid distorting the pastoral meaning of blessings called for by Pope Francis. The bishops’ conference stated that “an attitude of welcome, closeness, and discernment” with “delicacy, firmness, and clarity” are needed to accompany people “on their path to fulfill the will of God in their lives.”
EuropeIn Germany, many dioceses had instituted formal blessings for same-sex couples prior to the release of Fiducia Supplicans. A CNA Deutsch analysis found that 21 of Germany’s 27 dioceses provide some form of “queer pastoral care,” with several offering structured blessing ceremonies that exceed the parameters outlined in the DDF declaration.
To further clarify the purpose and meaning of Fiducia Supplicans, the Vatican’s press office issued a Jan. 11, 2024, press release explicitly stating only “pastoral and spontaneous blessings” are permitted, while any rituals that could suggest equivalence to marriage were prohibited.
In stark contrast, the Dutch bishops’ conference explicitly rejected nonliturgical blessings for same-sex couples as proposed in Fiducia Supplicans, CNA Deutsch reported. Dutch Bishop Rob Mutsaerts criticized the declaration as appearing to seek “peace with secular society” at the cost of clarity on Church teaching.
In Spain, Archbishop José Sanz Montes of Oviedo shared similar sentiments, saying the DDF declaration showed “gender ideology has penetrated the Church,” reported ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. Sanz Montes added: “Today, if you don’t use the jargon of gender ideology … if you don’t wear a pin and the 2030 agenda in your guts, it seems like you’re in another world and you’re being pushed aside.”
The fact that the DDF already released a 2021 explanatory note on blessing unions of persons of the same sex — clearly stating that the “Church does not have, and cannot have, the power to bless unions of persons of the same sex” — Sanz Montes as well as Spanish Bishop José Ignacio Munilla said they did not think the release of Fiducia Supplicans was necessary.
AfricaThe strongest collective resistance to Fiducia Supplicans came from the Catholic Church’s African bishops.
The Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) was clear and vocal about its outright rejection of spontaneous nonliturgical blessings, which it said “caused a shockwave” and “sow[ed] misconceptions and unrest in the minds” of many Catholic faithful.
“We, the African bishops, do not consider it appropriate for Africa to bless homosexual unions or same-sex couples because, in our context, this would cause confusion and would be in direct contradiction to the cultural ethos of African communities,” read the Jan. 11, 2024, SECAM statement signed by Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo.
Middle EastThe controversy sparked by Fiducia Supplicans extended into north Africa and the Church in the Middle East.
Just months after the document’s release, Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church halted dialogue with the Vatican following consultation with other Eastern Orthodox churches in the region — a setback to ecumenical dialogue after Pope Francis instituted an annual “Day of Friendship Between Copts and Catholics” in 2013 and included the Coptic Orthodox martyrs to the Catholic Church’s list of saints in 2023.
Following the Coptic Orthodox Church’s 2024 synod, spokesman Father Moussa Ibrahim confirmed the decision to halt theological dialogue with the Catholic Church after its perceived “change of position on the issue of homosexuality.”
Latin AmericaA 2024 article published by ADN Celam, a news service of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council (CELAM), described Fiducia Supplicans as “an instrument of merciful love and great pastoral richness” that does not change Church teaching on human sexuality and morality.
Defending the document signed by Argentine DDF prefect Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández as “clear and firm,” ADN Celam added that the Dec. 18, 2023, release of Fiducia Supplicans on the feast of Our Lady of Hope, one week before Christmas Day, was not a “random” decision.
“We trust that this pastoral approach to couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples, through blessing outside the liturgical or semi-liturgical context, will invoke the help of God for those who humbly turn to him,” the ADN Celam report said.
AsiaIn the Catholic Church’s stronghold in the region, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, endorsed Fiducia Supplicans, stating: “The document speaks for itself and therefore does not require much explanation,” CBCP News reported.
The Dec. 20, 2023, CBCP advisory highlighted five key paragraphs — namely paragraphs 13, 25, 31, 38, and 39 — for Filipino priests to consider for prudent discernment and fatherly care for the country’s Catholic faithful.
Both Singapore’s Cardinal William Goh and India’s Cardinal Oswald Gracias believe the Vatican document left little room for misunderstanding the Church’s teachings on human sexuality.
“We show mercy but we do not approve of same-sex unions because without truth, love is compromised,” Goh shared through his communications office.
“Fiducia Supplicans has become the subject of controversy because it is misunderstood ... There is no change in Church doctrine on marriage between a man and a woman,” Gracias told Asia News. “The tradition of the Church, the magisterium is very clear and there is no contradiction.”
Pope sees ‘providential’ moment as Catholics, Orthodox hope to celebrate Easter 2025 together
CNA Newsroom, Jan 25, 2025 / 17:31 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis posed Jesus’ profound question “Do you believe this?” to Christians worldwide during an ecumenical vespers service Saturday evening as momentum builds for Catholics and Orthodox to consider celebrating Easter on the same date in this historic anniversary year.
Speaking at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls at the conclusion of the 58th Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the pontiff reflected on Christ’s encounter with Martha following the death of Lazarus, emphasizing that hope “rises from the ashes of death.”
“This tender encounter between Jesus and Martha teaches us that even in times of deep desolation, we are not alone and we can continue to hope,” the pope said during his homily, which centered on the week’s theme “Do You Believe This?” from John 11:26.
A statue of St. Paul at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome looks over the celebration concluding the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Jan. 25, 2025. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNAThe celebration on Jan. 25 marked the solemn conclusion of this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which the pope linked to the ongoing jubilee year.
“This message of hope is at the heart of the jubilee we have begun,” Francis said, citing the Apostle Paul’s words to the Romans that “hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Rom 5:5).
Earlier on Saturday, the pope urged journalists at the Jubilee of the World of Communications to tell “stories of hope,” echoing the strong appeal to hope in the papal message for the 59th World Day of Social Communications.
At the vespers service, the pope noted that this whole jubilee year’s focus is on hope and “providentially” coincides with the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea.
He emphasized that the council’s profession of faith “transcends all the divisions that have riven the body of Christ over the centuries.”
Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, addresses Pope Francis during vespers at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls for the conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Jan. 25, 2025. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNACardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, addressed the Holy Father before the apostolic blessing. He recalled the pope’s historic 2014 visit to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), where Francis had affirmed that “the Catholic Church does not intend to impose any requirements except the profession of common faith” for achieving full unity.
This hope for unity has gained momentum in recent months. Last November, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople confirmed ongoing conversations between Church representatives about establishing a common Easter date, potentially beginning in 2025.
Catholics and representatives of various Christian churches attend the ecumenical vespers service at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, Jan. 25, 2025. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA“In this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, we can live the anniversary of the Council of Nicaea as a call to persevere on the path toward unity,” the pope said on Saturday, renewing his appeal that Christians might take “a decisive step forward toward unity around a common date for Easter.”
Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, addresses Pope Francis during vespers at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls for the conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Jan. 25, 2025. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNAHighlighting the “providential” timing, Francis noted that Easter will fall on the same date in both the Gregorian and Julian calendars this year. “Let us rediscover the common roots of the faith,” the pontiff urged. “Let us preserve unity!”
Representatives from various Christian churches and ecclesial communities present in Rome participated in the evening celebration, including Metropolitan Polycarp representing the Ecumenical Patriarchate and Archbishop Ian Ernest of the Anglican Communion, who is concluding his service.
At Vatican jubilee, Pope Francis skips prepared text for heart-to-heart with journalists
CNA Newsroom, Jan 25, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).
“Communication means stepping outside ourselves a bit to give something of myself to another,” Pope Francis told hundreds of communications professionals Saturday, speaking spontaneously after setting aside his prepared remarks at the Vatican’s Jubilee of the World of Communications.
“In my hands, I have a nine-page speech,” the pope said with a smile to participants gathered in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall. He announced to an applauding audience that he would have this document distributed but only speak briefly, given the hour and the fact that everyone was hungry.
“To know how to communicate is a great wisdom, and I am happy that this jubilee of communicators is taking place. Your work is one that builds. It builds society and it builds the Church,” the pope said, provided journalists are truthful and “real” in their interior life.
The Jan. 25 encounter with communicators was one of several Saturday jubilee audiences of 2025, following a first meeting with pilgrims.
The event began with a dialogue featuring Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa and author Colum McCann, moderated by veteran Italian journalist Mario Calabresi.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa speaks with Pope Francis during the Jubilee of the World of Communications at the Vatican's Paul VI Hall, Jan. 25, 2025. Credit: Vatican MediaThe pope’s prepared message, later shared with participants, addressed several pressing concerns facing modern communications.
The text called attention to journalists who died covering conflicts in the past year, noting that more than 120 media professionals lost their lives in 2024.
The written remarks also warned against what the pope termed “brain rot” caused by constant social media scrolling, calling for greater media literacy and critical thinking, especially among young people.
“We need courageous entrepreneurs, courageous information engineers, so that the beauty of communication is not corrupted,” the prepared text stated.
A Swiss Guard stands watch as Pope Francis addresses hundreds of communications professionals gathered in the Paul VI Audience Hall for the Jubilee of the World of Communications, Jan. 25, 2025. Credit: Vatican MediaThe message for participants in this Saturday jubilee gathering concluded with an appeal for what the pope called “hopetelling” — urging communicators to tell “stories of hope” that nurture life.
The words echoed the strong appeal to hope in the papal message for the 59th World Day of Social Communications and the appeal to “tell stories steeped in hope, be concerned about our common destiny, and strive to write together the history of our future.”
In the text shared on Saturday, the reality of war and suffering was not omitted. The Jubilee of the World of Communications is taking place amid what the pope’s written message described as “a difficult moment in the history of humanity, with the world still wounded by wars and violence, by the shedding of so much innocent blood.”
“When you report on evil, leave space for the possibility of mending what has been torn,” the pope’s message advised.
Russia acknowledges Vatican role in prisoner exchange with Ukraine
Rome Newsroom, Jan 24, 2025 / 13:35 pm (CNA).
A spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry has acknowledged the Vatican’s role in mediating the return of more than a dozen Russian soldiers in two recent prisoner exchanges with Ukraine.
In a Jan. 23 press conference, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s press director, Maria Zakharova, praised Pope Francis’ position on the Russia-Ukraine War and the concrete humanitarian results of cooperation between Russia and the Holy See.
“With the active personal participation of the pope’s special envoy for a peaceful settlement in Ukraine, Cardinal M[atteo] Zuppi, 16 wounded servicemen of our country’s armed forces returned to Russia as part of two recently completed Russian-Ukrainian prisoner of war exchanges,” Zakharova said.
Russia and Ukraine exchanged nearly 400 prisoners of war in deals brokered by the United Arab Emirates in late December and mid-January.
“We expect to continue constructive cooperation with the Vatican on humanitarian issues,” the foreign ministry spokesperson said.
While criticizing “the West” for having “provoked” the conflict with Ukraine, Zakharova added that “the balanced, verified position of the Vatican and Pope Francis personally, who is striving to make his contribution to the settlement of this acute crisis, stands out favorably.”
Zuppi visited Moscow in October 2024 to meet with Russian authorities as part of the peace mission entrusted to him by Pope Francis beginning in May 2023.
It was Zuppi’s second trip to Moscow since the war in Ukraine began. Zuppi also visited the Russian capital for 48 hours in June 2023 in which he discussed humanitarian initiatives with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill as well as government officials, including Yuri Ushakov, a foreign policy adviser to President Vladimir Putin.
While serving as Pope Francis’ peace envoy, Zuppi has made several other diplomatic visits across the world to promote peace between Russia and Ukraine, including stops in Kyiv, Beijing, and Washington, D.C.
Pope Francis tells journalists to build communion, ‘give reasons for hope’
Vatican City, Jan 24, 2025 / 09:15 am (CNA).
In his message for the 59th World Day of Social Communications on Friday, Pope Francis encouraged journalists to build communion in the world through sharing stories of goodness and hope.
“I dream of a communication that does not peddle illusions or fears but is able to give reasons for hope,” the pope said. “I encourage you to discover and make known the many stories of goodness hidden in the folds of the news, imitating those gold-prospectors who tirelessly sift the sand in search of a tiny nugget. It is good to seek out such seeds of hope and make them known.”
The Church celebrates the World Day of Social Communications every year on Jan. 24, the feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalists and writers.
In 2025, the World Day of Social Communications is also taking place during three days of events in Rome for a Jubilee of the World of Communications, part of the yearlong Church-wide Jubilee of Hope.
In his message, Pope Francis urged those who work in media and communications to “tell stories steeped in hope,” especially during these “troubled times,” and pointed to the special graces available during the 2025 Jubilee of Hope as a support to this work.
The pontiff said a good communicator “ensures that those who listen, read, or watch can be involved, can draw close, can get in touch with the best part of themselves and enter with these attitudes into the stories told.”
By sharing stories of goodness and hope, media professionals help the world to be a little less closed off and a little less indifferent to others, he noted.
“May you always find those glimmers of goodness that inspire us to hope. This kind of communication can help to build communion, to make us feel less alone, to rediscover the importance of walking together,” he said.
Francis also had advice for journalists’ prayer lives.
“In the face of the astonishing achievements of technology, I encourage you to care for your heart, your interior life,” he said.
Some practical ways to do that, he advised, are to “be meek and never forget the faces of other people; speak to the hearts of the women and men whom you serve in carrying out your work.”
“To do this, though, we must be healed of our ‘diseases’ of self-promotion and self-absorption, and avoid the risk of shouting over others in order to make our voices heard,” he warned.
Pope Francis taps travel agent Cardinal Koovakad to lead Interreligious Dialogue dicastery
Vatican City, Jan 24, 2025 / 07:10 am (CNA).
Pope Francis has appointed his personal travel agent and new cardinal, George Jacob Koovakad, to lead the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, following the death last year of Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot.
Ayuso, a Spanish-born prelate and respected expert in Islam, died on Nov. 25, 2024, after a long illness. He was 72.
The 51-year-old Koovakad, originally from the southern Indian state of Kerala, was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope Francis in December.
Since late 2021, the Vatican diplomat has been the coordinator for papal travels, working in the section for general affairs of the Secretariat of State to arrange Francis’ trips. He also has a doctorate in canon law.
Koovakad, who was in the diplomatic service of the Holy See for 14 years, is part of the Syro-Malabar Church, one of the Catholic faith’s Eastern-rite Churches. He was the first Syro-Malabar priest to be elevated to cardinal directly from the priesthood, according to a spokesperson for the Church.
The Vatican’s Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue was created during the Second Vatican Council as the Church took a new, formal approach to dialogue with other religions, as expressed in the declaration Nostra Aetate.
Interreligious dialogue has been a priority of Pope Francis’ pontificate, as demonstrated by his trips to non-Christian majority countries and the “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together,” signed in Abu Dhabi in 2019.
Koovakad helped organize several of Pope Francis’ religious dialogue-focused trips, including to Kazakhstan and Bahrain in 2022, to Mongolia in 2023, and to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Singapore in September 2024.
Vatican issues guide on richness of Eastern Catholic Churches
Vatican City, Jan 24, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).
The Dicastery for the Eastern Churches has prepared a pastoral guide for the 2025 Jubilee of the Eastern Churches, to be celebrated May 12–14, in order to make known the richness of the Christian traditions of the Eastern world.
According to Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, this is a tool designed to “integrate a new dimension to the Roman experience of pilgrimage” that will adapt the identity of the Eastern Churches “according to the spirituality of each one.”
In an interview with Vatican News, the cardinal specified that this document is addressed to the Eastern Churches, “indicating to them that there are specific riches in their traditions that the jubilee can bring out clearly … above all, in this moment of grave difficulties for all the Eastern Churches — Middle East, Ukraine, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea.”
The guide — which can be found on the website of the dicastery — also includes part of the history of Rome during the reign of the Eastern Roman Empire, which culminated with the fall of Constantinople and the conquest of the rest of the Byzantine territories by the Ottoman Turks in the 15th century.
From this part of the document it is clear that the Church of Rome “has been strongly inhabited by Eastern communities that have long retained their own specificity.” In particular, Gugerotti provided interesting data such as the fact that there were “11 Greek popes and almost a dozen Syriacs,” which proves that “it was not a marginal presence.”
“Rome, ‘caput mundi’ (the capital of the world), was also a city in which the Easterners identified themselves as integrated into their structure and not simply as small migrant communities,” he explained.
The pastoral guide also contains specific guidelines for the Eastern Churches to live this time of grace “with awareness and courage and thus be credible witnesses of hope,” Gugerotti said.
He emphasized that the document is also useful for Westerners to “understand that there are very ancient forms of expression of Christianity, from the time of Christ himself … that constitute the unity in diversity of Christian identity.”
In this way, he emphasized that Christianity is not a “monolithic” reality.
“We also saw this in the recent synod [of bishops], a plural reality in which we may not even understand each other, not out of ill will but because of different roots. Being together, exchanging each other’s peculiarities, was one of the great discoveries of the synod,” he said.
In his opinion, the artistic and cultural heritage of the Eastern Churches is not sufficiently known.
“Decades ago, a document from the then-Congregation for Catholic Education prescribed that all Latin seminaries should teach about the Eastern Churches. But it is probably one of the most ignored documents of the many that the Holy See has produced,” he noted.
To make up for this lack of knowledge, the new pastoral guide proposes pilgrimage itineraries to better understand the traces of the Eastern presence in Rome.
He thus proposed a list of the most significant Eastern holy places, such as the Church of St. Mary in Cosmedin, which is run by the Greek-Melkite Church and where the liturgy is in Greek and some small parts in Arabic.
Gugerotti pointed out that although they are little known, there are “numerous colleges attended by Eastern seminarians — for Romanians, Ukrainians, Byzantines in general, Greeks, Armenians, Syro-Malabars and Syro-Malankars, [and] Maronites.”
On the other hand, he explained that a special college was created a few years ago for the Eastern nuns who study in Rome. “Afterward, various places of worship were entrusted to or built for Eastern Catholics and also for Eastern Orthodox,” he said.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Pope Francis sends delegation to Syria to support reconstruction
Vatican City, Jan 23, 2025 / 15:45 pm (CNA).
Sent by Pope Francis, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, on Thursday traveled to Syria, where he will remain until Jan. 29, “to bring the pope’s embrace and blessing to Catholics” and to promote the reconstruction of the country.
“It is the intention of the Holy Father that, in the current situation in Syria, they feel the affection and support of the entire Catholic Church and, in particular, of the bishop of Rome, who does not cease to pray for them,” the Vatican dicastery stated.
On Jan. 8, after a lightning offensive, Syrian rebel forces led by the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) and its allied factions announced the fall of the regime of President Bashar al Assad, who has sought asylum in Russia.
The Vatican dicastery said in this regard that the local Church now asks “to be able to continue contributing to a Syria that resists the risks of sectarianism and centrifugal forces and promotes unity in diversity.”
According to the statement, Pope Francis therefore urged the reconstruction of “a peaceful country,” whose prosperity is guaranteed “by all its components while respecting freedom, the dignity of the human person, and diversity.”
He also emphasized the need to draft a new constitution and hoped that the restrictions that “have driven Syrians into poverty and encouraged dramatic emigration” would be lifted. He also assured that the Catholic Church “will make every effort to help in every possible way the rebirth of noble Syria.”
Gugerotti was accompanied by the secretary of the dicastery, Archbishop Michel Jalakh of the Antonin Maronite Order, and by his personal secretary, Franciscan Father Emanuel Sabadakh, as well as the apostolic nuncio in Syria, Cardinal Mario Zenari.
During his visit to the country, he will visit bishops, priests, men and women religious, and Catholic faithful in each of the respective cathedrals. In Damascus and Aleppo, he will meet with leaders, priests, religious, and laypeople from the communities and with the charitable organizations of the local churches.
Also, according to the agenda provided by the Vatican dicastery, Gugerotti will participate in the plenary assembly of Catholic bishops to be held in the city of Homs.
He will also meet with various patriarchs of the Orthodox churches, such as the patriarch of the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch and All the East, Mor Ignatius Afram II, and the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Antioch and All the East, His Holiness John X, as well as other bishops of the Orthodox churches, including the bishops of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
The cardinal will bring the greetings of Pope Francis to all of them, “assuring them that in the current situation the unity of Christians is imperative and that the Catholic Church is ready for any collaboration,” the dicastery’s statement added.
On Jan. 25, the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul and the last day of the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity, Gugerotti will celebrate a Mass at the Memorial of St. Paul and will also venerate the relics of the Holy Martyrs of Damascus in the Latin church and in the Maronite Cathedral of Bab Touma. He is also expected to visit the headquarters of the apostolic nunciature in Beirut, Lebanon.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Pope Francis to World Economic Forum: AI must serve human dignity, not violate it
Vatican City, Jan 23, 2025 / 10:40 am (CNA).
Pope Francis on Thursday released his message to global leaders attending the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, this week, telling attendees that artificial intelligence (AI) must ultimately serve humanity and the common good.
As “a protagonist and a supporter of the advancement of science, technology, the arts, and other forms of human endeavors,” the Holy Father said, the Catholic Church teaches that such developments should be used to “improve life for everyone.”
“AI must be ordered to the human person and become part of efforts to achieve ‘greater justice, more extensive fraternity, and a more humane order of social relations,’ which are ‘more valuable than advances in the technical field,’” he said, citing Gaudium et Spes, No. 35, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2293.
In his Jan. 23 message, the pope said AI is “not an artificial form of human intelligence but a product of it” that, when used correctly, “assists the human person in fulfilling his or her vocation, in freedom and responsibility.”
“Progress marked by the dawn of AI calls for a rediscovery of the importance of community and a renewed commitment to care for the common home entrusted to us by God,” he added.
Francis also challenged government and business leaders to implement AI in ways “to bring people together” and not simply as a “tool” for economic cooperation.
“There is, however, the risk that AI will be used to advance the ‘technocratic paradigm,’ which perceives all the world’s problems as solvable through technological means alone,” the Holy Father said.
“Within this paradigm, human dignity and fraternity are frequently subordinated in the pursuit of efficiency as though reality, goodness, and truth inherently emanate from technological and economic power,” he continued.
Pointing out other risks posed by AI, the Holy Father said critical questions must be addressed, including “its effect on the growing crisis of truth in the public forum,” ethical responsibility, and human safety.
Emphasizing that “human dignity must never be violated,” the pope said technological developments that “create or worsen inequalities and conflicts” are not true progress: “For this reason, AI should be placed at the service of a healthier, more human, more social, and more integral development.”
The Holy Father also highlighted Catholic social teaching in his message, saying the principle of “subsidiarity” is necessary to achieve the common good in the “Intelligent Age.”
“Appropriate responses should be made at all levels of society,” he said, “with individual users, families, civil society, corporations, institutions, governments, and international organizations working at their proper levels to ensure that AI is directed to the good of all.”
“Today, there are significant challenges and opportunities when AI is placed within a framework of relational intelligence, where everyone shares responsibility for the integral well-being of others,” he concluded.
Pope Francis at general audience: Jesus gives us the ‘grace of not fearing’
Vatican City, Jan 22, 2025 / 09:50 am (CNA).
Pope Francis on Wednesday continued his yearlong jubilee catechesis series on “Jesus Christ Our Hope,” emphasizing that those who trust in God have no reason to fear.
“The presence of the Lord always gives us this grace of not fearing,” the Holy Father said at his Jan. 22 general audience. “He says to Mary: ‘Do not be afraid! … And he says to us too: ‘Do not be afraid, keep going; do not be afraid!’”
Pope Francis greets pilgrims during his Wednesday general audience on Jan. 22, 2025, in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNAReflecting on St. Luke’s Gospel account of the annunciation and incarnation of Jesus Christ, the pope encouraged Catholics to constantly live in “the presence of the Lord” by welcoming the “Word of God” — just like the Blessed Virgin Mary — into their lives.
“Mary welcomes the Word in her own flesh and thus launches the greatest mission ever entrusted to a woman, to a human creature,” he told his listeners. “She places herself in service: She is full of everything, not like a slave but as a collaborator of God the Father.”
“Let ourselves open our ears to the divine Word and to welcome it and cherish it, so that it may transform our hearts into tabernacles of his presence, in hospitable homes where hope grows,” he added.
Pope Francis greets a group of young people during his Wednesday general audience on Jan. 22, 2025, in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. Credit: Vatican MediaAfter greeting the groups of international pilgrims in the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall, the pope asked people to pray for the people of Los Angeles, who are still suffering from the ongoing wildfires.
The Holy Father also asked people to pray for peace in Ukraine, Myanmar, Israel, and Palestine.
At the end of the general audience, the Pope also shared news he heard from Gaza: “Yesterday I called — I do it every day — the parish in Gaza: They were happy! There are 600 people there, between the parish and school.”
“And they told me, ‘Today we had lentils with chicken.’ Something they were not used to doing in these times: just some vegetables, something … They were happy!”
Christian survivor of terrorism: ‘Pray for Boko Haram’
Vatican City, Jan 22, 2025 / 09:20 am (CNA).
A Nigerian woman whose husband was killed by Boko Haram in 2014 has asked for prayers for persecuted Christians and for the terrorist group, “that they will be saved, that Jesus will reveal himself to their heart, so that they will repent.”
“I prayed for those that have killed my husband and said, ‘I have forgiven you from my heart. There is no problem.’ They don’t know what they are doing. They are unbelievers,” Afordia, who asked to be identified by her first name only, told CNA during an interview in Rome last week.
Afordia traveled from her hometown of Mubi in northeast Nigeria — where extremism is concentrated — to share her testimony at a Jan. 15 presentation on worldwide Christian persecution from advocacy group Open Doors.
The World Watch List 2025 identified Nigeria, which has been grappling with Muslim extremist violence since 2009, as one of the world’s worst countries for Christian persecution. The report found that 3,100 Christians were killed in Nigeria in 2024.
Afordia, whose husband was shot in front of her after declaring himself to be a Christian, said despite what it has cost her, she will never give up her faith in Jesus Christ.
“What God is doing is the truth. Christianity is the truth. Christ is the only one that saves,” she told CNA. “Even if today, they will kill me, they will pierce my body, one, one, one, one, like that, I will not stop following Christ because he is the Savior of this body and the Savior of this life.”
Afordia’s storyBoko Haram, a Muslim extremist sect classified as a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department, attacked Mubi, Nigeria, on Oct. 29, 2014.
Afordia described the confusion that broke out in Mubi that day, as the mid-morning’s business was broken by the noise of guns and bombs, and the city’s residents rushed home from work and school.
Afordia, who helped support her family as a community health worker and poultry farmer, and her husband, a pastor at Triumph of Faith Pentecostal Church, got in their car to search for their five children, who had gone missing in the chaos of the attack.
That was when the couple unwittingly drove into an ambush.
“They stopped me and my husband asked both of us to come out of the car, which we did, and the Boko Haram started asking him questions: ‘Are you a Muslim or an infidel?’ He said, ‘I am not a Muslim. I am not an infidel. I am a Christian.’ And that was how he was asked to turn to the right-hand side of the road, which he did,” Afordia recalled.
“Immediately he went and knelt down and was praying,” she said. The extremists shot her husband five times in the head as she watched.
After killing her husband, the men turned to Afordia and asked her the same questions. “I closed my eyes. I was so afraid, scared to see how they would kill me,” she said. “I raised my two hands to the sky. I was praying in my heart, ‘Lord, receive my soul today because I will go and see you.’ So in that position I heard a shout from the other side, from the Boko Haram themselves: ‘Stop it! Who asked you to kill this woman? Leave her alone.’”
Amazingly, the attackers let Afordia leave with her car and drive away. She soon found her youngest child, a teenager at the time, and the two of them abandoned the car and escaped into the mountains.
With help, they were eventually evacuated to the state capital, where Afordia was eventually reunited with her other four young adult children. She returned to Mubi about a month later, after the town had been liberated by the government. She explained that many of Mubi’s residents, however, never went back after the attack.
She recovered her husband’s body, which had dried in the sun, and gave it a proper burial, but she was suffering from trauma. “I was so scattered,” she described. “Sleepless nights. I was not myself. I was just walking like a mad woman. To me, life doesn’t mean anything again.”
The Open Doors group helped Afordia receive mental health treatment in Brazil. They also provided financial assistance, since she had lost her livelihood following the attack.
“So that was how I was able to gather myself again,” she said. “And at that time thoughts were coming to my heart to remember what Jesus taught about forgiveness. And I was able to remember, and I prayed for those that have killed my husband.”
Today, Afordia is a retired grandmother to five who continues to grow her own produce and to assist at her Presbyterian church, where she teaches the faith.
Asking for prayers, she said it would be better to be killed than to be subjugated to the brutal torture some Christians in Nigeria and other sub-Saharan countries have experienced.
“So, so many cruel things are happening. I want the Christians where there is less persecution to pray for Christians [in Africa] that God would deliver them, that God will see them and rescue them.”
“What gives me courage?” she said. “In the first place, Christ is the one that gives life. There is no salvation in any other except in Christ."
“When God was creating his world, darkness covered it. And when darkness covered it in Genesis Chapter 1, God did not mind about that darkness. He continued to say let there be light, let there be this, let there be this. So this gives me courage to continue as a Christian, even though the devil is seriously attacking what God has initiated. It will not stop me from following Christ because I know that is the truth,” she affirmed.
“Any other religion ... that comes is just to oppose what God has planned for man,” Afordia added. “He planned his things in a way that man should be saved.”
Cardinal Schönborn retires as Vienna archbishop on 80th birthday
Rome Newsroom, Jan 22, 2025 / 07:04 am (CNA).
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, OP, concluded his term as archbishop of Vienna, Austria, on Wednesday, his 80th birthday, when Pope Francis accepted his resignation.
Schönborn, a theologian who led Austria’s most populous archdiocese for three decades, helped write the Catechism of the Catholic Church and chaired the Austrian bishops’ conference for 22 years. He is currently chairman of Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinals.
The Vatican announced Jan. 22 that Pope Francis had accepted Schönborn’s resignation and appointed an apostolic administrator, Father Josef Grünwidl, to oversee the Vienna Archdiocese until the appointment of Schönborn’s successor.
“The fact that Rome has created an interim solution shows us that Pope Francis has apparently not yet made a decision on who should be the next archbishop of Vienna. Since the process is already well advanced, we hope for a decision in the coming weeks,” archdiocesan spokesman Michael Prüller said in a statement Wednesday.
Schönborn remains a member of the College of Cardinals, to which he was elevated in 1998, but at 80 years of age, he is no longer eligible to vote in a conclave.
In a video message to Vienna’s Catholics on Wednesday, Schönborn said: “Above all, I have to thank God and I have to thank you all. The decisive experience in my almost 30 years in office has been: Church only works together, society only works together.”
On Jan. 18, the cardinal celebrated a Mass of thanksgiving in St. Stephen’s Cathedral for his nearly 30 years at the helm of the Vienna Archdiocese.
In his homily, Schönborn reflected on his personal history of coming to Austria as a refugee at under 1 year of age and the welcome his family received.
“They come as strangers and make their home here, they become Austrians. They bring their languages, cultures, and religions with them. They enrich, not without tensions, our country and shape its future,” he said. “A sober look at the demographics of Austria and Europe must make it clear to us that the future will not be different. The success of this coexistence of residents and newcomers is crucial for our future.”
In his last public appearance as archbishop, the cardinal also lamented Austria’s shrinking Catholic population, saying he felt conflicted “between the joyful festival of thanksgiving that we are celebrating and the great farewell that so many people in our country are making, mostly in silence, from the Church.”
“Will the Europe of cathedrals become a large open-air museum for tourists from all over the world?” he added.
Pope Francis and Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the archbishop of Vienna, greet each other during an audience with the International Catholic Legislators Network in the Clementine Hall of the Vatican on Aug. 24, 2024. Credit: Vatican MediaThe Church leader was born to a titled family in 1945 in Bohemia in what was then Nazi Germany and is now part of the Czech Republic.
He grew up in western Austria, close to the border with Switzerland, and joined the Order of Preachers, also known as the Dominicans, in 1963.
He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Vienna in 1970. He went on to study sacred theology in Paris and in Regensburg, Germany, under the then-Father Joseph Ratzinger — the future Pope Benedict XVI.
Schönborn was awarded a doctorate in sacred theology in the 1970s and was later made a member of the prestigious International Theological Commission of the Vatican.
He was editorial secretary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and in 1991, Pope John Paul II named the theologian an auxiliary bishop of Vienna.
After being appointed coadjutor archbishop of Vienna in April 1995, he succeeded Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër, OSB, as archbishop of Vienna on Sept. 14, 1995.
Cardinal Sarah publishes new book ‘Does God Exist?’
ACI Prensa Staff, Jan 22, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).
“Does God Exist?: The Cry of Man Asking for Salvation” is the title of a new interview book by Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect emeritus of the Congregation — now Dicastery — for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
In the book published in Italian at the end of 2024, the African cardinal answers various questions posed by journalist David Cantagalli and explains that the text “arises from an attempt to answer the questions of the editor … who with authentic apostolic zeal” wanted to ask “difficult questions.”
“I have sought the answers in my personal history and in my heart, in the magisterium of the Church and in that of the popes who have marked my life, and, last but not least, in the fruitful dialogue with friends, priests, and laypeople, who live an authentic passion for Christ and for the Church, bearing witness in the world to him whom they have encountered,” Sarah writes.
In a recent interview with Il Timone of Italy and reported by Religion en Libertad, the cardinal explained why it is man and not God who has “died” in the West: “The West is experiencing a profound identity and anthropological crisis in which man, in his truth and beauty, seems no longer to be aware of his dignity and his vocation to happiness, to the fulfilment of his personal being.”
The cardinal also noted that “it is obvious that all this has remote roots, starting from the substitution of the Augustinian ‘amo ergo sum’ (‘I love, therefore I am’) with the Cartesian ‘cogito ergo sum’ (‘I think, therefore I am’), thus reducing relational ontology to subjective self-consciousness, depriving man of that healthy relationship with reality on which ontology, the knowledge of one’s being, is founded.”
The crisis of faithSarah warned that there is in fact a crisis of faith in today’s world and that it is now at “the deepest and most crucial” point.
As for those who give their lives to God, he emphasized that “I would not say that consecrated persons ‘don’t believe’; rather, I am convinced that, precisely because of the cultural conditions unfavorable to the radical nature of virginity for the kingdom of heaven, those who respond to the vocation today have a serious and radical initial intention.”
“The most discussed point is that of fidelity, over time, to the task that God has assigned. In an increasingly hostile cultural context, with the fragmentation of relationships, which does not allow us to perceive the support and warmth of a believing community, it is increasingly complex to live the radical nature of the Gospel. I believe that this is the crucial point for all laypeople and consecrated persons, for all the baptized.”
Regarding those who leave the Catholic Church, the African cardinal lamented that “those who leave are always making a mistake. They are making a mistake because they abandon [their] Mother; they are making a mistake because they commit a very dangerous act of pride, setting themselves up as judges of the Church.”
“Sometimes not everything is immediately understandable, and some things may seem completely inappropriate, not adequately considered, even pastorally unfounded or harmful; despite all this, this does not authorize them to leave.”
Who is Cardinal Robert Sarah?Sarah, 79, is one of the most distinguished cardinals in Africa and the universal Church. He is a staunch defender of the liturgy, the right to life, the family, and religious freedom. On June 15, when he turns 80, he will no longer be a cardinal-elector for a possible conclave to elect the pope’s successor.
He has criticized gender ideology, an approach that considers gender to be a sociocultural construct rather than identical to one’s sex.
In 2018, during the Synod of Bishops on Young People, he pointed out that “watering down” Catholic moral doctrine in the area of sexuality will not succeed in attracting young people.
He was prefect of the Congregation — now Dicastery — for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments during the pontificates of Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.
He is the author of books such as “God or Nothing: A Conversation on Faith,” “The Power of Silence,” “The Day is Now Far Spent,” and “From the Depths of Our Hearts,” the latter written with Pope Benedict XVI.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Italian nun Raffaella Petrini to head Vatican Governorate
Vatican City, Jan 21, 2025 / 16:30 pm (CNA).
In less than a month and a half, Pope Francis will install Franciscan nun Raffaella Petrini as head of the General Secretariat of the Government of the Vatican City State.
The change will take effect in March when Petrini, who currently serves as secretary in the same department, replaces Spanish Cardinal Fernando Vérgez, who will turn 80 in a month and a half.
The news was made public by the Holy Father during an interview on the Italian television program “Che Tempo Che Fa” (“What’s the Weather Like?”).
“We now have many women. For example, to select bishops on the commission there are three women selecting new bishops. The vice president of the Vatican Governorate, who will be governor in March, is a nun. In the Dicastery of the Economy, the vice president is a nun with two degrees … Women know how to manage things better than us,” he said.
Petrini was born in Rome on Jan. 15, 1969. She graduated with a degree in political science from the Guido Carli International University of Studies and obtained a doctorate from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, where she currently works as a professor. She joined the Vatican Curia as an official in the former Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
This appointment follows others the pontiff has made to increase the profile of women in leadership positions in the Catholic Church. Earlier this month, Pope Francis appointed the first woman to head a Vatican department, Sister Simona Brambilla, former superior general in Italy of the Consolata Missionaries.
Brambilla currently heads the dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life together with Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, who has been named pro-prefect.
In 2022, Pope Francis confirmed the nun Alessandra Smerilli as prefect and undersecretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, a position she shares with Cardinal Michael Czerny. Both had already been interim directors of this body since Jan. 1 following the departure of Cardinal Peter Turkson.
Since 2016 the Vatican Museums have also been headed by a woman, Barbara Jatta, and in 2015 the pope appointed Mariella Enoc head of the Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.