Francesco Bonello carves letters into a block of marble at the School of Arts and Crafts of the Fabbrica di San Pietro, Vatican, Friday. Feb. 14, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Vatican City, Feb 19, 2025 / 11:20 am (CNA).

Recent high school and college graduates are studying some of the world’s historic arts and trades at a new school run by St. Peter’s Basilica. 

The “School of Arts and Crafts” of the Fabbrica di San Pietro — the department that oversees maintenance, restoration, and repairs of the Vatican’s papal basilica — is offering for the third year a free, six-month training course with a concentration in one of five traditional crafts: stone and marble work, bricklaying and plastering, carpentry, blacksmithery, and mosaic design.

“It is important for the basilica to have this school, because it restores a tradition from the 1700s, putting it at the center of [the basilica’s] life today,” the school’s director, Father Francesco Occhetta, SJ, told CNA.

“Which is why,” the priest added, “this alliance of hands, head, and heart, today, has revived something that was dying in the culture over the last 30 years.” 

A student composes a mosaic cross at the School of Arts and Crafts of the Fabbrica di San Pietro, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

“The school is first and foremost an experience of relationships for the 20 young men and women living together and learning — in the basilica — about the maintenance of the basilica, through the skills of our craftsmen... We pass on these skills to them, so that the generations, holding hands, pass on that knowledge that can be passed on only from one generation to the next,” Occhetta said.

Working with the hands

For the students, the rare chance to receive a hands-on education in a trade or craft in Rome was a big appeal of the school.

“I’d always been interested in an artistic career, and I had already decided that I did not want to pursue a career that required me to be on the computer all day; I knew I wanted to work with my hands,” 22-year-old Cristina Squatriti told CNA. 

The Italian-American from Ann Arbor, Michigan, joined 19 other students, mostly Italians aged 18–25, to study at the Vatican from November 2024 through April 2025.

Occhetta explained that participants spend 600 hours learning from masters in the trades involved in the regular and extraordinary maintenance of St. Peter’s Basilica — 200 hours in a classroom and 400 hours in a lab.

While Squatriti studied Spanish literature at a university in Michigan, knowing she wanted to have a more physically-engaging career, she joined the stonemasons and marble workers track at the school, which, she said, seemed “too good to be true with both the academic and the practice part of it, and the time spent in laboratory.”

The students live inside the Vatican and attend classes on several core subjects together, including the history of St. Peter’s Basilica, fundamentals of the history of architecture and art techniques, and biblical and theological foundations. They then divide into specialized lessons and time in the laboratories based on the track they are following.

The young men and women also venture outside the city state to learn from some of Rome’s ancient sites and historic churches.

From Gozo, Malta, Francesco Bonello is also following the marble working study course. The 20-year-old already had a background in commercial marble cutting but told CNA he had less experience on the artistic side.

Crushed material for mosaics are seen at the School of Arts and Crafts of the Fabbrica di San Pietro, Vatican, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

“I worked with my father since I was 13 years old,” Bonello said. “He’s a marmista [marble cutter]. We work industrially in marble, but I always wanted to learn the fundamental techniques of a marmoraro [marble engraver] ... [who] works only with chisels and hammers to make beautiful works by hand, which for me is the passion of the work.”

While both Bonello and Squatriti said the experience has been fantastic, they noted it has not been easy to learn the intricate craft of stone incision.

“All of us pretty much had never touched a scalpel in our lives,” Squatriti said, “so we started off with learning how to incise letters, and then we did a whole week of straight lines, which was really tough mentally, but that was how we got our hand to feel comfortable with the tools best.”

Now the students have moved on to a technique called “intarcio,” which is the inlaying of marble inside another piece of marble.

Squatriti said one can see the “intarcio” method throughout the floors of St. Peter’s Basilica: “It’s very slow going, because it’s a tough material to work with, but I’ve learned so much in the past three months.”

Passing on knowledge from the experts

“The students meet the greatest experts of the basilica and learn concretely how to do the maintenance of the marble, of the wood, of the mosaic” inside St. Peter’s Basilica, Occhetta explained.

On the spiritual part of the course, he said, “St. Peter’s is a sacred space, and the goal is for our students to also encounter their own sacred space while doing maintenance. So there is, first of all, a spiritual dimension on which the school is based, there is a community dimension where our students, accompanied by an educator and her collaborators, grow together, and then there is a dimension properly related to learning.”

Both students said attending the school has felt like being part of a big family. 

“I’ve really formed connections that I’m going to carry with me for my career and just the rest of my life in general,” Squatriti said. 

Marmoraro tools are seen at the School of Arts and Crafts of the Fabbrica di San Pietro, Vatican, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Bonello said he hopes to have a career using his new engraving skills with a chisel, scalpel, and hammer, and continue working in industrial marble cutting.

“The top technology helps you invest more in the company, in your work, helps you do it beautifully,” he said, “but for me it’s important to know the fundamental techniques, because when you master the fundamental techniques, it will help you in the long run for your career.”

Squatriti too hopes to use what she learned in the course for an artistic career in sculpture.

Occhetta said working “with the hands is one of the keys to revitalizing the world of young people in the workplace today as well.” 

The Vatican basilica has already hired two of its former students as part of the “Sanpietrini,” the full-time St. Peter’s maintenance crew, and hopes to also do so in the future, whenever possible.

But the leadership of the school also hopes the education it is providing in traditional arts and craftmanship will be of benefit not only to St. Peter’s Basilica but also to historic churches around the world.

“These young people can have this opportunity and then go to other basilicas around the world to be able to pass on what is the knowledge of the Fabbrica di San Pietro,” which has a 500-year history, Occhetta said.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin speaks to EWTN News in Oslo, Norway, on Jan. 17, 2025. / Credit: Fabio Gonella/EWTN News

Vatican City, Feb 18, 2025 / 16:45 pm (CNA).

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, said that Europe must “rediscover itself” in order to be able to face the “major challenges” of culture, commerce, and migration.

In a Feb. 15 interview with the daily Eco di Bergamo, the Vatican official recalled the “warning of St. John Paul II,” which Pope Francis has also taken up: “Europe, rediscover yourself, be yourself.”

The cardinal stressed that the Old Continent is suffering from a “crisis of ideas” that prevents it from facing the future: “Europe currently has good antibodies to hold up under crises and challenges. But the most serious problem is the lack of ideas for the future that allow it to respond with determination to international competitors,” he said.

Parolin specified that this weakness is due to the relationship that Europe has with its own history, the result of “a deep, and partly justified, fear of its past.” However, he emphasized that along with the dark episodes of its history, “there are many bright moments.”

In this regard, he referred to the debates on the European Constitution, in which an explicit reference to the continent’s Judeo-Christian roots was avoided, advocating for a generic mention of its “cultural, humanist, and religious heritage.”

According to the cardinal, this weakened the continent’s awareness and the sense of European identity: “Instead of building Europe on its deep foundations and roots, a changing consensus of values ​​has been preferred. But the future can only be built on the past,” he pointed out.

Although Parolin said there were reasons to be concerned, especially in the face of “practical atheism, populism, and religious illiteracy,” he praised other “encouraging phenomena” such as the increase in requests for baptism by young French people. In light of this, he urged Catholics to ask themselves whether, with their witness, faith, hope, and charity, the Gospel continues to be “challenging.”

In his interview with the Italian newspaper, the Vatican secretary of state also reflected on the ceasefire in Gaza, hoping that it would be “permanent and put an end to the suffering of the Palestinian people,” both in the Gaza Strip and “in the rest of Palestine.”

“Now we have to give signs of hope to both: to the Israelis and the Palestinians,” he noted.

Regarding the situation in Syria, he emphasized that “it is necessary to understand where we are going” and to accompany “on the path of inclusion and harmonious coexistence.”

Regarding the war in Ukraine, three years old on Feb. 24, Parolin argued that “solutions should never be sought through unilateral impositions,” since it would mean “trampling on the rights of entire peoples” and thus “there will never be a just and lasting peace.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Pope Francis meets with other delegates of the Synod on Synodality at a roundtable discussion in Paul VI Hall at the Vatican on Oct. 17, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Feb 18, 2025 / 11:55 am (CNA).

Leaders of the 10 study groups formed out of the 2021–2024 Synod on Synodality met on Tuesday morning to discuss open questions, methodology, challenges, and the delivery of reports, according to a communication from the synod office.

Formed in 2024 at Pope Francis’ request, the study groups are intended to deepen the theological, pastoral, and canonical reflections on 10 themes from the first session of the Synod on Synodality held in October 2023.

The study groups, which are made up of priests, bishops, and experts from around the world, are examining the theological and canonical issues surrounding Church ministries, the reform of seminary education, relations between bishops and consecrated men and women, the figure and ministry of the bishop, ecumenical relations, and how to have a synodal approach to controversial doctrinal issues.

According to the General Secretariat of the Synod, on Feb. 18, the coordinators and secretaries of the study groups met to present the progress of each group, including a timeline for the delivery of their final reports, expected in summer 2025.

The morning included a time of prayer, including for Pope Francis’ quick recovery from the respiratory illness that has hospitalized him.

Group coordinators were informed that they can make use of a canonical commission to help with questions of Church law if needed, and Jesuit Father Giacomo Costa, a consultor in the synod office, gave directions on the drafting and delivery of reports so they will have a certain level of uniformity.

Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the synod office, reminded the groups to take into consideration any feedback they have received by email. Anyone may share their thoughts with the synod and its study groups via the email address synodus@synod.va until March 31. 

“New contributions will be forwarded to the secretaries of the groups concerned in a timely manner,” the press release said.

Apart from the original 10 study groups, an additional five study groups were created in 2024 to provide deeper theological analysis of “five perspectives” ahead of the second session of the synod, held at the Vatican from Oct. 2–27, 2024. 

An October 2024 Vatican assembly marked the end of the discernment phase of the Synod on Synodality, which began in 2021.

The current phase is focused on implementation, with the study groups expected to continue their work through June.

Statues illuminated in ethereal blue light during the special evening access to St. Peter's Basilica for the Jubilee of Artists, Feb. 16, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Rome Newsroom, Feb 17, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).

For the Jubilee of Hope, an American artist has created an installation mapping the “soundscape” of one of the historic bells of St. Peter’s Basilica, premiering the work on the night of Feb. 16.

“The Silent Echoes of a Great Sound Sculpture” by Bill Fontana made the bell’s live soundscape audible as artists and other pilgrims walked through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica after dark on Sunday.

A visitor admires the bronze panels of the Holy Door at St. Peter's Basilica, specially illuminated for the 'White Night' celebration of the Jubilee of Artists, Feb. 16, 2025. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

The after-hours opening of the basilica, one of several events in Rome organized for the Feb. 15–18 Jubilee of Artists and the World of Culture, was called the “Notte Bianca” — “white night” in English. During the extraordinary opening, artists and others walked around a basilica bathed in blue light and accompanied by live cello music. 

The contemporary art installation, which can be heard in a video recording here, was audible via speakers in the portico, or entrance, of St. Peter’s Basilica. It is expected to continue to play from 9:30 a.m. through 7 p.m. daily throughout the 2025 Jubilee of Hope.

The soundscape was made using the largest of St. Peter’s Basilica’s six bells — called “Campanone,” Italian for “Great Bell.” The over eight-feet tall bell was cast in 1786 by the silversmith Luigi Valadier and weighs around 9 tons.

Fontana explained how the installation works in a statement on his website: “Latent in the physical structure of everything, are resonant frequencies. ... I began to explore this phenomenon using high resolution vibration sensors called accelerometers. These may be placed onto and inside of a wide range of structures and situations that then map, render, and reveal the silent echoes latent in a structure or an object that is echoing a live soundscape.”

Fontana did a similar recording of the Emmanuel bell of Notre Dame Basilica in Paris in 2022.

According to a press release: “Using state-of-the-art sensors and a sophisticated audio system, the internal vibrations — normally in no way audible since [the bell] weighs over nine tons — have been captured, amplified, and transformed into a deeply immersive auditory experience.”

The soundscape, also called a “sound sculpture,” the note continued, “will accompany [pilgrims and visitors] on their spiritual journey” at St. Peter’s Basilica.

A visitor captures the dramatically lit central nave of St. Peter's Basilica on their phone during the 'White Night' celebration, Feb. 16, 2025. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

The Vatican’s Dicastery for Education and Culture also organized several initiatives for the weekend’s Jubilee of Artists, but two of the events — a papal audience and a gathering with the pope at the film studios of Cinecittà — had to be canceled after Francis was hospitalized for a respiratory infection on Feb. 14.

At a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday, the dicastery prefect, Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, read Pope Francis’ message to artists, calling them to participate in the “revolutionary vision of the Beatitudes” and transform suffering into hope.

“Your mission is not only to create beauty but to reveal the truth, goodness, and beauty hidden within the folds of history, to give voice to the voiceless, to transform pain into hope,” the pope’s message stated.

Angelic figures bathed in blue light inside St. Peter's Basilica during the "White Night at St. Peter's" event, part of the Jubilee of Artists at the Vatican, Feb. 16, 2025. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Top row from left to right: Niña Ruiz Abad, Marcelo Henrique Câmara, Sister Cecilia María de la Santa Faz. Bottom row from left to right: Víctor Manuel Schiavoni, Chiara Badano, Rebeca Rocamora. / Credit: Courtesy of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Archdiocese of Florianópolis (Brazil), Archdiocese of Santa Fe de la Vera Cruz, Custodian Movies, Fondazione Chiara Badano and the Archdiocese of Paraná

Lima Newsroom, Feb 17, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

In addition to some young millennials who are now on their way to sainthood, there are also seven members of Generation X — those born between 1965 and 1980 — who, despite their short lives, left a profound legacy of faith and are an example of holiness for new generations.

Below are profiles of the seven, some already beatified and others in the process of beatification.

  1. Niña Ruiz AbadThe official portrait of Servant of God Niña Ruiz-Abad. Credit: Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines

Niña Ruiz-Abad was born Oct. 31, 1979, in Quezon City, Philippines, and from an early age showed a deep faith. Raised alongside her sister Mary Anne, she lost her father at the age of 3 and in 1988 she moved with her mother to Sarrat in the northern province of Ilocos Norte.

Ruiz-Abad was noted for distributing rosaries, Bibles, and images of saints, and she especially loved the Eucharist. At the age of 10 she was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a heart disease that she bore with serenity and joy until her death on Aug. 16, 1993, at the age of 13, after suffering cardiac arrest at school.

Her grave in Sarrat has become a place of pilgrimage.

On March 16, 2024, the Vatican granted the “nihil obstat” (“nothing stands in the way”) for opening her cause for beatification. With this recognition, Ruiz-Abad is now considered a “servant of God.”

Her cause for canonization was officially opened April 7, 2024. If her cause progresses and miracles attributed to her intercession are recognized, she could become one of the youngest saints in the history of the Catholic Church.

2. Marcelo Henrique CâmaraMarcelo Henrique Câmara. Credit: Archdiocese of Florianópolis, Brazil

Marcelo Henrique Câmara was born on June 26, 1979, in Florianópolis, Brazil. He was a brilliant young man committed to his faith, a law graduate who worked as a state prosecutor. His conversion occurred during an Emmaus retreat.

He was a catechist, an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist, and a member of Opus Dei, finding in the spirituality of St. Josemaría Escrivá the key to holiness in everyday life. Despite being diagnosed with leukemia, he offered his suffering with joy and hope until his death on March 20, 2008, at the age of 28.

The process of beatification for Câmara officially began on March 8, 2020, when the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints granted the Archdiocese of Florianópolis the “nihil obstat” to investigate his cause.

The postulator of the cause, Father Vitor Galdino Feller, emphasized that Câmara bears witness that holiness is possible in youth and serves as an example for those who seek to live the faith in the midst of the world.

3. Sister Cecilia María of the Holy FaceSister Cecilia María of the Holy Face. Credit: Archdiocese of Santa Fe de la Vera Cruz

Sister Cecilia María of the Holy Face was born on Dec. 5, 1973, in San Martin de los Andes, Neuquen province, Argentina. She entered the Discalced Carmelites of Santa Fe at the age of 24, made her first vows at 26, and made her final vows in 2003.

A nurse by profession and a violinist, she stood out for her joy and ever-present smile, even during her battle against tongue cancer with pulmonary metastases. During this difficult time, she continued to pray and offer up her sufferings, convinced that she was close to her encounter with God. She passed away in Buenos Aires in the early hours of June 23, 2016.

In January 2025, the archbishop of Santa Fe de la Vera Cruz in Argentina, Sergio Fenoy, decreed the beginning of the cause for beatification and canonization.

In 2024, when signing the edict to begin the process prior to the cause, the prelate highlighted the witness of the nun’s “love and trust in Jesus Christ, even in the midst of the most difficult trials,” assuring that “she has awakened in many hearts the desire for a greater commitment to Christian life.”

4. Rebeca RocamoraShortly before dying, Rebeca Rocamora said: "I'm going to heaven and little by little I will take those I love with me." Credit: Courtesy of Custodian Movies

Rebeca Rocamora was a young catechist from Granja de Rocamora in Spain known for her faith, joy, and dedication to others despite the difficult illness that accompanied her since childhood.

Born in 1975, she stood out for her innocence and vitality, and even when facing a serious illness that began to manifest itself at the age of 10, she never lost faith. Her life became a witness to humility and charity, leaving an indelible mark on family, friends, and neighbors. Her example of holiness and fortitude was crowned in the solemn context of Pentecost, when she died at the age of 20.

The process of canonization for Rocamora, initiated in 2009 by the then-bishop of Orihuela-Alicante, Rafael Palmero, has advanced significantly. After completing the diocesan phase, the documentation on her life, heroic virtues, reputation for holiness, and signs of miracles was exhaustively compiled.

These documents have now been sent to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, marking the next step on her path to sainthood.

5. Chiara “Luce” BadanoChiara “Luce” Badano. Credit: Fondazione Chiara Badano

Chiara “Luce” Badano (1971–1990) was a young Italian woman known for her witness of love and faith in the midst of suffering. A member of the Focolare movement, from a young age she had a deep life of prayer and a great commitment to charity. At age 16, she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, an illness she offered to God, refusing morphine in order to remain lucid so she could pray.

In her final months, she dedicated her time to helping others and even donated her corneas so that others could see. Her life, marked by joy, has inspired thousands of young people around the world.

Chiara was beatified on Sept. 25, 2010, in a ceremony held in Rome with the participation of thousands of young people from various countries. She is the first blessed of the Focolare movement.

6. Victor Manuel SchiavoniVíctor Manuel Schiavoni. Credit: Archdiocese of Paraná

Victor Schiavoni was born on Nov. 24, 1977, in the Argentine district of Nogoyá. At the age of 14, he moved to Paraná to complete his studies at the Minor Seminary of Our Lady of the Cenacle.

With a deep religious vocation, he sought the contemplative life and entrusted himself to the Virgin Mary to discern his calling. During a pilgrimage to Luján in 1995, he expressed his desire to offer his life to the Virgin. Shortly after, he began to experience pain in his neck, which led to the diagnosis of leukemia. Despite the suffering, he accepted his illness with serenity, stating: “If the Virgin sends it to me, I accept it. I’m not going to complain.”

During his hospitalization, Victor distinguished himself by his joy, patience, and generosity, always prioritizing the well-being of others. He faced his illness without complaining and maintained a deep life of prayer. On Sept. 7, 1995, at the age of 17, he died, leaving a testimony of faith that impacted those who knew him.

His desire to be buried with the alb of a seminarian reflected his conviction that he had responded to the call of his vocation. His legacy inspired the opening of his cause for beatification, announced on May 8, 2023, by the Archdiocese of Paraná.

7. Carlos Rodolfo YaryezCarlos Rodolfo Yaryez. Credit: Archdiocese of Paraná

Carlos Rodolfo Yaryez was born in Paraná, Argentina, on March 29, 1966, into a Christian family that shaped his future. His life was characterized by a constant search for God, which led him to become involved in Argentine Catholic Action, where he stood out for his apostolic commitment and his leadership.

His testimony of faith became even more evident when, after being diagnosed with leukemia, he accepted his illness with profound trust in God’s will. Throughout his life, he cultivated an intense spirituality based on the Eucharist, adoration, and devotion to the Virgin Mary. He died on Oct. 30, 1990, known for his holiness.

On May 8, 2023, the Archdiocese of Paraná announced the opening of his cause for beatification, recognizing his witness of dedication and Christian love. His memory lives on in places where he spent significant parts of his life, including the headquarters of Catholic Action and St. Martin Hospital, where plaques have been placed in his honor.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Left: Banners at Rome’s Gemelli University Hospital. Right: Pope Francis waves from a wheelchair, Feb. 13, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

CNA Newsroom, Feb 16, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis spent a peaceful second night at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, where he remains under medical care for a respiratory infection, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni told journalists Sunday.

Bruni said the 88-year-old pontiff had breakfast and read several newspapers Sunday morning while continuing his prescribed medical treatments.

Though doctors ordered complete rest, the Holy Father prepared a special Angelus message focusing on art’s power to unite humanity and included prayers for regions torn by conflict.

“I would have liked to be among you,” Pope Francis wrote in his message, referring to artists gathered at the Vatican for a special jubilee celebration, “but as you know, I am here at the Gemelli Polyclinic because I still need some treatment for my bronchitis.”

The pope’s message highlighted the Eucharistic celebration for the Jubilee of Artists on Sunday, part of the wider 2025 Jubilee of Hope. He thanked the Dicastery for Culture and Education for organizing the gathering, emphasizing art’s role as a “universal language that spreads beauty and unites peoples.”

Turning to global concerns, the pontiff called for continued prayers for peace in Ukraine, Palestine, Israel and all the Middle East, Myanmar, Kivu, and Sudan.

The pope also expressed gratitude to the medical staff at Gemelli Hospital. “They perform invaluable and demanding work; let us support them in prayer,” he wrote.

The 88-year-old pope was hospitalized in the late morning on Feb. 14 following meetings with a number of people, including the prime minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico.

Due to the hospitalization, the pope will not attend a planned meeting with artists at the historic Cinecittà film studios south of Rome on Feb. 17.

Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça delivers Pope Francis’ homily at a Mass for the Jubilee of Artists in St. Peter’s Basilica, Feb. 16, 2025. / Credit: Screenshot/Vatican Media

CNA Newsroom, Feb 16, 2025 / 04:59 am (CNA).

Powerful proclamations to painters, poets, and performers highlighted Pope Francis’ message to artists on Sunday, calling them to participate in the “revolutionary vision of the Beatitudes” and transform suffering into hope.

In a papal homily read by Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça at a Mass for the Jubilee of Artists in St. Peter’s Basilica on Feb. 16, artists were urged to be “witnesses to the revolutionary vision of the Beatitudes.”

“Your mission is not only to create beauty but to reveal the truth, goodness, and beauty hidden within the folds of history, to give voice to the voiceless, to transform pain into hope,” the pope’s message stated.

The prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education delivered the homily as Pope Francis remains at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, where he is recovering from a respiratory infection.

Drawing on the day’s Gospel reading of the Beatitudes, the papal message emphasized that authentic art must engage with “the drama of human existence” rather than offering superficial comfort.

“We live in a time when new walls are being erected, when differences become a pretext for division rather than an opportunity for mutual enrichment,” the homily noted, calling artists and cultural figures to “build bridges, create spaces for encounter and dialogue, enlighten minds, and warm hearts.”

The homily concluded with a reminder that artistic gifts are not random but represent a calling: “Hope is not an illusion; beauty is not a utopia; your gift is not chance, it is a vocation. Respond with generosity, with passion, with love.”

Sister Raffaella Petrini. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

CNA Newsroom, Feb 15, 2025 / 07:15 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has appointed Sister Raffaella Petrini, FSE, as president of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and president of the Governorate of Vatican City State, the Vatican announced Saturday.

According to the Feb. 15 bulletin from the Holy See Press Office, Petrini will assume her new roles on March 1. She succeeds Cardinal Fernando Vérgez in both positions.

Petrini, who has served as secretary-general of the same governorate since November 2021, brings significant academic and administrative experience to her new role. Born in Rome on Jan. 15, 1969, she holds a degree in political science from the Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Guido Carli and a doctorate from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, where she currently serves as a professor.

Before her appointment to the governorate, Petrini worked at the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples from 2005 to 2021.

This appointment follows Pope Francis‘ recent selection of Sister Simona Brambilla as prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, marking a continuing trend of women being appointed to senior Vatican leadership positions.

During a recent television interview, the pope had previously indicated his intention to promote Petrini.

A recent meeting of various members of the ecumenical initiative Easter Together 2025. / Credit: Courtesy of Easter Together 2025

Vatican City, Feb 15, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The First Ecumenical Council, the meeting of Christian bishops that was held in 325 in Nicaea (today İznik, Turkey), laid the groundwork for reaching consensus within the Church through an assembly representing all of Christendom.

This event marked a key moment in the history of Christianity, 17 centuries ago this year, in which, among other decisions, the way of calculating the date of Easter was established.

However, over the centuries, changes to the calendar resulted in discrepancies between the Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox churches, differences that still persist. While Latin-rite Catholics follow the Gregorian calendar, in the East the tradition of calculating liturgical dates according to the Julian calendar has been maintained.

The difficulties of changing the calendar

“The process of changing the calendar, which began in 1582 with Pope Gregory and was completed to a certain extent in 1923 with the adoption of the new calendar by some Orthodox churches, was not without difficulties,” Kostas Mygdalis, consultant to the Orthodox Interparliamentary Assembly (IOA), explained in an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.

“It provoked controversies among the faithful and between the churches and state authorities, consolidating polarizing divisions” that still persist, he added.

Mygdalis is also one of the key figures of the interfaith working group Pasqua (Easter) Together 2025, which seeks to promote the common celebration of Easter between Orthodox and Catholics.

Last September, Pope Francis received the members of this ecumenical initiative and expressed his desire to agree on a common date for the celebration of Easter between Catholics and Orthodox.

Interestingly, this year both Easters — Catholic and Orthodox — fall on the same date, April 20, due to the alignment of the Julian (used by the Orthodox) and Gregorian (followed by Catholics and other Christian denominations) calendars.

A step toward Christian unity

For Mygdalis, the joint celebration of Easter in 2025 should not be seen as just a calendar agreement but as an opportunity to place Christ at the center of the Christian faith.

“The time has come to make a strong appeal to the churches to unify the date of Easter,” he said.

He also emphasized that the central message must be the need for unity in the world: “The world needs unity. A common date for Easter is a step toward this unity.”

However, he noted that “the administrative structures of the churches, composed almost exclusively of clerics, seem reluctant to address this issue, perhaps for fear of creating new extremism and divisions in a world already facing multiple challenges.”

He also pointed out that “dialogue between Christian churches is moving so slowly that, for ordinary faithful, it seems a fruitless process.”

For Mygdalis, the effort to celebrate the resurrection of Christ together must be part of a “pilgrimage of reconciliation and unity” that will continue beyond 2025. He emphasized that the importance of the Resurrection is not only theological but also existential: “Without the Resurrection, all the suffering in the world is absurd.”

A mandate for unity from Nicaea

“The celebration of Easter on a common date is not only necessary but a mandate for unity established by the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, whose 1,700th anniversary we commemorate this year,” he emphasized.

“Through the Pasqua Together 2025 initiative, we seek to demand that the churches comply with what was established by the Council of Nicaea: to celebrate together the resurrection of Christ, the pillar of the Christian faith. It is unacceptable that this division should continue,” he pointed out.

Toward the jubilee of 2033

Beyond Easter 2025, the JC2033 initiative was also mentioned, which proposes an ecumenical journey toward the year 2033, when the 2,000th anniversary of the resurrection of Christ will be celebrated. It is suggested that the date of Easter for Orthodox and Catholics coinciding in 2025 could be a first step toward greater unity on the occasion of this historic celebration.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Top row from left: Pierangelo Capuzzimati, Sr. Clare Crockett, Matteo Farina. Bottom row from left: Helena Agnieszka Kmieć, Akash Bashir, Carlo Acutis. / Credit: Courtesy of Associazone Pierangelo Capuzzimati; Hermanas Siervas del Hogar de la Madre; matteofarina.com; The Helena Kmiec Foundation; Aid to the Church in Need; Asociación Carlo Acutis

ACI Prensa Staff, Feb 15, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Six young people who lived with deep faith and committed their lives to the Church that Jesus founded are on their way to being proclaimed saints, with most of them currently on the path to beatification.

From Carlo Acutis, the “cyber apostle of the Eucharist,” to Akash Bashir,  Pakistan’s first servant of God who gave his life protecting the faithful from a suicide bomber, these witnesses challenge the idea that holiness is simply a thing of the past.

Below is a brief sketch of these young millennials — those born between 1981 and 1996 — who followed Jesus with all their hearts and today are a source of inspiration to new generations.

1. Pierangelo CapuzzimatiPierangelo with his sister Sara. Credit: Associazione Pierangelo Capuzzimati

The Servant of God Pierangelo Capuzzimati was a young Italian who from the age of 14 suffered from leukemia but lived with strong faith and a deep trust in God. He was born in Taranto, Italy, in 1990 and grew up in a peaceful environment with his family in Faggiano.

His illness, far from plunging him into despair, led him to intensify his spiritual life, devoting his time to prayer, study, and contemplation of the beauty of creation. 

An admirer of the thought of the saints and with a great passion for the history of the Church, his testimony of serenity and dedication left an indelible mark on those who knew him. He died on April 30, 2008, at the age of 17 with the conviction that his suffering was a gift from the Lord.

On April 26, 2018, the Holy See granted the “nihil obstat” (“nothing stands in the way”) for the opening of his cause for beatification, and on Jan. 20, 2024, the diocesan phase of the process concluded after an exhaustive collection of testimonies and documents about his life and virtues.

All the documentation will now be sent to the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, where it will be evaluated by theologians and historians. If his heroic virtues are recognized, Capuzzimati will be declared venerable, which will mark a new step on his path to sainthood.

2. Sister Clare CrockettSister Clare Crockett. Credit: Photo courtesy of Servants of the Home of the Mother

Sister Clare Crockett was a young woman who left a promising career in movies and television to dedicate herself to God as a religious in the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother. 

Clare was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, in 1982 and although she seemed to be heading toward a life in the arts, an encounter with Christ during a retreat changed her destiny. She felt God’s call, entering the congregation in 2001, and took her perpetual vows in 2010. Her life was marked by a joyful spirit, a total dedication to others, and a testimony of faith that impacted many. She died on April 16, 2016, during an earthquake in Ecuador while helping her students at a community school in Playa Prieta.

Following the 2023 granting of the “nihil obstat” by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, the diocesan phase of the cause for her beatification was officially opened on Jan. 12, 2025, in Alcalá de Henares, Spain. Since her passing, there have been numerous testimonies reporting graces and conversions attributed to her intercession, including religious vocations and possible miracles. The ecclesiastical tribunal is now investigating her life and heroic virtues, a key step on the path to her possible beatification.

3. Matteo FarinaVenerable Matteo Farina. Credit: Matteofarina.com

Matteo Farina was a young Italian born in 1990 in Brindisi. Inspired from a very young age by St. Francis and St. Padre Pio, he developed an intense spiritual life with a great devotion for the Eucharist and for praying a daily rosary. 

From the age of 9, he felt the call to evangelize, seeking to influence his peers. At age 13, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, which did not weaken his faith but strengthened it. During the six years that his illness lasted, he accepted suffering with love, offering his pain for others and living with joy and hope until his death on April 24, 2009.

The witness of his holiness led the Church to initiate his cause for beatification. On May 5, 2020, Pope Francis recognized his heroic virtues, declaring him venerable. Currently, the Church is investigating possible miracles attributed to his intercession, which would allow the process of beatification to advance.

4. Helena Agnieszka KmiećHelena Kmiec, the young Polish missionary murdered in Bolivia who could be declared a saint. Credit: The Helena Kmiec Foundation

Helena Agnieszka Kmiec was a young Polish missionary born in 1991 in Krakow and raised in a home of deep faith. From a young age, she showed a strong love for Jesus, attending Mass almost daily and devoting herself to service. During her university studies at the Silesia University of Technology, she joined the Salvator Missionary Volunteer Service, serving in missions in Hungary, Zambia, and Romania. She especially dedicated herself to children and young people in vulnerable situations. 

In 2017, Helena traveled to Bolivia to help out at a school in Cochabamba, where, just a few weeks after her arrival, she was murdered during an attempted robbery.

After her death, her reputation for holiness became more well known, inspired by her life of dedication to God and her missionary service. In April 2024, the archbishop of Krakow announced the opening of her cause for beatification after receiving approval from the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. Currently, the Church is investigating her life and witness in the process that could lead to her being declared blessed.

5. Akash BashirServant of God Akash Bashir. Credit: Aid to the Church in Need

Akash Bashir was a young Pakistani and former Salesian student who gave his life to protect hundreds of faithful at St. John’s Church in Lahore.

On March 15, 2015, when he was just 20 years old, he prevented a suicide bomber from entering the church during Sunday Mass, holding him tightly and saying: “I will die, but I will not let you into the church.” The attacker detonated the bomb and both died.

Bashir’s sacrifice prevented a massacre and his unwavering faith has made him a symbol of hope for the Christian community in Pakistan — a country where the faithful suffer constant persecution.

On Jan. 31, 2022, Pope Francis proclaimed him a servant of God. Two years later, on March 15, 2024, the diocesan phase of the process was concluded at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Lahore. All the documentation has now been sent to the Vatican for evaluation. If the pope approves the decree of martyrdom, Bashir will be beatified without the need for a miracle. If this recognition occurs, he would become Pakistan’s first “blessed.”

6. Carlo AcutisBlessed Carlo Acutis. Credit: Photo courtesy of carloacutis.com

Carlo Acutis was a young Italian born in 1991 who, despite his short life, left a profound legacy of love for the Eucharist. Known as the “cyber apostle of the Eucharist,” Carlo used his computer skills to evangelize, creating a digital exhibit of Eucharistic miracles. 

From childhood, Carlo showed a special devotion to the Mass as well as praying the rosary. When he was diagnosed with leukemia in 2006, he offered his sufferings “for the Lord, the pope, and the Church.” He died on Oct. 12 of that same year and was buried in Assisi, following his desire to be close to St. Francis.

His path to sainthood progressed quickly. He was declared venerable in 2018 and blessed in 2020 after the approval of a first miracle. 

On May 23, 2024, Pope Francis recognized a second miracle, which occurred in Florence, where a young Costa Rican woman miraculously recovered from a serious accident. Carlo is scheduled to be canonized during the Jubilee of Teenagers in April, becoming the first millennial saint and a model of holiness for young people in the digital age.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

A view of Rome’s Gemelli Hospital where Pope Francis was delivered Feb. 14, 2025, to receive treatment for bronchitis. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

CNA Newsroom, Feb 15, 2025 / 05:53 am (CNA).

Pope Francis had a “peaceful night” and read several newspapers Saturday morning following his admission to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital for bronchitis, according to the Vatican.

“The Holy Father had a good night’s sleep. This morning he had breakfast and read several newspapers,” Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, told journalists Feb. 15.

“Medical assessments and necessary treatments are continuing.”

The 88-year-old pontiff was admitted to the Gemelli Polyclinic Friday morning during meetings with several people, including Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico. According to the Vatican, initial examinations revealed a respiratory tract infection with mild fever.

A medical update from the hospital is expected later on Saturday.

The Vatican has cleared the pope’s schedule through at least Feb. 17, canceling several appointments, including a jubilee audience planned for Saturday and a meeting with artists at Rome’s historic Cinecittà film studios scheduled for Monday.

Marco Mancini contributed to this report.

null / Credit: LookerStudio/Shutterstock

Vatican City, Feb 14, 2025 / 15:15 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis’ adviser on artificial intelligence (AI) warned of the risks of the new technology, saying that its unregulated use could result in the creation of bioweapons as well as an increase in income inequality.

Father Paolo Benanti discussed ethical and human rights challenges surrounding the use of AI at a Thursday event jointly organized by the embassies of Australia to the Holy See and Italy. 

The event took place in Rome following the conclusion of the Feb. 10–11 Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris. This week, more than 60 countries — including the Vatican, Italy, Australia, and China — signed an international pact in France pledging to develop AI in a way that is ethical, open, transparent, and safe. The U.S. did not sign the final version of the agreement.

Benanti, a member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life and moral theology professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University, was joined on Thursday by four other panelists to exchange perspectives on the various impacts of AI on global politics, the economy, law, and social interactions among people in the wake of an “AI revolution.”

The other speakers at the Feb. 13 event were: Diego Ciulli, head of government affairs and public policy for Google in Italy; Professor Edward Santow, a member of the Australian government’s Artificial Intelligence Expert Group; Professor Luigi Ruggerone, director of business and innovation research for the Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center; and Rosalba Pacelli, a postdoctoral researcher at National Institute of Nuclear Physics in Padua, Italy.

During the 90-minute discussion, all five speakers raised ethical concerns about whether people could relinquish their responsibility to promote and defend human rights to data-driven solutions generated by machines and algorithmic tools.

According to Benanti, open-source AI models “without any controls” are “the biggest problem now” as they have the potential to enable users to develop harmful technologies, including bioweapons, that threaten humanity.

Several panelists warned that the technology could exacerbate the gap between the rich and poor.

“AI has a risk to generate more inequalities than more opportunities in society,” Google’s Ciulli said. “AI as a technology has more to do with the impact it has on generating wealth and opportunities.” 

The Vatican adviser agreed, adding that AI should be harnessed as a “global resource” that could “empower people” but pointed to the reality that the majority of the world’s population does not have access to this software.

Building upon Ciulli’s comments, Ruggerone expressed his concerns about AI’s potential impact on the distribution of wealth, income, and the labor market from the perspective of an economist.

“In the last 70 years, 99.9% of those who receive the wages and income have not seen their wages increase by 1.5% or 2% a year … actually much, much less,” he explained. 

“Even if productivity of labor, thanks to artificial intelligence, increases, nobody guarantees us that wages would increase. Actually quite the opposite,” he added.

For Pacelli, a deep learning expert, a collaborative approach is key to regulating the AI revolution, which fundamentally differs from past industrial revolutions as machines are no longer developed to maximize production but are made to “interact with the user” according to specific data selection processes. 

“A bad data selection process can, for example, inject racial bias in diagnostic tools,” she said. “Obviously this is harmful and dangerous for [those who are] already marginalized and so must be taken into account.”

Referencing the Vatican’s document Antiqua et Nova, which outlines the Church’s position on the relationship between AI and human intelligence, Santow said: “It is only the human, not the machine, that is in dialogue with principles such as truth, justice, and peace.”

“Lawyers like me are very concerned about when a machine is being used to make a profound and important legally significant decision,” the former Australian Human Rights commissioner said. “Liability … must always attach to the humans who put those machines in the world.” 

Pope Francis prays during his Wednesday general audience on Feb. 5, 2025, in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Feb 14, 2025 / 06:05 am (CNA).

Pope Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Friday to undergo testing and treatment for bronchitis, the Vatican said.

“The Holy Father, as a result of the recent exacerbation of bronchitis, has carried out specialized examinations and started a hospital drug therapy,” read a Holy See Press Office statement updating the pope’s condition Friday evening Rome time. “The first examinations performed show a respiratory tract infection. The clinical condition is fair; he presents mild febrile alteration.”

The pope is serene, his mood is good, and he has read a few newspapers, according to Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office.

The 88-year-old pope was hospitalized in the late morning on Feb. 14 following meetings with a number of people, including the prime minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico.

“This morning, at the end of his audiences, Pope Francis will be admitted to the Agostino Gemelli Hospital for some necessary diagnostic tests and to continue treatment for bronchitis, that is still ongoing, in a hospital setting,” the Holy See Press Office said in a message sent shortly before 11 a.m. Rome time.

The Vatican said that due to Pope Francis’ hospitalization, his appointments for the following three days were canceled. In particular, he will no longer hold a jubilee audience at the Vatican on Saturday, Feb. 15, or a meeting with artists at the historic Cinecittà film studios south of Rome on Feb. 17.

The pope was also scheduled to participate in a Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday for the Jubilee of Artists and the World of Culture, part of the Church’s wider 2025 Jubilee of Hope. The Vatican said Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, will celebrate the Mass.

Pope Francis has been sick with bronchitis for over a week. On Feb. 6, the Vatican announced the pope would hold most of his meetings that day and the following days in rooms at his Vatican residence in order to rest more.

Despite the illness, which has largely prevented the pontiff from reading his own speeches and homilies, Francis presided at a jubilee Mass for members of the police and armed forces in St. Peter’s Square on Feb. 9 and participated in his weekly general audience on Wednesday.

Pope Francis was also hospitalized for a respiratory infection in March 2023 and canceled a November 2023 trip to Dubai due to a “very acute infectious bronchitis.” 

The pope, who has been suffering from visible breathlessness during recent meetings, has more and more frequently declined to read his prepared remarks to audiences or opted to have the remarks read by a priest aide.

He has faced several health challenges in recent years, including knee problems requiring a wheelchair, respiratory infections, and a fall resulting in a forearm contusion.

This story was updated Feb. 14, 2025, at 1:28 p.m. ET with the update on the pope’s condition.

Sts. Cyril and Methodius. / Credit: Self-scanned, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Feb 14, 2025 / 05:00 am (CNA).

On Feb. 14, the universal Church honors brothers Sts. Cyril and Methodius, who are called the “Apostles of the Slavs” for their tireless work in spreading the Gospel throughout Eastern Europe in the ninth century.

Such was their influence in Church history, through their evangelization efforts, that the late Pope John Paul II named the two brothers the patron saints of Europe along with fifth-century monastic leader St. Benedict.

Born into a prestigious senatorial family in Thessalonica, in 827 and 826 respectively, Sts. Cyril and Methodius renounced their wealth and status, choosing to become priests instead.

Both were living in a monastery on the Bosporus — an internationally significant waterway now more commonly known as the Istanbul strait and a continental boundary between Asia and Europe — when the authorities from the Khazar Empire sent to Constantinople for a Christian missionary. Cyril was chosen and was accompanied by his brother. Both learned the Khazar language and converted many of the people.

Soon after the Khazar mission, there was a request from officials in Moravia — a region in the present-day Czech Republic — for missionaries who could preach and celebrate liturgical services in the local dialect. Although German missionaries had already labored among the people for some time, they had little success.

In order to fulfill this mission, Cyril and Methodius took the step of adapting the Greek alphabet into a script for the Slavonic language. The result was the “Cyrillic” alphabet, which was first used to translate the Bible and liturgical books. It also became the primary means of written communication for large portions of the world, including modern-day Russia.

The two labored in Moravia for four years until 868, achieving greater success than the German missionaries. Their Byzantine origins and use of the vernacular language caused some German Church officials to regard them with suspicion. However, after being summoned to Rome, they met with Pope Adrian II, who warmly approved of their methods.

Cyril and Methodius were commended by the pope for their missionary activity and ordained bishops. Yet Cyril would not return to Moravia and died in Rome in 869.

In order to further Methodius’ work in Moravia, Pope Adrian II appointed him archbishop of a new archdiocese in the territory, independent from the German Church. Unfortunately this had the effect of angering his German critics, who had him deposed and imprisoned for a period of three years.

Pope Adrian’s successor, John VIII, managed to have Methodius freed and had him reinstated as archbishop, after which he expanded his work to incorporate the region of modern-day Poland. The new pope continued to support Methodius’ use of the Slavic languages in worship and his translations of the Bible, despite continuing controversy with some elements of the German Church.

Eventually, with the assistance of several Greek priests, he translated the whole Bible into the language that is known today as Church Slavonic. He chose his successor from among the native Moravian Slavs whom he had evangelized and died on April 6, 885.

Sts. Cyril and Methodius’ missionary work among the Slavs laid the essential foundation for the later Christianization of Ukraine and Russia in 988, when the Russian Prince Vladimir accepted baptism.

This story was first published on Feb. 13, 2011, and has been updated.

The skull of St. Valentine is kept in the Greek-Catholic Church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome. / Credit: nomadFra/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Feb 14, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

In most stores in the weeks leading up to St. Valentine’s Day, you’re likely to find a plethora of pink-and-red cards, heart-shaped boxes of Russell Stover chocolates, and decor with nearly-naked chubby cherubs shooting hearts with bows and arrows.

It’s a far cry from the real St. Valentine, an early Christian martyr who was bludgeoned and beheaded for his faith.

So how did a saint with such a gruesome death come to be associated with a holiday all about love, chocolates, and chubby cherubs?

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, at least three different St. Valentines were recorded in early histories of martyrs under the date of Feb. 14. There are also accounts of an African St. Valentine, an early Christian who was persecuted along with his companions. But it seems that nothing else is known about this possible saint.

The St. Valentine celebrated today may have been two different people.

One account holds that St. Valentine was a priest in Rome, and the other says he was a bishop of Interamna (modern-day Terni). Both of these men were persecuted and ultimately killed for their faith, and buried somewhere along the Flaminian Way. It is also possible that they were the same person, however.

“He was either a Roman priest and physician who was martyred, or he was the bishop of Terni, Italy, who was also martyred in Rome, around 270 A.D. by Claudius the Goth” (the Roman emperor at the time), said Father Brendan Lupton, an associate professor of dogmatic theology at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Illinois.

St. Valentine — whether priest or bishop — was martyred on Feb. 14, now celebrated as Valentine’s Day. According to most accounts, he was beaten and then beheaded after a time of imprisonment.

Local devotion to him spread, and Pope Julius I had a basilica dedicated to the saint built approximately two miles from Rome, over Valentine’s burial place. His skull is now kept in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Rome and is decorated with flower crowns on his feast day.

Lupton said St. Valentine was one of the first Christian martyrs when the general persecution of Christians started in the Roman Empire.

“More or less at that time, especially around the mid-third century, there was sort of a crisis in the Roman world known as the Third Century Crisis, where the Roman world was really in great peril,” Lupton told CNA. “There was a great amount of inflation. There were barbarian incursions at the time. There was lots of political instability. So that sort of unleashed the first general persecution of Christians. Prior to that time, there were local persecutions, but they were local and sporadic.”

Some Valentine’s Day traditions can be correlated with St. Valentine’s life, such as the exchanging of cards, Lupton said, or the celebration of romantic love.

“One [account] was that he had befriended the jailer’s daughter, where he was being imprisoned, and when he died, he left her a note inscribed with ‘From your Valentine,’” Lupton said. Other accounts say that exchanging cards on Valentine’s Day recalls how St. Valentine would send notes to fellow Christians from prison.

“Another story is that Claudius the Goth actually had prohibited marriage amongst soldiers. He felt that if soldiers were married, they’d be less devoted to the army, especially at that time, and they needed as many troops as possible. So there was a legend that Valentine actually had married soldiers in secret,” Lupton said.

Another way St. Valentine’s Day may have come to be celebrated as a day of love was because the bird mating season was thought to begin around mid-February, Lupton noted.

Valentine’s Day as it is known today was also instituted as a substitute for a cruder Roman holiday at the time called Lupercalia, Lupton explained.

Lupercalia was a popular feast celebrated in Rome, during which a group of pagan priests would sacrifice different types of animals and then run through the streets of Rome, slapping young women with the animal hides — a ritual thought to guarantee the women’s health and fertility for the year.

“And so Pope Gelasius, he was around the fifth century ... replaced the Lupercalia with St. Valentine’s Day,” Lupton said.

Parts of Valentine’s Day are entirely unrelated to the real St. Valentine. He did not, for instance, go around shooting people with bows and arrows. That imagery was taken from the Roman god Cupid, who was also a god of love, Lupton said.

He also did not distribute chocolates to his loved ones; the real St. Valentine predates chocolates as we know them by more than 1,500 years.

But Christians can still learn from the example of St. Valentine, Lupton said, even if they are not at risk of actual martyrdom.

“You could say that in some ways, although few are called to martyrdom as Christians, in almost every act of love, there’s an element of self-sacrifice, self-renunciation,” he said.

This story was first published on CNA on Feb. 9, 2020, and has been updated.

Pilgrims pass through the Holy Door at the Basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls on Jan. 5, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 13, 2025 / 07:30 am (CNA).

Since Pope Francis marked the beginning of the 2025 Jubilee Year, 1.3 million people have passed through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, according to Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect for the New Evangelization section of the Dicastery for Evangelization.

Fisichella made the announcement at a Feb. 7 press conference for the Jubilee of the Armed Forces. The archbishop pointed out, however, that the numbers of pilgrims “are not a criterion of validity for the success of the jubilee. What counts is what is in the hearts of people.”

Holy Doors are usually only designated in the four papal basilicas in Rome — St. Peter’s in the Vatican, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, and St. Paul Outside the Walls. But this year, Pope Franics also opened another location at Rebibbia prison in Rome.

Besides the Holy Doors, other factors have contributed to the high number of people visiting Rome and other parts of Italy to take part in this year’s celebration.

“The jubilee is one of the major reasons we’re seeing the increased crowds. But also recent surveys show that Italy in general remains among the most popular travel destinations in the world,” Teresa Tomeo, veteran anchor of the EWTN Radio show “Catholic Connection,” Italy travel expert, author of the new book “Italy’s Shrines and Wonders,” and founder of T’s Italy, told CNA.

“A survey found that travelers want more than just a Roman or Italian holiday. They’re looking for ‘transformative’ travel,” Tomeo said. “What better place than Italy given all of the incredible and important religious sites, not to mention the natural beauty, for change or transformation to occur?”

Teresa Tomeo leads a pilgrimage to Italy with her husband, Deacon Dominick Pastore, in October 2024. Credit: Photo courtesy of T's Italy

Tomeo, who has led multiple Italian tours and visited the country on more than 60 occasions, said these pilgrimages have the power to strengthen a traveler’s faith.

“On our last pilgrimage in October of 2024, we had three of our pilgrims privately tell us that they were so moved or ‘transformed’ by what they experienced in Italy that they were coming back into the Church,” she said.

Since the jubilee has begun with such large crowds, locals and travelers should expect the high volume to continue.

“Easter time and the summer months are always the busiest times of year in Italy and especially Rome,” Tomeo said. “I don’t think it will be any different this year. The canonizations of Blessed Carlo Acutis and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati fall within those time periods and those special events are expected to draw even larger crowds.”

Tomeo encouraged visitors to fully immerse themselves in their jubilee travels.

“Turin is where Blessed Frassati is from and is buried and it has so much to offer pilgrims in terms of other saints,” she said. “The church, St. John the Baptist, which houses his tomb, is also home to the chapel of the Shroud of Turin. Although the shroud is not available for viewing and veneration during the jubilee year, the church is breathtaking and Turino is home to another popular saint — St. John Bosco.”

“And then of course the medieval and unspoiled town of Assisi and the tomb of Carlo Acutis is a place that deserves more than just a day trip from Rome. Not to mention the surrounding area of Assisi in Umbria and other nearby saints such as St. Rita of Cascia, St. Clare of the Cross in Montefalco, and St. Angela of Foligno,” Tomeo said.

The jubilee will continue until Jan. 6, 2026, and it is anticipated that more than 30 million pilgrims will make the religious journey to Rome during the holy year.

The artist Yan Pei-Ming in his Paris studio in 2016. / Credit:Alfred Weidinger/Flickr/CC BY 2.0

Vatican City, Feb 12, 2025 / 14:20 pm (CNA).

A Chinese artist’s paintings of inmates living inside one of Rome’s most well-known prisons will be projected on the prison building’s exterior and displayed in a new exhibit space near the Vatican as part of 2025 Jubilee initiatives.

The 64-year-old Yan Pei-Ming is a contemporary artist who has been living in France since 1981. He is known for his “epic-sized” portraits of figures such as Chairman Mao, St. John Paul II, Bruce Lee, and Barack Obama.

Pei-Ming’s latest portrait series, 27 prisoners living inside Regina Coeli Prison, will be displayed on the side of the prison building. The works, created at the request of the Vatican’s education and culture dicastery, will be the inaugural exhibit of a new art space on Via della Conciliazione, the main street leading to St. Peter’s Basilica.

One of the portraits from a collection by Yan Pei-Ming depicting 27 prisoners living inside Regina Coeli Prison, which will be displayed on the prison's facade Feb. 15, 2025. Credit: Photo courtesy of the Dicastery for Culture and Education.

The Vatican will highlight the work of contemporary artists during the 2025 Jubilee Year and beyond with the new exhibit space, called “Conciliazione 5,” to be inaugurated Feb. 15 during the Jubilee of Artists and the World of Culture.

The Vatican has planned a slew of events for the Feb. 15–18 Jubilee of Artists, including the opening of the contemporary art space, Sunday Mass with Pope Francis, and the first-ever visit by a pope to the film studios of Cinecittà.

The Vatican expects more than 10,000 people from across the wider art and cultural environments — hailing from over 100 countries and five continents — to participate in events over the four days.

The curator of the Yan Pei-Ming exhibit at “Conciliazione 5,” Cristiana Perrella, told journalists on Wednesday that Pei-Ming created the 27 inmate portraits in a matter of 20 days late last year in a studio in Shanghai. Due to time constraints, the painter worked from photos and also asked for information about the prisoners’ lives.

The portraits, Perrella said, help us to remember that inmates “are not the crime they have committed, that people’s meanings are not in this — they are paying for a crime they have done — but ... the people who live in the prison are alive, they have thoughts and dreams. And Pei-Ming’s work helps us to remember all that, to look at the prison community with a different perspective. And that precisely is the strength of art, the strength of this project.”

“The theme of hope, strongly felt by Pope Francis, intersects humanity in places of hardship,” Lina Di Domenico, the head of the prison administration department of Italy’s Ministry of Justice, said Feb. 12.

“The faces portrayed by artist Yan Pei-Ming,” she said, “projected on the facade of Regina Coeli, will allow everyone to ‘see’ a cross-section of the humanity that lives beyond those walls, to approach a world as unknown and obscure to most as that of penal enforcement.”

Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça said at a Feb. 12 press conference the purpose of the Jubilee Year initiatives is to cultivate a dialogue on hope: “To question how contemporary art can convey hope by reaching out to sensitive human places. To search together for spiritual and artistic expressions that can serve as grammars and poetries of hope for the contemporary time.”

Concern for prisoners is strongly connected to the 2025 Jubilee and its theme of hope. For the first time, Pope Francis designated a jubilee Holy Door within a prison, opening the door on Dec. 26, 2024, in Rome’s Rebibbia Prison Complex.

Regina Coeli Prison, one of Rome’s most well-known prisons, is just over half a mile from the Vatican.

Originally the site of a 17th-century convent, from which it gets its name, the Regina Coeli Prison was constructed in 1881 by the Italian government after the country’s unification. A women’s prison called the Mantellate was later built nearby, also on the site of a former convent.

In 2018, Pope Francis celebrated Holy Thursday Mass at the prison, washing the feet of 12 inmates. The prison was also visited by St. John XXIII in 1958, by St. Paul VI in 1964, and by St. John Paul II in 2000.

Another notable person to visit the prison was Mother Teresa, now St. Teresa of Calcutta, who attended Mass with some of the inmates in May 1994.

The second artist to be featured in the “Conciliazione 5” gallery space, Perrella said, will be an Albanian who immigrated to Italy in the 1990s. The artist’s exhibit will be on the theme of “journey” in the context of migration, the art curator said.

Pope Francis greets visitors at his general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Feb 12, 2025 / 10:16 am (CNA).

Pope Francis held his general audience in the Vatican on Wednesday despite bronchitis affecting his breathing, with the Holy Father urging people to pray and do penance for peace in the world.  

Making the effort to use his own voice at the end of the audience, the pope earnestly pleaded with Catholics to “do our best” to bring an end to all conflicts.

Pope Francis is hugged by a young visitor at his general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. Credit: Vatican Media

“Let us pray for peace, let us even do penance for peace,” the 88-year-old pontiff told pilgrims inside the Paul VI Audience Hall.

Expressing particular concern for the people of Ukraine, Israel, Palestine, Myanmar, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Holy Father reminded his listeners that “war is always a defeat.”

“I am thinking about many countries at war,” the pontiff shared with his listeners. “We were not born to kill but to make people grow.”

The pope asked Father Pierluigi Giroli on Wednesday to read his catechesis on his behalf, after briefly explaining to hundreds of pilgrims that bronchitis is still preventing him from comfortably using his voice at gatherings. “I hope that next time I can,” Francis said.

Reading the pope’s catechesis on St. Luke’s Gospel, Giroli said: “God does not come into the world with high-sounding proclamations; he does not manifest himself in clamor but begins his journey in humility.”

“The shepherds thus learn that in a very humble place, reserved for animals, the long-awaited Messiah is born and is born for them, to be their savior, their shepherd,” he continued.

Pope Francis blesses a mother and her unborn child at his general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. Credit: Vatican Media

Noting the shepherds’ openness to receive the news of the coming of Jesus, the pope’s catechesis emphasized that it is “the humblest and the poorest who are able to welcome the event of the Incarnation.” 

“Brothers and sisters, let us also ask for the grace to be, like shepherds, capable of wonder and praise before God,” the pope shared in his prepared remarks.

“Let us ask the Lord to be able to discern in weakness the extraordinary strength of the Child God, who comes to renew the world and transform our lives with his plan full of hope for all humanity,” he added.

Despite bronchitis, Pope Francis held his General Audience, urging prayer and penance for peace. Unable to speak fully, he asked Fr. Giroli to read his catechesis, expressing hope to recover soon. Let us unite in prayer for Pope Francis’ health. pic.twitter.com/OJX7qTH8Dd

— EWTN Vatican (@EWTNVatican) February 12, 2025

St. Peter’s Basilica. / Credit: Bohumil Petrik/CNA

ACI Prensa Staff, Feb 12, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The first Vatican Summit on Longevity will take place on March 24, bringing together experts and world leaders to explore the most advanced scientific discoveries and reflect on the fundamental ethical values ​​that guide research in this field.

The summit will take place in the context of the 2025 Jubilee in the auditorium of the Augustinianum Conference Center in Rome in a meeting that will bring together scientists, Nobel laureates, and world leaders to address one of the crucial challenges of our time: promoting healthy, sustainable, and integral aging.

The idea for the meeting came from Alberto Carrara, president of the International Institute of Neurobioethics, and Viviana Kasam, president of BrainCircle Italy, who passed away in October 2024. The event is sponsored by the Pontifical Academy for Life, whose president, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, will open the event.

The Vatican Longevity Summit will not be an isolated event but the first step of an ambitious global project led by the Vatican in collaboration with international scientific and academic institutions.

According to a statement from the Pontifical Academy for Life, this project aims to promote a model of longevity that does not simply increase lifespan but enriches it in terms of quality, dignity, and sustainability, integrating science, ethics, and spirituality.

Furthermore, in line with shared ethical and anthropological principles, the International Institute of Neurobioethics aims to develop an interdisciplinary platform to foster dialogue between scientists, philosophers, bioethicists, and policymakers.

Integral human longevity will be the central theme of future activities, the statement said, with the aim of building a society that values ​​all stages of life and promotes intergenerational solidarity.

“This summit represents not only a scientific reflection but [also] a call to consider aging as an ethical responsibility and an extraordinary opportunity for innovation for the common good,” the statement 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 greets Chems-eddine Hafiz, rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, on Feb. 10, 2025. / Credit: Courtesy of the Grand Mosque of Paris

Vatican City, Feb 11, 2025 / 13:35 pm (CNA).

The rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, Chems-Eddine Hafiz, proposed to Pope Francis organizing a meeting between Christians and Muslims in the French capital this year to promote interreligious dialogue and fraternity.

Hafiz made the proposal on Feb. 10 at Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican during an audience with the pope, which was also attended by a delegation from the European Coordination Council AMMALE (Alliance of Mosques, Associations, and Muslim Leaders), an organization aimed at improving the integration and practice of Islam in Europe.

Inspired by the encyclical Fratelli Tutti, the initiative seeks to promote fraternity and justice through interreligious dialogue.

During the meeting, the second between the two after one held in 2022, the pontiff apologized for not receiving him at the Apostolic Palace.

“I have bronchitis. I live here and I can’t go out,” he explained in a video posted on the website of the Grand Mosque of Paris.

Despite the illness, the 88-year-old Holy Father has not canceled his schedule and continues to work. However, in recent days he has shown difficulty reading texts aloud.

During the meeting, the rector gave the pontiff a message on the fraternity of Christians and Muslims in Europe in which he proposed the idea of ​​​​organizing a new international meeting to promote this fraternity on a continental scale.

Specifically, in the letter published on the website of the Grand Mosque of Paris, Hafiz proposes holding a major interreligious meeting in the French capital in 2025, inspired by the Assisi meetings of 1986, with the aim of reaffirming friendship between Christians and Muslims.

Although the Vatican Press Office has not given details in this regard, the Holy Father entrusted this task to the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, according to the Grand Mosque of Paris.

In the letter he delivered to Pope Francis, Hafiz reflected on the shared history between Christians and Muslims, highlighting the fruitful encounters and challenges they have faced together over the centuries.

The Muslim leader said that despite their differences, both communities are united by the same divine origin and must strengthen fraternity in Europe.

Growing fear and rejection of Muslims

Hafiz also warned of the growing fear and rejection of Muslims in Europe fuelled by hate speech and stereotypes that associate Islam with violence.

In this regard, he highlighted the role of Pope Francis in combating these prejudices and promoting unity, as demonstrated by his meetings with Muslim leaders and his commitment to interreligious brotherhood.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.