Pope Francis at Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square on March 24, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Mar 24, 2024 / 09:45 am (CNA).

On Palm Sunday, hundreds of priests, bishops, cardinals, and laypeople solemnly carried large palm branches in procession through St. Peter’s Square to begin the first liturgy of Holy Week.

“Dear brothers and sisters, since the beginning of Lent until now we have prepared our hearts by penance and charitable works,” Pope Francis said in a soft voice at the beginning of Palm Sunday Mass on March 24.

“Today we gather together to herald with the whole Church the beginning of the celebration of our Lord’s paschal mystery, that is to say, of his passion and resurrection.”

Cardinals and bishops carry intricately decorated palm branches in the Palm Sunday procession in St. Peter's Square on March 24, 2024. Credit: Bénédicte Cedergren/EWTN News

Speaking in St. Peter’s Square adorned with palms and greenery, the pope invited the crowd to follow in Jesus’ footsteps as he entered Jerusalem “so that being made by his grace partakers of the cross, we may have a share also in his resurrection and in his life.”

Pope Francis chose not to read the homily prepared for Palm Sunday Mass at the last minute without explanation. The 87-year-old pope, who arrived at the Mass in a wheelchair, has had aides read some of his speeches for him in recent weeks.

Pope Francis arrives at Palm Sunday Mass in a wheelchair on March 24, 2024. Bénédicte Cedergren/EWTN News

The pope did read the prayers for the Mass and spoke at the end of the liturgy, offering an appeal for peace in Ukraine and prayers for the victims of the terrorist attack in Moscow.

In his peace appeal, Pope Francis gave a brief reflection on the Gospel account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on a donkey as the Prince of Peace.

“Dear brothers and sisters, Jesus entered Jerusalem as a humble and peaceful king. Let us open our hearts to him. Only he can deliver us from enmity, hatred, violence, because he is mercy and the forgiveness of sins,” the pope said.

Pope Francis at Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square on March 24, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media

Palm Sunday is the only Mass of the year in which two Gospels are proclaimed. The Gospel of Mark’s account of Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey was read aloud at the beginning of the Mass and later the Passion of the Lord was solemnly proclaimed with a choir singing the words of the crowd.

Palm Sunday procession of hundreds of priests, cardinals, bishops, and lay people through St Peter’s Square. pic.twitter.com/3oH4gRra2N

— Courtney Mares (@catholicourtney) March 24, 2024

An estimated 60,000 people were at the papal Mass, according to the Vatican Gendarmes.

At the conclusion of the liturgy, Pope Francis rode through St. Peter’s Square on the popemobile greeting enthusiastic pilgrims who waved flags and cheered.

Pope Francis at Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square on March 24, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media

Pope Francis has a busy schedule for Holy Week. He will preside over a chrism Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday morning before going to a women’s prison in Rome to offer Holy Thursday’s Mass of the Lord’s Supper.

Pope Francis at Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square on March 24, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media

The pope is also scheduled to preside over a celebration for the Passion of the Lord on Good Friday at the Vatican and lead the Stations of the Cross devotion in Rome’s Colosseum.

Palm Sunday procession in St. Peter's Square on March 24, 2024. Credit: Bénédicte Cedergren/EWTN News

On Holy Saturday, Pope Francis is set to preside over the Easter Vigil liturgy, where he will baptize new Catholics. On the morning of Easter Sunday, Pope Francis will be back in St. Peter’s Square for Mass and will give the annual “urbi et orbi” Easter blessing.

At the end of Palm Sunday Mass, Pope Francis said: “And now we turn in prayer to the Virgin Mary. Let us learn from her to stay close to Jesus during the days of Holy Week, in order to arrive at the joy of the Resurrection.”

Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square on March 24, 2024. Bénédicte Cedergren/EWTN News

This article was updated at 3:30 p.m. local time with excerpts of Pope Francis' peace appeal at the end of Mass.

Pope Francis greets staff and families of RAI, Italy’s national public broadcasting company, March 23, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Mar 23, 2024 / 13:53 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis on Saturday spoke on the important role public broadcasting plays in the transmission of information, serving the common good, and as an instrument to fight the spread of “fake news.”

“Your work is intended above all to be a response to the needs of the citizens, in a spirit of universal openness, with action capable of extending throughout the territory without becoming localist, respecting and promoting the dignity of each person,” the pope said in a Saturday morning address to the managers, journalists, and staff of RAI, Italy’s national public broadcasting company.

The 87-year-old pontiff seemed to be in good spirits as he delivered the nearly 10-minute-long address. In the last month, the pope has relied on aides to deliver his Wednesday general audience and speeches as he recovered from lingering flu symptoms.

“Once upon a time the popes used the gestatorial chair,” he said, alluding to the ceremonial throne on which a pope would be borne aloft. “Today things have moved on and I use this, which is very practical,” the pope quipped, pointing to the wheelchair that he has used since 2022 to move around.

During this address, the pope emphasized that the media’s mission of service to the public good is underscored by “seeking and promoting the truth.” Francis pointed to the imperative of combating the spread of viral misinformation, or “fake news,” and “the devious plans of those who seek to influence public opinion in an ideological manner, lying and disintegrating the social fabric.”

“It means serving the right of citizens to correct information, transmitted without prejudice, without rushing to conclusions but taking the necessary time to understand and to reflect, countering cognitive pollution, cognitive pollution, because information too must be ‘ecological,’ that is, human,” the pope continued.

For the pope this duty also requires broadcasters to let a plurality of voices be heard, to foster dialogue, and to be “an instrument for growth in knowledge, to cause people to reflect and not alienate.”

“The entire media system,” the pope continued, “at a global level, needs to be provoked and stimulated to come out of itself and to question itself, to look farther, beyond.”

The pope also made a general appeal to all public broadcasters, calling on them to not chase ratings but to create high-quality content that “may help each and every person to be uplifted, to reflect, to be moved, to smile and even to weep with emotion, to find meaning in life, a prospect of good, a meaning that is not that of yielding to the worst.”

Pope Francis venerates the Salus Populi Romani icon in the Basilica of St. Mary Major on Dec. 8, 2023. / Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Mar 21, 2024 / 17:30 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis on Wednesday issued new regulations for the administration of the papal Basilica of St. Mary Major, placing new emphasis on spiritual work and pastoral care and appointing a coadjutor archpriest of the West’s oldest Marian shrine. 

In the March 20 chirograph, or papal decree, the Holy Father explained that he sought to “free” the “canons,” (members of the group or “chapter” of clergy he designates to serve the basilica) “from all economic and administrative duties, so that they may dedicate themselves, fully and with renewed vigor, to the spiritual and pastoral accompaniment” of pilgrims.

In December 2021 Pope Francis appointed Lithuanian-born Archbishop Rolandas Makrickas as the extraordinary commissioner to undertake the commissioning process “for the reorganization of the life of the chapter and the basilica, for the greater good of the people of God.” 

This process, led by an extraordinary commissioner and assisted by a special commission, looked at the administrative functioning of the basilica, including a study of the basilica’s financial situation. 

The Basilica of St. Mary Major, also known as the Liberian Basilica, is one of the four papal basilicas of Rome and home to the relic of the Holy Cradle and the icon of Salus Populi Romani, a Byzantine icon attributed to St. Luke depicting the Madonna and Child Jesus holding a Gospel book.

The basilica has been an important place for Pope Francis, who prays there before the icon before and after all his apostolic journeys. 

In December 2023, in an interview with Mexican television program “N+”, the pope expressed his desire to be buried in the basilica, not in the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica. 

In his chirograph, the pope appointed Makrickas as the coadjutor archpriest of St. Mary Major, with the right to succeed 78-year-old Polish Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, who has served as archpriest since 2016. 

The archpriest is traditionally a cardinal who serves a five-year renewable term, exercising “executive power of government for the activities of the basilica itself and for the administration of the chapter’s assets,” and is the legal representative of the basilica. 

The statue also created two new positions: the delegate for pastoral care, who is the archpriest’s first collaborator for the activities of the canons and the basilica and works in close collaboration with the master of ceremonies and the delegate for administration, who oversees the administrative tasks of the basilica. 

Makrickas will continue to cover the duties of these two roles until those positions are appointed.

The new statute also established a new administrative council, which will be tasked with administration of the chapter’s assets. According to Article 48 of the new statutes, the administrative council is composed of the archpriest, the two delegates, a representative of the governorate of the Vatican City State, and a representative of the Administration of the Heritage of the Apostolic See (APSA).

German bishops in Rome on Nov. 17, 2022. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

CNA Newsroom, Mar 21, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

A delegation of German bishops is expected in Rome this Friday for talks with the Vatican about the German Synodal Way. 

While the precise agenda is not a matter of public record, the encounter will likely focus on plans to install a permanent Synodal Council to oversee the Church in Germany.

Raising several concerns, the Vatican reminded the Germans ahead of the meeting — in a letter dated Feb. 16 — that the Holy See has not mandated them to set up such a council. 

Addressing Bishop Georg Bätzing, president of the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK), Vatican officials told the Germans “that neither the Synodal Way, nor any body established by it, nor any bishops’ conference has the competence to establish the ‘synodal council’ at the national, diocesan, or parish level.”

Previous warnings from Rome have not always been well received, and the February letter, signed by Cardinals Pietro Parolin, Victor Fernández, and Robert Prevost — the heads of the Secretariat of State, Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and the Dicastery for Bishops — may suffer a similar fate.

“I have the impression that we are not properly understood in Rome,” Bishop Helmut Dieser of Aachen told news agency KNA this week regarding the Friday meeting in Rome, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.

While hoping for progress, Dieser, who supports changes in Church teaching on sexuality and gender, also criticized the Vatican: Noting Rome had invited bishops, not laypeople, the bishop said this was “not the style of leadership that we are trying to establish in Germany.”

A private letter from Pope Francis

The question of how Church leadership is understood is a burning one. While Pope Francis told the Synod of Bishops on Oct. 4, 2023, that “the synod is not a parliament,” one of the key organizers of the German process, ZdK President Irme Stetter-Karp, has called for the council to provide for majority decisions, CNA Deutsch reported. 

The German bishops were expected to vote on the statutes for a preparatory committee during their plenary assembly in February. 

However, that vote was suspended following the Vatican intervention. At the same time, plans to establish a council by 2026 clearly have not been abandoned. According to the official portal of the Church in Germany, katholisch.de, the committee will still meet again in June to discuss plans.  

Furthermore, the lay organization ZdK already approved the committee’s statutes on Nov. 25, 2023, despite earlier warnings from Rome of the risk of a new German schism. 

Pope Francis criticized the work of the preparatory committee in a private letter in November. Calling the committee one of “numerous steps being taken by significant segments” of the Church in Germany, he warned that these “threaten to steer it increasingly away from the universal Church’s common path.”

Striking a carefully optimistic tone, the new archbishop of Paderborn, Udo Bentz, called for patience with a view to fostering “good synodal processes,” even if this sometimes meant walking an extra mile, but doing so together, CNA Deutsch reported on Wednesday.

The Synodal Way — “Synodaler Weg,” sometimes called Synodal Path — describes itself as a process bringing together Germany’s bishops and selected laypeople to debate and pass resolutions based on a 2018 sexual abuse study.

Participants have voted in favor of draft documents calling for the priestly ordination of women, same-sex blessings, and changes to Church teaching on homosexual acts.

In 2023, over half a million migrants headed toward the United States crossed the Darien Gap, the inhospitable jungle region between Colombia and Panama. / Credit: Gonzalo Bell/Shutterstock.com

Rome Newsroom, Mar 20, 2024 / 15:15 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis on Wednesday sent a letter to the bishops of Colombia, Panama, and Costa Rica highlighting the need to develop greater pastoral care and initiatives to assist migrants who travel through the treacherous Darien Gap.

“As Christians, every refugee and migrant who leaves his or her homeland challenges us,” the pope wrote. “In our villages we find at the same time the hospitable fraternity that welcomes with human sensitivity, but also, unfortunately, the indifference that stains the Darién with blood.”

The pope’s message comes as bishops from the episcopal conferences of the three countries conclude a four-day meeting in Panama titled “Easter with Our Migrant Brothers and Sisters,” focused on the Catholic Church’s pastoral outreach and services amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Central America. 

The 100-mile-long Darien Gap, located on the border between Panama and Colombia, is one of the world’s most trafficked — and dangerous — migratory pathways. 

The sparsely populated jungled region (the only overland passage connecting Central and South America) has no paved roads nor basic infrastructure in place to facilitate the passage of migrants.

Yet many migrants remained undeterred in making the journey north, despite the treacherous conditions, risk of disease, and death, as well as mounting pressure from the Biden administration on Latin American governments to halt crossings. 

According to figures released by the Panamanian government, the number of migrants who passed through the Darien Gap reached a record high of 520,000 in 2023, more than double the number who came in 2022.

“Neither the dangers posed by transit and illegal blackmail nor the increasing returns or stalemates in countries where these brothers and sisters are not wanted diminish the attraction (real or illusory) of satisfying the needs of employment and better living conditions, or even of a hoped-for family reunification,” Francis wrote to the bishops this week.

But the pope also noted that it is a “pastoral opportunity” so migrants can “find in the Church a place where he or she will not feel judged but welcomed, where hunger and thirst can be quenched and hope revived.” 

While acknowledging the extensive network of humanitarian services already provided by the Catholic Church — including shelters, returnee centers, medical care, legal advice, and spiritual support — the pope stressed that pastors and those in the service of migrants should “go beyond the limits of the established.”

Pope Francis encouraged the bishops to confront the myriad challenges presented by the influx of migrants by developing a unified, regional approach. The pope stressed that meeting the immediate needs of migrants does preclude longer-term solutions that would ameliorate the structural issues behind the migration crisis.

“I recalled that the right not to migrate is presented to us as a solution, albeit a long-term one, to forced migration, through the regional integration of countries of expulsion, transit, destination, and return of migrants,” the pope wrote.

“I urge you, therefore, to join forces with all the bodies of the international community so that everyone may have the right to remain in their homeland with a dignified and peaceful life.”

Pope Francis addresses the faithful at his Wednesday general audience on Feb. 28, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Mar 19, 2024 / 13:30 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis on Tuesday released his message for the 61st World Day of Prayer for Vocations, reflecting on the Christian pilgrimage as a synodal journey that is rooted in hope and aimed toward discovering God’s love. 

The theme for the this year’s World Day of Prayer for Vocations, “Called to Sow Seeds of Hope and to Build Peace,” reflects the universal Christian call to “base our lives on the rock of Christ’s resurrection, knowing that every effort made in the vocation that we have embraced and seek to live out will never be in vain,” the pope said. 

This year the Church celebrates the World Day of Prayer for Vocations on April 21.

“This ultimate calling is one that we must anticipate daily,” the pope observed. “Even now our loving relationship with God and our brothers and sisters is beginning to bring about God’s dream of unity, peace, and fraternity.”

The pope noted that this process of discernment assumes a “synodal character,” as the Church has a “polyphony of diverse charisms and vocations.”

“Amid the variety of our charisms, we are called to listen to one another and to journey together in order to acknowledge them and to discern where the Spirit is leading us for the benefit of all,” the pope observed.

Francis reinforced this observation by pointing to the theme of the 2025 Jubilee Year, “Pilgrims of Hope.” 

“We can become for our world messengers and witnesses of Jesus’ dream of a single human family, united in God’s love and in the bond of charity, cooperation, and fraternity,” the Holy Father said. 

For the pope, the pilgrimage is a journey that has a regenerative effect as man carries “only the essentials” while “striving daily to set aside all weariness, fear, uncertainty, and hesitation” in order to “discover the love of God.”

“Being a pilgrim,” Francis continued, “means setting out each day, beginning ever anew, rediscovering the enthusiasm and strength needed to pursue the various stages of a journey that, however tiring and difficult, always opens before our eyes new horizons and previously unknown vistas.” 

But the pope also noted that this journey is a process of self-discovery, which is “nourished by our relationships with others.”

“We are pilgrims because we have been called, called to love God and to love one another,” he said. 

The Holy Father emphasized that this pilgrimage, or process, is “far from a pointless journey or aimless wandering” but is instead a process by which humans can work “toward a new world where people can live in peace, justice, and love.” 

Francis also directed this call to today’s youth — especially those who feel estranged or suspicious of the Church — with the pope encouraging them to bring Christ the “important questions.” 

“Let him challenge you by his presence, which always provokes in us a healthy crisis. More than anyone else, Jesus respects our freedom. He does not impose but proposes. Make room for him and you will find the way to happiness by following him. And, should he ask it of you, by giving yourself completely to him.”

The library of the Pontifical Gregorian University. / Credit: Pontifical Gregorian University

CNA Staff, Mar 19, 2024 / 10:30 am (CNA).

The historic Jesuit-run Pontifical Gregorian University this week announced its official merger with the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Pontifical Oriental Institute.

The Gregorian announced on its website on Monday that, per a decree from Jesuit Superior General Father Arturo Sosa, the university’s new General Statutes will “permanently incorporate” the two institutes with the Gregorian into one corporate structure.

The merger of the three Rome-based schools will take effect on Pentecost Sunday, May 19. The institutions will merge “while still retaining their own names and missions,” the university said.

The Gregorian currently has an enrollment of about 2,700 students, 70% of whom come from outside Italy. For centuries it has been a major center of Catholic education and intellectual thought, training students in various disciplines for roles in the priesthood, religious life, and lay ministries. About 20% of its students are laymen and laywomen.

It counts among its alumni numerous saints and popes as well as well-known living clergy such as Cardinal Raymond Burke and Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re.

The two institutes, meanwhile, instruct approximately 300 students each and offer graduate-level degrees in topics such as canon law and sacred Scripture.

The biblical institute was established in 1909 by Pope Pius X. The pontiff in his apostolic letter Vinea Electa tasked the institute to “defend, promulgate, and promote the sound doctrine of the Holy Books” and to “promote as effectively as possible the biblical doctrine and all related studies according to the spirit of the Catholic Church.”

The “particular mission” of the Oriental Institute, meanwhile, is “to serve the Eastern Churches” by carrying out “objective research, teaching, and publications” regarding those churches, which it does also as a means to “make [their] riches available to the Latin West.” 

All three institutes are run by Jesuits. As “pontifical” institutions, they are under the authority of the Holy See.

The Gregorian in its announcement noted that the merger came about “following the chirograph signed by Pope Francis on Dec. 17, 2019,” in which the Holy Father “ordered that the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Pontifical Oriental Institute be joined to the Gregorian University.”

The three schools have already been associated for nearly a century through the Gregorian Consortium after the 1930 motu proprio Quod Maxime issued by Pope Pius XI. 

null / Credit: Vadim Sadovski/Shutterstock

ACI Prensa Staff, Mar 18, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Two priests and cosmologists from the Vatican Observatory have made further progress in developing a new mathematical method to understand the Big Bang theory, which describes the first moments of the universe.

In a 2022 article published in the prestigious journal Physical Review D, Fathers Gabriele Gionti, SJ, and Matteo Galaverni introduced the new and promising mathematical tool. They have recently published a new article in the European Physical Journal C, a publication that presents novel research results in theoretical physics and experimental physics.

“It really is fascinating to try to understand the physical laws in the early moments of the universe. The search for new physical laws and the effort to fully understand them is a process that fills our minds and hearts with great joy,” the priests said in a Vatican Observatory publication released March 14.

The observatory’s statement points out that Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which postulates that gravity is the curvature of space-time rather than a force as proposed by Isaac Newton’s theory of gravity, remains the best physical theory “for understanding the large-scale structure of the universe today.” However, there are still unresolved questions about the laws of physics during the first moments of the universe and about how gravity works on extremely small scales, which can be studied using quantum mechanics.

Currently, there are alternative or modified theories of gravity that suggest that gravity might behave differently than general relativity predicts, even with respect to the large-scale structure of the universe.

In their new article, “On the canonical equivalence between the Jordan and Einstein frames,” Gionti and Galaverni demonstrate how they can “map” the solution to a physical problem from an alternative theory of gravity to general relativity through a mathematical trick. This trick consists of analyzing the problem through two different mathematical frames, known as the “Jordan” and “Einstein” frames, which are different approaches to describing the geometry of space-time in general relativity, each with its own advantages and specific applications.

For Gionti and Galaverni, this work is “a way to contribute, together with the entire scientific community, to answering some fundamental questions: “Who are we? Where do we come from? What is our origin?”

“Furthermore, for a person of faith, it is a wonderful possibility to interpret one’s research as a discovery of new traces or signs of God’s beauty and elegance in the creation of the universe, despite our extremely limited knowledge!” the priest-scientists concluded.

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

A Colombian psychologist bishop and a retired colonel from the Illinois State Police are the new secretaries of the Pontifical Commission for the Guardianship of Minors. / Credit: Holy See Press Office

CNA Staff, Mar 15, 2024 / 15:25 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis on Friday appointed an American former law enforcement professional as adjunct secretary to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and a Colombian bishop as secretary of the independent body tasked since 2014 with advising the pope on how the Church can best protect minors and vulnerable adults. 

The Vatican announced March 15 that Teresa Morris Kettelkamp, a Chicago native and Illinois law enforcement professional, was named as the commission’s adjunct secretary. Auxiliary Bishop Luis Manuel Alí Herrera of Bogotá, Colombia, was named secretary of the commission, replacing Father Andrew Small, who had served as temporary secretary since 2021. Both appointees were already members of the currently 19-member commission. 

The commission, established by Pope Francis in March 2014, is headed by Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, who turns 80 in June. O’Malley has defended the commission’s effectiveness, saying last March that “the protection of children and vulnerable persons remains at the heart of the Church’s mission.”

Kettelkamp formerly was appointed to lead the United States bishops’ Office for Child and Youth Protection in 2005, serving in that role until 2011. She was first appointed a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in 2018. She had previously worked on the drafting of the Guidelines for the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Adults with the commission. 

A former colonel with the Illinois State Police (ISP), Kettelkamp retired after 29 years of service, during which time she headed the ISP’s crime labs and crime scene services. She also, according to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors website, headed the ISP’s Division of Internal Investigation, which was responsible for the investigation of allegations of misconduct within the ISP as well as in the agencies, boards, and commissions under the executive branch of the Illinois state government.

Alí Herrera, who is also a psychologist, was born in Barranquilla, Colombia, on May 2, 1967, and was ordained a priest in 1992. After graduating with a degree in theology from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana of Bogotá in 2003, he obtained a degree in psychology from the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome (2007). He is a senior associate of the Colegio Colombiano de Psicólogos (Colombian School of Psychologists), Vatican News reported.

Pope Francis appointed him as a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in 2014 and appointed him an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Bogotá the following year.

The work and operations of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors has garnered scrutiny in recent years, in part because of questions Small, the commission’s former temporary secretary, has faced since May 2023 about his management of funds at the Pontifical Mission Societies U.S.A. In addition, a prominent founding member of the commission, Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, resigned his post roughly a year ago, citing “issues that need to be urgently addressed” related to a perceived lack of “responsibility, compliance, accountability, and transparency.”

Pope Francis meets with participants of the conference “Indigenous Peoples’ Knowledge and the Sciences,” sponsored by the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences, held at the Vatican from March 14–15, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Mar 15, 2024 / 10:20 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Thursday reflected on the importance of holding up Indigenous voices and incorporating “ancestral wisdom” as part of broader efforts to mitigate the effects of anthropogenic climate change.

“Open dialogue between Indigenous knowledge and the sciences, between communities of ancestral wisdom and those of the sciences, can help to confront in a new, more integral and more effective way such crucial issues as water, climate change, hunger, and biodiversity,” the pope observed at the Vatican on Thursday. ‘“These issues, as we know very well, are all interconnected.”

The remarks were addressed to participants of the conference “Indigenous Peoples’ Knowledge and the Sciences,” sponsored by the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences, held at the Vatican from March 14–15. 

This event brings together a plurality of voices from the pontifical academies, Indigenous groups, academics, and international organizations in order to evaluate how traditional Indigenous teachings and methodologies can be harmonized with conventional science to inform global policy on climate change, biodiversity loss, food security, and health.

According to the United Nations, Indigenous people are defined as those who “inhabited a country or a geographical region at the time when people of different cultures or ethnic origins arrived” and retain distinct “social, cultural, economic, and political characteristics” from their native societies. 

Pope Francis meets with participants of the conference “Indigenous Peoples’ Knowledge and the Sciences,” sponsored by the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences, held at the Vatican from March 14–15, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media

“The Church is with you, an ally of the Indigenous peoples and their wisdom, and an ally of science in striving to make our world one of ever greater fraternity and social friendship,” the pope said on Thursday. 

In the address, Francis pointed to a 2021 study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) that examined both Indigenous food systems and the inclusion of Indigenous knowledge as a core component of the United Nations’ 2024–2033 “International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development (IDSSD).”

The pope cited these as two concrete examples of how Indigenous representation has been developed on the international stage. 

The pope stressed the importance of protecting Indigenous “cultures, traditions, spiritualities, and languages” as they form part of the “fabric of humanity,” and their loss would “represent an impoverishment of knowledge, identity, and memory for all of us.”

“For this reason,” the pope continued, “projects of scientific research, and accordingly investments, ought to be directed decisively to the promotion of human fraternity, justice, and peace, so that resources can be coordinated and allocated to respond to the urgent challenges facing the earth, our common home, and the family of peoples.”

The themes of ecological protection and human fraternity have been featured prominently in Francis’ pontificate. 

In his seminal 2015 encyclical on climate Laudato Si’, Pope Francis emphasized the urgency of incorporating Indigenous voices in the broader discussion on climate change mitigation, noting those individuals “are not merely one minority among others, but should be the principal dialogue partners, especially when large projects affecting their land are proposed.” 

According to the United Nations Development Program, the global Indigenous population sits at 370 million people — or 5% of the worldwide population — and is among the most vulnerable groups to the effects of anthropogenic climate change and its associated risks such as desertification, food scarcity, biodiversity loss, and forced migration.

Dominican Sister Lucía Caram on the television program “Cuentos Chinos” (“Tall Tales”) in Spain. / Credit: Mediaset

ACI Prensa Staff, Mar 14, 2024 / 18:00 pm (CNA).

Yesterday Pope Francis received the controversial nun Sister Lucía Caram and team members of the Spanish-language news portal Religión Digital, which regularly publishes content contrary to Catholic doctrine.

The pope’s March 13 audience with Caram and the Religión Digital journalists went unmentioned in the Vatican Press Office’s daily news brief.

In an article, Religión Digital, now in its 25th year, stated that the Holy Father met with its members for half an hour and reportedly encouraged the team: “Do not lose hope. Continue fighting for this living Church and making it known.”

The article noted that the pontiff met with the visitors in “the back room of the Paul VI Hall, (la auletta),” which is “the same office where he received [Volodymyr] Zelensky, [Nicolás] Maduro, and Raúl Castro,” presidents of Ukraine, Venezuela, and Cuba, respectively.

Participating in the audience with the pope were Caram, a Dominican nun; the director of Religión Digital, former priest José Manuel Vidal; journalists José Lorenzo and Jesús Bastante; and Father Ángel García Rodríguez, president of the nongovernmental organization Messengers of Peace.

Topics such as “the Church in Spain, future challenges, his health, extreme critics, the question of seminaries, future trips, and the validation of Vatican II” were discussed.

“Vatican II was a midfield goal for the Church, which has done us a lot of good, and which was necessary, although not everything has yet been put into effect,” the pope reportedly commented.

According to Religión Digital, the group gave Pope Francis on the 11th anniversary of his pontificate “a special gift: the tens of thousands of messages of support received in the RDconelPapa campaign [‘Religión Digital [Is] with the Pope’] that came from all corners of the world,” for which the Holy Father expressed his great appreciation.

Caram commented on Facebook that “we saw a serene pope, he looked very well. We were able to talk, listen, and share. I gave him a gift that moved him: a case with the book of the Gospels and psalms that a soldier had on him when he died on the front” in the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Who is Sister Lucia Caram?

Caram, 57, is a Dominican nun from Argentina who lives in Spain. She is known for various controversial positions, such as her support for Catalonia’s independence from Spain.

In 2023 she spoke out in favor of homosexual couples being able to “marry in the Church.”

In 2017, in an interview with porn actor Nacho Vidal, the nun criticized that “for a long time the Church has dedicated itself to stoning those who weren’t living according to the norm.”

In 2014, she told La Opinión de Málaga online news that “those who freely make the decision [to abort] have to be the people [involved]. The Church cannot meddle in there. Not even God, who made us free for a reason.”

In 2013, interviewed by the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, the nun defended the use of contraceptive methods and claimed that “hell does not exist.”

It should be noted that an audience with the pope is not a papal endorsement by association with the person or persons visiting him or their views and that the Vatican Press Office does not confirm or deny statements allegedly made by the pope in such private audiences or nonpublic interviews.

What is Religión Digital?

Religión Digital is a website that regularly publishes content contrary to the doctrine of the Catholic Church. One of its most controversial articles, written by the Jesuit priest Juan Masiá, denied the virginity of Mary. On the same portal, on another occasion Masiá defended euthanasia.

Caram has also been a contributor to the portal.

In 2016, the well-known Spanish priest and demonology expert Father José Antonio Fortea told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, that Religión Digital was “a website that continually promoted all authors who attacked dogma and the ecclesiastical hierarchy.”

Fortea questioned that some Catholics finance Religión Digital and warned that the portal is a “source of waters poisoned by heterodoxy.”

After Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation from the pontificate in February 2013, a month before the election of Pope Francis, Religión Digital published on its front page: “The problem is not the pope... the problem is the papacy.”

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

Cardinal Mario Grech and Pope Francis at the conclusion of the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 28, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Mar 14, 2024 / 17:40 pm (CNA).

Church experts will meet in study groups to examine the question of women deacons and other key topics through June 2025 — well beyond the Oct. 27 conclusion of the final assembly of the Synod on Synodality, Pope Francis revealed in a new letter to the synod’s general secretary released Thursday.

Writing to Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary general of the General Secretariat of the Synod, the pope noted that the 42-page Synthesis Report produced after the first session of the synod assembly held last October “enumerates many important theological issues,” which “by their very nature, require in-depth study.”

Because it won’t be possible to complete this study before the start of the next synod assembly on Oct. 2, the pope explained, “I am arranging for them to be assigned to specific study groups, so that they may be properly examined.”

In his letter Pope Francis listed 10 themes he wants the study groups to examine. They are:

1. Some aspects of the relationship between the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Latin Church.

2. Listening to the cry of the poor.

3. The mission in the digital environment.

4. The revision of the Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis in a missionary synodal perspective.

5. Some theological and canonical matters regarding specific ministerial forms.

6. The revision, in a synodal missionary perspective, of the documents touching on the relationship between bishops, consecrated life, and ecclesial associations.

7. Some aspects of the person and ministry of the bishop (criteria for selecting candidates to episcopacy, judicial function of the bishops, nature and course of ad limina apostolorum visits) from a missionary synodal perspective.

8. The role of papal representatives in a missionary synodal perspective.

9. Theological criteria and synodal methodologies for shared discernment of controversial doctrinal, pastoral, and ethical issues.

10. The reception of the fruits of the ecumenical journey in ecclesial practices.

These selected themes were among a more extensive list of topics deemed “matters of great relevance” that came up during the synod’s first session in October 2023 that required consideration “at the level of the whole Church and in collaboration with the dicasteries of the Roman Curia,” according to the Dec. 12, 2023, document from the synod’s general secretariat titled “Towards October 2024.”

Observing that these issues require extensive review, Pope Francis noted that there is inadequate time to fully address them ahead of the synod in October. Therefore, he said, “the study groups will offer an initial account of their activity on the occasion of the second session and, if possible, will conclude their mandate by the month of June 2025.”

The pope said “it is the task of the General Secretariat of the Synod, by joint agreement with the competent dicasteries of the Roman Curia, to constitute these groups, calling pastors and experts from all continents to take part in them, and taking into consideration not only existing studies but also the most relevant current experiences in the people of God gathered in the local Churches.”

“It is important that the aforementioned study groups work according to an authentically synodal method, of which I ask you to be the guarantor,” the pope continued in his letter to Grech.

At a press briefing at the Vatican on Thursday, officials of the Secretariat of the Synod discussed the pope’s letter as well as two new documents the secretariat released in conjunction with the letter.

The first document, titled “Five Perspectives for Theological Exploration in View of the Second Session of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops,” reflects on the guiding theme of the synod: “How to Be a Synodal Church on Mission?”

It highlights that the next session will serve to deepen “the dynamic connection between the participation of all and the authority of some, in the horizon of communion and mission … in its theological meaning, in the practical ways of setting it in motion, and in the reality of canonical structures.”

The document also outlined the intermediary steps that are to be taken in the upcoming months in preparation for the synod, noting that this process will be built upon a “new consultation process,” articulating this will unfold on three distinct levels: the local Church, the groupings of Churches (i.e. national, regional, continental), and on the universal level.

The second document is titled “Study Groups on Questions Arising in the First Session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops to Deepen in Collaboration with the Dicasteries of the Roman Curia.”

It is the second document that specifies that theme No. 5 — regarding matters related to ministerial forms — “is the context in which the question on the possible access of women to the diaconate can be appropriately posed.”

The study group formed to examine this question will be under the direction of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the document notes. This group “is entrusted with the task of continuing “theological and pastoral research on the access of women to the diaconate, taking advantage of the results of the commissions specially established by the Holy Father.”

The group’s work “will also aim to respond to the desire expressed by the Synodal Assembly for ‘a greater recognition and appreciation of the contribution of women and a growth in the pastoral responsibilities entrusted to them in all areas of the life and mission of the Church.”

Pope Francis greets pilgrims at his general audience on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024, at the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Newsroom, Mar 14, 2024 / 16:30 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis has no plans to resign from office — though he says some in the Church wish he would. 

The pontiff addresses the topic in “Life: My Story Through History,” his forthcoming autobiography. Excerpts from the book, which explores in detail the most significant moments of the 87-year-old’s life up until the present day, were published March 14 by the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. 

In the book, Pope Francis says that despite the criticism and medical issues he has faced during his 11-year pontificate, he considers the Petrine ministry to be “for life” and sees no conditions for resignation, barring serious physical impairment.

“Over the years, perhaps some people have hoped that sooner or later, perhaps after hospitalization, I would make an announcement like this, but there is no such risk: Thanks to the Lord, I enjoy good health, and God willing, there are many projects still to realize.” 

The pope says that some are already focusing on who might succeed him, which he says was “only human,” but he also warns that this kind of speculation can be motivated by personal gain or “for profit in the newspapers.” 

Addressing criticism leveled against him during his more than 10 years as pontiff, the Argentinian pope acknowledges that he was hurt by those who claim that he is “destroying the papacy.” But he says that he would have to go to the psychologist once a week if he paid attention to all of the criticism, which he suggests is motivated by opposition to his desire to make the Church more pastoral and less monarchical. 

The pope also writes that it has “pained” him to see Pope Benedict XVI, who resigned in 2013 and lived in the Vatican as pope emeritus before passing away on Dec. 31, 2022, used against him for “ideological and political purposes” by “unscrupulous people who, not having accepted his resignation, have thought of their own gain and their own little garden to cultivate, underestimating the dramatic possibility of a fracture within the Church.” 

In the new book, Pope Francis also defends arguably the most divisive move of his papacy: the Vatican’s recent controversial approval of blessings for same-sex couples. The pope said that the promulgation of Fiducia Supplicans confirms that “God loves everyone, especially sinners,” and that if some decide not to implement the guidance, as many bishops and some entire episcopal conferences have, “it does not mean that this is the antechamber of a schism, because the doctrine of the Church is not called into question.” 

While the pope says that marriage between people of the same sex is not a possibility, he reiterates his approval of civil unions, stating that “it is right that these people who live the gift of love can have legal coverage like everyone else.” 

Twists, turns, and a ‘small crush’ 

The forthcoming autobiography reveals many details of the pope’s family history, upbringing, and ordained ministry — including several twists and turns and “near misses” along the way. 

For instance, the pope shares how his paternal grandparents and father were almost aboard an Italian ship that sank in 1927 en route to Argentina, resulting in the death of 300 emigrants. But the Bergoglio family didn’t have enough money to buy tickets and were providentially spared from the doomed voyage. 

Pope Francis also recounts how as a seminarian he developed a “small crush” on a young woman he met at his uncle’s wedding, whom he was “dazzled by.” 

“For a week I always had the image of her in my mind and it was difficult for me to pray! Then luckily [thoughts of her] passed, and I dedicated body and soul to my vocation.” 

Another near redirection occurred after World War II when the young Jesuit asked to go to Japan as a missionary. But his request was denied due to health concerns.

“If they had sent me to that mission land, my life would have taken a different path; and maybe someone in the Vatican would have been better off now,” the pope quips, referring to his detractors in the Curia. 

Francis also recounts some of the highlights of his ordained ministry, such as the 2013 conclave that elected him pope, but also the more difficult stretches, such as his experience during the Argentinian dictatorship of 1976–1983 and his “exile” into rural Argentina by his Jesuit superiors. 

“It was a period of purification,” the pope says of his years in Cordoba in the 1990s, which came about after mistakes he committed “due to my authoritarian attitude.” 

“I was very closed in on myself, a little depressed.” 

Important formative figures also factor into Pope Francis’ autobiography, including his paternal grandparents, Giovanni and Rosa, but also his boss while a student in a laboratory: a woman named Esther whom the pope describes as “a true communist.”

Abortion, surrogacy, and defacing art 

In “Life: My Story Through History,” Pope Francis also states his views on some of the most pressing issues facing the Church and society. 

He reiterates his description of abortion as “a criminal act” akin to hiring “hitmen.”  

“No more abortions, please! It is essential to always defend and promote conscientious objection.” 

The pope also condemns surrogacy as “inhuman,” as it “threatens the dignity of men and women, with children treated as commodities.” 

On the topic of the protection of creation, Pope Francis writes that “time is running out” to save the planet but urges activists to not resort to violence or “defacing works of art” in their efforts to push for change. 

The pope also emphasizes the need for the Church to follow Christ’s example of going to people on the margins in its care for same-sex-attracted and trans-identifying people, “who are often marginalized within the Church.” 

“Make them feel at home, especially those who have received baptism and are to all intents and purposes part of the people of God.”

Pope Francis co-wrote “Life: My Story Through History” with Fabio Marchese Ragona, a Vatican journalist and personal friend. The highly anticipated autobiography, which is being published in the United States and Europe by HarperCollins, is expected to be released in full on March 19. 

Pope Francis presides greets pilgrims at a penitential service at St. Pius V Parish in Rome on March 8, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Rome Newsroom, Mar 14, 2024 / 09:20 am (CNA).

The international community on Wednesday sent congratulatory messages to Pope Francis to mark the 11th anniversary of his election to the pontificate, praising him for his leadership and peace initiatives over his nearly-dozen years at the Vatican. 

“Today, I join millions of Americans in congratulating the Holy Father on this anniversary as he continues his work of leading the Catholic Church and inspiring people around the globe to seek peace, charity, and compassion,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote in a March 13 statement. 

Blinken in his statement noted that the U.S. and the Vatican are “united by common values such as respect for human rights, including freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression.” 

“We continue to work together to address the challenges of climate change, human trafficking, food security, and the humanitarian effects of conflicts in the Middle East, Ukraine, and elsewhere,” Blinken concluded. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin also congratulated Francis on his anniversary in an official correspondence on Wednesday, remarking that the pope is a “a true and honest defender of peace and one of the few leaders with an honest strategic vision of world problems.” 

The Russian Embassy to the Holy See also wrote a congratulatory message on X, calling the pope “a true and sincere advocate of humanism, peace and traditional values,” and “one of the few political leaders with a truly strategic viewpoint on world problems.” 

Other world leaders such as Tsai Ing-wen, the president of the Republic of China, expressed “profound respect” for the pope’s leadership over the last 11 years, lauding him for having “promot[ed] peace and goodwill, particularly in Ukraine and Palestine.”

Ilham Aliyev, the president of the Republic of Azerbaijan, likewise reflected on the pope’s anniversary, noting his country’s “genuine dialogue and mutual understanding” with the Holy See, which has contributed “to preserving universal values and fostering solidarity among representatives of various religions and cultures.” 

Pope Francis — born Jorge Mario Bergoglio — was elected as the 265th successor to St. Peter on March 13, 2013, following the historic resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. He previously served as the archbishop of Buenos Aires in his native Argentina. 

Francis, the first Jesuit pope and the first from the Americas, has centered his pontificate on the care of migrants, environmental protection, and building a Church that reaches out to the poor and the peripheries.

Confucius statue in Nanjing Confucius Temple, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, China. / Credit: aphotostory/Shutterstock

Rome Newsroom, Mar 13, 2024 / 15:00 pm (CNA).

The Vatican sponsored a dialogue in Taiwan this week as the Catholic Church prepares to release official guidelines for engagement with Confucianism, one of the most influential religious philosophies in the history of China.

Father Paulin Kubuya, the undersecretary for the Vatican Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, traveled to New Taipei City for the meeting at Fu Jen Catholic University. He told CNA in an interview on March 12 upon his return to Rome that the guidelines could help Catholics in East Asia to navigate living out the faith amid their cultural traditions.

Father Paulin Kubuya in the offices of the Vatican Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue. Credit: Courtney Mares/CNA

Kubuya is from the Democratic Republic of Congo and is fluent in Chinese after serving as a Xaverian missionary in Taiwan. During his time as a missionary, he saw how converts to Catholicism wrestled with what to do with the traditions and rituals that they grew up with, such as veneration of one’s ancestors.

“Confucianism, until the 19th century, provided Chinese, Korean, Japanese [societies] with guidelines on how to conduct themselves,” the priest explained, adding that “The Analects of Confucius” still informs basic formation and education in Taiwan.

“For Asian Christians … this dialogue, these guidelines will be helpful, because it will enable them to dialogue with themselves,” he said.

The Vatican is drafting the guidelines with the goal of providing a valuable resource for individuals, organizations, and communities both within and beyond the Catholic Church that seek to engage in dialogue with followers of Confucianism, according to the dicastery.

The workshop in Taiwan was the fruit of more than two years of preparation. The Vatican’s interreligious dialogue office invited experts in Confucianism from around the world to share their insights in a series of online meetings leading up to the in-person meeting in Taiwan.

More work and study are required, according to Kubuya, who expects the guidelines to be finalized and published sometime next year.

“Hopefully by engaging Confucianism in a dialogue … a Christian coming from Asia and who is coming from that background, he will know the position of the Church, he will know how he can put together his cultural tradition and the faith that he has received and live in peace with it,” Kubuya said.

The Vatican’s current dialogue with Confucianism builds upon the work of pioneering Catholic missionaries in Asia in centuries past, like Venerable Matteo Ricci, the 17th-century Jesuit known for introducing Christianity to China’s imperial Ming Dynasty.

Ricci saw in Confucianism “a high culture” and engaged with the literati in the heart of the Imperial City of Beijing.

Later missionaries in China took issue with Confucian practices, particularly in what they saw as ancestor worship, giving rise to the Chinese Rites Controversy, explained Kubuya, who is the author of the book “Meaning and Controversy Within Chinese Ancestor Religion.”

The Vatican intervened in the matter on numerous occasions in the 17th and 18th centuries with Clement XI and Benedict XIV both banning Chinese rites. Two centuries later, Pius XII issued a decree in 1939 allowing Chinese Catholics to observe ancestral rites.

“In Taiwan, the Catholic community is tiny. It’s a minority community, but I always say that they are few, but very ripe because they are well determined and their Christian identity is very strong,” Kubuya said.

African priests witnessing to the Gospel in Asia

As a Xaverian missionary priest, Kubuya is aware that he is part of the continuation of the Church’s missionary legacy in Asia. 

The Xaverian order was founded by St. Guido Maria Conforti, a 19th-century Italian missionary who was inspired to carry on the missionary work of St. Francis Xavier, the 16th-Jesuit missionary in Asia who died before realizing his dream of evangelizing China.

Kubuya recalls that he was one of 12 Congolese priests serving as missionaries in Taiwan before he was called upon to serve in the Roman Curia.

Father Paulin Kubuya in the offices of the Vatican Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue. Credit: Courtney Mares/CNA

In Taiwan, “the idea that many Buddhists, Taoists, Confucians have is they think that Christian priests, missionaries are all foreigners, meaning Westerners, Americans, or Europeans, so by seeing us from Africa, they started understanding that actually the Church is very complex, is rich, and does not exclude. This was my experience,” he said.

“I think that our presence [in Asia] displays the catholicity of the Church, that the Church will work beyond colors, beyond languages,” he said. “That the Catholic Church is universal because we are coming from everywhere.”

Vatican’s ongoing dialogue with Taoism

The dialogue on Confucianism in New Taipei City, titled “Christians Fostering Dialogue with Confucians: Guidelines and Prospects,” was one of two workshops in Asia sponsored by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue this week. 

A second event on dialogue with Taoism is taking place in Hong Kong March 11–13, organized by the Vatican dicastery and titled “Cultivating a Harmonious Society through Interreligious Dialogue.”

Taoism is different from Confucianism in that it involves the worship of deities. The Vatican’s Taoism colloquium in Hong Kong focused on the themes of “Christian and Taoist Scriptural Foundations for Cultivating a Harmonious Society,” “Cultivating Harmony Through Worship and Liturgy,” “Tao/the Way and De/Virtue in Dialogue and Practice,” “Holiness in Taoism and Christianity,” and “Transmitting Religious Beliefs and Values in a Globalized World.”

Cardinal Stephen Chow, the bishop of Hong Kong, told Vatican News that he hopes the recognition of a shared spirit of service between Christianity and Taoism will help “the value and meaning of religion [to be] better appreciated in China.”

“The vision of the Taoist religion is to foster a movement of the world toward peace and unity, where humanity and the Way — we would say the ‘Logos’ — are connected,” the Jesuit cardinal said.

Christianity and Taoism “share the values of mercy, simplicity, and not striving for worldly achievements,” Chow said.

The College of Cardinals celebrates Mass on March 12, 2013, before entering the Sistine Chapel for the papal conclave. / Credit: Jeffrey Bruno/CNA

Vatican City, Mar 13, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA).

The most recent change in the College of Cardinals took place on Feb. 24, when Cardinal José Luis Lacunza Maestrojuán turned 80 and was thus removed from the ranks of cardinal-electors. A few weeks earlier, on Feb. 12, Cardinal Pedro Ricardo Barreto Jimeno also turned 80 and, therefore, is no longer eligible to cast a vote in a conclave.

There are currently 129 cardinals who could vote in a conclave, nine more than the maximum of 120 set by Paul VI and confirmed by all of his successors since.

During the 11 years of his pontificate, Pope Francis has convened nine consistories to create new cardinals. In the process, he has created 142 cardinals, including 113 electors and 29 non-electors, from 70 nations. Of these nations, 22 had never had a cardinal before.

This level of activity stands in contrast with St. John Paul II, who convened nine consistories during a 27-year-long pontificate, as well as Pope Benedict XVI, who convened five in eight years. Nonetheless, the record for new red hats belongs to John Paul II, who created 231 new cardinals during his pontificate.

Were a conclave to begin today, there would be 94 cardinal-electors created by Pope Francis, 27 created by Benedict XVI, and eight made by John Paul II. To elect the pope, a block of 86 votes would be needed (two-thirds of the assembly), and the cardinals created by Pope Francis are more than two-thirds.

What the College of Cardinals will look like at the end of 2024

However, by the end of 2024, 10 more cardinals will lose the right to vote in the conclave. Therefore, if Pope Francis were not to convene a new consistory by the end of the year, the number would return below the maximum of 120 cardinal-electors.

Among the 10 cardinals who will turn 80 in the next few months, there is Cardinal Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, prefect emeritus of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, considered influential but who has long wanted to leave public office, having asked the pope to also be dispensed from participating in the Synod on Synodality. Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect emeritus of the Dicastery for Bishops, will also turn 80.

For the other four cardinals who will turn 80 over the next 10 months, the pope must find a successor for their respective roles, as they are all still in active service. These are the archbishop of Boston and president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley (June 29); the major penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza (Sept. 15); the archbishop of Caracas, Venezuela, Cardinal Baltazar Enrique Porras Cardozo (Oct. 10); and the archbishop of Bombay, India, Cardinal Oswald Gracias (Dec. 24).

O’Malley and Gracias are also members of the Council of Cardinals established by the pope for the reform and government of the Roman Curia.

Cardinal Louis-Marie Ling Mangkhanekhoun, apostolic vicar of Vientiane, Laos, will also turn 80 in 2024, as will Cardinal Polycarp Pengo, archbishop emeritus of Dar-es-Salam, Tanzania; Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, archbishop emeritus of Bordeaux, France; and Cardinal John Njue, archbishop emeritus of Nairobi, Kenya.

In light of the above, by the end of 2024, the cardinal-electors created by Pope Francis will number 91, while those made by previous popes will have been drastically reduced. In fact, by that time at a future conclave, there will only be 22 cardinals created by Benedict XVI and six by John Paul II.

A Francis-like conclave?

These numbers suggest that the election of a successor to Pope Francis could very quickly be oriented toward a papal profile similar to that of Pope Francis. In reality, however, the outcome of the conclave could be very different.

For the most part, popes have convened consistories to discuss and consult the cardinals on major issues for the life of the Church.

During his pontificate, however, Pope Francis has only convened a consistory three times to discuss issues at hand. This first occurred in 2014, when another consistory accompanied the consistory for the creation of new cardinals to discuss family issues, with a report by Cardinal Walter Kasper.

In 2015, the reform of the Curia was discussed with various reports and in 2022, the pope asked the cardinals to take into account the reform of the Curia he had just established with the apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium.

The last consistory’s discussion structure also differed from the usual pattern. The cardinals were gathered in small linguistic groups; not all of them could speak before the assembly and several left written documents on what their speech would have been without presenting it before the other members of the College of Cardinals. While presented as an effort to make the discussion more efficient, this structure took away traditionally important moments of interaction and mutual understanding.

These are not just minor details. The discussions that take place during consistories allow the cardinals to get to know each other and the personalities involved to define themselves more precisely.

For example, the papal candidacy of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla emerged from some of these discussions, along with the fact that Paul VI had called upon him to preach the spiritual exercises of Lent at the Curia in 1976. Although Wojtyla was an authoritative and well-known figure, it would not have been easy to obtain the support of his fellow cardinals if he had not had the opportunity to make himself known in these circumstances.

The next conclave, therefore, will get underway with somewhat of a handicap inasmuch as the cardinals will not know each other as well. This could be a boon, on the one hand, to the formation of pressure groups that could steer the conclave in one direction or another. But, on the other hand, it will also likely make the outcome more unpredictable. For this reason, although Pope Francis has created more than two-thirds of the cardinal-electors, it is by no means a sure thing that the pope who is chosen in a future conclave will have the same profile as Pope Francis.

A reform of conclave rules in the offing?

As things stand, the apostolic constitution Universi Dominici Gregis, promulgated by John Paul II in 1996, will regulate the conclave. That constitution provided, among other things, that starting from the 34th ballot (or from the 35th, if the vote was also taken on the opening day of the conclave), an absolute majority is enough to elect a pope.

That provision was modified by Benedict XVI in 2007 with the motu proprio De Aliquibus Mutationibus in Normis de Electione Romani Pontificis. The new rule provides that at the 34th or 35th ballot, in the event of a “deadlock,” a runoff will be held between the two cardinals with the most votes, who, however, will not be able to participate in the ballot. However, the election will take place only if one of the two receives two-thirds of the votes, as expected in all other ballots.

These rules aim to obtain a broad consensus on the elected pope, who can thus count on the support of the entire College of Cardinals.

For some time now, there has been talk of a project by Pope Francis to reform the rules of the conclave. Among the reforms that could be under discussion: the lowering of the quorum for the election of the pope starting from the 15th ballot; the exclusion of cardinals over 80 from the general congregations, i.e. the pre-conclave meetings, in which both voting and nonvoting cardinals participate; and a new structuring of the general congregations themselves, on the model of the last consistory — that is, with the division of the cardinals into working groups and reports entrusted to a moderator.

However, no study for changing the rules of the conclave has been officially announced. Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda, who has become the pope’s trusted canon lawyer in recent years, is said to have proposed some draft reforms, but there is no confirmation of this either.

It remains to be seen, therefore, if these rumors about a reform of the conclave’s rules are the result of honest discussions or simply agitation and speculation in the face of the well-known unpredictability of Pope Francis.

Pope Francis at the general audience in St. Peter's Square, Oct. 5, 2016. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA

CNA Staff, Mar 13, 2024 / 12:00 pm (CNA).

March 13 marks the anniversary of the election of Pope Francis as the 265th successor of St. Peter. Here is a timeline of key events during his papacy:

2013

March 13 — About two weeks after Pope Benedict XVI steps down from the papacy, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio is elected pope. He takes the papal name Francis in honor of St. Francis of Assisi and proclaims from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica: “Let us begin this journey, the bishop and people, this journey of the Church of Rome, which presides in charity over all the Churches, a journey of brotherhood in love, of mutual trust. Let us always pray for one another.”

March 14 — The day after he begins his pontificate, Pope Francis returns to his hotel to personally pay his hotel bill and collect his luggage.

July 8 — Pope Francis visits Italy’s island of Lampedusa and meets with a group of 50 migrants, most of whom are young men from Somalia and Eritrea. The island, which is about 200 miles off the coast of Tunisia, is a common entry point for migrants who flee parts of Africa and the Middle East to enter Europe. This is the pope’s first pastoral visit outside of Rome and sets the stage for making reaching out to the peripheries a significant focus.

Pope Francis gives the Wednesday general audience in St. Peter's Square on Oct. 2, 2013. Elise Harris/CNA.

July 23-28 — Pope Francis visits Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to participate in World Youth Day 2013. More than 3 million people from around the world attend the event.

July 29 — On the return flight from Brazil, Pope Francis gives his first papal news conference and sparks controversy by saying “if a person is gay and seeks God and has goodwill, who am I to judge?” The phrase is prompted by a reporter asking the pope a question about priests who have homosexual attraction.

Nov. 24 — Pope Francis publishes his first apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel). The document illustrates the pope’s vision for how to approach evangelization in the modern world.

2014

Feb. 22 — Pope Francis holds his first papal consistory to appoint 19 new cardinals, including ones from countries in the developing world that have never previously been represented in the College of Cardinals, such as Haiti.

March 22 — Pope Francis creates the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. The commission works to protect the dignity of minors and vulnerable adults, such as the victims of sexual abuse.

Pope Francis greets pilgrims during his general audience on Nov. 29, 2014. Bohumil Petrik/CNA.

Oct. 5 — The Synod on the Family begins. The bishops discuss a variety of concerns, including single-parent homes, cohabitation, homosexual adoption of children, and interreligious marriages.

Dec. 6 — After facing some pushback for his efforts to reform the Roman Curia, Pope Francis discusses his opinion in an interview with La Nacion, an Argentine news outlet: “Resistance is now evident. And that is a good sign for me, getting the resistance out into the open, no stealthy mumbling when there is disagreement. It’s healthy to get things out into the open, it’s very healthy.”

2015

Jan. 18 — To conclude a trip to Asia, Pope Francis celebrates Mass in Manila, Philippines. Approximately 6 million to 7 million people attend the record-setting Mass, despite heavy rain.

March 23 — Pope Francis visits Naples, Italy, to show the Church’s commitment to helping the fight against corruption and organized crime in the city.

May 24 — To emphasize the Church’s mission to combat global warming and care for the environment, Pope Francis publishes the encyclical Laudato Si’, which urges people to take care of the environment and encourages political action to address climate problems.

Pope Francis at a Wednesday general audience in St. Peter's Square on June 17, 2015. Bohumil Petrik.

Sept. 19-22 — Pope Francis visits Cuba and meets with Fidel Castro in the first papal visit to the country since Pope John Paul II in 1998. During his homily, Francis discusses the dignity of the human person: “Being a Christian entails promoting the dignity of our brothers and sisters, fighting for it, living for it.”

Sept. 22-27 — After departing from Cuba, Pope Francis makes his first papal visit to the United States. In Washington, D.C., he speaks to a joint session of Congress, in which he urges lawmakers to work toward promoting the common good, and canonizes the Franciscan missionary St. Junípero Serra. He also attends the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, which focuses on celebrating the gift of the family.

Pope Francis speaks to the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 24, 2015. . L'Osservatore Romano.

Oct. 4 — Pope Francis begins the second Synod on the Family to address issues within the modern family, such as single-parent homes, cohabitation, poverty, and abuse.

Oct. 18 — The pope canonizes St. Louis Martin and St. Marie-Azélie “Zelie” Guérin. The married couple were parents to five nuns, including St. Therese of Lisieux. They are the first married couple to be canonized together.

Dec. 8 — Pope Francis’ Jubilee Year of Mercy begins. The year focuses on God’s mercy and forgiveness and people’s redemption from sin. The pope delegates certain priests in each diocese to be Missionaries of Mercy who have the authority to forgive sins that are usually reserved for the Holy See.

2016

March 19 — Pope Francis publishes the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, which discusses a wide variety of issues facing the modern family based on discussions from the two synods on the family. The pope garners significant controversy from within the Church for comments he makes in Chapter 8 about Communion for the divorced and remarried.

April 16 — After visiting refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos, Pope Francis allows three Muslim refugee families to join him on his flight back to Rome. He says the move was not a political statement.

Pope Francis at the General Audience in St. Peter's Square, Feb. 24, 2016. Daniel Ibanez/CNA.

July 26-31 — Pope Francis visits Krakow, Poland, as part of the World Youth Day festivities. About 3 million young Catholic pilgrims from around the world attend.

Sept. 4 — The pope canonizes St. Teresa of Calcutta, who is also known as Mother Teresa. The saint, a nun from Albania, dedicated her life to missionary and charity work, primarily in India.

Sept. 30-Oct. 2 — Pope Francis visits Georgia and Azerbaijan on his 16th trip outside of Rome since the start of his papacy. His trip focuses on Catholic relations with Orthodox Christians and Muslims.

Oct. 4 — Pope Francis makes a surprise visit to Amatrice, Italy, to pray for the victims of an earthquake in central Italy that killed nearly 300 people.

2017

May 12-13 — In another papal trip, Francis travels to Fatima, Portugal, to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima. May 13 marks the 100th anniversary of the first Marian apparition to three children in the city.

July 11 — Pope Francis adds another category of Christian life suitable for the consideration of sainthood: “offering of life.” The category is distinct from martyrdom, which only applies to someone who is killed for his or her faith. The new category applies to those who died prematurely through an offering of their life to God and neighbor.

Pope Francis greets a participant in the World Day of the Poor in Rome, Nov. 16, 2017. L'Osservatore Romano.

Nov. 19 — On the first-ever World Day of the Poor, Pope Francis eats lunch with 4,000 poor and people in need in Rome.

Nov. 27-Dec. 2 — In another trip to Asia, Pope Francis travels to Myanmar and Bangladesh. He visits landmarks and meets with government officials, Catholic clergy, and Buddhist monks. He also preaches the Gospel and promotes peace in the region.

2018

Jan. 15-21 — The pope takes another trip to Latin America, this time visiting Chile and Peru. The pontiff meets with government officials and members of the clergy while urging the faithful to remain close to the clergy and reject secularism. The Chilean visit leads to controversy over Chilean clergy sex abuse scandals.

Aug. 2 — The Vatican formally revises No. 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which concerns the death penalty. The previous text suggested the death penalty could be permissible in certain circumstances, but the revision states that the death penalty is “inadmissible.”

Aug. 25 — Archbishop Carlo Viganò, former papal nuncio to the United States, publishes an 11-page letter calling for the resignation of Pope Francis and accusing him and other Vatican officials of covering up sexual abuse including allegations against former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. The pope initially does not directly respond to the letter, but nine months after its publication he denies having prior knowledge about McCarrick’s conduct.

Aug. 25-26 — Pope Francis visits Dublin, Ireland, to attend the World Meeting of Families. The theme is “the Gospel of family, joy for the world.”

Pope Francis at the 2018 World Meeting of Families in Ireland. Daniel Ibanez/CNA.

Oct. 3-28 — The Synod on Young People, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment takes place. The synod focuses on best practices to teach the faith to young people and to help them discern God’s will.

2019

Jan. 22-27 — The third World Youth Day during Pope Francis’ pontificate takes place during these six days in Panama City, Panama. Young Catholics from around the world gather for the event, with approximately 3 million people in attendance.

Feb. 4 — Pope Francis signs a joint document in with Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, titled the “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together.” The document focuses on people of different faiths uniting together to live peacefully and advance a culture of mutual respect.

Pope Francis and Ahmed el-Tayeb, grand imam of al-Azhar, signed a joint declaration on human fraternity during an interreligious meeting in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Feb. 4, 2019. Vatican Media.

Feb. 21-24 — The Meeting on the Protection of Minors in the Church, which is labeled the Vatican Sexual Abuse Summit, takes place. The meeting focuses on sexual abuse scandals in the Church and emphasizes responsibility, accountability, and transparency.

Oct. 6-27 — The Church holds the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region, which is also known as the Amazon Synod. The synod is meant to present ways in which the Church can better evangelize the Amazon region but leads to controversy when carved images of a pregnant Amazonian woman, referred to by the pope as Pachamama, are used in several events and displayed in a basilica near the Vatican.

Oct. 13 — St. John Henry Newman, an Anglican convert to Catholicism and a cardinal, is canonized by Pope Francis. Newman’s writings inspired Catholic student associations at nonreligious colleges and universities in the United States and other countries.

2020

March 15 — Pope Francis takes a walking pilgrimage in Rome to the chapel of the crucifix and prays for an end to the COVID-19 pandemic. The crucifix was carried through Rome during the plague of 1522.

March 27 — Pope Francis gives an extraordinary “urbi et orbi” blessing in an empty and rain-covered St. Peter’s Square, praying for the world during the coronavirus pandemic.

Pope Francis venerates the miraculous crucifix of San Marcello al Corso in St. Peter's Square during his Urbi et Orbi blessing, March 27, 2020. Vatican Media.2021

March 5-8 — In his first papal trip since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pope Francis becomes the first pope to visit Iraq. On his trip, he signs a joint statement with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani condemning extremism and promoting peace.

July 3 — Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, who was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope Francis, is indicted in a Vatican court for embezzlement, money laundering, and other crimes. The pope gives approval for the indictment.

July 4 — Pope Francis undergoes colon surgery for diverticulitis, a common condition in older people. The Vatican releases a statement that assures the pope “reacted well” to the surgery. Francis is released from the hospital after 10 days.

July 16 — Pope Francis issues a motu proprio titled Traditionis Custodes. The document imposes heavy restrictions on the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass.

Dec. 2-6 — The pope travels to Cyprus and Greece. The trip includes another visit to the Greek island of Lesbos to meet with migrants.

Pope Francis greets His Beatitude Ieronymos II in Athens, Greece on Dec. 5, 2021. Vatican Media2022

Jan. 11 — Pope Francis makes a surprise visit to a record store in Rome called StereoSound. The pope, who has an affinity for classical music, blesses the newly renovated store.

March 19 — The pope promulgates Praedicate Evangelium, which reforms the Roman Curia. The reforms emphasize evangelization and establish more opportunities for the laity to be in leadership positions.

May 5 — Pope Francis is seen in a wheelchair for the first time in public and begins to use one more frequently. The pope has been suffering from knee problems for months.

Pope Francis greeted the crowd in a wheelchair at the end of his general audience on Aug. 3, 2022. Daniel Ibanez/CNA

July 24-30 — In his first papal visit to Canada, Pope Francis apologizes for the harsh treatment of the indigenous Canadians, saying many Christians and members of the Catholic Church were complicit.

2023

Jan. 31-Feb. 5 — Pope Francis travels to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. During his visit, the pope condemns political violence in the countries and promotes peace. He also participates in an ecumenical prayer service with Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Moderator of the Church of Scotland Iain Greenshields.

Pope Francis greets a young boy a Mass in Juba, South Sudan on Feb. 5, 2023. Vatican Media

March 29-April 1 — Pope Francis is hospitalized for a respiratory infection. During his stay at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, he visits the pediatric cancer ward and baptizes a newborn baby.  

April 5 — The pope appears in the Disney documentary “The Pope: Answers,” which is in Spanish, answering six “hot-button” issues from members of Gen Z from various backgrounds. The group discusses immigration, depression, abortion, clergy sexual and psychological abuse, transgenderism, pornography, and loss of faith.

April 28-30 — Pope Francis visits Hungary to meet with government officials, civil society members, bishops, priests, seminarians, Jesuits, consecrated men and women, and pastoral workers. He celebrates Mass on the final day of the trip in Kossuth Lajos Square.

Pope Francis stands on an altar erected outside the Parliament Building in Budapest's Kossuth Lajos' Square during a public outdoor Mass on April 30, 2023. Vatican Media

June 7 — The Vatican announces that Pope Francis will undergo abdominal surgery that afternoon under general anesthesia due to a hernia that is causing painful, recurring, and worsening symptoms. In his general audience that morning before the surgery, Francis says he intends to publish an apostolic letter on St. Thérèse of Lisieux, “patroness of the missions,” to mark the 150th anniversary of her birth.

June 15 — After successful surgery and a week of recovery, Pope Francis is released from Gemelli Hospital.

Aug. 2-6 — Pope Francis travels to Lisbon, Portugal, for World Youth Day 2023, taking place from Aug. 1-6. He meets with Church and civil leaders ahead of presiding at the welcoming Mass and Stations of the Cross. He also hears the confessions of several pilgrims. On Aug. 5, he visits the Shrine of Our Lady of Fátima, where he prays the rosary with young people with disabilities. That evening he presides over the vigil and on Sunday, Aug. 6, he celebrates the closing Mass, where he urges the 1.5 million young people present to “be not afraid,” echoing the words of the founder of World Youth Days, St. John Paul II.

Pope Francis waves at the crowd of 1.5 million people who attended the closing Mass of World Youth Day 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal on Aug. 6, 2023. Vatican Media.

Aug. 31-Sept. 4 — Pope Francis travels to Mongolia, the world’s most sparsely populated sovereign country. The trip makes Francis the first pope to visit the Asian country that shares a 2,880-mile border with China, its most significant economic partner. Mongolia has a population of about 1,300 Catholics in a country of more than 3 million people.

Pope Francis meets with local priests and religious of Mongolia, which includes only 25 priests (19 religious and six diocesan), 33 women religious, and one bishop — Cardinal Giorgio Marengo — in Ulaanbaatar’s Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul on Sept. 2, 2023. Credit: Vatican Media

Sept. 22-23 — On a two-day trip to Marseille, France, Pope Francis meets with local civil and religious leaders and participates in the Mediterranean Encounter, a gathering of some 120 young people of various creeds with bishops from 30 countries.

Pope Francis asks for a moment of silence at a memorial dedicated to sailors and migrants lost at sea on the first of a two-day visit to Marseille, France, Sept. 22, 2023. A Camargue cross, which comes from the Camargue area of France, represents the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. The three tridents represent faith, the anchor represents hope, and the heart represents charity. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Oct. 4-29 — The Vatican hosts the first of two monthlong global assemblies of the Synod on Synodality, initiated by Pope Francis in 2021 to enhance the communion, participation, and mission of the Church. Pope Francis celebrates the closing Mass of the synod at St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 29. The second and final global assembly will take place at the Vatican in October 2024.

Pope Francis at the Synod on Synodality’s closing Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 29, 2023. Vatican Media

Nov. 25 — Pope Francis visits the hospital briefly for precautionary testing after coming down with the flu earlier in the day. Although he still participates in scheduled activities, other officials read his prepared remarks. The Vatican on Nov. 28 cancels the pope’s planned Dec. 1–3 trip to Dubai for the COP28 climate conference, where he was scheduled to deliver a speech, due to his illness.

Dec. 18 — The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issues the declaration Fiducia Supplicans, which authorizes nonliturgical blessings for same-sex couples and couples in “irregular situations.” Various bishops from around the world voice both support for and criticism of the document.

2024

Jan. 4 — Amid widespread backlash to Fiducia Supplicans, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, publishes a five-page press release that refers to Fiducia Supplicans as “perennial doctrine” and underlines that pastoral blessings of couples in irregular situations should not be “an endorsement of the life led by those who request them.”

Jan. 14 — Pope Francis for the first time responds publicly to questions about Fiducia Supplicans in an interview on an Italian television show. The pope underlines that “the Lord blesses everyone” and that a blessing is an invitation to enter into a conversation “to see what the road is that the Lord proposes to them.”

Feb. 11 — In a ceremony attended by Argentine president Javier Milei, Pope Francis canonizes María Antonia of St. Joseph — known affectionately in the pope’s home country as “Mama Antula” — in a Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica. The president and the former archbishop of Buenos Aires embrace after the ceremony. Pope Francis, who has not returned to his homeland since becoming pope in 2013, has said he wants to visit Argentina in the second half of this year.

Pope Francis meets with Argentina President Javier Milei in a private audience on Feb. 12, 2024, at the Vatican. Credit: Vatican Media

Feb. 28 — After canceling audiences the previous Saturday and having an aide read his prepared remarks at his Wednesday audience due to a “mild flu,” Pope Francis visits the hospital for diagnostic tests but returns to the Vatican afterward.

March 2 — Despite having an aide read his speech “because of bronchitis,” the pope presides over the inauguration of the 95th Judicial Year of the Vatican City State and maintains a full schedule.

March 13 — Pope Francis celebrates 11 years as Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.

This story was last updated on March 13, 2024.

Speaking in his Angelus address on March 3, 2024, about the Israel-Hamas war, Pope Francis made an emotional plea for negotiations to reach a deal that both frees the hostages immediately and grants civilians access to humanitarian aid. / Credit: Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Mar 12, 2024 / 15:00 pm (CNA).

Ukrainian officials and religious leaders have leveled criticism at Pope Francis in the days since the Holy Father suggested that it would be courageous for Ukraine to negotiate an end to its war with Russia.

In an excerpt of an interview with Swiss broadcaster RSI, which will be released in full on March 20, Pope Francis suggested that “the strongest one is the one who looks at the situation, thinks about the people and has the courage of the white flag, and negotiates.”

“When you see that you are defeated, that things are not going well, you have to have the courage to negotiate,” the pope continued. 

“Our flag is a yellow and blue one. This is the flag by which we live, die, and prevail. We shall never raise any other flags,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote in a post on X on March 10 in response to the pope’s comments. 

Kuleba disputed the pope’s comments that it would be “courageous” to negotiate with Russia, writing: “The strongest is the one who, in the battle between good and evil, stands on the side of good rather than attempting to put them on the same footing and call it ‘negotiations.’”

Kuleba further criticized the Holy See. “When it comes to the white flag, we know this Vatican’s strategy from the first half of the 20th century,” he said. 

“I urge to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past and to support Ukraine and its people in their just struggle for their lives,” he said. 

Ukrainian Ambassador to the Holy See Andrii Yurash issued his own rebuke to the pope in a March 11 interview with NBC, saying: “Nobody at the time of World War II was proposing to the people enslaved by Hitler or those who were suffering or fighting him to start peace negotiations.” 

The ambassador suggested that just as a truce with Hitler would have meant “suicide and death,” a truce with Russian President Vladimir Putin would also constitute “suicide and death.”

The pope’s remarks also generated responses from ecclesial communities in Ukraine, including the Permanent Synod of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, the latter an interreligious association aimed at fostering dialogue and collaborating in church-state relations in the predominantly Orthodox country. 

“Ukrainians cannot surrender because surrender means death,” the Permanent Synod of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church wrote in a statement released on Monday. 

“Notwithstanding the suggestions for need for negotiations coming from representatives of different countries, including the Holy Father himself, Ukrainians will continue to defend freedom and dignity to achieve a peace that is just,” the statement continued.

Arguing that “the intentions of Putin and Russia are clear and explicit,” the synod also suggested that the war is not just a unilateral action waged by the Russian government but is supported by “70% of the Russian population” as well as by “Patriarch Kirill and the Russian Orthodox Church.”

The Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations on Sunday also issued a statement, “categorically declar[ing] that no one will ever force our people to capitulate.” 

“To capitulate to the triumphant evil is tantamount to the collapse of the universal idea of justice, a betrayal of the fundamental guidelines bequeathed to us in great spiritual traditions,” their statement continued.

The Holy See Press Office quickly qualified the pope’s statements late on Saturday night, suggesting that the 87-year-old pontiff “intended to call for a cease-fire and to relaunch the courage of negotiation,” adding that “the pope uses the term white flag, and responds by picking up the image proposed by the interviewer, to indicate a cessation of hostilities, a truce reached with the courage of negotiation.” 

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, also issued clarifying remarks in a Monday, March 11, interview with Corriere della Sera, saying that it is incumbent upon Russia “as the aggressor” to “put an end to the aggression."

“The war unleashed against Ukraine is not the effect of an uncontrollable natural disaster but of human freedom alone, and the same human will that caused this tragedy also has the possibility and responsibility to take steps to put an end to it and pave the way to a diplomatic solution,” the Vatican’s top diplomat said.

But Parolin reiterated the pope’s concerns that a protracted conflict could escalate into a larger conflict and exacerbate an already-large humanitarian crisis, saying that it would bring “new suffering, new deaths, new victims, new destruction.”

Injured parishioners receive Communion on the third Sunday of Advent, Dec. 17, 2023, at Holy Family Parish in Gaza. The Pontifical Collection for the Holy Land provides community aid and assistance for parochial activities for Holy Family Parish, the only Roman Catholic parish in Gaza. / Credit: Father Gabriel Romanelli/Facebook

Rome Newsroom, Mar 12, 2024 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

This year’s Vatican financial appeal for the Holy Land highlights the urgent humanitarian crisis facing the beleaguered population in Gaza and the pope’s plea for peace. 

“The outbreak of the war in Gaza, after the events of Oct. 7, paralyzed the Holy Land. The lack of pilgrims and tourists has put thousands of families in difficulty,” Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, said in a letter released March 8.

The Vatican has overseen the “Pro Terra Sancta” fund, or the Pontifical Collection for the Holy Land, since 1974, when Pope Paul VI, in his apostolic exhortation Nobis in Animo, designated Good Friday as the day for the collection to be taken up by parishes around the world. This year Good Friday falls on March 29. U.S. Catholics can donate online or at their parishes. 

Typically, 65% of the funds collected are earmarked for the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, which has maintained the holy places of Christianity in the region for more than 800 years. The Franciscan Custody also uses the funds for humanitarian and social activities, including help in defraying “the health costs of families and for their basic necessities” as well as providing housing for needy people and young families who “pay symbolic rents.” 

The remaining 35% is given to the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches to support seminarians and priests as well as educational and cultural activities.

According to last year’s summary report, the Pontifical Collection raised the equivalent of just over $7 million, of which about $3.7 million was used to support the formation of seminarians and religious brothers and sisters. Another roughly $2.5 million was allocated for educational activities, which include the academic formation of “almost 3,300 young people, mostly Palestinian Muslims,” at Bethlehem University in the West Bank, run by the De La Salle Brothers. 

This year’s appeal comes against the backdrop of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, which has had a devastating effect on the civilian population. 

“With the breaking out of the way the aid has been intensified in order to support the basic and primary needs of the population exhausted by the bombardments and overcrowded within the compound of the buildings of the parish,” the summary report stated. 

“Pope Francis has never ceased to express his closeness to all those affected by the conflict in the Holy Land,” Cardinal Gugerotti wrote. “The Holy Father intends to carry out a project with humanitarian purposes in Gaza or the West Bank, which can help the population resume a more dignified life and create job opportunities once the war is over.” 

The Pontifical Collection provides community aid and assistance for parochial activities for Holy Family Parish, the only Roman Catholic parish in Gaza. 

According to the summary report, beneficiaries included 135 persons who are part of the Holy Family Parish community, as well as “600 persons who became homeless within the parish at the beginning of the war.” 

The Pontifical Collection, in collaboration with Caritas and the Latin Patriarchate, also has provided aid for 33 children suffering epidermolysis bullosa — a group of rare inherited diseases that causes the skin to blister — in the Gaza Strip through the “Butterfly Program.”

Gaza is one of the poorest and most densely populated areas of Palestine. Since the outbreak of the war more than 30,000 civilians have been killed in the enclave, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. 

In a speech during a meeting with Pope Tawadros II, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, and other Coptic Orthodox representatives on May 11, 2023, Pope Francis announced that the Coptic Orthodox martyrs killed by ISIS in 2015 will be added to the Catholic Church’s official list of saints. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Mar 12, 2024 / 12:00 pm (CNA).

The Coptic Orthodox Church has confirmed that its decision last week to suspend dialogue with the Catholic Church was due to Rome’s “change of position” on homosexuality.

In a video released on Friday, Coptic Orthodox spokesman Father Moussa Ibrahim said “the most notable” of nine decrees emanating from the church’s annual Holy Synod, which took place last week in Wadi El-Natrun in Egypt, was “to suspend theological dialogue with the Catholic Church after its change of position on the issue of homosexuality.”

The video message followed the conclusion of the Holy Synod the day before and an accompanying statement in which Coptic Orthodox leaders had said they were suspending dialogue with Rome. 

“After consulting with the sister churches of the Eastern Orthodox family,” they wrote, “it was decided to suspend the theological dialogue with the Catholic Church, reevaluate the results achieved by the dialogue from its beginning 20 years ago, and establish new standards and mechanisms for the dialogue to proceed in the future."

The leaders also reaffirmed their rejection of same-sex relations, stating their “firm position of rejecting all forms of homosexual relationships, because they violate the holy Bible and the law by which God created man as male and female, and the Church considers any blessing of such relations, whatever its type, to be a blessing for sin, and this is unacceptable.”

The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, headed by Pope Tawadros II, is one of the world’s oldest Christian denominations whose founding dates back to St. Mark the Apostle. The principal Christian church in Egypt (the word “Copt” is derived from the Greek word “Aigyptos,” meaning Egypt), the precise number of its members is unknown but estimated to be between 10 million and 20 million people out of a total Orthodox population of 260 million.

Although it describes itself as Orthodox, it is not in full communion with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Eastern Orthodoxy but remains united with the Ethiopian, Armenian, Eritrean, Malankara, and Syriac Orthodox churches, collectively known as the Oriental Orthodox churches. None of these churches accept the Council of Chalcedon in 451 and its definition of the “two natures” of Christ. Since the late 20th century, the Oriental Orthodox churches have sought to dialogue with Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy, which for centuries had considered them heretical.

Last year, dialogue appeared to have progressed to such an extent that the Vatican allowed the Coptic Orthodox to celebrate their own Divine Liturgy in the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran in Rome. The following month, in an unusual move, Pope Francis included 21 Coptic Orthodox faithful martyred by Islamic State in Libya in 2015 in the Roman Martyrology — an official list of martyrs, saints, and blesseds.

Ibrahim’s video statement came after some observers had said on social media that the statement made no specific reference to the Vatican’s Dec. 18, 2023, declaration Fiducia Supplicans, which allowed a “nonliturgical” and “spontaneous” blessing of same-sex couples. They also said it did not state that the decision to suspend the dialogue was related to the document.

The Coptic Orthodox leaders’ statement did not make any explicit reference to Fiducia Supplicans, but their reassertion in the text of their church’s teaching on homosexuality, firmly based on sacred Scripture, coupled with Ibrahim’s video message, made the cause of their suspension of dialogue incontrovertible.

They noted in their statement that God created man both male and female, that all persons are called to holiness, and that all are to live according to his will and “divine design for marriage between a man and a woman.”

They stressed that anyone who struggles with same-sex attraction but “controls this desire is praised for their efforts and is left subject to the same temptations as heterosexual individuals.” Similarly, they said it is “essential” that they “seek true repentance” as an adulterous heterosexual person would.

“If someone chooses to embrace their homosexual tendency, however, and refuses to seek spiritual and emotional help but continues to break God’s commandments, in that case, their situation becomes the same as someone who is living in adultery,” the statement continued. “In such cases, they must be warned and advised to abstain from communion, seeking repentance.”

One of the main criticisms of the document is that it makes no mention of repentance or pledge of an amendment of life before receiving such a blessing.

Quoting the words of St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, with further references to his first letter to the Corinthians and passages from Leviticus, the Coptic Orthodox also underlined the Church’s condemnation of same-sex acts. “Accordingly,” they added, they “strongly” oppose “all forms of sexual activity outside the bounds of marriage,” adding that they see it as “sexual distortion.” They also “firmly” rejected that cultural contexts could be used to “justify same-sex relationships,” as the Copts believe it is “damaging to humanity” as a whole.

They said their church believes in human rights and freedoms but that these freedoms “are not absolute” and must not be used to “violate the laws of the Creator.”

“The church affirms its commitment to fulfilling its pastoral role in aiding individuals who have homosexual tendencies,” they said in closing. “It also emphasizes that it does not reject them but instead provides support and assistance to help them achieve an emotional and spiritual solution.”

“The church places its trust in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think,” they said. 

The Register contacted for comment Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Christian Unity, but he had not responded by press time.

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and is reprinted here on CNA with permission.