• Pope Francis held his weekly General Audience on Wednesday, during which he focused his catechetical reflections on the upcoming Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, which opens on December 8th, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.

  In an impassioned address to the thousands of faithful pilgrims and tourists on hand, in which he departed frequently from his prepared text to emphasize his points, Pope Francis said, “If the door of God’s mercy is always open, even so must be the doors of our churches, the love of our communities, our parishes, our institutions, our dioceses, for when they are, we can all go out to bring this mercy of God [to those who most need it]…

The importance of safeguarding our Christian identity and not living double lives: that was the theme at the heart of Pope Francis’ homily at the Santa Marta Mass on Tuesday morning. The Pope based his words on the daily readings which focus on the need for coherence between our spiritual and our temporal lives.

Pope Francis began by reflecting on the elderly Jewish Rabbi Eleazar who chose to be martyred rather than submit to the unjust laws that we read about in the second book of Macceabees…

The single thought, humanism that takes the place of Jesus, destroys the Christian identity. We don’t put that identity card up for auction. Those were the words of Pope Francis on Monday during  Mass at the Casa Santa Marta.

Worldliness leads to the single thought and apostasy

The first reading of the day from the first Book of the Maccabees, tells of “a root of evil” that arose in those days: the Hellenistic King Antiochus Epiphanes imposes pagan customs in Israel, to the ” chosen people “, that is, the” Church of that time…

Pope Francis on Sunday condemned the violence and hatred behind the terror attacks in France which left 129 people dead and several hundred others injured. Speaking to the crowds gathered in St Peter’s Square for his weekly Angelus address, the Pope said he wished to express his deepest condolences to the French President and especially to all those whose family members were killed or wounded in the multiple attacks on Friday night…

The Director of the Press Office of the Holy See, Fr. Federico Lombardi, has issued an initial statement in response to the news of deadly terror attacks in Paris on Friday night, in which at least 128 people were slain. Below, please find the full text of Fr. Lombardi, SJ’s statement, in English translation.

“Here in the Vatican we are following the terrible news from Paris…