• Pope Francis has just begun his Apostolic Visit to Sri Lanka. Radio Vatican’s envoy, Fr. Louis Xystus Jerome sent us this report:

  The moment he alighted from the flight, a boy and a girl welcomed the Holy Father with a garland of flowers – white and yellow in colour, signifying the colours of the Vatican.

  Then the new President of Sri Lanka, Maithripala Sirisena and his wife welcomed him, followed by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith and other dignitaries…

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• On Monday, Pope Francis gave his traditional address to the members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See. 
  
  Below, please find the full text of the Holy Father’s address to the members of the Diplomatic Corps: 
  
  Your Excellencies,
  Ladies and Gentlemen,
  I thank you for your presence at this traditional meeting, which allows me at the beginning of each new year to offer to you, your families, and the peoples you represent, my cordial greetings and best wishes…

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• The director of La Stampa’s Vatican Insidermagazine, Andrea Tornielli, has teamed with the Italian daily’s Vatican beat reporter, Giacomo Galeazzi, to write a book profiling the social teaching of the Church under the direction of Pope Francis. The Italian language volume, titled Papa Francesco. Questa economia uccide – “Pope Francis: this economy kills” – closes with an interview with the Holy Father, which the authors conducted in October of 2014, ample excerpts of which appeared in the Sunday edition of La Stampa  just ahead of the book’s scheduled January 13th release date…

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• Pope Francis will observe a papal tradition on Sunday, the feast of the Baptism of Lord, baptizing 33 infants during a Mass amid the splendor of Michelangelo’s ‎frescos in the Vatican’s famed Sistine Chapel.  The 12 male and 21 females are children of Vatican ‎employees.   Pouring water over their heads, he will formally welcome the babies as members of the Catholic Church.  The commemoration of the Baptism of Jesus by St…

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• On Thursday Friday 8th January 2014, the Holy Father received in audience a delegation from the World Community of Yezidi, according to the director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J. The delegation was led by the Head of all the Yezidi, Mir Tahsin Said Ali Beg, and their supreme spiritual Head, the “Baba Sheikh”, Sheikh Khato, both resident in Iraqi Kurdistan…

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• Pope Francis offered prayers on Thursday morning, especially for the victims of the deadly terror attack on the Charlie Hebdo satirical review in Paris on Wednesday. Speaking during daily Mass in the chapel of the Santa Marta residence in the Vatican, the Holy Father said, “[Wednesday’s] terror attack in Paris brings to mind so much cruelty – human cruelty – so much terrorism, both isolated [incidents of] terrorism and of state terrorism,” adding, “of how much cruelty is man capable!” Pope Francis went on to say, “We pray, in this Mass, for the victims of this cruelty – so many of them – and we pray also for the perpetrators of such cruelty, that the Lord might change their heart.”

  Source: Vatican Radio

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• Pope Francis delivered the homily at Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Tuesday, January 6th, the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord. Below, please find the official English translation of the Holy Father’s prepared remarks.

  Homily of His Holiness Pope Francis

  Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord

  6 January 2015

  That child, born in Bethlehem of the Virgin Mary, came not only for the people of Israel, represented by the shepherds of Bethlehem, but also for all humanity, represented today by the wise men from the East.  It is on the Magi and their journey in search of the Messiah that the Church today invites us to meditate and to pray…

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