Crux

In less than a month Pope Francis will make his second outing of the year, visiting the Italian city of Verona, where he will participate in an event dedicated to promoting peace and meet with local clergy and youth.

Italian rightwing politician and Army General Roberto Vannacci has been criticized by activists and the country’s bishops over remarks suggesting that children with disabilities ought to be separated in school classrooms.

Cardinal Luis José Rueda, the Archbishop of Bogota and president of the Bishops’ Conference, told Crux that at the local level, the Church in Colombia has an “ethical voice, a community voice, a voice of hope."

Pope Francis made a day trip to Venice Sunday to attend a famed annual cultural event, meeting prisoners, artists and young people, stressing the role that art can play in shaping culture for the better and the importance of maintaining joy and hope amid the vicissitudes of life.

The Lord Jesus has profound and deep teachings on prayer that he wants to reveal to the world and especially to his disciples.

Memory is power, meaning that how the past is framed, interpreted and understood drives a great deal about the present.

In the city of Venice itself, there were 714 priests in 1969, shortly after the close of the Second Vatican Council. According to the most recent county, which dates from 2022, the total now stands at 266.

The pope’s participation will mark the first time a pontiff has taken part in a G7 summit, which has been meeting on a regular basis since 1975 and is considered the most important annual gathering of the leaders of the major Western powers.

As the central African nation of Gabon attempts to build a new future in the wake of a military coup last August, the centrality of religious faith in African cultures is reflected in the fact that the public face of the project is a Catholic priest.

Amid an ongoing back and forth between the Vatican and the German bishops over a controversial new ecclesial body, four of the nation’s prelates have refused to participate in the planning process, opting instead to wait for direction from Rome.