“Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works” (Heb 10:24) Dear Brothers and Sisters, The Lenten season offers us once again an opportunity to reflect upon the very heart of Christian life: charity. This is a favourable time to renew our journey of faith, both as individuals and as a community, with the help of the word of God and the sacraments. This journey is one marked by prayer and sharing, silence...

MESSAGE FOR WORLD DAY OF PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS: “THE GIFT OF THE LOVE OF GOD” Vatican City, 13 February 2012 (VIS) – The Pope’s Message for the forth-ninth World Day of Prayer for Vocations was made public today. The Day is due to be celebrated on 29 April, fourth Sunday of Easter, and the theme of Benedict XVI’s reflections this year is: “Vocations, the Gift of the Love of God”. Ample extracts of...

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI FOR LENT 2012 “Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works” (Heb 10:24) Dear Brothers and Sisters, The Lenten season offers us once again an opportunity to reflect upon the very heart of Christian life: charity. This is a favourable time to renew our journey of faith, both as individuals and as a community, with the help of the word of God and the sacraments. This...

EDUCATING YOUNG PEOPLE IN JUSTICE AND PEACE Source: www.vatican.va 1. The beginning of a new year, God’s gift to humanity, prompts me to extend to all, with great confidence and affection, my heartfelt good wishes that this time now before us may be marked concretely by justice and peace. With what attitude should we look to the New Year? We find a very beautiful image in Psalm 130. The Psalmist says that people of faith wait for the Lord...

Migration and the New Evangelization Dear Brothers and Sisters, Proclaiming Jesus Christ the one Saviour of the world “constitutes the essential mission of the Church. It is a task and mission which the vast and profound changes of present-day society make all the more urgent” (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 14). Indeed, today we feel the urgent need to give a fresh impetus and new approaches to the work of evangelization in a world in which the...

Book Gives Details of 1932 ‘Killing by Hunger’ in Ukraine By Elizabeth Lev Source: zenit.org ROME, NOV. 17, 2011 (Zenit.org).- The sober skies and short days of November remind Romans that this is the month to pray for the dead. It seems fitting that this month opened with a presentation of new documents regarding one of the most tragic — and virtually unacknowledged — events of the modern age, the Ukrainian...

The Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses has announced, in a communiqué made public September 22nd, that the next International Eucharistic Congress, the fiftieth of the series, will be held from 10th to 17th of June 2012 in Dublin, Ireland, on the theme: “The Eucharist: Communion with Christ and with one another”. “The choice of the theme arises from the fact that the celebration of the congress coincides...

VATICAN CITY, 16 OCT 2011 (VIS) – During Mass this morning in the Vatican Basilica, celebrated to mark the end of an international meeting on new evangelisation organised by the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelisation, Benedict XVI announced that he was calling a forthcoming “Year of Faith”.   The Year will begin on 11 October 2012, fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Vatican Council II, and will come to an...

VATICAN CITY, 16 OCT 2011 (VIS) – Following this morning’s Mass for the closure of an international meeting on the new evangelisation, Benedict XVI prayed the Angelus with faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square. In his remarks he recalled how Blessed John Paul II had been “both a strong supporter of the mission ‘ad gentes’ (that is, the mission to peoples and lands where the Gospel has not yet put down...

VATICAN CITY, 17 OCT 2011 (VIS) – Made public today was “Porta fidei”, the Apostolic Letter “Motu Proprio data” with which Benedict XVI proclaims a “Year of Faith”, to begin on 11 October 2012, fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Vatican Council II, and due to end on 24 November 2013, Feast of Christ the King. Extracts from the English-language version of the Letter are given below:  ”The...

Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People Message for the World Tourism Day 2011 (27 September) Theme: Tourism linking cultures On September 27th we celebrate the World Tourism Day, promoted by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), which has enjoyed even from its very first celebration in 1980 the support of the Holy See. The theme of this year, Tourism linking cultures, wishes to highlight the importance...

VATICAN CITY, 6 JUL 2011 (VIS) – The Message for World Tourism Day published by the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples was issued today. The Day, which is due to be celebrated on 27 September, has as its theme: “Tourism linking cultures”. The message has been published in Italian, French, English, Spanish and Portuguese. Extracts from the English-language version are given...

VATICAN CITY, 28 JUN 2011 (VIS) – A press conference was held this morning in the Holy See Press Office to present the twenty-sixth World Youth Day (WYD), which will be held in the Spanish capital city of Madrid from 16 to 21 August. The conference was presented by Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity; Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, archbishop of Madrid; Yago de la Cierva, executive...

Vatican City, Oct 11, 2010 / 01:19 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI received participants in a congress marking the 20th anniversary of the current Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. Reflecting on the occasion, the Pope called for Eastern Catholics to maintain their ancient traditions, as witnesses to the important diversity of the universal Church. The Pope observed that the 20th anniversary of the code’s...

Urbi et Orbi Message of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI – Easter 2010 vatican.va Dear brothers and sisters, Easter does not work magic. Just as the Israelites found the desert awaiting them on the far side of the Red Sea, so the Church, after the resurrection, always finds history filled with joy and hope, grief and anguish. And yet, this history is changed, it is marked by a new and eternal covenant, it is truly open to the future....