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January 1, 2016
VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis called for abolishing the death penalty worldwide, lifting the burden of debt on poor nations, global aid policies that respect life and revamped laws that welcome and integrate migrants.
TORONTO - Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai, the Vatican’s Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, will be the keynote speaker at a Jubilee Year of Mercy conference in Toronto on New Year’s weekend.
Pope Francis delivered the homily at Mass on New Year's Day, the Solemnity of the Mother of God, in St. Peter's Basilica. Below, please find the full text of the official English translation of his prepared remarks.
January 2, 2016
OTTAWA - Canada’s Catholic bishops and the Canadian Rabbinic Caucus are asking the Canadian government to make it a priority to help persecuted Christians in the Middle East and Africa, whom Pope Francis and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks say face genocide.
MANCHESTER, England - A 78-year-old Catholic priest trapped in his home was among those rescued as floods ravaged the north of England.
January 3, 2016
VATICAN CITY - The gift of mercy is a light that helps Christians reflect on the past year and radiates hope at the start of the new year, Pope Francis said.
January 4, 2016
VATICAN CITY - God's ability to forgive "knows no limits" as his mercy frees people from bitterness and despair, Pope Francis said.
VATICAN CITY - A historic agreement signed between the Holy See and Palestine that supports a two-state solution in the Holy Land has gone into effect, the Vatican announced.
VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis erected a new Syro-Malankara eparchy for the United States and Canada. The pope also named Bishop Thomas Eusebios Naickamparambil, who served as the apostolic exarch for Syro-Malankaran Catholics in the United States, as its first bishop.
BEIRUT - Syriac church leaders denounced the year-end terrorist attack that targeted Christian-owned restaurants in Qamishli, Syria.
AMMAN, Jordan - As a cautious world rang in the New Year with concerns over terrorism and security, Catholics in Canada were continuing to welcome Syrian refugees to their newly adopted homeland.
January 5, 2016
MEXICO CITY - The assassination of a Mexican mayor the day after she assumed office was a message from organized crime and evidence of its influence in the area around the city of Cuernavaca, said the bishop who celebrated her funeral Mass.
VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis made a surprise visit to the place where his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, created the world's first Nativity scene.
YAMBIO, South Sudan - An attack on religious sisters at a teacher training college in South Sudan has shaken and saddened the church, a church leader said, while urging people of faith to demand the implementation of the latest peace accord to end the civil war.
January 6, 2016
VATICAN CITY - Go out and seek the signs God is offering everyone today that will lead to Christ, Pope Francis said.
MONTREAL - The greatest threat to religious freedom in Canada is silence, Canada’s ambassador for Religious Freedom told more than 700 university students attending the Rise Up conference in Montreal.
A $21-million shortfall in Catholic fundraising has added another challenge to the task of reconciliation between Canadian churches and Native communities.
MONTREAL - St. Raphael’s church may be closed, but a small group of parishioners refuse to let their parish die.
As the worst Ethiopian drought in 60 years threatens as many as 20 million people living in more than half of Africa’s second largest country, Catholic aid agencies in the desperate nation are asking for help as the crisis continues into 2016.
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican’s newspaper has criticized French weekly Charlie Hebdo for manipulating faith in the magazine’s latest front page, which depicts a blood-soaked God armed with a Kalashnikov.