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Pope Francis speaks as he leads a meeting with representatives of religious communities working in South Korea during an encounter in Kkottongnae, South Korea on Aug. 16.

Support Catholic religious in their mission, ministries, pope says

VATICAN CITY - During the Year of Consecrated Life, all Catholics are called to thank God for the gifts members of religious orders have given the Church and the world, to join them in prayer and find practical ways to support them and their ministries, Pope Francis said.

Ralph Martin, a professor at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit, reads the first reading as Pope Benedict XVI celebrates the closing Mass of the Synod of Bishops on the new evangelization in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican Oct. 28, 2012.

New evangelization needed to counter lukewarm faith, says speaker

SIOUX CITY, Iowa -- Ralph Martin, a leader in the Catholic renewal ministries movement, told an audience at an evangelization summit in Sioux City that he sees a danger in lukewarm faith and a de-Christianized spirit in society today.

Pope Francis leaves the general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Nov. 26. In the background is a banner of Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara, who was canonized along with five others Nov. 23.

Changing times may call for changes in religious orders, pope says

VATICAN CITY - Religious orders and the Vatican congregation that assists them must be bold in assessing whether current structures and practices help or hinder the proclamation of the Gospel, the pursuit of holiness and the service of the poor, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis speaks at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Nov. 25.

Pope Francis urges Europeans to reject ‘throwaway culture’

STRASBOURG, France - Pope Francis has urged European leaders to reject a “throwaway culture” that treats people like “cogs in a machine”  too easily discarded through abortion and euthanasia.

Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, was scheduled to celebrate the year's opening Mass for the Year for Consecrated Life Nov. 30 in St. Peter's Basilica.

Church launches Year for Consecrated Life

VATICAN CITY - The first Sunday of Advent, Nov. 30, marking the start of the new liturgical year, will also inaugurate the Year for Consecrated Life.

Priests from India wait for the start of the canonization Mass of six new saints celebrated by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Nov. 23. The new saints are: Euphrasia Eluvathingal, an Indian Carmelite sister and member of the Syro-Malaba r Catholic Church; Ludovico of Casoria, an Italian Franciscan priest who founded the Grey Franciscan Friars of Charity and the Grey Franciscan Sisters of St. Elizabeth; Giovanni Antonio Farina, an Italian bishop of Vicenza and the founder of the Teaching Sisters of St. Dorothy; Kuriakose Elias Chavara, the Indian founder of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate, a Syro-Malabar Catholic order; Nicholas of Longobardi, an Italian friar of the Minim order; and Amato Ronconi, a 13th-century Italian lay Francisca n and founder of a hospice for the poor, which is now a home for the elderly in Rimini, Italy.

Pope, creating six new saints, uses newly abbreviated formula

VATICAN CITY - Using a newly simplified rite, Pope Francis proclaimed six new saints and praised them for the love and self-giving with which they served God and built up his kingdom by serving the poor and needy.

Pope Francis meets with members of Roman Curia.

Pope meets Curia to discuss reform; names new head of worship office

VATICAN CITY - The same day he spent three hours meeting the heads of Vatican offices to discuss the reform of the Roman Curia, Pope Francis named 69-year-old Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah to be the new prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

eople enter a government-run employment office in Madrid.

Create jobs, don't just expand welfare, handouts, Pope says

VATICAN CITY - The Catholic Church calls for the creation of job opportunities and the recognition of the dignity of the poor, not simply for more handouts or expanded government welfare programs, Pope Francis said.

The Institute for the Works of Religion, popularly known as the Vatican bank, is seen in a 2009 photo.

Italy promises to return 23 million euros to Vatican bank

VATICAN CITY - In what the Vatican bank described as recognition that it has established serious measures to prevent money laundering, it announced the Italian government has promised to return 23 million euros (U.S. $29 million) that had been blocked for more than three years.

Jewish worshippers covered in prayer shawls pray Nov. 19 at a synagogue in Jerusalem where two Palestinian militants killed four rabbis and a policeman. Pope Francis condemned the "unacceptable episodes of violence" in Jerusalem, episodes that "do not sp are even places of worship."

Pope condemns attack on Jerusalem synagogue, urges end to violence

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis condemned the "unacceptable episodes of violence" in Jerusalem, episodes that "do not spare even places of worship," after an attack in a synagogue left four worshippers, a policeman and the two attackers dead.

U.S. evangelical Russell Moore

Sexual revolution is destroying families, Russell Moore tells Vatican conference

VATICAN CITY - Prominent U.S. evangelicals Russell Moore and Rick Warren blasted the sexual revolution at a Vatican conference Nov. 18 and said it is destroying the institution of marriage.

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