Vatican News

Pope Francis met a former prime minister of Israel and a former Palestinian foreign minister who believe they have a workable peace plan for the Holy Land.

The celebration of World Mission Sunday will see Pope Francis declare Canadian Blessed Marie-Léonie Paradis, founder of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family, and 13 others as new saints.

Pope Francis met with a group of transgender and intersex Catholics, along with LGBTQ+ allies and a medical doctor specializing in transgender healthcare, during a nearly 90-minute audience at his residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

Pope Francis and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met for the third time since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, focusing their discussion on the repatriation of Ukrainian nationals held in Russian captivity.

"Rushing" to open the diaconate to women in the Catholic Church would short-circuit a necessary reflection on the relationship between ordained ministry and charismatic leadership, particularly as it impacts the participation of women in the church, said the head of the Vatican's doctrinal office.

The Catholic Church cannot be credible in its mission of proclaiming Christ unless it acknowledges its mistakes and bends down "to heal the wounds we have caused by our sins," Pope Francis said.

The Vatican dicastery charged with overseeing and assisting religious orders confirmed that it plans to conduct an apostolic visitation of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, which was founded in 1988 by traditionalist priests wanting to maintain the old liturgical rites while remaining in full communion with the pope.

Following an investigation into an influential Peru-based Catholic movement that has expanded across Latin America and the United States, Pope Francis has expelled 10 members from its ranks for physical and spiritual abuse.

The second session of the Synod of Bishops on synodality, set to bring 368 bishops, priests, religious and laypeople to the Vatican, will begin by asking forgiveness for various sins on behalf of all the baptized.

After five years of refusal, the Chinese government has officially recognized Bishop Melchior Shi Hongzhen as bishop of Tianjin, the Vatican said, in what it called "a positive fruit of the dialogue established over the years between the Holy See and the Chinese government."