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Pope Francis’ 2024 travels: historic visits to Southeast Asia, Oceania, Belgium, and Corsica‍

Despite health challenges that led to a cancelled trip to Dubai for COP28, Pope Francis maintained an ambitious travel schedule in 2024 that saw him draw large crowds in Asia and make his first-ever visit to Corsica as well as visiting Belgium and Luxembourg. The now-88-year-old pontiff’s longest

Pope Francis: How to be ‘pilgrims of hope’ during 2025 Jubilee Year

Pope Francis called on Ca-tholics to become “pilgrims of hope” in a BBC podcast on 27 December, emphasizing that “hope and kindness touch the very heart of the Gospel.” Speaking just days after the opening of the 2025 Jubilee Year, the pope emphasized that “kindness is not a diplomatic strategy” nor “a set of rules […]

Cardinal Pizzaballa tells Gaza Christians they are ‘the light’ of the church

“You have become the light of our Church in the entire world,” Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa told Gaza Christians Dec. 22 during a pre-Christmas visit aiming to bring the joy of the season to the suffering Christian community in the Gaza Strip. After passing the Erez crossing at dawn, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem said to […]

2024 ‘one of the worst years in history’ for children

The UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, issued a new review documenting how 2024 is, by every measure, ‘one of the worst years for children’ worldwide on record and how their human rights are being violated in the most damaging and brutal of ways. Having analysed the latest available data and prevailing global trends, UNICEF states that […]

Pope opens Holy Door at a prison for first time ever

In the Rebibbia New Complex Prison in Rome, Pope Francis opened a Holy Door and celebrated Mass for prisoners on 26 December. “I wanted the second Holy Door I open to be here at a prison,” Pope Francis explained. For the 2025 Jubilee of Hope, the first Door to be opened was the Holy Door […]

Newborn babies die of cold in Gaza

The UN children’s agency Unicef says that in addition to Israeli attacks, children are now dying from the cold and lack of adequate shelter. Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said, ‘These preventable deaths reveal the desperate and worsening situation in which families and children in Gaza are living.’ […]