Pope Francis prays the Angelus on Jan. 7, 2024, and offers pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square a reflection on baptism. / Vatican Media Vatican City, Jan 7, 2024 / 10:04 am (CNA). Pope Francis said Sunday that if you do not know the date of your baptism, you need to look it up so that you can celebrate the anniversary of becoming a child of God and heir to the kingdom of heaven.Speaking from the window of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, the pope said on Jan. 7 that the anniversary of one’s baptism should be celebrated each year “like a birthday.”“At baptism, it is God who comes into us, purifies and heals our heart, makes us forever His children, His people and family, heirs to Paradise,” Pope Francis said.“Let us ask ourselves: am I aware of the immense gift I carry within me through baptism?” he added.The pope spoke on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which commemorates Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River by St. John the Baptist.Pilgrims gather to see Pope Francis deliver the Angelus address at St. Peter's Square on Jan. 7, 2024. Vatican MediaEarlier in the day, Pope Francis baptized 16 babies in the Sistine Chapel, where he said that baptism is “the most beautiful gift” that parents can give to their children.The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes baptism as the “basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit ... and the door which gives access to the other sacraments.”In his Angelus address, Pope Francis said that each sign of the cross is a reminder of one’s baptism that “traces in us the memory of the grace of God, who loves us and desires to be with us.”Pope Francis urged people to reflect and ask themselves: “Do I acknowledge, in my life, the light of the presence of God, who sees me as His beloved son, His beloved daughter?”Pilgrims gather in St. Peter's Square to see Pope Francis deliver his Angelus reflection . Vatican MediaHe also encouraged Catholics to thank God for their parents who brought them to the baptismal font and gave them the gift of the sacrament. “It is important to remember the day of our baptism, and also to know the date. I ask all of you, each one of you to think: ‘Do I remember the date of my baptism?’” he said.“If you do not remember, when you go back home, ask what it is, so as not to forget it anymore because it is a new birthday, because with your baptism you were born into the life of grace.”After praying the Marian prayer with the crowd huddled together under umbrellas in St. Peter’s Square below, the pope urged people to continue praying for peace in Ukraine, Palestine, and Israel.Pope Francis also asked for prayers for “the unconditional liberation” of all people who have been kidnapped in Colombia and expressed his closeness to the people affected by the recent flooding in the Democratic Republic

Pope Francis baptizes babies in the Sistine Chapel on January 7, 2024. / Vatican Media Vatican City, Jan 7, 2024 / 07:30 am (CNA). Pope Francis baptized babies in the Sistine Chapel on Sunday and encouraged parents not to worry if their children cry or fuss during Mass.On the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord on Jan. 7, the pope baptized 16 babies and presided over Mass beneath Michelangelo’s frescoes.In a brief off-the-cuff homily, the pope said that baptism is “the most beautiful gift” that parents can give to their children.Pope Francis baptizes babies in the Sistine Chapel on January 7, 2024. Vatican Media“We are here to baptize, to give the gift of faith to our babies. And they are the protagonists in this ceremony — they can speak, they can walk, they can shout … because this is their celebration. They will receive the most beautiful gift, the gift of faith, the gift of the Lord,” Pope Francis said.“They are the protagonists because they will also give us today the testimony of how to receive faith: with innocence, with openness of heart,” he added.Following the homily, the Sistine Chapel choir sang the Litany of the Saints in preparation for the baptisms. Pope Francis used a golden shell-shaped cup to pour baptismal water over the head of each baby beneath the 48-foot high fresco of Michelangelo’s “The Last Judgment.” Pope Francis baptizes babies in the Sistine Chapel on January 7, 2024. Vatican MediaThe pope told parents to let their babies cry during the Mass, joking that once one baby cries then “the concert will begin.”Archbishop Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, president of the Governorate of Vatican City State served as the main celebrant of the Mass with Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner, concelebrating. Krajewski also helped to clothe each child in a white garment after their baptism to symbolize that the child has “put on Christ” and risen with the Lord.Pope Francis baptizes babies in the Sistine Chapel on January 7, 2024. Vatican MediaThe feast of the Baptism of the Lord commemorates Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River by St. John the Baptist.The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes baptism as the “basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit ... and the door which gives access to the other sacraments.”St. John Paul II began the papal tradition of baptizing children in the Sistine Chapel on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord on Jan. 11, 1981.Pope Francis baptizes babies in the Sistine Chapel on January 7, 2024. Vatican MediaThe ceremony initially took place in the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace but was moved to the Sistine Chapel in 1983.The event was reserved at first for babies of Swiss Guards but later expanded to include the children of Vatican employees.To qualify, children have to be under one year of age and their parents must be married in the Church. Each child is accompanied in the Sistine Chapel by his or her parents, siblings,

Pope Francis delivers his homily during the Mass for the Solemnity of the Epiphany in St. Peter's Basilica on Jan. 7, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media Rome Newsroom, Jan 6, 2024 / 09:50 am (CNA). Drawing on account of the Magi on the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, Pope Francis on Saturday urged the faithful to “find God in flesh and bone, in the faces of those we meet each day, and especially in the poor.” “The Magi teach us that an encounter with God opens us up to a greater reality, which makes us change our way of life and transform our world,” the pope said during his homily at a Mass Jan. 6 in St. Peter’s Basilica attended by nearly 6,000 people.In the Latin rite of the Catholic Church, Epiphany (from the Greek word meaning “manifestation”) celebrates the revelation that Jesus was the Son of God. It focuses primarily on this revelation to the three Magi, or wise men, but it also focuses on the manifestation of Jesus’ divinity at his baptism in the Jordan River and in his first public miracle at the wedding at Cana.The 87-year-old pontiff emphasized that the wise men’s journey was one of adoration and love, but he noted that “they do not pass their lives staring at their feet, self-absorbed, confined by earthly horizons, plodding ahead in resignation or lamentation.” Instead, the pope continued, “they lift their heads high and await the light that can illuminate the meaning of their lives, the salvation that dawns from on high.”For the Magi “the star shining in the heavens” was a call to both lift “their eyes on high” and “lower them to this world.” In this way, the pope continued, they were able to recognize that God is not an abstract concept, but instead is humbly manifest “in man, in a little child lying in a manger.”Pope Francis greets guests attending the Mass for the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord at St. Peter's Basilica on Jan. 6, 2024. Credit: Elizabeth Alva/CNAThe adoration of the Christ child is a moment that “illuminates our life,” Francis noted.“The Lord Jesus was given to us not to warm our nights, but to let rays of light break through the dark shadows that envelop so many situations in our societies,” he said.“We find the God who comes down to visit us, not by basking in some elegant religious theory, but by setting out on a journey, seeking the signs of his presence in everyday life, and above all in encountering and touching the flesh of our brothers and sisters.” The Holy Father called on the faithful to remain in God’s presence and stay faithful to the Church.“We need this on our journey through life, we need to let ourselves walk in friendship with the Lord, we need his love to sustain us, and the light of his word to guide us, like a star in the night,” Pope Francis said.At the same time, he continued, “we need to set out

Pope Francis meets with a delegation from the Society of Catholic Publicists of Germany on the 75th anniversary of its foundation Jan. 4, 2024, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media ACI Prensa Staff, Jan 5, 2024 / 18:30 pm (CNA). Pope Francis said people working in Catholic media must not refrain from being involved in the evangelizing mission of the Church and that, therefore, “they cannot remain ‘neutral’ with respect to the message they convey.”The pontiff made his remarks at a Jan. 4 audience with a delegation from the Society of Catholic Publicists of Germany on the 75th anniversary of its foundation.According to Vatican News, the Holy Father also explained that “interreligious dialogue, ecumenism, and the defense of peace, freedom, and human dignity” should be the goals of communication professionals, especially if they are Catholic.“How many conflicts today, instead of being extinguished by dialogue, are fueled by fake news or inflammatory statements in the media! That’s why it’s all the more important that you, strong in your Christian roots and in living the faith daily, ‘demilitarized’ in your heart by the Gospel, support the disarmament of language,” the pope said in his discourse, which he gave in writing to the delegation.To achieve this “demilitarization” of language, he shared four guidelines that Catholics in the media can put into practice: “Foster a tone of peace and understanding, build bridges, be available to listen, and engage in respectful communication toward others and their reasons.”He also noted that Catholic journalists have a fundamental role to play in situations involving tension and disputes by “providing correct information” to resolve misunderstandings and contributing to the construction of peace in society, “helping mutual understanding and not setting people in opposition to each other.”Pope Francis was also emphatic in asking Catholic journalists not to be turned in on themselves but to go out and “bring the Christian message to all areas of life” using the enormous resources, platforms, and communication tools available to the modern world. “A Church concerned above all with itself becomes ill with self-referentiality,” he warned.In that regard, the pontiff pointed to the weakest in society as the center of attention of communication professionals. In these peripheries, Pope Francis commented, is found “the God of love, waiting for the good news of our charity.” The Holy Father pointed out the need for journalists “who highlight the stories and faces of those to whom few or no one pays attention.”Catholics in the media should “always think of the faces of the people, especially the poor and the simple, and start from them, their reality, their dramas, and their hopes, even if doing so means going against the current” and sparing no effort, he concluded.This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu. / Credit: Claude Truong Ngoc, CC BY SA 40 via Wikimedia Commons Vatican City, Jan 5, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA). After being convicted on several counts of embezzlement of Vatican funds, Cardinal Angelo Becciu gave a New Year’s Eve homily recommending the congregation draw up “a balance sheet” of one’s personal life before God, according to an Italian media outlet.Becciu, who was sentenced to five and a half years in prison by the Vatican’s criminal court on Dec. 16, celebrated Christmas in his hometown on the Italian island of Sardinia and presided over a Mass in the Cathedral of the Blessed Immaculate Virgin of Ozieri on Dec. 31.“Recalling the past means drawing up a balance sheet of our personal lives before God, without closing our eyes to the issues that grip the society in which we live both locally and universally,” Becciu said in his homily, according to the Italian Catholic blog Korazym.org.“It also means having a calm and practical look at that reality, that mystery, which we hold most dear: the Church of God,” he said.The cardinal was also welcomed as a “guest of honor” at a celebratory dinner with the poor after the Mass by Bishop Corrado Melis of Ozieri, who vehemently defended Becciu in a letter to his diocese after he was found guilty by a Vatican tribunal.In addition to finding Becciu guilty of embezzlement of funds from the Vatican property deal in London, judges in the Vatican trial also convicted the cardinal for using Vatican money to pay Cecilia Marogna, a Sardinian woman who was employed by Becciu as a security consultant, and of embezzlement for sending 125,000 euros of Vatican money to a charity run by his brother in Sardinia.Becciu has denied all wrongdoing and his lawyers have announced that the cardinal will appeal the ruling in the Vatican’s yearslong finance trial. Due to the appeal, the cardinal remains free as he awaits the appeal process for his case per Italian incarceration procedures for convicted criminals who have not committed violent crimes or are a flight risk. None of the other five people who received jail sentences at the end of the Vatican’s finance trial are currently behind bars, and it is expected that the appeals process could take at least a year for a new trial to conclude.Becciu told the Sardinian television station TGR Sardinia after presiding over Christmas Mass at the parish church of Santa Sabina in his hometown of Pattada, Sardinia, that he felt “an affectionate welcome” on the island after his conviction.Sardinian Bishop Melis published an emotional letter on the website of the Diocese of Ozieri immediately following the Vatican ruling saying that the sentence imposed on Becciu — whom he refers to endearingly in Italian as “Don Angelino” — caused him “immense suffering, … bitterness, and disorientation.”“To dear Don Angelino I remember a phrase dear to Charles de Foucauld: ‘The cross is the daily bread of faithful souls,’” the bishop said.

St. Peter's Dome. / Credit: dade72 via Shutterstock Vatican City, Jan 4, 2024 / 10:10 am (CNA). The Vatican’s doctrine office issued a response on Thursday to “clarify the reception of Fiducia Supplicans” amid widespread international backlash to the Vatican’s recent declaration on same-sex blessings.Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), published a five-page press release on Jan. 4 that refers to Fiducia Supplicans as “perennial doctrine” and underlines that pastoral blessings of couples in irregular situations should not be “an endorsement of the life led by those who request them.”Fernández said that the responses he has received from bishops’ conferences around the world to the declaration highlight “the need for a more extended period of pastoral reflection” and that what is expressed in these bishops’ statements “cannot be interpreted as doctrinal opposition because the document is clear and definitive about marriage and sexuality.”“There is no room to distance ourselves doctrinally from this declaration or to consider it heretical, contrary to the Tradition of the Church, or blasphemous,” the cardinal said, pointing to a few paragraphs in the text of the original declaration that affirms the Church’s doctrine on marriage. You can read the full text of the press release at the bottom of this story.The clarification was published two and a half weeks after the Dec. 18 publication of Fiducia Supplicans, which prompted strong backlash from bishops in several African and Eastern European countries as well as confusion and division from other parts of the world.Some bishops have welcomed the declaration, some are approaching it with caution, and others are refusing to implement it.In the press release, published in six languages, Fernández provides one “concrete example” of what the spontaneous “pastoral blessings” might look like in practice, explaining that they should only last “about 10 or 15 seconds.”“Since some have raised the question of what these blessings might look like, let us look at a concrete example: Let us imagine that among a large number making a pilgrimage a couple of divorced people, now in a new union, say to the priest: ‘Please give us a blessing, we cannot find work, he is very ill, we do not have a home and life is becoming very difficult: May God help us!” he said.“In this case, the priest can recite a simple prayer like this: ‘Lord, look at these children of yours, grant them health, work, peace, and mutual help. Free them from everything that contradicts your Gospel and allow them to live according to your will. Amen.’ Then it concludes with the sign of the cross on each of the two persons.”Fernández said that priests giving these types of blessings should “not impose conditions” or “enquire about the intimate lives of these people.” He added that “this non-ritualized form of blessing, with the simplicity and brevity of its form, does not intend to justify anything that is not morally acceptable.”“It remains clear, therefore, that the blessing must not take place in a

Father Ramon Guidetti has been excommunicated by his local bishop for saying in a homily that Pope Francis “is not the pope” and calling him “a usurper.” / Credit: Screenshot from Radio Domina NostraYouTube channel, Jan. 3, 2024 Rome Newsroom, Jan 3, 2024 / 11:08 am (CNA). An Italian priest has been excommunicated by his local bishop for saying in a homily that Pope Francis “is not the pope” and calling him “a usurper.”The Diocese of Livorno in Tuscany issued a decree on Jan. 1 notifying Catholics that Father Ramon Guidetti “publicly committed a schismatic act” during Mass and has ipso facto incurred “latae sententiae excommunication,” or an automatic excommunication.Bishop Simone Giusti informed his diocese that Catholics are not to attend any Masses offered by the excommunicated priest or they would also “incur the very serious penalty of excommunication.”The bishop cited Canon 751, which defines schism as “the refusal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him.”A video uploaded to YouTube shows Guidetti calling Pope Francis a “usurper” and a “freemason” in his homily given on Dec. 31, 2023, to mark the one-year anniversary of Benedict XVI’s death.In the homily, the priest further denied that Pope Francis has been the pope for the last decade.Guidetti, 48, had served since 2017 as a parish priest of the Church of San Ranieri, located outside of the coastal city of Livorno about 150 miles north of Rome.According to a local paper in Livorno, the bishop met with Guidetti before Christmas to discuss his dissent and proceeded with the official excommunication decree after the priest’s public act of schism on Dec. 31.

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/ACI Prensa Rome Newsroom, Jan 3, 2024 / 18:20 pm (CNA). Amid significant confusion about the Vatican’s recent guidance on same-sex blessings, the document’s architect has lashed out at those advancing the most liberal interpretation: Catholic leadership in Germany. Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) and longtime theological adviser to Pope Francis, described Fiducia Supplicans as a “clear answer” to German plans to formalize liturgical blessings for same-sex couples, a move that is explicitly forbidden by the Dec. 18 guidance.“It is not the answer that people in two or three countries would like to have,” Fernández said of Fiducia Supplicans in a Jan. 3 interview with the German Catholic newspaper Die Tagespost. “Rather, it is a pastoral response that everyone could accept, albeit with difficulty.” The Vatican’s guidance proposes the possibility of “spontaneous blessings” for same-sex couples and those in “irregular relations” but “without officially validating their status or changing in any way the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage.” To avoid confusion, Fiducia Supplicans prohibits the promotion of formalized blessings and the use of any clothing or symbols that could give the impression of a marital blessing. Members of the controversial German Synodal Way, a collaboration between the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) and a powerful lay lobby (ZdK), overwhelmingly approved developing formalized ritual texts for same-sex blessings at a March 2023 assembly in Frankfurt.Since then, several German bishops have greenlighted public blessings of same-sex couples in their dioceses. And following the publication of Fiducia Supplicans, ZdK vice president Birgit Mock said the Church in Germany would not scrap its plans to develop a formal text of same-sex blessings, despite the guidance’s prohibitions.Fernández suggested that some German Catholics may fail to appreciate the perspectives of Catholics in other parts of the world on questions related to sexuality.“Listening to some reflections made in the context of the German Synodal Path, it sometimes seems that a part of the world feels particularly ‘enlightened’ to understand what the other poor wretches are unable to grasp because they are closed or medieval, and then this ‘enlightened’ part naively believes that thanks to it, the whole universal Church is reformed and freed from the old schemes,” Fernández told Die Tagespost.Similarly, the DDF head suggested that some German Catholic leaders don’t appreciate Pope Francis’ effort to maintain Church unity.“Some German bishops do not seem to understand that a liberal or enlightened pope could not guarantee this communion among Germans, Africans, Asians, Latin Americans, Russians, and so on,” Fernández said. “A ‘pastoral’ pope, on the other hand, is able to do this,” because he preserves Church teaching while allowing it “to enter into dialogue with the concrete, often so wounded lives of the faithful.”Fernández also directly challenged the Synodal Way’s basis for trying to radically change Church teaching and practice related to sexuality and governance, namely, the need to address the systemic causes of the sexual abuse crisis. “To believe that in one part of the world the crisis caused by sexual

Pope Francis delivers a message on the topic of “vices and virtuesc” at his Wednesday general audience on Jan. 3, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media Vatican City, Jan 3, 2024 / 09:10 am (CNA). In life’s worst moments, never forget that Jesus is beside you, Pope Francis said Wednesday.In his first general audience of the new year, the pope set aside his prepared remarks to share a message from his heart: “Jesus never leaves us alone, never!”“In our worst moments, in the moments when we slip into sins, Jesus is beside us to help us lift ourselves up,” Pope Francis said in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on Jan. 3. “We must not lose this certainty: Jesus is beside us to help us, to protect us, and also to lift us up after we sin.”Pope Francis smiles during his Wednesday general audience on Jan. 3, 2024. Credit: Vatican MediaThe pope underlined that Jesus came “to forgive and to save” and that the Lord can “forgive everything” when one comes to him seeking mercy.Pope Francis commented that there are many people in today’s society “who absolve themselves” and “who think that they are ‘fine’” without the Lord’s forgiveness. “But we are all sinners, all of us. And a little self-examination, a little interior look will do us good,” he said.Pope Francis greets pilgrims during his Wednesday general audience on Jan. 3, 2024. Credit: Vatican MediaThe pope said that the act of self-examination prevents us from becoming “accustomed to the darkness and no longer knowing how to distinguish between good and evil.”“Let us regain this ability to ask for forgiveness. Each of us has so many things to ask forgiveness for: Each of us should reflect on this within ourselves and talk to Jesus about it today,” Pope Francis said.“We must all ask God for the grace to recognize ourselves as poor sinners, in need of conversion, keeping in our hearts the trust that no sin is too great for the infinite mercy of God the Father,” he said.Pope Francis’ reflection on forgiveness and the spiritual struggle against temptations was part of his new weekly catechesis series on the topic of “vices and virtues.”“The spiritual life of the Christian is not peaceful, linear, and without challenges, but, on the contrary, Christian life demands a constant battle,” the pope said.Pope Francis greets pilgrims during his Wednesday general audience on Jan. 3, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media“The saints are not men who have been spared temptation but rather people well aware of the fact that in life the seductions of evil appear repeatedly, to be unmasked and rejected,” he added.At the end of his audience, Pope Francis asked people not to forget to pray for all people affected by war.“War is madness. War is always a defeat. Let us pray. Let us pray for the people in Palestine, Israel, Ukraine, and so many other places where there is war. And let us not forget our Rohingya brothers and sisters who are being persecuted,” he said.“Lastly … I

Pope Francis prays during his Wednesday general audience on Nov. 15, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media CNA Staff, Jan 2, 2024 / 14:50 pm (CNA). Each month Pope Francis shares a prayer intention as part of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network. The monthly prayer intentions express the Holy Father’s concerns for humanity and the mission of the Catholic Church. Here are this year’s monthly prayer intentions:January: For the gift of diversity in the Church During the month of January, Pope Francis has asked the faithful to pray for the gift of diversity in the Church. He emphasized recognizing “the gift of different charisms within the Christian community.”February: For the terminally ill February’s prayer intention is that the sick, “who are in the final stages of life, and their families receive the necessary medical and human care and accompaniment.”March: For new martyrsPope Francis urges the faithful to pray during March for “those who risk their lives for the Gospel in various parts of the world.”April: For the dignity of womenDuring April, Catholics are asked to pray that “the dignity and worth of women be recognized in every culture.” The prayer intention includes praying for an end to the discrimination many women face in different parts of the world.May: For the formation of men and women religious and seminariansMay’s prayer intention is for the formation of men and women religious and seminarians, that they may “grow in their vocational journeys through human, pastoral, spiritual, and community formation.”June: For those fleeing their own countriesPope Francis asks the faithful to pray in June for “migrants fleeing from war or hunger” and that they “may find welcome and new living opportunities in their host countries.”July: For the pastoral care of the sick July’s prayer intention asks that the sacrament of the anointing of the sick bestows “the Lord’s strength to those who receive it and to their loved ones.”August: For political leadersDuring the month of August, Catholics are asked to pray that political leaders “be at the service of their own people” and also that they work for the common good, integral human development, and take care of those who have lost their jobs.September: For the cry of the earth“That each of us listens with our hearts to the cry of the earth” is the prayer intention for the month of September. Catholics are also asked to pray this month for victims of environmental disasters and the climate crisis.October: For a shared missionWhen bishops and laypeople meet for the second part of the Synod on Synodality during October, the faithful are asked to pray that “the Church continues to sustain a synodal lifestyle in every way.”November: For those who have lost a childThe prayer intention for the month of November is for “all parents who mourn the loss of a son or daughter.” December: For pilgrims of hope In anticipation of the Church’s next jubilee, the faithful are asked to pray during the month of December that “the coming Church Jubilee Year 2025 strengthens us in our faith, helping us to