Pope Francis delivers the Angelus address on Feb. 12, 2023. / Vatican Media Vatican City, Feb 12, 2023 / 06:10 am (CNA). Pope Francis prayed Sunday for the people of Turkey and Syria who are suffering after devastating earthquakes killed more than 28,000 people.“Dear brothers and sisters, let us continue to be close with prayer and concrete support to the earthquake victims in Syria and Turkey,” the pope said in his Angelus address on Feb. 12.Speaking from the window of the Apostolic Palace, Pope Francis described how he was moved by the images of pain and suffering from the catastrophe that he saw on television and urged people to “pray and think of what we can do for them.”The pope spoke as rescue efforts continued over the weekend with rescuers pulling more than a dozen survivors out of the rubble on Saturday, according to the Associated Press. Among the survivors, a Syrian man who was trapped under rubble for nearly five days said that he survived by drinking dirty drips of water until he was rescued on Friday night. The United Nations reports that millions have been left homeless after two back-to-back earthquakes on Feb. 6 led thousands of buildings to collapse in parts of Turkey and Syria.Catholic charities are working to respond to the disaster by providing shelter, food, and other humanitarian aid.According to the director of Caritas Syria, the earthquake heavily impacted northwest Syria where 4.1 million people were already in need of humanitarian assistance after more than a decade of civil war. The charity is opening shelters in Aleppo, Hama, and Lattakia to help protect those who lost their homes from the cold and the snow.The need of the people in #Syria and #Turkey is enormous. However, to facilitate the flow of donations to people affected by the #earthquake, please donate through the @iamCARITAS' donation form: https://t.co/FlLBmXuV1k Thank you!@caritassyria pic.twitter.com/y3ybaSq9ou— Caritas (@iamCARITAS) February 11, 2023 Caritas Turkey has opened a listening center hotline to provide help to victims in partnership with the local authorities, in addition to distributing hot meals and clothes.The Catholic humanitarian organization Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has pledged more than $500,000 to help local Churches in Syria to provide aid after the earthquake at a time when international aid organizations are facing difficulties getting help into Syria.“We are working with the Franciscans in Lattakia, who are providing blankets and food for displaced families,” said Xavier Bisits, head of ACN’s Lebanon and Syria section who traveled to Aleppo immediately after the earthquake.Joop Koopman, a spokesman for ACN, told CNA that the charity is focused on providing blankets, milk for infants, and medical supplies. In addition, engineers are inspecting houses making sure families can safely return to their homes, while many shelter in churches and church buildings.At the end of the Angelus address, Pope Francis also asked people not to forget to pray for the “martyred Ukraine” that the Lord may “open paths of peace and give those in charge the courage to

Archbishop-designate Frank Leo of Toronto. / Archdiocese of Toronto Vatican City, Feb 11, 2023 / 09:10 am (CNA). Pope Francis on Saturday appointed Bishop Francis (Frank) Leo to lead the Archdiocese of Toronto, Canada’s largest Catholic diocese.Leo has been an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Montréal, Québec, since September 2022. He also served in various diplomatic posts for the Vatican from 2008-2012.The archbishop-designate succeeds Cardinal Thomas Collins, who has led the Toronto archdiocese since 2007. Pope Francis accepted the 76-year-old Collins’ resignation on Feb. 11 for reasons of age. Leo, 51, will be installed as archbishop in a ceremony at St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica. The date has not yet been announced.The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Toronto covers the territory of the Greater Toronto Area, capital of the province of Ontario. It has 225 parishes, almost 400 priests, and close to 2 million Catholics. “I thank Pope Francis for the confidence he has placed in me. This was a most unexpected appointment, yet I have learned throughout my priesthood and service to the Church that God’s special plans for us unfold in unexpected moments that lead to tremendous blessings,” Leo said.Cardinal Collins said he offers his prayers, best wishes, and support to Leo in his new role.“His knowledge of the Church, both in Canada and around the world, as well as his unfailing service over many years, demonstrates his commitment to serve joyfully and faithfully,” he said.Leo is the son of two Italian immigrants. He was born in Montréal in 1971 and entered the city’s seminary in 1990.He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Montréal on Dec. 14, 1996.Leo served in parish assignments for 10 years, until accepting an invitation to enroll in the Vatican’s Rome academy for diplomatic training in 2006. For two years he studied canon law and philosophy.He then served in the apostolic nunciature in Australia and in the Study Mission of the Holy See in Hong Kong before returning to Montréal in 2012.In Canada, the priest was on the formation team of the Grand Séminaire de Montréal. He was general secretary of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) from 2015-2021.From Feb. 1, 2022, Leo served as vicar general and moderator of the curia of the Archdiocese of Montréal, before being named an auxiliary bishop of the diocese five months later. He was consecrated a bishop on Sept. 12, 2022.The archbishop-designate speaks English, French, Italian and Spanish.Among other degrees, Leo has a doctorate in systematic theology, with a specialization in Mariology, from the University of Dayton/International Marian Research Institute.

Rony Roller Circus. / Paolo Macorig via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Rome, Italy, Feb 11, 2023 / 03:42 am (CNA). The Vatican’s charity office has invited around 2,000 poor and marginalized people to a circus performance in Rome on Saturday.“Making it possible to participate in this performance is a way to give a few hours of contentment to those who are confronted with a hard life and need help to nurture hope,” Pope Francis’ almoner, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, said this week in an announcement about the initiative.The Vatican said volunteers, including sisters from the Missionaries of Charity, will accompany the circus guests, some of whom are homeless and either living on the streets or in a shelter.Prisoners, refugees, and families with children from Ukraine, Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sudan were also invited, together with several families living in some of Rome’s illegally occupied apartment buildings. Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, dressed in a yellow vest, brings a disabled man to receive the vaccine against COVID-19 in the Vatican on March 31, 2021. Credit: Vatican Media.A circus performance, Krajewski said, paraphrasing Pope Francis, “puts us in contact with the beauty that always lifts us up, and makes us look beyond ... it is a way to go to the Lord.”“The show also reminds us that, behind this art and beauty, there are hours and hours of training, sacrifices, in order to reach the finish line,” the cardinal said. “The circus performers are confirmation that perseverance can make the impossible possible.”The big top of the Rony Roller Circus is located about 3.5 miles west of the Vatican. The show, which has received glowing reviews, includes musical performances, clowns, trapeze artists, animal tamers, and jugglers.One online reviewer called the performance “a shining example” of “the greatest show on earth,” and “an event not to be missed.”The Vatican also organized a day at the circus for some of Rome’s poor and homeless population in 2016 and 2018.

Father Marko Rupnik, SJ. / Screenshot Vatican News Rome Newsroom, Feb 10, 2023 / 13:45 pm (CNA). The ministry of Jesuit Father Marko Rupnik, accused of the sexual, spiritual, and psychological abuse of women from a religious community with which he was formerly connected, was and continues to be under restrictions, according to the Jesuit order.Those restrictions included a ban on hearing confessions and engaging in spiritual direction with women. Rupnik was also prohibited, the order said last December, from engaging in public activities without the permission of his local superior. The order did not say at the time who Rupnik’s local superior was.Father Johan Verschueren, the major superior for the international houses of the Jesuits, told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, this week that he has been Rupnik’s superior since January 2020.Verschueren also revealed which Jesuit priests were Rupnik’s superiors since 2004.In religious orders such as the Jesuits, a priest is supervised by, and takes direction from, his local superior.Father Milan Zust (2004–2017)Upon arriving in Rome from Slovenia, Rupnik was under Zust’s supervision from 2004 to 2017. At that time, Zust was superior of the Centro Aletti, the school dedicated to the promotion of religious art in Rome where Rupnik arrived after his years in the Loyola Community of Slovenia.Zust was born in Slovenia and entered the Society of Jesus in 1986. He is currently a professor at the Gregorian University in Rome.Father Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves (2017–2019)From 2017 to December 2019, Rupnik’s superior was Guerrero, a Jesuit priest who resigned as prefect of the Holy See’s Secretariat for the Economy “for personal reasons” in November 2022.Pope Francis had appointed him to that position on Nov. 14, 2019, replacing Australian Cardinal George Pell.Guerrero, a Spanish priest, was during those three years delegate of the superior general for Houses and Interprovincial Works in Rome and general counselor of the Society of Jesus.During this time, and despite the fact that the Society of Jesus was aware of the accusation of sexual abuse and of the sacramental confession that Rupnik heard, which incurred the state of excommunication, he was allowed to continue with his public appearances.The timeline released by the Society of Jesus notes that in June 2019, after the then Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith considered the accusations credible, the Jesuits imposed certain restrictions on the priest, although they did not specify what they were.Asked by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, about the application of these restrictions, Verschueren said on Dec. 15, 2022, that “the weak point of them is the interpretation of the local superior; hence the last public appearances of Father Rupnik were in accordance with the measures. The local superior allowed it.”“We are aware of this problem, and we are honestly upset about it. It is obvious that we need to adjust the weak point of the measures as they were put in the previous decree; we are working on it,” Verschueren said.Asked again in January 2023, Verschueren confirmed to ACI Prensa that between

Italian Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu (right) waits prior to the start of a consistory during which 20 new cardinals are to be created by the Pope, on Aug. 27, 2022 at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. ( / Photo by ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images Rome Newsroom, Feb 9, 2023 / 08:48 am (CNA). Pope Francis met at the Vatican Thursday morning with Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who is on trial for charges related to Vatican finances.The meeting appeared on the top of Pope Francis’ list of official audiences for Feb. 9, published by the Vatican every day at noon Rome time.The editors of the news aggregation website Il Sismografo called the official nature of the meeting “puzzling” given that the pope and the cardinal have been in contact other times since Becciu’s fall from grace in 2020.Becciu served as “sostituto,” or second-ranking official at the Secretariat of State, from 2011 to 2018, when Pope Francis named him a cardinal and made him head of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.Since July 2021, Becciu has been on trial in the Vatican on several finance-related charges. The trial centers on the Secretariat of State’s purchase of a London building, a controversial investment that lost the Vatican hundreds of thousands of euros. It also marks the first time a cardinal has been tried by a Vatican court of lay judges.The 74-year-old cardinal has also been accused of using Vatican funds to help a charity run by his brother, an allegation that made waves when it was published in a major Italian newspaper in September 2020.According to Becciu, Pope Francis referenced the accusation when he asked him to give up his Vatican job and relinquish the rights and privileges of a cardinal on Sept. 24, 2020.Since that day, the disgraced cardinal has insisted on his innocence of all the charges.Pope Francis has also expressed a hope in Becciu’s innocence, saying in a September 2021 interview that Becciu “is a person for whom I have a certain esteem as a person, that is to say that my wish is that he turns out well ... In any case, justice will decide.”Five months prior, in April 2021, the pope had celebrated a private Mass in the chapel in Becciu’s apartment for Holy Thursday.More recently, the cardinal participated in Pope Francis’ Aug. 27, 2022, public consistory to create new cardinals and an Aug. 29-30 meeting of cardinals.They were the first consistories Becciu had participated in since stepping down in September 2020.According to the cardinal, Pope Francis had called him on Aug. 20 “to tell me that I will be reinstated in my cardinal functions.”Becciu took the stand for the first time in the Vatican finance trial on May 5, 2022.He is charged with embezzlement, money laundering, fraud, extortion, and abuse of office.

WYD Sydney - July 15 - 20, 2008 / Vatican Media Rome Newsroom, Feb 8, 2023 / 08:30 am (CNA). In a 2018 essay published after his death, Pope Benedict XVI said a Protestant-like understanding of the Eucharist and strong calls for intercommunion are often found together.Commenting on the current situation of eucharistic life in the Catholic Church, the pope emeritus said: “One process of great impact is the almost complete disappearance of the sacrament of penance.”There is also the understanding of Communion as merely “a supper,” he added. “In such a situation of a very advanced Protestantization of the understanding of the Eucharist, intercommunion appears natural.”Benedict’s essay on the Eucharist is part of a series of texts the pope emeritus wrote after his resignation in 2013. The essays, letters, and reflections have been collected into a single volume, “What Is Christianity?,” which was published in Italian last month.According to Vatican journalist Sandro Magister, Benedict XVI had arranged for the writings to be published after his death.The Italian magazine L’Espresso published an excerpt of one the essays, a 17-page text on “the meaning of Communion,” which was finished in June 2018, when the Church in Germany was debating intercommunion: whether Protestant spouses of Catholics could receive the Eucharist at Mass.In his essay, Benedict recalled other moments in Germany’s history when there were calls for intercommunion and said that today, sometimes those same calls are based more on outside forces than on the desire for unity in Christ.“Especially during the years of the war, in the evangelical camp a division developed between the Third Reich and what were called the ‘deutsche Christen,’ Christian-Germans, on one side, and the ‘bekennende Kirche,’ the confessing Church, on the other,” he explained.The split led to a new accord between evangelical Christians and the Catholic Church, he said. “One result was a push in favor of common eucharistic Communion between the confessions. In this situation there grew the desire for a single body of the Lord that today, however, risks losing its strong religious foundation and, in an externalized Church, is determined more by political and social forces than by the interior search for the Lord.”The pope emeritus described another time, shortly after the reunification of Germany, when a eucharistic act, drinking from the chalice, was used “as an essentially political act in which the unity of all Germans became manifest.”“Thinking back on it, still today I feel anew with great force the estrangement of faith that came from this. And when presidents of the Federal Republic of Germany, who at the same time were presidents of the synods of their Church, have regularly called aloud for interconfessional eucharistic Communion, I see how the demand for a common loaf and chalice may serve other purposes,” he said.Benedict XVI also noted a growing support, starting from Protestant exegesis, for the opinion that Jesus’ meals with sinners prepared the way for the Last Supper, in which he instituted the Eucharist.It is argued that the Last Supper, then, is

Pope Francis prayed for victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria during his general audience on Feb. 8, 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA Vatican City, Feb 8, 2023 / 02:56 am (CNA). Pope Francis concluded his public audience on Wednesday with a prayer for the intercession of the Virgin Mary for the thousands of victims of a deadly earthquake in Turkey and Syria.“Let’s pray together so that these brothers and sisters can move forward from this tragedy. And we pray that Our Lady will protect them,” the pope said in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on Feb. 8.He then led pilgrims at the event in praying a Hail Mary for all those affected.A series of large earthquakes in parts of Turkey and Syria Feb. 6 have created massive destruction and killed an estimated 9,600 people, according to the latest available estimates reported by Reuters early Wednesday morning.“With deep feeling I pray for them and express my closeness to these peoples, to the families of the victims, and to all those who suffer because of this devastating natural disaster,” the pope said.“I thank all those who are working to bring assistance and encouragement to them,” he added, “and solidarity to those areas, in part already tormented by a long war.”On Monday, a “deeply saddened” Pope Francis sent “heartfelt condolences to those who mourn their loss” in telegrams addressed to the apostolic nuncios of Turkey and Syria after the earthquake.Francis’ topic for his Feb. 8 general audience address was his Jan. 31–Feb. 5 visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, which he called a “long-desired journey.”The trip fulfilled “two ‘dreams,’” he said: “To visit the Congolese people, custodians of an immense country, the green heart of Africa and second in the world along with Amazonia. A land rich in resources and bloodied by a war that never ends, because there is always someone to feed the fire.”“And,” he added, “to visit the South Sudanese people, in a pilgrimage of peace together with the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the moderator general of the Church of Scotland, Iain Greenshields: We went together to bear witness that it is possible and a duty to collaborate in diversity, especially if one shares faith in Christ.”

Pope Francis speaks to the media on Feb. 5, 2023, during his return flight to Rome from his visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. / Vatican Media Rome Newsroom, Feb 5, 2023 / 12:00 pm (CNA). On his return flight from South Sudan on Sunday, Pope Francis said that God loves and accompanies people with same-sex attraction. When asked by a journalist what the pope would say to families in Congo and South Sudan who reject their children because they are gay, Pope Francis responded that the catechism teaches that people with same-sex attraction should not be marginalized. “People with homosexual tendencies are children of God. God loves them. God accompanies them,” the pope said during an in-flight press conference on his return from Juba on Feb. 5.“To condemn someone like this is a sin. Criminalizing people with homosexual tendencies is an injustice,” he added.In a first for a papal trip, Pope Francis was joined for the in-flight press conference by two other Christian leaders: his Anglican counterpart, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, and the moderator of the Church of Scotland, Iain Greenshields, who also took part in the “ecumenical pilgrimage of peace” in South Sudan Feb. 3-5.Together the three Christian leaders answered questions and spoke about South Sudan’s peace process, the war in Ukraine, and mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo.Welby said that he “wholeheartedly agreed” with what Pope Francis said about the Congo that it is “not the playground of great powers.” Greenshields added that in South Sudan’s peace process “actions speak louder than words.”Justin Welby, archbishop of Canterbury, speaks to reporters aboard the papal flight to Rome on Feb. 5, 2023, as Iain Greenshields, moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, looks on. The two religious leaders accompanied Pope Francis on his visit to South Sudan. Vatican MediaPope Francis alone answered a question about tensions in the Catholic Church after the death of his predecessor Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.“I think Benedict’s death was instrumentalized by people who want to serve their own interests,” Francis said.People who instrumentalize such a good and holy person, Francis added, are partisans and unethical.Looking ahead at potential upcoming papal trips, Pope Francis said that he wants to go to India next year.The 86-year-old pope confirmed that he also plans to travel to Marseille, France, in September to participate in a meeting of Mediterranean bishops and added that “there is a possibility from Marseille to fly to Mongolia.”In his response to the question about the acceptance of people with same-sex attractions, Pope Francis noted that he has spoken on the topic multiple times during in-flight press conferences.The pope reiterated what he said on his return flight from Brazil in 2013: “If a person with homosexual tendencies is a believer, seeks God, who am I to judge him? This is what I said on that trip.”He added that during an in-flight press conference returning from Ireland in 2018 he said that parents should not kick out children with this

Pope Francis speaks to journalists on Feb. 5, 2023, during his flight back to Rome after his visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. / Vatican Media Rome, Italy, Feb 5, 2023 / 11:35 am (CNA). Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s death was used by people in a self-serving way, Pope Francis said aboard the papal plane returning from South Sudan on Sunday.“I think Benedict’s death was instrumentalized by people who want to serve their own interests,” he said during an in-flight press conference Feb. 5.People who instrumentalize such a good and holy person, Francis added, are partisans and unethical.There is a widespread tendency to make political parties out of theological positions, he said. “I leave it alone. These things will fall on their own, or if they don’t fall they will move on as has happened so many times in the history of the Church.”Pope Francis’ comments were made aboard the papal plane from Juba, South Sudan, to Rome, at the end of a six-day trip that also included nearly four days in the Democratic Republic of Congo.In a papal first, the in-flight press conference included the participation of the pope’s Anglican counterpart, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, and the moderator of the Church of Scotland, Iain Greenshields.Welby and Greenshields had joined Pope Francis in South Sudan for an ecumenical pilgrimage of peace and reconciliation. The two Christian leaders responded to some, but not all, of the questions on the papal flight.Near the end of the nearly hour-long press conference, Pope Francis was asked if his papal ministry had become more difficult since Benedict’s death in light of growing division in the Church.Francis reiterated that he was able to speak about everything with Benedict, even to change his own mind.“He was always by my side, supporting me. And if he had any difficulty he would tell me and we would talk and there was no problem,” the pope said.He went on to describe a moment in which it appeared that someone may have wanted to pit Francis and the pope emeritus against each other.Pope Francis recalled once referencing civil solidarity pact, a law in France that allows nontraditional civil unions between two people to receive certain benefits without all of the rights and responsibilities of civil marriage. Francis had suggested this type of partnership as a possible solution for homosexual couples for the purpose of “securing property.”After Pope Francis had made these comments, “a person who thinks he is a great theologian, through a friend of Pope Benedict, went to him and made a complaint against me,” the pope said.Benedict’s response was not to be “shocked,” the pope added, but to call together “four top theological cardinals” to explain the concept to him.“And that’s how the story ended,” he said. “[This was] an anecdote to see how Benedict moved when there were complaints.”Benedict XVI, he emphasized, “was not a bitter man.”Pope Francis visited the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan Jan. 31-Feb. 5. Over the six

Pope Francis greets the crowd at his Sunday Angelus address on Jan. 29, 2023. / Vatican Media Rome Newsroom, Feb 2, 2023 / 12:23 pm (CNA). On the 27th World Day for Consecrated Life, Pope Francis recalled the special role religious brothers and sisters have in the Catholic Church.“In the People of God, sent to bring the Gospel to all people, you consecrated men and women have a special role,” the pope said in a written message for Feb. 2.This special role, he continued, stems “from the special gift you have received: a gift that gives your witness a special character and value, by the very fact that you are wholly dedicated to God and his kingdom, in poverty, virginity, and obedience.”Pope Francis’ message was read at the beginning of a Mass for consecrated men and women in Rome’s St. Mary Major Basilica on Feb. 2.Pope Francis usually celebrates a special Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica to mark the World Day for Consecrated Life but was unable to do so this year because the day fell in the middle of his Jan. 31–Feb. 5 trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.The Feb. 2 Mass in St. Mary Major was celebrated by the prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Consecrated Life, Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, who read the pope’s message to those present.“When you hear this message from me, I will be on mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and I know that I will be accompanied by your prayers,” the pope said. “In turn, I want to assure you of mine for the mission of each of you and your communities.”“All of us together are members of the Church,” he continued, “and the Church is in mission from the first day, sent by the Risen Lord, and will be so until the last, by the power of his Spirit.”The theme of the 2023 World Day for Consecrated Life is “Brothers and Sisters in Mission.”The Catholic Church celebrates the World Day for Consecrated Life every year on Feb. 2, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, also known as Candlemas or the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary.The day of prayer was established by Pope John Paul II in 1997.In his message, Pope Francis said the mission of consecrated men and women is enriched by the unique charisms of their communities, in addition to the fundamental gift they have each received.“In their stupendous variety, [charisms] are all given for the edification of the Church and for its mission,” he said. “All charisms are for mission, and they are precisely so with the incalculable richness of their variety; so that the Church can witness and proclaim the Gospel to all and in every situation.”He prayed that the Virgin Mary would obtain for consecrated men and women the grace to bring the light of Christ’s love to all people. He also entrusted them to Mary “Salus Populi Romani,” the title of a Byzantine Marian