Pope Francis / Credit: Compañía de Jesús and ACI Press / Daniel Ibañez CNA Newsroom, Dec 13, 2022 / 12:30 pm (CNA). On Dec. 13, 1969, just four days before his 33rd birthday, Jesuit Jorge Mario Bergoglio — who today is Pope Francis — was ordained a priest by Archbishop Ramón José Castellano, archbishop emeritus of Córdoba (Argentina).That Dec. 13, 53 years ago, was a Saturday, the eve of the Third Sunday of Advent. In the liturgy of the Church this day is known as Gaudete or Joy Sunday, for many the hallmark of Pope Francis’ pontificate, along with mercy.According to the book “The Jesuit: Conversations with Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio,” Francis discovered his vocation to the priesthood while on his way to celebrate Gaudete Day.When he passed by a church in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Flores to go to confession, he received special inspiration from the priest who welcomed him.On another occasion the Holy Father recounted that initially his mother did not support his decision to enter the priesthood, even though she was a devout Catholic. However, when her son was ordained, she accepted his call and asked for his blessing at the end of the ceremony.Bergoglio continued his Jesuit formation from 1970 to 1971 in Spain. On April 22, 1973, he made his perpetual profession in the Society of Jesus.When he returned to Argentina he served as a professor at the San José School of Theology in the town of San Miguel (on the outskirts of the city of Buenos Aires), rector of the college, and on July 31, 1973, at the age of 36, he was appointed provincial of the Jesuits in Argentina.On May 20, 1992, Pope John Paul II appointed him auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires, and he received his episcopal consecration on June 27 of that year from the local archbishop, Cardinal Antonio Quarracino.Bergoglio was appointed coadjutor archbishop of Buenos Aires on June 3, 1997. He assumed the pastoral government of the archdiocese in February 1998 upon the death of Cardinal Quarracino.Then, in the consistory of Feb. 21, 2001, he was created cardinal by Pope John Paul II.As a cardinal he participated in the conclave that elected Benedict XVI in April 2005 and on March 13, 2013, he was elected successor of Peter, assuming the name Francis.

Sister Nathalie Becquart, who serves as an undersecretary for the Church’s ongoing Synod on Synodality, was recently named on the BBC’s list of 100 inspiring and influential women around the world. / Daniel Ibañez/CNA Rome Newsroom, Dec 13, 2022 / 09:20 am (CNA). The highest-ranking woman in the general secretariat of the Synod of Bishops has said that the ordination of women as Catholic priests is “not an open question” at this time.Sister Nathalie Becquart, who serves as an undersecretary for the Church’s ongoing Synod on Synodality, was recently named on the BBC’s list of 100 inspiring and influential women around the world.In an article published Dec. 13, the French religious sister said that there are many ways for women to serve the Church, but ordination is not an option.“For the Catholic Church at this moment, from an official point of view, it’s not an open question,” Becquart told the BBC.Becquart was quoted in a news report that featured the stories of invalid ordinations in the U.S. of Catholic women dressed in liturgical vestments in which one woman reflected: “Excommunication was just part of the journey.”In response to the subject of the article, Becquart said: “It’s not just a matter of you feeling you are called to priesthood, it’s always a recognition that the Church will call you to be a priest. So your personal feeling or decision is not enough.”She said: “I think we need to broaden our vision of the Church. There are many, many ways for women to serve the Church.”The most recent working document for the Synod on Synodality published in October said that many reports submitted to synod organizers asked for discernment on “the possibility for women with adequate training to preach in parish settings and a female diaconate.”“Much greater diversity of opinion was expressed on the subject of priestly ordination for women, which some reports call for, while others consider a closed issue,” the working document for the Continental Phase of the synod said.Pope Francis has also addressed the subject of women’s ordination recently in an interview with America Magazine.When the pope was asked for his response to a woman who feels called to be a priest, Pope Francis replied decisively: “And why can a woman not enter ordained ministry? It is because the Petrine principle has no place for that.”“The ministerial dimension, we can say, is that of the Petrine church. I am using a category of theologians. The Petrine principle is that of ministry,” the pope said.Pope Francis added that he believes that the Church should give more space to women in an “administrative” role, noting the appointments he has already made in the governance of the Vatican and the Council for the Economy.“When a woman enters politics or manages things, generally she does better. Many economists are women, and they are renewing the economy in a constructive way,” the pope added.Becquart is an example of female administrative leadership within the Church. The French religious sister is the first woman to hold

Pope Francis celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica Dec. 12, 2022, to mark the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas and the unborn. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez / CNA Rome Newsroom, Dec 12, 2022 / 13:00 pm (CNA). Pope Francis celebrated Mass in Spanish in St. Peter’s Basilica Dec. 12 to mark the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas and the unborn.In his homily, the pope explained that just as the Virgin Mary was present to the indigenous people of Mexico nearly 500 years ago, she is with us today.“Today as yesterday, Our Lady of Guadalupe wants to meet us too as she did one day with Juan Diego on the hill of Tepeyac,” Francis said. “She wants to stay with us. She begs us to allow her to be our mother, to open our lives to her Son Jesus and to welcome his message so as to learn to love like him.”Pope Francis celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica Dec. 12, 2022, to mark the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas and the unborn. Credit: Vatican MediaThe Virgin of Guadalupe appeared to St. Juan Diego on the Hill of Tepeyac in Mexico City in 1531, during a time of conflict between the Spanish and the indigenous peoples.Pope Francis said the Virgin Mary “came to accompany the American people on this hard road of poverty, exploitation, socio-economic and cultural colonialism.”“She is in the midst of the caravans that are walking northward in search of freedom. She is in the midst of the American people whose identity is threatened by a savage and exploitative paganism, wounded by the active preaching of a practical and pragmatic atheism. And she is there. ‘I am your Mother,’ she tells us,” he said.When she appeared to Juan Diego, Mary took the appearance of a pregnant native woman, wore clothing in the style of the indigenous community, and spoke in a native language, Nahuatl.Pilgrims attend Mass celebrated by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica Dec. 12, 2022, to mark the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas and the unborn. Credit: Vatican Media“Thus,” Pope Francis said, “Our Lady of Guadalupe came to the blessed lands of America, presenting herself as the ‘Mother of the true God for whom we live’; and she came to console, to attend to the needs of the little ones, without excluding anyone, to embrace them as a caring mother with her presence, love, and consolation.”“She is our mother of mixed race,” he added.Our Lady asked Juan Diego to appeal to the bishop to build a church on the site of the apparition, stating she wanted a place where she could reveal to the people the compassion of her son. Initially turned away by the bishop, Diego returned to the site asking Our Lady for a sign to prove the authenticity of her message.She instructed him to gather the Castilian roses that he found blooming on the

Pope Francis at his Angelus address at the Vatican, Dec. 11, 2022. / Credit: Vatican Media Rome Newsroom, Dec 12, 2022 / 09:50 am (CNA). Pope Francis will send a letter to the world’s heads of state asking them to pardon prisoners, the Vatican announced Monday.The invitation to make a “gesture of clemency” will be sent “on the occasion of the upcoming Christmas,” a Dec. 12 communication said.The Vatican said the letter will invite world leaders to grant leniency to “those of our brothers and sisters deprived of their liberty whom they deem fit to benefit from such a measure, so that this time marked by tensions, injustices, and conflicts may be opened to the grace that comes from the Lord.”The latest figures from the World Prison Population List, published in December 2021, report that there are an estimated 11.5 million prisoners worldwide.

Pope Francis meeting with the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired at the Vatican, Dec. 12, 2022 / Vatican Media Rome Newsroom, Dec 12, 2022 / 08:04 am (CNA). On the eve of the feast of St. Lucy, Pope Francis encouraged members of an association for the blind and visually impaired to follow the example of the young martyr by courageously standing up for the truth.“Lucy, a Syracusan martyr, reminds us by her example that the highest dignity of the human person consists in bearing witness to the truth, following one’s conscience whatever the costs, without duplicity and without compromise,” he said at the Vatican Dec. 12.Pope Francis meeting with the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired at the Vatican, Dec. 12, 2022. Vatican MediaOn the Italian island region of Sicily, the pope spoke about the virgin saint from Syracuse, whose feast day is celebrated Dec. 13, during a meeting with the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired.Francis said that bearing witness to the truth “means being on the side of the light, serving the light, as the very name ‘Lucia’ evokes.”He encouraged people “to be clear, transparent, sincere people; to communicate with others in an open, clear, respectful way. This is how one contributes to spreading light in the environments in which one lives, to make them more human, more livable.”Pope Francis recalled that he was ordained a priest 53 years ago on the feast of St. Lucy, Dec. 13, 1969. St. Lucy is the patron saint of people with disabilities or diseases of sight, the pope said, noting that sometimes people with disabilities are treated with “pity” and “welfarism.”Special blessing: Pope Francis meeting with members of the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired at the Vatican, Dec. 12, 2022. Vatican MediaThat should no longer be the Christian view, but there should be “an awareness that frailty, taken on with responsibility and solidarity, is a resource for the whole social body and for the ecclesial community,” he said.St. Lucy is, he said, “a young and defenseless woman who, however, does not give in to threats and flattery; on the contrary, she courageously responds and stands up to the judge who questions her.”“With Lucia’s protection and example, go forth.”

Pope Francis gives his weekly Angelus address on Sunday, Aug. 7, 2022. / Vatican Media Vatican City, Dec 11, 2022 / 08:35 am (CNA). Pope Francis said Sunday he is concerned about recent deadly clashes in the northern part of South Sudan.“I follow with sorrow and concern the news from South Sudan about the violent clashes of the past few days,” he said Dec. 11 at the end his Sunday Angelus message.Pope Francis is scheduled to travel to South Sudan’s capital city, Juba, in just under eight weeks.“Let us pray to the Lord for peace and national reconciliation, so that the attacks may cease and that civilians may always be respected,” Francis said Sunday, after violence broke out in South Sudan’s Upper Nile state, in the north-eastern part of the country, last week.United Nations agencies said over 9,000 people were displaced in the clashes, while an unknown number of people have been killed. Pope Francis’ Feb. 3-5 visit to South Sudan, which he will undertake together with the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the moderator of the Church of Scotland, Iain Greenshields, is to be a “pilgrimage of peace.”The pope’s journey to South Sudan will follow a three-day visit to the city of Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.The motto of the South Sudan trip comes from John 17: “I pray that all may be one.”The dates of the pope’s travels to the two African countries was announced earlier this month; it was originally to take place in July but was postponed by the Vatican due to problems with Pope Francis’ knee. The latest outbreak of violence in South Sudan is a continuation of fighting that began in August in a village in Upper Nile, according to Reuters.In parts of the country, clashes over access to resources such as water and grazing land are common. A missionary and bishop in South Sudan told journalists in April that the country is still working to implement peace, and that on his trip, Pope Francis will not find “peace realized, but peace persisting.”The logistics of the pope’s trip will be difficult, but the national security authorities are prepared to handle it, Bishop Christian Carlassare of Rumbek said via video call April 21. “There are no major risks” to Pope Francis’ safety, he added.He said the country is also facing economic problems, conflicts connected to the control of resources such as oil, and farming issues caused by hard rains and flooding.

Pope Francis gives his Angelus message for the Third Sunday of Advent on Dec. 11, 2022. / Vatican Media. Vatican City, Dec 11, 2022 / 05:05 am (CNA). The season of Advent is a time to let ourselves be surprised by God’s mercy and compassion, Pope Francis said on Gaudete Sunday.“Advent, then, is a time for overturning our perspectives … for letting ourselves be surprised by the greatness of God’s mercy,” the pope said Dec. 11.Advent is, he continued, “a time in which, preparing the nativity display for the Infant Jesus, we learn again who our Lord is, who he is; [it is] a time to leave behind certain mindsets and prejudices about God and our brothers and sisters; a time in which, instead of thinking about gifts for ourselves, we can give words and gestures of consolation to those who are wounded, as Jesus did with the blind, the deaf and the lame.”Pope Francis delivered his message for the Third Sunday of Advent from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square.People brought their Baby Jesus figurines for Pope Francis to bless during his Angelus for the Third Sunday of Advent in St. Peter's Square Dec. 11, 2022. Vatican Media.The Sunday, which marks roughly halfway through the season preceding Christmas, is also known as Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete is the Latin word for “rejoice.”After giving his short reflection and praying the Angelus, a traditional Marian prayer, Pope Francis blessed figurines of the Child Jesus which people had brought to the Vatican from their nativity scenes at home.The pope blesses the “bambinelli” — as they are called in Italian — every year on Gaudete Sunday.“And now I bless the ‘bambinelli,’ that is, the little statues of Baby Jesus that you dear children and young people have brought here and will then carry home and put in the nativity,” Francis said.“I invite you,” he continued, “to pray before the nativity scene that the birth of Jesus will bring a ray of peace to the children of the whole world, especially those forced to live the terrible and dark days of war, this war in Ukraine that destroys many lives, many lives of many children.”Pope Francis gives his Angelus message for the Third Sunday of Advent on Dec. 11, 2022. Vatican Media.In his message, Pope Francis reflected on the Gospel for the Third Sunday of Advent, which recalls when John the Baptist was in prison, and heard about the good works Jesus Christ was performing. St. John the Baptist “imagined a stern Messiah who would come and do justice with power by chastising sinners,” the pope explained. "Now, on the contrary, Jesus has words and gestures of compassion towards all.”Wracked with doubt, John sent his followers to ask Jesus if he really was the Messiah, or if he was just another prophet.It could surprise us to know that the man who baptized Jesus and called him the Lamb of God experienced this uncertainty, Francis said, noting that “even the greatest believer goes through the tunnel

Pope Francis celebrates Mass in Gyumri, Armenia, June 25, 2016. / L'Osservatore Romano/CNA Vatican City, Dec 10, 2022 / 07:00 am (CNA). Pope Francis told seminarians on Saturday that praying the rosary can “unveil the mysteries of the priesthood” in its moments of joy, sorrow, and the glory to come.In a meeting with seminarians from Barcelona, the pope urged the young men to remember that “when you are a priest your first obligation will be a life of prayer.”“Dear seminarians, take up your rosary and ask Mary, Queen and Mother of Mercy, to help unveil the mysteries of the priesthood to which God calls you, contemplating the mysteries of his Son, realizing that the joy of discipleship and perfect identification with the cross are the only way to glory,” Pope Francis said on Dec. 10.Pope Francis spoke to seminarians from Barcelona at the Vatican on Dec. 10, 2022. Vatican MediaThe pope explained that the joyful mysteries of the priesthood are “born of gratitude for that preferential love that God showed you by calling you to his service.”He recommended that seminarians contemplate the Blessed Virgin Mary’s attitude at the Annunciation and ask: “How was she when God called her? And how was I? With what zeal do I consider my future priestly life? Will I rise up … with love, to bring God to the world? Will I take him up the most arduous and painful of mountains?”Pope Francis added that the fifth joyful mystery of the rosary, the finding of Jesus in the temple, contains a particular lesson that should never be forgotten.Throughout life, we must always return to look for Jesus in the tabernacle, he said, encouraging the future priests to “lose yourselves there with Him.”In the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary, a priest is reminded that he “must aspire to a crown of thorns,” to be identified with the Lord in his suffering, the pope said.“There is the sacrifice of assuming one's own cross and beginning a path, often of abandonment. It is the sacrifice of life. Looking at the cross we raise our eyes to heaven and see our destiny,” Pope Francis said.Pope Francis spoke to seminarians from Barcelona at the Vatican on Dec. 10, 2022. Vatican MediaFor a priest, the glorious mysteries are found in the Mass in thanksgiving for the Passion of Jesus, he explained.“After the triumph of the resurrection, Jesus entered the sanctuary of heaven and from there he perpetuates this continuous thanksgiving. Seeing him seated at the right hand of the Father calls us to hope and fills us with joy because he assures us of heaven,” he said.“For this God sends the Holy Spirit, the only one who can teach us these mysteries, and one day he will give you the gift of being priests of Christ. Never cease to savor and remember this love of predilection that is poured and will be poured abundantly into your heart, at your ordination, and for the rest of your days.”“Never extinguish this fire that

Saint Francis de Sales, painted by Francisco Bayeu y Subías / Wikimedia (CC0) Rome Newsroom, Dec 10, 2022 / 03:30 am (CNA). There have been reports that on Dec. 28, Pope Francis will publish an apostolic letter on St. Francis de Sales, the priest and bishop who taught against errors and encouraged holiness for all.Dec. 28 will mark the 400th anniversary of St. Francis de Sales’ death in 1622. And though Pope Francis has said little about the saint until now, an apostolic letter would be an excellent opportunity for the pope to re-propose to the world this “model of meekness,” as he called him in January 2018.St. Francis de Sales. Kelson / Wikimedia (CC0)Here are some things to know about St. Francis de Sales:Gentleman saintSt. Francis de Sales was a gentleman by birth and education, but that is not what earned him the nickname of “the gentleman saint.”The saint earned that title through his reputation for gentleness of heart. He was the oldest child of a noble family in the Duchy of Savoy, now southeastern France. As a young man, he received an excellent education in preparation for a political career.But his heart was set on practicing religious celibacy as a Catholic priest, despite his father’s desire for him to have an important career and marriage.Francis de Sales was ordained in 1593 after signing over his title and succession to his younger brother. He was an intelligent and well-liked person. Besides studies in France, he completed his education in Padua, Italy, with doctorates in civil and canon law. In 1602, de Sales was named bishop of Geneva, Switzerland, at the age of 35.Throughout his life, one of the saint’s prominent qualities was his spiritual meekness — a popular quotation attributed to St. Francis de Sales is that “a spoonful of honey attracts more flies than a barrelful of vinegar.”St. Francis de Sales wrote to laypeople about controlling one’s temper. He apparently had a lot of experience doing so, as his biographers say he was naturally strong-willed and easily angered.Because of his own shortcomings, from childhood de Sales chose to focus on practicing the virtue of meekness.Mosaic of Sales on the exterior of St. Francis de Sales Oratory in St. Louis. RickMorais / Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)Patron saint of all writersOne well-known fact about the saint is his patronage of journalists and writers. But the bishop of Geneva has only officially held this title for 100 years.In January 1923, Pope Pius XI marked the 300th anniversary of Francis de Sales’ death with the encyclical Rerum omnium perturbationem (“the disturbance of all things”).With the letter, Pius XI officially proclaimed St. Francis de Sales “the Heavenly Patron of all Writers.”The saint earned this title because of his spiritual writings, including two books that are still widely read today: “An Introduction to the Devout Life” and “Treatise on the Love of God.”“It would be impossible to exaggerate the value of his books and pamphlets” in encouraging holiness, Pope Pius XI wrote about St. Francis de Sales in his

Denis Mukwege and Pope Francis at the general audience, May 22, 2019. / Vatican Media Rome Newsroom, Dec 9, 2022 / 04:18 am (CNA). Pope Francis met Friday with Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege, a Congolese physician known for his work treating victims of sexual violence.The private audience at the Vatican on Dec. 9 comes as Pope Francis is preparing to travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) next month.Mukwege has said that he hopes the pope’s January visit will “shed light on what is happening in the Congo.”“The international community is making the same mistake as it did in Rwanda when it allowed the genocide of the Tutsis. Today Rwandan-backed guerrillas are massacring the Congolese: these are crimes against humanity, war crimes that can also be crimes of genocide. And the international community has closed its eyes as it closed them in 1994,” he told Vatican News on Dec. 5.The M23 armed rebel group in the DRC executed 131 people last week “as part of a campaign of murders, rapes, kidnappings and looting against two villages,” the UN reported on Dec. 8.“The humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo is unprecedented: six million people are now displaced, homeless and without food,” Mukwege said.Another rebel group aligned with the Islamic State, the Allied Democratic Forces, attacked a Catholic mission hospital in the country’s northeast province of North Kivu in October and killed six patients and Catholic Sister Marie-Sylvie Kavuke Vakatsuraki.Mukwege responded to the news of the attack in North Kivu “with horror” and called on all Congolese doctors to demonstrate peacefully on the day of the funeral of the Catholic nun.“The time has come to consolidate the rule of law and prevent the recurrence of the mass atrocities that have bereaved every Congolese family for more than a quarter of a century,” he said.Amid the violence perpetrated by armed rebel groups in DRC’s eastern region, Mukwege founded a hospital in 2008 in his hometown of Bukavu, where he and his staff have treated the injuries of thousands of women and girls who were victims of rape and sexual violence.As a gynecologist, Mukwege is recognized as “one of the world’s leading experts on the treatment of internal injuries suffered by women subjected to gang rape,” according to the Nobel organization.Mukwege was a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 along with Nadia Murad. Both were recognized for their “efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of armed conflict.”The pope previously met with Murad, a survivor of ISIS enslavement and an advocate for persecuted Iraqi minorities, at the Vatican in 2018 and 2021 following his trip to Iraq.Pope Francis is scheduled to travel to the Congolese capital of Kinshasa on Jan. 31 before he heads to South Sudan on Feb. 3. The pope’s trip to the African countries was originally to take place at the beginning of July but was postponed by the Vatican due to problems with Pope Francis’ knee.With the media attention that comes