null / Quisquilia/Shutterstock Vatican City, Oct 22, 2022 / 04:00 am (CNA). “If I can speak to God directly, why should I tell my sins to a human man? I haven’t killed anyone; I don’t need confession. I always confess the same sins.”A priest and canon lawyer of the Vatican recently responded to these and other questions in a speech on “(Good) Reasons for Not Going to Confession.”Monsignor Krzysztof Nykiel is regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary, the office of the Roman Curia responsible for issues related to the sacrament known as penance, reconciliation, or confession.He addressed 10 common objections during an Oct. 13–14 conference on “celebrating the sacrament of confession today,” organized by the Vatican’s Apostolic Penitentiary in Rome and streamed online.Here are six of Nykiel’s answers to common reasons people give for not going to confession:1. I don’t go to confession because I can speak with God directly.Prayer, or dialogue with God, is good, Nykiel said. It is good to do a frequent examination of conscience and even to ask God for forgiveness for our sins in our personal prayer.“And certainly,” he explained, “it is not impossible to obtain pardon even just ‘speaking directly with God’ in prayer, but we cannot ever be certain of it.”“And it is exactly in this ‘certainty’ [that] lies the fundamental difference between the requested and rightly hoped-for forgiveness in the humble prayer to God and the forgiveness obtained in the celebration of the sacrament of reconciliation,” he continued.“The penitent who humbly confesses his sins and obtains absolution for them from the priest is morally sure, for certainty of faith, that his sins are forgiven and will not be imputed to him on the day of judgment,” he said. “The difference between a well-founded hope and a certainty, it seems to me, is worth all the effort of confession.”2. I don’t go to confession because the priest could be a worse sinner than me.Nykiel said it is true that priests, who are not God, nor the Immaculate Conception, could find themselves in graver sin than the penitent.He reassured anyone concerned, however, that even though priests are sinners too, “the moral condition of the priest at the time of sacramental absolution is completely irrelevant to the validity of the absolution.”“Giving up confession because of uncertainty about the confessor’s moral condition would be like giving up medical treatment because of uncertainty about the doctor’s health condition,” he said.3. I don't go to confession because I always say the same things.The priest said it is tempting to respond to this objection by joking that it is a “good thing they are always the same; it means there are no new sins!”“But joking aside, repeated frailty in the same sins is no reason to abandon confession; in fact, it is exactly the opposite,” he urged. “Only the humble surrender of oneself to God, imploring his mercy, makes it possible to fight and win against the vices that can bind and sometimes grip our souls.”Nykiel recalled a line he

The beatification of Pauline Jaricot in Lyon, France, on May 22, 2022. / Twitter @@diocesedelyon. Rome Newsroom, Oct 21, 2022 / 12:00 pm (CNA). The missionary strength of the Catholic Church is hard to gauge by numbers or cast into the mold of statistics. Still, Catholic efforts worldwide are measured and reported across many missionary fields of endeavor, ranging from education to health.According to figures published on the occasion of this year’s World Mission Sunday — this year celebrated on Sunday, Oct. 23 — the Catholic Church manages 72,785 nursery schools in the world attended by 7,510,632 pupils; 99,668 primary schools for 34,614,488 pupils; and 49,437 secondary schools for 19,252,704 pupils.In the field of health care, the Church manages 5,322 hospitals; 14,415 dispensaries; 534 leper clinics; 15,204 homes for the elderly, the chronically ill, and the disabled; 9,230 orphanages; 10,441 kindergartens; 10,362 marriage counseling centers; 3,137 education or re-education centers; and 34,291 other institutions.These global figures are a powerful witness to the strength of the Church’s missionary work.World Mission Day — also known as World Mission Sunday — was established by Pope Pius XI in 1926. It is usually observed on the third Sunday of October. This year the official theme is “You shall be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8).Pope Francis in his message for Sunday described Christ’s words in the Acts of the Apostles as “the heart of Jesus’ teaching to the disciples.”The pope also noted that 2022 marks several significant missionary anniversaries. It is the fourth centenary of the founding of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide, which oversaw the dramatic expansion of the Catholic world following its foundation by Pope Gregory XV.The body is known today as the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.It is also the second centenary of the Society of the Propagation of the Faith, founded in 1822 by the French laywoman Pauline Jaricot, who was beatified on May 22.The body is the oldest of four Pontifical Mission Societies, an umbrella group of Catholic missionary societies under the pope’s jurisdiction.A worldwide collection is held each year on World Mission Day for the societies, which consists of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, the Society of St. Peter the Apostle, the Society of the Holy Childhood, and the Pontifical Missionary Union.The first three bodies were granted the title “Pontifical” 100 years ago, the pope observed in his message.The Pontifical Mission Societies have the task of financially supporting missionary activity, starting with Blessed Pauline Jaricot’s idea of ​​involving ordinary faithful in missionary work.There are four Pontifical Mission Societies founded in the 19th century: the Pontifical Society of Missionary Childhood, founded in 1843 in France by Monsignor Forbin-Janson; the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith, founded by Jaricot; the Society of St. Peter the Apostle, founded in 1889 on the inspiration of Bishop Jules-Alphonse Cousin of Nagasaki for the formation of priests and put into practice by Stefanie and Jeanne Bigard; and finally the Pontifical Missionary Union, which is an association of clergy, religious, and laity

Pope emeritus Benedict XVI. / Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk. Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 21, 2022 / 07:05 am (CNA). In a new letter, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI characterizes the Second Vatican Council as “not only meaningful, but necessary.”Released Thursday, the letter is addressed to Father Dave Pivonka, TOR, president of Franciscan University of Steubenville in Steubenville, Ohio, which concludes a two-day conference Friday centered on the theology of Benedict XVI/Joseph Ratzinger.Nearly three and a half typewritten pages long, the letter provides fresh observations about Vatican II from one of the few remaining theologians in the Catholic Church to have personally participated in the historic council, which opened 60 years ago this month. You can read the full letter at the bottom of this story.“When I began to study theology in January 1946, no one thought of an Ecumenical Council,” the 95-year-old retired pope recalls in the letter.“When Pope John XXIII announced it, to everyone’s surprise, there were many doubts as to whether it would be meaningful, indeed whether it would be possible at all, to organize the insights and questions into the whole of a conciliar statement and thus to give the Church a direction for its further journey,” Benedict observes.“In reality, a new council proved to be not only meaningful, but necessary. For the first time, the question of a theology of religions had shown itself in its radicality,” he continues.“The same is true for the relationship between faith and the world of mere reason. Both topics had not been foreseen in this way before. This explains why Vatican II at first threatened to unsettle and shake the Church more than to give her a new clarity for her mission,” Benedict writes. “In the meantime, the need to reformulate the question of the nature and mission of the Church has gradually become apparent,” he adds. “In this way, the positive power of the Council is also slowly emerging.”Ecclesiology — the theological study of the nature and structure of the Church — had evolved after World War I, Benedict writes. ”If ecclesiology had hitherto been treated essentially in institutional terms,” he says, ”the wider spiritual dimension of the concept of the Church was now joyfully perceived.”At the same time, he writes, the concept of the Church as the mystical body of Christ was being critically reconsidered.It was in this situation, he says, that he wrote his doctoral dissertation on the topic of ”People and House of God in Augustine’s Doctrine of the Church.”He writes that ”the complete spiritualization of the concept of the Church, for its part, misses the realism of faith and its institutions in the world,” adding that ”in Vatican II, the question of the Church in the world finally became the real central problem.”The retired pope, who resigned in 2013, concludes the letter by summing up his purpose for writing.”With these considerations I only wanted to indicate the direction in which my work has led me,” he writes. ”I sincerely hope that the International Symposium at Franciscan University of Steubenville will be helpful

Sculpture of St. Peter outside of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican / Unsplash Vatican City, Oct 20, 2022 / 09:05 am (CNA). The Vatican will host a discussion inside St. Peter’s Basilica next month between a Catholic, a Protestant, and an Orthodox theologian on the primacy of Peter.Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Culture, announced Oct. 20 that the Petrine primacy dialogue will take place in the basilica on Nov. 22 with the theme “On this rock, I will build my Church.”The theological discussion is part of a new lecture series on the apostle Peter in history, art, and culture that will take place in the basilica starting Oct. 25 and running through March 2023.The Catholic Church holds that Jesus gave St. Peter a special place or primacy among the apostles, citing the Gospel of Matthew 16:18–19.The primacy of the bishop of Rome, as a successor of Peter, is one of the major issues of disagreement that has kept Orthodox Christians apart from the Catholic Church. Last year, Pope Francis told Orthodox theologians that it is his “conviction that in a synodal Church, greater light can be shed on the exercise of the Petrine primacy.”At a Vatican press conference, Ravasi underlined that the new lecture series is not only for believers who want to find the reason for the hope that is in them but also aims to reach non-Catholics as well.The cardinal said that Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the chief architect of St. Peter’s Basilica, envisioned the basilica’s colonnade as “two arms that could embrace not only Catholics from all over the world but also those who were heretics or of other faiths.”Ravasi founded the Courtyard of the Gentiles foundation within the Vatican Dicastery for Culture and Education to promote dialogue between believers and nonbelievers through events, debates, and research.Courtyard of the Gentiles is co-hosting the new lecture series along with the Fratelli Tutti Foundation, founded by Pope Francis in December 2021.Ravasi will be the featured speaker at the first lecture in the basilica on Oct. 25 on the topic of St. Peter’s life and martyrdom, which will feature a string quartet performance of Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus and Handel’s Cantate Domino.The Vatican has not released the names of the theologians who will be speaking at the Petrine primacy discussion in November in the basilica, whose foundation is built on the tomb of St. Peter.The two lectures scheduled for 2023 will focus on a more “cultural dimension” of the apostle Peter, Ravasi said. A lecture on Jan. 17 will analyze the figure of St. Peter in history and culture and a March 7 event titled “Quo vadis” will look at how Peter has been portrayed in art, literature, music, and film.

Dr. José María Simón Castellví / Credit: FIAMC Denver Newsroom, Oct 19, 2022 / 18:00 pm (CNA). A leading Catholic physician voiced harsh criticism of the continued appointment of “pro-abortion academics, advocates of euthanasia to some degree, or detractors of Humanae Vitae” as members of the Pontifical Academy for Life, lamenting that “someone convinced the Holy Father of it.”In an article titled “Academy for Life: I can’t remain silent anymore!” published Oct. 19, Spanish doctor José María Simón Castellví, president emeritus of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations (FIAMC), warned that these appointments are “just the opposite of what John Paul II [who founded the Pontifical Academy for Life in 1994] wanted.”Furthermore, he warned, the appointments go against “what is reasonable for the good of the pilgrim Church on this earth.”“And worthy pro-life scientists were left out,” he lamented.Although Castellví doesn’t mention names in his article, the most recent appointments of Pope Francis to the Pontifical Academy for Life were made Oct. 15 and included the atheist and pro-abortion economist Mariana Mazzucato as well as Msgr. Philippe Bordeyne, a theologian critical of St. Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae vitae, on the regulation of birth.Castellví noted in his article that the feast of St. John Paul II is coming up on Oct. 22, and the saint “in many ways is also called the Pope of Life and the Family.”“He created the Pontifical Academy for Life in order to study in depth ways to defend human life and its transmission from conception to natural death,” Castellví explained.The president emeritus of FIAMC noted that the institution “collaborated many times with the academy and we organized joint conferences of a very high scientific level. We also published in high-impact scientific journals.”“Those were times when, leaving aside legitimate academic or organizational discussions, both its presidents and all its members defended human life as God led them to understand,” he recalled.Pontifical Academy for Life’s presidentsIn addition, he highlighted that in the Pontifical Academy for Life “there were presidents who knew what DNA was, good obstetrics and the communication of the infallible aspects of doctrine and the laws of nature.”“Professor Jérôme Lejeune, discoverer of the cause of Trisomy 21 and a defender of the life of the unborn and the dignity of those born with Down syndrome, was the first president,” he noted.Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia as president of the Pontifical Academy for Life on Aug. 15, 2016.Castellví stated in his article that “the presidency of a pontifical academy is a very suitable position for a layman or for a woman. Or is it that we don’t have in the Church a woman who is pleasant to deal with, married, with seven children, with a solid training in medicine, who speaks languages and who can go to Rome frequently? Are we that bad?”“I don’t think it’s good for anyone for women to hold mid-level positions or be named ‘deaconesses,’” he said.“Yes, it’s true that the fact that a competent cleric is appointed president is not

Pope Francis meets with Cesar Landa, Peru's foreign minister, at the Vatican, Oct. 17, 2022. / Vatican Media Denver Newsroom, Oct 19, 2022 / 17:00 pm (CNA). The Vatican on Monday returned three pre-Columbian mummies to Peru, which had been loaned for the 1925 Universal Vatican Exposition and have since been kept in its Anima Mundi Ethnological Museum.The repatriation of the remains was made official through the signing of an agreement Oct. 17 by the president of the Governorate of Vatican City State, Cardinal Fernando Vergéz, and the minister of foreign affairs of Peru, César Landa.“Thanks to the good disposition of the Vatican and Pope Francis, it has been possible to carry out the return, as is appropriate. I came to sign that document. In the coming weeks they will arrive in Lima,” the Peruvian foreign minister told the local press.According to Vatican News, the Vatican Museums will study the skeletal remains to determine their period of origin. The mummies were found at an altitude of 9,800 feet in the Peruvian Andes.En la ceremonia desarrollada en las intalaciones del Museo Etnológico Vaticano, el Canciller ratificó el compromiso de nuestro país con la protección del patrimonio cultural en todas sus formas.(Fotos: Vatican Media) pic.twitter.com/loFbV9UxOG— Cancillería Perú🇵🇪 (@CancilleriaPeru) October 17, 2022 “The feeling shared with Pope Francis is that these mummies, more than objects, are human beings. Human remains that must be buried with dignity in the place where they come from, that is, in Peru,”Landa said.At the Vatican, the Peruvian foreign minister met with Pope Francis and then with Secretary of State of the Holy See Cardinal Pietro Parolin and with Cardinal Paul Richard Gallagher, the secretary for relations with states.The Anima Mundi Ethnological Museum has more than 80,000 objects and works of art.According to the museum’s website, the collection holds “thousands of prehistoric artifacts from all over the world and dating from over two million years ago, to the gifts given to the current pontiff; from evidence of the great Asian spiritual traditions, to those of the pre-Columbian and Islamic civilizations; from the work of African populations to that of the inhabitants of Oceania and Australia, and the indigenous peoples of America.”This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, enjoys a milkshake at Potbelly Sandwich Shop in Philadelphia, March 9, 2015. / Sarah Webb/CatholicPhilly.com. Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 19, 2022 / 14:45 pm (CNA). The Pontifical Academy for Life issued a statement Wednesday defending the recent appointment of an outspoken advocate for abortion rights on the grounds that members are chosen to contribute to “fruitful interdisciplinary, intercultural, and interreligious dialogue.”An Italian-American economist and professor at University College London, Mariana Mazzucato, was among seven academics appointed by Pope Francis on Oct. 15 to serve five-year terms with the academy.As CNA reported Oct. 18, on several occasions Mazzucato shared her pro-abortion views on Twitter when Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. The statement, from the communications office of the Pontifical Academy for Life, was sent to journalists covering the Vatican.“Fabrizio Mastrofini, of the Pontifical Academy for Life, asks me to share this message in which he explains the controversy regarding the recent appointments,” it says.The statement then refers to comments made by Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the president and chancellor of the Pontifical Academy for Life, announcing the appointments.“Consider this phrase above all: ‘it is important that women and men with skills in various disciplines and from different contexts enter the Pontifical Academy for Life, for a constant and fruitful interdisciplinary, intercultural and interreligious dialogue,’” the press release reads.“This is why among the academics there are also non-Catholic people: two rabbis, a Shinto academician, Muslims, an Anglican theologian. The Pontifical Academy for Life is a study and research body. So the debate and dialogue take place between people of different backgrounds,” the statement continues.The press release notes that any documents published by the Pontifical Academy for Life go through a vetting process.“When the Pontifical Academy for Life publishes documents (as in the case of the 5 Notes on Covid-19), then the documents are sent to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith before being published,” it reads.The statement also explains that Pope Francis nominated the members of the academy, who then made it through the selection process without any red flags being raised. “All Academics are chosen from among scientists and experts of absolute importance, as Pope Francis reiterated in the Letter ‘Humana Communitas’ of 2019 to the Pontifical Academy for Life. The nominations of the Ordinary Academics are made by the Pope,” the statement reads.“Therefore, before being nominated, the names proposed or reported go through a procedure that foresees the consultation of the Apostolic Nuncio and the Episcopal Conference of the countries where the Academics live and work. It also happened in this case and there were no problems,” the press release says.Restructuring at the Pontifical Academy for LifeThe Pontifical Academy for Life was formed by St. John Paul II in 1994 with a pro-life mission to “study, information, and formation on the principal problems of biomedicine and of law, relative to the promotion and defense of life, above all in the direct relation that they have

Pope Francis greeting pilgrims at the general audience, Oct. 19, 2022 / Vatican Media Rome Newsroom, Oct 19, 2022 / 07:10 am (CNA). The Vatican announced Wednesday that Pope Francis will pay a private visit to his relatives in northern Italy next month.The pope will travel to the Italian town of Asti, outside of Turin, on Nov. 19 to celebrate the 90th birthday of his cousin, according to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni.Following the private meeting with family members, the pope will stay overnight in the Piedmont region to offer a public Mass in the Asti Cathedral for the Solemnity of Christ the King on Nov. 20.The weekend visit will bring the 85-year-old pope back to the Italian diocese where his father, Mario Josè Bergoglio, lived before emigrating from Italy to Argentina in 1929. The pope’s maternal grandparents also immigrated to Argentina from northern Italy.Pope Francis, who was born in Buenos Aires in 1936, has maintained contact with relatives in Asti and Turin since his election as pope. During a visit to Turin in 2015, the pope had lunch with six of his cousins and their families.Pope Francis inside the Church of Cottolengo in Turin, Italy, on June 21, 2015. Vatican MediaThe pope was profoundly influenced by his paternal grandmother Rosa, who was very religious. He has mentioned her in many homilies and quoted an Italian poem, “Rassa nostrana” by Nino Costa, which he said Rosa taught him in the local Piedmontese dialect.In her spiritual testament, Rosa wrote: “May my grandsons, whom I gave the best of my heart, have a long and happy life. If one day pain, sickness or loss of a dear one will fill them with affliction, may they always remember that a breath in front of the Tabernacle, where the greatest and important martyr is secured, and a glance to Mary at the foot of the cross, can leave a drop of balsam on the deepest and most painful wounds.”

Pope Francis at the general audience, Oct. 19, 2022 — and St. Augustine of Hippo in a painting by Philippe de Champaigne, ca. 1650. / Daniel Ibáñez / CNA // Wikimedia (CC0) Rome Newsroom, Oct 19, 2022 / 03:59 am (CNA). St. Augustine’s Confessions recount the fourth-century bishop’s spiritual conversion from his restless youth to finding peace in Christ.Pope Francis has recommended that everyone can benefit from a similar personal examination of their own life story.Speaking at his Wednesday general audience on Oct. 19, the pope said that “rereading one’s life … allows us to notice the little miracles that the good Lord works for us every day.”Joyful pilgrims at the general audience at the Vatican's St. Peter's Square, Oct. 19, 2022. Daniel Ibáñez / CNA“Our life is the most precious ‘book’ that is given to us, a book that unfortunately many do not read, or rather they do so too late, before dying. And yet, it is precisely in that book that one finds what one pointlessly seeks elsewhere,” he said.“St. Augustine, a great seeker of the truth, had understood this just by rereading his life, noting in it the silent and discreet, but incisive, steps of the presence of the Lord.”The pope highlighted a passage from book 10 of Augustine’s Confessions, where the doctor of the church wrote: “Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you. You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness, I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you.”St. Augustine’s words are an invitation to “cultivate an interior life in order to find what you are looking for,” the pope observed.Pope Francis prays at the general audience, Oct. 19, 2022. Daniel Ibáñez / CNAPope Francis said that reflecting on one’s own story also means recognizing the presence of “toxic elements” in one’s past and how to avoid repeating mistakes.“Discernment is the narrative reading of the good times and the dark times, of the consolations and desolations that we experience in the course of our life. In discernment, it is the heart that speaks to us about God, and we must learn to understand its language,” he said.The pope recommended studying the lives of the saints to help recognize how God acts in a person’s life.“Because God’s style is discreet,” he said. “God likes to be hidden, discrete. He does not impose; it is like the air we breathe — we do not see it but it allows us to live, and we realize this only when it is missing.”Pilgrims from Haiti, Indonesia, Croatia, Poland, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Canada, the United States, Switzerland, and the Democratic Republic of Congo were present in St. Peter’s Square for the pope’s sixth general audience dedicated to the theme of personal discernment. General audience at the Vatican's St. Peter's Square, Oct. 19, 2022. Daniel Ibáñez / CNAAt the end of the audience, Pope

Mariana Mazzucato / Photo by David Levenson/Getty Images Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 18, 2022 / 15:00 pm (CNA). One of the newest members of the Pontifical Academy for Life appointed by Pope Francis is an outspoken advocate of abortion rights, having recently shared her opposition to the overturning of Roe v. Wade on Twitter.Italian-American economist Mariana Mazzucato, known for her work promoting the public sector’s role in encouraging innovation, was among seven academics appointed by the pope on Oct. 15 to serve five-year terms with the academy.In his 2020 book “Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future,” Pope Francis described Mazzucato’s work as “thinking that is not ideological, which moves beyond the polarization of free market capitalism and state socialism, and which has at its heart a concern that all of humanity have access to land, lodging, and labor.”The website Catholic Culture published on Tuesday links to recent social media posts shared by Mazzucato in which she tweeted and retweeted pro-abortion statements concerning the  Supreme Court’s decision to return abortion law to the states. In response to a Twitter post that featured commentary deploring the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Mazzucato tweeted, “So good!”So good! https://t.co/cw2ujmXRbT— Mariana Mazzucato (@MazzucatoM) June 25, 2022 The post included a video of commentator Ana Kasparian condemning Christians for pushing their own views on non-Christians.“These comments might be strong but it’s how I genuinely feel. I don’t care that you’re a Christian. I don’t care what the Bible says. Like, I feel like it’s a clown show, like sitting here trying to decipher what your little mythical book has to say about these very real political issues, right,” Kasparian said.‘Shocking and scandalous’Robert P. George, professor of jurisprudence at Princeton University, a Catholic and outspoken advocate for the right to life, told CNA that he is disturbed by the news of the appointment.“The Pontifical Academy for Life exists to advance the Church’s mission to foster respect for the profound, inherent, and equal dignity of each and every member of the human family, beginning with the precious child in the womb. Either one believes in this mission or one does not. If one does not, then why would one wish to be part of the Pontifical Academy?” George asked.“And why would someone with appointment authority appoint someone to the academy? I can think of no explanation that is not shocking and scandalous,” George told CNA.Catholic Culture shared Mazzucato’s other tweets and retweets from that time period:On June 23, she retweeted a tweet by Robert Reich: “So states can decide you must carry a fetus but not whether you can carry a concealed gun?”On June 24, she retweeted a tweet by Nicola Sturgeon: “One of the darkest days for women’s rights in my lifetime. Obviously the immediate consequences will be suffered by women in the US—but this will embolden anti-abortion & anti-women forces in other countries too. Solidarity doesn’t feel enough right now—but it is necessary.”On June 24, she retweeted a tweet by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: “Safe