Catholic News Service

Reaffirming their fidelity to the pope and the Gospel, Catholic bishops in Africa have released a common response to a recent Vatican declaration, saying they "generally prefer" not to offer blessings to same-sex couples.

Policies that are at the service of humanity "cannot allow themselves to be dictated by finance and the inner workings of the market," Pope Francis said.

The Vatican's doctrine chief said the sometimes-graphic book on sexuality and spirituality that he published 25 years ago is "a book of my youth that I certainly would not write now."

The Catholic Church should revise its celibacy requirement for Latin-rite priests, a senior official in the Vatican's doctrinal office said.

A person does not have to travel far from home to find people living on the margins of society and in need of hearing the message of the Gospel, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis expressed his condolences and prayers after two bombings in Kerman, Iran, claimed the lives of 84 people and wounded scores more at a memorial for an assassinated Iranian military officer.

Help "de-weaponize" the way language is used in the media by being respectful to others and fostering greater understanding and peace between people, Pope Francis told a group of Catholics journalists from Germany.

While Catholic bishops may take a cautious approach to the Vatican's new guidance on blessing same-sex couples, they should not deny their priests the possibility of discerning and imparting blessings on people who ask for them, the Vatican's doctrinal office said.

An Italian Catholic priest has been excommunicated for having publicly committed "an act of a schismatic nature" while celebrating Mass at his parish near Livorno.

The world and the Catholic Church must respect and defend women and foster a motherly care for others to end dehumanizing cycles of violence, Pope Francis said Jan. 1. 

In its annual report on Catholic missionaries murdered during the year, the Vatican-based news agency, Fides, noted what many of them had in common was living a normal life in areas where violence had become common.

U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, a former top Vatican official, met privately with Pope Francis Dec. 29, about a month after reports that Francis wanted to stop giving him a monthly salary and would ask him to pay the market rate for his Vatican apartment.

For at least the fourth time since Russia began its large-scale attack on Ukraine in February 2022, Pope Francis and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke by telephone Dec. 28.

The Vatican's affirmation that a priest can give an informal blessing to a gay couple that asks for one is not a first step toward the Catholic Church recognizing same-sex marriages, said Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The devil is sly and sneaky like a serpent and subtly entices people to sin, Pope Francis said at his weekly general audience Dec. 27.

On the feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, Pope Francis prayed for people persecuted for their faith or denigrated for living a life marked by Gospel values.

The Vatican publishing house announced it will release a book of some 130 homilies given by the late Pope Benedict XVI at private Sunday Masses -- 30 given while he was pope and more than 100 given to members of his household once he retired.

Pope Francis' 2023 was a year of important trips made or postponed, a predecessor's funeral and his own 10th anniversary as pope, a call to the world to act on climate change and a call to the Catholic Church to strengthen its mission by learning "synodality."

Like God's decision to be born in a manger tucked away from the world, good deeds done in silence can express God's love wherever they are performed, Pope Francis said.

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith's declaration on informally blessing same-sex couples or other non-married couples is a reminder that the Catholic Church and its pastors never close the door on people seeking God's help, said a commentary published in Vatican media.