Cindy Wooden

The Catholic Church's advocacy for debt relief is focused primarily on enabling nations with high foreign debt to provide for their people, but the Vatican COVID-19 Commission also is worried about families staggering under debt burdens. In fact, the commission's economy task force has recommended "extensive debt standstills and reductions for indebted households" and the training and deployment of "debt advisers," including through parishes and Catholic charities, to help households get out of debt. While many families with steady incomes from remote working used the pandemic lockdowns to spend less and pay down their debts, people who lost income or lost their jobs often survived thanks only to food banks, charity, government aid and eviction moratoriums.

It is a 'scandal' that 'we produce enough food for all people, but many go without their daily bread,' Pope Francis says in message to U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Pope Francis' letter explaining why he was restricting the use of the pre-Vatican II Mass "fearlessly hits the nail on the head: the TLM (Traditional Latin Mass) movement has hijacked the initiatives of St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI to its own ends," said Archbishop Augustine Di Noia.

The Vatican's financial watchdog agency said that in 2020 more financial transactions were flagged as suspicious by Vatican offices, but after investigation it did not have to suspend any transactions or freeze any accounts.

New minister general of worldwide order has served on the 'peripheries,' among migrants, jobless, homeless.

Vatican has not confirmed Pope Francis' attendance at COP26, but he and other faith leaders are preparing for global conference.

Pope Francis, Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury and the Rev. Jim Wallace, moderator of the Church of Scotland, marked the 10th anniversary of South Sudan's independence and promised to visit the country when it has a stable peace.

The South Korean archbishop who was recently appointed prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Clergy said that while a papal visit to North Korea seems very unlikely, it could be just the outside intervention needed to overcome the stalemate dividing the Korean Peninsula.

Condemning the "heinous assassination" of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, Pope Francis urged the people of Haiti to shun violence and make a commitment to dialogue and solidarity as the path to a better future.

As a worldwide religious order, Franciscan friars need to find new and better ways to welcome the diversity of their members and allow it to challenge the ways they live the Gospel in the world, said Fr. Michael Perry, the order's minister general.

The organization of the universal Catholic Church has a precise hierarchy, but there is no such thing as a "vice pope," who steps in when the reigning pontiff is traveling abroad, ill or under anesthesia.

With the approval of Pope Francis, the Vatican has ordered the dissolution of an Italy-based lay movement, citing problems with the group's origins, catechesis, governance and finances.

Pope Francis is moving closer to a broad embrace of nonviolence and a declaration that modern warfare is so deadly and sophisticated that the traditional "just war" theories cannot apply.

When a popular Italian rapper slammed the Vatican for opposing a proposed anti-homophobia bill, he told his more than 12.5 million Instagram followers that the Vatican owed Italy some 5 billion euros ($5.9 billion) in back property taxes, which the Vatican said was incorrect.

The president of the German bishops' conference said he personally assured Pope Francis that the Catholic Church in Germany does not want "to go its own way."

Those who proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ are humble and trust in God, they do not heap conditions upon others or promote themselves as the only "keepers of the truth," Pope Francis said.

Writing to his peers, Catholics who have reached a venerable age like he has, Pope Francis told older Catholics that God is close to them and still has plans for their lives.

Reaffirming the principles that led the Vatican to severely limit private celebrations of Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, Cardinal Mauro Gambetti said exceptions would be made for specific groups.

Pope Francis has named Oblate Fr. Andrew Small secretary "pro tempore" of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. Small, 53, had served two terms as national director for the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States.

While acknowledging Vatican-mandated reforms in the handling of clerical sexual abuse, four U.N. special rapporteurs urged the Vatican to make it mandatory that church officials everywhere report abuse allegations to civil authorities.