The Pontifical Swiss Guard is one of the smallest armies in the world, and one of the oldest still in operation. Its main responsibility is to protect the Pope and the Apostolic Palace. Although they have mostly held a ceremonial role in recent years, their training now includes unarmed combat and firearms. Not surprisingly, to ...read more

On the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, the Church also marked the World Day of Consecrated Life with Mass in Saint Peter’s basilica. In his homily, Pope Francis encouraged those present to rekindle “what originally set their hearts afire” to answer God’s call, which he came back to when meeting with a ...read more

This week on Vatican Connections, the Church marks the Week of prayer for Christian Unity. In Rome, the Holy Father kicks it off with an ecumenical delegation from Finland and Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, shares with Vatican Radio what ecumenism looked like last year. The ...read more

The Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy (Dec. 8, 2015 to Nov. 20, 2016) was the 27th holy year in history, and the first since the Great Jubilee of 2000, called by Pope John Paul II. In calling the 2016 holy year, Pope Francis said, “At times we are called to gaze even more attentively on ...read more

In several hours, Pope Benedict will land in the western African nation of Benin. As was the case with his 21 previous papal visits, he faces a packed schedule — 16 events and 10 speeches over the course of 3 days. On the eve of another arduous trip, Catholic News Service examines the validity of ...read more