The significance of today’s announcement from the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments decrees that the liturgical memory of Mary Magdalene becomes a feast, like that of the other apostles. In the Mass and in the Divine Office to be celebrated on July 22, Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, the ...read more

At 10:30 am on the 10th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Pope Francis celebrated mass in St. Peter’s Square and presided over the rite of canonization of Blesseds Maria Elisabetta Hesselblad (1870-1957) and Stanislaus Papczyński (1631-1701). Below you will find the homily given by Pope Francis following the Gospel of the day. Also included are two brief ...read more

I have many memories of April 2, 2005, when St. John Paul II died after a lengthy illness and much suffering. I remember the succession of news reports the evening before his death,  people praying in St. Peter’s Square and the shared sense of concern and sadness that most people felt; this was not limited just ...read more

The sun rises as people gather for an ecumenical Easter service in Scituate, Mass., March 31, 2013. (CNS photo/Jessica Rinaldi, Reuters) ...read more

A child dressed as an angel walks alongside other women during an Easter Sunday procession in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais March 31,2013. (CNS photo/Pilar Olivares, Reuters) ...read more

A video tribute to a great saint who walked among us on the 11th Anniversary of his death. ...read more

U.S. President John F. Kennedy, his wife, Jacqueline, and their children, Caroline and John Jr., are seen on Easter Sunday in 1963. (CNS photo/Reuters) ...read more

Father Dmytro Dnistrian blesses Ukrainian Easter baskets filled with traditional food for Sunday’s Easter dinner at Sts. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, April 19, 2014. (CNS photo/Todd Korol, Reuters) ...read more

Young Iraqi women attend an Easter Mass at a Chaldean Catholic church in Amman, Jordan, April 24, 2011. Thousands of Iraqi Christians fled to Jordan following a spate of bombings that targeted churches in Iraqi cities in the past few years. (CNS photo/Ali Jarekji, Reuters) ...read more

Suheir Saliba, left, who is Catholic, eats cheese products to break the Lenten fast with her husband’s Greek Orthodox family on Easter in Jifna, West Bank, April 20, 2014. Christian families in the Holy Land often have members of several different religious denominations. (CNS photo/Debbie Hill) ...read more