The Vatican released a statement Tuesday morning, regarding the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, saying the Holy See “wishes to reiterate its support and encouragement for the commendable work that members and volunteers carry out in various parts of the world, in fulfilment of the aims of the Order.” The statement came during a recent ...read more

This week Vatican Connections takes a look at Vatican diplomacy once again after Pope Francis delivered a traditional New Year’s address to ambassadors accredited to the Holy See. The Church gears up for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees. The Papal charities open their doors to the homeless as temperatures dropped in Rome and ...read more

This coming Sunday, the World Day of Migrants and Refugees will be celebrated at the Vatican. In recent days Pope Francis’ message, entitled “Migrants minors, vulnerable and voiceless,” was presented alongside all the other initiatives of the Italian Church. In 2015, 65.3 million people around the world were forced to migrate. Of those, 21.3 million were ...read more

One of the defining celebrations of the 2016 Jubilee Year of Mercy was the canonization of Mother Teresa. Beloved around the world by believers and non-believers alike, her relentless care for the poor and abandoned struck the heart of humanity. Her story continues to spread through the ministry of her postulator, Fr. Brian Kolodiejchuk, MC, ...read more

Last Monday, the Holy See Press Office published the letter that Pope Francis wrote to the bishops for the Feast of the Holy Innocents, celebrated on December 28. Referring to the massacre of the Innocents, as it is told in the Gospel, the Pope dwelled on the sobbing of mothers bewailing the death of their children ...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

Two years ago I was home, in Panama for my parents 50th Wedding Anniversary. They were married December 26, 1964. Of course, the priest had to make a comment about how St. Stephen was the first martyr and how Marriage is like martyrdom. We laughed but he had a point. Martyrs are not killed against ...read more

On Sunday, December 4, 2016 Fidel Castro’s funeral will be held in Cuba. He died last week at the age of 90. The government announced, following his death, nine days of national mourning for one of the most popular and controversial figures of the last 60 years. The Catholic Church had a fundamental role to play ...read more

The Vatican announced the themes for the next World Youth Days to culminate at the International World Youth Day in Panama in 2019. They are taken from the Gospel of Luke and are inspired by the three theological virtues of faith, charity and hope. A new website for Peter’s Pence was launched today, making it ...read more

Away from the limelight, Pope Francis spent one Friday a month, over the course of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, putting into practice the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Locations were never announced beforehand and so in the past year, he surprised the sick and the elderly, retired priests, women who have been abused, ...read more