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1.3M pilgrims pass through St. Peter’s Holy Door in Jubilee’s first month 

Pilgrims pass through the holy door at the Basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls on Jan. 5, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

CNA Newsroom, Feb 13, 2025 / 07:30 am (CNA).

Since Pope Francis marked the beginning of the 2025 Jubilee year, 1.3 million people have passed through the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, according to Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect for the New Evangelization section of the Dicastery for Evangelization.

Fisichella made the announcement at a Feb. 7 press conference for the Jubilee of the Armed Forces. The archbishop pointed out, however, that the numbers of pilgrims “are not a criterion of validity for the success of the Jubilee. What counts is what is in the hearts of people.”

Holy doors are usually only designated in the four papal basilicas in Rome — St. Peter's in the Vatican, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major and St. Paul Outside the Walls. But this year, Pope Franics also opened another location at Rebibbia prison in Rome.

Besides the Holy Doors, other factors have contributed to the high number of people visiting Rome and other parts of Italy to take part in this year's celebration. 

“The Jubilee is one of the major reasons we're seeing the increased crowds. But also recent surveys show that Italy in general remains among the most popular travel destinations in the world,” Teresa Tomeo, an Italy travel expert and founder of the website, “T’s Italy, told CNA.

“A survey found that travelers want more than just a Roman or Italian holiday. They're looking for ‘transformative’ travel,” Tomeo said. “What better place than Italy given all of the incredible and important religious sites, not to mention the natural beauty, for change or transformation to occur?” 

Teresa Tomeo is pictured here (at center) during the Oct. 2024 pilgrimage she and her husband, Deacon Dominick Pastore, led to Italy. Credit: Courtesy of T's Italy
Teresa Tomeo is pictured here (at center) during the Oct. 2024 pilgrimage she and her husband, Deacon Dominick Pastore, led to Italy. Credit: Courtesy of T's Italy

Tomeo, a best-selling author who has led multiple Italian tours and visited the country on more than 60 occasions, said these pilgrimages have the power to strengthen a traveler’s faith.

“On our last pilgrimage in October of 2024, we had three of our pilgrims privately tell us that they were so moved or ‘transformed’ by what they experienced in Italy, that they were coming back into the Church,” she said.

Since the Jubilee has begun with such large crowds, locals and travelers should expect the high volume to continue. 

“Easter time and the summer months are always the busiest times of year in Italy and especially Rome,” said Tomeo. “I don't think it will be any different this year. The canonizations of Blessed Carlo Acutis and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati fall within those time periods and those special events are expected to draw even larger crowds.”  

Tomeo encourages visitors to fully immerse themselves in their Jubilee travels. 

“Turin is where Blessed Frassati is from and is buried and it has so much to offer pilgrims in terms of other saints,” she said. “The church, St. John the Baptist, which houses his tomb, is also home to the chapel of the Shroud of Turin. Although the Shroud is not available for viewing and veneration during the Jubilee year, the church is breathtaking and Turino is home to another popular saint — St. John Bosco.”

“And then of course the medieval and unspoiled town of Assisi and the tomb of Carlo Acutis is a place that deserves more than just a day trip from Rome. Not to mention the surrounding area of Assisi in Umbria and other nearby saints such as St. Rita of Cascia, St. Clare of the Cross in Montefalco, and St. Angela of Foligno,” Tomeo said. 

The Jubilee will continue until Jan. 6. 2026 and it is anticipated that more than 30 million pilgrims will make the religious journey to Rome during the holy year. 

New film on Carlo Acutis to be released on his canonization date

“Carlo Acutis: Roadmap to Reality” is a new documentary film exploring the life of Carlo Acutis that will be coming to theaters April 27-29. / Credit: Castletown Media

CNA Staff, Feb 13, 2025 / 05:00 am (CNA).

Carlo Acutis: Roadmap to Reality,” the highly anticipated documentary on the life of the soon-to-be saint, will be released in theaters nationwide for a limited time from April 27-29. The release date coincides with Pope Francis’ canonization of Carlo Actuis, the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint, on April 27.

Castletown Media, in association with Catholic filmmaker Jim Wahlberg, made the announcement on Feb. 12. 

Castletown Media is producing the film and Fathom Events will distribute it. The two media companies recently experienced success with another joint film project called, "Jesus Thirsts: The Miracle of the Eucharist,” which became Fathom Events’ highest-grossing documentary of 2024.

“Roadmap to Reality” explores the life of Acutis and the lessons he offers young people regarding the challenges of the digital world. The documentary blends live action, animation, and documentary-style interviews with Acutis’ family, friends, tech experts, and scholars to tackle urgent questions about artificial intelligence and the technological world we live in.

The film also follows the journey of a group of high school students who embark on a two week pilgrimage from North Dakota to Italy to visit Acutis’ tomb. One of the requirements for the pilgrimage was for the young people to disengage from technology and leave their phones at home. 

Additionally, the documentary features Acutis’ family and friends sharing their firsthand experiences of Acutis and his impact on their lives, in addition to well-known voices in the Catholic Church and technology experts who offer a model for young people to engage in the digital world.

"Fathom Entertainment is very pleased to join forces once again with Tim, Jim, and the passionate team at Castletown Media to bring this heartfelt and uplifting documentary film to the big screen,"said Ray Nutt, Chief Executive Officer at Fathom Entertainment in a press release. "This captivating real-life, modern-day story is sure to resonate with audiences of all faiths and backgrounds, leaving a lasting impact and inspiring countless hearts."

“One of the themes in the film is that he [Acutis] was online to lead people offline. He was online to lead people back to the Eucharist, back to real encounters,” Tim Moriarty, director of the new Acutis film and founder of Castletown Media, told CNA.

Moriarty believes that a film about this young soon-to-be saint is needed because “Carlo’s life provides a road map away from the distractions of the virtual world to the real world, especially through his devotion to the Eucharist — his ‘highway to heaven.’”

Moriarty called the release of the documentary “providential.” 

On Nov. 20, Pope Francis announced the canonization date of Blessed Carlo Acutis, which will take place during the Church’s Jubilee of Teenagers. Acutis’ canonization Mass is expected to take place on Sunday, April 27, at 10:30 a.m. local time in St. Peter’s Square, according to the Diocese of Assisi. 

Acutis, an Italian computer-coding teenager who died of cancer in 2006, is known for his great devotion to the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Born in 1991, he was the first millennial to be beatified by the Catholic Church and will now be the first millennial to be canonized.

Vatican to project Chinese artist's portraits of inmates on prison exterior

The artist Yan Pei-Ming was photographed in his Paris studio in 2016. / Credit:Alfred Weidinger|Flickr|CC BY 2.0

Vatican City, Feb 12, 2025 / 14:20 pm (CNA).

A Chinese artist’s paintings of inmates living inside one of Rome’s most well-known prisons will be projected on the prison building’s exterior and displayed in a new exhibit space near the Vatican as part of 2025 Jubilee initiatives.

The 64-year-old Yan Pei-Ming is a contemporary artist who has been living in France since 1981. He is known for his “epic-sized” portraits of figures such as Chairman Mao, St. Pope John Paul II, Bruce Lee, and Barack Obama.

Pei-Ming’s latest portrait series, 27 prisoners living inside Regina Coeli Prison, will be displayed on the side of the prison building. The works, created at the request of the Vatican’s education and culture dicastery, will be the inaugural exhibit of a new art space on Via della Conciliazione, the main street leading to St. Peter’s Basilica.   

One of the portraits from a collection by Yan Pei-Ming depicting 27 prisoners living inside Regina Coeli Prison, which will be displayed on the prison's facade Feb. 15, 2025. Credit: Photo courtesy of The Dicastery for Culture and Education.
One of the portraits from a collection by Yan Pei-Ming depicting 27 prisoners living inside Regina Coeli Prison, which will be displayed on the prison's facade Feb. 15, 2025. Credit: Photo courtesy of The Dicastery for Culture and Education.

The Vatican will highlight the work of contemporary artists during the 2025 Jubilee Year and beyond with the new exhibit space, called “Conciliazione 5,” to be inaugurated Feb. 15, during the Jubilee of Artists and the World of Culture.

The Vatican has planned a slew of events for the Feb. 15-18 Jubilee of Artists, including the opening of the contemporary art space, Sunday Mass with Pope Francis, and the first-ever visit by a pope to the film studios of Cinecittà.

The Vatican expects more than 10,000 people from across the wider art and cultural environments — hailing from over 100 countries and five continents — to participate in events over the four days.

The curator of the Yan Pei-Ming exhibit at “Conciliazione 5,” Cristiana Perrella, told journalists on Wednesday that Pei-Ming created the 27 inmate portraits in a matter of 20 days late last year in a studio in Shanghai. Due to time constraints, the painter worked from photos and also asked for information about the prisoners’ lives. 

The portraits, Perrella said, help us to remember that inmates “are not the crime they have committed, that people’s meanings are not in this — they are paying for a crime they have done — but ... the people who live in the prison are alive, they have thoughts and dreams. And Pei-Ming’s work helps us to remember all that, to look at the prison community with a different perspective. And that precisely is the strength of art, the strength of this project.”

“The theme of hope, strongly felt by Pope Francis, intersects humanity in places of hardship,” Lina Di Domenico, the head of the prison administration department of Italy’s Ministry of Justice, said on Feb. 12.

“The faces portrayed by artist Yan Pei-Ming,” she said, “projected on the facade of Regina Coeli, will allow everyone to ‘see’ a cross-section of the humanity that lives beyond those walls, to approach a world as unknown and obscure to most as that of penal enforcement.”

Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça said at a Feb. 12 press conference the purpose of the Jubilee Year initiatives is to cultivate a dialogue on hope: “To question how contemporary art can convey hope by reaching out to sensitive human places. To search together for spiritual and artistic expressions that can serve as grammars and poetries of hope for the contemporary time.”

Concern for prisoners is strongly connected to the 2025 Jubilee and its theme of hope. For the first time, Pope Francis designated a jubilee Holy Door within a prison, opening the door on Dec. 26, 2024, in Rome’s Rebibbia Prison Complex.

Regina Coeli Prison, one of Rome’s most well-known prisons, is just over half a mile from the Vatican.

Originally the site of a 17th-century convent, from which it gets its name, the Regina Coeli Prison was constructed in 1881 by the Italian government after the country's unification. A women’s prison called the Mantellate was later built nearby, also on the site of a former convent.

In 2018, Pope Francis celebrated Holy Thursday Mass at the prison, washing the feet of 12 inmates. The prison was also visited by St. John XXIII in 1958, by St. Paul VI in 1964, and by St. John Paul II in 2000.

Another notable person to visit the prison was Mother Teresa, now St. Teresa of Calcutta, who attended Mass with some of the inmates in May 1994.

The second artist to be featured in the “Conciliazione 5” gallery space, Perrella said, will be an Albanian who immigrated to Italy in the 1990s. The artist’s exhibit will be on the theme of “journey” in the context of migration, the art curator said.

Pope Francis at Wednesday audience: ‘Let us do penance for peace’

Pope Francis greets visitors at his general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Feb 12, 2025 / 10:16 am (CNA).

Pope Francis held his general audience in the Vatican on Wednesday despite bronchitis affecting his breathing, with the Holy Father urging people to pray and do penance for peace in the world.  

Making the effort to use his own voice at the end of the audience, the pope earnestly pleaded with Catholics to “do our best” to bring an end to all conflicts. 

Pope Francis is hugged by a young visitor at his general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Francis is hugged by a young visitor at his general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. Credit: Vatican Media

“Let us pray for peace, let us even do penance for peace,” the 88-year-old pontiff told pilgrims inside the Paul VI Audience Hall.  

Expressing particular concern for the people of Ukraine, Israel, Palestine, Myanmar, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Holy Father reminded his listeners that “war is always a defeat.”

“I am thinking about many countries at war,” the pontiff shared with his listeners. “We were not born to kill but to make people grow.” 

The pope asked Father Pierluigi Giroli on Wednesday to read his catechesis on his behalf, after briefly explaining to hundreds of pilgrims that bronchitis is still preventing him from comfortably using his voice at gatherings. “I hope that next time I can,” Francis said. 

Reading the pope’s catechesis on St. Luke’s Gospel, Giroli said: “God does not come into the world with high-sounding proclamations, he does not manifest himself in clamor, but begins his journey in humility.”

“The shepherds thus learn that in a very humble place, reserved for animals, the long-awaited Messiah is born and is born for them, to be their Savior, their Shepherd,” he continued. 

Pope Francis blesses a mother and her unborn child at his general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Francis blesses a mother and her unborn child at his general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. Credit: Vatican Media

Noting the shepherds’ openness to receive the news of the coming of Jesus, the pope’s catechesis emphasized that it is “the humblest and the poorest who are able to welcome the event of the Incarnation.” 

“Brothers and sisters, let us also ask for the grace to be, like shepherds, capable of wonder and praise before God,” the pope shared in his prepared remarks.

“Let us ask the Lord to be able to discern in weakness the extraordinary strength of the Child God, who comes to renew the world and transform our lives with his plan full of hope for all humanity,” he added.

Vatican to host its first Summit on Longevity in March

St. Peter’s Basilica. / Credit: Bohumil Petrik/CNA

ACI Prensa Staff, Feb 12, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The first Vatican Summit on Longevity will take place on March 24, bringing together experts and world leaders to explore the most advanced scientific discoveries and reflect on the fundamental ethical values ​​that guide research in this field.

The summit will take place in the context of the 2025 Jubilee in the auditorium of the Augustinianum Conference Center in Rome in a meeting that will bring together scientists, Nobel laureates, and world leaders to address one of the crucial challenges of our time: promoting healthy, sustainable, and integral aging.

The idea for the meeting came from Alberto Carrara, president of the International Institute of Neurobioethics, and Viviana Kasam, president of BrainCircle Italy, who passed away in October 2024. The event is sponsored by the Pontifical Academy for Life, whose president, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, will open the event.

The Vatican Longevity Summit will not be an isolated event but the first step of an ambitious global project led by the Vatican in collaboration with international scientific and academic institutions.

According to a statement from the Pontifical Academy for Life, this project aims to promote a model of longevity that does not simply increase lifespan but enriches it in terms of quality, dignity, and sustainability, integrating science, ethics, and spirituality.

Furthermore, in line with shared ethical and anthropological principles, the International Institute of Neurobioethics aims to develop an interdisciplinary platform to foster dialogue between scientists, philosophers, bioethicists, and policymakers.

Integral human longevity will be the central theme of future activities, the statement said, with the aim of building a society that values ​​all stages of life and promotes intergenerational solidarity.

“This summit represents not only a scientific reflection but [also] a call to consider aging as an ethical responsibility and an extraordinary opportunity for innovation for the common good,” the statement said.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Paris Grand Mosque rector proposes to Pope Francis a meeting between Muslims and Christians

Pope Francis greets Chems-eddine Hafiz, rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, on Feb. 10, 2025. / Credit: Courtesy of the Grand Mosque of Paris

Vatican City, Feb 11, 2025 / 13:35 pm (CNA).

The rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, Chems-Eddine Hafiz, proposed to Pope Francis organizing a meeting between Christians and Muslims in the French capital this year to promote interreligious dialogue and fraternity.

Hafiz made the proposal on Feb. 10 at Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican during an audience with the pope, which was also attended by a delegation from the European Coordination Council AMMALE (Alliance of Mosques, Associations, and Muslim Leaders), an organization aimed at improving the integration and practice of Islam in Europe.

Inspired by the encyclical Fratelli Tutti, the initiative seeks to promote fraternity and justice through interreligious dialogue.

During the meeting, the second between the two after one held in 2022, the pontiff apologized for not receiving him at the Apostolic Palace.

“I have bronchitis. I live here and I can’t go out,” he explained in a video posted on the website of the Grand Mosque of Paris.

Despite the illness, the 88-year-old Holy Father has not canceled his schedule and continues to work. However, in recent days he has shown difficulty reading texts aloud.

During the meeting, the rector gave the pontiff a message on the fraternity of Christians and Muslims in Europe in which he proposed the idea of ​​​​organizing a new international meeting to promote this fraternity on a continental scale.

Specifically, in the letter published on the website of the Grand Mosque of Paris, Hafiz proposes holding a major interreligious meeting in the French capital in 2025, inspired by the Assisi meetings of 1986, with the aim of reaffirming friendship between Christians and Muslims.

Although the Vatican Press Office has not given details in this regard, the Holy Father entrusted this task to the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, according to the Grand Mosque of Paris.

In the letter he delivered to Pope Francis, Hafiz reflected on the shared history between Christians and Muslims, highlighting the fruitful encounters and challenges they have faced together over the centuries.

The Muslim leader said that despite their differences, both communities are united by the same divine origin and must strengthen fraternity in Europe.

Growing fear and rejection of Muslims

Hafiz also warned of the growing fear and rejection of Muslims in Europe fuelled by hate speech and stereotypes that associate Islam with violence.

In this regard, he highlighted the role of Pope Francis in combating these prejudices and promoting unity, as demonstrated by his meetings with Muslim leaders and his commitment to interreligious brotherhood.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Pope Francis appoints new auxiliary bishop for Archdiocese of Sydney in Australia

A view of the Opera House in the port zone of Sydney, Australia. / Credit: Benh LIEU SONG vía Flickr (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Vatican City, Feb 11, 2025 / 10:35 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Tuesday appointed Father Anthony Gerard Percy as a new auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Sydney and as bishop of the titular see of Appiaria, Bulgaria.

Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher, OP, welcomed the news of Percy’s appointment, saying: “I’m grateful to the Holy Father for choosing another good and faith-filled priest to serve as a bishop in our archdiocese and to work alongside me in the vineyard of Sydney.”

A parish priest of St. Gregory’s Parish in Queanbeyan since 2023, Percy, 62, was born in Cooma, southern New South Wales, and ordained a priest in 1990 for the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn. 

Since his priestly ordination, he has ministered to Catholics in six parishes: St. Mary’s Parish in Young; St. Gregory’s Parish in Queanbeyan; Our Lady Help of Christians in Ardlethan; Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Ariah Park; St. Therese Parish in Barellan; and Mary Queen of Apostles in Goulburn.   

From 1999–2003 Percy studied at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He was awarded a doctorate specializing in marriage from the university’s Pontifical John Paul II Institute. 

The bishop-elect was appointed rector of the Good Shepherd Seminary in Sydney from 2009–2014 by the late Cardinal George Pell and afterward made vicar general of the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn from 2014–2023.

In a Tuesday interview with The Catholic Weekly, Percy said Pell had “placed a lot of trust in me and in the formation team” at the seminary, adding: “We had a great seminary and we had some really great young students who then became great priests.” 

Percy also shared with The Catholic Weekly his anticipation for the 54th International Eucharistic Congress set to take place in Sydney in 2028. 

“The love you have for the Eucharist drives you to want to go out and serve people who are less fortunate than we are. One would hope that the Eucharistic Congress will really release that sort of grace in the Church once again.”

Percy’s episcopal consecration will take place at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney on May 2.

Pope Francis to Paris AI Action Summit: ‘Love is worth more than intelligence’

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit takes place at the Grand Palais in Paris on Feb. 10–11, 2025. / Credit: LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images

Vatican City, Feb 11, 2025 / 10:05 am (CNA).

Pope Francis in his message to leaders participating in the Feb. 10–11 Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris reiterated his stance that technological innovations must ultimately serve and defend humanity.

The Holy Father quoted French philosopher Jacques Maritain in his Feb. 11 message, saying: “Love is worth more than intelligence” and expressing his concern that an overemphasis on data and algorithms can dangerously manipulate the truth and undermine human creativity. 

“In my most recent encyclical letter Dilexit Nos, I distinguished between the operation of algorithms and the power of the ‘heart,’” the pope shared. 

“I ask all those attending the Paris summit not to forget that only the human ‘heart’ can reveal the meaning of our existence.”

The two-day summit, co-hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in France’s Grand Palais, brought together hundreds of government officials, business executives, scientists, and artists to discuss the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on global governance and the economy.

Vatican Secretary for the Relations with States Archbishop Paul Gallagher was a guest speaker at the international meeting’s Feb. 10 discussion panel on the topic “Harnessing AI for the Future of Work.”   

In his message, the pope asked summit participants to have the “courage and determination” to defend humanity through their work. 

He stressed that global leaders should not use AI to impose “uniform anthropological, socioeconomic, and cultural models” that reduce reality to “numbers” and “predetermined categories.”

Describing AI as “a powerful tool” that can find innovative solutions to promote environmental sustainability, the Holy Father also warned of its potential to undermine human relationships and further disadvantage people living in developing nations.

“In this regard, I trust that the Paris summit will work for the creation of a platform of public interest on artificial intelligence,” the pope said, “so that every nation can find in artificial intelligence an instrument for its development and its fight against poverty but also for the protection of its local cultures and languages.”

The pope concluded his message by repeating his call for a person-centered approach to the use of AI, saying: “Our ultimate challenge will always remain mankind. May we never lose sight of this!”

On Jan. 28, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Dicastery for Culture and Education released Antiqua et Nova, a note outlining the Church’s position on the relationship between AI and human intelligence.

Pope Francis to U.S. bishops amid mass deportations: Dignity of migrants comes first

Pope Francis addresses pilgrims gathered for his Wednesday general audience on Feb. 5, 2025, in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Feb 11, 2025 / 09:35 am (CNA).

Pope Francis addressed the bishops of the United States on Tuesday about the country’s ongoing mass deportation of unauthorized immigrants, urging Catholics to consider the justness of laws and policies in light of the dignity and rights of people.

In a letter published Feb. 11, the pope — while supporting a nation’s right to defend itself from people who have committed violent or serious crimes — said a “rightly formed conscience” would disagree with associating the illegal status of some migrants with criminality. 

“The act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution, or serious deterioration of the environment damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness,” he said.

“All the Christian faithful and people of goodwill,” the pontiff continued, “are called upon to consider the legitimacy of norms and public policies in the light of the dignity of the person and his or her fundamental rights, not vice versa.”

‘Respectful of the dignity of all’

Pope Francis penned the letter to U.S. bishops amid changes to U.S. immigration policy under President Donald Trump’s administration, including the increased deportation of migrants, which numerous bishops have criticized.

The pope’s letter recognized the “valuable efforts” of the U.S. bishops in their work with migrants and refugees and invoked God’s reward for their “protection and defense of those who are considered less valuable, less important, or less human!”

Asking Our Lady of Guadalupe to protect all those living in fear or pain due to immigration and deportation, he prayed for a society that is more “fraternal, inclusive, and respectful of the dignity of all” and exhorted Catholics and other people of goodwill “not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters.”

Francis emphasized that immigration laws and policies should be subordinated to the dignified treatment of people, especially the most vulnerable.

“This is not a minor issue: An authentic rule of law is verified precisely in the dignified treatment that all people deserve, especially the poorest and most marginalized,” he underlined. “The true common good is promoted when society and government, with creativity and strict respect for the rights of all — as I have affirmed on numerous occasions — welcomes, protects, promotes, and integrates the most fragile, unprotected, and vulnerable.”

He said the just treatment of immigrants does not impede the development of policies to regulate orderly and legal migration, but “what is built on the basis of force and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being begins badly and will end badly.”

The ‘ordo amoris’

In his letter, Pope Francis also weighed in on the Catholic concept of “ordo amoris” — “rightly ordered love” — which was recently invoked by Vice President JD Vance in the ongoing debate over immigration policy.

“Christian love,” the pope wrote, “is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups. In other words: The human person is not a mere individual, relatively expansive, with some philanthropic feelings!”

“The human person is a subject with dignity who, through the constitutive relationship with all, especially with the poorest, can gradually mature in his identity and vocation,” he continued.

“The true ordo amoris that must be promoted,” the pontiff wrote, “is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘good Samaritan,’ that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.”

Jesus the refugee

“The Son of God, in becoming man, also chose to live the drama of immigration,” the pope wrote.

Francis pointed out the social doctrine of the Church, that even Jesus Christ experienced the difficulty of leaving his own land because of a risk to his life and of taking refuge in a foreign society and culture.

Calling it the “Magna Carta” of the Church’s thinking on migration, Francis cited a passage from Pope Pius XII’s apostolic constitution on the care of migrants, Exsul Familia Nazarethana, which says: “The family of Nazareth in exile, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, emigrants in Egypt and refugees there to escape the wrath of an ungodly king, are the model, the example, and the consolation of emigrants and pilgrims of every age and country, of all refugees of every condition who, beset by persecution or necessity, are forced to leave their homeland, beloved family, and dear friends for foreign lands.” 

“Likewise,” Pope Francis commented, “Jesus Christ, loving everyone with a universal love, educates us in the permanent recognition of the dignity of every human being, without exception.”

St. Teresa of Calcutta added to Church calendar as optional memorial

Mother Teresa (left) smiles during Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Atlanta on June 12, 1996. / Credit: Doug Collier/AFP via Getty Images

Vatican City, Feb 11, 2025 / 09:05 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Tuesday added the Sept. 5 feast of St. Teresa of Calcutta to the Catholic Church’s liturgical calendar as an optional memorial.

The decree issued Feb. 11 by the Vatican noted the influence of St. Teresa’s spirituality around the world and said her name “continues to shine out as a source of hope for many men and women who seek consolation amid tribulations of body and spirit.”

The General Roman Calendar is the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church, which denotes the dates of holy days and the feast days of saints commemorated annually.

The Sept. 5 memorial of St. Teresa of Calcutta will now appear in the Church’s calendars and liturgical texts with specific prayers and readings to be used at Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours.

Memorials rank third in the classification of feast days on the Catholic Church’s liturgical calendar. The memorial of St. Teresa of Calcutta will be an optional memorial, which means it is voluntary whether to observe it.

Popularly known as Mother Teresa, St. Teresa of Calcutta was an Albanian sister who founded the Missionaries of Charity. She died in 1997 at the age of 87 after spending most of her life serving the poor in Calcutta, India. She was canonized by Pope Francis in 2016.

The decree, signed by Cardinal Arthur Roche, prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, said: “Radically living the Gospel and boldly proclaiming it, St. Teresa of Calcutta is a witness to the dignity and honor of humble service. By choosing not only to be the least, but the servant of the least, she became a model of mercy and an authentic icon of the Good Samaritan.”

“Jesus’ cry on the cross, ‘I thirst’ (Jn 19:28), cut St. Teresa to the quick,” the decree continued. “Thus, for her whole life she dedicated herself completely to satiate the thirst of Jesus Christ for love and souls, serving him among the poorest of the poor. Filled with the love of God, she radiated that same love in equal measure to others.”

The decision to add the memorial of St. Teresa of Calcutta to the General Roman Calendar was approved by Pope Francis on Dec. 24, 2024. 

On Feb. 11, the liturgy dicastery published the decree and issued Latin texts for the new optional memorial to be translated by bishops’ conferences into the local languages and approved for publication by the dicastery. 

According to a note from Roche, the first reading chosen for Mass for the Sept. 5 memorial of Mother Teresa is taken from Isaiah 58 on the fast that is pleasing to God. The Psalm for the Mass will be Psalm 33: “I will bless the Lord at all times.”

The Gospel, he said, will be taken from St. Matthew, “which, after enumerating the works of mercy, contains the following words brought wonderfully to life in Mother Teresa: ‘Whatever you have done to the very least of my brothers and sisters you have done also to me’ (Mt 25:40).”