Pope Francis speaks on the solemnity Christ the King in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on Nov. 24, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

CNA Newsroom, Nov 24, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Marking the solemnity of Christ the King and the close of the liturgical year, Pope Francis presided over Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday, urging young Catholics to reject superficial acclaim and embrace authentic Christian witness.

The gathering included the annual World Youth Day observance and featured a handover of the pilgrim symbols — the WYD cross, first entrusted to youth by St. John Paul II in 1984, and the icon of Mary, known as Salus Populi Romani (Protection of the Roman People) — from Portuguese youth to their Korean counterparts, who will host WYD in Seoul in 2027.

As the Church’s liturgical year drew to a close, the pope reflected on how Christian joy and love persist even amid global challenges.

“Only in love can we live, grow, and flourish in our full dignity,” Francis said, emphasizing that genuine love cannot be bought or sold but “is free, it is the gift of oneself.”

The pontiff highlighted what he called “little lights” that give strength to Christian witness: “these little lights: the faithful affection of spouses — a beautiful thing; the innocent joy of children — this is a beautiful joy; the enthusiasm of young people — be enthusiastic, all of you; and care for the elderly.”

“Dear young people, be careful not to get carried away by illusions. Please be concrete because reality is concrete,” the pope said in his homily. “What remains, as Christ teaches us, is different: It is the works of love. This is what remains and what makes life beautiful!”

Addressing the pervasive pressure of social media and societal acclaim, Francis warned: “Do not be ‘stars for a day’ on social media or in any other context! You are called to shine in a wider sky.”

In a powerful passage on present conflicts, the pontiff posed piercing questions about accountability before God: “Those who oppress people, who make wars, what will their faces look like when they stand before the Lord? ‘Why did you start that war? Why did you commit murder?’ How will they respond?”

Against this backdrop of global challenges, Francis emphasized the vital role of young people in bearing witness to Christ’s message of peace and hope. The World Youth Day cross — a simple wooden cross given to youth by St. John Paul II in 1984 as a symbol of Christ’s love for humanity — has since traveled worldwide, becoming a powerful sign of faith and reconciliation.

Speaking to the Korean delegates receiving this historic cross, Francis said: “You, young Koreans, will receive the cross of Our Lord, the cross of life, the sign of victory, but you are not alone: You will receive it along with our Mother. It is Mary who always accompanies us on our journey toward Jesus. It is Mary who in difficult moments is beside our cross to help us, because she is our mother, she is Mum. Keep Mary in mind.”

Pope Francis highlighted the upcoming canonization of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, a model of youthful faith and charity, whose tireless devotion to God and service to the poor continues to inspire generations. The canonization will take place during the Jubilee for Youth in August 2025, offering young Catholics a powerful example of living out Christ’s love in action.

The Mass concluded with Portuguese youth handing over the WYD cross and the Marian icon to their Korean counterparts, symbolizing the continuing journey of faith toward WYD Seoul 2027.

Later, addressing pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Angelus prayer, Francis reflected on Jesus’ dialogue with Pontius Pilate, emphasizing Christ’s kingship as radically different from worldly power. The pope focused on two key words from the day’s Gospel reading: “king” and “world.”

“Jesus is a king insofar as he is a witness: He is the one who speaks the truth,” the pope said, per the official translation. “The kingly power of Jesus, the Word incarnate, lies in his true and effective word, that transforms the world.”

While Pilate’s world is “one where the strong triumph over the weak,” Francis explained, “Jesus’ world, indeed, is the new world, the eternal world, which God prepares for all by giving his life for our salvation.”

Pope Francis smiles at his Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Newsroom, Nov 23, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).

The Holy See on Saturday confirmed the rumors that Pope Francis will undertake a one-day apostolic journey to Corsica next month — marking the first-ever papal visit to the island most famous for being Napoleon Bonaparte’s birthplace.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni confirmed that the pope had accepted an invitation from French civil and Church authorities to visit Ajaccio, the island’s capital, on Dec. 15.

The visit will be Pope Francis’ 47th apostolic journey abroad and his third visit to French territory, following trips to Strasbourg in 2014 and Marseille in 2023.

On both occasions, the pontiff spoke about migration. This visit continues Pope Francis’ engagement with the Mediterranean region, following earlier trips to Lampedusa, Lesbos, and Malta, where he emphasized the Church’s call to solidarity with migrants and coastal communities.

Pope Francis will be welcomed in Corsica’s capital, Ajaccio, by Cardinal François-Xavier Bustillo, who was made a cardinal by Francis last year and leads a diocese where more than 80% of the island’s 340,000 inhabitants identify as Catholic.

The journey from Rome to Ajaccio’s Napoleon Bonaparte Airport will take just over an hour — making this one of the pope’s shortest international trips, covering roughly 186 miles. Though technically a visit to French territory, the Mediterranean island lies closer to Italy than to mainland France.

The pontiff’s schedule includes the concluding session of a congress dedicated to Mediterranean popular religiosity in the morning followed by an afternoon Mass at the historic Place d’Austerlitz — known locally as “U Casone.”

The pope will pray the Angelus with bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated persons, and seminarians at Ajaccio’s Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption.

The mountainous Mediterranean island is known for its distinctive religious traditions, including a deep devotion to the Virgin Mary. The island’s unofficial anthem, “Diu vi Salvi Regina,” is originally based on a rendition of “Hail, Holy Queen.”

Drawing from the Acts of the Apostles (10:38), the visit’s motto, “Jesus Went About Doing Good,” reflects what Vatican sources describe as the fundamentally pastoral nature of the pope’s presence among the faithful.

The journey’s official logo prominently features Mary, venerated as Queen of Corsica, set against Mediterranean blues and incorporating traditional Christian symbolism — including a cross representing faith in Christ and a descending line suggesting the Holy Spirit’s presence.

The Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation awards the Ratzinger Prize to Notre Dame theologian Cyril O’Regan and Japanese sculptor Etsurō Sotoo at in a ceremony at the Vatican on Nov. 22, 204. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Vatican City, Nov 22, 2024 / 14:35 pm (CNA).

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin awarded the Ratzinger Prize to University of Notre Dame theologian Cyril O’Regan and Japanese sculptor Etsurō Sotoo at a ceremony at the Vatican on Friday evening.

The Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation chooses the annual recipients of the award, which is named in honor of the late Pope Benedict XVI.

Before the ceremony on Nov. 22, the prize recipients took part in a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Georg Gänswein in the Vatican crypts close to the tomb of Benedict XVI.

They also met with Pope Francis in his study in the apostolic palace.

O’Regan is a systematic theologian who specializes in the thought of 19th- and 20th-century Catholics like St. John Henry Newman, Henri de Lubac, and Hans Urs von Balthasar.

Born in Ireland in 1952, O’Regan is the first Irishman to win the coveted prize, which has been awarded since 2011 to distinguished scholars mostly working in theology and philosophy.

O’Regan, who earned doctorates in both theology and philosophy from Yale University, has taught at Notre Dame since 1999.

In his speech at the award ceremony on Friday, O’Regan described feeling inadequate to have received the honor, calling the prize “more gift than [just] desert.”

The other 2024 Ratzinger Prize winner, Sotoo, is a Japanese sculptor whose work appears in places like the Sagrada Família Basilica in Barcelona, Spain.

Sotoo moved from Japan to Europe in 1978. After settling in Germany, he moved to Spain, remaining in Barcelona, where he went on to become the chief sculptor of Gaudí's Sagrada Familia, the basilica that has been under construction since 1882 and on which Sotoo is responsible for approximately 500 sculptures.

He also sculpted the ambo, from which the Gospel is read, in Florence, Italy’s famous Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral.

A close-up of the tomb of St. Ceclia at the basilica dedicated to her in Trastevere, Rome, Italy. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Vatican City, Nov 22, 2024 / 12:45 pm (CNA).

St. Cecilia, widely known as the patron saint of music and musicians, is buried in the Basilica of St. Cecilia in the Roman neighborhood of Trastevere where a famous Baroque sculpture of her still puzzles scholars.

According to popular belief, Cecilia was a Roman noblewoman who lived in the third century. Despite being forced by her family to marry, she remained a virgin, as she had vowed to do as a young girl.

Her pagan husband, Valerian, converted to Christianity after their marriage, and Valerian’s brother, Tiburtius, was also baptized a Christian. Both men were martyred. St. Cecilia, too, would later be tortured and martyred. It is said she took three days to die after the executioner hit her three times on the neck with a sword.

After her martyrdom, St. Cecilia was buried in the Catacomb of St. Callixtus. The underground burial place of early Christians was created around the turn of the first century A.D. by Callixtus, a deacon who later became pope.

Located under the Appian Way, an ancient Roman road connecting the city to southeast Italy, the Catacomb of St. Callixtus once held the bodies of more than 50 martyrs, including St. Cecilia, and popes from the second to the fourth centuries.

After the end of Christian persecution, the relics of the Christians buried in the city’s many catacombs were moved to churches for veneration. St. Cecilia’s remains were transferred in the early 800s to a church built on the ruins of her former home.

It is said that hundreds of years later, during a restoration of the church in 1599, her tomb was opened, revealing her body to be, miraculously, incorrupt. Artist Stefano Maderno was commissioned to create a marble sculpture of the saint.

Sources disagree about whether the Baroque artwork, still on display today at Cecilia’s tomb in the Basilica of St. Cecilia in Trastevere, is a depiction of how the saint’s body was found in 1599 or an invention of Maderno. Either way, the sculpture — which depicts Cecilia lying on her right side, her hands tied, her face turned toward the ground and the wound of her martyrdom visible upon her neck — is considered a masterpiece.

There are several widely-told legends about St. Cecilia and her husband. One of the oft-repeated beliefs, dating to the fifth century, is that she sang to God “in her heart” as musicians played at her wedding feast.

This story about the saint comes from a Latin antiphon, but there is a competing interpretation, however.

“Cantantibus organis, Caecilia virgo in corde suo soli Domino decantabat dicens: fiat Domine cor meum et corpus meum immaculatum ut non confundar,” the Latin antiphon says. In English it means: “While the instruments played, the virgin Cecilia sang in her heart to the Lord alone, saying, ‘Let my heart and my body be made pure, that I may not be confounded.’”

Another version of the antiphon gives a slightly different opening word, “candentibus,” instead of “cantantibus,” which would change the translation from musical instruments playing to “glowing” instruments of torture.

Scholars continue to disagree about which Latin version is the correct one and which may be a copy error. What is without dispute, however, is St. Cecilia’s selfless example of faithfulness to God, even to the point of the sacrifice of her own life.

St. Cecilia’s feast day in the Church is celebrated Nov. 22.

Pope Francis addresses pilgrims gathered for his Wednesday general audience on Nov. 20, 2024, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Nov 21, 2024 / 17:20 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis has published a letter addressed especially to priests in formation to promote the renewal of the study of Church history, emphasizing its importance in better interpreting reality.

At the beginning of the letter, presented Thursday at the Vatican Press Office, the Holy Father refers to the need to promote a “genuine sense of history” that takes into account the “historical dimension that is ours as human beings.”

“No one can truly know their deepest identity, or what they wish to be in the future, without attending to the bonds that link them to preceding generations,” the Holy Father says. The pontiff also points out that everyone, not only candidates for the priesthood, needs this renewal.

‘To love the Church as she truly exists’

In this context, the Holy Father states that we must abandon an “angelic” conception of the Church and embrace its “stains and wrinkles” in order to love the Church as it is. 

In short, Pope Francis invites the faithful to see the real Church “in order to love the Church as she truly exists,” a Church that has learned “and continues to learn from her mistakes and failures.”

According to the Holy Father, this can “serve as a corrective to the misguided approach that would view reality only from a triumphalist defense of our function or role.”

Dangers of an ideological reading of history

In the letter Pope Francis criticizes the manipulation of history by ideologies that “destroy (or deconstruct) all differences so that they can reign unopposed.” These ideologies seek to lead young people to “spurn the spiritual and human riches inherited from past generations” and ignore everything that came before them, he says.

For the pope, this also leads to posing “false problems” and seeking “inadequate solutions,” especially in an era marked by a tendency “to dismiss the memory of the past or to invent one suited to the requirements of dominant ideologies.”

“Faced with the cancellation of past history or with clearly biased historical narratives, the work of historians, together with knowledge and dissemination of their work, can act as a curb on misrepresentations, partisan efforts at revisionism, and their use to justify” any number of evils, including wars and persecutions, the Holy Father indicated.

The pope thus points out that “we cannot come to grips with the past by hasty interpretations disconnected from their consequences” and that reality “is never a simple phenomenon reducible to naive and dangerous simplifications.”

The Holy Father warns against the efforts of those who act like “gods” who want to “cancel part of history and humanity.”

Human frailty and the spread of the Gospel

The Holy Father goes on to recognize “the human weakness of those to whom the Gospel has been entrusted” and exhorts the faithful to not ignore shortcomings and to “combat them assiduously” so that they do not hinder the spread of the Gospel.

The Holy Father reiterates that “forgiving does not mean forgetting,” and he encourages the Church “to initiate — and help initiate in society — sincere and effective paths of reconciliation and social peace.”

He also calls for avoiding the “merely chronological approach” to the history of the Church, which “would transform the history of the Church into a mere buttress for the history of theology or spirituality of past centuries.” 

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

Pope Francis meets with the Dicastery for Culture and Education at the Vatican on Nov. 21, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Nov 21, 2024 / 14:50 pm (CNA).

In an address to participants of the first plenary assembly of the Dicastery for Culture and Education on Nov. 21, Pope Francis said desire, fearlessness, and Christian hope are remedies needed to overcome the “shadow of nihilism” prevalent in society.

Describing nihilism as “perhaps the most dangerous plague of today’s culture” because of its attempt to “erase hope” in the world, the pope told dicastery members that their institution should work toward inspiring humanity.

“Schools, universities, cultural centers should teach us to desire, to remain thirsty, to have dreams, because, as the Second Letter of Peter reminds us, we ‘await new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells,’” the pope said.

“Understand your mission in the educational and cultural field as a call to broaden horizons, to overflow with inner vitality, to make room for possibilities unseen, to bestow the ways of the gift that only becomes wider when it is shared,” he continued.

Reminding his listeners of the Catholic Church’s expansive cultural and educational heritage, the pope said there is “no reason to be overwhelmed by fear.”

“In a word, we are heirs to the educational and cultural passion of so many saints,” he said after citing the examples of Sts. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and Edith Stein, and Catholic scientist Blaise Pascal.

“Surrounded by such a host of witnesses, let us get rid of any burden of pessimism; pessimism is not Christian,” he added.

The pope also drew upon the cultural works of musical and literary greats, including Mozart and American poet Emily Dickinson, and insisted that they, too, can be a source of inspiration for the dicastery’s various cultural and educational projects.

‘Let us think about the future of humanity’

Identifying poverty, inequality, and exclusion as “pathologies of the present world,” the Holy Father insisted it is a “moral imperative” of the Church to ensure people — especially children and youth — have access to a comprehensive education.

“Some 250 million children and adolescents do not attend school,” he stated. “Brothers and sisters, it is cultural genocide when we steal the future from children, when we do not offer them conditions to become what they could be.”

Sharing with dicastery members the experience of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry with the hardships of refugee families, the pope said the French writer felt wounded after seeing the children.

“It torments me that in each of these men there is a little Mozart, murdered,” writes de Saint-Exupéry in his autobiographical work “Land of Men.”

Toward the conclusion of the private audience, Pope Francis referred to the dicastery’s plenary assembly theme, “Let us pass on to the other shore” (cf. Mk 4:35), and encouraged his listeners to take courage and carry out their work with a sense of hope.

“I repeat: We must not let the feeling of fear win. Remember that complex cultural passages often prove to be the most fruitful and creative for the development of human thought,” he said. 

“Contemplating the living Christ enables us to have the courage to launch into the future,” the pope added.

Despite an online petition posted to change.org in mid-October that garnered over 53,000 signatures in protest of the evergreen to be used for the Vatican Christmas tree being chopped down, the tree arrived as scheduled in St. Peter’s Square at 7 a.m. on Nov. 21, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Vatican City, Nov 21, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA).

The Vatican was not rocking around the Christmas tree on Thursday after a 95-foot Norway spruce from northern Italy became wreathed in controversy this fall.

An online petition posted to change.org in mid-October garnered over 53,000 signatures in protest of the evergreen being chopped down, arguing it contradicts Pope Francis’ promotion of protection for the environment.

Despite the opposition to its removal, the tree arrived as scheduled in St. Peter’s Square at 7 a.m. on Nov. 21 but was left to lie mysteriously on the truck bed well past sunset. As of publication, the spruce has still not been placed on its base.

The petition’s open letter to Pope Francis and Vatican and local Italian officials lamented the “solely consumerist practice of using live trees for ephemeral use, for mere advertising purposes and a few ridiculous selfies.”

It drew attention to the pope’s writings on care for creation and the importance of having respect for nature.

The letter, drafted by the wildlife protection association Bearsandothers, also argued that the Christmas tree is a pagan tradition that has nothing to do with Christ’s birth.

The petition also expressed opposition to the estimated 60,000 euros (about $63,000) of expenses incurred by the city of Ledro, in northern Italy, which donated the main Norway spruce and about 40 other trees to the Vatican.

“We are asking your help,” the letter said, “to send a strong message of reflection on the importance of valuing and respecting the role of the plant world in the anthropocentric era of increasingly dramatic climate anomalies.”

The Vatican said in a September press release that the nearly 100-foot spruce for St. Peter’s Square was selected “with respect to sustainability.” The trees chosen are more mature trees, it noted, arguing that their removal is in line with natural replacement.

The tree comes from nearby the small town of Ledro, which is close to Lake Garda and Lake Ledro in one of Italy’s northernmost provinces.

Smaller trees from the same area and decorated by the citizens of Ledro, and other towns in Italy, Germany, and the Czech Republic, will also be displayed in Vatican City buildings.

According to recent Vatican custom, the Christmas tree and a large Nativity scene displayed beside it will remain in St. Peter’s Square through Jan. 12, 2025, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

The tree-lighting ceremony and unveiling of the Nativity scene are scheduled for Dec. 7.

Cardinal Kevin Farrell celebrates Mass for the World Meeting of Families 2022 on June 25, 2022. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Vatican City, Nov 21, 2024 / 08:03 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has appointed U.S. Cardinal Kevin Farrell to oversee “new and unavoidable” reform to the Vatican’s pension system as it faces a “serious prospective imbalance” that means changes can no longer be postponed.

In a Nov. 21 letter to cardinals, dicastery prefects, and managers in the Roman Curia, the pope underlined the gravity of the unsustainability of the Vatican’s pension fund and noted the solution will require difficult decisions, “special sensitivity, generosity, and willingness to sacrifice on the part of everyone.”

To address the challenges, the pontiff said he had taken an “essential step” by naming Farrell “sole administrator” of the fund.

Farrell, 77, is prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, the Family, and Life as well as camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church and president of the Pontifical Commission for Confidential Matters.

The Irish-born cardinal, who was bishop of Dallas for nine years before his transfer to Rome, has also been chair of the Pontifical Committee for Investments since 2022. 

In his roles in the confidential matters commission, Farrell is responsible for authorizing the confidentiality of economic actions of the Roman Curia, if needed “for the greater good of the Church,” according to the apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium.

Farrell also oversees the Roman Curia’s investments, ensuring they are in line with the social doctrine of the Church — a role he was named to after the Holy See came under scrutiny for certain investments, including the purchase of a luxury building in London, which lost the Vatican hundreds of thousands of euros and ended in a criminal trial.

Pope Francis said in his Nov. 21 letter that the pension fund is one of the central pieces of Vatican financial reform, a key part of the pope’s project since his election in 2013.

“Different studies have been carried out from which it has been derived that the current pension management, taking into account the available assets, generates an important deficit,” the pontiff wrote on Thursday.

“Unfortunately, the figure that now emerges, at the conclusion of the latest in-depth analyses carried out by independent experts, indicates a serious prospective imbalance in the fund, the size of which tends to expand over time in the absence of intervention,” he continued. 

He added that “in concrete terms,” the Vatican cannot “guarantee in the medium term the fulfillment of the pension obligation for future generations.”

While the pope thanked those who have tried to address the pension fund’s problems until now, he said it is imperative that the Vatican move into a new phase “with promptness and unity of vision so that the necessary actions are expeditiously implemented,” and he asked for everyone’s support, cooperation, and prayers.

Senior fellow at the National Catholic Bioethics Center Joseph Meaney speaks to “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Tracy Sabol on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. / Credit: “EWTN News Nightly”

CNA Staff, Nov 20, 2024 / 14:30 pm (CNA).

Vietnam, a country with one of the highest abortion rates in the world, spearheaded a United Nations initiative this week on the health care needs of infants born prematurely.

While the event in honor of World Prematurity Day aimed to spotlight the need for better care for preterm infants, a bioethicist is pointing to the irony of a country grappling with widespread abortion leading the charge.

“It’s a completely mixed message,” Joseph Meaney, a senior fellow at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, told “EWTN News Nightly” on Tuesday.

Advances in neonatal intensive care have made possible the survival of smaller and younger infants. The world’s most premature surviving baby is Curtis Zy-Keith Means, who was born at 21 weeks and one day in Birmingham, Alabama. 

Vietnam’s laws allow unrestricted abortion procedures up to the 22nd week of pregnancy, but enforcement against later-term abortions remains lax. 

A 2023 report identified the Southeast Asian nation as having the second-highest abortion rate in the world. Hanoi’s Central Obstetrics Hospital reported in 2014 that 40% of all pregnancies in Vietnam were terminated each year.

Meaney pointed out to “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Tracy Sabol that “in one part of the hospital, they are delivering babies … and trying to keep them alive in the neonatal intensive care units, and in other parts of the hospital, they’re killing those same babies at the same age of gestation.”

Meaney noted that studies have found that women who have undergone multiple abortions face a higher risk of premature birth and miscarriage in subsequent pregnancies. 

World Prematurity Day was established in 2008 to raise awareness about the challenges of premature births, which is the leading cause of death for children under 5. It is estimated that 13.4 million babies are born prematurely every year, according to UNICEF, which called for universal access to high-quality care for preterm babies in honor of the day.

“Of course, if they’re concerned about infant mortality, the highest rate of infant mortality is killing babies through abortion,” Meaney said.

Catholics in Vietnam help manage special cemeteries for victims of abortion, including one in the Archdiocese of Hanoi in which 46,000 unborn children are buried and another in Xuan Loc Diocese where more than 53,000 are buried, according to La Croix International. 

A Catholic charity called the Life Protection Group collects the remains of unborn children from state-run hospitals and private clinics, noting that the group used to gather 25-40 aborted fetuses each day to bury.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, more than 1.6 million abortions were performed in Vietnam between 2015 and 2019.

Asked by Sabol how premature births might be reduced in the U.S. and around the world, Meaney said: “One thing would be to have fewer abortions.”

As well, “actually having the hospitals help the mothers to continue their pregnancies” would help, he said.

“When they’re at risk of premature birth, the amount of days involved is very important. Just a few more days can really increase the likelihood the child will survive,” Meaney said.

“To actually have the hospitals willing to admit mothers who are in danger of premature birth” could help lower such incidences, he said.

Pope Francis greets pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Wednesday general audience on Nov. 20, 2024, at the Vatican. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Vatican City, Nov 20, 2024 / 13:25 pm (CNA).

To mark 1,000 days since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, Pope Francis shared the “testimony of faith” of a Ukrainian student at his general audience on Wednesday, underscoring the power of faith, love, and hope amid the tragedy of violence.

In a letter to the Holy Father, the student, whose name was not announced, expressed the desire for the pope and all pilgrims at the Wednesday audience to know of the faith — and not just the sufferings — of the people of Ukraine.

“I thank God because, through this pain, I am learning greater love. Pain is not only a road to anger and despair; if based on faith, it is a good teacher of love,” the student wrote.

Describing the horrors of war that killed family members and thousands of other men, women, and children, the student said that if one suffers because of pain it “means that you love.”

“When you speak of our pain, when you remember our thousand days of suffering, speak of our thousand days of love, too, because only love, faith, and hope give a real meaning to our wounds,” the letter to the Holy Father read.

Visibly moved by the letter and the pope’s gesture to share the testimony of faith with hundreds of pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square, Olena Zelenska, wife of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, met and personally greeted the pope at the conclusion of the audience.

Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati canonizations

During the Wednesday audience, Pope Francis announced that Blessed Carlo Acutis and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, two young Italian Catholics popularly known for their vibrant faith and desire for holiness, will be canonized next year during the Church’s jubilee.  

The long-anticipated announcement was confirmed by Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni that the two blesseds will be canonized on separate dates. Acutis’ canonization is scheduled during the Church’s Jubilee of Teenagers from April 25–27, 2025, and Frassati’s canonization will take place during the Jubilee of Youth from July 28–Aug. 3, 2025.    

Pope announces 2025 children’s rights meeting in Vatican 

Choosing World Children’s Day, celebrated annually on Nov. 20, to make an additional surprise announcement, the pope shared that the Vatican will hold an international meeting to promote the dignity and rights of children on Feb. 3, 2025. 

“It will be an occasion on how we can better protect children, especially children who live without rights, who are abused and exploited and live also in situations of war,” he said on Wednesday.  

To celebrate the occasion and special announcement, the Holy Father invited several boys and girls from the Community of Sant’Egidio to come and receive his paternal blessing and take a group photo.

The Vatican has also released details of the new Pontifical Committee for the World Day of Children on Wednesday. Pope Francis has appointed Father Enzo Fortunato, OFM, the president of the newly-established committee tasked with promoting the Catholic Church’s mission to advocate for children’s rights.  

“Family, church, and state exist for children, not the other way around,” the pope said in a Nov. 20 chirograph. “From birth, every human being is the subject of inalienable, inviolable, and universal rights.”

Catechesis: Charisms are ‘jewels’ from the Holy Spirit

Speaking about the beauty of different personal and communal charisms found in the Church, Pope Francis stressed that Catholics need to “immediately dispel” the misunderstanding of identifying these “jewels” of the Holy Spirit as “spectacular and extraordinary gifts and capabilities.”

“Instead they are ordinary gifts that assume extraordinary value if inspired by the Holy Spirit and embodied with love in the situations of life,” he told those gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

“Such an interpretation of the charism is important,” the pope said.