Reading 1 2 Maccabees 7:1, 20-31 It happened that seven brothers with their mother were arrested and tortured with whips and scourges by the king, to force them to eat pork in violation of God’s law. Most admirable and worthy of everlasting remembrance was the mother, who saw her seven sons perish in a single…
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — While “creation is crying out” and millions of people suffer the effects of climate change and pollution, politicians are failing to act, Pope Leo XIV said. As the U.N. Climate Conference, COP30, began its final week of meetings Nov. 17, the pope sent a video message to Christian representatives and activists…
Reading I 2 Maccabees 6:18-31 Eleazar, one of the foremost scribes, a man of advanced age and noble appearance, was being forced to open his mouth to eat pork. But preferring a glorious death to a life of defilement, he spat out the meat, and went forward of his own accord to the instrument of…
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — At a time when young people spend so much time in “digital environments,” members of the Catholic Biblical Federation need to ask how they are fulfilling the Second Vatican Council’s mandate to give everyone access to the Bible, Pope Leo XIV said. “What does ‘easy access to Sacred Scripture’ mean in…
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Before joining hundreds of people for lunch, Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass for the Jubilee of the Poor and prayed that all Christians would share “the love of God, which welcomes, binds up wounds, forgives, consoles and heals.” With thousands of migrants, refugees, unhoused people, the unemployed and members of the…
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Leo XIV fulfilled a promise made by the late Pope Francis to return to Canada’s Indigenous communities artifacts — including an Inuit kayak, masks, moccasins and etchings — that have been held by the Vatican for more than 100 years. The pope gave 62 artifacts to the leaders of the…