Pope Francis waves to pilgrims at his General Audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, June 26, 2024 / Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Vatican City, Jul 5, 2024 / 11:46 am (CNA).

Pope Francis will travel more than 20,000 miles over the course of seven flights during his ambitious 12-day trip to four countries in Southeast Asia and Oceania this September.

At the age of 87, the Holy Father is set to take on his most ambitious international trip yet, which will be the longest of his 11-year pontificate.

The Vatican published Friday the full schedule for the pope’s trip to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Singapore from Sept. 2 to 13.

The first stop on his Southeast Asia tour is Indonesia, home to the largest Muslim population in the world, where he will preside over an interfaith meeting in Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque.

After a 13-hour flight and day of rest in the Indonesian capital, Francis will meet with the country’s President Joko Widodo on Sept. 4 and deliver a speech to political leaders at the Istana Merdeka Presidential Palace. 

The pope will also visit Jakarta’s Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption to meet with bishops, priests, religious sisters, and seminarians after meeting privately with local Jesuits. 

More than 29 million Christians live in Indonesia, 7 million of whom are Catholic, while Indonesia’s 229 million Muslims make up more than 12% of the global Muslim population. Nearly all of Indonesia’s Muslims are Sunni.

The pope’s second full day in Jakarta begins with an interreligious meeting in the Istiqlal Mosque, the ninth-largest mosque in the world. 

Pope Francis will conclude his time in Indonesia with a Mass on the evening of Sept. 5 in Jakarta’s Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, which has a seating capacity of 77,000, after meeting with beneficiaries from local charitable organizations.

On Sept. 6, he will travel nearly 3,000 miles to Papua New Guinea’s sprawling capital of Port Moresby.

Pope Francis will visit local ministries that care for street children and persons with disabilities on his first full day in Papua New Guinea on Sept. 7, which also includes a speech to the local political authorities and an address to the local clergy at the Shrine of Mary Help of Christians.

The following day, the pope will meet with Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape before presiding over Sunday Mass in Port Moresby’s Sir John Guise Stadium.

He will then fly to Vanimo, a city in the northwesternmost province of Papua New Guinea, where he will greet local missionaries and address local Catholics in front of the Holy Cross Cathedral before flying back to the capital city Sunday night.

Pope Francis will travel on Sept. 9 to the small country of East Timor, which has a population that is more than 97% Catholic. 

In Dili, the country’s capital, Pope Francis will visit children with disabilities, meet local clergy and religious in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, give a speech at the Presidential Palace, and preside over Mass in the Esplanade of Taci Tolu over the course of two days.

The pope’s final stop before returning to Rome will be the island of Singapore, the country with the highest GDP per capita in Asia and the second-highest population density of any country in the world.

Pope Francis will be welcomed to Singapore’s world-renowned Changi International Airport on Sept. 11. He will meet President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Sept. 12 before presiding over Mass in Singapore’s SportsHub National Stadium, the third stadium Mass of the trip. 

On his last day in Asia, the pope will preside over an interreligious meeting with young people in Singapore’s Catholic Junior College and visit a group of elderly people. He will make the 6,000-mile journey back to Italy on a chartered Singapore Airlines flight scheduled to land in Rome at 6:25 p.m. on Sept. 13.

The nearly two-week venture will be the pope’s first international trip in 2024. Francis has slowed down his travel schedule in recent months as health and mobility issues, from a knee injury to recurring bronchitis, have forced him to cancel some public appearances, including his last planned foreign visit to Dubai. 

Pope Francis is also scheduled to make a four-day trip to Belgium and Luxembourg at the end of September.

Archbishop Carlo Viganò. / Credit: Edward Pentin/National Catholic Register

Rome Newsroom, Jul 5, 2024 / 09:35 am (CNA).

The Vatican has officially excommunicated Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith announced Friday.

Viganò was found guilty of the canonical crime, or delict, of schism, or the refusal to submit to the pope or the communion of the Church, at the conclusion of the Vatican’s extrajudicial penal process on July 4.

The Vatican’s doctrine office announced the “latae sententiae” excommunication (automatic excommunication) on July 5, citing Viganò’s “public statements manifesting his refusal to recognize and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the Church subject to him, and of the legitimacy and magisterial authority of the Second Vatican Council.”

The former papal nuncio to the United States is now excommunicated, the most serious penalty a baptized person can incur, which consists of being placed outside the communion of the faithful of the Catholic Church and denied access to the sacraments. 

The ruling comes after Viganò defied a Vatican summons to appear before the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to face charges of schism last week.

The former Vatican diplomat — who garnered headlines in 2018 for alleging that senior Church officials covered up abuses committed by former cardinal Theodore McCarrick — has repeatedly rejected the authority of Pope Francis since then and has called on him to resign.

In a lengthy statement shared on social media June 28, Viganò accused Pope Francis of “heresy and schism” over his promotion of COVID-19 vaccines and his overseeing of the 2018 Vatican-China deal on the appointment of bishops.

He also said he has “no reason to consider myself separate from communion with the holy Church and with the papacy, which I have always served with filial devotion and fidelity.”

“I maintain that the errors and heresies to which [Francis] adhered before, during, and after his election, along with the intention he held in his apparent acceptance of the papacy, render his elevation to the throne null and void,” Viganò wrote.

Viganò, who has been in hiding for years, announced on social media June 20 that he had been summoned to Rome to answer formal charges of schism.

The specific charges outlined against Viganò, according to a document he himself posted, involved making public statements that allegedly deny the fundamental elements necessary to maintain communion with the Catholic Church. This included denying the legitimacy of Pope Francis as the rightful pontiff and the outright rejection of the Second Vatican Council.

In response to the charges, Viganò said in a June 21 statement that he had not sent any materials in his defense to the Vatican, noting that he did not recognize the authority of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith “nor that of its prefect, nor that of the person who appointed him.”

Viganò’s excommunication can only be lifted by the Apostolic See.

Pope Francis greets altar servers from France. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 5, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The city of Rome will host an international pilgrimage of the association of altar servers “Coetus Internationalis Ministrantium” (CIM) from July 29 to Aug. 3.

The German Bishops’ Conference stated in a July 2 press release that the theme for the 13th pilgrimage is “With You,” an expression taken from the Book of Isaiah. 

Nearly 50,000 altar servers from various countries including Germany, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Slovakia, France, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia, Switzerland, Ukraine, and Hungary will participate in this event.

In addition, they will be accompanied by the president of the CIM, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the archbishop of Luxembourg.

Some 35,000 altar servers are expected from Germany, who will be accompanied by the president of the youth commission of the German Bishops’ Conference, Auxiliary Bishop Johannes Wübbe, as well as numerous members of the German Bishops’ Conference.

The event will begin July 29 at the Maria S. Bambina Institute in Rome and will conclude with an audience with Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square on July 30 at 6 p.m. local time.

The activities of the pilgrimage will be coordinated by the press office of the German Bishops’ Conference.

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

Pope Francis leads the Synod on Synodality delegates in prayer on Oct. 25, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Jul 3, 2024 / 10:55 am (CNA).

The Vatican will publish next week the guiding document for discussions at the final assembly of the Catholic Church’s yearslong Synod on Synodality.

The Instrumentum Laboris, or “working tool” for the upcoming 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, will be presented at a July 9 press conference by Cardinals Mario Grech and Jean-Claude Hollerich, together with the special secretaries of the synodal assembly. 

Dubbed the “Instrumentum Laboris 2,” the document has been in preparation since early June, when approximately 20 experts in theology, ecclesiology, and canon law held a closed-door meeting to analyze synod reports from dioceses and religious communities.

The Instrumentum Laboris will guide the discussions at an assembly at the Vatican in October. The monthlong gathering is the second session of a two-part assembly of the Synod on Synodality. The first session was held in October 2023.

The second October assembly is a continuation of the multiyear Synod on Synodality, which began in October 2021 and has included stages of discernment and discussion at various levels of the Church. 

The fall meeting will bring together Catholic bishops, priests, religious, and laypeople from around the world to discuss topics included in the Instrumentum Laboris and to prepare the synod’s final document.

This is the second Instrumentum Laboris of the Synod on Synodality. A similar working document of 50 pages was published last year ahead of the synod’s October 2023 assembly.

The 2023 Vatican assembly produced a 41-page synthesis report, while the 2024 assembly is expected to vote on a “final report,” which will then be sent to Pope Francis for consideration.

The third phase of the Synod on Synodality — after “the consultation of the people of God” and “the discernment of the pastors” — will be “implementation,” according to organizers.

Statue of St. Peter in front of St. Peter's Basilica. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 3, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

As every year during summer vacation time, the Vatican does not schedule any public, private, or “special” audiences for Pope Francis in the Vatican, including the general audience on Wednesdays.

The Vatican usually suspends such audiences on only two occasions: during the month of July and the week when the pontiff carries out his spiritual retreat at the Vatican.

The Holy See’s press office announced in a statement that the Holy Father’s agenda will resume on Aug. 7.

However, during this usual period of rest, Pope Francis will lead the Angelus on Sundays from the window of the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican.

Although the Holy Father doesn’t spend the summer at the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo as popes have traditionally done, this year, as confirmed by the master of papal liturgical ceremonies, he will have a greater rest than in previous years.

Pope Francis will not preside at any public Mass for eight weeks, from July 8 to Sept. 1.

After this well-deserved rest, Pope Francis will travel to Asia and Oceania for 11 days in September and will also visit Belgium and Luxembourg at the end of the same month. In October, the second and final session of the Synod of Synodality will take place in Rome.

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

Pope Francis prays during his general audience on Wednesday, May 29, 2024, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Staff, Jul 2, 2024 / 14:15 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of July is for the pastoral care of the sick. 

“The anointing of the sick is not a sacrament only for those who are at the point of death. No. It is important that this is clear,” the Holy Father said in a video message released July 2. 

“When the priest draws near a person to perform the anointing of the sick, it is not necessarily to help them say goodbye to life. Thinking this way means giving up every hope,” he said, adding: “It means taking for granted that after the priest the undertaker will arrive.”

The pope urged the faithful to “remember that the anointing of the sick is one of the ‘sacraments of healing,’ of ‘restoration,’ that heals the spirit.”

“And when a person is very ill, it’s advisable to give them the anointing of the sick. And when someone is elderly, it’s good that they receive the anointing of the sick,” he said.

He concluded with a prayer: “Let us pray that the sacrament of the anointing of the sick grant the Lord’s strength to those who receive it and to their loved ones, and that it may become for everyone an ever more visible sign of compassion and hope.”

Pope Francis’ prayer video is promoted by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, which raises awareness of monthly papal prayer intentions.

St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. / Credit: Vlas Telino studio/Shutterstock

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 1, 2024 / 14:50 pm (CNA).

With the publication of new regulations, Pope Francis has made it clear that employees of the Fabric of St. Peter must profess the Catholic faith, wear decent and appropriate clothing, and not have visible tattoos or piercings, among other requirements.

The Office of the Holy See has published a chirograph of Pope Francis on the Statute and Regulations of the Chapter of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, which determines the norms for the staff of the Fabric of St. Peter, the entity responsible for the conservation and maintenance of St. Peter’s Basilica. A chirograph is an order signed by the pope.

All employees must comply, including the so-called “sampietrini,” those in charge of admittance, surveillance, cleaning, and maintenance of the Vatican basilica.

The document, published on June 29, establishes that employees must “take care of their outward appearance in accordance with the demands and customs of the work environment.”

The Holy Father thus determined that “visible tattoos on the skin and piercings are prohibited.” Likewise, employees must “wear decent clothing appropriate to the activity they are going to perform.”

It will also be mandatory for them to “profess the Catholic faith and live according to its principles” as well as demonstrate that they are married in the Church by presenting a “canonical marriage certificate.” They must also provide baptism and confirmation certificates and demonstrate that they have no criminal record.

The chirograph also states that members of the Fabric staff “commit to observing exemplary religious and moral conduct, even in their private and family life, in accordance with the doctrine of the Church.”

“Staff are required to behave politely while on duty, [be] respectful of the sacred place, and act ... properly toward others and [in consideration of] the surroundings,” the document reads.

Also, “special care will be taken to observe the pontifical secret, in accordance with current regulations.”

Likewise, without prior authorization from the archpriest in charge of the basilica, “no one may issue statements and interviews, not even through digital instruments and platforms, regarding the people, activities, environments, and guidelines of the Fabric.”

Furthermore, Article 10 establishes that the staff is obliged to strictly observe confidentiality and will not be able to “provide to anyone who does not have the right to it information about events or news that they have learned due to their work or service.”

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

An image of Carlo Acutis was unveiled at his beatification Mass in Assisi, Italy Oct. 10, 2020. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Rome Newsroom, Jul 1, 2024 / 12:10 pm (CNA).

The College of Cardinals gave a positive vote to the canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis on Monday after Pope Francis recognized last month a second miracle attributed to the millennial’s intercession — the final step before his canonization date can be set.

Pope Francis said July 1 that the date for the canonization Mass of the computer-coding teenager will be announced at a later time, the Vatican said.  

Acutis could be canonized during the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year.

The College of Cardinals assented to the canonizations of 15 people, including Blessed Carlo Acutis, during a consistory at the Vatican on the morning of July 1.

The pope decreed that the 14 other blesseds, which includes the 11 “Martyrs of Damascus,” will be declared saints on Sunday, Oct. 20.

Acutis, who died in 2006 at the age of 15, was beatified in a ceremony at the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi on Oct. 10, 2020.

In a May 23 decree, Pope Francis approved a second miracle through the Italian boy’s intercession, paving the way for him to become the first millennial saint.

A 21-year-old woman from Costa Rica, Valeria Valverde, was miraculously healed through Acutis’ intercession after she was close to dying from a serious head injury sustained in a bicycle accident while studying in Florence in 2022.

After the woman underwent an emergency craniotomy to reduce intracranial pressure, the family was told that her situation was very critical and that she could die at any moment, according to the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

Six days after the accident, Valverde’s mother went on a pilgrimage to Assisi to pray for the healing of her daughter at the tomb of Blessed Carlo Acutis, leaving a written note.

On that same day, Valverde began to breathe on her own and on the following day she recovered the use of her upper limbs and partly recovered her speech.

Valverde was discharged from the intensive care unit 10 days after her mother’s pilgrimage and underwent further tests that showed that the hemorrhagic right temporal cortical contusion in her brain had completely disappeared.

Contrary to medical predictions, Valverde spent only one week in physical therapy and on Sept. 2, 2022, two months after her accident, she went on a pilgrimage to Acutis’ tomb in Assisi with her mother to celebrate her complete healing.

Libero Milone. / Credit: Edward Pentin/EWTN/YouTube screen shot

Rome Newsroom, Jul 1, 2024 / 11:15 am (CNA).

At a July 3 appeal hearing, lawyers for former Vatican auditor Libero Milone and his recently deceased former deputy Ferruccio Panicco will argue that Cardinal Angelo Becciu acted as an official of the Vatican, not as a private individual, when he put pressure on the two men to resign their posts in 2017 under threat of prosecution.

“For me, Ferruccio’s family, and my family this is tremendously important,” Milone told journalists at a June 19 briefing about his appeal, claiming he and Panicco were “threatened and expelled for doing our jobs” and he is now essentially un-hireable due to the damage to his reputation.

Milone is preparing to go before the Vatican’s appeals court after his lawsuit was rejected earlier this year by a lower court for a “misplaced claim” against the Secretariat of State. Judges said the Secretariat of State was not liable for his ousting because he was employed by the pope and Becciu was acting alone when he forced the auditor from his job and accused him of “spying” on his personal finances.

Milone, who argues he uncovered illegal accounting practices and conflicts of interest while merely carrying out his remit to audit Vatican finances, told CNA he is the victim of “false and malicious accusations” and asked why he was never arrested if, as the Vatican said at the time of his ousting, they had ample evidence he was guilty of espionage.

In 2022, the ex-Vatican auditor and his deputy sought 9.3 million euros (about $10 million) in compensation from the Vatican’s Secretariat of State and office of auditor general, now led by the other of Milone’s two former deputies, for loss of reputation and the inability to find new work due to the slanderous nature of their removal.

The lawsuit also included a demand of 3.5 million euros (about $3.8 million) for the loss of Panicco’s personal medical records, which Milone maintains led to the auditor’s premature death from cancer in June 2023 after having to repeat exams, thus delaying treatment. 

The Vatican’s court of first instance ordered Milone to pay almost 50,000 euros (about $54,000) and Panicco’s estate 64,000 euros (about $69,000) and said in its Jan. 24 rejection of the lawsuit that the Secretariat of State cannot be held liable for Milone’s dismissal because it was Pope Francis who was responsible for his employment, and the court cannot judge papal decisions, while Becciu acted in a personal capacity.

Milone and his lawyers, however, called this argument a “smoke screen” during a meeting with journalists in June and said they have documents they claim prove the Secretariat of State’s integral role in his hiring and, ultimately, in his forced resignation, which Becciu, then sostituto of the Secretariat of State, has taken credit for.

They added that they hope in their appeal to enter into the facts of the case and expressed disappointment at the lawsuit having been originally blocked for a prejudicial reason.

Becciu himself is currently in appeal proceedings after he was sentenced to more than five years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of over $8,000 after he was convicted on counts of embezzlement and abuse of office in December 2023.

Milone’s preliminary appeal hearing July 3 will be before a court of three judges: Spanish Archbishop Alejandro Arellano Cedillo, president of the Court of Appeal; Father Pietro Milite; and Italian civil judge Riccardo Turrini Vita.

CNA has seen a copy of the document explicitly hiring Milone as auditor general of the Vatican, which is signed by Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

According to the ex-auditor general, it is ludicrous that the Vatican court argued Becciu acted as a private individual, not as an official of the Secretariat of State, when on the morning of June 19, 2017, when he was told by Becciu he had lost the faith of the pope, he was meeting the second-in-command of the Secretariat of State in the Apostolic Palace on a matter of business, namely, to discuss work contracts for employees in his office.

After the preliminary hearing on July 3, it is unknown how many hearings the appeal court will hold and how long the judges will take to give a verdict. 

Under Vatican law, both the prosecution and the defense can appeal verdicts, and second appeals are also possible.

Milone and his lawyers, Romano Vaccarella and Gianni Merla, said they will appeal their case to the Vatican’s supreme court and even bring it before the International Court of Justice in the Hague if necessary.

“I’m never giving up for myself and for Ferruccio,” Milone told CNA and other journalists in June.

Pope Francis announced he will celebrate a Mass of canonization for 14 people, including the 11 “Martyrs of Damascus,” on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, the Vatican announced after the College of Cardinals voted to approve the canonizations of 15 people in a consistory on the morning of July 1, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Jul 1, 2024 / 08:50 am (CNA).

Pope Francis will celebrate a Mass of canonization for 14 people, including the 11 “Martyrs of Damascus,” on Sunday, Oct. 20, the Vatican announced Monday.

The pope declared the date of the canonization, which will take place during the 2024 assembly of the Synod on Synodality, after the College of Cardinals voted to approve the canonizations of 15 people in a consistory on the morning of July 1.

The date of the much-anticipated canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis will be set at a later time, according to the July 1 press release.

The “Martyrs of Damascus” were murdered “out of hatred for the faith” in Damascus, Syria, some time during the night of July 9–10, 1860. The event took place during the persecution of Christians by Shia Druze, which spread from Lebanon to Syria and resulted in thousands of victims.

A Druze commando entered a Franciscan convent in the Christian quarter of Bab-Touma (St. Paul) in the Old City of Damascus and massacred the friars Manuel Ruiz López, Carmelo Bolta, Nicanor Ascanio, Nicolás M. Alberca y Torres, Pedro Soler, Engelbert Kolland, Francisco Pinazo Peñalver, Juan S. Fernández, and three laymen who were biological brothers — Francis, Abdel Mohti, and Raphaël Massabki.

Upon refusing to renounce their Christian faith and convert to Islam, the 11 were brutally killed, some beheaded with sabers and axes, others stabbed or clubbed to death. The martyrs were beatified in 1926.

One of two women to be canonized on Oct. 20 is Blessed Elena Guerra, known as “an apostle of the Holy Spirit.”

A friend of Pope Leo XIII and the teacher of St. Gemma Galgani, Elena Guerra (1835–1914) is known for her spiritual writings and her passionate devotion to the Holy Spirit.

Canadian sister Blessed Marie-Léonie Paradis, founder of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family, will also be declared a saint on Oct. 20. Born Virginie Alodie on May 12, 1840, in L’Acadie, Quebec, the blessed founded her institute, whose purpose was to collaborate with and support the religious of Holy Cross in educational work, in 1880 in New Brunswick.

Today her sisters work in over 200 institutions of education and evangelization in Canada, the United States, Italy, Brazil, Haiti, Chile, Honduras, and Guatemala.

Italian Blessed Giuseppe Allamano, who will also be canonized Oct. 20, founded two religious congregations: the Consolata Missionaries (for men) and the Consolata Missionary Sisters (for women).

Born in 1851, Allamano was deeply influenced by the spirituality of the Salesians and St. John Bosco as well as his uncle, St. Joseph Cafasso, a noted priest and spiritual director who was known as one of Turin’s “social saints.”