VATICAN CITY — One by one 11 senior churchmen, including two U.S. citizens — Cardinals Wilton D. Gregory of Washington and Silvano M. Tomasi, a former Vatican diplomat — knelt before Pope Francis to receive their red hats, a cardinal’s ring and a scroll formally declaring their new status and assigning them a “titular” church in Rome.
MEXICO CITY – Mexican church and civic officials have canceled public feast celebrations for Mexico’s patroness at her shrine in Mexico City due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The celebration normally attracts 10 million pilgrims to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the world’s most-visited Marian shrine.
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis admits he is not an economist, but he is a pastor.
VATICAN CITY – A delegation representing the National Basketball Players Association, a union representing professional athletes from the NBA, met with Pope Francis and spoke with him about their work in promoting social justice.
VATICAN CITY – Young people today should not waste their lives dreaming of obtaining trivial things that provide only a fleeting moment of joy but aspire to the greatness God wants for them, Pope Francis said.
SEATTLE – Parishioners around Puget Sound are busy knitting hats, collecting toiletries and sewing ditty bags, answering the call to help people working on cargo ships coming into the Port of Seattle.
WASHINGTON – Bishop Joseph E. Strickland of Tyler, Texas, said the recently released report on former cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, describing his ascent to highest rungs of the church, even amid rumors of abuse, read like a list of the seven deadly sins.
CLEVELAND – Admitting that people’s faith in God “has been shaken” by the pandemic and related economic turmoil, Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez called on his fellow bishops to take the news of the Resurrection and the triumph of life over death directly to people to help them navigate the crises.