Bonn, Germany, Nov 25, 2019 / 12:55 pm (CNA).- The German bishops' conference announced Monday that a ceremonial "Synodal Candle" will be lit on the first Sunday of Advent to officially launch the nation’s "synodal process," which is scheduled to run over two years and pass resolutions about Church life in Germany. The launch ceremony

San Diego, Calif., Nov 25, 2019 / 12:01 pm (CNA).- The American Medical Association announced last week that it had adopted a number of new policies, including advocacy for a federal ban on “so-called reparative or conversion therapy for sexual orientation or gender identity.” During the AMA interim meeting held in San Diego, the group's

Baltimore, Md., Nov 25, 2019 / 11:27 am (CNA).- Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport has been appointed chairman of the board of directors for Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the agency announced Monday. Caggiano was appointed by Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He assumes the role

Vatican City, Nov 25, 2019 / 10:15 am (CNA).- The personal secretary to Pope Francis will leave his position in December, after nearly seven years of service to the pope. Msgr. Fabian Pedacchio, an Argentine priest, will return to duties at the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops, where he had been working at the time of

Tokyo, Japan, Nov 25, 2019 / 09:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis met Monday with Emperor Naruhito of Japan. It was the first meeting of the two less than two weeks since Naruhito completed the rituals that made him the newest emperor in the world’s oldest continuous hereditary throne. Pope Francis is on his first visit

Hiroshima, Japan, Nov 24, 2019 / 05:30 am (CNA).- Pope Francis prayed for peace Sunday at the site of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, where he called for an end to war and the threat of nuclear weapons. “How can we propose peace if we constantly invoke the threat of nuclear war as a legitimate

Nagasaki, Japan, Nov 23, 2019 / 11:30 pm (CNA).- On the Feast of Christ the King Sunday, Pope Francis encouraged Catholics to not be indifferent to evil, but to bear witness to hope and to the kingdom of God still to come. “If, as missionary disciples, our mission is to be witnesses and heralds of

Nagasaki, Japan, Nov 23, 2019 / 07:55 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis Sunday honored the many martyrs who died in Japan during two centuries of persecution, encouraging Catholics in the country to use their heroic witness as inspiration to spread the Gospel. “May we never forget their heroic sacrifice!” he said Nov. 24, speaking of the

Nagasaki, Japan, Nov 23, 2019 / 06:48 pm (CNA).- At the ground zero site of the 1945 nuclear attack on Nagasaki, Pope Francis said the threat of using nuclear weapons is not the way to build peace and shared responsibility in the human family, reiterating the Church’s commitment to peace. “The Catholic Church is irrevocably

Tokyo, Japan, Nov 23, 2019 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- For centuries, Japanese intellectuals, emperors, and missionaries have asked the same question: What does it mean to be both Japanese and Catholic? The arrival of Pope Francis in Japan this week has revitalized a conversation  about what happens to Japanese identity when Christianity enters the mix.