Junno Arocho Esteves

A new Vatican document highlights the "critical role of vaccines to defeat the pandemic, not just for individual personal health but to protect the health of all." 

As the fifth anniversary of his apostolic exhortation "Amoris Laetitia" approaches, Pope Francis announced the Church will dedicate more than a year to focusing on marriage and family.

The birth of Christ is a gift from God that brings people hope and courage in troubled times, Pope Francis said at Christmas Eve Mass at the Vatican.

Christmas must not be confused with "ephemeral things" that reduce the celebration of Christ's birth "to a merely sentimental or consumerist festival," the pope said Dec. 23 during his weekly general audience.

Current restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic can help people put Christ, and not the constant need to purchase gifts, at the center of the Christmas season, Pope Francis said.

The Vatican decreed that priests can celebrate as many as four Masses on several important feast days, including Christmas, to accommodate the participation of the faithful.

If Christians forget to remember in prayer people who are suffering, their prayer can become a superficial activity that feeds their ego rather than seeking the good and well-being of others, Pope Francis said.

The humble image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a reminder of the gift of God's abundant blessings to all men and women, Pope Francis said.

The image of baby Jesus nestled in the manger is a much-needed reminder during the pandemic that God gives the world the gift of hope in troubled times, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis sought the intercession of the first Indigenous saint of the Americas as COVID-19 continued to devastate many Latin American countries.

Praying to God in times of joy and sorrow is a natural, human thing to do because it connects men and women to their father in heaven, Pope Francis said.

Addressing pilgrims in St. Peter's Square on the feast of the Immaculate Conception Dec. 8, the pope said the grace "to be totally free from sin" is a gift from God and the "fullness of holiness" given to Mary from the beginning.

While sin may distort and disfigure the image of Christ that every person bears, it does not completely erase it, nor does it remove people from God's abundant mercy, Pope Francis said.

Guaranteeing justice for all men and women is not possible while a few people control most of the world's wealth and everyone else's right to a dignified life is disregarded, Pope Francis said.

The presence of Latin Americans around the world has enriched the Catholic Church with a renewed zeal for the Gospel, Pope Francis said.

Msgr. Enrico Radice, the former rector of a minor seminary located in the Vatican, denied knowing about the alleged sexual abuse of a student, but instead alleged that the victim and his friend, who claimed he witnessed the abuse, were motivated by money.

Pope Francis' teaching on the "just war" theory is a crucial point of reflection in today's world where the historic motives to morally justify aggression and violence are often misused, said Cardinal Michael Czerny, undersecretary for the Vatican's Migrants and Refugees Section.

The bishops of Peru have launched an initiative not only to confront the challenges facing the country due to the coronavirus pandemic but also to confront the pandemics of corruption, indifference and exclusion plaguing the country, said Peruvian Cardinal Pedro Barreto of Huancayo.

The recent conviction of a former Salvadoran colonel for the murder of five Spanish Jesuit priests during the civil war in El Salvador is a major step forward on the path of gaining justice and healing old wounds, Cardinal Michael Czerny said.

The U.N. migration agency renewed its call for increased search and rescue efforts after another tragic shipwreck in the Mediterranean Sea claimed the lives of 74 migrant men, women and children.