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Why the Holy Doors are only in Rome: Navigating the Jubilee

On December 24, Pope Francis opened the first Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica, inaugurating the Jubilee. This door, bearing 15 bas-relief panels recounting the story of man’s redemption, is the most symbolic, marking the launch of the Jubilees since the year 1500. Rome also offers four other holy doors: those of the three other Read More…

Why the Holy Doors are only in Rome: Navigating the Jubilee

High school filmmaking contest against human trafficking

High school students in the US with an eye for filmmaking should not miss their chance to participate in a 2025 video contest from Alliance to End Human Trafficking. Participants will have the chance to raise awareness about this important human rights issue, while subsequently adding to their portfolio, and there’s even a chance to Read More…

High school filmmaking contest against human trafficking

Pope Francis spends peaceful second night at hospital, prays for peace at Angelus

Left: Banners at Rome’s Gemelli University Hospital. Right: Pope Francis waves from a wheelchair, Feb. 13, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA CNA Newsroom, Feb 16, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA). Pope Francis spent a peaceful second night at Rome’s Gemel... [...]

Homily prepared by Pope for Jubilee of artists

As the Pope is starting his third day in the hospital, Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça read the homily that he had prepared for today’s Mass with artists. The cardinal is the prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education; he urged the entire assembly, from the beginning of the Mass, to pray for the Read More…

Homily prepared by Pope for Jubilee of artists

Pope’s Angelus message from hospital: Pray for medical staff

“I thank you for the affection, the prayers, and the closeness with which you have accompanied me these days,” said Pope Francis, currently hospitalized for infectious bronchitis at the Gemelli Polyclinic, in his message released by the Holy See for the Angelus of February 16, 2025. Also thanking the doctors who are taking care of Read More…

Pope’s Angelus message from hospital: Pray for medical staff

Josef Pieper on why our incompleteness means hope

Back in the halcyon days of my childhood, each summer our family would pile into our baby-blue minivan and drive to Florida. During the entirety of the 12-hour drive, my brothers and I would go wild, arguing over who got to sit in which seat, quibbling over who was invading the sovereign territorial space already Read More…

Josef Pieper on why our incompleteness means hope

A quick and fun way to stay close with kids from far away

I’m lucky enough to be the godmother of four beautiful children, but because they live far from me, I don’t get to see them very often. Last year, I was thinking and praying about how to keep in touch with these beloved children from far away.  I know that when a little kid doesn’t see Read More…

A quick and fun way to stay close with kids from far away

Doctors prescribe ‘absolute rest’ for Pope Francis

The medical teams at the Gemelli clinic have prescribed “absolute rest” for Pope Francis, who is therefore not leading the midday Angelus prayer on February 16, 2025, the Holy See Press Office announced in a statement released the early evening of February 15. Shortly after noon on February 16, Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy Read More…

Doctors prescribe ‘absolute rest’ for Pope Francis

Ecologists at center dedicated to St. Kateri help children integrate faith and nature

A statue of St. Kateri Tekakwitha. / Credit: Saint Kateri Conservation Center CNA Staff, Feb 16, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA). When Kathleen Hoenke and William Jacobs aren’t working as professional ecologists by day in their secular jobs, they’re usin... [...]

Cardinal Mendonça delivers pope’s message to artists: Be witnesses to ‘revolutionary vision of the Beatitudes’

Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça delivers Pope Francis's homily at a Mass for the Jubilee of Artists in St. Peter's Basilica, Feb. 16, 2025 / Screenshot / Vatican Media

CNA Newsroom, Feb 16, 2025 / 04:59 am (CNA).

Powerful proclamations to painters, poets, and performers highlighted Pope Francis’s message to artists on Sunday, calling them to participate in the “revolutionary vision of the Beatitudes” and transform suffering into Hope.

In a papal homily read by Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça at a Mass for the Jubilee of Artists in St. Peter’s Basilica on Feb. 16, artists were urged to be “witnesses to the revolutionary vision of the Beatitudes.”

“Your mission is not only to create beauty, but to reveal the truth, goodness and beauty hidden within the folds of history, to give voice to the voiceless, to transform pain into hope,” the pope’s message stated.

The prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education delivered the homily as Pope Francis remains at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, where he is recovering from a respiratory infection.

Drawing on the day’s Gospel reading of the Beatitudes, the papal message emphasized that authentic art must engage with “the drama of human existence” rather than offering superficial comfort.

“We live in a time when new walls are being erected, when differences become a pretext for division rather than an opportunity for mutual enrichment,” the homily noted, calling artists and cultural figures to “build bridges, create spaces for encounter and dialogue, enlighten minds and warm hearts.”

The homily concluded with a reminder that artistic gifts are not random but represent a calling: “Hope is not an illusion; beauty is not a utopia; your gift is not chance, it is a vocation. Respond with generosity, with passion, with love.”

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