Pope Francis: The Church never tires of announcing God’s love

Pope Francis prays with members of the Synod on Synodality during one of its meetings in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on the morning of Oct. 12, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Oct 12, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA).

Prayer groups are sponsoring an online platform through which you can “adopt” a Synod on Synodality member to pray for during the month of October.

After submitting an email address on the webpage oremusprosynodo.org, the name of one of the 368 voting members (also called delegates) of the 2024 meeting of the Synod on Synodality appears with the exhortation to pray for them.

The synod prayer campaign also sends a daily email with a guide for how to pray for the “adopted” synod delegate throughout the Vatican assembly Oct. 2–27.

The initiative is organized by synod leaders in collaboration with three Church-connected groups: The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, Click to Pray, and The Church Is Listening.

The second session of the assembly of the Synod on Synodality is taking place at the Vatican this month. It marks the end of the discernment phase of the Catholic Church’s synodal process begun in 2021.

Throughout the October meeting, synod participants will pray together daily and attend prayer services and Masses.

During the first half of the monthlong gathering, synod members attended a retreat, a penitential liturgy, the synod opening Mass, and an ecumenical prayer vigil. They will also join in a Mass of canonization on Oct. 20 and participate in a mini-retreat on Oct. 21 before the synod’s concluding Mass on Oct. 27.

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Vatican City, Nov 16, 2019 / 06:01 am (CNA).- The Vatican Museums opened Thursday an exhibit of recently restored paintings of the Virgin Mary by early Renaissance painter Carlo Crivelli.

“The Vatican painting gallery has the privilege of having three large scale paintings by Crivelli,” Vatican Museums’ Curator Guido Cornini told CNA.

“Crivelli is a relatively rare artist, so not many collections in the world may claim the presence of a nucleus of more paintings together,” he said.

The restorations were made possible by members of the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums, the fundraising branch of the Vatican Museums that started in the United States in 1983.

The U.S. Embassy to the Holy See co-hosted the exhibition opening at the Vatican museums in celebration of the 35 years of formal diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the Holy See.

“U.S. Patrons fund approximately 80 percent of all restoration projects at the Vatican Museums,” U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Callista Gingrich said at the exhibit opening Nov. 13.

“Through their work, the Patrons ensure that the unique spiritual and cultural mission of the Vatican Museums continues to flourish, and that these works of art endure and inspire millions each year and for generations to come,” she said.

Each year the Vatican Museums curators put together a “wish book” of art pieces in the museums that most urgently need restorations. This is then sent to donors, who can commit to funding the restoration of a particular work of art.

For the Crivelli pieces, the restoration process consisted of many stages, Cornini explained.

“It is more than presenting the painting with a superficial cleaning,” he said. The restorer, diagnostic laboratory, art historian, and/or archeologist must work together to determine the best means of restoration and then execute it in meticulous process that can take over a year.

“You have to get through a long … phase in which more historical information is being gathered both through the archives and compare this with a careful reading of the literature existing on that particular panel painting and then you prepare the proposal of a ‘therapy’ to follow, much like you would do with a medicine,” Cornini said.

The restoration of the Crivelli paintings involved removing the “over-painting” from previous restorations to recover the original vibrant colors under the surface.

Carlo Crivelli (1463-1494) was an early Renaissance painter from Venice, known for his use of gold in the late Gothic style.

Crivelli used many of the latest innovations in painting at the time, but on the other hand, his style displays a nostalgia for medieval art, Cornini explained.

Perhaps his best known pieces are “The Annunciation, with Saint Emidius” (1486) and “Saint Thomas Aquinas” (1476).

The three newly restored pieces of art on display in the exhibit are a five-panel polyptych, “Madonna and Child with Saints” (1481), “Madonna and Child” (1482), and a “Pieta” (1488-1489).

“We are blessed with having these three important pictures, which were restored in past months, and we are now able to present them … with the different histories behind each of them,” Cornini said.

The curator added that the three paintings mark the different stages in the development in Crivelli’s style.

The exhibit, “Crivelli’s gold,” is on display in the Vatican’s Pinacoteca Museum Nov. 14 until Jan. 21, 2020.

Rachel Lanz contributed to this report.

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Vatican City, Mar 12, 2020 / 07:03 am (CNA).- Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Vatican City State offices and dicasteries of the Holy See will remain open and working, with additional precautions and the possibility to work from home in some cases, the Vatican said Thursday.

A March 12 statement said “it has been established that the dicasteries and entities of the Holy See and of the Vatican City State remain open to ensure essential services to the Universal Church.”

With the permission of their superior, certain employees may work remotely. Those whose work regards materials or information protected by the pontifical secret may not work from home, according to provisions distributed by the Secretariat of State, which is coordinating the Vatican’s measures during the coronavirus pandemic.

The decision to continue work was made during a special March 12 meeting of the heads of dicasteries, chaired by Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

The Secretariat of State’s provisions asked that offices adopt flexible hours and have employees and officials work varying shifts to avoid having many people present in the office at the same time.

“The activities of the dicasteries, of the entities of the Holy See or connected to it and of the Governorate of the Vatican City State must continue to be guaranteed,” the document states, with consideration for what are the most essential services.

The temporary provisions are in effect from March 11.

Pope Francis had a normal schedule of several one-on-one meetings in the morning March 12, including with Fr. Roberto Dotta, the abbot of the Papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, and Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, the archpriest of the Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major.

He also met with Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, deacon of the College of Cardinals, Archbishop Giacomo Morandi, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.

The ambassador of Japan to the Holy See, Yoshio Matthew Nakamura, also had a courtesy visit with Pope Francis March 12.

Several Vatican officials told CNA earlier this week that work inside Vatican offices continues despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Employees and officials have been asked to remain one meter away from each other at all times, to restrict visits from guests, and to not gather for meetings or around the coffee machine, one official said.

Italian police closed the border with the Vatican at St. Peter’s Square March 10. St. Peter’s Basilica was also closed to tourists.

The Italian government has put Italy on a nationwide lockdown through April 3 to help contain the spread of the coronavirus, which has caused the death of more than 800 people in the country.

The quarantine prevents movement within the country and limits other travel. People are required to stay at home except to go to work, the supermarket, or the pharmacy.

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