On May 23, Pope Francis approved a request by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to canonize eight Franciscan friars and three Maronite laymen martyred during the massacre of Christians in Damascus in July 1860. On July 1, […]
Early in the year 303, “when the feast of the Saviour’s passion was near at hand, royal edicts were published everywhere, commanding that the churches be leveled to the ground and the Scriptures be destroyed […]
On September 14, 1965, Pope St. Paul VI announced the establishment of the Synod of Bishops. In doing so, he accepted a proposal advanced by Archbishop Silvio Oddi in 1959 that had gained much support in the intervening years. […]
On January 21, 2021, Pope Francis approved the promulgation of a decree on the heroic virtues of Jérôme Lejeune (Jérôme Lejeune Foundation, Pontifical Academy of Sciences, New Catholic Encyclopedia, Science and its Times). The following […]
On December 16, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints announced that Pope Francis will canonize Blessed María Antonia of Saint Joseph (1730-1799) on February 11. Born near Santiago del Estero, Argentina, as María Antonia […]
This past year was a rare but not unprecedented year that saw no canonizations. No saints were canonized in thirteen of the past sixty years (1965, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1985, […]
In 303, the Roman Emperor Diocletian launched a brutal persecution of the Church. The persecution lasted for a decade, until Constantine extended toleration to Christians in the Edict of Milan. Against this backdrop, nineteen bishops […]
On November 24, 2013, Pope Francis signed Evangelii Gaudium [The Joy of the Gospel], his apostolic exhortation on the proclamation of the Gospel in today’s world. The document’s publication followed the October 2012 Synod of […]
On September 14, 1998, Pope St. John Paul II issued Fides et Ratio (“Faith and Reason,” Latin text, English translation), an encyclical letter on the relationship between faith and reason — or, to translate the […]
One hundred twenty-five years ago, on September 5, 1898, Pope Leo XIII issued Diuturni temporis (“Of a long time”), the last of his dozen Rosary encyclicals. Pope Leo was eighty-eight years old and had reigned […]
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