By VISarchive 02 Vatican City, 24 February 2016 (VIS) – Yesterday afternoon the Holy Father received in audience Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munchen und Freising, Germany, coordinator of the Council for the Economy. Source:: Vatican Information Service

By VISarchive 02 Vatican City, 24 February 2016 (VIS) – Mercy and power were the theme of Pope Francis’ catechesis in this week’s Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square, attended by more than twenty thousand faithful and pilgrims.The Holy Father explained that various passages of the Bible speak about kings and men of power, and also of their arrogance and abuses, demonstrating that “wealth and power can be good and useful for the common good if placed at the service of the poor and of all, with justice and charity. However if, as often occurs, if lived as...

By VISarchive 02 Vatican City, 24 February 2016 (VIS) – The Holy Father has appointed Msgr. Zenildo Luiz Pereira da Silva, C.SS.R., as prelate coadjutor bishop of Borba (area 98,650, population 157,900, Catholics 127,600, priests 11, religious 15), Brazil. The bishop-elect was born in Linhares, Brazil in 1968, gave his religious vows in 1997 and was ordained a priest in 2001. He has served as parish priest and superior of the Redemptorist vice-province of Amazonia, and is currently parish priest of the cathedral of “Santana e Sao Sebastiao” in the diocese of Coari. Source:: Vatican Information Service

By VISarchive 02 Vatican City, 23 February 2016 (VIS) – This morning Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, along with Mehriban Aliyeva, president of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation (HAF), Azerbaijan, presented the results of the restoration of the Roman catacombs of Sts. Marcellinus and Peter “ad duas lauros”, entirely funded by the HAF.On the basis of an agreement signed in 2012, the Foundation presided over by Aliyev has funded the restoration of the paintings of the cubicle of Susanna and the fossor, the niche of Daniel, the arcosolium...

By VISarchive 02 Vatican City, 23 February 2016 (VIS) – The following prelates have died in recent weeks:– Bishop Ian Murray, emeritus of Argyll and The Isles, Scotland, United Kingdom, on 22 January at the age of 83.– Bishop Emile Jean Marie Henri Joseph Destombes, M.E.P., apostolic vicar emeritus of Phnom-Penh, Cambodia, on 28 January at the age of 80.– Bishop John Baptist Kakubi, emeritus of Mbarara, Uganda, on 11 February at the age of 86.– Bishop Barry Philip Jones of Christchurch, New Zealand, on 13 February at the age of 74.– Archbishop Carlos Quintero Arce, emeritus of Hermosillo,...

By VISarchive 02 Vatican City, 23 February 2016 (VIS) – An international conference entitled “Love will never end. Prospects ten years on from the Encyclical Deus caritas est” will be held on Thursday 25 February in the Vatican’s New Synod Hall. Organised by the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum”, the conference forms part of the programme of events for the Jubilee of Mercy and has the aim of examining in depth the theological and pastoral implications of Pope Benedict XVI’s first Encyclical for today’s world, especially in relation to the activity of those who work in the Church’s charitable service....