A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts.
www.catholicnewsagency.com
-
Treating the elderly as disposable “is a grave sin,” Pope Francis said on Wednesday. During his weekly meeting with the public in Saint Peter’s Square on April 20, the pope said honoring the elderly is a form of love, giving life not only to those honored, but to those doing the honoring. Pope Francis encouraged parents to bring their children around the elderly often. And if their grandparents are in a nursing home, to visit them.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251014/pope-francis-to-discard-the-elderly-is-a-grave-sin
A Ukrainian military commander has written a letter to Pope Francis asking him to help save the people of Mariupol, who have suffered from limited access to food or water under Russian bombardment for more than 50 days. Major Serhiy Volyna, who has been leading the 36th marine brigade in the battle for the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, described some of the horrors of the war he has witnessed, describing the city as “hell on earth,” and pleaded with the pope to do something to help safely evacuate people from the city. Volyna, who is an Orthodox Christian, said that he was turning to the pope for concrete help “because the time has come when prayers are not enough.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251011/ukrainian-soldier-appeals-to-pope-francis-to-help-save-the-people-of-mariupol
Today the Church celebrates Saint Agnes of Montepulciano, a Tuscan woman who was admitted to the Dominican convent at Montepulciano at age nine despite it generally being against Church law to allow a child so young to join. Agnes' reputation for holiness attracted other sisters, and she became an abbess at the unheard of age of 15. She lived on bread and water for 15 years, slept on the ground and used a stone for a pillow. It was said that she had visions of the Virgin Mary and of the infant Jesus.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-agnes-of-montepulciano-442