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
-
Pope Francis celebrated his 87th birthday on Sunday morning ahead of his weekly Angelus by meeting with children and families who are assisted by a Vatican pediatric clinic. It has been the custom of the Argentine pontiff since becoming pope in 2013 to eschew more formal celebrations on his birthday and instead spend time with Rome’s poor and underprivileged. As the 266th successor of St. Peter to the papacy, Francis will be the oldest bishop of Rome since Pope Leo XIII, the oldest pope in history, who served until his death in 1903 at the age of 93. Fewer than 10 popes have served at the age of 87.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/256305/pope-francis-celebrates-87th-birthday-with-children-who-receive-aid-from-vatican-clinic
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/256300/pope-francis-turns-87-one-of-the-oldest-popes-in-church-history
Judges delivered verdicts in the Vatican’s financial corruption trial on Saturday, sentencing Cardinal Angelo Becciu to more than five years in prison and convicting five other defendants to similar jail sentences for financial crimes.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/256302/vatican-court-convicts-cardinal-becciu-sentences-him-to-5-years-in-jail-for-embezzling-funds
In the latest sign of escalating strain between the Holy See and Israel over the mounting civilian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war, Pope Francis after his Angelus address on Sunday sharply condemned the reported killing of two women outside a Catholic church in Gaza City, allegedly by an Israeli sniper.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/256303/pope-francis-comments-on-attack-on-catholic-church-in-gaza
Today, the Church celebrates Saint Gatian of Tours. Not much is known about the life of Saint Gatian, but we do know that he was the first bishop of Tours in France, and is said to be a disciple of Saint Denis of Paris. Arriving in Gaul, a pagan land, completely untouched by the Good News, Gatian scattered the first seeds of the faith in the region of Tours, laying the foundations of the Church in the city of the great Saint Martin. Saint Gatian died in 337.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-gatian-of-tours-88