NATION/WORLD

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Any Catholic who participates in the celebration July 28 of the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly can receive a plenary indulgence, the Vatican announced. "Grandparents, the elderly and all the faithful who, motivated by a true spirit of penance and charity," attend Mass or other prayer services as part of the day's celebration can receive the indulgence, which "may also be applied as a suffrage to the souls in purgatory," said the announcement published July 18 by the Apostolic Penitentiary, the Vatican court charged with granting indulgences.

The first full day of the National Eucharistic Congress saw participants pouring into the Indianapolis Convention Center for morning and afternoon sessions on evangelization, a biblical walk through the Mass and answering Fundamentalist objections to the Eucharist by well-known apologist Trent Horn. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, Texas, spoke to several thousand attendees about the early Church Fathers and their devotion to the Eucharist. He highlighted Ignatius of Antioch who was condemned to death and taken to Rome to be thrown as food to wild beasts for his faith in Christ.

A crowd of pilgrims from across Arizona, including priests, religious sisters and laity, packed into Sky Harbor Airport early Wednesday morning to head to Indianapolis for the National Eucharistic Congress. The mood was festive as the gates filled up with travelers bound for the Midwest city known as The Crossroads of America.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Envy is poison, and when envy and individualism prevail over communion, life becomes difficult, Pope Francis said. "When we are content with what is necessary, even with little, with God's help we are able to go forward and get along, sharing what there is, everyone renouncing something and supporting each other," he said before praying the Angelus in St. Peter's Square July 14.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican has made public its 1974 decision denying the authenticity of Marian apparitions alleged to have occurred in Amsterdam between 1945 and 1959. A statement released by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith July 11 revealed that a ruling of "constat de non supernauralitate" -- a judgment declaring that a phenomenon is not supernatural -- was reached in 1974 by the then-Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and approved by St. Paul VI regarding the alleged apparitions and revelations of "The Lady of All Nations."

Below are the comments from Bishop Dolan on Saturday following the shooting at a Pennsylvania rally: “My heart goes out to those who suffered during today’s act of violence that took place in Pennsylvania during President Donald Trump’s campaign rally, including the former president himself. I am praying for those who were injured and lost their lives.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Catholics are called to be active participants in political life and be a force against the decline of democracy worldwide, Pope Francis said. "In today's world, democracy -- let's be honest -- is not in good health," the pope told some 1,200 participants at an event during Italian Catholic Social Week in Trieste, Italy. The pope traveled to the northern Italian city for a one-day visit July 7 to participate in the four-day conference organized by the Italian bishops' conference on the theme "At the Heart of Democracy." The Vatican published his talk the same day.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- God is present in the "dark corners" of local communities and in people's lives, Pope Francis said. "His presence reveals itself precisely in the faces marked by suffering and where degradation seems to triumph," the pope said in his homily at Mass in the northern Italian city of Trieste July 7. "God's infinity is concealed in human misery, the Lord stirs and becomes present, he becomes a friendly presence precisely in the wounded flesh of the least, the forgotten and the discarded," he said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The sacrament of the anointing of the sick is not just for those who are nearing the end of their life, Pope Francis said. "Let us remember that the anointing of the sick is one of the 'sacraments of healing,' of 'restoration,' that heals the spirit," the pope said in a video message released July 2 by the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Heaven is not a secure vault protected from outsiders but a "hidden treasure" that is reached by cultivating virtues, Pope Francis said. Before praying the Angelus in St. Peter's Square on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul June 29, the pope reflected on Jesus giving St. Peter, the first pope, the keys to the kingdom of heaven. "The mission that Jesus entrusts to Peter is not that of barring the doors to the house, permitting entry only to a few select guests, but of helping everyone to find the way to enter, in faithfulness to the Gospel of Jesus," Pope Francis said after celebrating Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.