NATION/WORLD

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Although a normal beatification process was not followed, Pope Francis has declared as "blessed" Guy de Montpellier, a 12th-century French knight and founder of the Hospitaller Order of the Holy Spirit."By Our Apostolic authority, We inscribe in the catalogue of the blesseds Guy de Montpellier," and decree that his feast day will be celebrated Feb. 7 by the religious orders and institutes of the Holy Spirit in Sassia, the pope wrote in a document dated May 18, the vigil of Pentecost.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican is expecting some 70,000 children between the ages of 5 and 12 and their chaperones to fill Rome's Olympic Stadium for the opening events of the first World Children's Day May 25 and to join Pope Francis for Mass in St. Peter's Square the next morning. Franciscan Father Enzo Fortunato, coordinator of the event, told reporters May 16 that, given school schedules and travel logistics, only about 10% of the participants will be children from outside of Italy. But, he said, 101 nations will be represented.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Jesus' ascension shows that, despite the difficulties in peoples' lives, they are all made for heaven, Pope Francis said. Reflecting May 12 on the Gospel reading from St. Mark, which recounts how Jesus "was taken up into heaven," the pope said that Jesus' ascension into heaven does not represent a detachment from humanity but rather precedes its ultimate destination: heaven.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- For more than 700 years, the Catholic Church has celebrated "jubilee" or "holy" years as special times to renew people's faith and experience God's forgiveness, particularly by going on pilgrimage. The official Vatican website for the Holy Year 2025 -- www.iubilaeum2025.va -- says, "In 1300, Pope Boniface VIII called the first Jubilee, also known as a 'Holy Year,' since it is a time in which God's holiness transforms us."

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Meeting members of the Swiss Guard, including 34 new recruits, Pope Francis thanked them for their dedication and generous service protecting the pope every day. He told them they stand out for their professionalism and their "kind, attentive, indeed scrupulous style," during an audience at the Vatican May 6, ahead of the swearing-in ceremony for the new guards later that day. Family members of the new recruits were also present at the audience.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Jesus calls believers not only to be servants of his kingdom, as the prophets and Mary were, but also to be his friends, Pope Francis said. "Friendship is not the fruit of calculation, nor of compulsion, it is born spontaneously when we recognize something of ourselves in the other," he said May 5. "Jesus, in the Bible, tells us that for him we are precisely this: friends, people beloved beyond all merit and expectation, to whom he extends his hand and offers his love, his grace, his word."

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Religious men and women need to be setting people's faith on fire, not stamping it out, Pope Francis said. "It makes me sad when I see religious who seem more like firefighters" than men and women who are ardently filled with the flame of faith and ready to share it with others, he told representatives of congregations founded by St. Magdalene of Canossa during an audience at the Vatican April 29.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The most important outcome of the current Synod of Bishops on synodality is the synodal process itself and not the hot-button topics discussed, Pope Francis said. With the second synod assembly scheduled for October, the pope said the synod process is approaching its "most challenging and important" stage -- the point at which it must become "prophetic."

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Every important journey should be preceded by adequate preparation, and the run-up to the Holy Year 2025 is no exception. Pope Francis asked Catholics to get ready for the jubilee journey with a Year of Prayer and now, a few months after the year was officially announced, a kind of prayer prep-school is in session. Every jubilee asks pilgrims to come to Rome ready, not just with lodging and logistics, but, most of all, with the right spiritual disposition, which is a heart ready to welcome the gifts of grace and forgiveness the jubilee offers.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Be loving and compassionate fathers to the marginalized, Pope Francis told members of the Brothers of Christian Instruction, commonly known as the La Mennais Brothers. "Your vocation impels you to go where others do not go, to the periphery, to the people who belong to the ranks of the rejected, those wounded by life and victims," he told the group during an audience at the Vatican April 22.