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A growing chorus of voices -- from international human rights groups to grass-roots faith-based activists -- are pushing President Barack Obama to finally make good on his pledge to close the military-run prison at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.

Pope Francis has decided to celebrate the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper in a Rome juvenile detention facility and wash the feet of some of the young detainees. It marks a change in venue of the previously scheduled March 28 Holy Week event from St. Peter's Basilica to Rome's Casal del Marmo prison for minors.

PHILADELPHIA (CNS) -- Common Pleas Court Judge Teresa Sarmina closed the latest chapter in the clergy sexual abuse scandal in Philadelphia by sentencing Msgr....

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Paolo Gabriele, the papal assistant, has been accused of aggravated theft, a crime that under Vatican laws is punishable with...

It was not even a month after being declared a pilgrimage site in 2000 that St. Anthony Mission in Sacaton, Ariz., was up in flames, the fire caused by arson. Because of the fire, St. Anthony did not have that year of pilgrimage. Now, 25 years later, the new St. Anthony Mission Church stands as a beacon of hope not just for the Gila River Indian Community but for the whole Diocese of Phoenix.  It was at the dedication Mass in June of 2024 that Bishop John Dolan announced that St. Anthony Mission would be a pilgrimage site during the 2025 Jubilee year of hope.  

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A key part of a jubilee in the Bible was releasing prisoners, and Catholics today can join a global campaign to press for the release of thousands of people imprisoned in poverty because of their nations' foreign debt, said an official of Caritas Internationalis. Victor Genina Cervantes, director of integral human development at Caritas Internationalis, the umbrella organization for national Catholic charities around the world, presented the campaign "Turn Debt into Hope" at a Vatican news conference Dec. 23, the eve of the opening of Holy Year 2025.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis has declared as saints 16 Carmelite martyrs executed by guillotine during the French Revolution and confirmed the martyrdom and heroic virtues of five others in a series of decrees published Dec. 18 .Using what the Vatican called an "equipollent" or equivalent canonization, Pope Francis approved adding to the canon of saints Blessed Teresa of St. Augustine and 15 other members of the Carmelites of Compiègne killed during the French Reign of Terror.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In late November, during a brief audience with people involved in the sport of motorcycle racing, Pope Francis asked for prayers, joking that "my work is very accelerated, and my bike has aged and doesn't work properly! "Pope Francis, who was to celebrate his 88th birthday Dec. 17, mostly uses a wheelchair instead of walking and presides over rather than concelebrates most public liturgies. Still, he had a 2024 full of important engagements, the longest trip of his papacy and major preparations for the Holy Year 2025, which he is set to open Dec. 24.

Jesús Cabrera took a bus with 49 other parishioners from St. John Vianney Parish in Sedona, Ariz., to participate in this year’s Honor Your Mother Celebration Dec. 7. The Grupo Guadalupano Juan Diego danced for the fourth time this year in the annual procession honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe. Cabrera’s group joined thousands of others at the event, which included a Mass, celebrated by Bishop John Dolan and Auxiliary Bishop Eduardo Nevares, and a procession that showcased music and colorful costumes representing cultures from Latin America, Asia and Africa. 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Using what the Vatican called an "equipollent" or equivalent beatification, Pope Francis recognized as "blessed" a 15th-century Spanish abbess, mystic and preacher. The pope signed decrees in four sainthood causes as well as the beatification declaration Nov. 25 for Blessed Juana de la Cruz, who was born Juana Vázquez Gutiérrez in what is today Numancia La Sagra, Spain. The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints said she probably was born May 3, 1481, and fled to the Monastery of Santa Maria de la Cruz in La Ciroleda, joining a group of Third Order Franciscans after her father and uncle promised her in marriage to a local nobleman. She made her religious profession in 1497.