Read & Reflect
Articles, reflections, news, and homilies — thoughtful Catholic content for the faithful, published regularly.
Vatican News
Vatican News
Vatican vegetable garden goes 100% organic
A vegetable garden and orchard inside the Vatican walls, which historically provided food for the pope’s household, is now cultivated using exclusively organic farming techniques.The private garden covers almost a tenth of an acre of cultivable land inside the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery property, whe...
Vatican News
Pope Leo XIV remembers 9/11 victims, calls for peace and forgiveness
VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV remembered the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on Sunday and renewed his appeal for peace amid conflicts and violence around the world.Speaking in English after praying the Angelus with the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Sept. 13, the pope rec...
Vatican News
Pope Leo XIV repeals COVID-era pay cuts to Vatican cardinals
Pope Leo XIV has officially repealed the salary cuts Pope Francis imposed on cardinals and other senior officials working in the Roman Curia.In a decree published by the Vatican on Sept. 14, the pontiff canceled the cost-cutting measures Francis had established in 2021 to address the Vatican’s finan...
Vatican News
Pope Leo XIV marks 71st birthday with opening of water exhibit at Vatican Library
Pope Leo XIV marked his 71st birthday at the Vatican with the launch of an art exhibit focused on water at the Vatican Apostolic Library on Monday.The pontiff inaugurated the exhibit, “AQVA,” part of the theme “Catastrophe and Wonder,” which will be on display at the Vatican Library through May 14,...
Vatican News
Vatican Latin Mass permissions steady across papal transition
Thirty-four dioceses received Vatican permission to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass in parish churches in 2025, matching the 2024 total and remaining broadly consistent with previous years despite the election of a new pope. The United States accounted for 24 of the 34 decrees issued.Pope Franc...
Vatican News
Cardinal Czerny announced as first recipient of Pope Leo XIV Sustainability Medal
Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, former prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, will be honored as the first recipient of the Pope Leo XIV Sustainability Medal in October.Father Peter Donohue, OSA, president of Villanova University, made the announcement at a Vatican press con...
Vatican News
Synod group calls for gender-equality mechanisms in Church workplaces
The General Secretariat of the Synod on Tuesday, Sept. 8, published the final report of Study Group 6, which presents concrete proposals for renewing relations among bishops, consecrated life, and ecclesial associations, including specific mechanisms to promote greater equality between men and women...
Vatican News
Pope to new bishops: The most important mission is to ‘remain with Jesus’
Pope Leo XIV said the first task bishops must place before every other responsibility is to “remain with Jesus,” because, he emphasized, “we are bishops, but first and foremost we are disciples.”“To speak about him, we need to be with him; to lead his people, we must allow ourselves, every day, to b...
Vatican News
Pope Leo XIV calls for peace in Ukraine after Russian attacks
Pope Leo XIV on Sunday deplored the latest Russian attacks on Ukraine and voiced hopes for peace amid U.S.-led efforts to end the war.“With a sorrowful heart, I have followed the news of the latest violent attacks that have recently struck several cities and civilian infrastructures in Ukraine, caus...
Vatican News
Leo XIV: Mary’s simple presence — and her Son within her — moves all of history
ROME — It was shortly after 5 p.m. local time when Pope Leo XIV arrived at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Counsel, awaited by thousands of people along the road and welcomed by his fellow Augustinians.Not everyone could fit inside the church, and the streets of Genazzano, about 30 miles east of Rome...
Vatican News
China ordains 18th bishop under Vatican agreement
Father Andrew Ding Yang was ordained Tuesday, Sept. 8, as archbishop of Chongqing in southwestern China, a see that had been vacant since March 26, 2001.It was the fourth episcopal ordination celebrated since June 15 and the eighth during the pontificate of Leo XIV under the procedures established b...
Vatican News
Mary’s birthday: The Church celebrates the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Catholic Church celebrates the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary on its traditional fixed date of Sept. 8, nine months after the Dec. 8 celebration of her immaculate conception as the child of Sts. Joachim and Anne.The circumstances of the Virgin Mary’s infancy and early life are not directly rec...