Pope Francis has been admitted today to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital for tests and treatment related to his ongoing bronchitis.

In a 14 February statement, the Vatican announced that “at the end of his audiences, Pope Francis admitted himself to the Agostino Gemelli Hospital for some necessary diagnostic tests and to continue his ongoing treatment for bronchitis in a hospital environment”.

No further information was provided on the nature and duration of his stay.

The US vice president has publicly criticised the UK authorities’ use of so-called buffer zones legislation regarding abortion facilities and for overseeing a “backslide away from” freedom of conscience and religious liberties in the country.

His comments were made today ay the Munich Security Conference in Germany during a speech that addressed concerns around maintaining religious liberty, conscientious rights and free speech, and which made reference to the arrest and prosecution of Adam Smith-Connor, who in October 2024 was convicted for simply praying in his head near an abortion facility in England.

On Sunday, 5 January, at the start of 2025, Pope Francis opened the final Holy Door in Rome for the Jubilee year in the grand basilica of Saint Paul’s Outside the Walls.

For centuries, these special doors that exist in the four major Papal basilicas have marked the beginning of a sacred journey – a rite of passage for spiritual renewal.

Traditionally, Rome’s Holy Doors are found in St. Peter’s, St. Mary Major, St. John Lateran, and Saint Paul’s Outside the Walls. Outside Jubilee Years, they are sealed with bricks, ceremoniously torn down during their openings.

Have you ever noticed how much rarer couples are nowadays than they once were, especially outside the Church?

Statistics show that fewer and fewer young people are forming lasting romantic relationships, or even non-lasting ones. Over the last few years, newspapers have chronicled this marked societal change with a series of salacious headlines (“Young People having less sex than ever before”), and most of us Catholics have, I believe, read them with comparative indifference.

An American bishop has hit out at the claims of U.S. Vice President JD Vance that the Catholic Church is actively supporting open borders because it profits financially from the care of migrants.

Mr Vance, a Catholic convert, said in an interview on CBS’s Sunday news programme Face the Nation, that the U.S. bishops received millions of dollars annually from the federal government to resettle refugees.

Responding the bishops’ opposition to President Donald Trump’s deportation policy, he said: “Are they worried about humanitarian concerns? Or are they actually worried about their bottom line?”

Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, reacted by saying the remarks represented a “tremendous mischaracterisation”.

For the last 150 years there has been a conflict between secularism and religion. The progressive left in particular were convinced religion left to itself would wither on the vine and ultimately, sometimes speedily, die out.

That didn’t stop Marxist regimes from trying to hurry the process along with the aid of state persecution, however. But that might have been a sign of their impatience as well as implacable hostility.

The outcome has been in fact a substantially different one. For example, in 1989 there was a minuscule number of Christians in the Soviet Union after nearly a century of propaganda, pressure and oppression.  But by 2008 Pew research suggested that 72 per cent had adopted the Christian faith.

Faced with United States President Donald Trump’s insistence on a plan of mass deportations, Pope Francis has published a letter chastising the policy and calling faithful and politicians alike to care for the poor and those whose dignity is threatened.

In a 10-point letter to the bishops of the United States, dated Feb. 10, Pope Francis said the current socio-political climate is clearly “marked by the phenomenon of migration”.

In one of three episcopal appointments in the United States announced today, Pope Francis has appointed a successor to Archbishop Dennis Schnurr of Cincinnati, who has had a chequered tenure, and has been battling cancer since last May.

Pope Francis appointed Auxiliary Bishop Robert Casey of Chicago to replace Schnurr, 76, who has led the Archdiocese of Cincinnati since 2009 at the appointment of Pope Benedict XVI. The change was announced by Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Catholic bishops in Minnesota say the policies of President Joe Biden’s administration “exacerbated” the immigration crisis in the United States, which is a “nation of laws that must be respected”.

In a joint statement, the eight bishops of the northern state said, “Sadly, our nation’s immigration system is broken.”

The American bishops have applauded an executive order that seeks to prohibit biological men from competing in women’s sports.

“We welcome the President’s Executive Order that protects opportunities for women and girls to compete in sports safely and fairly,” Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester and Bishop David M. O’Connell of Trenton said in a joint statement.

The “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” order applies to sports and ages across the board.

Pope Francis has noted the “great personal risk” taken by soldiers and law enforcement officers, thanking them for their service and praised them as “agents of security and freedom”.

The Pope was speaking to pilgrim servicemen and servicewomen in Rome for the Jubilee of the Armed Forces yesterday, part of larger celebrations marking the Ordinary Jubilee Year, 2025.

Military service members from various branches, police, and other security personnel were among the participants in the Jubilee Mass in St. Peter’s Square.

In the history of the spiritual life of the Church, devotion to Mary has always held a prominent and beloved place. As Christians have sought to draw close to the Lord Jesus, they have naturally turned to Mary and asked for her help and guidance.

As we turn to Jesus through Mary, various formal prayers have emerged. Such prayers have given encouragement and consolation to believers through the ages.

Within the universal nature of the Church, which is vast and covers countless cultures and expressions, there is a revered collection of diverse but complementary prayers to Mary.

The Pope and his cardinals make surprising stars for a blockbuster. Edward Berger’s thriller Conclave, which eschews the traditional memes through which Christianity comes alive, purports to shine a light onto the Church’s dark heart. Sex, money, power and puffed-up prelates: cardinals are corrupt and self-serving. So much, so new. But this adaptation of Robert Harris’s novel lacks the subtlety to explore that subject inventively. There are exquisite moments, of course. Who could get enough of Sergio Castellitto’s oafish far-right Italian nationalist porporato? Half camp cliché, half Matteo Salvini, he looked as if he had wandered in from casting for Emily in Paris.

Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. (Luke 5:3)

In this Sunday’s Gospel we see the first moment when Jesus calls Simon Peter to join His mission. 

The call begins when Christ, uninvited, requisitions his boat and interrupts his net-washing: Simon is asked to leave this task to “put out a little from the land”. The first contact we have with Christ often comes through the request of a friend: it seems Jesus knew Simon already, but now their relationship is moving beyond friendship.

Fr Calvin Robinson, a priest of the Anglican Catholic Church and an outspoken public commentator, has had his licence to minister within his Church revoked.

The decision follows Fr Robinson’s passionate speech at the National Right to Life Summit held in Washington, DC, where he highlighted the witness of tens of thousands of Americans who attended this year’s March for Life – including the attendance of Vice President JD Vance – and which also occurred in the US capital.

Vice President JD Vance has declared that the second Trump administration will prioritise advancing religious freedom both domestically and abroad.

During an address at the International Religious Freedom Summit, held 4-5 February in Washington, DC, the vice president said that this would be done in line with, and as a continuation of, what he described as the accomplishments of the first Trump administration.

“You shouldn’t have to leave your faith at the door of your peoples’ government, and under President Trump’s leadership you won’t have to,” Vance said during the 5 February meeting, noting that the administration “is intent on not just restoring but expanding the achievements of the first four years and certainly of the last two weeks”.

Pope Francis has lamented how millions of children around the world each day endure war, poverty, abuse, exploitation, depression and a lack of hope for the future. He also criticised what all too often appears global indifference to such a calamitous reality.

The Holy Father’s comments came at the start of the week on 3 February, when the Pope hosted an International Summit on the Rights of the Child titled “Love them and protect them”.

The head of Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of New York says that while the organisation is concerned for many immigrants, he also understands the government’s “legitimate attempt” to deal with criminals. The comments come amid a federal immigration crackdown that is being spurred by the new administration of President Donald Trump, who campaigned on the promise to deport illegal migrants.

“We always have concerns, but at the same time we understand that, sadly, there are a few bad apples among the immigrants who come to New York,” Monseigneur Kevin Sullivan told Crux. “If some of those immigrants do commit crimes, well, they should pay a price for that. But, yes, we do have a concern and do want to make sure those who are not the criminals, that they’re not impacted.”

The comments from the point man for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales (CBCEW) on marriage and family come ahead of National Marriage Week, celebrated from 7-14 February. However, the bishop’s advice that “we should all be working towards a society that values marriage” is increasingly falling on deaf ears among younger generations.

Both Catholics and Anglicans have been caught up in theological and political arguments about the relationship between politics and the theological question of “Who is my neighbour?”

In America, an unlikely public debate sprang up, bridging the Atlantic divide, between Vice President J.D. Vance and English politician and pundit Rory Stewart, a former contender for the Conservative Party leadership. Yet, in spite of his Tory credentials, he is very much on the left of the political spectrum.