Carol Glatz

The Catholic Church needs to expand its safeguarding efforts to include the new threats and opportunities posed by artificial intelligence, top organizers of a Vatican conference said.

Change can be frightening, but the Holy Spirit encourages the faithful to face their fears, follow Jesus' light and be "born again," Pope Francis said in a prepared text.

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, presented a paper offering "some clarifications" regarding the meaning of the April 2024 document "Dignitas Infinita" during a conference organized by Germany's Cologne University of Catholic Theology. 

At the start of the Lenten season, the pope greeted Catholics in Brazil and praised the country's bishops for their continued support of the annual Fraternity Campaign, which is dedicated this year to "Fraternity and Integral Ecology."

Pope Francis' extended hospitalization and care is a reminder that every human being, especially the frail or elderly, must be given proper care, said Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

The Vatican Dicastery for Legislative Texts strongly cautioned against publishing "news" that would harm the reputation of an individual, especially someone who is deceased, when it comes to priests accused of abuse and not found guilty in civil or canonical procedures.

Despite his illness, age and hospitalization, Pope Francis is still demonstrating his deep faith and exercising his role as pontiff, said a cardinal who once served as an auxiliary bishop of Rome.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, led a recitation of the rosary for Pope Francis on the 11th day of his hospitalization for double pneumonia. About 27 cardinals living in Rome and dozens of members of the Roman Curia joined the prayers.

One out of four people living in Lebanon is a refugee, and the majority of children born in refugee camps are unregistered at birth, said Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. Czerny added that it is important to offer a "gesture of thanks and support to the Lebanese people who proportionately bear the greatest burden of any country in the world."

The same week U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his idea of emptying Gaza of more than 2 million Palestinians so it could become a "Riviera of the Middle East," the Vatican secretary of state said there must be no deportations.

Ways must be found to ensure artificial intelligence benefits everyone and protects the environment, given the high amounts of energy consumed by data centers, Pope Francis told leaders at the "Artificial Intelligence Action Summit" in Paris Feb. 10-11.

Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, who has led the observatory since 2015, shares his journey of becoming a Jesuit astronomer, explains the compatibility of science and faith and guides readers on how to look at the heavens in a new book released Feb. 4 by Loyola Press.

To ensure artificial intelligence is developed and used in an ethical, transparent and responsible manner in Vatican City State, the city-state governor's office has released a set of guidelines on AI, which will be followed by new laws and regulations.

"An economy that kills, that excludes, that starves, that concentrates enormous wealth in a few to the detriment of many, that multiplies poverty and grinds down salaries, that pollutes, that produces war, is not an economy," he said in an autobiography released Jan. 14. It is a perversion, "an emptiness, an absence, a sickness."

Pope Francis has named three U.S. experts — two women and an abbot — to be members of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, a position once reserved for cardinals and bishops.

When children are baptized, their parents and the church are giving them the greatest gift ever: the gift of faith, Pope Francis said before baptizing 21 infants in the Sistine Chapel.

Rather than supporting the growth of commercial technology and artificial intelligence, governments should be supporting families and educators in being the main channels of passing on culture and values, Pope Francis told ambassadors and other diplomats accredited to the Holy See.

"May we learn to care for every child born of a woman, above all by protecting, like Mary, the precious gift of life: life in the womb, the lives of children, the lives of the suffering, the poor, the elderly, the lonely and the dying."

Israel's minister of diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism asked Pope Francis to clarify his remarks about the need to investigate whether the current war in Gaza constitutes a genocide.

On Pope Francis' 88th birthday, two major newspapers published two different excerpts from his new book on hope. The New York Times published the pope's words on the importance of humor, while Italy's Corriere della Sera ran the pope's recollection of his March 2021 trip to Iraq, revealing that two suicide bombers had been planning to attack him, but were intercepted and killed by police.