Catholic News Service

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.

Individuals and corporations have a moral obligation to pay their fair share of taxes, and wealthy nations have an obligation to use that money to help their poorer citizens and provide aid to developing nations, the Vatican secretary of state said.

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.

Defending Indigenous communities' rights to land, water and food "is not only a matter of justice, but also a guarantee of a sustainable future for all," Francis wrote in a message to the global meeting of the Indigenous Peoples' Forum at the International Fund for Agricultural Development held in Rome Feb. 10-11

"May all the baptized, as missionary disciples of Christ, make his hope shine forth in every corner of the earth," the pope wrote in in his message for World Mission Sunday, which will be celebrated Oct. 19.

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.

Pope Francis has formally recognized that five Franciscan missionaries ministering in what is now the U.S. state of Georgia were killed for their faith.

During an ecumenical prayer service at St. Paul Outside the Walls to mark the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Pope Francis reiterated the official position taken by St. Paul VI that if Eastern Christians agree on a way to determine a common date for Easter, the Catholic Church would accept it.

Artificial intelligence or any other technology that worsens inequality around the world and increases fake news should not be embraced as "progress," Pope Francis told business and government leaders meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

"In the journey of life, we could identify hope as the signpost that marks our itinerary," Pope Francis said during a meeting with seminarians from Córdoba, Spain, Jan. 17.

The rabbi accused Pope Francis of fueling anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish sentiments by focusing on the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and not acknowledging the multiple threats to Israel's existence.

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.

Taking up the spirit of the recently inaugurated Holy Year 2025, the Cuban government has announced the release of 553 people currently serving prison sentences. That same day, the White House announced that it will no longer designate Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism and that it would eliminate some restrictions on Cuba.

"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."

Meeting more than 7,000 pilgrims who filled the Vatican audience hall or pressed against crowd-control barriers outside, Francis began a series of Saturday general audiences designed, as he said, to "welcome and embrace all those who are coming from all over the world in search of a new beginning."

The Vatican's top diplomat met with papal representatives to various Middle Eastern countries to discuss possible avenues toward peace in the region and the state of the Catholic Church there.

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.

"I am praying for all of you," Pope Francis said, using his televised Sunday Angelus address to speak directly to the people impacted by the wildfires in Southern California.

A cross containing dirt stained with the blood of Sister Dorothy Stang, a U.S. member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur shot down in the Amazon 20 years ago, and one of her sweaters were placed Jan. 10 on the altar of the "new martyrs of the Americas" in Rome's Basilica of St. Bartholomew.