Franciscan Media

News & Commentary

A wampum belt, from what is now Quebec, symbolizing Indigenous people forming an alliance with French Catholic colonizers is seen in this 2008 file photo from the Vatican Museums' ethnological collection.

Pope returns Indigenous artifacts from Vatican Museums to Canada

November 17, 2025
Pope Leo XIV fulfilled a promise made by the late Pope Francis to return to Canada's Indigenous communities artifacts -- including an Inuit kayak, masks, moccasins and etchings -- that have been held by the Vatican for more than 100 ...
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Pope to visit Assisi, Matera in September

July 12, 2022
Pope Francis will make back-to-back pastoral visits to the Italian cities of Assisi and Matera at the end of September, the Vatican announced.
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Pro-life leader says executive order is effort ‘to appease abortion lobby’

July 11, 2022
A national pro-life leader said President Joe Biden's July 8 executive order on abortion "confirmed the White House is working to appease the abortion lobby to the detriment of women and their unborn children."
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Survivor of monastery shooting says answer to violence is ‘love’

July 8, 2022
“God forgive me, I hope he’s in heaven,” Benedictine Father Kenneth Reichert said about the man who entered Conception Abbey 20 years ago, pointed a semi-automatic MAK-90 rifle at him and fired twice.
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Ojibwe artist’s beadwork selected for display to Holy See

July 7, 2022
With a needle and thread and painstaking attention, Jessica Gokey "paints" images of flora and fauna, two tiny beads at a time.
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After shooting, cardinal urges unity to ‘build path to safety and peace’

July 6, 2022
Saying he watched "in horror" news reports in the aftermath of a mass shooting during a suburban Fourth of July parade, Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago offered prayers for the victims.
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First in-person LGBTQ ministry conference builds ‘community’

July 5, 2022
More than 200 people from all over the United States and Canada, as well as from the United Kingdom, Italy, Colombia and Uganda, gathered June 24-25 in New York City for the first in-person Outreach LGBTQ Catholic Ministry Conference.
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