Catholic News Service

The cardinals were invited to visit the pope's tomb and pray vespers, which was presided over by Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas, coadjutor archpriest of the basilica.

Whether Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who relinquished the rights associated with being a cardinal after he was forced to resign in 2020, will be able to enter the conclave to elect a new pope is an ongoing question.

Pope Francis was a pastor first, "so consistently, so spontaneously and with such deep conviction," that it will remain a gift to the Catholic Church, said Cardinal Michael Czerny.

With his death April 21, Pope Francis marked yet another first in the history of the Catholic Church: he became the first pope to open the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica without living to close it. Among his last gestures as pope, he left the door to the world's largest church wide open.

Pope Francis' funeral rites, like those for any pope or any Christian, are meant to "reinforce the hope and witness to the faith" that those who have been baptized in Christ "will rise with him to new life."

With the death of Pope Francis April 21, the practical aspects of overseeing the day-to-day needs of the church and organizing a papal election fall to U.S. Cardinal Kevin Farrell.

With the death of Pope Francis, the canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis, which was scheduled for April 27, has been postponed.

Pope Francis has raised the status of the Vatican's diplomatic academy to an institute of higher learning that will issue academic degrees while also strengthening its focus on evangelization.

Pope Francis has ordered the suppression of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, a Peru-based lay movement active across Latin America and the United States, and three related lay movements following decades of abuse allegations and internal investigations.

The Gospel contains a great message of hope, "because it tells us that wherever we are lost and however we are lost, God always comes looking for us!" said the text for Pope Francis' weekly general audience.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance will be in Rome April 18 and has meetings planned with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, his office said.

Using forced deportations and detainment to deal with migration is "a scandal," said Jesuit Fr. Arturo Sosa, superior general of the Jesuits. The 76-year-old Venezuelan superior general held a news conference in Rome to discuss the state of the world, the church and the Jesuits and to take questions from reporters.

Pope Francis' surprise visit to St. Peter's Basilica to pray and see ongoing restoration work is a clear sign that his condition is improving, the Vatican press office said.

As Pope Francis continues his recovery at the Vatican, he is very slowly beginning to get back to his old routine of meeting with top Vatican officials, the Vatican press office said.

"Seeds of Peace and Hope" is the theme for the World Day of Prayer for Creation, which will be celebrated Sept. 1.

When the pope formally proclaimed the Holy Year dedicated to hope, he had said that "the need for peace challenges us all, and demands that concrete steps be taken." One concrete step is the gift of the four ambulances, the Dicastery for the Service of Charity said, becoming "a sign of Jubilee hope anchored in Christ."

During his second week back at the Vatican after a long hospitalization, Pope Francis continued to follow his doctors' orders to stay home, avoid visitors and keep up with respiratory and physical therapy, the Vatican press office said.

Pope Francis has cleared the way for the canonizations of three blesseds: an Armenian Catholic archbishop martyred during the Armenian genocide, a lay catechist from Papua New Guinea killed during World War II and a Venezuelan religious sister who dedicated her life to education and the poor.

The number of Catholics and permanent deacons in the world rose in 2023, while the number of seminarians, priests, men and women in religious orders, and baptisms all declined, according to Vatican statistics.