Catholic News Service

While women religious may be vocal and courageous about the violence and injustice others face, they often remain silent and intimidated when it comes to speaking up about their own fears and abuse, one superior general said at an international safeguarding conference in Rome.

In his first appointment of a top-level official of the Roman Curia, Pope Leo XIV named Sr. Tiziana Merletti, a canon lawyer, to be secretary of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

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 office governing Vatican City State was set to have a new president March 1 and, while in the hospital, Pope Francis changed the office's statutes to give the new president two top-level assistants.

Just a few blocks from Rome's famous Trevi Fountain, the visitors' office is where hundreds of Americans go on Tuesday afternoons to pick up their tickets for the pope's weekly general audience on Wednesdays. They are welcomed by the Mercy Sisters of Alma, Michigan, aided by U.S. priests and seminarians studying in Rome.

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.

With the approval of Pope Francis, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith recognized "the abundant and widespread fruits, which are so beautiful and positive," associated with devotion to Mary, Queen of Peace, and with pilgrimages to Medjugorje.

"The church has always been in spaces with people in extremely fragile situations, always," said Sister Idília Carneiro, the new superior general of the Sisters Hospitallers, and as global rates of mental illness continue to rise, she insisted that Catholics have an obligation to expand their ministries in addressing the crisis.

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, dicastery prefect, authorized the local archbishop to issue a document so that the Shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows of Chandavila can "continue to offer to the faithful who wish to approach it, a place of interior peace, consolation, and conversion." The cardinal's letter titled, "A Light in Spain," was approved by the pope during an audience Aug. 22 and was published on the dicastery's website Aug. 23.

"New challenges in preventing and combating human trafficking affecting children have emerged," particularly as traffickers are using the Internet "to advertise and sell children online for sexual exploitation and to distribute child sexual abuse material," said Maryknoll Sister Abby Avelino, international coordinator for the international network, Talitha Kum.

Pope Francis recognized the healing of the man, "Paulo G.," in Uberlandia, Brazil, as the miracle needed for the canonization of Blessed Elena Guerra, an Italian nun who founded the Oblates of the Holy Spirit.

The Vatican Secretariat of State sent a formal statement to the French Embassy to the Holy See reaffirming that Pope Francis had sent a top Vatican official to investigate a French religious congregation and warning that interference by a French civil court in an internal church matter could be a "serious violation" of religious freedom.

The two major events taking place in Rome for the March 8, 2024, celebration of International Women's Day were a daylong conference on "women leaders" sponsored by the British and Australian embassies to the Holy See and Caritas Internationalis and a two-day conference on women as "builders of humanity" hosted by the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross and co-sponsored by several pontifical universities.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux, long one of Pope Francis' favorite saints, teaches Christians "the little way" of love, self-giving, concern for others and complete trust in the mercy of God, the pope said in a new document.

Finding better ways to live "like Jesus did" — reaching out, welcoming, healing and including others — was the focus of Sr. Liliana Franco Echeverri's small group discussions Oct. 9-10 at the assembly of the Synod of Bishops, she said.

Pope Francis has appointed a woman for the first time to be the No. 2 official of the Roman Curia office that works with religious orders and their members.

An order of women religious has been recognized for extraordinary efforts to bring Jesus Christ to those suffering the ravages of Russia's war in Ukraine.

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of 59-year-old Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar, India, who was acquitted last year on charges of raping a nun but may face further legal action since the nun has appealed the verdict.

Dominican Sr. Helen Alford has been a member of the academy since 2020 and will be the third woman to lead the group of scholars.

With a degree of credibility that "seems to be very high," another 14 women and one man have reported to the Jesuits that they were spiritually, psychologically or sexually abused by Jesuit Fr. Marko Rupnik, a well-known mosaic artist and spiritual director.