VATICAN (SE): A preparatory document for the next Synod of World Bishops scheduled to be held in 2018 on Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment was released by the Holy See on January 13 at a media conference at the Vatican.

The document comes in three parts, one addressing young people in the world today, one on discernment of faith and vocation, and the third on pastoral involvement and pastoral care of the young.

HONG KONG (SE): “The Reformation was a process of both renewal and division amongst Christians in Europe,” the leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, Archbishop Justin Welby, says in a statement for the global Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

VATICAN (SE): “In the Far East and in various parts of world, millions of men and women are preparing to celebrate the lunar New Year on January 28. My cordial greeting to all their families, with the hope that they increasingly become a school where of respect for each other, to communicate and to care for each other unselfishly. May the joy of love spread within families and radiate throughout society,” Pope Francis said at his midday talk in St. Peter’s Square on January 22.

VATICAN (SE): In a congratulatory message to the new president of the United States of America (US), Donald Trump, Pope Francis said, “Upon your inauguration as the 45th president of the US, I offer you my cordial good wishes and the assurance of my prayers that Almighty God will grant you wisdom and strength in the exercise of your high office.”

VATICAN (SE): “Christmas is thus the feast of a loving humble God, of the God who upsets our logical expectations, the established order, the order of the dialectician and the mathematician,” Pope Francis told the cardinals and superiors of the Roman Curia in his traditional exchange of Christmas greetings on December 22 last year.

VATICAN (SE): “For Christians, nonviolence is not merely tactical behaviour, but a person’s way of being, the attitude of one who is so convinced of God’s love and power that he or she is not afraid to tackle the evil one with the weapons of love and truth alone,” Pope Francis says in his Message for World Day of Peace, under the theme, Nonviolence: A style of politics for peace.

VATICAN (SE): “The birth of Christ is a reminder for Christians to take a moment and reflect on the hope of salvation given by God to the world,” Pope Francis said in the run up to Christmas at his weekly general audience on December 21.

He said that those who are humble and poor, like the shepherds who were the first to visit the baby Jesus, come to realise that the promise of hope is fulfilled by trusting in God and not from personal securities or especially material goods.

ROME (SE): In sending his Christmas greeting to the people of The City of Rome and the World (Ubi et Orbi) at his midday audience on December 25, Pope Francis described the wonder of the occasion as being the power of the child born of God and Our Lady, not with the power of this world, based on might and wealth, but with the power of love.