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The Vatican will build a roughly $117 million renewable energy plant that could power the Holy See within two years via a system combining solar power and agriculture, sources involved in discussions on the project said.
The agrivoltaic plant is expected to have a capacity of 80 to 90 megawatts, making it one of Italy’s largest such installations, the sources added. In such plants, solar panels are mounted several meters above the ground so crops can grow beneath them, with the shade helping to reduce evaporation and shielding plants from extreme weather.
A joint Italian-Vatican commission met earlier this month to launch the project at the Vatican-owned Santa Maria di Galeria estate on Rome’s northwestern outskirts, after Italy ratified a 2025 bilateral agreement for development of the site this year.
Pope Leo XIV named an executive with U.S. Catholic media conglomerate EWTN as the new head of the Vatican’s communications department on Tuesday, in the first appointment of a woman to the senior Church role.
Jesus may have heard words of wisdom from his mother Mary, but she did not help him save the world from damnation, the Vatican said on Tuesday.
In a new decree approved by Pope Leo, the Vatican’s top doctrinal office instructed the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics not to refer to Mary as the “co-redeemer” of the world.
Jesus alone saved the world, said the new instruction, settling an internal debate that had befuddled senior Church figures for decades, and even sparked rare open disagreement among recent popes.
SHORTLY AFTER THE Vatican announced that Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, a Chicago native, would be the next pope, the Cubs changed the iconic Wrigley Field sign to read, “Hey, Chicago, He’s a Cubs fan!” Then Pope Leo’s brother John refuted the claim. Apparently, Leo loves the White Sox, which is convenient, given that their colors more closely match the papal vestments. While this revelation is a big loss for the Cubs (they’re used to that, fortunately), it’s still a huge win for the city of Chicago. In June, Chicagoans (even Cubs fans!) swarmed to the White Sox’ Rate Field to hear Pope Leo address his hometown’s faithful via Jumbotron in what Chicago Cardinal Blase J. Cupich called “the sermon on the mound.”
Clearly, the new pope’s love of the Windy City runs deep, so we’ve put together a list of hometown facts about Pope Leo (Chicago Man) XIV. While all unverified by the Vatican, some truth could be hidden here. Stranger things have happened: a man on the moon, an American in the popemobile.
Directed by Oscar-winner Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front), Conclave begins when the pope dies unexpectedly. To elect the next pontiff, the College of Cardinals convenes in the Vatican, entering total seclusion from the outside world until a majority vote can be reached. But if God is working through the cardinals, so too is something darker: ugly hunger for power and bitter ideological divide.
Pope Francis has removed some of the Vatican privileges of conservative American Cardinal Raymond Burke, including a large, subsidized apartment and his salary, a senior Vatican official said on Tuesday.
Transgender people can be godparents at Roman Catholic baptisms, witnesses at religious weddings, and receive baptism themselves, the Vatican’s doctrinal office said on Wednesday, responding to questions from a bishop.
Fifty protesters gathered for a “pray-in” in Lafayette Square on Thursday afternoon, holding signs directly facing the White House that said, “Catholics say ceasefire now.”
Pope Francis has a respiratory infection and will need to spend “a few days” in hospital for treatment, the Vatican said in a statement on Wednesday
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has ordered the closure of the Vatican Embassy in Managua and that of the Nicaraguan Embassy to the Vatican in Rome, a senior Vatican source said on Sunday.
Pope Francis marks 10 years as head of the Roman Catholic Church on Monday celebrating Mass with cardinals in the chapel of the Vatican's Santa Marta hotel where he has lived since his election.
Pope Francis was delighted when a young boy stormed onto the stage during his general audience on Wednesday, in which he addressed the topic of dialogue between young and old people.
Pope Francis on Monday made good on a promise to apologize to Canada’s native people on their home land for the Church’s role in schools where Indigenous children were abused, branding forced cultural assimilation “evil” and a “disastrous error.”
The Vatican on Tuesday issued an overarching investments policy to ensure they are ethical, green, low-risk, and avoid weapons industries or health sectors involved in abortion, contraception, or embryonic stem cells.
Pope Francis said he wants to give women more top-level positions in the Holy See and disclosed that for the first time he would name women to a previously all-male Vatican committee that helps him select the world’s bishops.
Pope Francis said that while the Vatican’s secret and contested agreement with China on the appointment of Roman Catholic bishops is not ideal, he hopes it can be renewed in October because the church takes the long view.
Zen, a 90-year-old former bishop of Hong Kong, was questioned for several hours on Wednesday at the Chai Wan Police Station close to his church residence, before being released on police bail.
The Vatican’s decision to have both Ukrainians and Russians take part in Pope Francis’ “Way of the Cross” procession on Friday has caused friction with Ukrainian Catholic leaders, who want it to be reconsidered.
Survivors of Canada’s residential schools on Monday asked Pope Francis for unfettered access to church records on the institutions where Indigenous children were abused and their culture denied.
The Vatican, in its first comment on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that began on Thursday, said it hoped that those who hold the destiny of the world in their hands would have a “glimmer of conscience.”