The change, enacted in legislation signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in July, reflects both Ukrainians' dismay with the 22-month-old Russian invasion and their assertion of a national identity.
Vatican officials said about 70,000 people filled St. Peter's Square for Francis' noonday speech and blessing. They included many people flying Palestinian flags, as well as some Ukrainian ones.
Palestinian Christians have felt abandoned by global Christian church leaders’ statements on the Israel-Hamas war, with some viewing the war as a moment for Western denominations to reckon with their colonialist past.
'It’s war, it’s terrorism,' Pope Francis said.
'God never turns away anyone who approaches him!' read the document issued by the Vatican's doctrinal department.
Officials in Jesus's traditional birthplace decided to forgo celebrations due to the Israel-Hamas war.
The prayers may be too little too late on an issue that has long alienated the church from politicians and peers.
Francis added his voice to increasing calls for binding, global regulation of AI in his annual message for the World Day of Peace, which the Catholic Church celebrates each Jan. 1.
As the world-famous Paris landmark's reopening draws closer, people are beginning to picture their return to the place they call home and are impatient to breathe life back into its repaired stonework and vast spaces.
A tiny Christian minority sitting on one of the Holy Land's most valuable pieces of real estate has rebelled against a real-estate deal that would sacrifice nearly 25% of its land in Jerusalem.