Over 35 million pilgrims are expected to visit Rome in 2025 seeking forgiveness of sins and a chance to see the pope.

Rome has shifted into high gear for the opening of Jubilee 2025, a blockbuster year-long celebration in the Catholic world that begins Christmas Eve. The Jubilee is a centuries-old tradition packed with epic pageantry and events that draw visitors from all corners of the globe.

During the first days of the 2025 Jubilee, all attention will understandably be focused on the opening of the Holy Doors in the papal basilicas of Rome. Only opened during the various jubilees, there are several churches in Italy and around the world that have a Holy Door,

If the 2024 film “ Conclave ” dramatized the Vatican's inner workings with intrigue, Pope Francis delivered something of a real-life sequel on Saturday, urging Vatican bureaucrats to cut the backstabbing and embrace humility during his annual Christmas address.

Pope Francis has told Vatican bureaucrats to stop speaking ill of one another, calling gossip "an evil that destroys social life."

Pope Francis has called for a ceasefire on all war fronts in his Sunday prayer ahead of Christmas celebrations, condemning the “cruelty” of bombing schools and hospitals in Ukraine and Gaza

The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel in a surprise attack, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Around 100 hostages are still in Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Sunday killed at least 22 people, including five children, Palestinian medical officials said, while Gaza's small Christian community celebrated a pre-Christmas Mass.