VATICAN—Pope Leo XIV has proclaimed a “Special Year of St. Francis” to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the saint’s death. During this time of grace, which will extend until January 2027, the faithful are granted the opportunity to obtain a plenary indulgence. This Franciscan Jubilee Year,...
[gallery link="file" size="full" ids="51019,51020,51021,51022"] In Pope Francis' message on the thirty-first World Day of the Sick, he said, "Illness is part of our human condition. However, if illness is experienced in isolation and abandonment, without being accompanied by care and compassion, it can become inhumane." He...
[gallery link="file" columns="2" size="full" ids="51014,51015"] Beneath banners of thanksgiving and amid prayers shaped by six decades of faith, the St. Francis Xavier Parish in Tibungco marked a milestone that was both historic and deeply personal: its 60th Parochial Fiesta last December 3, 2025. The feast features...
In the Archdiocese of Davao, devotion to the Santo Niño is not merely observed—it is lived, remembered, and passed on as a treasured inheritance of faith. Each January, as the Church honors the Child Jesus, the faithful are drawn once more to an image that...
The heads and members of the steering committee of the Archbishop Thibault Media Awards (ATMA) are preparing for the next awarding ceremony for outstanding works of journalists in Davao. Formerly known as the Davao Catholic Mass Media Awards, this prestigious award giving body was renamed to...
THAT’S a question we can ask on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Even St. John the Baptist asked that question. But Christ insisted. “Suffer it to be so now. For so it becomes us to fulfill all justice,” Christ told St. John...
THAT gospel episode about a leper who asked Christ for healing and was immediately healed (cfr. Lk 5,12-16) can tell us many good lessons. One is that it shows Christ’s power over any disease and his willingness to touch and heal those considered outcasts of...
THIS was said of Christ. (cfr. Lk 4,18) If we are true to our desire to follow Christ, if not to be “another Christ” as we should, then we should also have this concern to bring glad tidings to the poor who actually are all...
THAT’S what we need in our life here on earth. Given our limited, not to mention wounded, condition, we should see to it that whatever happens in our life, we should have a deep and solid trust in God’s providence. We are always in his...
THAT gospel episode about the multiplication of the loaves and fishes where Christ shocked his disciples when he told them to feed the big crowd with the very few things they had on hand (cfr. Mk 6,34-44) clearly reminds us that we should just give...