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St. Vincent Pallotti: Saint of the Day for Thursday, January 22, 2026

St. Vincent Pallotti, Priest (Feast - January 22) Born in Rome in 1795, St. Vincent became a priest and dedicated himself completely to God and cared for souls. He dreamed of gaining for Christ all non-Catholics, especially the Mohammedans. To this end he inaugurated a revolutionary program which envisaged the collaboration of the laity in the apostolate of the clergy. But St. Vincent was also well aware of the many deprivations in the natural sphere that hindered the spread of the Faith. He ...

Holy Land Co-ordination: Stand with people of Holy Land, help foster dialogue

At the end of their annual pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the Co-ordination of Bishops' Conferences in Support of the Church in the Holy Land release a statement calling for the recognition of human dignity, praying that peace may prevail over violence.

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Pope approves decrees for 2 new Blesseds and 4 Venerables

Pope Leo XIV approves decrees for the causes of saints and recognizes the martyrdom of Guatemalan Fr. Augusto Rafael Ramírez Monasterio and Mother Maria Ignazia Isacchi, clearing the way for their beatification.

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Poland: Vatican Media honored for promoting peace

The Polish Military Ordinariate has awarded the Benemerenti Prize to the Polish-language section of Vatican Radio–Vatican News and L’Osservatore Romano in recognition of their contribution to promoting the values of peace. The honor was also conferred on several units of the Polish Armed Forces: the Operational Command of the Armed Forces, the Armed Forces Support Inspectorate, and the Air Force Orchestra.

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US & Japanese Bishops urge renewed commitment to nuclear disarmament

Marking the fifth anniversary of the Treaty of the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, several Bishops of Japan and the United States renew calls for nations to work toward a world free of nuclear arms.

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Children bear brunt of devastating Mozambique floods

As the humanitarian emergency intensifies for severe flooding across Mozambique, the UN Children's Fund illustrates that children are most affected, and that waterborne illnesses and malnutrition are a 'lethal combination.'

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The ‘lifting of the anathemas’, sixty years on

At a conference in Rome, Cardinal Kurt Koch and Metropolitan Job of Pisidia reflect on the thousand year-old rupture between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, and the 1965 Joint Declaration by Patriarch Athenagoras and Pope Saint Paul VI which set them on the road to unity.

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Pope to Catholic media: Amplify voices for reconciliation, disarm hearts

Pope Leo XIV sends a message to the French Catholic Media Federation for the 29th edition of the Days of St. Francis de Sales, taking place in Lourdes on January 21-23.

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Cardinal Parolin: Tensions between US and Europe worsen international climate

Speaking to journalists, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin touches on the tensions between the United States and Europe, saying it is essential “to discuss the controversial issues, but without engaging in polemics and without creating further tensions.”

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Pope blesses lambs during annual tradition on feast of St. Agnes

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Leo XIV blessed two lambs in the Urban VIII Chapel at the Vatican Jan. 21, the feast of St. Agnes, a Roman martyr who is often depicted with a lamb. Agnes also is a derivative of the Latin word for lamb, "agnus."

The lambs are raised by Trappist monks outside Rome, and they are bound and placed in baskets to prevent them from running away during the blessing. They are decorated with red and white flowers and blessed in a formal ceremony at the Basilica of St. Agnes and by the pope at the Vatican. 

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Pope Leo XIV blesses two lambs in the Urban VIII Chapel at the Vatican Jan. 21, 2026, the feast of St. Agnes. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Benedictine nuns at the Monastery of St. Cecilia in Rome will use wool from the lambs to make the pallium worn by archbishops; the pallium is a symbol of the archbishop's authority and unity with the papacy.

In fact, the woolen bands, which are worn around the neck, have long strips hanging down the front and the back, and are tipped with black silk to recall the dark hoof of the sheep the archbishop is symbolically carrying over his shoulders. Lamb's wool is also used to symbolize Christ, the Lamb of God and the Good Shepherd.

The woolen palliums are kept by St. Peter's tomb right before the pope blesses and distributes them to new archbishops during a special liturgy in Rome on June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. 

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Pope Leo XIV presents the pallium to Archbishop Michael G. McGovern of Omaha, Neb., during Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican June 29, 2025, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. The pallium symbolizes the archbishop’s authority and unity with the pope. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

By personally placing the palliums on the archbishops, the pope underlines their bond of unity and communion with the successor of Peter.

Members of the cloistered Benedictine community at Rome's Basilica of St. Cecilia have been entrusted for more than a century with preparing the palliums.

The nuns once produced the palliums from scratch, hand-weaving pure-white lambs' wool into bands that they would then sew together and decorate. But then, the nuns started commissioning a textile company outside of Rome to supply the unfinished wool strips.

The June 29 Vatican Mass is the only time archbishops wear the palliums together. Once bestowed, liturgical rules require that the pallium be worn only in the metropolitan's own see, and then only during important liturgical occasions like ordinations. 

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Archbishop W. Shawn McKnight of Kansas City, Kan., displays his pallium at the Pontifical North American College in Rome after receiving it from Pope Leo XIV during a Mass for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul in St. Peter’s Basilica June 29, 2025. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

Because of the cloth's territorial character, an archbishop who is transferred to another metropolitan see receives a second pallium.

Under current church practice, if a newly named archbishop cannot travel to the Vatican to receive his pallium from the pope, it is given to him by a papal representative in his country.