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Pope Leo XIV shares lunch with people in need at the Vatican on November 16, 2025. / Daniel IbáñezVatican City, Nov 16, 2025 / 11:15 am (CNA).Pope Leo XIV had lunch on Sunday with more than 1,300 people experiencing poverty and social exclusion, gathering with them in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall for a festive meal marking the World Day of the Poor.The hall was transformed into a vast dining room for the occasion. The event was organized by the Congregation of the Mission on behalf of Vincentian missionaries worldwide, who this year celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of their congregation and of the Daughters of Charity. Volunteers served lasagna, breaded chicken with potatoes, and the traditional Italian dessert babà.As on similar occasions in past years, the Vatican, through the papal almoner Polish Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, invited a group of transgender people from the Roman seaside town of Torvaianica. Father Andrea Conocchia, a parish priest in Torvaianica, to...

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Neuroscientist Kathlyn Gan says research shows music can help counter the mental decline that accompanies aging. / Credit: Terry O'NeillToronto, Canada, Nov 16, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).Sixteen hundred years ago, St. Augustine was credited with saying, "He who sings, prays twice." Today, scientific research shows that he who sings, performs, or listens to music also enriches and strengthens his brain, according to Catholic neuroscientist Kathlyn Gan.Not only that, but sacred music may produce even more beneficial effects.Gan, who leads a research laboratory at the University of Toronto, delivered the uplifting news to about 50 people at an Oct. 30 talk at St. Francis de Sales in Burnaby, Ontario.In her hourlong presentation "The Neuroscience of Sacred Music," Gan, a former choir director and accompanist, described how research showing that music can be part of a healthy lifestyle that helps counter the mental decline that accompanies aging.Music can also help prevent the onset of ...

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Pope Leo XIV celebrates Mass in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on November 16, 2025. / Daniel IbáñezVatican City, Nov 16, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).Celebrating Mass for the Jubilee of the Poor on the Ninth World Day of the Poor, Pope Leo XIV urged Christians not to retreat into a closed or "religious" world of their own, but to help make human society "a space of fraternity and dignity for all, without exception."Presiding in St. Peter's Basilica on Sunday, the pope reflected on the "day of the Lord" and the upheavals of history, saying that Christ's promise remains secure even amid war, violence, and deep social wounds.Quoting the prophet Malachi, he described the "day of the Lord" as the dawn of a new era in which "the hopes of the poor and the humble will receive a final and definitive answer from the Lord," and recalled that Jesus himself is the "sun of righteousness" who comes close to every person. In the Gospel, he said, Christ assures his disciples that "Not a hai...