Pope Francis

In an interview with an Italian television network, Pope Francis said that while he felt “caged” during the COVID-19 pandemic, it also prompted him to pray more and try to connect with others.

Recognizing “the gifts of each baptized person” — women and men — Pope Francis ordered a change to canon law and liturgical norms so that women could be formally installed as lectors and acolytes.

Pope Francis will not preside over the traditional end-of-the-year prayer service nor the New Year’s Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica due to “painful sciatica,” the Vatican said.

Crises are a normal part of life, including the life of faith, and must be accepted as challenges to discern and to change, leaving behind what is not essential, Pope Francis said Dec. 21.

Even though the world is facing a pandemic that may limit many people’s ability to celebrate the sacraments, particularly those people who are in isolation, quarantining or hospitalized with COVID-19, confession by phone is still most likely invalid, said Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary.

“History teaches us that no system or crisis can completely suppress the abilities, ingenuity and creativity that God constantly awakens within us,” the pope told 2,000 professionals under the age of 35.

“Let Us Dream,” which will be published Dec. 1 and has a section on what the pope called his “personal COVIDs,” was excerpted in Italian newspapers Nov. 23.

In an unusual move, both Pope Francis and retired Pope Benedict XVI subjected themselves to questioning by Vatican investigators charged with compiling a report on how church decisions were made regarding the career and ultimate expulsion of Theodore E. McCarrick.