Telling parents and godparents to teach their little ones to pray from the time they are small, Pope Francis baptized 13 babies in the Sistine Chapel as their older brothers and sisters looked on -- or got away and ran around.

The best way to usher in a truly "new" year is to stop waiting for things to get better on their own, and instead recognize what is essential and reach out now to help others, Pope Francis said.

Keeping his appointment to celebrate vespers as 2022 was ending, Pope Francis also paid tribute to his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, who died early Dec. 31.

Most of the 18 Catholic missionaries murdered in 2022 were not carrying out high-risk missions when they were assassinated but were simply "immersed and submerged in the ordinariness of their lives and their apostolic work," said the editor of Fides, the Vatican's missionary news service.

With the birth of Jesus, God became flesh to share the joys and sorrows, hopes and fears of all people, especially the poor and those living daily amid danger, Pope Francis said in his Christmas message.

Pope Francis recognized the martyrdom of members of a Polish family who were sheltering a Jewish family during World War II, and, for the first time, advanced the sainthood cause of a candidate under the category of heroically offering his life out of loving service to others.

Pope Francis said he wrote a resignation letter in 2013, his first year in office, to be used in case he became physically or mentally impaired and unable to fulfill the duties of the papacy.

Graydon Nicholas, the former Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick, will share his devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Hamilton, Ont., Dec. 12.

Presenting the Ratzinger Prize to a French Jesuit theologian and a Jewish law professor, Pope Francis paid tribute to his predecessor and his theological work.

Three years after Pope Francis appointed him to speed up financial reforms, transparency and budget controls at the Vatican, Jesuit Father Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves has resigned for health reasons.