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.

VATICAN CITY -- Before baptizing 16 babies in the Sistine Chapel, Pope Francis reminded parents and godparents of their responsibility to care for and preserve the Christian identity the infants were about to receive.

A second diocese in Sicily, where the Mafia has had a significant presence for decades, announced a temporary ban on the naming of godparents for baptisms and confirmations.

Baptism of the Lord, Jan. 9 (Year C) Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11; Psalm 104; Titus 2:11-14; 3:4-7; Luke 3:15-16, 21-22

What if the lead story on the evening news were one of great joy and life-changing significance? Can we even imagine what it would be? And could we even handle it, conditioned as we are to bleak and depressing news? We might ask what the catch is, or even label it “fake news.”

VATICAN CITY -- The choral cries of newborn babies will not fill the Sistine Chapel in 2021 because the COVID-19 pandemic has forced Pope Francis to cancel his annual celebration of infant baptisms on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

MANCHESTER, England -- A Catholic priest has baptized the infant son of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

DETROIT -- The Archdiocese of Detroit is seeking to contact anyone who may have received invalid sacraments after a priest of the archdiocese learned his own baptism as an infant 30 years ago was invalid.

VATICAN CITY -- Changing the words of the formula for baptism render the sacrament invalid, said the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

QUEBEC CITY -- The great doorway to growing in the Christian faith is narrowing from year to year in Quebec as baptisms have significantly declined since 2012 and there������Ƶapp no indication the trend will reverse.