Pope Francis extols Benedict XVI as pastor in historic two-pope Vatican funeral ✳ 4,500 priests ✳ 500 bishops ✳ 125 cardinals Vatican City | National Catholic Online | In one of the rarest of scenes in two millennia of Catholic Church history, Pope Francis on Jan. 5 presided over the …
Read More »Pope Francis ushers in Christmas with message of ‘unconditional love’
Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis ushered in Christmas on Wednesday for the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics with a message of unconditional love, saying “God continues to love us all, even the worst of us”. “You may have mistaken ideas, you may have made a complete …
Read More »‘Pope should open priesthood in Amazon to married men’
Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Catholic bishops gathered at a special Vatican assembly called on Pope Francis Saturday to open the priesthood to married men in the Amazon, as well as giving women a greater role to play and making damaging the environment a sin. The bishops issued a …
Read More »Francis in Arabia, the Muslim-friendly pope
Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | When Francis becomes the first pope to visit the Arabian peninsula on Sunday, he takes another important step in his efforts to build bridges with Islam and confirms interreligious dialogue as a keystone of his papacy. In the long, complicated and often bloody …
Read More »Pope vows Church will ‘never again’ ignore abuse accusations
Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis vowed Friday that the Catholic Church will never again treat abuse allegations without “seriousness and promptness”, calling on abusers to hand themselves in to police. “The Church will never seek to hush up or not take seriously any case,” the pope …
Read More »Did Pope Francis deny existence of hell?
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Vatican communications department has been working overtime the past few weeks. They are scrambling to contextualize a remark attributed to Pope Francis by an Italian journalist at the newspaper La Repubblica that hell does not exist. Speaking to the newspaper’s founder, journalist and atheist …
Read More »Pope celebrates Easter under sunny sky, tight security
po Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis celebrated Easter mass under tight security and a sunny sky on Sunday in front of tens of thousands of pilgrims gathered in a flower-bedecked St Peter’s Square. Under a longstanding tradition, the Netherlands donated some 50,000 tulips, daffodils, roses and …
Read More »Pope calls for immediate halt to Syria violence
Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis on Sunday called for an immediate end to violence in Syria to allow aid deliveries, especially in the rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta which has been hit by regime bombardment. “This February has been one of the most violent (periods) in …
Read More »Pope heads to Colombia to anoint peace process
Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis launches an emotionally charged visit next week to Colombia, to call for reconciliation as the country emerges from Latin America’s longest civil war in a contested peace process. In his fourth visit to his native region of the world since becoming pope …
Read More »Francis shocks Felix, Miller-Uibo for world 400m gold
London, United Kingdom | AFP | American Phyllis Francis ripped up the form book to claim a shock gold in the women’s 400m at the IAAF World Championships on Wednesday. The race had been billed as a straight duel between multi-medalled American Allyson Felix, the defending champion, and Olympic champion Shaunae …
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