Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Seven monumental sausage trees planted by the Holy Father Pope Francis during his 2015 papal visit to Uganda are flourishing, four years later. The trees were planted in various places in Kampala Diocese to represent the letters to the Seven Churches in the Biblical …
Read More »Cooler for parts of Europe, Spain battles wildfires
Paris, France | AFP | A welcome temperature drop came to western parts of Europe on Sunday, after almost a week-long heatwave, but hundreds of Spanish firefighters and soldiers continued to battle three major blazes. France too had to contend with fire in the south of the country — and some …
Read More »Pope says wants to visit Iraq in 2020
Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis said Monday he wants to visit Iraq as early as next year in spite of the security conditions. “An insistent thought accompanies me when I think about Iraq, where I want to go next year, so that it can look to the …
Read More »Pope to ‘go beyond fear’ in Romania
Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis heads to Romania on Friday with a message of integration not just for its faith communities but for a post-election European Union, following nationalist gains. During the three-day trip to the mainly Orthodox country, which sits at the crossroads of Western and Eastern …
Read More »Pope changes Church law to make reporting sex abuse obligatory
Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis on Thursday passed a measure to oblige those who know about sex abuse in the Catholic Church to report it to their superiors, following a global clerical paedophilia scandal. Every diocese in the world will now be obliged to have a system …
Read More »Refugees are ‘cross for humanity’, says Pope in Bulgaria
Sofia, Bulgaria | AFP | Pope Francis told Syrian and Iraqi refugees at a camp in Bulgaria that their experiences were “a cross for humanity” as he continued his visit to the Balkans on Monday. Arriving in Bulgaria on Sunday, Francis begun his three-day tour by urging his hosts to open …
Read More »Archbishop Lwanga calls for Uganda- Rwanda dialogue
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Archbishop of Kampala, Dr Cyprian Kizito Lwanga has called for talks to resolve the differences between Uganda-Rwandan relations. Lwanga was speaking on Friday during the Ecumenical Public way of the cross celebrated by the Uganda Joint Christian Council-UJCC at Old Kampala Secondary school. Tensions …
Read More »Convicted French cardinal expected to resign at meeting with pope
Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis met Monday with Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, France’s highest-ranking Catholic official, who was expected to tender his resignation after receiving a six-month suspended jail sentence for failing to report sex abuse by a priest under his authority. The Vatican confirmed the meeting …
Read More »The Catholic Church & child sex abuse
Pope Francis calls for an ‘all-out battle’ against the evil ANALYSIS | Gerard O’Connell | In his closing talk to the Vatican summit for the protection of minors on Feb.24, Pope Francis offered a wide-ranging analysis of the plague of the sexual abuse of minors in the world and the …
Read More »Boeings grounded as search on for clues to deadly Ethiopia crash
Tulu Fara , Ethiopia | AFP | Airlines in Ethiopia, China and Indonesia grounded Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets Monday as investigators recovered the black boxes from a brand-new passenger jet that crashed outside Addis Ababa a day earlier, killing all 157 people on board. The Nairobi-bound plane — the same …
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