Tag Archives: VATICAN

Pope washes feet of mafia snitches in Easter ritual Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis washed the feet of former mafiosi on Thursday in a prison known for housing inmates who have informed on old mobster allies. The closed-door visit to Paliano prison outside Rome saw the …

Carpi, Italy | AFP | Pope Francis on Sunday called for peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo, urging an end to the bloodshed in the troubled Kasai region. “News continues to arrive of bloody clashes in Kasai in the Democratic Republic of Congo — fighting which drags in victims and …

Milan, Italy | AFP | Pope Francis arrived in Milan on Saturday to meet families on a working-class housing estate, have lunch in a prison and hold a mass for hundreds of thousands of believers in nearby Monza. Bells in church towers across over 1,000 dioceses rang out as Francis …

Vatican City, Holy See | AFP |  Pope Francis on Tuesday warned young people to resist the lure of “false” versions of life presented on social media or reality TV shows. Instead, the Internet generation needs to write their own histories, become masters of their destiny and establish real connections …

Pope begs God’s forgiveness for Church sins in Rwanda genocide Vatican City, Holy See | AFP |  Pope Francis on Monday begged for God’s forgiveness for “the sins and failings of the Church and its members” implicated in the 1994 Rwanda genocide that killed around 800,000 people. The pontiff “conveyed …

Vatican City, Holy See | AFP |  Pope Francis will visit Cairo on April 28-29 at the invitation of the Egyptian president and the grand imam of the capital’s famed Al-Azhar mosque, the Vatican said Saturday. The pontiff had hosted the grand imam, Ahmed al-Tayeb, at the Vatican last May, …

Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis on Friday advised priests who hear troubled confessions from parishioners to not hesitate to call on the services of an exorcist. A good confessor has to be very discerning, particularly when he has to deal with “real spiritual disorders,” the 80-year-old …

Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | The Vatican is examining the possibility of Pope Francis visiting Egypt, but no dates have been set, his spokesman said Saturday after Italian reports suggested the trip would happen in May. “A trip by the Holy Father to Egypt is under study but …

Vatican City, Holy See | AFP |  African bishops have asked Radio Vatican, the official radio of the pope, to restore shortwave transmissions to the continent, the Catholic agency Fides reported on Friday. Catholics are estimated to number more than 150 million in Africa, the poorest of all continents, and …

Berlin, Germany | AFP |  Pope Francis said in an interview published Thursday that the church may consider ordaining married men who could potentially then work in remote areas faced with a shortage of priests. “We must think about whether viri probati are a possibility,” Francis said referring to older, …