Thousands of pilgrims from around the world gathered at the Vatican on Wednesday as Pope Francis held his first weekly papal audience in St Peter’s Square since coronavirus hit in early 2020. The 85-year-old was met with cries of ‘Long live the pope’ as he entered the square still decorated with 40,000 flowers laid out Read more
The public returned to St Peter’s Square on Sunday to receive Pope Francis’s blessing from his window for the first time in nearly three months as he convoked a year of reflection on the environment. Only a few dozen people went to the square, which was reopened on Monday along with St Peter’s Basilica following Read more
Dozens of posters of illicit women priests were plastered in Rome near St Peter’s Square last week in a provocative campaign. Above the image of one of the women priests were the words “some women disobey”. The putting up of the posters in Rome’s Trastevere neighbourhood and near St Peter’s was part of a “jubilee Read more
They’re an experienced team, the three of them. The driver has barely stopped, and already the security guard has grabbed a child from the crowd on the left and is holding it up for the pope. The pontiff bends over, kisses the child — and then it’s over. The whole thing takes mere seconds and Read more
Vatican sources are denying that an American gay-rights activist group received special treatment at a papal general audience last week. The Associated Press and Reuters reported that New Ways Ministry received VIP treatment and were given tickets to be in the front row of the audience. The group said this contrasted with previous occasions when Read more
Pope Francis has praised Sts John XXIII and John Paul II as men who modernised the Catholic Church in fidelity to its ancient traditions. The Pope said this during his homily at a canonisation Mass at St Peter’s Square on April 27 before an estimated 500,000 people. A few minutes earlier, he had formally declared Read more
In his traditional Easter message, Pope Francis has prayed for people suffering from war, violence, abandonment and disease around the world. An estimated 150,000 people were gathered on Easter Sunday in St Peter’s Square. The Pope delivered his traditional blessing and address Urbi et Orbi, “to the city and to the world” from the balcony Read more
Pope Francis gave away tens of thousands of free pocket-sized copies of the gospels to crowds filling St Peter’s Square for the Sunday Angelus on April 6 It was given as an encouragement to read the Word of God, reported the Catholic News Agency. They were handed out among the crowd by volunteers. “Last Sunday Read more
As it’s come to be understood in the 21st century, the papacy is really an impossible job. A pope is expected to be the CEO of a global religious organization, a political heavyweight, an intellectual giant, and a media rock star, not to mention a living saint. Any one of those things is a life’s Read more