Jerusalem was formally recognised by the United States (US) as the capital of Israel on Wednesday. At the same time, President Trump announced plans to eventually relocate the US Embassy to the holy city. Pope Francis responded to the change in US policy, saying he wants the “status quo” to remain. He says he is Read more
Hours before he convened an unprecedented Vatican prayer service for peace in the Middle East, Pope Francis told a crowd gathered in St Peter’s Square that “a church that doesn’t have the capacity to surprise… is a dying church.” By that standard, Francis showed that Catholicism on his watch is alive and kicking by delivering Read more
Pope Francis joined the presidents of Israel and Palestine in praying for peace in an “Invocation for Peace” at the Vatican on June 8. During his recent visit to the Holy Land, Pope Francis invited Israel’s Shimon Peres and Palestine’s Mahmoud Abbas to meet and pray together. On June 8, the two presidents met Pope Read more
During his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Pope Francis invited Israeli and Palestinian leaders to join him at the Vatican and together pray for peace. Speaking in Bethlehem, the Pope offered President Shimon Peres and President Mahmoud Abbas “my home in the Vatican as a place for this encounter of prayer”. “Building peace is difficult, Read more
The Catholic Church in the Vatican and in the Holy Land welcomed a United Nations vote on November 29 to accept Palestine as a non-member observer state. But the Vatican called for the further steps of a sovereign independent homeland for the Palestinian people and an internationally guaranteed special statute for the city of Jerusalem. Read more