Pope Francis has condemned the attack on a home for the elderly and disabled in Yemen that killed 16 people on Friday, including four nuns of the order founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta. In a message signed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, Pope Francis called the attack an “act of senseless Read more
The Vatican denied media reports last week that Pope Francis had accepted an invitation to visit Pakistan later this year. Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said told the Catholic Register that there is “currently no travel program to Pakistan being studied.” Pakistani Shipping Minister Kamran Michael and Religious Affairs Minister Sardar Muhammad Yousaf told reporters Read more
Pope Francis has prayed for those who lost their lives and livelihoods in Fiji after Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston. “I also wish to assure my closeness to the peoples of the Fiji Islands, harshly lashed by a devastating cyclone,” the Pope said last week after praying the midday Angelus with those in St. Peter’s Square. Read more
Pope Francis told Church benefactors who profit from exploitation of workers to take back their donations and “burn it.” “I think of some benefactors of the Church that say ‘take this offer for the Church,’ and it is profit from the blood of those abused, treated as slaves, workers with poorly paid jobs,” the pope Read more
Pope Francis has accepted an invitation to visit Pakistan this year, said a Pakistan media report. The state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported that the pontiff has accepted the invitation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The invitation was extended by Pakistan’s Ports and Shipping Minister Kamran Michael, a Catholic, and Religious Affairs Minister Sardar Yusuf Read more
Catholic churches around the world will be participating in a worldwide “confession drive” on Friday as part of the Jubilee Year of Mercy celebrations. In the Vatican, Pope Francis will hear confessions from the faithful at St. Peter’s Basilica as part of a “24 Hours of Reconciliation” initiative in Italy. In England and Wales, teams Read more
Standing on Mexican soil, less than a football field’s distance from the U.S., Pope Francis boldly spoke out on behalf of thousands of desperate migrants trekking long dangerous distances hoping to obtain asylum in the U.S. On the last stop of his recent pastoral visit to Mexico, in Ciudad Juarez – the border city across Read more
Pope Francis on Sunday called on European countries to share equally the burden of helping refugees who have been displaced by war and other “inhumane” situations. The pontiff said a “unanimous response” from European countries is needed to “share the burden fairly.” “The plight of refugees fleeing wars and other inhuman situations has always been Read more
Pope Francis urged world leaders to “promote peaceful coexistence” in the face of “a devastating outbreak of violence against Christians” on Monday, when he received the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Pope Matthias I, in the Vatican. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches, which rejected the Read more
The Vatican has dampened claims Pope Francis has signalled a significant relaxation of the Church’s ban on contraception as a response to the Zika virus outbreak. In a press conference aboard the papal flight to Rome from Mexico, Francis was asked if the grave nature of the virus – which is linked to serious birth Read more