Pope Francis says a closed-in Church system is a sick Church subject to evil and disease. It is better for the Church to be “outgoing” like God, and offer salvation to all, he says. Comparing God to the owner of a vineyard who goes out again and again looking for workers, he told the congregation Read more
Pope Francis, Thursday, told a group of parents of LGBT+children “The Pope loves your children as they are because they are children of God.” The comments came in a meeting between the parents and Francis to discuss their concerns about the Church’s discriminatory stance on the LGBT+ community. The parents are members of an Italian Read more
Pope Francis is decrying the injustice of pharmaceutical marginality. Those who live in poverty are poor even in medicines, treatment and health, he says. He spoke on the subject to 300 representatives of the Italy-based Fondazione Banco Farmaceutico (Medicine Bank Foundation) on its 20th anniversary. Members collect medicines from donors and companies to deliver them Read more
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has hit out at Pope Francis following the news that diplomats from the Holy See are meeting later this month with members of the Chinese Communist Party to renew a two-year-old agreement between China and the Vatican. Though the Middle Kingdom nominally adheres to the principle of religious freedom, it Read more
The pope’s mask became the subject of media attention during his first major public audience since lockdown. After wearing a protective face mask in the car on the way to the 500-strong audience, Francis removed it, touching the mask’s front as he emerged from the vehicle. Maskless, he shook hands with prelates attending the audience. Read more
Pope Francis has given the green light to extending a two-year old deal with China about the appointment of bishops. Critics are condemning the deal’s extension as a sell-out to the communist government, a senior Vatican source says. China’s agreement to extend the deal is likely, given that China says its relationship with the Vatican Read more
The Pope’s new encyclical’s sexist title “Fratelli tutti,” is to be understood as including both men and women, the Vatican says. It is “an encyclical for all brothers and sisters,” the Vatican says in the daily newspaper in L’Osservatore Romano. The front-page editorial clarifies that the encyclical “addresses all his sisters and brothers, all men Read more
Pope Francis has paid tribute to an Italian priest killed by an immigrant suffering from mental illness. Father Roberto Malgesini, 51, who cared for immigrants and other needy people in the northern city of Como, had been stabbed to death. A Tunisian immigrant, who police said was mentally ill, turned himself in to authorities. The Read more
Pope Francis has formed an unusual partnership with the agnostic Italian founder of the Slow Food movement while doubling down on calls to protect the environment from profit-driven development that he says harms the world’s poorest the most. Francis on Saturday welcomed Carlo Petrini to the Vatican and met with participants of an association the Read more
The pleasure we get from enjoying food and sex is “divine”, says Pope Francis. These pleasures have unjustly fallen victim to “overzealousness” on the part of the Church in the past which is “a wrong interpretation of the Christian message,” he says in a newly-published book of interviews with Carlo Petrini, an Italian culinary writer. Read more