Since COVID-19 first began to spread, Pope Francis has been challenging Catholics and the world about the response to the pandemic. As a pastor, he’s also offered us hope. Now, a collection of his messages on the pandemic put together by Cardinal Michael Czerny, a Canadian Jesuit who works closely with the pope in Rome, Read more
Pope Francis has promised to pray for a nun and the transgender women the nun is helping. Discalced Carmelite nun Mónica Astorga Cremona wrote to Pope Francis telling him about the inauguration of a new housing complex she has established to help transgender women living in poverty. The new 12-studio apartment complex in Neuquén, Argentina, Read more
Pope Francis is calling for universal availability of vaccines against coronavirus. Church teaching on giving priority to the well-being of the poor and marginalized is not a political or ideological choice; it lies at the very heart of the Gospel, Pope Francis said. The preferential option for the poor, which includes feeding the hungry and Read more
Pope Francis has donated ventilators and ultrasound scanners to hospitals in coronavirus-ravaged Brazil. In a Aug. 17 press statement, papal almoner Cardinal Konrad Krajewski said that 18 Dräger intensive care ventilators and six Fuji portable ultrasound scanners would be shipped to Brazil on the pope’s behalf. Brazil has reported 3.3 million cases of COVID-19 and Read more
It’s a poorly kept secret that Pope Francis has a sweet tooth, with a particular weakness when it comes to ice cream. So it shouldn’t have been surprising that the “cold-call pontiff” was at it again this week, to thank an ice cream shop for the gift of several pounds of Italian gelato. Read more
To be credible, the Vatican’s finances need to show integrity, be transparent and have set of values that everyone can operate under, says a recent appointee to the Holy See’s Council for the Economy. Leslie Ferrar, is one of six women Pope Francis appointed to the board overseeing the Holy See’s finances. Reforming the Vatican’s Read more
Pope Francis called for dialogue between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan on Saturday, urging them not to let a dispute over a dam on the Nile lead to conflict. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which is being built some 15 km (9 miles) from Ethiopia’s border with Sudan, has become a major source of discord between Read more
Life in the eternal city in August is an oppressive affair and ice cream is a delicious way to cool off. With day after day of mid-90s heat and almost no reliable air conditioning, the romani often have but one last refuge: a cup or cone of dense, soft and blissfully cool Italian gelato. Just Read more
On Aug. 8, some 76 faith leaders from around the world issued a powerful statement calling for action to stop atrocities against the Uyghurs and other Muslims in China that they describe as “one of the most egregious human tragedies since the Holocaust.” Myanmar’s Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, Read more
Ordaining women to the priesthood and opening top roles in the Vatican bureaucracy to women are both possible scenarios, says an appointee to the Vatican Council for the Economy. Law professor Charlotte Kreuter-Kirchhof (pictured), who was recently appointed by Pope Francis as a member of the high-level group that oversees the Vatican’s finances, says in Read more