Pope Francis Archives - Page 6 of 464

Pope Francis

Chinese mainland gets bishop for first ‘new Catholic diocese’ since communist revolution

January 30, 2024

ROME – The state-sanctioned Catholic church in China has seen a new bishop’s appointment made alongside the establishment of a new diocese on the mainland for the first time since Mao’s Communist revolution. On 29 January, the Vatican confirmed that Bishop Anthony Sun Venjun, 53, had been appointed to lead the Diocese of Weifang that

Vatican court overturns priest’s acquittal in landmark seminary sexual abuse case

January 25, 2024

ROME – A Vatican court has overturned the acquittal of a priest accused of sexually abusing a fellow student at the Vatican’s St. Pius X Pre-Seminary, delivering a guilty verdict in a landmark case that marked the first time a case for alleged sexual abuse went to trial within Vatican walls. Upon appeal from the

Is the Pope after an ‘Assisi on the Tiber’ to promote his spiritual vision

January 23, 2024

Mikhail Gorbachev once declared that while he remained an atheist, he had to admit that Soviet Communism had never produced anyone quite like Saint Francis, the Poor Man of Assisi, and his universal humanistic appeal. The former Soviet premier, who visited Assisi in 2008, is one in a long list of global figures who’ve been

Concerns mount for six Sisters kidnapped in Haiti

January 23, 2024

It has been confirmed that six religious Sisters were kidnapped by armed assailants in Haiti on 19 January. The abduction took place in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, when six Sisters of Saint Anne – who have not been named – were travelling to a university, the Haitian Conference of Religious has confirmed. The gunmen stopped the bus

Pope urges Vatican press corps to resist sinking to ‘commercial media’ standards

January 23, 2024

ROME – In a rare session with members of the Vatican press corps, Pope Francis thanked journalists for their work, urging them to base their reporting on “the solid rock of responsibility in truth” rather than “the fragile sand of gossip and ideological readings”. In the first-of-its-kind meeting during Francis’s 11-year papacy on 22 January,

Pope urges Catholics to pick up a Bible against social media ‘barrage’

January 22, 2024

ROME – Pope Francis has urged believers to go beyond the “barrage” of words in the social media era and to allow themselves to be transformed by God through scripture. Speaking on 21 January to attendees of the fifth edition of his Sunday Mass celebrating the Word of God in Saint Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis

Dutch cardinal could get papal successor boost after response to ‘Fiducia Supplicans’

January 21, 2024

ROME – This week voters in the New Hampshire primary will head to the polls, taking part in what has long been the premier proving ground in US politics. A disappointing performance in the New Hampshire primary can spell the premature end of a presidential campaign, while a better-than-expected showing can propel a previously second-tier

Cardinal Fernández prepares document on gender ideology

January 17, 2024

The Vatican is preparing a document on the ideology of gender, the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has said. Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández made the revelation in an interview with the Spanish news agency EFE. “We are preparing a very important document on human dignity that not only includes social