Tag: Pope Francis

• Tuesday, May 7th 2019 - 08:32 UTC

  Pope Francis tells Argentine bishops he desires to visit his homeland in the near future

  

  Despite stating at the outset that he didn’t like travel and didn’t plan to do much of it, during the first six years of his pontificate Pope Francis made close to 30 international trips, including visiting virtually every country of Latin America. Yet there’s one glaring exception: his home country, Argentina and neighbouring Uruguay.

• Wednesday, April 24th 2019 - 09:16 UTC

  “Sincerely”, Cristina Fernandez book of anecdotes to be launched on Friday

  

  Two times Argentine president Cristina Fernandez is launching a book next Friday, a collection of personal anecdotes and momentous experiences of her political life, anticipation of its official presentation in the Buenos Aires Book Fair on 9 May.

• Saturday, April 20th 2019 - 09:35 UTC

  Vatican denounces widespread inequality in the world during the Good Friday service

  

  Pope Francis listened as a preacher denounced the widespread inequality in the world at a Good Friday service on the day Christians recall Jesus' death by crucifixion. During the “Passion of the Lord” service in St Peter's Basilica, songs in Latin recounted the last hours in Jesus' life, from his arrest to his burial.

• Friday, March 29th 2019 - 08:52 UTC

  Pope rejecting hand kissing from worshippers: a “simple question of hygiene”

  

  Pope Francis has addressed the mystery of why he withdrew his hand from worshippers' kisses, explaining it was a “simple question of hygiene”. Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said the Pope was worried about germs when meeting Catholics last Wednesday.

• Wednesday, March 27th 2019 - 08:08 UTC

  Conservative Catholics blast the Pope because he dislikes people kneeling and ring kissing

  

  To kiss the ring on the pope’s hand or not to - that is the question. On Monday, when Pope Francis visited a Catholic shrine in Loreto, he repeatedly withdrew his right hand as a long line of people bowed and tried to kiss the ring on it.

• Tuesday, March 5th 2019 - 09:32 UTC

  Pope Francis will open Vatican archives on Pius XII and the Holocaust

  

  Pope Francis has said the Roman Catholic Church will open up its archives on Pius XII, who was Pope during World War Two. Pius, who was Pope from 1939 to 1958, has been accused of tolerating the rise of Nazi Germany and of not doing enough to protect Jews during the Holocaust. The Vatican says he worked behind the scenes to try to protect Jews.

• Monday, February 25th 2019 - 09:05 UTC

  Pope ends sexual abuse conference calling for an “all out battle” but victims remain deeply disappointed

  

  Pope Francis has ended his conference on the sexual abuse of children by clergy by calling for an “all-out battle” against a crime that should be “erased from the face of the earth”. But victims and their advocates expressed deep disappointment, saying Francis had merely repeated old promises and offered few new concrete proposals.

• Friday, February 22nd 2019 - 09:31 UTC

  “Hear the cry of the little ones who plead for justice,” Pope Francis tells Vatican summit fighting sex abuse

  

  Pope Francis on Thursday opened a landmark Vatican summit on fighting child sex abuse, calling for “concrete measures” and handing top Catholic bishops a roadmap to tackling paedophilia in the church.

• Thursday, February 21st 2019 - 09:31 UTC

  Victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy demand to meet Pope Francis

  

  Victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy demanded on Wednesday to meet Pope Francis to press their call for the Church to apply a zero-tolerance policy including the dismissal of bishops who covered up such offences.

• Thursday, February 14th 2019 - 09:30 UTC

  Pope refers to Maduro as “Mr.” and recalls previous dialogues accords' were not honored

  

  Pope Francis has sent a letter to Nicolas Maduro responding to a recent invitation to mediate in the Venezuelan political crisis, according to an Italian newspaper. Milan daily newspaper Corriere Della Sera published a report saying that previous peace efforts in Venezuela were “interrupted because what had been agreed in the meetings was not followed by concrete gestures to implement the agreements.”