On Saturday June 1st the President of Uruguay, José Mujica, will meet Pope Francis. Mujica has been quoted as saying he does not believe in the Catholic Church but he admires it and that he hopes to open avenues of cooperation to advance on social issues in his country.
Uruguayan President Jose Mujica begins on Wednesday the longest and most ambitious of his overseas trips hoping to convince China to invest in infrastructure projects that are crucial for the development of the country and its foreign trade: a deep water port and recovering the rail cargo network.
Pope Francis criticised what he called savage capitalism on a visit to a food kitchen on Tuesday, in an address in which he called for the values of generosity and charity to be revived.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Pope Francis and, apparently responding to his criticism of a heartless dictatorship of the economy and the “cult of money”, called for stronger regulation of financial markets.
Pope Francis has condemned the global cult of money and urged world leaders to do more for the poor. In his first major speech on finance and the economy, the pontiff said money should be made to “serve” people, not to “rule” them.
Pope Francis will visit a favela (slum) and meet young prisoners when he travels to Brazil on his first international trip as pontiff in July, the Vatican announced on Tuesday. The Argentine born pope who has said he wants to make concern for the poor a hallmark of his papacy, will visit the Manguinhos slum in Rio de Janeiro on the fourth day of his July 22-29 trip to the world's largest Catholic country.
Uruguay has formally requested Pope Francis to receive President Jose Mujica when he travels at the end of the month to China, Spain and Italy. Mujica is an agnostic and Uruguay is one of the few Latinamerican countries in which the Catholic Church has been separated from the State for almost a century.
The Cristina Fernandez administration renewed relations with the Catholic Church, since the naming of Cardinal Bergoglio from Buenos Aires Pope Francis could be facing their first challenge because of the controversial judicial reform the Argentine president is pushing through congress.
Pope Francis, in his first major decision, set up an advisory board of cardinals from around the world to help him govern the Catholic Church and reform its troubled central administration.
Pope Francis was saddened to learn of the death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and appreciative of the Christian values that underpinned her commitment to service and promotion of freedom.