Pope Francis will be receiving President Mauricio Macri on February 27, the first official meeting between both leaders since Macri took office in December. The meeting was confirmed by government sources.
How come the Argentine born pope Francis did not send a congratulation telegram, or formal message to president elect Mauricio Macri on his victory, has been an ongoing question. But Vatican sources pointed out there was no special reason for that attitude, but merely a simple matter of protocol.
The scale of the challenge facing Pope Francis as he struggles to overhaul the Vatican’s finances was exposed on Wednesday by the publication of confidential documents and private recordings of his meetings. In effect just months after his election in 2013, Francis demanded a clampdown on uncontrolled spending by the Vatican.
Pope Francis has warned against the risk that militants could slip into Europe under cover of a huge wave of refugees fleeing war in Syria but also said the migrant crisis could help reawaken the continent's conscience.
By Jimmy Burns - The snapped moment of encounter projected fast and globally on the world wide web has become as much as a characteristic of the Francis papacy, as his twitter account @pontifex. This is a papacy with a charismatic personality and instinctive communicator at its helm. It is also a papacy advised by media specialists and diplomats that know something about the opportunity offered by the digital age to spread a message with an impact that would have inconceivable just a few years ago.
Pope Francis was sucked into Argentina's dispute with Britain over the Falkland Islands after an activist thrust a sign in his hands calling for dialogue between the two countries and President Cristina Fernandez jumped on the opportunity to rekindle the fight.
Barely a few days after Europe’s most powerful leaders presented a common front on Russian sanctions; President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia landed in Italy and met privately with Pope Francis at the Vatican, his second audience with the pope in the past 18 months.
Pope Francis has sent a letter to President Cristina Fernández to mark festivities for May week, during which Argentina commemorates the formation of the First Patriotic Government on 25 May 1810.
The Vatican concluded its first treaty that formally recognizes the State of Palestine, with an agreement on Catholic Church activities in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority, the Holy See said on Wednesday.
Cuban President Raul Castro has praised Pope Francis for brokering the restoration of relations between Cuba and the US, announced in December. At the end of a Sunday audience at the Vatican, Castro said he had thanked the Pope for his contribution for the historic rapprochement.