Pope Francis and Cuban President Raul Castro will meet privately on Sunday at the Vatican, a spokesman said, four months before the pontiff's trip to the Caribbean island, his first as leader of the Catholic Church.
After meeting Pope Francis at the Vatican on Tuesday, the president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, told his two million Twitter followers that the pontiff had spoken enthusiastically about his coming visit to the country and had even told him a self-deprecating joke about the Argentines.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has condemned Pope Francis, warning him to not repeat the “mistake” of describing the mass killings of Ottoman Armenians as “genocide.”
Pope Francis uttered the word genocide on Sunday to describe the mass murder of Armenians 100 years ago, sparking fury from Turkey which slammed the term as far from historical reality.
French clergyman who made the famous 'Habemus Papam' announcement when Francis was elected becomes the new person to be in charge of the Vatican in case of vacancy
The first Latin American pope in history sent letters to Obama, Raúl Castro and brokered negotiations which ended up in Wednesday's announcement that both countries are to resume full ties.
Buenos Aires-born Pontiff offered out-of-the-ordinary milonga in his honour. He also receives cakes and other gifts from children and seminarists, but doesn't forget the atrocities taking place in Australia, Pakistan and Yemen.
Argentine ambassador in the UK Alicia Castro, and daughter Miranda were received on Thursday by Pope Francis in a private audience.
Pope Francis closed on Sunday an assembly of Catholic bishops that revealed deep divisions on how to reach out to homosexuals and divorced people, saying the Church should not be afraid of change and new challenges.
Conservative Roman Catholic prelates have vowed to change a controversial Vatican document that held out the possibility of a major shift in the Church's attitude towards homosexuals.