VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Sunday appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin for a cease-fire, imploring him to “stop this spiral of violence and death” in Ukraine and denouncing the “absurd” risk of the “uncontrollable” consequences of nuclear attack as tensions sharply escalate over the war.
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The United Nations and advocacy groups for survivors of clergy sexual abuse are urging Pope Francis to authorize a full investigation of Catholic Church archives on three continents to ascertain who knew what and when about sexual abuse by Nobel Peace Prize-winning Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, the revered independence hero of East Timor.
MATERA, Italy (AP) — Pope Francis traveled to southern Italy on Sunday to close out an Italian church congress that coincided with Italy’s national election, and delivered a message that hit on key domestic campaign issues including immigration.
ASSISI, Italy (AP) — Pope Francis, visiting Assisi, the birthplace of his namesake saint who was close to nature, called on Saturday for “courage” in abandoning fossil fuels and lamented that older generations didn't know how to protect the planet and secure peace,
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis said Thursday that he didn’t understand China but respected it, as another opportunity to improve ties came and went when the pope and Chinese president were within a few miles (kilometers) of one another in Kazakhstan but didn’t meet.
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — The Vatican plans to keep open paths of dialogue with Russia, even if doing so “smells,” Pope Francis said Thursday, reaffirming Ukraine’s right to defend itself.
Francis spoke at length about Russia’s war in Ukraine and the need for peace during a press conference while traveling home from Kazakhstan.
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis is studying a possible visit to Bahrain in November and said Thursday he is looking to reschedule his trip to South Sudan and Congo for February.
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis said Thursday the Vatican was in contact with the Nicaraguan government about its crackdown on the Catholic Church and hoped “at the very least” that nuns from Mother Teresa’s Sisters of Charity religious order would be allowed to return to operations in the country.
NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan (AP) — Pope Francis reaffirmed the critical value Thursday of interfaith dialogue to contrast the “folly of war,” even as one of his own bishops warned that Francis’ participation in a big interfaith peace conference in Kazakhstan could imply papal endorsement of a “supermarket of religions.”
NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan (AP) — Pope Francis told the Russian Orthodox hierarchy and other faith leaders Wednesday that religion must never be used to justify the “evil” of war, and asked at an outdoor Mass in Kazakhstan, “How many deaths will it take?” for peace to prevail in Ukraine.
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping's first trip overseas since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic will overlap with a visit by Pope Francis to Kazakhstan, although the Vatican says there are no plans for them to meet.
NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan (AP) — Pope Francis begged for an end to Russia’s “senseless and tragic war” in Ukraine as he arrived Tuesday in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan to join faith leaders from around the world in praying for peace.
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis had hoped his trip to Kazakhstan this week would offer a chance to meet with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church — who has justified the war in Ukraine — and plead for peace.
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Sunday asked for prayers to accompany him this week on what he calls his “pilgrimage of peace” in Kazakhstan for a meeting of religious leaders.
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Sunday beatified one of his predecessors, John Paul I, a briefly serving pontiff who distinguished himself with his humility and cheerfulness, and whose abrupt death in his bedroom in 1978 shocked the world and fueled suspicions for years about his demise.
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis on Tuesday wrapped up two days of closed-door meetings with about 180 cardinals, many of them young enough to elect a future pontiff, including discussions about how the Catholic Church's governance could be made more inclusive.
ROME (AP) — The Vatican on Tuesday moved to defend Pope Francis from allegations he hasn’t come down hard enough on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, saying the pontiff clearly views the war launched by Moscow as “senseless, repugnant and sacrilegious.”
L'AQUILA, Italy (AP) — Making a pilgrimage in an Italian mountain town, Pope Francis on Sunday hailed the humility of a 13th-century pontiff who resigned to live a hermit's life, and praised him for using his brief papacy to highlight the value of mercy and forgiveness.
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis elevated 20 more churchmen to the rank of cardinal on Saturday, formally expanding those now eligible to vote for his successor in case he dies or resigns — the latter a step he has said he’d consider if the need arises.
AUG. 19-25, 2022
This week has seen a strike by London Underground workers and Kenya’s Raila Odinga challenging the election results in his country. Meanwhile, captured Russian military vehicles were installed in downtown Kyiv ahead of Independence Day.
ROME (AP) — The Vatican's Russia-Ukraine diplomacy suffered two setbacks Thursday when the head of the Russian Orthodox Church cancelled a planned meeting with Pope Francis and Ukraine summoned the papal ambassador to complain about Francis' latest comments about the war.
When San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy receives his prestigious red hat at the Vatican on Saturday, he will bring to the College of Cardinals a fervent loyalty to Pope Francis that has often put him at odds with the conservative majority in the U.S.
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has taken another step to rehabilitate Cardinal Angelo Becciu, inviting the once-powerful Vatican prelate to an upcoming meeting of cardinals two years after Francis forced his resignation based on purported financial improprieties.
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis voiced worry Sunday about the situation in Nicaragua, where police detained several Roman Catholic clergy, including a bishop, critical of President Daniel Ortega’s administration.
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has met with a fourth group of transgender people who found shelter at a Rome church, the Vatican newspaper reported Thursday.
L’Osservatore Romano said the encounter took place Wednesday on the sidelines of Francis’ weekly general audience.
ROME (AP) — A Vatican cardinal marked the 80th anniversary Tuesday of the gas chamber killing of the Jewish-born Catholic convert Edith Stein by celebrating a Mass near the former Auschwitz death camp and telling the story of his own family’s Jewish origins and their fate under the Nazis.
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis is offering support to firefighters and search crews in Cuba following the fire and explosions at a big oil tank farm in the western province of Matanzas.
In a telegram Monday to Cuban bishops, Francis said he was closely following news of the “unfortunate accident.” He said he was praying for all Cubans and especially those affected by the blaze for “the Lord to give you strength in this time of pain.”
LISBON, Portugal (AP) — The archbishop of Lisbon met Friday with Pope Francis in a private audience at the Vatican to discuss “events in recent weeks that have marked the life of the Church in Portugal,” the Portuguese church said.
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has promoted a Vatican nurse whom he credited with saving his life to be his “personal health care assistant.”
The Vatican announced the appointment of Massimiliano Strappetti in a one-line statement issued Thursday.
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis marked the second anniversary of the Lebanon port explosion by insisting Wednesday that truth and justice “can never be hidden,” in an apparent reference to the stalled investigation into the disaster.
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis will travel next month to Kazakhstan, where he could meet with Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, who has justified Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Francis, 85, will attend an interfaith conference in the Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan, from Sept.
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis acknowledged Saturday that he can no longer travel like he used to because of his strained knee ligaments, saying his weeklong Canadian pilgrimage was “a bit of a test” that showed he needs to slow down and one day possibly retire.
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis agreed Saturday that the attempt to eliminate Indigenous culture in Canada through a church-run residential school system amounted to a cultural “genocide.”
Pope Francis crisscrossed Canada this week delivering long overdue apologies to the country’s Indigenous groups for the decades of abuses and cultural destruction they suffered at Catholic Church-run residential schools.
IQALUIT, Nunavut (AP) — Pope Francis traveled to the edge of the Arctic on Friday to deliver an apology to the Inuit people for the “evil” of Canada’s residential schools, wrapping up his week-long “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada with a dramatic visit to the remote territory of Nunavut to meet with school survivors.
ST-ANNE-DE-BEAUPRÉ, Quebec (AP) — Pope Francis celebrated Mass on Thursday at Canada’s national shrine and came face-to-face with a long-standing demand from Indigenous peoples: to rescind the papal decrees underpinning the so-called “Doctrine of Discovery” and repudiate the theories that legitimized the colonial-era seizure of Native lands and form the basis of some property law today.
In his extensive papal travels, Pope Francis has never journeyed farther north than Iqaluit, capital city of the Inuit-governed territory of Nunavut. On Friday, it will be the final stop of his somber six-day visit to Canada.
QUEBEC CITY (AP) — The Canadian government made clear Wednesday that Pope Francis’ apology to Indigenous peoples for abuses in the country’s church-run residential schools didn't go far enough, suggesting that reconciliation over the fraught history is still very much a work in progress.
QUEBEC CITY (AP) — Pope Francis arrived in Quebec on Wednesday at a time when many French Canadians in the province are not only moving away from religion but explicitly rejecting it, embracing secularization long after their forebears built their identity on the rock of the Catholic Church.
It was a stunning image: Pope Francis briefly wearing a full Indigenous headdress, its rows of soft white feathers fastened in place by a colorful, beaded headband after he apologized for the Catholic Church’s role in Canada’s “disastrous” residential school system for Indigenous children.