The conference, which had a theme of "Weaving together Liturgy and Life", was scheduled to be held at Auckland's Baradene College on October 1-3, 2020. It has been postponed until October 7-9, 2021. Read more in NZCatholic

The decision to postpone has been made before setting a new date, to provide clarity and certainty for people around the April dates in the face of the rapidly changing pandemic issue Read more

The five-minute meeting took place in the foyer at the Pope's residence at the Vatican.

Pope Francis later referred to the meeting as "a matter of politeness".

The Pope added " . . . and if anybody thinks that greeting somebody amounts to meddling in politics, they should go find a psychiatrist".

Mr Sanders had attended a conference on economics at the Vatican on Friday.

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Eighty experts engaged in global non-violent struggles have gathered this week to develop a new moral framework that rejects ethical justifications for war.

They also hope Pope Francis's next excyclical will be on peacemaking, and that it will pick up their concerns.

The conference from April 11 to 13 is being co-hosted by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and Pax Christi International.

Terrence Rynne, a US theologian who is attending the event, said he considers it "phenomenally important".

"Coming out of it, Pope Francis might see his way clear to articulate a fresh vision of peacemaking to the Church," said Rynne.

Conference organisers said that just war teaching "can no longer claim centre stage as the Christian approach to war and peace".

"After more than 1500 years and repeated use of the just war criteria to sanction war rather than to prevent war, the Catholic Church, like many other Christian communities, is rereading the text of Jesus' life and re-appropriating the Christian vocation of pro-active peacemaking," they stated.

"Emphasising the need to work for a just peace, the Church is moving away from the acceptability of calling war 'just'," they continued.

"While clear ethical criteria are necessary for addressing egregious attacks or threats in a violent world, moral theologians and ethicists should no longer refer to such criteria as the 'just war theory', because that language undermines the moral imperative to develop tools and capacity for nonviolent conflict."

As part of their goals for the conference, organisers state they seek a "new articulation of Catholic teaching on war and peace, including explicit rejection of 'just war' language".

They state that they want "an alternative ethical framework for engaging acute conflict and atrocities by developing the themes and practices of nonviolent conflict transformation and just peace".

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: World for Travel

But how this came about has become a point of contention.

While the US senator said he accepted a Vatican invitation, one of the conference's organisers said that his campaign had lobbied for his inclusion.

Margaret Archer, president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, which is hosting the conference said "Sanders made the first move, for obvious reasons".

The invitation sent to Mr Sanders was signed by Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

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Speaking at St Peter's Square on Sunday, the Pope said "Thou shalt not kill applies to the guilty as well as the innocent".

The Pontiff said the commandment has "absolute value".

He asked politicians around the world to "make a courageous and exemplary gesture" during the jubilee Year of Mercy.

The Pope's comments came one day before the start in Rome of an international conference against the death penalty.

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Archbishop Denis Hart intervened to cancel a planned keynote speech by MP Cathy McGowan at a Catholic Social Services Victoria conference this month.

The reason given was that her views are contrary to Church teachings.

Ms McGowan, who describes herself as a practising Catholic, co-sponsored a "marriage equality" bill in Australia's Parliament last year.

Her planned speech was not on marriage, but on the importance of giving the underprivileged and marginalised a voice and access to those in power.

The speech at the conference is called "The Mary MacKillop Oration".

Ms McGowan said the decision to revoke her invitation was "very sad" and seemed at odds with Pope Francis's view the Church's doors should be open to discussing issues.

"Mary MacKillop was known for her support of regional and rural communities, she's a woman, she got in trouble with the bishops, they called her insubordinate and stopped her speaking, so this decision now with me is really ironic, I reckon," Ms McGowan said.

A spokesman for Melbourne archdiocese said there is no malice in Archbishop Hart's decision and he did not want to embarrass Ms McGowan.

"But he would see with a conference such as this that the keynote speaker should be in line with Catholic teaching on that very important topic," the spokesman said.

Ms McGowan has been replaced as the conference keynote speaker by barrister Julian McMahon, the 2016 Victorian of the year.

Catholic Social Services Victoria executive director Denis Fitzgerald said Ms McGowan had been invited to give the oration due to her work supporting marginalised groups, including refugees and asylum seekers.

Asked why the invitation was revoked so close to the event, he said Archbishop Hart "probably hadn't turned his attention to it" until recently.​

"It would have been better had Catholic Social Services factored in all relevant issues before we invited Cathy," he said.

Sources

• Sydney Morning Herald
• Image: News.com.au

Ms Klein, who campaigns for an overhaul of the global financial system to tackle climate change, will take centre stage at the conference alongside Cardinal Peter Turkson.

The cardinal is president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, which issued the invitation to Ms Klein.

The conference will focus on Pope Francis's encyclical Laudato Si' and its implications for work against climate change and towards just economies and lifestyles.

Delegates will also look ahead to two major international climate change meetings in New York and Paris.

Ms Klein, the author of "This changes everything: Capitalism Vs the Climate", expressed surprise and delight at receiving the Vatican invitation.

"The fact that they invited me indicates they're not backing down from the fight," she said.

"A lot of people have patted the Pope on the head, but said he's wrong on the economics.

"I think he's right on the economics," she said.

Critics have argued the Catholic Church should not be involved in an issue that should be left to presidents and policy-makers.

But Ms Klein said the Pope's position as a "moral voice" in the world - and leader of 1.2 billion Catholics - gives him the unique ability to unite campaigners fighting for a common goal.

"The holistic view of the encyclical should be a catalyst to bring together the twin economic and climate crises, instead of treating them separately," she said.

Ms Klein will join Cardinal Turkson and the co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Professor Ottmar Edenhofer, at a press conference on July 1.

On Sunday, an estimated 5000 people, including faith leaders, scientists and environmental campaigners, marched to St Peter's Square to support Laudato Si' and urge world leaders to take action.

There, Francis encouraged a multi-faith effort to help protect the environment.

"I encourage the collaboration between persons and associations of different religions on behalf of an integral ecology," he said.

Sources

• The Guardian
• The Guardian
• CIDSE
• Image: The Guardian

The Church is promoting adult stem-cell research as ethical and scientifically more promising than embryonic stem-cell research, which requires the destruction of embryos.

Adult stem cells can be safely taken from bone marrow, the blood stream, cornea and retina of the eye, the dental pulp of the tooth, liver, skin, gastrointestinal tract, adipose tissue or pancreas.

They offer the possibility of a renewable source of replacement cells and tissues to treat a myriad of diseases, conditions and disabilities.

The three-day conference was attended by a 14-year-old boy who had his windpipe replaced with one grown using his own stem cells.

Ciaran Finn-Lynch, who made the trip from Northern Ireland, was born with long-segment tracheal stenosis, a condition that resulted in a narrow windpipe and made it hard for him to breathe.

The Vatican started promoting adult stem cells in 2011, when its Pontifical Council for Culture launched a collaboration with the United States bio-pharmaceutical company NeoStem.

The chairman of NeoStem, Dr Robin Smith, said the promises offered by adult stem-cell therapies "come with no ethical blemishes".

She said political arguments during the last 20 years over embryonic stem-cell science had created confusion and "ultimately clouded global awareness of the ethical research" found in adult stem cells.

"We want to correct the misunderstanding in public opinion on adult stem cells. People need to understand how far we are with research," she said.

Smith said there are around 4300 treatments based on adult stem cells which are now in clinical trials, and only 26 based on embryonic stem cells.

"To address global suffering, one does not have to choose between faith and science.... These two ideas fit together symbiotically," she said.

Sources:

National Catholic Reporter

Catholic Online

Catholic News Agency

Image: The Times

The conference will be called conference "The Figure of the Father in Television Series", and it will feature speakers comparing how British and American series portray the role of the father.

"We chose to speak about the role of the father because the role of the family is very vague and the father is a sort of window that represents it," explained Professor Enrique Fuster, one of the organizers.

The conference is scheduled for April 22-23, 2013, at the university in Rome.

Talks will include an analysis of parental models found in the British dramas Luther and The Hour, as well as the American shows Mad Men, Breaking Bad, In Treatment, Shameless and Dexter.

"The father in Downton Abbey is very comprehensive and accepts mistakes, but he doesn't accept what he sees as whims of his daughters," said Professor Juan José García-Noblejas, who teaches film and TV script at the university,

He found it interesting that "the eldest daughter has a clear opposition to her father's wish to marry her with the heir and the youngest marries the chauffeur, also against the father's wishes".

Television series, he said, "are a way of knowing our society's current problems and mirror society in small weekly doses".

At the conference, he added, "We simply want to gather people who have had time to analyse and watch these series, which have a huge number of viewers around the world, in order to discuss them without losing our Christian perspective."

The conference, as well as being aimed at an academic audience and lovers of television drama, is also directed at creators "in the world of television drama, offering a unique opportunity to reflect on their craft", according to the university's website.

Sources:

Catholic News Agency

Pontifical University of the Holy Cross

Image: Unreality Primetime