To hear Cardinal Walter Kasper tell it, he became the pope’s point man for reform in the Catholic Church thanks to a bit of serendipity, or, if you will, Providence, before anyone knew that Francis was going to be the next Roman pontiff. The genesis of their partnership, Kasper recalled during a recent trip to Read more
Mark your calendars: In 2025, Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians may return to Nicaea, the spot in modern-day Turkey where Christianity was literally defined. In 325, early followers of Jesus came together to figure out what it means to be a Christian; the goal was to create theological consensus across all of Christendom. This Read more
Pope Francis and the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, have reportedly agreed to an ecumenical gathering in Nicaea in 2025. This will mark 1700 years since the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, which is recognised by both east and west. After meeting Pope Francis in Jerusalem last month, Patriarch Bartholomew told Asia News Read more
Pope Francis has urged governments to help economic migrants travel to wealthy counties, to defeat the scourge of human trafficking. In a letter to a meeting of the International Labour Conference, the Pope wrote that mass migration is a “grave issue”. Pope Francis called for a “concerted effort . . . to encourage governments to Read more
There were many striking images during the extraordinary 72 hours that Pope Francis spent in the Middle East. The Pope at the River Jordan, visiting with Syrian refugees, celebrating mass in Bethlehem, praying at the separation wall, uniting with the Ecumenical Patriarch, visiting the Dome of the Rock, leaving a note at the Western Wall, Read more
Pope Francis is to meet with a group of clergy sex abuse victims for the first time, possibly as early as next week. During an impromptu media session on his flight back from the Holy Land, the Pope said the meeting would take place in the first week in June. Six to eight victims would Read more
During the final day of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Pope Francis made an emotional visit to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. On May 26, the Pope kissed the hands of half a dozen Holocaust survivors and heard their stories of persecution by the Nazis. He left an inscription in the Yad Read more
It’s clear that Pope Francis has a style and approach to his job that contrasts sharply with those of his predecessors over the last 50 years. The frequently asked question is whether there is substance behind the style and if so, what does it look like? Traces of what he draws on are there to Read more
On 13 June 2013, Pope Francis granted an interview to Israel’s Channel 2 TV at Santa Marta, the Vatican guesthouse where he lives. That interview made history; it was the first time that a TV crew entered Santa Marta to interview the pope. What is not known, however, is that immediately afterwards Francis asked to Read more
During his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Pope Francis invited Israeli and Palestinian leaders to join him at the Vatican and together pray for peace. Speaking in Bethlehem, the Pope offered President Shimon Peres and President Mahmoud Abbas “my home in the Vatican as a place for this encounter of prayer”. “Building peace is difficult, Read more