Pope Francis said disused church buildings should be used to house refugees, who must be embraced rather than feared. The pontiff visited asylum seekers in Rome on Tuesday, underlining his papacy’s emphasis on the poor and the plight of immigrants. Turning convents and monasteries that have emptied due to a drop in vocations into hotels Read more
Today the Vatican’s weekly schedule announced Pope Francis has called together all heads of the Roman Curia for an early morning meeting tomorrow. Though the pope always meets with them at the end of the year to look back on the last 12 months, this gathering mid-year is highly unusual. Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi Read more
Pope Francis appealed before 100,000 people on Saturday to avert a widening of Syria’s conflict, urging world leaders to pull humanity out of a “spiral of sorrow and death.” The pontiff led the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics in a global day of prayer and fasting for peace in Syria, the Middle East and the Read more
Pope Francis has written to Vladimir Putin criticising world leaders for standing by while a “senseless massacre” unfolded in Syria. In a letter sent on Sept 4 to Mr Putin in his role of host of the G20 conference, and published on Thursday, Francis wrote: “It is regrettable that, from the very beginning of the Read more
The Vatican is ramping up its opposition to threatened military strikes against Syria. The Vatican has invited all ambassadors accredited to the Holy See to attend a briefing Thursday on the pope’s agenda for the four-hour vigil for peace on Saturday. Pope Francis on Wednesday urged Catholics and non-Catholics alike to participate in Saturday’s vigil, Read more
Newspaper reports from Argentina quoted an archbishop claiming that Pope Francis jokingly said he chose to live in a simple Vatican residence to avoid getting robbed in the more regal papal palace. A story posted on the website of the Catholic news agency of Argentina AICA quoted Archbishop Mario Poli, who replaced Pope Francis as Read more
Pope Francis has broken protocol once again, appearing with a puzzled look on his face in a “selfie” photo taken with a group of teenagers visiting the Vatican. The picture appeared on the Facebook page of one of the youngsters, who used it as his profile picture, and was going viral on social media on Read more
Pope Francis rejected war and exhorted all sides to put an end to hostilities and seek peace in Syria. “No more wars. The use of violence never leads to peace. War calls for war, violence calls for violence,” the pope said over the weekend as the United States and its allies prepared to attack Damascus. Read more
Pope Francis on Saturday announced the appointment of Archbishop Pietro Parolin as secretary of state, replacing Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. Archbishop Parolin, 58, is currently the Vatican envoy to Venezuela and served as the Vatican’s deputy foreign minister from 2002 to 2009. He has led various Vatican diplomatic delegations in thorny geopolitical negotiations, including talks to Read more
A word of warning to those who write personal notes to Pope Francis: He might just call you back. Francis has charmed the masses with his informal style, simplicity and sense of humour – and a handful of strangers have gotten the treatment up close, receiving papal phone calls out of the blue after writing Read more