Almost 40,000 people have signed a petition to stop 40 fir trees from being chopped down, particularly the so-called Green Giant, a 30m-high specimen around two centuries old.

Residents of the valley near Lake Garda have slammed the proposed cutting of the 'Gigante verde' to be sent to St Peter's Square for the Christmas season as an "anachronistic outrage".

The petition urges Pope Francis to halt the felling, reminding the pontiff that in his encyclicals focused on caring for the natural environment he emphasised that humans must respect the laws of nature.

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The 59-year-old priest, identified as Father Milan Palkovic, was found carrying an air pistol, two knives, a cutter and a screwdriver.

The weapons were identified during a routine screening by the metal detectors. St Peter's Square visitors must pass through the detectors before entering the square.

Palkovic claimed the items were for personal defence and belonged to another man accompanying him, who was also detained.

Both men, part of a group of pilgrims from the Czech Republic, denied any criminal intent and stated they came on a pilgrimage.

Authorities confiscated the weapons and initiated an investigation into the incident.

The priest faces charges of illegal possession of weapons. However, neither he nor the other man has prior criminal records.

Second weapons-related incident

The occurrence was the second weapons-related incident in less than a month at a papal event.

The Regina Caeli event follows a recent incident where a man on New York's "most wanted" list was apprehended in St Peter's Square in the possession of knives, apparently with the intention of attending the pope's general audience.

In that incident, Moises Tejada claimed to have arrived from Moldova after being involved in conflicts in Ukraine.

St Peter's Square was crowded with pilgrims and tourists as Pope Francis held a general audience on 10 April. It was not clear if Tejada, who has convictions for robbery and kidnapping, posed any threat to the pope.

Tejada is currently detained in Italy and awaiting an extradition request from the United States.

In his address, Pope Francis renewed his gratitude to the Swiss Guard for its presence in the Vatican which he said "stands out for its quality, for its kind, attentive, scrupulous style" and for its service, which is always "generous and diligent".

The Vatican has yet to comment on the incidents.

Sources

Catholic News Agency

Crux

Vatican News

Reuters

CathNews New Zealand

The 85-year-old was met with cries of 'Long live the pope' as he entered the square still decorated with 40,000 flowers laid out for last weekend's Easter celebrations.

With restrictions lifted, thousands of adoring Christians were able to show their appreciation for the pope. Many had travelled across Europe and the rest of the world to attend the general audience.

The Pope shook hands with audience members for the first time since social distancing measures were lifted in Vatican city.

The Argentine pontiff smiled and laughed as he blessed pilgrims. However, he appeared to be suffering again from the knee pain that has limited his activities in recent months.

Odile Lafarge came from France with her grandson to see him, telling AFP: "He always has a message of peace and reconciliation. Our world really needs that.

"What struck me when we arrived is how many young people there are here.... it shows there is a future, a flame burning in them."

Many in the crowd waved flags from their country of origin, including several from Ukraine. The pope has repeatedly prayed for the country since the Russian invasion nearly two months ago.

In his address, the pontiff thanked Poland for taking in the bulk of the estimated five million Ukrainians in Europe's worst refugee crisis since World War II.

"May God reward you for your goodness," he said.

The pope's weekly audience traditionally draws thousands of people. However, it has not been held in the vast St Peter's Square since February 2020 when coronavirus hit.

Francis initially delivered his audiences via video link from the Apostolic Library. Then he held them in the San Damaso Courtyard in the Vatican, where numbers could be limited.

Pope Francis smiled and opened his arms wide in an embrace at the end of the general audience.

Sources

The Daily Mail

Vatican News

Only a few dozen people went to the square, which was reopened on Monday along with St Peter's Basilica following coronavirus lockdowns. They kept to social distancing rules and most wore masks.

Francis delivered his message via the internet from his library, as those in the square watched on large screens, and then went to the window for the silent blessing. In the past three months, he has blessed an empty square. Read more

Above the image of one of the women priests were the words "some women disobey".

The putting up of the posters in Rome's Trastevere neighbourhood and near St Peter's was part of a "jubilee for women priests".

All of the women pictured are "essentially under excommunication", the Guardian reported.

Kate McElwee, co-executive director of the Women's Ordination Conference, said the metre-high posters are meant to celebrate female priests around the world.

They may help spur a dialogue with the Church about women's equality, she said.

Ms McElwee sees this as a "true blind spot for Pope Francis".

In 1994, St John Paul II declared "that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful".

Pope Francis has said the ordination of women as priests "cannot be done", citing St John Paul II.

The city of Rome agreed to put the women priest posters up.

Organisers said they had found an enthusiastic supporter within the city government who had promised to save "good space" for them even though they are competing with political posters before the upcoming mayoral election.

According to Ms McElwee, there are about 150 renegade female priests around the world.

Many of them were ordained after a group of women known as the Danube Seven were ordained illegally in 2002 by an Argentinian bishop.

The posters were created by Italian photographer Giulia Bianchi.

She said meeting a woman priest helped heal the "Catholic child inside herself" and "a lot of pain and scars I have from the official Church".

A petition calling on Pope Francis to lift the excommunications of women priests will be delivered by a woman priest to the Vatican on June 3.

Sources

• The Guardian
• Action Groundswell Movement
• Ordinatio Sacerdotalis
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Xania News

The facility will be able to accommodate 30 people.

It is Francis's latest initiative to help those sleeping rough on Rome's streets.

The gesture follows the provision of a barber and showers near St Peter's Square.

The hostel, which will start operations after the Italian summer, will only be open at night and will be run by volunteers.

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The whole thing takes mere seconds and repeats itself several times during the pope's Wednesday lap of honor before the general audience on St. Peter's Square starts. If there are any larger groups he can see — Boy Scouts, for example, or wheelchair-users — then Christ's representative on Earth briefly taps the Popemobile-driver on the shoulder to get him to stop.

When observed from up close, Pope Francis comes across as a stately man. The white cassocks strain at his midsection, his pronounced chin is elongated and his eyes look searchingly into those of the people surrounding him.

Compared to his predecessor, the almost otherworldly smiling Benedict XVI, the Argentinian comes across as downright earthly. As though there were no distance at all.

He hugs and he pats. He kisses small children and cardinals. He does it without warning and enthusiastically. It's almost as if he's using bodily contact to console himself for the burden of his position.

He is the highest-ranking person of faith and a role model for the 1.3 billion Catholics around the world.

When Pope Francis, otherwise known as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, entered St. Peter's Basilica at 10 a.m. on Pentecost Sunday for the Holy Mass, he had been in office for 797 days. Seven-hundred-ninety-seven days in which he has divided the Catholic rank-and-file into admirers and critics.

A time during which more and more people have begun to wonder if he can live up to what he seems to have promised: renewal, reform and a more contemporary Catholic Church. Continue reading

Source and Image:

• Spiegel Online

The Associated Press and Reuters reported that New Ways Ministry received VIP treatment and were given tickets to be in the front row of the audience.

The group said this contrasted with previous occasions when they were ignored by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

But according to a report in the Catholic News Agency, a pontifical household source said no requests are rejected for the free tickets for the "reparto speciale" in St Peter's Square.

Seats are available on a "first come, first served basis," and no chairs are specially reserved for any group of pilgrims, the source explained.

Another Vatican source said the group was treated the same as any other group of faithful in St Peter's Square.

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The Pope said this during his homily at a canonisation Mass at St Peter's Square on April 27 before an estimated 500,000 people.

A few minutes earlier, he had formally declared both popes to be saints of the Catholic Church.

"John XXIII and John Paul cooperated with the Holy Spirit in renewing and updating the Church in keeping with her original features, those features which the saints have given her throughout the centuries," Pope Francis said.

He called them men of courage and mercy.

Pope Francis said he liked to think of St John as "the pope of openness to the Spirit".

And the current Pontiff characterised St John Paul II as the "pope of the family".

Pope Francis said he was sure St John Paul was guiding the Church on its path to two upcoming synods of bishops on the family, to be held at the Vatican this October and in October, 2015.

Mercy was a major theme in Pope Francis's homily, which was delivered on Divine Mercy Sunday.

He has often pointed to the need for mercy in Church teaching on marriage and the family.

Among the concelebrants as the canonisation Mass were Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, 150 cardinals and 700 bishops.

Commentators have said that in canonising both popes together, Pope Francis is urging Catholics to look beyond liberal and conservative divisions to join together in following the Gospel.

Jesuit commentator Fr Thomas Reese wrote that making a former pope a saint is a way of strengthening his legacy.

This makes it more difficult for future popes to change policies the saint put in place.

"By canonising them together, Pope Francis is saying that all Catholics should be able to come together to celebrate the lives of these holy men," Fr Reese wrote.

Since these two are so different, it does not canonise so-called liberal or conservative models of being pope, the Jesuit wrote.

"So it leaves Pope Francis free to follow his own path."

Sources

• Catholic News Service
• Catholic Herald
• Reuters
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Vatican.va

An estimated 150,000 people were gathered on Easter Sunday in St Peter's Square.

The Pope delivered his traditional blessing and address Urbi et Orbi, "to the city and to the world" from the balcony of St Peter's Basilica.

Pope Francis said the Resurrection of Jesus is "is the basis of our faith and our hope".

"If Christ were not raised, Christianity would lose its very meaning; the whole mission of the Church would lose its impulse, for this is the point from which it first set out and continues to set out ever anew," he said.

Pope Francis used the phrase "Come and see" from the story of the empty tomb in Matthew's Gospel.

Francis said that "in every human situation, marked by frailty, sin and death, the Good News is no mere matter of words, but a testimony to unconditional and faithful love".

"It is about leaving ourselves behind and encountering others, being close to those crushed by life's troubles, sharing with the needy, standing at the side of the sick, elderly and the outcast," he said.

"Come and see," Francis continued.

"Love is more powerful, love gives life, love makes hope blossom in the wilderness."

"With this joyful certainty in our hearts, today we turn to you, risen Lord," said Francis

The Pope prayed particularly for peoples in Syria, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Nigeria, South Sudan, Venezuela, and Ukraine.

He noted that the Roman church is celebrating this Easter along with the Orthodox churches in an unusual alignment of their separate liturgical calendars.

Among those the Pope prayed for were those with hunger, "aggravated by conflicts and by the immense wastefulness for which we are often responsible".

He also prayed for the vulnerable, "especially children, women and the elderly, who are at times exploited and abandoned".

And he prayed for those afflicted by a new Ebola disease outbreak in West Africa.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• The Tablet
• Vatican News
• Source: Daily Mail

It was given as an encouragement to read the Word of God, reported the Catholic News Agency.

They were handed out among the crowd by volunteers.

"Last Sunday I suggested that you get a little copies of the gospels, to carry with you during the day, to read often," Pope Francis told the crowd.

"Then I thought over the ancient tradition of the Church, during Lent, to give the Gospel to catechumens preparing for baptism.

So today I want to offer to you who are here in the piazza - but as a sign for all - a pocket-sized gospel. They will be distributed to you freely," the Pope explained.

"Take one, carry it with you: it is truly Jesus who speaks to you," he urged those packed into the square.

"This is the word of Jesus!"

The Holy Father then asked that the faithful remember Christ's words, "freely have you received, freely give!" so that they too would "give the message of the gospel" to others.

Pope Francis acknowledged that some may be sceptical of a free gift, asking "how much does it cost? How much must I pay, father?".

"But let's do something," he suggested.

"In exchange for this gift, do an act of charity, a free gesture of love for another: a prayer for a friend, a reconciliation, something."

Whether in a book or on a smartphone or tablet, said the Pope, "the important thing is to read the word of God, with all means, but read the word - it's Jesus who speaks there".

"And welcome it with an open heart. So the good seed bears fruit!"

Last Lent, Pope Francis had volunteers distribute free rosaries in boxes resembling pill packets, likening them to spiritual medicine.

Sources

• Catholic News Agency
• Huffington Post
• Image: New York Daily News

Yet at his six-month mark, which falls today, Pope Francis is drawing better reviews on those five scores than anyone might reasonably have anticipated back on March 13, either in terms of the magnitude of the task or the background of 76-year-old Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

When he stepped onto the balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square, this was immediately a pope of firsts: the first pontiff from the developing world, the first from Latin America, the first non-European in almost 1,300 years, the first Jesuit and, of course, the first to take the name Francis. The new pope charmed the world that night by humbly asking the crowd to bless him before he blessed them and by referring to himself as "bishop of Rome" rather than more exalted titles.

Since that memorable debut, Francis over and over again has demonstrated a capacity to surprise.

He plunges willy-nilly into crowds, to the delight of the masses and the horror of his security team. He speaks his mind with sometimes startling frankness, such as his famous "Who am I to judge?" line with regard to gays. He makes phone calls to people out of the blue, including ordinary folks who've written him to share some personal struggle, and involves himself daringly in the issues of the day, such as his recent full-court press against military strikes in Syria.

This week, Francis was back in the headlines twice. On Tuesday, he visited a facility in Rome run by the Jesuit Refugee Service, where he proposed that unused convents and monasteries could be converted into housing for immigrants and refugees. On Wednesday, the Italian daily La Repubblica splashed a letter from the pope across its front page, written to a renowned leftist and atheist journalist, assuring him that God's mercy reaches nonbelievers, too.

Make no mistake: Francis is a phenomenon, a force of nature who's raised expectations, upset predictions, created a new sense of possibility, set tongues wagging and, in some quarters, sent anxieties soaring, all in the short span of half a year. Continue reading

Sources

• John L. Allen Jr. in National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Today's Catholic News

John L. Allen Jr. is NCR senior correspondent.

"To be here and see the Pope is absolutely amazing. He's so friendly, he's just so friendly," Bob from the Lakeside, England, chapter told the Catholic News Agency.

His fellow Lakeside member Harry agreed. "He's so friendly and he comes to you," he commented.

A Swiss motorcyclist went even further in her esteem for the new Pontiff. "For me, he is the best Pope now — Papa Francesco," said Simone from Lucerne.

Thousands of Harley-Davidson owners from Europe and abroad, in their trademark leather vests, came to Rome to take part in the brand's 110th anniversary celebrations.

Via della Conciliazione, the street that leads to St Peter's Square, was packed with rows of Harleys parked along both sides of the road, about four or five bikes deep. Many of the motorcyclists decked out their rides with flags, stickers with the Vatican keys or pictures of Pope Francis.

The Pope offered a short greeting to the motorcyclists after celebrating a Mass for the Gospel of Life weekend that was organised by the Vatican as part of the ongoing Year of Faith.

His homily underscored the importance of following God's call for living a fruitful life, contrasting it with self-centred lifestyles that lead to slavery and death.

The Associated Press said there was something a bit incongruous about the Harley crowd — known for its "Freedom" motto, outlaw image and adventuresome spirit — taking part in a solemn papal Mass to commemorate a 1995 encyclical on the inviolability of human life.

"Evangelium Vitae is a roadmap of the Church's teaching against abortion, euthanasia and murder," Associated Press reported. "Harley's advertising for its 2013 bike collection reads ‘Live life on your own terms. More than 30 ways to defy the status quo'."

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi noted that there were probably quite a few Catholic riders in the crowd and that, regardless, anyone is welcome to a papal Mass.

"I know great people who have big bikes," he quipped.

Sources:

Catholic News Agency

Yahoo! News

Image: La Repubblica

Fondness and confessions

The wave of affection for the new Pope is undeniable, with requests to attend papal audiences skyrocketing. Bergoglio has made contact with the crowds a focal point of his papacy. He spends a great deal of time among the faithful in St. Peter's Square, getting out of the pope-mobile to greet them. During last Wednesday's General Audience he dedicated almost half an hour to talking about contact with people and faithful. Some are sceptical and even irritated by this "honey moon" between the Pope and the people, expecting things to turn sour any minute. This could happen for example if the Pope adopts a rigid stance in the field of sexual morality. It would be a mistake to believe that this new relationship is being blown out of proportion by the media. Pope Francis spoke of mercy right from the outset and this triggered something deeper than mere fondness in the hearts of faithful. So many approached the Catholic faith again after decades of estrangement from the Church and they themselves say Francis' words are to thank for this.

The Sanctae Marthae residence

Although he is now Pope, Francis has not really changed since his days as Archbishop of Buenos Aires. His style is still the same and this has contributed to alterations being made to the Vatican's set protocol. His personal style has been leading the Catholic Church in the direction of a sobriety and simplicity that faithful recognise and appreciate. Continue reading

Sources

• Deacon Greg Kandra in The Deacon's Bench
• Image: Catholic Herald

Deacon Greg Kandra is a Roman Catholic deacon serving the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York.

The Vatican's Philatelic and Numismatic Office, which sells commemorative coins and stamps featuring popes, saints and the like, is offering a special 20-euro ($NZ31.50) stamp and certificate package to help offset a recession-induced drop in corporate sponsors for the project.

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The project will encompass all of the square's 376 columns and pillars, 140 statues and 1,200 metres in terraces and cornices, as well as the Clementina and Gregoriana fountains and the Egyptian obelisk in the middle.

Due for completion in 30 months, the work will restore the colours and architectural integrity of the famous designer Gian Lorenzo Bernini, a sculptor and architect behind some of Rome's best-known landmarks.

The work will be overseen by the Vatican Museums and is reportedly being funded by generous sponsors.

Source

• Associated Press
• L'Osservatore Romano