Latest Vatican City News
Pope denounces 'cruel violence' of Sri Lanka Easter attack
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis denounced the "cruel violence" of the Easter Sunday slaughter of Christians and foreigners in Sri Lanka as he celebrated the most joyful moment on the Christian liturgical calendar by lamenting the bloodshed and political violence afflicting many parts of the world. Francis...
Pope during Easter vigil: reject the 'glitter of wealth'
VATICAN CITY (AP) — At an Easter vigil in St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis on Saturday encouraged people to resist cynicism or pursuing the "glitter of wealth," and to avoid seeking life's meaning in "things that pass away." "Do not bury hope!" Francis exclaimed, after noting that when things go badly,...
Pope cites plight of migrants, children on Good Friday
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis used a Good Friday ceremony to decry "all the crosses" of suffering in the world, including those borne by migrants who find doors closed due to "political calculations" and children who are harmed in their "innocence and purity," in a reference to pedophile clergy. From a...
Pope washes inmates' feet, says bishops must be servants
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis washed the feet of 12 prisoners Thursday and urged them to serve one another as brothers, as he ushered in the solemn pre-Easter rituals made more poignant this year following the devastation of Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral. Francis travelled to a prison in Velletri, outside...
Pope encourages Swedish campaigner Greta on environment
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis encouraged Swedish teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg on Wednesday to continue her campaign to fight climate change, during a brief meeting at the end of his weekly general audience. Thunberg arrived late and took her seat in the VIP section in St. Peter's...
Tourist mecca Notre Dame also revered as place of worship
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The soaring beauty of Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral as it echoed with Gregorian chants so moved French poet Paul Claudel on Christmas Day 1886 that the avowed atheist converted to Catholicism on the spot. "In an instant, my heart was touched and I believed," Claudel, who remained a...
Pope Francis blesses palm branches as he ushers in Holy Week
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis warned against being judgmental and too full of oneself, including authorities in the Catholic church, in his Palm Sunday homily during Mass in St. Peter's Square, which was crowded with tens of thousands of pilgrims, tourists and Romans. The day ushers in Holy Week, which...
Pope kisses feet of South Sudan's leaders to encourage peace
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis knelt and kissed the feet of South Sudan's rival leaders Thursday, in an unprecedented act of humbleness to encourage them to strengthen the African country's faltering peace process. At the close a two-day retreat in the Vatican for the African leaders, the pope asked...
Retired Pope Benedict wades into clergy sex abuse debate
Pope Benedict XVI has ventured out of retirement to publish an essay blaming the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal on the sexual revolution of the 1960s and church laws that protected priests. His analysis was immediately criticized as "catastrophically irresponsible" — a conflict with efforts by his...
Pope invites foreign press association to Vatican next month
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis, who travels with journalists aboard the papal plane, is expanding his reach when he meets with members of Italy's 400-strong foreign press association at the Vatican on May 18. The Argentine-born Francis, the first pope from Latin America, occasionally gives interviews to...
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