On Easter Monday, Pope Francis marked the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which, he said, “put an end to the violence that had troubled Northern Ireland for decades.”
Gerard O’Connell
Gerard O’Connell is America’s senior Vatican correspondent and author of The Election of Pope Francis: An Inside Story of the Conclave That Changed History. He has been covering the Vatican since 1985.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis’ Easter Message: The international community must strive to end the war in Ukraine
He asked Christ to help the international community “to make haste to surmount our conflicts and divisions, to open our hearts to those in greatest need” and “to pursue paths of peace and fraternity.”
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis, out of hospital, presides at Palm Sunday celebration
Pope Francis, recovering from bronchitis, delivered a forceful Palm Sunday homily asking us to remember the “many abandoned Christs” in our own time, or those who experience suffering and solitude.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
After hospital pizza party and baptizing a baby, Pope Francis expected to return to Vatican Saturday
The director of the Vatican press office, Matteo Bruni, said that “last evening, Pope Francis had dinner, eating a pizza, together with those who have assisted him in these days in hospital.”
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Vatican: Pope Francis treated for bronchitis and seeing ‘a marked improvement’ in health
More than 24 hours after he entered the hospital, Pope Francis’ doctors reported a “marked improvement” in his condition, which they attributed to treatment with intravenous antibiotics.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Vatican: Pope Francis’ condition improving after resting overnight in hospital
Pope Francis has asked the doctors not to give public reports on his health condition, as he does not want to dramatize his state of health.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Update: Pope Francis will remain in hospital for several days with respiratory infection
Pope Francis has “a respiratory infection that requires some days of appropriate medical therapy in hospital,” the Vatican press office said in a statement.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Cardinal Müller calls blessing of homosexual couples ‘blasphemy’
In a new interview, Cardinal Gerhard Müller said Pope Francis should correct or punish German bishops for approving “proposals directly against the Catholic faith,” including blessings for homosexual couples.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Pope Francis tells bishops of Latin America, where new sex abuse protections aren’t in place, to make it a priority
Pope Francis told the Latin American church leaders, “Anyone who lessens the impact of this history or minimizes the current danger dishonors those who have suffered so much and deceives those they claim to serve.”
Posted inFaith, Interviews
Cardinal McElroy on how Pope Francis has changed the church—and why some U.S. bishops are opposed to it
Reflecting on Pope Francis’ 10 years at the Vatican, Cardinal Robert McElroy says that “there has been a fundamental shift in perspective, of cultures and sometimes of priorities within the life of the church.”