Pope Francis hit out strongly against the way people have sought to manipulate Benedict’s death. “People who instrumentalize such a good person, [a man] of God, almost I would say a holy father of the church, have no ethics,” he said. “They are of a party, not of the church.”
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 inPolitics & Society, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis tells young people: ‘You are the seed of a new South Sudan.’
Pope Francis repeated his pressing call for an end to the violence that has forced millions into camps for refugees or the internally displaced in South Sudan.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis arrives in South Sudan with a message that ‘may appear blunt and direct’ to its leaders
Pope Francis is on an ecumenical pilgrimage for reconciliation and peace with Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury; and Iain Greenshields, the moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
‘We thank God for the pope’: Takeaways from Pope Francis’ visit to the D.R.C.
In the D.R.C., Pope Francis has shown his advanced age and physical mobility problems have not limited his extraordinary capacity to console the afflicted, call evildoers to conversion and sustain the faithful in hope.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis preaches peace to one million Congolese people at Zaire rite Mass
Pope Francis told the million Congolese gathered before him that Jesus has shown “three sources” from which “to nurture peace”: “forgiveness, community and mission.”
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Pope Francis tells foreign exploiters in Congo: ‘Hands off Africa!’
”Hands off Africa!” Pope Francis said on the first day of his visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “Stop choking Africa: It is not a mine to be stripped or a terrain to be plundered.”
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis taps Chicago-born bishop to lead Vatican department that evaluates new bishops
The decision comes at a time when Cardinal Ouellet is pursuing a defamation case against a Canadian woman church worker, who had accused him of unwanted sexual touching.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
What to expect during Pope Francis’ visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan
Pope Francis will make his fourth journey to Africa on January 31. Hopes are high that Francis’ visit may kick-start the struggling peace processes in both countries.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis makes urgent appeal for peace in Holy Land
He called for dialogue “immediately and without delay.”
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Biographer reveals the reason for Pope Benedict’s resignation: insomnia
Pope Benedict’s German biographer, Peter Seewald, confirmed that nine weeks before he died, Benedict revealed that insomnia was the “central motive” for his resignation.