In this exclusive interview, Canadian Archbishop Don Bolen shares the significance of the pope’s meeting with Indigenous survivors of Canada’s residential schools and what he expects from the pope’s pledged visit to Canada.
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 picks popular Ghanaian cardinal Peter Turkson to head Vatican academies for sciences and social sciences
It had been rumored for some time that Pope Francis would appoint the internationally well-known and much-liked Ghanaian cardinal to another high-level position in the Holy See.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis last spoke to Putin before New Year’s, is willing to visit Kyiv but that is ‘up in the air’
Answering a question from America’s Vatican correspondent, Pope Francis indicated he has not spoken directly to President Putin since the war started.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis visits Malta this weekend. Here’s what to expect.
Francis has long desired to visit Malta where, according to the Acts of the Apostles, St. Paul was shipwrecked in 60 A.D. while en route to Rome, where he had asked to be judged.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Vatican Dispatch
Former Jesuit superior of Ukraine: ‘Putin is destroying the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.’
“If Putin says something on Tuesday, the Russian Patriarch has to say the same thing on Wednesday but just putting the word ‘God’ into the sentence,” David Nazar, S.J., said in an exclusive interview with Gerard O’Connell.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis: Stop the War in Ukraine! Silence the guns! Negotiate seriously for peace!
On Day 32 of the war in Ukraine, Pope Francis made another passionate appeal to political leaders “to understand that every day of war makes worse the situation for everyone.”
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis records impromptu video messages for Catholics in mainland China and Hong Kong amid Covid-19 spike
The pope recorded the messages in the spur-of-the-moment when he received the new bishop of Hong Kong, Bishop Stephen Chow Sau Yan, S.J., in a private audience at the papal library in the Vatican’s apostolic palace.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis just opened the door for lay people to head Vatican departments
Some commentators have called this “revolutionary,” but others say it has deep roots in church tradition.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis will consecrate Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on March 25
“I invite every community and every one of the faithful to join with me next Friday, March 25, the solemnity of the Annunciation, in making this solemn act of consecration of humanity.”
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
With Pope Francis’ reform of the Roman Curia, nine years of work is coming to fruition
“Praedicate Evangelium” allows for greater involvement of lay men and women in church governance and assigns the protection of minors a central place in the Curia’s structure.