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Inside the VaticanDecember 31, 2020
Pope Francis arrives for a prayer service in an empty St. Peter's Square at the Vatican March 27, 2020. At the conclusion of the service the pope held the Eucharist as he gave an extraordinary blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city and the world). The service was livestreamed in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. (CNS photo/Guglielmo Mangiapane, pool via Reuters)

The coronavirus pandemic upended everyone’s plans for 2020—including the Vatican’s. From the first weeks of the pandemic when Pope Francis prayed in the rain in St. Peter’s Square to the London finance scandal to the new standards of transparency ushered in by the McCarrick report, it has been an unprecedented year in every way.

Listen and subscribe to "Inside the Vatican" on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

This week on “Inside the Vatican,” host Colleen Dulle and Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell recap the biggest Vatican moments of 2020. The hosts focus on three areas of change in the Vatican: transparency, missionary work and solidarity with the poor.

Links from the show:

Gerard O’Connell: The Top 7 Pope Francis Stories of 2020

Deep Dive: The Vatican’s $200 million London real estate scandal, explained

Deep Dive: How will historians judge Pope Pius XII’s decisions during World War II?

Deep Dive: The Rise and Fall of Theodore McCarrick

Deep Dive: The Vatican-China deal, explained

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