Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Voices
Gerard O’Connell is America’s 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.
FaithVatican Dispatch
Gerard O’Connell
Francis emphasized the need for “theological freedom” and said that “without the possibility of experimenting new ways nothing new is created, and one does not leave space to the newness of the Spirit of the Risen One.”
Augustinian Father Miguel Angel Cadenas baptizes a young man June 12, in a village along the Urituyacu River in Peru.
FaithVatican Dispatch
Gerard O’Connell
While this proposal may draw most media attention, it should not be allowed to eclipse other significant aspects in the document, including the church’s strong commitment to work for justice for indigenous people and the protection of the environment.
FaithVatican Dispatch
Gerard O’Connell
His renunciation did not come as a total surprise given the controversy that erupted in Chile following the priest’s controversial statements after his nomination.
FaithVatican Dispatch
Gerard O’Connell
“It is inconceivable to be a pontifical representative and to criticize the pope behind his back, to have a blog or even to unite himself to groups hostile to him, to the [Roman] curia and to the church of Rome,” Pope Francis stated.
FaithVatican Dispatch
Gerard O’Connell
The text explains that “gender theory” expresses an ideology that “denies the difference and reciprocity in nature of a man and a woman.”
FaithVatican Dispatch
Gerard O’Connell
The fact that they are meeting for a third time shows that Putin considers Pope Francis an influential player and moral authority on the global stage.
Pope Francis with the judges at the Pan-American conference of judges on social rights (photo: Elisabetta Piquè).
FaithVatican Dispatch
Gerard O’Connell
In a speech to some 100 judges from north, central and south America, Pope Francis emphasized the crucial role of judges in protecting the social, economic and cultural rights of people.
Pope Francis listens to a question from Romanian journalist Cristian Micaci aboard his flight from Sibiu, Romania, to Rome June 2, 2019. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
FaithVatican Dispatch
Gerard O’Connell

After enduring three grueling and demanding days crisscrossing Romania, Pope Francis fielded six questions at a press conference that lasted around 30 minutes during the plane ride home.

Pope Francis greets the crowd before celebrating a Divine Liturgy and the beatification of seven martyred bishops of the Eastern-rite Romanian Catholic Church at Liberty Field in Blaj, Romania, June 2, 2019. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
FaithVatican Dispatch
Gerard O’Connell
These “pastors and martyrs for the faith,” Pope Francis said, “re-appropriated and handed down to the Romanian people a precious legacy that we can sum up in two words: freedom and mercy.”
Pope Francis greets the crowd before celebrating Mass at the Marian shrine of Sumuleu Ciuc in Miercurea Ciuc, Romania, June 1, 2019. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
FaithVatican Dispatch
Gerard O’Connell
“Complicated and sorrow-filled situations from the past must not be forgotten or denied,” he told the assembled during his homily, “yet neither must they be an obstacle or an excuse standing in the way of our desire to live together as brothers and sisters.”