Tag Archives: Vatican

Pope Francis said he is not sure if his trip to Iraq in March can take place because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He cast doubt on the trip, which would be the first by a pope to the country, in an interview with Italy’s Canale 5 broadcast on Sunday night. …

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan reconverted the historic Chora church, one of Istanbul’s most celebrated Byzantine buildings, into a mosque on Friday, a month after opening the famed Hagia Sophia to Muslim worship. The mediaeval Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora, built near the ancient city walls of Constantinople, contains …

Pope Francis appealed on Sunday for both sides in the Libyan civil war to seek peace, urging the international community to facilitate talks and protect refugees and migrants he said were victims of cruelty. In an impassioned plea during his noon address in St. Peter’s Square, Francis said he was …

Pope Francis has expressed concern for the humanitarian situation in northwestern Syria and urged a negotiated end to years of fighting, in a letter delivered on Monday to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The Vatican said the letter was handed over by Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, who heads the Vatican …

If anyone had any doubts how Pope Francis feels about people who always complain, the answer is now tacked to the door of his frugal suite in a Vatican residence: “No Whining”. Under the explicit warning, the red-and-white Italian language sign goes on to say that “violators are subject to …

In a major shake-up of the Vatican’s administration on Saturday, Pope Francis replaced Catholicism’s top theologian, a conservative German cardinal who has been at odds with the pontiff’s vision of a more inclusive Church. A brief Vatican statement said Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller’s five-year mandate as head of the Congregation …

Australian police charged a top adviser to Pope Francis with multiple historical sex crimes on Thursday, in a case that poses a dilemma for a pontiff who has vowed zero tolerance for such offences. Cardinal George Pell is the Vatican’s de facto treasury minister and is the highest-ranking Vatican official …

China said on Tuesday it opposed outside interference in its internal affairs after the Vatican expressed concern about a Chinese bishop it said had been “removed”. Pope Francis would like to heal a decades-old rift with China, where Catholics are divided between those loyal to him and those who belong …

The Levant – – Pope Francis met Cuba’s revolutionary leader Fidel Castro on Sunday hours after warning Cubans to beware the dangers of ideology and the lure of selfishness as their country enters a new era of closer ties with the United States. Latin America’s first pope and Castro, the …

The Levant – – “There are wars, refugees who are escaping in this wave of migration away from wars,” Pope Francis on Saturday told reporters aboard the plane taking him from Rome to Havana to start his nine-day trip to Cuba and the United States. Pop described how he became emotional …

THE LEVANT EXCLUSIVE – Holy See spokesman Federico Lombardi confirmed this Saturday that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will meet with the Pope on Monday on what will be Egypt’s president first visit to the Vatican in eight years. The Vatican also confirmed that President al-Sisi will be accompanied  by …

THE LEVANT – By Robert Bridge – A high-ranking Israeli official on Sunday slammed a statement from Catholic bishops, who called for international organizations to lead the cause of Palestinian statehood. Greek-Melchite Archbishop Cyrille Bustros sparked an interreligious firestorm when he suggested that Israel was “using Scripture” to continue its …