Pope Francis has voiced serious doubt about the authenticity of alleged continuing apparitions of the Madonna in Medjugorje, a once-obscure village in Bosnia boosted by the pilgrim business. “These presumed apparitions don’t have a lot of value. This I say as a personal opinion,” he told reporters on his plane returning on Saturday night from […]
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Pope Francis called attention on Sunday to the plight of people affected by war and conflict in the Middle East as U.S.-backed forces close in on Islamic State militants in Iraq. “So many innocent people are being sorely tested, be they Christian, or Muslim, or from minority groups like the Yazidi, who are suffering tragic […]
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Pope Francis said on Saturday he would be “sincere” with U.S. President Donald Trump over their sharp differences on subjects such as immigration and climate change when the two hold their first meeting at the Vatican later this month. But the pope also told reporters aboard a plane returning from Portugal that he would keep […]
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Pope Francis warned against religious fanaticism on Saturday, wrapping up a brief trip to Cairo where he urged Muslim leaders to unite against violence by Islamic militants threatening to rid the Middle East of its ancient Christian communities. Francis’ trip comes three weeks after Islamic State killed at least 45 people in attacks on two […]
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Pope Francis, leading the world’s Roman Catholics into Easter, urged them on Saturday not to ignore the plight of immigrants, the poor and other vulnerable people. In his homily at an Easter Vigil Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, Francis recounted the Biblical account of Jesus Christ’s mother Mary and Mary Magdalene, filled with grief, as […]
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Pope Francis showed the common touch during a trip to Italy’s business capital on Saturday, visiting the homes of working-class families, including a Muslim one, and using an outdoor portable toilet. Instead of making his entry into the northern city via its grand centre, site of a gothic cathedral, top fashion labels and the famed […]
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Pope Francis has said he is willing to consider ordaining older married men as priests in isolated communities, but has ruled out making celibacy optional to tackle a shortage of clergy. The shortage has prompted calls from some progressives to end the ancient tradition of celibacy for Roman Catholic priests. Such a move would represent […]
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Pope Francis in his year-end message urged leaders on Saturday to do more to tackle youth unemployment, saying a generation was being lost to desperation, migration and joblessness. At his last public event of 2016, an evening vespers service in St. Peter’s Basilica, the 80-year-old Francis said doors had to be opened for young people […]
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Pope Francis warned on Saturday of a “global war” against traditional marriage and the family, saying both were under attack from gender theory and divorce. Francis made his comments in an impromptu response to a question at a meeting of the small Catholic community in the ex-Soviet republic of Georgia. “You mentioned a great enemy […]
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The canonisation of Mother Teresa of Calcutta on Sunday will be the culmination of a process – sometimes called “the saint-making machine” – that is long, complex, expensive, opaque and often contentious. The Catholic Church posthumously confers sainthood on people considered so holy during their lives that they are now believed to be with God […]
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