Category Archives: Pope Francis

Campaigners in Italy urge pope to stop ‘sacrifice’ of 200-year-old tree for Xmas

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Twenty-nine-metre tall fir destined to be chopped down and transported to St Peter’s Square in the Vatican

Environmental campaigners in Italy’s northern Trentino province have started a campaign to stop the felling of a 200-year-old fir tree intended to form the centrepiece of the Vatican’s Christmas decorations.

The so-called “Green Giant” is 29 metres tall and is due to be chopped down next week in a forest in the Ledro valley before being transported to the Vatican and positioned in St Peter’s Square, where it will be unveiled on 9 December.

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Head of New Orleans’ embattled Catholic archdiocese offers to resign

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Gregory Aymond’s offer, required because he turns 75, says he wants to stay for resolution of institution’s bankruptcy but adds it is up to Pope Francis

New Orleans’ Roman Catholic archbishop Gregory Aymond is submitting his resignation Tuesday, on his 75th birthday, fulfilling a church requirement – though it is unclear if Vatican officials would immediately accept it with his scandal-plagued organization’s expensive, highly contentious bankruptcy case still unresolved.

In a letter issued on Friday to priests and deacons under his command, Aymond cited canon – or church – law that required him to offer to retire because of his age. But he said he also offered to remain in office until the resolution of the bankruptcy.

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Mikola Bychok: Melbourne bishop’s appointment to College of Cardinals seen as gesture of support for Ukraine

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Ukraine-born Mikola Bychok will become the only Australian resident in the powerful Catholic church position and the youngest cardinal overall

At just 44, Ukraine-born Melbourne bishop Mikola Bychok has ascended to one of the most powerful positions in the Catholic church, where he will have a say in who becomes the next pope.

Pope Francis named him as one of 21 new cardinals, making him the only Australian resident who will don the signature red vestments, and the youngest cardinal overall.

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Pope Francis welcomed to remote Papua New Guinea as he seeks ‘to break down distances’

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The pontiff visited the small town of Vanimo after delivering mass to an estimated 35,000 people in the capital of Port Moresby

Pope Francis travelled to Vanimo, on Papua New Guinea’s remote north-west coast, after celebrating a mass in the capital of Port Moresby in front of an estimated audience of 35,000 people.

The pope received an enthusiastic welcome in the town located on a peninsula close to the border with Indonesia. He was greeted by members of the small Catholic community who are served by missionaries from his native Argentina.

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Pope arrives in Indonesia, the first stop on longest tour of his papacy

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Pontiff lands in Jakarta before travelling on to Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore over 12 days

Pope Francis arrived in Muslim-majority Indonesia on Tuesday to kick off a four-nation tour of the Asia-Pacific that will be the longest and farthest of the 87-year-old’s papacy.

The head of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics touched down in the capital, Jakarta, for a three-day visit devoted to inter-religious ties, and will then travel to Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore.

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Pope Francis to set off on challenging 12-day Asia-Pacific tour

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Pontiff’s itinerary, including visits to Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, reflects importance of Asia to Catholic church

Pope Francis is to embark on the longest, farthest and perhaps most challenging trip of his pontificate as he begins a 12-day Asia-Pacific tour that is expected to highlight environmental threats, emphasise interfaith dialogue and reinforce the importance of Asia for the Catholic church.

The 87-year-old will set off on Monday on a tour taking in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, a trip that will clock up more than 20,000 miles by air.

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‘Laughing at God is not blasphemy’: Pope Francis opens Vatican doors to comedians

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More than 100 comics from around the world including Jimmy Fallon and Chris Rock visited the pontiff on Friday

Pope Francis said that laughing at God “is not blasphemy” as he met more than 100 comedians from around the world at the Vatican on Friday, encouraging them to use their powerful gift of humour to spread laughter “in the midst of so much gloomy news”.

The pontiff, himself prone to the odd quip, invited comedians including Jimmy Fallon, Chris Rock, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Stephen Merchant to the audience at the Apostolic Palace as part of his attempt to engage with contemporary culture.

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London-born boy who died aged 15 to become first millennial saint

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Second posthumous miracle attributed to leukaemia victim Carlo Acutis, qualifying him for canonisation

A London-born teenager who died of leukaemia aged 15 is to become the Catholic church’s first millennial saint.

Carlo Acutis was a computer prodigy who helped to spread Roman Catholic teaching online before his death in 2006. On Thursday, Pope Francis decreed that a second posthumous miracle has been attributed to Acutis, qualifying the teenager for canonisation.

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Pope visits women’s prison in Venice and tours Vatican show at art Biennale

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Pope Francis, 87, met inmates, staff and volunteers at Giudecca jail during first trip outside Rome for months

The pope has met female prisoners in Venice who are stars of the Vatican’s pavilion at the Biennale contemporary art show, and urged the women to rebuild their lives in the first ever papal visit to one of the world’s biggest art gatherings.

Pope Francis, 87, arrived by helicopter in the courtyard of the women’s prison on the island of Giudecca, amid concerns over his health. He has not travelled outside Rome since visiting the French city of Marseille in September.

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Pope presides over Easter Vigil service after skipping Good Friday procession

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Appearance comes a day after last-minute decision to miss previous service to ‘conserve his health’

Pope Francis presided over the Vatican’s somber Easter Vigil service on Saturday night, a day after making the last-minute decision to skip his participation in the Good Friday procession at the Colosseum as a health precaution.

Francis entered the darkened, silent St Peter’s Basilica in his wheelchair, took his place in a chair and offered an opening prayer, sounding somewhat congested and out of breath.

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Pope criticised for saying Ukraine should ‘raise white flag’ and end war with Russia

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Francis’s failure to condemn Moscow as aggressor decried as ‘shameful’ and ‘incomprehensible’

Pope Francis has been criticised after saying Ukraine should have the courage of the “white flag” and negotiate an end to the war with Russia.

Some politicians and commentators in Europe reacted with anger after the pontiff appeared to stay silent on Russia’s crimes as aggressor in the invasion, which has killed tens of thousands, and placed the onus on Ukraine to make peace.

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‘Sexual pleasure a gift from God’ but avoid porn, Pope Francis advises

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Pontiff thought be be responding to conservative critics after sexually explicit book by cardinal resurfaces

“Sexual pleasure is a gift from God” but Catholics must avoid pornography, Pope Francis has said.

The pontiff made the remarks during a catechesis devoted to the “vice of lust” at his general audience in Saint Peter’s Square on Wednesday.

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Vatican: same-sex couples ruling is not endorsement of homosexuality

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New practice does not endorse homosexuality but is not heretical, Catholic church says amid opposition from some bishops

The Vatican has stressed that allowing priests to bless same-sex couples is not an endorsement of homosexuality, but neither is it blasphemous, after some Catholic bishops reacted negatively to the measure announced last month.

Pope Francis approved a ruling in December allowing priests to bless unmarried and same-sex couples so long as the blessing was performed without any type of ritualisation and did not give the impression of the church’s approval of the relationship.

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Italian priest struck off for calling Francis an ‘anti-pope usurper’

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Priest in Tuscany compares Francis unfavourably with Pope Benedict in New Year’s Eve address shared online

An Italian priest has been struck off after calling Pope Francis an “anti-pope usurper” in his New Year’s Eve homily.

Father Ramon Guidetti’s speech to the congregation at St Ranieri church in Guasticce, a hamlet in the Tuscan province of Livorno, was a tribute marking the first anniversary of the death of Francis’s predecessor Benedict XVI.

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‘Sorrow and silence’ in Bethlehem as Christmas festivities are cancelled

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The streets are usually thronged with tourists and pilgrims but this year the town is mourning the dead of the Gaza war

In the days leading up to Christmas, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, said that one particular Bible verse kept running through his mind.

“When Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem she gave birth to the Lord in a manger because ‘there was no room for them’,” he told about 5,000 people during the Christmas Eve midnight mass service in the Palestinian town where Christians believe Jesus was born.

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Pope Francis reveals he will not be buried in Vatican

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Pontiff tells Mexican broadcaster he will break with tradition and simplify papal funeral

Pope Francis has said he has “already prepared” his tomb in a Rome basilica in a further sign of the pontiff’s quest to break from longstanding Vatican tradition.

Francis, who turns 87 on 17 December, told the Mexican broadcaster N+ that he would be laid to rest in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in the Esquilino neighbourhood in Rome, where he goes to pray before and after trips overseas.

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Pope revokes privileges of conservative US cardinal critical of church’s reform

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In second radical action in a month, pontiff hits back at retired prelate Raymond Burke, one of his most vocal critics

Pope Francis has decided to punish one of his highest-ranking critics, Cardinal Raymond Burke, by revoking his right to a subsidized Vatican apartment and salary in the second such radical action against a conservative American prelate this month, according to two people briefed on the measures.

Francis told a meeting of the heads of Vatican offices last week that he was moving against Burke because he was a source of “disunity” in the church, said one of the participants at the 20 November meeting. The participant spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to reveal the contents of the encounter.

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Hospital tests on Pope Francis rule out respiratory problems

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Pope cancelled Saturday activities due to ‘light flu’ a week before key climate address

Pope Francis has undergone hospital tests after he came down with the flu but the results ruled out any respiratory problems, the Vatican said.

Francis, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, underwent a Cat scan, the Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said.

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Pope Francis dismisses conservative Texas bishop and critic Joseph Strickland

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Rare move comes after years of criticism from Strickland, a strong supporter of former US president Donald Trump

Pope Francis has dismissed a bishop in Texas, Joseph Strickland, one of his fiercest critics among US Roman Catholic conservatives, the Vatican has said.

It is very rare for a bishop to be relieved of his duties outright. Usually bishops in trouble with the Vatican are asked to resign before submitting a resignation, which the pope accepts.

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Pope accepts resignation of Polish bishop after gay orgy scandal in diocese

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Vatican did not say why Grzegorz Kaszak was resigning, but priest from his diocese faced criminal investigation

The pope has accepted the resignation of a Polish bishop whose diocese has been rocked by reports of a gay orgy involving a male sex worker in a priest’s apartment, as well as previous violent incidents involving his clergy.

The Vatican did not give a reason why Grzegorz Kaszak was resigning as head of the diocese of Sosnowiec, in south-western Poland. At 59, he is several years shy of the normal retirement age of 75.

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