VATICAN CITY (CNS) – From Cameroon to northern Italy and from Montreal to the Vatican, statements expressing “great joy” accompanied the news that a Canadian sister of Notre-Dame and two Italian missionary priests were released unharmed almost two months after being kidnapped in northern Cameroon.
Pope Francis celebrates Mass at Manger Square in Bethlehem, West Bank, May 25.
Pope said that when he prayed at the controversial Israeli-built separation wall in the West Bank and kissed the hands of Holocaust survivors, they were the “most authentic gestures” because they are the ones “you don’t think about … mine were not planned gestures, it just occurs to me to do something spontaneously that way.”
Many Jews in Jerusalem said while Pope Francis’ visit to their city was a positive thing, they wished their daily commute did not have to be disrupted so drastically.
Half a century after a historic encounter between their predecessors, Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew met in the same place to seek inspiration for Christian unity at the site of Christ’s death and resurrection.
Pope Francis has invited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli President Shimon Peres to pray together at the Vatican for peace between their nations.
Pope Francis will meet with a group of sex abuse victims for the first time in June, he told reporters May 26.
The U.S. bishops, meeting in New Orleans June 11-13, will discuss today’s economy and its impact on marriages and evangelization.
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (CNS) — A long line of cars trailed down the road next to the Church of the Nativity as Franciscan Father Ibrahim Faltas helped coordinate the placement of the electricity generator for the May 25 papal Mass. “We are working night and day,” he said calmly May 23, as he worked to quickly free up the road while drivers waited patiently in their cars. “I think it will be very nice. The people here are happy.”
About 60 retired or active duty U.S. military personnel packed their uniforms, flags, wheelchairs, canes and the inevitable emotional baggage of their daily struggles to take part in a pilgrimage to Lourdes.
