Just hours after a Vatican news conference confirming Pope Francis’ trip to Dubai this weekend for a United Nations climate summit, the Vatican announced Tuesday that it has been canceled upon medical advice due to an ongoing infection causing lung inflammation.
A cohort of Japanese and U.S. Catholic bishops have applauded this week’s meeting of nations that have formally joined the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as “another historic step on the journey toward hope, toward the light, toward a world free of nuclear weapons.”
Qatar’s foreign affairs ministry said Nov. 27 that an agreement has been reached to extend the Israel-Hamas truce for another two days. The announcement was made by a ministry’s spokesperson on X on the final day of a four-day cease-fire in which hostages abducted by Hamas in October have been released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
As a result of what the Vatican described on Monday as an inflammation of his lungs, for which he’s receiving antibiotic treatments, Pope Francis has postponed several commitments in the coming days in order to preserve his strength for a planned Dec. 1-3 trip to Dubai for the COP-28 climate change summit.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — With hopes growing for a temporary, humanitarian cease-fire, Pope Francis met at the Vatican Nov. 22 with relatives of Israelis held hostage by Hamas and, separately, with relatives of Palestinians suffering under the Israeli siege of Gaza.
When Pope Francis visits Dubai in the United Arab Emirates Dec. 1-3 to address the opening of the U.N. Climate Change Conference, he will be the first pope ever to attend one of the global gatherings that began in 1995.
When a missile hit a building inside the compound of the St. Porphyrios Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza, it was the first time many in Egypt and surrounding Arab countries were aware that there are still Palestinian Christians living in Gaza.
Every day amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, a Palestinian Catholic Relief Services staff member makes his way by donkey to various shops in Gaza to check if they have been bombed, and if not, if they still have supplies.
Archbishop Li Shan of Beijing, who leads the government-sponsored bishops’ conference in China, began a five-day visit to Hong Kong Nov. 13 intended to strengthen ties between the two churches and to facilitate stronger communication between the Holy See and mainland China.
As the war in Gaza drags on and other global hotspots escalate, Church leaders in both Europe and the Holy Land have again called for peace and disarmament, and for acts of solidarity with those who are suffering.
