Pope Francis was supposed to depart March 1 for his annual weeklong Lenten retreat with senior members of the Roman Curia. As has been custom since 2015, the get-away is being staged at a retreat center in the nearby hill town of Ariccia, about 45 minutes by car outside Rome.
Pope Francis did not attend a traditional penitential service with priests of the Diocese of Rome due to a mild cold, the Vatican said.
Visiting the Southern Italian city of Bari, Pope Francis on Feb. 23 demanded government leaders protect minorities, particularly Christians.
During the Roman Empire, the entire Mediterranean region was known as Mare Nostrum,“Our Sea.” It was an imperial assertion of dominance, of course, but it also reflected the idea that the peoples of the Mediterranean are linked by geography and destiny, sharing a common fate.
The pope in his apostolic exhortation largely sidestepped the question of whether married men can become priests, but he made clear that it’s not happening now.
The decade-long process of updating the laws of Vatican City State is part of the Vatican’s support for international commitments to protect people and safeguard vulnerable groups, who are “frequently the victims of new, odious forms of illegality,” Pope Francis said.
The Holy Father’s Apostolic Exhortation, Querida Amazonia, or Beloved Amazon, is a sensitive document that vividly describes the cultural and ecological challenges of the Amazon.
In the 1990s, the phrase “if it bleeds, it leads” became a staple at some television stations around the country. Newscasts would focus almost entirely on crime, violence and salacious stories to attract viewers. That bygone era came to mind when I read Pope Francis’ Jan. 24 message for World Communications Day, which focused on storytelling. It pointedly made me think of how different storytelling, and journalism, could be from that late 20th-century approach.
Pope Francis’ highly anticipated document on the Amazon, released on Feb. 12, bypasses two hot-button issues looming over its publication — married priests and women deacons. Meanwhile, it calls for “outrage” over the treatment of the region’s land and its peoples.
Pope Francis’s highly anticipated document on the Amazon bypasses two hot-button issues looming over its publication – the possibility of married priests and women deacons – while calling for “outrage” over the treatment of the region’s land and its peoples.
