Vatican News

Papal press conference ponders peace

Vatican City, Nov 26, 2019 / 01:05 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis reemphasized opposition to nuclear weapons, the global arms trade, and capital punishment on the plane ride back to Rome following his apostolic visit to Japan and Thailand.

During his visit, Francis visited both Hiroshima and Nagasaki--locations where the United States dropped atomic weapons at the conclusion of World War II. Francis said he found that Hiroshima was “a true human catechesis on cruelty: cruelty.”

On papal flight, Pope Francis talks Vatican financial scandal

Aboard the papal plane, Nov 26, 2019 / 11:31 am (CNA).- Although investigators are looking into a controversial Vatican investment in a luxury London property development, whether the deal was corrupt is still an open question, Pope Francis said Tuesday.

Answering questions aboard the papal plane from Tokyo to Rome Nov. 26, the pope said that investing funds from Peter’s Pence is an acceptable form of financial management if the investments are solid.

Zanchetta will return to Argentina, due in court on Thursday

Vatican City, Nov 25, 2019 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- Argentine Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta will be returning to his home country to face charges of sexual and financial misconduct on Tuesday, he announced in a statement through his canon lawyer on Saturday. 

Zanchetta, the former Bishop of Oran, has pledged to fully cooperate with authorities, and said he will appear at a court hearing on Thursday. Zanchetta has been accused of “aggravated continuous sexual abuse” of two adult-aged seminarians.

Pope's personal secretary will return to Vatican Congregation for Bishops

Vatican City, Nov 25, 2019 / 10:15 am (CNA).- The personal secretary to Pope Francis will leave his position in December, after nearly seven years of service to the pope.

Msgr. Fabian Pedacchio, an Argentine priest, will return to duties at the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops, where he had been working at the time of Pope Francis’ election, papal spokesman Matteo Bruni confirmed Nov. 25.

Pope Francis in Hiroshima: 'Never again war'

Hiroshima, Japan, Nov 24, 2019 / 05:30 am (CNA).- Pope Francis prayed for peace Sunday at the site of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, where he called for an end to war and the threat of nuclear weapons.

“How can we propose peace if we constantly invoke the threat of nuclear war as a legitimate recourse for the resolution of conflicts?” Pope Francis said Nov. 24 in Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park.

Be witnesses of hope in the face of evil, Francis urges Catholics in Nagasaki

Nagasaki, Japan, Nov 23, 2019 / 11:30 pm (CNA).- On the Feast of Christ the King Sunday, Pope Francis encouraged Catholics to not be indifferent to evil, but to bear witness to hope and to the kingdom of God still to come.

“If, as missionary disciples, our mission is to be witnesses and heralds of things to come, we cannot become resigned in the face of evil in any of its forms,” he said Nov. 24, at Mass in a baseball stadium in Nagasaki, Japan.

Pope Francis lands in Japan, where he once hoped to be a missionary

Tokyo, Japan, Nov 23, 2019 / 04:30 am (CNA).- In a meeting with bishops in Tokyo Saturday, Pope Francis recalled his former desire to be a missionary to Japan, praising those who carried the faith there before him.

“I don’t know if you are aware of this, but ever since I was young I have felt a fondness and affection for these lands,” Francis told the Japanese bishops in the apostolic nunciature in Tokyo Nov. 23.

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