Vatican City, Nov 5, 2019 / 11:12 am (CNA).- A 50 million euro loan request to secure the purchase of a bankrupt hospital was vetoed by Cardinal George Pell and financial authorities at the Institute for Works of Religion, commonly called the Vatican Bank, before it was approved by the Holy See’s central bank, APSA, where the loan breached international regulatory agreements. 

Vatican City, Nov 4, 2019 / 07:30 am (CNA).- Pope Francis urged Catholics to meditate on the final judgement at a Mass offered Monday for the souls of cardinals and bishops who died within the past year.

“Saint Ignatius suggests, before making an important decision, to imagine oneself before God at the end of days,” Pope Francis said in his homily in St. Peter’s Basilica Nov. 4.

Vatican City, Nov 3, 2019 / 07:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis Sunday asked for prayer for persecuted Orthodox Christians in Ethiopia, who have been targeted in ongoing ethnic clashes that have left 78 people dead.

“I am saddened by the violence of which Christians of the Tewahedo Orthodox Church of Ethiopia are victims,” Pope Francis said in his Angelus address Nov. 3.

Vatican City, Nov 1, 2019 / 05:45 am (CNA).- The saints were real people whose strength to face daily challenges came from the grace of Jesus Christ, showing that everyone can be holy, Pope Francis said Friday on the Feast of All Saints Day.

“The saints of all times, which we all celebrate together today, are not simply symbols, distant human beings, unreachable,” he said Nov. 1.