Vatican News

Pope to canon lawyers: Annulment process must be secure, prompt

Vatican City, Jan 26, 2015 / 11:33 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In a speech delivered on Saturday to participants in a conference on how to handle causes of nullity, Pope Francis encouraged a marriage process that is both sure of its judgements and prompt.

Pope: Dialogue between religions key in countering violence

Vatican City, Jan 25, 2015 / 07:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis on Jan. 24 stressed the need for dialogue between different faiths, saying that it is essential in preventing violence and promoting peace.

“Perhaps now more than ever such a need is felt, because the most effective antidote against all forms of violence is education towards the discovery and acceptance of differences,” he said, according to Vatican Radio.

Christian unity demands encounter – not theory, says Pope

Vatican City, Jan 25, 2015 / 03:37 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- More than “theoretical discussions,” what unites Christians is encounter, and a willingness to “challenge one another,” said Pope Francis as he marked the conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

“Christian unity will not be the fruit of subtle theoretical discussions in which each party tries to convince the other of the soundness of their opinions,” the Pope said during vespers at Saint Paul Outside the Walls Basilica on Jan. 25.

As Ukraine violence continues, Pope renews call for dialogue

Vatican City, Jan 25, 2015 / 12:35 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- During his weekly Angelus address, Pope Francis decried the recent escalation of violence in Ukraine, and later called on Christians to pray for unity with one another.

“With deep concern, I am following the worsening of clashes in eastern Ukraine, which continues to cause many victims among the civilian population,” the Pope said Jan. 25, addressing the crowds from the window of the Apostolic Palace.

Pope Francis surprised by misunderstanding of his words on family

Vatican City, Jan 24, 2015 / 04:20 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis was surprised that his words on responsible parenthood were not widely taken in the sense that he intended them, a Vatican official related in an interview on Thursday.

Archbishop Giovanni Becciu, Substitute at the Secretariat of State, also told Avvenire, the Italian bishops' publication, on Jan. 22 that the Pope was saddened at the misunderstanding.

Want Christian unity? Deepen your own conversion, Pope says

Vatican City, Jan 24, 2015 / 02:46 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis told a group of religious men and women that they are the forerunners in working towards Christian unity, which is something that first requires personal conversion, holiness and prayer.

'Given the new situation, a papal trip to Cuba would be hoped for'

Vatican City, Jan 20, 2015 / 12:43 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Following the Vatican-brokered restoration of relations between the US and Cuba, a visit of Pope Francis to the island should be “expected and welcomed,” according to the Vatican's emeritus Secretary of State.

Pope Francis' curial reform: sending bishops home to dioceses

Vatican City, Jan 20, 2015 / 02:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The appointment of Bishop Mario Toso as head of the small Italian diocese of Faenza-Modigliana leaves vacant the post of secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, a Vatican office that will be involved in the larger process of Curia reform.

Full text of Pope's in-flight interview from Manila to Rome

Aboard the papal plane, Jan 19, 2015 / 03:20 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Speaking to journalists aboard the Jan. 19 flight from Manila to Rome concluding his Asian pilgrimage, Pope Francis discussed what he learned from Filipinos; his upcoming trip to Philadelphia and other US cities; how one can be a responsible parent without resorting to birth control; the colonization of gender ideology; and the possibility of a papal trip to Africa.

Kids in poor countries suffer when West pushes sex agenda, Pope says

Aboard the papal plane, Jan 19, 2015 / 12:43 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis cautioned on Monday that gender ideologies from the wealthy western world are being imposed on developing nations by tying them to foreign aid and education, in a form of "ideological colonization."

Retreat House Bandra