Vatican News

Pope Francis speaks up on synod process – 'it isn't over'

Vatican City, Nov 30, 2014 / 05:57 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In keeping with his usual tradition on papal trips, Pope Francis held an in-flight press conference on his way back to Rome, in which he opened up about the debate surrounding last month’s Synod of Bishops.

“The Synod is a path, it is a journey, firstly. Secondly the synod is not a Parliament. It’s a protected space in which the Holy Spirit may speak,” the Roman Pontiff told journalists on his Nov. 30 flight back from Turkey.

Muslims must speak out against terrorism, violence, Pope insists

Vatican City, Nov 30, 2014 / 05:47 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On his in-flight press conference returning from a three-day trip to Turkey, Pope Francis said that Muslim leaders around the world must speak out against violence and terrorism carried out in the name of Islam.

“I believe sincerely that it can’t be said that all Muslims are terrorists. You can’t say that. Just as you can’t say that all Christians are fundamentalists because we have them too, eh. In all religions, there are these little groups,” he said Nov. 30.

Pope opens Year for Consecrated Life with call to joyful witness

Vatican City, Nov 30, 2014 / 03:19 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- At the opening of the Year for Consecrated Life, Pope Francis issued a challenge to consecrated men and women, inviting them to lives of courage, communion, and joy.

Nearly 50 years after Vatican II's decree on the Adaption and Renewal of Religious Life, Perfectae Caritatis, Pope Francis convoked the Year with the aim of expressing the “beauty and preciousness of this unique form” of Christian discipleship.

God never forgets his children, Pope Francis tells young refugees

Istanbul, Turkey, Nov 30, 2014 / 08:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- “Dear young people, do not be discouraged.” Pope Francis made this appeal during an encounter with young refugees in Istanbul, urging them to remember that God never forgets his children.

The Pope met with the refugees in the Salesian Oratory of Istanbul on Nov. 30, the third and final day of his Apostolic Journey to Turkey. The youth refugees taking part in the encounter were predominantly from Africa and the Middle East, especially Syria and Iraq.

Patriarch to Francis: 'You preach with words, but above all with love'

Istanbul, Turkey, Nov 30, 2014 / 06:52 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Head of the Eastern Orthodox Church Patriarch Bartholomew I lauded the humble manner in which Pope Francis exercises his Petrine ministry, and urged their churches to focus on the future of dialogue.

“Your Holiness, your hitherto brief tenure at the helm of Your Church has already manifested you in people’s conscience today as a herald of love, peace and reconciliation,” the patriarch told the Pope on Nov. 30.

Pope: Fighting for the poor doesn't make me Communist – it makes me Catholic

Vatican City, Oct 29, 2014 / 12:21 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis spoke out against oppression of the poor due to greed and warned again of the growing presence of a “globalization of indifference” – a warning, he said, which has wrongly type-casted him.  

“It is not possible to tackle poverty by promoting containment strategies to merely reassure, rendering the poor 'domesticated,' harmless and passive,” the Pope told those gathered for his Oct. 28 encounter with leaders of various Church movements.

The Church's mystery: it's both visible and spiritual, Pope says

Vatican City, Oct 29, 2014 / 09:12 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In his weekly general audience Pope Francis spoke of the visible actions carried out by the Church, explaining that they are an expression of her deeper spiritual reality rooted in the two natures of Christ.

“The visible and the invisible of the Church are not opposed, but are rather integrated in the one Church,” the Pope told those present in St. Peter’s Square for his Oct. 29 general audience.

Are you Catholic? Then stay in the Church, Pope says

Vatican City, Oct 28, 2014 / 10:58 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis said that those waiting at the threshold of the Church without going inside are not true members of the Church which Jesus established and on whom it is built.

“We are citizens, fellow citizens of this Church. If we do not enter into this temple to be part of this building so that the Holy Spirit may live in us, we are not in the Church,” the Pope told those present in the Vatican’s Saint Martha guesthouse for his Oct. 28 daily Mass.

Asia Bibi to Pope Francis: Pray for me, your daughter

Vatican City, Oct 28, 2014 / 10:09 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A Catholic woman condemned to death in Pakistan for allegedly violating the country's blasphemy law has asked Pope Francis for his prayers, saying that she trusts in God’s plan for her life.

“Pope Francis, I am your daughter, Asia Bibi. I implore you: pray for me, for my salvation and for my freedom. At this point I can only entrust (myself) to God Almighty who can do anything for me.”

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