Letter from the Vatican Pope Francis, known in his native Argentina for never leaving home, collected more frequent-flyer miles in 2019 than in any of the previous six years of his pontificate, travelling to Panama, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bulgaria and North Macedonia, Romania, Mozambique, Madagascar, Mauritius, Thailand and Japan. Though each trip…
Speaking to a group of lawyers last Friday, Pope Francis said that the Catholic Church is contemplating the introduction of “ecological sin” to the compendium of Church teaching. “We have to introduce, we are thinking about it, in the catechism of the Catholic Church, the sin against ecology, the sin against our common home, because…
Some 40 bishops participating in the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon gathered on Sunday in the Catacombs of St Domitilla in Rome to renew a pact signed in 1965 by 42 prelates at the Second Vatican Council calling for a poor Church. Though both ‘Pacts of the Catacombs’ were inspired by a commitment to…
Letter from Rome Speaking to a network of religious sisters that helps human trafficking victims, Pope Francis last Thursday told them to work closely with the local Church, because this is necessary for their project to be successful. “I want to reiterate that the journey of consecrated life, both female and male, is the path…
S eventeen years ago, a priest at the Church of Santa Maria in Buenos Aires was tidying up when he discovered two small pieces of a Eucharistic host on the altar. Church rules told him exactly what to do in such a situation, and he followed them to the letter – placing the pieces of…
With a flourish he inherited from Argentina’s legendarily populist political force, Peronism, Pope Francis from the beginning has been a vocal champion of labour and workers’ rights, backing measures such as equal pay for equal jobs between men and women, affordable housing and land, and living wages. Just last week, during his daily morning Mass,…