cross-referenced news and research resources about
Pope Francis
Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio on 17 December 1936) is the 266th and current pope of the Catholic Church, elected on 13 March 2013. As such, he is both head of the Church and Sovereign of the Vatican City State.
A native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, he was ordained as a priest in 1969. He served as head of the Society of Jesus in Argentina 1973–1979. His relationship with the military junta during the National Reorganization Process remains controversial. In 1998 he became the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, and in 2001 a cardinal. Following the resignation of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, on 28 February 2013, the conclave elected Bergoglio, who chose the papal name Franciscus in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi. He is the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas, and the first from the Southern Hemisphere. Francis is the first non-European pope in 1,282 years, since Syrian St. Gregory III. Francis speaks Spanish, Latin, Italian, German, French, and English.
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Pope Francis
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updated Sat. September 30, 2023
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Defiance Crescent News
April 26, 2018
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican says Pope Francis is planning to invite heads of churches and Christian communities from the Middle East to join him in a day of reflection and prayer in the southeastern Italian port city of Bari on July 7. The announcement on Wednesday said Francis has called for thisÃâà...
Gannonknight
April 26, 2018
This year's Thomas J. and Mary H. Loftus Lecture, set for 7 p.m. Thursday in the Waldron Campus Center's Yehl Ballroom, will focus on “Pope Francis and the Challenge of Church Reform.” Dr. Richard Gaillardetz, Joseph Professor of Catholic Systematic Theology at Boston College, will be the featuredÃâà...
Crux: Covering all things Catholic
April 26, 2018
ROME - On Wednesday, Pope Francis spoke about the temptations encountered in the Christian life, encouraging faithful not to be discouraged by the struggle, but to be reassured and strengthened by the prayers of the Church. “It is difficult to fight against evil, to escape from its deceptions, to regainÃâà...
Vatican News
April 25, 2018
“Moved by the prayers and immense solidarity shown little Alfie Evans, I renew my appeal that the suffering of his parents may be heard and that their desire to seek new forms of treatment may be granted.” Those were Pope Francis' words in a renewed appeal for little Alfie in a Tweet on Monday evening.
New York Times
April 25, 2018
This week, Mr. Cruz and two other victims of Father Karadima's will stay at the Vatican in an extended visit with Pope Francis, who issued an extraordinary apology this month for “grave errors” in the handling of sexual abuse cases in Chile. Pope Francis had long defended a Chilean bishop who FatherÃâà...
Crux: Covering all things Catholic
April 24, 2018
LEICESTER, United Kingdom - Pope Francis on Monday evening tweeted his support for Alfie Evans, saying, “I renew my appeal that the suffering of his parents may be heard and that their desire to seek new forms of treatment may be granted.” It is the fourth time Francis has spoken up on behalf of theÃâà...
Rappler
April 22, 2018
'I express my solidarity with the country, and I join bishops in asking that the violence end, pointless spilling of blood is avoided and the underlying issues be resolved peacefully and with a sense of responsibility,' Pope Francis saysÃâà...
Crux: Covering all things Catholic
April 22, 2018
ROME - On Saturday, Pope Francis said that Christians are called to a mission of leading others to an encounter with Jesus Christ, in order that every person might grow in his or her individual call to holiness. “The men and women of our time need to meet Jesus Christ: He is the path that leads to the FatherÃâà...
Crux: Covering all things Catholic
April 22, 2018
ROME - On Sunday, Pope Francis ordained 16 men to the priesthood, reminding them to be like Jesus the Good Shepherd in the way they serve the members of their spiritual flock and minister to those who are lost and searching for God. “Always have before your eyes the example of the Good Shepherd,Ãâà...
The Atlantic
April 22, 2018
Ostensibly, his beef is with Pope Francis, whom Douthat paints as an unyielding and stubborn manager who has spent his five years in Rome failing the clean up the Vatican's messes, hurling insults at conservative clerics, and pushing radical doctrinal changes without buy-in from major wings of theÃâà...
Vatican News
April 21, 2018
By Linda Bordoni. Pope Francis recalled his visit to the city of Cesena for the commemoration of the third centenary of the birth of Pope Pius VI, and with a thought also for Pius VII. He said the memory of these two Bishops of Rome, both of whom were born in Cesena, provided a good opportunity to reflectÃâà...
Catholic Herald Online
April 21, 2018
The Pope visited Alessano, southern Italy, the birthplace of Bishop Bello, whose Cause was opened in 2007. Pope Francis has flown to Alessano, southern Italy, to commemorate 25 years since the death of Bishop Tonino Bello. The Pope was greeted by the faithful of Alessano singing “Oh, Freedom”,Ãâà...
GreenBiz
April 21, 2018
If Pope Francis were the United States Secretary of the Treasury, he might have issued the Department of the Treasury's recent press release April 22 with this comment from his encyclical "Laudato Si": "Enlighten those who possess power and money that they may avoid the sin of indifference, that they mayÃâà...
America Magazine
April 21, 2018
In a historic decision, Pope Francis has appointed three women—two Italians and one Belgian—as consultants to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as part of his ongoing effort to give a greater role to women in the work of the Roman Curia offices, the central administration of the Catholic churchÃâà...
National Catholic Register
April 21, 2018
For Massimo Borghesi, author of Jorge Mario Bergoglio: An Intellectual Biography, Pope Francis is an “original and profound” thinker who has drawn on numerous Church thinkers of the 20th century to seek a “third position” between conservatism and progressivism. In email comments to the Register,Ãâà...
africanews
April 21, 2018
Pope Francis on Saturday invited young people of Cuba to have courage and to work together to build up the Cuban Church of tomorrow. In a video message, which the Vatican said had been recorded last month, the pontiff told them never to fear to hear God's call and to work for the advancement of theÃâà...
Catholic News Agency
April 21, 2018
Vatican City, Apr 21, 2018 / 09:35 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Saturday Pope Francis said that Christians are called to a mission of leading others to an encounter with Jesus Christ, in order that every person might grow in his or her individual call to holiness. “The men and women of our time need to meet Jesus Christ: HeÃâà...
Omaha World-Herald
April 20, 2018
Pope Francis' ambassador to the United States will celebrate Mass on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus Sunday. Archbishop Christophe Pierre, officially known as the apostolic nuncio to the U.S., will perform the 10 a.m. service at the St. Thomas Aquinas Newman Center. The center servesÃâà...
Vatican News
April 20, 2018
The Pope made the comment that it is “Futurist”, and that “he likes it a lot”. Archbishop Ulloa also gave Pope Francis a pair of tennis shoes decorated by young people living in the cities surrounding Samaria, in Panama's San Miguelito district. Pope Francis received them, saying, “These are the shoes I willÃâà...
Crux: Covering all things Catholic
April 20, 2018
LEICESTER, United Kingdom - Britain's Supreme Court has approved a hospital plan for the withdrawing of life support for Alfie Evans, the 23-month-old child whose parents have been fighting a legal battle to keep him alive. Thomas Evans, the boy's father, met with Pope Francis on Wednesday, andÃâà...
New York Magazine
April 20, 2018
And in this fevered and often ill-tempered debate, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by much of Ross Douthat's new book lambasting Pope Francis as a small-minded heretic. It has all the usual Douthat reasonableness of tone, even a careful, almost Obama-like elaboration of two opposing ideas ofÃâà...
Eater
April 19, 2018
A Kentucky Catholic bishop delivered a bottle of extremely coveted Pappy Van Winkle bourbon to Pope Francis during a recent trip to the Vatican. His Holiness, it turns out, is aware that Pappy is “very good bourbon.” Pope; Pappy Van Winkle; Pope-y Van Winkle? Count Prince William as a fan of the spicyÃâà...
Catholic Herald Online
April 19, 2018
Pope Francis received Tom Evans, father of seriously ill child Alfie Evans, at his Santa Marta residence before his weekly general audience on Wednesday morning. Evans said that he had travelled to Rome the previous evening to attend the audience, at which Pope Francis once again mentioned his son,Ãâà...
America Magazine
April 19, 2018
When Pope Francis insisted that the lives of the unborn and of the poor are "equally sacred," he was not trying to shift the focus of Catholics from fighting abortion to fighting poverty, he was trying to show they are part of the same battle, said Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical AcademyÃâà...
Crux: Covering all things Catholic
April 18, 2018
ROME - On Wednesday, Pope Francis said that to make the sign of the cross is to mark ourselves as Christians, and that it is something we should do often to remind ourselves that we belong to God. “The cross is the badge that shows who we are: our speaking, thinking, looking, working [we are] under theÃâà...
Crux: Covering all things Catholic
April 18, 2018
Pope Francis meets with father of Alfie Evans, says only God is 'master of life'. In Church in UK and Ireland Ãâ÷ Charles Collins. Apr 18, 2018. MANAGING_EDITOR. Pope Francis meets with father of Alfie Evans, says only God is 'master of. Thomas Evans, father of sick child Alfie Evans, meets with Pope Francis on April 18.
New York Times
April 11, 2018
If the recent examinations of Pope Francis have proved anything, it is, as some of your correspondents have shown, that the line between his critics and his adversaries is a thin one, with both wielding charges of faithlessness to Catholic tradition on the one hand and an unwillingness to adapt to the modernÃâà...
New York Times
April 9, 2018
VATICAN CITY — Caring for migrants and the poor is as holy a pursuit as opposing abortion, Pope Francis declared in a major document issued by the Vatican on Monday morning. Pushing back against conservative critics within the church who argue that the 81-year-old pope's focus on social issues hasÃâà...
America Magazine
March 31, 2018
ROME (CNS) -- Leading a prayer to God for the grace to feel ashamed and repentant for so many sins in the world, Pope Francis highlighted the hope that always comes from Jesus. There is hope "because your church, holy and made up of sinners, continues even today, in spite of attempts to discredit it,Ãâà...
The Hill
March 31, 2018
On Palm Sunday and World Youth Day, Pope Francis told youth “not to keep quiet even if others keep quiet.” Young people should take his advice and speak out against Pope Francis's economic agenda. In his apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel”), Pope Francis said, “YoungÃâà...
Newsweek
March 31, 2018
All around the world those who are part of the Christian faith are taking part in holy week celebrations. For many that celebration involves attending church or mass. For those who either can't attend a mass near them or just wish to see Pope Francis deliver the services and masses of the week there is a liveÃâà...
euronews
March 31, 2018
Since his election in 2013, Pope Francis has often encouraged priests and prelates to live simply and serve others rather than seeking careers and status in the church or in society in general. The Way of the Cross service marks 14 events called stations, leading to Jesus' burial. This year, each was writtenÃâà...
The Straits Times
March 31, 2018
ROME (REUTERS) - Pope Francis led Roman Catholics in Good Friday (March 30) services under tight security, urging people, including ministers of his Church, to rediscover the capacity to feel shame for their role in the world's ills. Francis, 81, presided at a traditional Via Crucis (Way of the Cross)Ãâà...
Catholic News Agency
March 30, 2018
Pope Francis responded, “This is good. Because at my age, for example, cataracts arrive and one does not see reality well. Next year, we will have to have an operation.” He encouraged the inmates to have clear eyes – what he called “cataract surgery for the soul” – in order to see and spread hope.
Vatican News
March 30, 2018
On Holy Thursday, the day in which the Church recalls the institution of the priesthood, Pope Francis shared a moment of communion with diocesan and religious priests serving in the diocese of Rome. Ten pastors of Roman parishes were invited to join the Holy Father for lunch, including one born inÃâà...
WLKY Louisville
March 30, 2018
Pope Francis presided over solemn Good Friday services amid heightened security at Rome's Colosseum for the Via Crucis procession and a new communications controversy at home. Italian police, Carabinieri and soldiers were on alert, with Holy Week coinciding with a spate of arrests of suspectedÃâà...
Catholic Herald Online
March 30, 2018
When Amoris Laetitia was published in 2016, few anticipated how deeply it would divide the Church, how endless the controversy would be. Amid all the scandal and chaos, one fact has become clear. Though John Paul II and Benedict XVI stabilised the Church after the Council, their programme – broadlyÃâà...
New York Magazine
March 30, 2018
It's beyond ironic, then, that this Good Friday is marked by a murky debate over a claim that Pope Francis recently denied the existence of Hell in a discussion with an atheist friend. It's hard to imagine your average Pope having any atheist friends with whom he holds genial conversations. But Francis isn'tÃâà...
Catholic News Agency
March 29, 2018
Pope Francis had a message for prison inmates at the Mass for the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday: Jesus does not play it safe but takes a risk on each one of us, even to the point of washing our feet in the act of a servant. “Jesus comes to serve us, and the signal that Jesus serves here today, at the ReginaÃâà...
Crux: Covering all things Catholic
March 29, 2018
Pope Francis leads a Mass during his visit to the Regina Coeli detention center in Rome, Thursday, March 29, 2018, where he celebrated the "Missa in Coena Domini" and washed the feet of some inmates. (Credit: Vatican Media via AP.)Ãâà...
whnt.com
March 29, 2018
An Ohio family got a miracle this Holy Week: Pope Francis granted their son's wish with a papal kiss. Peter Lombardi, 12, was only 9 when he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in April 2015. His devoutly Catholic family had been set to see the Pope in Philadelphia that September whenÃâà...
Newsweek
March 29, 2018
The Catholic New Agency also pointed out that, after a controversial 2013 article, Scalfari admitted that some words attributed to the pontiff "were not shared by Pope Francis" himself. Francis is the 266th Catholic pope and the first to be born in the Western Hemisphere. Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio inÃâà...
Crux: Covering all things Catholic
March 28, 2018
Pope Francis with Peter Lombardi at the General Audience in St. Peter's Square, March 28, 2018. ... ROME - When Peter Lombardi was diagnosed with leukemia in 2015, his wish was to get a kiss from Pope Francis, but his family's plans to see him at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia fellÃâà...
Rome Reports
March 21, 2018
Pope Francis focused his catechesis on the effects of communion on a person during Mass. He says that by saying, “Amen,” when we receive Him, we are “nourished by the bread of life, we become a living Eucharist; in a word, we become what we receive.” Afterward, “our silent prayer after receivingÃâà...
Vatican News
March 21, 2018
We are deeply honoured that Pope Francis will come to our country to participate in this universal Church celebration of faith and joy, as well as of the contemporary challenges which face families. With great anticipation we also look forward to hearing the apostolic guidance of His Holiness during his stayÃâà...
RTE.ie
March 21, 2018
Pope Francis has said he will make the first papal trip to Ireland in nearly 40 years, visiting Dublin for two days later this year. He will be in Dublin on 25 and 26 August for a Church meeting on families. The announcement, which was widely expected, has been warmly welcomed by Catholic bishops inÃâà...
Catholic News Agency
March 21, 2018
During his Wednesday general audience Pope Francis was presented with the official icon for the World Meeting of Families, announcing afterward that he will travel to Dublin from Aug. 25-26. In his greeting to English-speaking pilgrims, Pope Francis made special mention of a group of Irish pilgrims inÃâà...
Irish Times
March 21, 2018
Pope Francis said on Wednesday he will make the first papal trip to Ireland in nearly 40 years, visiting Dublin August 25th and 26th for a Church meeting on families. The brevity of the visit means it is unlikely he will make any trip to Northern Ireland or anywhere outside the capital. The World Meeting ofÃâà...
The Guardian
March 21, 2018
The pope's visit was welcomed by the Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference, which said in a statement: “We are deeply honoured that Pope Francis will come to our country to participate in this universal church celebration of faith and joy, as well as of the contemporary challenges which face families.
BBC News
March 21, 2018
The head of the Vatican communications department has resigned after coming under fire for doctoring a letter sent by retired Pope Benedict XVI. A brief Vatican statement said Pope Francis had "accepted" the resignation of Msgr. Dario Vigano. It comes after the Vatican admitted blurring part of a letterÃâà...
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