Category: Pope Francis

Vatican Denies Rumors Pope Will Visit North Korea

VATICAN CITY—The Holy See Press Office has denied a report that Pope Francis may be planning a trip to North Korea. The article, published yesterday by The Times, cited a report by Agenzia Fide, the information service of the Pontifical Mission Society. The report claimed Park Jie-won, head of South Korea’s intelligence services, is working…


Pope Doing Well After Intestinal Surgery, Vatican Says

VATICAN CITY—Pope Francis is doing well following intestinal surgery, the Vatican said on Sunday after the 84-year-old pontiff was hospitalized for the first time since his election in 2013. Spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement that the pontiff “responded well” to the surgery, which was done under general anesthesia and which the Vatican had…


Pope Francis Goes to Rome Hospital for Intestinal Surgery

VATICAN CITY—Pope Francis went Sunday to a Rome hospital for scheduled surgery for a stenosis, or restriction, of the large intestine, the Vatican said. The brief announcement from the Holy See’s press office didn’t say exactly when the surgery would be performed but said there would be an announcement when the surgery is complete. Just…


Pope Names New Hong Kong Bishop Amid Tensions Over City’s Freedoms

VATICAN CITY—Pope Francis named a new bishop of Hong Kong on Monday, a long-delayed appointment that comes amid Sino-Vatican frictions and growing Western concern over human rights in the global financial hub. Stephen Chow, 61, head of Hong Kong’s Jesuit order, will replace Cardinal John Tong, who has held the post in a caretaker capacity…


Pope Francis Meets with John Kerry, Marking Change in Post-Trump Vatican-US Relations

VATICAN—Pope Francis met with John Kerry, climate envoy for the Biden Administration, on May 14 after a closed-door conference on “Dreaming of a Better Restart” for the global economy. Kerry will be one of the first U.S. Administration officials to meet with Pope Francis since the COVID-19 pandemic, and the first of the Biden Administration….


Vatican Declares Blessings for Same-Sex Unions ‘Illicit’

The Vatican announced on Monday that blessings for unions of same-sex people are “illicit” because God “cannot bless sin,” while blessings for individual persons with homosexual inclinations are permissible. The Vatican’s orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a formal response of “negative” to a question of whether the Catholic churches…


US Bishops Discourage Catholics From Receiving Johnson & Johnson Vaccine If Alternatives Available Over Abortion Link

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) released a statement on March 2 encouraging Catholics to avoid getting the latest adenovirus vector COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson if alternatives are available. In Thursday’s statement, Bishop Kevin Rhoades, chairman of the conference’s Committee on Doctrine, and Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann, chairman of the conference’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, recommended…


Yazidis Issue Open Letter to Pope Francis, Ask for Advocacy and a Meeting

VATICAN CITY—Civil and religious leaders of the Yazidi people have issued an open letter to Pope Francis, on the eve of his historic trip to Iraq. Seven years have passed since harrowing reports began to trickle out of ISIS controlled Iraq, detailing genocide of an ethnic and religious minority people, who have claimed thousands of…