The Vatican & The Pope

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The AP Interview: Pope says homosexuality not a crime

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis criticized laws that criminalize homosexuality as “unjust,” saying God loves all his children just as they are and called on Catholic bishops who support the laws to welcome LGBTQ people into the church.

https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-gay-rights-ap-interview-1359756ae22f27f87c1d4d6b9c8ce212?

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The AP Interview takeaways: Pope decries expanding gun use

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis lamented that the use of guns by civilians to defend themselves is becoming a “habit.”

https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-ap-interview-highlights-8b9ec42afec4e0c0691a54f756b257bc?

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WATCH: Pope deplores world obsessed with weapons

https://apnews.com/article/videos-06a23a249bd9433892c68e4f071bcc57?

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Pope makes final bid for peace, forgiveness in South Sudan

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — Pope Francis made a final appeal for peace in South Sudan on Sunday as he celebrated Mass before tens of thousands of people to close out an unusual mission by Christian religious leaders to nudge forward the country’s recovery from civil war.

https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-sudan-government-john-garang-south-b007e4fde6e23e4882096cb64aed24dd?

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Pope accuses critics of exploiting Pope Benedict XVI’s death

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis accused some of his critics Sunday of taking advantage of retired Pope Benedict XVI’s death to score ideological points in the latest salvo in the partisan divide of the Catholic Church.

https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-vatican-city-religion-south-sudan-6e999c72ffd24e1f1f21f07de901ba1d

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Pope planning India, Mongolia trips after Lisbon, Marseille

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis said Sunday he is planning to visit India next year and is studying a possible trip to Mongolia later in 2023 in what would be a first for a pope.

https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-south-sudan-religion-d1e451fb79f43d7bfedf33ba02ad7dc3

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Pope, Anglican, Presbyterian leaders denounce anti-gay laws

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis, the head of the Anglican Communion and top Presbyterian minister together denounced the criminalization of homosexuality on Sunday and said gay people should be welcomed by their churches.

https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-lgbtq-people-south-sudan-religion-ddd1e52de12a95216e798a9ddd103ade

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Pope says South Sudan’s future depends on treatment of women

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — Pope Francis warned Saturday that South Sudan’s future depends on how it treats its women, as he highlighted their horrific plight in a country where sexual violence is rampant, child brides are common and the maternal mortality rate is the highest in the world.

https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-south-sudan-government-juba-e1ade89d06941dd0d8d654d7e3e0978d

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Pope Francis hospitalized with respiratory infection

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis was hospitalized with a respiratory infection Wednesday after experiencing difficulty breathing in recent days and will remain in the Rome hospital for several days of treatment, the Vatican said.

https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-health-hospital-vatican-1b743492e19762ac4a71cefb556967d0?

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Pope Francis celebrates Palm Sunday mass day after leaving hospital

Pope Francis has celebrated Palm Sunday mass in St Peter’s Square a day after leaving hospital where he was treated for severe bronchitis.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/02/pope-francis-celebrates-palm-sunday-mass-day-after-leaving-hospital?

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Pope washes feet in Holy Thursday rite at Rome youth prison

VATICAN CITY (AP) — In a Holy Thursday ritual symbolizing humility, Pope Francis washed and dried the feet of a dozen residents of a Rome juvenile prison, assuring them of their dignity and telling them “any of us” can fall into sin.

https://apnews.com/article/pope-holy-thursday-vatican-footwashing-b70a4c6beeb03e811825f6c352d39c57

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Pope Francis prays for peace in N. Ireland, Ukraine

https://apnews.com/video/pope-francis-religion-northern-ireland-united-kingdom-violence-576401b1a57741bc9dd335fc27bc2a61

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One thing the pope won’t be able to ignore in Portugal is a legacy of clergy sex abuse

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — When a panel of experts read aloud some of the harrowing accounts they had collected from recently discovered victims of child sex abuse in the Portuguese Catholic Church, the country’s senior bishops squirmed in the auditorium’s front-row seats.

https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-portugal-church-child-sex-abuse-500c87a1ca1c6d89107c94c3c8730e12?

Why this matters: Portugal is the latest country to confront decades of abuse by priests and cover-ups by bishops and religious superiors. Yet Portuguese church leaders seem to have learned little from their fellow bishops in the U.S., Europe and Latin America who faced similar crises. They lost even more credibility with a response so clumsy and hesitant that victims were inspired to form Portugal’s first survivor advocacy group to press for compensation.    Anne Barrett Doyle of BishopAccountability.org, a U.S. group that maintains an online archive on abuse in the Catholic Church say the problem extends far beyond Portugal: “In other words, and sadly, the Portuguese hierarchy is not an outlier; it’s representative,” she said.

Related coverage ➤ Vatican abuse investigators begin their audit of secretive Peru-based Catholic society  Portugal is starting the atoning process for clergy sex abuse. Here’s what other countries have done Jesuits confirm expulsion of a priest artist and lament that Vatican norms block harsher sanctions

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Pope Francis blasts ‘scandal’ of clergy sex abuse in Portugal and meets with survivors

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Pope Francis met with survivors of clergy sexual abuse in Portugal on Wednesday and blasted members of the country’s Catholic hierarchy for their response to the long-ignored scandal, which he said had marred the Catholic Church and helped drive the faithful away.

https://apnews.com/article/portugal-pope-abuse-world-youth-day-climate-4db3ac2405da84abb9beced2b1f8b7c3?

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Pope arrives on first visit to Mongolia as Vatican relations with Russia and China remain strained

ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (AP) — Pope Francis arrived in Mongolia on Friday morning to encourage one of the world’s smallest and newest Catholic communities.

https://apnews.com/article/mongolia-pope-vatican-china-russia-war-ulaanbaatar-605975020cf2e4979d1387e8b4616e53?

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📷 = 1,000 words

Photo: Vatican Media via Getty Images Pope Francis meets yesterday with the president of Mongolia, Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh, in a ger — or yurt, a Mongolian traditional dwelling for thousands of years — set up in the State Palace in the capital, Ulaanbaatar. More on the visit.

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Pope decries indifference toward migrants, as he prays for the dead in the French port of Marseille

MARSEILLE, France (AP) — Pope Francis blasted the “fanaticism of indifference” that greets migrants seeking a better life in Europe, as he arrived Friday in the Mediterranean port of Marseille amid a new influx of would-be refugees from Africa that has sparked a backlash from some of Europe’s increasingly anti-migrant leaders.

https://apnews.com/article/france-pope-francis-marseille-europe-migrants-20abb651fc240b2117015fde13765cc5?

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Pope suggests blessings for same-sex unions possible in response to 5 conservative cardinals

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has suggested there could be ways to bless same-sex unions, responding to five conservative cardinals who challenged him to affirm church teaching on homosexuality ahead of a big meeting where LGBTQ+ Catholics are on the agenda.

https://apnews.com/article/vatican-conservatives-synod-lgbtq-5c6e33d4d45aea1b0b5553d3acc799e1?

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Pope Francis opens a big Vatican meeting on the church’s future and says ‘everyone’ is welcome

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis said the Catholic Church needed to be rebuilt to make it a place of welcome for “everyone, everyone, everyone,” as he opened a divisive meeting on the future of the church that has sparked hope among progressives and alarm among conservatives.

https://apnews.com/article/vatican-pope-conservatives-women-lgbtq-0525e295f5befd4ec97ed553f165bfc8?

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The pope’s absolute power, and the problems it can cause, are on display in 2 Vatican trials

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Two Vatican trials are coming to a head this week and posing uncomfortable questions for the Holy See, given they both underscore Pope Francis’ power as an absolute monarch and the legal, financial and reputational problems that can arise when he wields it.

https://apnews.com/article/vatican-trial-london-pope-cardinal-392844a20ca0efb90797d6c4136a3b57?

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Vatican steps closer to allowing transgender people to be baptized as Catholics

In the United States, the national conference of Catholic bishops rejects the concept of gender transition, leaving many transgender Catholics feeling excluded. On Wednesday, the Vatican made public a sharply contrasting statement, saying it’s permissible, under certain circumstances, for trans people to be baptized as Catholics and serve as godparents.

https://apnews.com/article/vatican-transgender-catholic-baptism-godparents-82120d853570ec92f4db1cbf11ebc2f1?

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Pope punishes leading critic Cardinal Burke in second action against conservative American prelates

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has decided to punish one of his highest-ranking critics, Cardinal Raymond Burke, by revoking his right to a subsidized Vatican apartment and salary in the second such radical action against a conservative American prelate this month, according to two people briefed on the measures.

https://apnews.com/article/vatican-cardinal-burke-conservatives-strickland-163f2d3522a80fa5f908421cc812cfc9?

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The pope says he wants to be buried in the Rome basilica, not in the Vatican

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis says he wants to be buried in the Rome basilica of St. Mary Major, not in the grottoes of the Vatican like other popes, so he can be near his favorite icon of the Madonna.

https://apnews.com/article/vatican-pope-basilica-burial-argentina-ba9dc3ccbf4210df16e64d4032451671?

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Pope, once a victim of AI-generated imagery, calls for treaty to regulate artificial intelligence

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis on Thursday called for an international treaty to ensure artificial intelligence is developed and used ethically, arguing that the risks of technology lacking human values of compassion, mercy, morality and forgiveness are too great.

https://apnews.com/article/vatican-pope-ai-artificial-intelligence-9805fec11681adbf88d3a7c73bdf47de?

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The Vatican’s ‘trial of the century,’ a Pandora’s box of unintended revelations, explained

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Verdicts are expected Saturday for a cardinal and nine other defendants in the most complicated financial trial in the Vatican’s modern history: a case featuring a Hollywood-worthy cast of characters, unseemly revelations about the Holy See and questions about Pope Francis ’ own role in the deals.

https://apnews.com/article/vatican-trial-cardinal-becciu-pope-4fb339a005a00b0da0a073cfc5dd0f12?