Page 6 - Vatican

Vatican's diplomacy sees setbacks, Ukraine heartbroken over Pope's comment

The Vatican's Russia-Ukraine diplomacy suffered two setbacks Thursday when the head of the Russian Orthodox Church cancelled a planned meeting with Pope Francis and Ukraine summoned the papal ambassador to complain about Francis' latest comments about the war. "The Ukrainian heart is torn apart by the pope's words," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters in Kyiv after the Vatican nuncio was summoned. "It was unfair." He was responding to Francis' comments about the weekend car bomb slaying in Moscow of Darya Dugina, a nationalist Russian TV commentator and daughter of the right-wing Russian political theorist, Alexander Dugin, who ardently supports the war. Francis listed the "poor girl" killed by a car bomb in Moscow, as well as orphans in Ukraine and Russia, among the "innocents" who have been victimized by the "insanity of war." Russia has accused Ukrainian intelligence in the bombing, which Ukraine denies. Francis has denounced the war in Ukraine but has tried

Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik meets Pope Francis in Vatican, seeks blessings

On behalf of the people of Odisha, the chief minister presented a 'Patachitra' painting to the Pope, the head of the Catholic Church, and sought his blessings, an official statement said

Pope releases Vatican reform, gives weight to fighting clerical abuse

The 54-page text, titled Praedicate Evanglium or Proclaiming the Gospel, replaces the founding constitution Pastor Bonus that was penned by St. John Paul II in 1988

Vatican Museums, Uffizi team up to confirm a Raphael is real

The nearly life-sized paintings of Saints Peter and Paul are normally kept outside public view

Pope Francis challenges Vatican's journalists: Who reads your news?

Pope Francis challenged the Vatican's in-house journalists Monday to essentially justify their continued work, asking them how many people actually consume their news in a critique of the office that costs the Holy See more than all its embassies around the world combined. Francis visited the Dicastry of Communications, Vatican Radio and the headquarters of the Vatican's newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, which is marking its 160th anniversary. He appeared to use the occasion to lay down the gauntlet at a fraught financial time for the Holy See. Facing a major pension funding shortage and a projected 50 million euro (USD 61 million) deficit this year, Francis has ordered salary cuts from 3 per cent to 10 per cent for Vatican employees, both lay and religious, and paused seniority bonuses for two years. Francis has vowed not to fire anyone to offset the economic crisis created by COVID-19 and the pandemic-related shuttering of one of the Holy See's main sources of revenue, ticket sales

Value propositions

Book review of Value(s): Building a Better World For All

Vatican says priests can't bless same-sex unions, terms them 'not licit'

The Vatican has said that priests can not bless same-sex unions, calling any such blessing "not licit"

Vatican, China extend controversial bishop agreement over US opposition

The Holy See and Beijing government jointly announced a two-year extension to the 2018 agreement, which expired Thursday

Australian law enforcement, corruption agencies examine Vatican money trail

The national financial crime intelligence agency, two police forces and a public sector corruption watchdog have been drawn into the Vatican scandal

Pope Francis commits to clean finances amid scandal in backyard

Pope Francis told European anti-money laundering experts Thursday that the Vatican was committed to clean finance, as he denounced financial speculation amid a spiraling corruption investigation

Pompeo urges Vatican to join US in condemning human rights abuses in China

Pompeo made the appeal at a conference on religious freedom organized by the US Embassy to the Holy See, with top Vatican officials in the audience

Vatican, China set to renew deal on long path to diplomatic ties

The accord, first signed in September 2018, is due to be rolled over, possibly for another two years in the coming weeks

Former pope Benedict XVI rejects opening up priesthood to married men

The ex-pontiff, who retired in 2013, issued the defence of clerical celibacy in a book written with arch-conservative Cardinal Robert Sarah

Pope Francis gets stuck in lift on way to Vatican prayers, freed by firemen

Italian television networks that live-stream the Angelus had been concerned that the unprecedented seven-minute delay might have been due to health reasons

Vatican froze two million euros in suspect funds in 2016

The money was frozen following alerts from the Vatican Financial Intelligence Authority (AIF)