Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Vatican Tourism Boom

In the first nine-and-a-half months of Pope Francis’ pontificate, more than 6.6 million people participated in papal events at the Vatican—three times the number who visited during all of 2012. • Antonios Aziz Mina, the Coptic Catholic bishop of Giza, Egypt, said terrorist attacks were taking a toll on the country’s civilians but would not put off a constitutional referendum on Jan. 14. • Robert Nugent, a Salvatorian priest active for 29 years in ministry to gay and lesbian Catholics and co-founder of New Ways Ministry, died in Milwaukee, Wis., on Jan. 1. • Police opened fire on striking garment workers, killing three, on Jan. 3, near Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, as protesters continued demanding that the national minimum wage be doubled to $160 a month. • The former British prime minister, Tony Blair, and the former Egyptian vice president, Mohamed ElBaradei, are among the political figures invited by the Vatican for a meeting on Jan. 13 to discuss a cease-fire in Syria, a unified, transitional government and the protection of Syrian Christians. • On Dec. 19 the New Jersey Catholic Conference praised state officials for adopting a law that allows undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition at the state’s public colleges and universities.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

People accept food distributed from a truck by a Haitian government program in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, April 6, 2020, amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and other faith groups then were urging the Trump administration to support debt relief for poor nations. (CNS photo/Jeanty Junior Augustin, Reuters)
More than 60 Catholic institutions, congregations and individuals have signed a letter imploring Mr. Biden to endorse a new round of assistance to the world’s most indebted nations from the International Monetary Fund.
Kevin ClarkeJanuary 10, 2025
‘Nickel Boys’ preserves Colson Whitehead’s critically acclaimed narrative style while adding cinematic texture that enhances key details of the book.
Grace LenahanJanuary 10, 2025
I have trouble talking about the loss without tearing up, as if the smoke and ash from Los Angeles traveled across the country to find me.
Greg ErlandsonJanuary 10, 2025
In 2017 speech to a conference of the World Meeting of Popular Movements, Cardinal McElroy, the newly appointed archbishop of Washington, gives a hint as to how he might approach the incoming Trump administration.
J.D. Long GarcíaJanuary 10, 2025