"The date was chosen as a sign of the will to build life and fraternity where others sowed death and destruction," said a communique by the Vatican press office Sept. 11.

Fresh off the papal flight, Gerry tells us if a schism may actually happen.

After Oct. 15, 53% of the cardinal electors will have been appointed by Francis.

Heading home from his trip to Africa, the pope criticized “schools of rigidity” in the church but said he welcomed criticism and did not see a U.S. schism as imminent. America’s Vatican correspondent, Gerard O’Connell, reports.

Join us for a conversation with three of the most recent U.S. Ambassadors to the Holy See as we commemorate the 35th anniversary of the normalization of relations between the United States and the Vatican.

Pope Francis encouraged the Mauritian people to support “a better division of income and the integral promotion of the poor” and “not to yield to the temptation of an idolatrous economic model that sacrifices human lives on the altar of speculation and profit alone.”