Pope Francis drew enthusiastic and prolonged applause when in his homily at mass in Mother Teresa Square in Tirana the capital of Albania attended by some 300 000 people mdash most of them Catholics but also very many Orthodox and Muslims mdash he greeted them saying ldquo May peace be in your

Pope Francis has given a new direction to the American Church by appointing the bishop of Spokane, Blase Joseph Cupich, 65, as the ninth archbishop of Chicago.The archbishop-elect is a highly-talented leader, a pastor with vision, together with long, varied and successful pastoral and administrative

Pope Francis is going to Albania on Sunday Sept 21 It is his first visit to a European country and he has chosen to go to the only majority Muslim country on the periphery of the old continent where Christians and Muslims who suffered under communism now live together in harmony and have formed

Pope Francis wants to stop the downward spiral of inhumanity, and believes the media can play an important role.

Pope Francis has invited the President of China Xi Jinping to meet him in the Vatican to discuss world peace but he has also expressed his own willingness to travel ldquo tomorrow rdquo to Beijing for this same purpose if that were preferable He issued the invitation in a letter which he signe

"We have to tell people, tell politicians, to work harder because peace is possible."

Some Chinese youths risked their security to see the pope and attend Asian Youth Day.

The Vatican has published the names of the 253 persons who will participate at the Synod of Bishops on the Family October 5-19 Among them are cardinals bishops priests men and women religious 14 married couples and representatives of the other Christian churches Since this is an Extraordinary

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Cardinal Sean Brady the Primate of All Ireland less than a month after he turned 75 the official age of retirement for a bishop The Vatican gave no reason for the pope rsquo s decision but informed sources say it is directly linked to the cardinal rsq

Escalating violence between Israel and Palestine has left at least 213 Palestinians and 12 people in Israel dead since the outbreak of hostilities on May 11. In 2014, we spoke to Israeli Jesuit Father David Neuhaus on the more than six decades of conflict in the Holy Land.