While the Taliban have promised not to shed any blood, some locals fear that the Islamist regime will lead to persecutions and violence.

“As Pope Francis says, sport is a place of encounter and formation, but also evangelism and sharing of the Christian message.”

The day before Easter this year, a group of transgender people came to the Vatican at the invitation of Pope Francis to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, according to an official who oversees the pope’s charitable works.

“The gesture by the Holy Father strengthened me and reconciled me with the world,” said Lidia Maksymowicz, 80, a Polish woman of Belorussian descent who survived the concentration camp as a child.

Decisions about administering the Eucharist rest solely on the bishop giving the sacrament, said Cardinal Michael Czerny.

Some have suggested that the attack may have been a warning for the Catholic Church to keep out of the political disputes in South Sudan.

For decades, popes have suffered embarrassment and even frustration when their light, shoulder-length mantle, inspired by a sudden gust of wind, smacked them right in the face as they greeted world leaders or waved to crowds while cameras whirred.

Germany’s Catholic bishops will resume discussions this week to plan the Synodal Path, a set of conferences slated to address controversial questions such as women’s roles and LGBT acceptance, even as the country faces yet another scandal of sexual abuse by clergy.

Covid-19 safety measures and social distancing have put further strain on many Catholic churches and parishes that have already seen their flocks dwindling.

The sexual abuse trial of Piero Alfio Capuana, the lay leader of the 5,000-member Catholic Culture and Environment Association, began in this small Sicilian city on Tuesday (Sept. 15), three years after the abuse allegedly took place.