Vatican City

Vatican City: Pope Francis denies he is planning to resign soon

VATICAN CITY, July 4 (Reuters) - Pope Francis has dismissed reports that he plans to resign in the near future, saying he is on track to visit Canada this month and hopes to be able to go to Moscow and Kyiv as soon as possible after that.

In an exclusive interview in his Vatican residence, Francis also denied rumours that he had cancer, joking that his doctors "didn't tell me anything about it", and for the first time gave details of the knee condition that has prevented him carrying out some duties.

Pope cancels trip to Congo and South Sudan due to bad knee

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis canceled a planned July trip to Africa on doctors’ orders because of ongoing knee problems, the Vatican said Friday, raising further questions about the health and mobility problems of the 85-year-old pontiff.

The Vatican said the July 2-7 trip to Congo and South Sudan would be rescheduled “to a later date to be determined.”

Vatican, Vietnam agree to upgrade relations

VATICAN CITY, April 22 (Reuters) - The Vatican and Vietnam have agreed to upgrade their relations, which have been slowly improving since a total break after the communist victory in the Vietnam War nearly half a century ago.

A joint working group agreed at its latest meeting in Hanoi that in the near future relations would be upgraded to the level of residential representatives in both Hanoi and Rome, a Vatican statement said on Friday.

Vatican City: Pope makes Easter plea for Ukraine peace, cites nuclear risk

VATICAN CITY (AP) — On what is supposed to be Christianity’s most joyful day, Pope Francis made an anguished Easter Sunday plea for peace in the “senseless” war in Ukraine and in other armed conflicts raging in the world, and cited the “troubling” risk of nuclear warfare.

“May there be peace for war-torn Ukraine, so sorely tried by the violence and destruction of this cruel and senseless war into which it was dragged,” Francis said, speaking from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Square.

Pope makes historic apology to Indigenous for Canada abuses

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Friday made a historic apology to Indigenous Peoples for the “deplorable” abuses they suffered in Canada’s Catholic-run residential schools and said he hoped to visit Canada in late July to deliver the apology in person to survivors of the church’s misguided missionary zeal.

Testimony: Pope approved Vatican payout for London property

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis allegedly authorized negotiating an exit strategy for a key figure in the Vatican’s bungled London real estate investment and was so satisfied with the outcome that he paid for a celebratory dinner at a fancy Roman fish restaurant the night the 15-million- euro payout closed, a defendant in the Vatican’s extortion trial testified Wednesday.

Vatican City: Pope evokes spectre of Ukraine war sparking global conflict

VATICAN CITY, March 27 (Reuters) - The threat of a global conflict spawned by Russia's invasion of Ukraine should convince everyone that the time has come for humanity to abolish war before it abolishes humanity, Pope Francis said on Sunday.

"More than a month has passed since the invasion of Ukraine, since the start of this cruel and senseless war, which, like every war, is a defeat for everyone, for all of us," he said to thousands of people in St. Peter's Square for his Sunday blessing.

Vatican defends hasty rollout of revolutionary laity reform

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Vatican officials on Monday defended the last-minute rollout of Pope Francis’ reform of the Holy See bureaucracy while also painting it as one of the most consequential moves of his pontificate since it recognizes that any believer, male or female, can head a Vatican office.

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