MemHT Portal ]]> Here is the full text of Pope Francis' Easter Vigil homily, delivered on April 8 in St. Peter's Basilica.]]> On Good Friday, Pope Francis presided over the Liturgy of the Passion of the Lord in St. Peter’s Basilica. Please find below the full text of the homily by Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M. Cap., preacher of the papal household.]]> Pope Francis washed the feet of 12 young men and women, inmates at a juvenile prison in Rome, during a Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Thursday.]]> They began queueing before dawn to view the German theologian's body, which was transferred early in the morning from the monastery in the Vatican grounds where he died on Saturday aged 95.]]> Pope Francis wove his New Year's homily around themes of motherhood and women and used it to make one of his strongest calls yet for an end to violence against them.]]> Pope Francis earlier this month joined nearly 40 religious leaders in an appeal to government leaders at COP26 for "urgent, radical and responsible action".]]> The 78-year-old sees himself as the spokesman for democracy in the face of authoritarian regimes, notably China.]]> Moon Jae-in told Pope Francis that a papal visit to Pyongyang would help revive the peace process on the Korean Peninsula.]]> Pope Francis, who was elected pontiff in 2013, underwent surgery on July 4 and spent 11 days in hospital. He had been suffering from a severe case of symptomatic diverticular stenosis, a narrowing of the colon.]]> Pope Francis led Sunday prayers in the battle-scarred rubble of the former ISIS stronghold of Mosul.

He prayed for the "victims of war" in the shadow of a ruined Iraqi church where jihadis once ravaged one of the world's oldest Christian communities.]]> Francis’s meeting in the holy southern city of Najaf, during a whirlwind and risky tour of Iraq, marked the first time a pope has met with such a senior Shi’ite cleric. Children lined a street and waved Iraqi and Vatican flags at the leader of the world's Catholics.]]> Iraq has deployed thousands of additional security personnel to protect the 84-year-old pope during the visit, which comes after a spate of rocket and suicide bomb attacks raised fears for his safety.]]> Pope Francis, who is due to start the risky trip in Baghdad on Friday, asked for prayers so that the visit "can take place in the best possible way."]]> Francis is scheduled to travel to Najaf on March 6 to meet with al-Sistani, one of the world's leading Shiite leaders, and to host an interfaith meeting that same day in the ancient city of Ur, the birthplace of the prophet Abraham.]]> Vatican City last week said it expected to receive enough COVID-19 vaccine doses in the following days to inoculate all of its residents and its workers who live beyond its walls in Rome.]]> The text of encyclical will be published on Sunday, the Feast of St Francis of Assisi, who lived from 1182-1226 and devoted himself to a life of poverty.]]> The northern region of Lombardy, Italy’s financial and industrial capital, was the hardest-hit region in the onetime European epicenter of the pandemic.]]> Francis drew a comparison between the Gospel account of the women who found Jesus' tomb empty on the day Christians believe he rose from the dead and the uncertain state of the world today because of the coronavirus pandemic.]]> The pope began his off-the-cuff homily by honouring the memory of priests who gave their lives in service to others, singling out those who died after tending to sick people in Italy's hospitals.]]> During the Angelus prayer on Sunday, he urged the faithful to come together.]]> Pope Francis said research has shown that criminal organizations use the "most modern means of communications to snare their victims with deception".]]> He said the tensions risked "compromising the gradual process of rebuilding in Iraq, as well as setting the groundwork for a vaster conflict that all of us would want to avert".]]> Pope Francis ushered in Christmas celebrations for the world's 1.3 billion Catholics on Tuesday, saying the celebration of Jesus's birth reminded humanity how "God continues to love us all, even the worst of us".]]> Francis, who has said he wants to visit Iraq next year, told tens of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square that he was praying for the dead and wounded and invoking God for peace in the country.]]> The mood was somber and silent, darkened by the downpour that drenched the terraced fields and rice paddies of Nagasaki and the hundreds of Japanese who came out in plastic raincoats to witness the second pope to pay his respects to victims of the bomb.]]> The cousins, whose grandfathers were brothers, grew up in a big Catholic family in Argentina. Sivori said they weren't close as children, since Jorge Mario Bergoglio - as the Pope was known then - was six years older than she.]]> The proposal came from the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region, a three-week meeting of bishops dedicated to “new paths” in the Amazon that has covered topics as varied as the environment and the possible ordination of women as deacons.]]> Pope Francis urged the bishops to use the three weeks to pray, listen, discern and speak without fear. "Speak with courage," he said. "Even if you are ashamed, say what you feel."]]> Pope Francis has chosen 13 men he admires and whose pastoral concerns align with his to become the Catholic Church's newest cardinals.]]> Pope Francis on Friday (September 6), his final day in Mozambique, visited a hospital on the outskirts of Maputo which treats HIV-AIDS-infected mothers and their children.]]>