The Vatican - The African Mirror

Feb

2023

SUDAN; Pope calls for end of “blind fury of violence”

PHILIP PULLELLA and WAAKHE SIMON WUDU POPE Francis urged the people of South Sudan to resist the "venom of hatred" so they could achieve the peace and prosperity that have eluded them through years of bloody ethnic conflicts. In his last public engagement before flying home, Francis presided at an open-air Mass on the grounds of a mausoleum for South Sudan's liberation hero John Garang, who died in 2005. The Vatican said 100,000 people attended the Mass. The 86-year-old pope wove his homily around the themes that have dominated his trip to the world's newest nation -- reconciliation and mutual forgiveness…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

Pope’s Africa visit: Sudan’s displaced hope for peace

NEWS

WAAKHE SIMON WUDU AFTER spending nearly a decade in a camp for the displaced in South Sudan's Juba, Mayen Galuak hopes that Pope Francis' visit to the capital city next week will inspire political leaders to finally restore peace, allowing him to go home. The 44-year-old entered the United Nations camp, just a few kilometres from his residence, in search of safety three days after conflict broke out in 2013. In the ensuing years, he has watched as South Sudan's leaders forged peace deals and broke them; as militias carried out and denied ethnic massacres; and as relentless conflict pushed…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

Pope seeks to heal wounds during Africa trip

NEWS

POPE Francis's visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo will remind the world not to ignore decades-long conflicts that have beset the mineral-rich nation and wrecked the lives of millions, the Vatican's envoy to Kinshasa said. Francis is expected to visit Congo from January 31 to February 3, the first visit of a pope since 1985. Major preparations have been underway in the vast country, home to the largest Roman Catholic community in Africa. "The Congo which receives the Pope today is not the same as the one which welcomed Pope John Paul II 38 years ago," Ettore Balestrero, the…

Aug

2022

By The African Mirror

Analysis: Question of who might succeed Pope Francis to loom over cardinals’ gathering

RELIGION

PHILIP PULLELLA ROMAN Catholic cardinals from around the world gather for events at the Vatican starting this weekend that could amount to a dress rehearsal for an eventual conclave to choose a successor to Pope Francis after he dies or resigns. On Saturday Francis will induct 20 prelates into the College of Cardinals, the exclusive group whose members serve as the pope's top advisors and administrators at the Vatican and around the globe. Sixteen of the newcomers are under 80 years old and thus join the even more exclusive inner sanctum known as cardinal electors, eligible to enter a secret…

Apr

2022

By The African Mirror

Vatican mulling Jerusalem meeting between pope, Russian patriarch

RELIGION

PHILIP PULLELLA THE Vatican is studying the possibility of extending Pope Francis' trip to Lebanon in June so he can fly to Jerusalem to meet their Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, who has backed Russia's war in Ukraine, two sources told Reuters. It would be only their second meeting. Their first, in Cuba in 2016, was the first between a pope and a leader of the Russian Orthodox Church since the Great Schism that split Christianity into Eastern and Western branches in 1054. Kirill, 75, has given his full-throated blessing for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a position that has splintered the…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Pope to attend November U.N. climate conference in Glasgow, health permitting

ENVIRONMENT

PHILIP PULLELLA POPE Francis will attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow in November, health permitting, Scotland's Roman Catholic bishops said on Monday. The bishops confirmed the pope's presence among other world leaders in a statement on their website. "Having written to the Holy Father to assure him of a warm welcome, should he attend the conference, they are delighted to hear that he does hope to attend and would be glad to meet with them in Glasgow," a statement said. Francis is in a Rome hospital recovering from colon surgery and will remain there for a…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Pope orders salary cuts for cardinals, clerics, to save jobs of employees

RELIGION

PHILLIP PULLELLA POPE Francis has ordered cardinals to take a 10% pay cut and reduced the salaries of most other clerics working in the Vatican in order to save jobs of employees as the coronavirus pandemic has hit the Holy See's income. The Vatican said on Wednesday that Francis issued a decree introducing proportional cuts starting on April 1. A spokesman said most lay employees would not be affected by the cuts. A senior Vatican prelate said it was believed to be the first time in living memory that a pope had taken such action. Francis, 84, and from a…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Pope, in new decree, formally allows more roles for women in Church

RELIGION

PHILLIP PULLELLA POPE Francis, in another step towards greater equality for women in the Roman Catholic Church, has changed its law to formally codify their roles as altar servers, distributors of communion and readers at liturgies. The pope's decree formalised practices already common in many countries. But the change in the Code of Canon Law means conservative bishops will not be able to block women in their dioceses from taking those roles. The Vatican stressed that the roles were "essentially distinct from the ordained ministry", and so not an automatic precursor to women one day being allowed to become priests.…