Vatican City - The African Mirror

Mar

14

2023

Pope Francis: the first post-colonial papacy to deliver messages that resonate with Africans

WHEN he was presented to a cheering crowd at St Peter’s Square, Vatican City, on 13 March 2013, few people outside Latin America knew much about Jorge Bergoglio. But a decade later, based on my work as a scholar of Catholicism, I would argue that most Catholics know and love Pope Francis. They also see a deep connection between his message and priorities, and their dreams and hopes for a better church and a world that is reconciled. Author STAN CHU ILO, Research Professor, World Christianity and African Studies, DePaul University When Pope Francis was introduced in 2013, I was…

Mar

14

2023

By The African Mirror

Pope Francis: the first post-colonial papacy to deliver messages that resonate with Africans

RELIGION

WHEN he was presented to a cheering crowd at St Peter’s Square, Vatican City, on 13 March 2013, few people outside Latin America knew much about Jorge Bergoglio. But a decade later, based on my work as a scholar of Catholicism, I would argue that most Catholics know and love Pope Francis. They also see a deep connection between his message and priorities, and their dreams and hopes for a better church and a world that is reconciled. Author STAN CHU ILO, Research Professor, World Christianity and African Studies, DePaul University When Pope Francis was introduced in 2013, I was…

Mar

04

2022

By The African Mirror

Pope to make often delayed visit to South Sudan in July

NEWS

PHILIP PULLELLA POPE Francis will visit South Sudan in July, the Vatican said, making a trip he has repeatedly had to delay because of security concerns in a country still emerging from a post-independence civil war. July will mark the 11th anniversary of South Sudan's secession from Sudan. Civil war erupted two years later in 2013, causing 400,000 deaths. The two main sides signed a peace deal in 2018 but hunger and deadly clashes are still common across the country. The Vatican said Francis will be in South Sudan July 5-7 after visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo July 2-5…

Feb

19

2021

By The African Mirror

No jab, no job: Vatican gets tough with COVID anti-vaxxers

COVID-19

PHILIP PULLELLA THE Vatican has told employees that they may risk losing their jobs if they refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccination without legitimate health reasons. A decree by Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, effectively the governor of Vatican City, said getting a vaccine was "the responsible choice" because of the risk of harming other people. Vatican City, at 108 acres the world's smallest state, has several thousand employees, most of whom live in Italy. Its vaccination programme began last month and Pope Francis, 84, was among the first to get the jab. The seven-page decree says that those who cannot get…

Jan

10

2021

By The African Mirror

Pope Francis to have COVID-19 vaccine as early as next week

RELIGION

POPE Francis plans to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as early as next week and urged everyone to get a shot, to protect not only their own lives but those of others. "I believe that ethically everyone should take the vaccine," the Pope said in an interview with TV station Canale 5. "It is an ethical choice because you are gambling with your health, with your life, but you are also gambling with the lives of others." Vatican City, the smallest independent county in the world, home to about 450 people including Pope Francis, has said it will shortly launch its own…

Jan

03

2021

By The African Mirror

Vatican City plans swift COVID-19 vaccination drive for residents

RELIGION

VATICAN City, the world's smallest sovereign state, expects to receive enough COVID-19 vaccine doses in the coming days to inoculate all of its workers and residents, it has announced in a statement said. The Vatican is home to about 450 people, including Pope Francis, while several hundred of its employees live in Rome, which surrounds the city-state. "It is likely that the vaccines could arrive in the state in the second week of January in sufficient quantity to cover the needs of the Holy See and the Vatican City State," the statement said. The Holy See is the Roman Catholic…