Pope Francis

Pope Francis urged Iraqi Christians in the beleaguered town of Qaraqosh Sunday to hold on to their hope in the ultimate triumph of Jesus Christ.

ROME — Pope Francis visited the war-torn city of Mosul on Sunday, warning the devastation of the Christian community is an incalculable loss for the country and the region.

Pope Francis met with the Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani in southern Iraq early Saturday and thanked him for his vocal defense of human life.

Pope Francis addressed an interreligious gathering on the Plain of Ur in Iraq Saturday, calling for unity among all who believe in the God of Abraham.

ROME — Pope Francis met with Iraqi Catholics in Baghdad Friday, urging them to be strong and hopeful even in the midst of ongoing sufferings.

ROME — Pope Francis touched down in Iraq Friday to begin a three-day visit with a focus on inter-religious harmony and peace.

BAGHDAD — Pope Francis arrived in Iraq on Friday to urge the country’s dwindling number of Christians to stay put and help rebuild the country after years of war and persecution, brushing aside the coronavirus pandemic and security concerns to make his first-ever papal visit.

Pope Francis sent a video message to the Iraqi people Friday, declaring that Saturday he undertakes his journey to Iraq as a “pilgrim of peace.”

ROME — Pope Francis said Wednesday he is traveling to Iraq this week come hell or high water to avoid letting the Iraqi people down.

A military base in western Iraq that hosts U.S.-led coalition troops was struck multiple times in a rocket attack early Wednesday morning, the coalition and Iraqi military confirmed.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI offered reflections on his decision to retire from the papacy eight years ago, insisting that his conscience is clear.

Pope Francis has warned of the possibility of a second great flood, like that of Noah’s time, if humanity fails to address global warming.

Nigerian officials have denied widespread reports this weekend that the 317 schoolgirls abducted in the northwest of the country had been set free by their captors and were returning home.

ROME — Kidnappers reportedly released over 300 schoolgirls in northwest Nigeria on Sunday after abducting them at their boarding school late Thursday night.

ROME — Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher, the Vatican’s foreign minister, declared this week that efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus must respect basic human rights such as religious freedom.

Pope Francis’ new personal physician is a geriatric specialist who has downplayed the peculiarity of the coronavirus, calling it an “ordinary disease.”

Pope Francis sent a telegram to the Italian president Tuesday expressing his sorrow over the assassination Monday of the country’s ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Pope Francis will travel next month to Iraq, a land devastated by ongoing conflicts that have uprooted more than a million Christians in just two decades, France 24 reports.

The life of a Christian, like the life of Jesus, is a constant struggle against the seductions of Satan, Pope Francis told pilgrims Sunday.

ROME — The World Jewish Congress (WJC) on Sunday hailed Pope Francis’ “tremendous compassion” after he visited a Holocaust survivor in Rome, praising his “moral integrity and sense of history”.

Pope Francis’ plans to travel to Iraq on March 5 are “unaffected” by recent violence in Baghdad and Erbil, the Vatican and Iraq’s Foreign Ministry concur.

The Vatican has insisted that all its employees receive the coronavirus vaccine, threatening to demote or sack those who refuse.

China has eliminated any role for the pope or the Vatican in the appointment and consecration of Catholic bishops in its newly published norms for religious clergy.

Pope Francis recalled the sixth anniversary of the Islamic State execution of 21 Christians on a beach in Libya, calling them “our saints.”

The Iraqi government has ordained a “total curfew” during the March 5-8 visit of Pope Francis following recent violent attacks in the country.

Pope Francis publicly thanked the Colombian government Sunday for granting protected status to Venezuelan refugees fleeing the chaos in their home country.

Pope Francis offered an upbeat message Wednesday, urging Christians to live one day at a time sustained by prayer and the grace of God.

Pope Francis has singled out “neo-liberal capitalism” and deregulation of markets as causes of human trafficking despite data that suggest the opposite is true.

Pope Francis said Monday that that the global climate crisis is “much more complex and enduring” than the coronavirus pandemic.

Pope Francis gave a virtual tour of world crises Monday, conspicuously omitting mention of the Uighur genocide taking place in China’s Xinjiang region.