World News

Pope, in Assisi, calls on church to renounce ‘spirit of the world’

ASSISI, Italy (CNS) -- Making his first pilgrimage as pope to the birthplace of his papal namesake, Pope Francis called on the whole church to imitate St. Francis of Assisi, embracing poverty and stripping itself of the "spirit of the world." "This is a good occasion for inviting the church to strip itself," the pope said, adding that he directed his invitation not merely to the hierarchy but all the church's members, and that he sought renunciation of spiritual complacency as well as material riches.

Pope: Are ‘justice’ and ‘solidarity’ just words in a dictionary?

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Cold War has ended and the Berlin Wall has fallen, but war and the threat of war continue and migrants are still dying as they travel in search of safety and a better life, Pope Francis said at a conference marking the 50th anniversary of Blessed John XXIII's encyclical "Pacem in Terris" ("Peace on Earth").

Pope, cardinal advisers looking at major overhaul of Roman Curia

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis and his international Council of Cardinals are laying out plans to completely overhaul the Roman Curia, underlining its role of "service to the universal church and the local churches," the Vatican spokesman said. As the pope and the eight cardinals he named to advise him were about to begin the final session of their Oct. 1-3 meeting, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the spokesman, said the role and responsibilities of the Vatican secretary of state, the revamping of the world Synod of Bishops, and the Vatican's attention to the role and responsibility of laity also were major themes of discussion.

In interviews, Pope Francis crafts a new genre of papal language

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When Pope Benedict XVI answered a journalist's 2010 question about condom use by offering a nuanced reflection on the ethical complexities of a hypothetical case, his words led to a worldwide media sensation, a clarification by the Vatican spokesman, and a statement from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that the pope had not changed church teaching on contraception. Three years later, Pope Francis is making news by giving three wide-ranging interviews in two months. This time, however, the Vatican is letting the pope's words speak for themselves.

Religious order urges action to stem chaos in Central African Republic

OXFORD, England (CNS) — A Catholic religious order has urged international action to stem “uncontrolled lawlessness” in the Central African Republic, after one of its Italian missionaries was threatened with death by rebel soldiers. “Let us pray that peace may return in this country torn apart by different factions,” the Sacred Heart of Jesus of […]

Duty to protect defenseless is not a license for war, archbishop says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — An international obligation to intervene in situations of war or widespread violations of human rights does not mean a country or group of countries can decide to take military action in another nation, said the Vatican’s foreign minister. “The responsibility to protect,” a concept espoused by the United Nations, is not […]

Interfaith hospital on Turkish border helps Syrians save themselves

KILIS, Turkey (CNS) — Ali Ahmad was walking with his young son one evening after dark. It was after they had fled Aleppo, Syria, and begun their lives as refugees in southern Turkey. It was a clear, starry night. “He looks up at the stars and he says, ‘Dada, are they coming to bomb us?’ […]

Syria’s Armenians risk a winter without food, shelter in ancestral home

YEREVAN, Armenia (CNS) — Thousands of previously middle-class Syrians now stranded in Armenia are rapidly running out of resources and could soon have no shelter, food or medicine, said an international aid group official. “There is a big need on the humanitarian side: food, shelter, medical needs,” said Walter Hajek, head of international disaster management […]

Children make up half the Syrian refugee population

KILIS, Turkey (CNS) — Fifteen-year-old Abdullah Haji Mustafa wants to fight. He has been living in a refugee camp in Turkey for a year, since his family fled Tall Rifat, an embattled Syrian town just north of Aleppo. “Who wants not to go back?” he asks, standing between the gates of the camp and a […]

Pope Francis calls for less ‘Vatican-centric,’ more socially conscious church

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In his latest wide-ranging interview, Pope Francis told an Italian journalist that he briefly considered turning down the papacy in the moments following his election last March, and identified the "most urgent problem" the church should address today as youth unemployment and the abandonment of elderly people. Their conversation touched on a range of topics, including economic justice, dialogue between Christians and nonbelievers, and reform of the Vatican bureaucracy.