Pope orders construction of solar farm for Vatican City State

(Reuters. Yara Nardi).

Pope Francis, a vocal campaigner for action against climate change and on environmental protection, on Wednesday ordered the construction of a solar farm to cover the energy needs of the Vatican City State. The mini-state, based in Rome, hosts the headquarters of the global Catholic Church and comprises St Peter’s Basilica. It is the world’s smallest country, measuring just 0.44 square kilometres. Expressing his wishes in a Motu Proprio, a personal papal edict, the 87-year-old pontiff said the solar farm should be built outside Vatican walls, in Santa Maria Galeria in the northwestern outskirts of Rome.

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Pope Francis invites comedians including Whoopi Goldberg to Vatican

(Reuters. By Reuter Vatican Cyty office).

Pope Francis, who says he regularly prays “Lord, give me a sense of humour”, will welcome comedians from around the world to a cultural event in Italy to “celebrate the beauty of human diversity,” the Vatican said on Saturday. Whoopi Goldberg, Jimmy Fallon, Conan O’Brien and Chris Rock will be among more than 100 entertainers at the Vatican on June 14. The pope “recognizes the significant impact that the art of comedy has on the world of contemporary culture,” a Vatican statement said. British comedian Stephen Merchant – the co-writer of the TV comedy series “The Office” – and Italian comedian Lino Banfi will also be at the event. The meeting will take place on Friday morning, before the pope travels to Puglia to attend the Group of Seven (G7) leaders’ summit. “The meeting between Pope Francis and the world’s comedians aims to celebrate the beauty of human diversity and to promote a message of peace, love and solidarity,” the Vatican said.

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Vatican arrests ex-employee over sale of missing Bernini manuscript

(Reuters. Reuters staff).

Vatican police arrested a former employee for allegedly trying to sell to the city-state a 17th-century manuscript by Italian Baroque master Gian Lorenzo Bernini that had previously disappeared from archives, a Vatican spokesman said. Experts said the 18-page document, with gilded miniatures, contains the first details of the decorative features in the canopy of St. Peter’s Basilica designed by sculptor and architect Bernini.

Bernini is considered the leading master of Italian Baroque architecture in the 17th century and among his masterpieces is the colonnade that surrounds St. Peter’s Square. The suspect, who was arrested on May 27 on charges of attempted extortion, had worked for the Fabric of St. Peter, the institution responsible for the conservation and maintenance of St Peter’s Basilica. He remains in custody at the Vatican and has been questioned twice in recent days, the spokesman added. Vatican prosecutors will decide next week on whether he will be formally indicted.

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Vatican makes progress against money laundering, European watchdog says

(Reuters. Staff).

The Vatican has made progress in combating money laundering, a European financial watchdog said on Tuesday, handing it higher marks than previously for improving its banking and financial compliance measures. Moneyval, the monitoring body of the Council of Europe, said the city-state had addressed the “technical compliance deficiencies” the authority identified in an April 2021 report. In the past, the Vatican’s reputation has been tarnished by its opaque finances and, mainly, the activities of its bank, known as IOR, caught in cases of corruption, tax evasion, embezzlement, money laundering and real estate fraud. But since the first assessment by the authority, during the papacy of the late Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican has made numerous changes to its financial structure, overhauling its bank, establishing a financial supervisory authority and, overall, improving its transparency and accountability. Pope Francis also changed the law so that bishops and cardinals would be judged by a lay court that hears criminal cases and not by an elite panel of prelates.

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Pope used vulgar Italian word to refer to LGBT people, Italian newspapers report

(Reuters. By Reuters Staff).

VATICAN CITY, May 27 (Reuters) – Pope Francis used a highly derogatory term towards the LGBT community as he reiterated in a closed-door meeting with Italian bishops that gay people should not be allowed to become priests, Italian media reported on Monday.

La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera, Italy’s largest circulation dailies, both quoted the pope as saying seminaries, or priesthood colleges, are already too full of “frociaggine”, a vulgar Italian term roughly translating as “faggotness”. The Vatican did not respond to a request for comment. La Repubblica attributed its story to several unspecified sources, while Corriere said it was backed up by a few, unnamed bishops, who suggested the pope, as an Argentine, might have not realised that the Italian term he used was offensive. Political gossip website Dagospia was the first to report on the alleged incident, said to have happened on May 20, when the Italian Bishops Conference opened a four-day assembly with a non-public meeting with the pontiff.

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China says it is willing to improve Vatican ties; Taiwan monitoring developments

(Reuters. By Mei Mei Chu and Ben Blanchard).

BEIJING/TAIPEI, (Reuters) – China is willing to work with the Vatican to improve ties, a Chinese foreign ministry official said on Wednesday following remarks from the Holy See’s top diplomat that it wanted to open an office in Beijing. Relations between the Vatican and China’s Communist Party leadership have historically been fraught and it does not have diplomatic relations with Beijing, only Taiwan. Indeed, it is one of only a dozen countries to maintain formal diplomatic ties with Taipei, which has watched nervously as Pope Francis seeks to improve ties with China.

The Vatican would like to establish a permanent office in China, its top diplomat, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said on Tuesday, in what would be a significant upgrade of relations. “We are willing to work together with the Vatican to promote the continuous improvement of China-Vatican relations,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing. He added that the two sides have maintained “deep communication on bilateral relations and international hot issues.”

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Pope denounces clergy who criticized slain Salvadoran bishop Romero.

(Philip Pullella. Reuters).

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis on Friday criticised conservative clergy and bishops who he said had defamed slain Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero even after he was killed by a right-wing death squad in 1980.

The pope departed from his prepared address to a group of visiting Salvadorans to deliver unusually pointed remarks about the past detractors of Romero, who was beatified last May in El Salvador, putting him a step away from sainthood.

“His martyrdom continued (even after his death). He was defamed, slandered … even by his own brothers in the priesthood and the episcopate,” Francis said.

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Pope Francis says US Catholic conservatives have ‘suicidal attitude’

(Reuters. Interview by Norah O’Donnell).

 Pope Francis said his conservative critics within the Roman Catholic Church in the United States are trapped in a “suicidal attitude,” according to an interview with CBS. During the April 24 interview with “60 Minutes” that will air this Sunday, Pope Francis was asked his thoughts on the conservative backlash against his papacy, with many of his critics being American clergy members. Pope Francis responded by saying a conservative is someone who “clings to something and does not want to see beyond that.” “It is a suicidal attitude,” the pontiff said, according to a brief transcript excerpt made available by CBS Thursday. “Because one thing is to take tradition into account, to consider situations from the past, but quite another is to be closed up inside a dogmatic box.” Pope Francis has clashed with the conservative wing almost since he was elected as head of the church in 2013. Moves conservatives have opposed include papal attempts to make the church more welcoming to the LGBT community and to give lay people more responsibility in the church.

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New members of elite Swiss Guard sworn in to protect the pope

no foto

(Reuters).

Maximilian Fischer, 20, is one of the new recruits to an institution that has been protecting popes since the 16th century – the Swiss Guard.

Known to tourists in St Peter’s Square for its colourful yellow, red and blue uniforms and ceremonial halberd weapons, the “world’s smallest army” comprises Swiss Catholics aged between 19 and 30 and it remains all male.

“My mum always made these jokes that when I was older, I could go to the Swiss Guards because I was Swiss,” Fischer told Reuters.

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Ukrainian official discusses taken children with Vatican envoy

no foto

(Reuters).

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff thanked a Vatican envoy on Tuesday for his efforts in trying to bring home thousands of children forcibly taken to Russia and asked him for help in returning prisoners of war.

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi has visited both Russia and Ukraine on a mission mandated by Pope Francis to try to help end the war in Ukraine, now more than two years old.

He said after the visits that his talks focused mainly on humanitarian issues rather than a specific peace plan. He also visited China to facilitate prospects for peace.

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Pope Francis visits Venice, says his work isn’t easy

no foto

(Yara Nardi. Reuters).

Pope Francis made his first trip out of Rome for seven months on Sunday with a packed visit to Venice that took in an art exhibition, a prison and a Mass, with the 87-year pontiff acknowledging that life could be hard.

Hobbled by recent bouts of ill-heath, the pope read out three speeches and a homily during his five-hour stay, moving around the lagoon city by wheelchair, golf buggy and motorlaunch.

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Pope will attend G7 summit to discuss AI, Italy says

(Crispian Balmer. Reuters).

Pope Francis will attend this year’s Group of Seven (G7) leaders’ summit to discuss the challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence (AI), Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Friday.

The pope this year warned against the “perverse” dangers of AI and renewed a call for worldwide regulations to harness it for the common good.

The G7 meeting is being held in the southern Italian region of Puglia from June 13-15 and draws together the leaders of the United States, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Japan, as well as a few specially invited guests.

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Italian police arrests ‘most wanted’ US fugitive in St Peter’s Square.

(Reuters).

Italian police arrested last week a “most wanted” U.S. fugitive who was carrying three concealed knives in a crowded St Peter’s Square outside the Vatican, a judicial source said on Thursday.

The fugitive, now in police custody, was identified as Moises Tejada, who is classified as violent by the New York state prison service’s investigations unit.

The 53-year-old is listed among the department’s most wanted individuals.

The arrest was first reported by Italy’s la Repubblica newspaper and confirmed by the source.

Tejada, whose name has the alternative spelling of Teiada, attracted the suspicion of police who detained him and found he was carrying knives that were 20 cm (8 inches) long.

St Peter’s Square was busy with pilgrims and tourists as Pope Francis was holding a general audience that day, Wednesday April 10. It was not clear if Tejada, who has convictions for robbery and kidnapping, posed any threat to the pope.

The arrest was first reported by Italy’s la Repubblica newspaper and confirmed by the source.

Tejada, whose name has the alternative spelling of Teiada, attracted the suspicion of police who detained him and found he was carrying knives that were 20 cm (8 inches) long.

St Peter’s Square was busy with pilgrims and tourists as Pope Francis was holding a general audience that day, Wednesday April 10. It was not clear if Tejada, who has convictions for robbery and kidnapping, posed any threat to the pope.

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