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Vatican has announced it is offering “indulgences” to followers of Pope Francis’ tweets.
The church’s granted indulgences reduce the time Catholics believe they will have to spend in purgatory after they have confessed and been absolved of their sins.
The remissions got a bad name in the Middle Ages because unscrupulous churchmen sold them for large sums of money. But now indulgences are being applied to the 21st century.
However, a senior Vatican official warned web-surfing Catholics that indulgences still required a dose of old-fashioned faith, and that paradise was not just a few mouse clicks away.
“You can’t obtain indulgences like getting a coffee from a vending machine,” Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, head of the pontifical council for social communication, told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
Indulgences these days are granted to those who carry out certain tasks – such as climbing the Sacred Steps, in Rome (reportedly brought from Pontius Pilate’s house after Jesus scaled them before his crucifixion), a feat that earns believers seven years off purgatory.
But attendance at events such as the Catholic World Youth Day, in Rio de Janeiro, a week-long event starting on July 22, can also win an indulgence.
Vatican has announced it is offering “indulgences” to followers of Pope Francis’ tweets
Mindful of the faithful who cannot afford to fly to Brazil, the Vatican’s sacred apostolic penitentiary, a court which handles the forgiveness of sins, has also extended the privilege to those following the “rites and pious exercises” of the event on television, radio and through social media.
“That includes following Twitter,” said a source at the penitentiary, referring to Pope Francis’ Twitter account, which has gathered seven million followers.
“But you must be following the events live. It is not as if you can get an indulgence by chatting on the internet.”
In its decree, the penitentiary said that getting an indulgence would hinge on the beneficiary having previously confessed and being “truly penitent and contrite”.
Praying while following events in Rio de Janeiro online would need to be carried out with “requisite devotion”, it suggested.
Apart from the papal Twitter account, the Vatican has launched an online news portal supported by an app, a Facebook page, and it plans to use the online social networking site Pinterest.
“What really counts is that the tweets the Pope sends from Brazil or the photos of the Catholic World Youth Day that go up on Pinterest produce authentic spiritual fruit in the hearts of everyone,” said Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli.
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Pope Francis has been named “Man of the Year” by the latest Italian edition of Vanity Fair.
The Argentinean pontiff, elected in March 2013, had earned the accolade for his words and deeds during his first 100 days in office.
The front cover of Vanity Fair magazine shows Pope Francis, 76, wearing plain white robes and a white skull cap, waving at a crowd.
“His first one hundred days have already placed him in the category of world leaders who make history,” the magazine said.
“But the revolution continues.”
Pope Francis has been named “Man of the Year” by the latest Italian edition of Vanity Fair
Five celebrities, including Sir Elton John and the Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli, were quoted by the magazine in praise of Francis, the first Jesuit Pope.
“Francis is a miracle of humility in an era of vanity,” Elton John told the magazine.
Elton John said he hoped that Pope Francis’s message would reach marginalized groups in society which “have a desperate need of his love”, including homosexuals.
“The Pope seems to want to take the Church back to the old values of Christ and, at the same time, bring it into the 21st century,” he said.
Elton John, who has been in a civil partnership since 2005, said he hoped Pope Francis could “reach out to children, women, men who live with HIV and AIDS – often alone, and hidden away in silence”. His praise for the Pope is perhaps surprising given the Vatican’s uncompromising stance on issues such as gay marriage, women priests and married male clergy.
While Pope Francis has adopted a much more relaxed, informal style than Pope Benedict XVI, he is regarded as being as much of a doctrinal conservative as his predecessor.
Pope Francis is visiting the tiny island of Lampedusa, where instead of tooling around in the popemobile, he’s making his rounds in a borrowed 20-year-old Fiat Campagnola.
The pontiff also has let it be known how he feels about priests and nuns who drive fancy cars: It pains him. That has to be a kick in the pants for Dieter Zetsche, CEO of Mercedes-Benz, who just last week personally handed the pope the keys to a new Mercedes popemobile.
Pope Francis is visiting the tiny island of Lampedusa, where instead of tooling around in the popemobile, he’s making his rounds in a borrowed 20-year-old Fiat Campagnola
Last Saturday, Pope Francis told a group of priests and nuns that cars “are necessary. But take a more humble one.” The pontiff said it “hurts” him when he sees a priest or nun in the “latest model car; you can’t do this.” He told his audience to drive a cheaper car and pass the savings on to feed starving children.
Mercedes has provided a number of popemobiles over the years, starting in 1930 with a Nurburg 460 pullman saloon for Pope Pius XI, according to the carmaker.
In a news release following his visit with Pope Francis, Dieter Zetsche said that “by providing the popemobile, we will continue to accompany” Pope Francis on “his travels in the future,” adding that the tradition was “a huge source of pride to us.”
Mercedes also provided for Pope Benedict XVI a popemobile in 2011 that had a built-in oxygen supply behind the bullet-proof plexiglas, a white leather seat with gold trim that was raised into place by a hydraulic lift and armor-plated side panels and undercarriage to withstand bomb blasts. According to the Telegraph, the cost was about $450,000.
But Pope Francis has deliberately shunned high-cost living in a Vatican guest house rather than the papal palace, for instance. Now, after his auto-buying advice for priests and nuns, he’s riding around in an old, borrowed Fiat for his first overseas mission as pontiff.
Pope Francis has visited Italy’s tiny island of Lampedusa and condemned the “global indifference” to migrants’ plight during a Mass.
On arrival, Pope Francis threw a wreath in the sea in memory of the many people who have drowned trying to reach Europe.
A small boat carrying 166 Africans – reportedly Eritreans – arrived at Lampedusa’s port just hours before the Pope’s plane touched down.
The island is struggling to cope with thousands of illegal migrants.
Lampedusa, about 80 miles from Tunisia, is one of the nearest gateways to Europe for Africans fleeing poverty and conflict.
Tens of thousands of migrants have made the dangerous crossing in recent years, usually packed into rickety wooden boats exposed to the elements.
As Pope Francis arrived on a coast guard ship, dozens of Lampedusan fishing boats sailed in nearby.
The pontiff is on his first pastoral visit outside Rome since his election in March.
“Pope Francis, only you can save us,” read a banner on one of the boats.
Pope Francis visited migrant island of Lampedusa
“You’re one of us,” said a sign hanging from an apartment near the port.
Some residents threw flowers into the water and chanted “Viva il Papa” as his vessel docked.
Pope Francis, an Argentine Jesuit, met and spoke to a few migrants, then rode in an open-topped car – rather than the Popemobile often used by predecessors – to the site for Mass, near a “boat cemetery” where the hulks of shipwrecked migrant boats lie in the sun.
His altar was a small, painted boat.
The Pope called for a “reawakening of consciences” to counter the “indifference” shown to migrants.
“We have lost a sense of brotherly responsibility and have forgotten how to cry for migrants lost at sea,” he said.
He denounced the traffickers who exploited migrants and took great risks with their lives.
Pope Francis, whose own ancestors immigrated to Argentina from Italy, has previously stood in sympathy with impoverished illegal migrants.
Lampedusa’s native population of 6,000 is often outnumbered by thousands of migrants in improvised camps around the island.
The UN refugee agency says 8,400 migrants have landed in Italy and Malta in the first six months of the year, almost twice as many as last year, but down on 2011, when tens of thousands fled north Africa during the Arab Spring.
The migrants are normally transported to reception centres on the Italian mainland to be identified and ease the burden on Lampedusa.
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The Italian Football Federation has announced they will play Argentina in a friendly match to honor the soccer-loving Argentinean Pope Francis.
The match will be held August 14 in Rome’s Stadio Olimpico.
Pope Francis will watch the match not far away from the Vatican with audiences from both sides, according to the Associated Press.
It’s a long-awaited announcement for Italian manager Cesare Prandelli. The 55-year-old stated outwardly back in March that he would be ecstatic over a matchup of these two countries for the pope.
The Italian Football Federation has announced they will play Argentina in a friendly match to honor the soccer-loving Argentinean Pope Francis
“We’ve played friendlies with all the best national teams, only Argentina is missing,” Cesare Prandelli said back on March 27 following a World Cup qualifier with Malta.
“If we could arrange it, it would be nice to have an audience with the pope, who comes from Buenos Aires and loves football, and then go all together with both squads on one bus to the stadium. I couldn’t dream of anything better.”
The matchup has plenty of meaning for the religious Cesare Prandelli. He brought his whole coaching staff out on a trio of half-hour long nighttime trips to a Polish monastery during the European championships last year.
It’s been a while since these two sides met. Their last meeting was in 2001, also a friendly where Argentina came out on top 2-1. Prior to that, Argentina knocked out Italy in the semifinals of the 1990 World Cup on penalties, led by Diego Maradona.
Pope Francis said during his Sunday Angelus address to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square that Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to resign was “a great example” of what it means to follow one’s conscience through prayer.
Following one’s conscience doesn’t mean chasing after one’s own self-interests; it calls for listening to God, understanding his will and carrying out his plan with determination, Pope Francis said.
Pope Benedict provided a “recent marvelous example” of following one’s conscience, Pope Francis said, evidently referring to the retired pontiff’s decision to leave office.
“Pope Benedict XVI gave us this great example when the Lord led him to understand, in prayer, what was the step he should take,” Pope Francis said.
“He followed, with a great sense of discernment and courage, his conscience, that is, the will of God, who spoke to his heart.”
References to the retired pope drew applause from the crowd, which Pope Francis urged on with encouraging gestures.
Pope Francis says Pope Benedict’s decision to resign was a great example
Jesus provides many examples of how important it is to follow one’s conscience by “listening to his father’s voice in his heart and following it,” he said.
Jesus, who is God-made-man, had free will and wasn’t “remote-controlled” by God.
However, Jesus never made his decisions by himself; he was always “in full union” with God and obeyed him after listening carefully and closely to his will, Pope Francis said.
Because he acted after careful consideration “together with his father” and in line with the truth, Jesus was able to be decisive and sure, and “found the strength and light for his journey.”
“We, too, have to learn to listen to our conscience more,” Pope Francis said.
“But be careful: This doesn’t mean following oneself, doing what interests me, what’s worthwhile for me, what I like,” he said.
The conscience is “listening to the truth, to the good, listening to God” and this is fostered by having a close relationship with God, “who speaks to my heart and helps me to discern, understand the path I have to take.”
God also helps people “go forward and be faithful” once they have made their decision, Pope Francis said.
Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, a senior Italian cleric, has been arrested in connection with an inquiry into the Vatican bank scandal over allegations of corruption and fraud.
Monsignor Nunzio Scarano works in the Vatican’s financial administration. A secret service agent and a financial broker have also been arrested.
They are suspected of trying to move 20 million euros illegally into Italy.
Pope Francis ordered an unprecedented internal investigation into the bank’s affairs in the wake of recent scandals.
Monsignor Nunzio Scarano has been under investigation by Italian police for a series of suspicious transactions involving the recycling of a series of cheques described as church donations through the Vatican Bank.
Monsignor Nunzio Scarano has been arrested in connection with an inquiry into the Vatican bank scandal over allegations of corruption and fraud
Earlier this month, the pontiff named a trusted cleric to oversee the management of the bank, which has been beset by allegations of money-laundering.
Officially known as the Institute for the Works of Religion, the bank is one of the world’s most secretive. It has 114 employees and $7.1 billion (5.4 billion euros) of assets.
Pope Francis has given the commission carte blanche, bypassing normal secrecy rules, to try to get to the bottom of scandals which have plagued the bank for decades.
Traditionally, the Vatican Bank has refused to co-operate with Italian authorities investigating financial crime on the grounds of the sovereign independence of the Vatican city state.
But Pope Francis has shown that he is now determined to get to the bottom of long-standing allegations of corruption and money-laundering by the bank.
The Institute for the Works of Religion was a major shareholder in the Banco Ambrosiano, a big Italian bank which collapsed in 1982 with losses of more than $3 billion.
Its chairman, Roberto Calvi, was found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London – in a murder disguised as a suicide. Roberto Calvi had close relations with the Vatican.
Pope Francis has set up a commission of inquiry to review the activities of the Vatican bank, following recent scandals.
Earlier this month, Pope Francis named a trusted cleric to oversee the management of the bank, which is known officially as the Institute for Religious Works.
The institution, one of the world’s most secretive banks, has been beset by allegations of money-laundering.
Vatican bank has 114 employees and $7.1 billion (5.4 billion euros) of assets.
Pope Francis has set up a commission of inquiry to review the activities of the Vatican bank
The new commission is tasked with ensuring the bank operates in “harmony” with the mission of the Church.
It is made up of Mary Ann Glendon, a Harvard law professor, and four senior clerics: Italian cardinal Raffaele Farina, French cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, Spanish bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru and US cleric Monsignor Peter Bryan Wells.
On June 15, Pope Francis appointed Monsignor Battista Mario Salvatore Ricca as the bank’s interim prelate – effectively his representative at the institution.
In February, German lawyer Ernst von Freyberg was named the bank’s new chairman, eight months after his predecessor was ousted amid a money-laundering inquiry.
His appointment was one of the last acts of Pope Francis’s predecessor, Benedict XVI.
Ernst von Freyberg set about instituting checks on the bank’s 19,000 accounts, which are mostly held by Vatican employees, charities, priests and nuns.
Pope Francis’ last-minute no-show at a concert where he was to have been the guest of honor has sent another clear signal that he is going to do things his way and does not like the Vatican high life.
The gala classical concert on Saturday was scheduled before his election in March. But the white papal armchair set up in the presumption that Pope Francis would be there remained empty.
Minutes before the concert was due to start, an archbishop told the crowd of cardinals and Italian dignitaries that an “urgent commitment that cannot be postponed” would prevent Pope Francis from attending.
The white papal armchair set up in the presumption that Pope Francis would be there remained empty during Vatican Beethoven concert
The prelates, assured that health was not the reason for the no-show, looked disoriented, realizing that the message he wanted to send was that, with the Church in crisis, he – and perhaps they – had too much pastoral work to do to attend social events.
“It took us by surprise,” said one Vatican source on Monday.
“We are still in a period of growing pains. He is still learning how to be pope and we are still learning how he wants to do it.”
“In Argentina, they probably knew not to arrange social events like concerts for him because he probably wouldn’t go,” said the source, who spoke anonymously because he is not authorized to discuss the issue.
The picture of the empty chair was used in many Italian papers, with Monday’s Corriere della Sera newspaper calling his decision “a show of force” to illustrate the simple style Pope Francis wants Church officials to embrace.
Pope Francis offered Down Syndrome teenage Alberto di Tullio a very rare privilege during his general audience last week – a personal tour of the “Popemobile”.
Pope Francis offered Down Syndrome teenage Alberto di Tullio a very rare privilege during his general audience
The pontiff invited Alberto di Tullio, 17, up onto his open-top Mercedes at the end of his general audience on Wednesday while tens of thousands of people looked on.
The boy’s father, Celestino di Tullio, told reporters how he choked up when Pope Francis approached his son. He said the Pope saw him and embraced him. When the boy pointed to the car, Pope Francis invited him up.
Footage shows Pope Francis and Alberto di Tullio chatting on the open-deck of the “Popemobile” before the teenager had a go in the pope’s white swivel chair.
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Pope Francis blessed crowds of motorcyclists at the Vatican for the 110th anniversary of Harley-Davidson.
Leather-clad bikers lifted their arms to greet the pontiff as he was driven up the avenue leading to St Peter’s Square to celebrate mass and give his Sunday angelus. Some had “Papa Francesco” (Pope Francis) flags fixed to their bikes, which were parked all the way down the Via della Conciliazione among the trinket shops and snack stands.
Pope Francis blessed crowds of motorcyclists at the Vatican for the 110th anniversary of Harley-Davidson
Later, after celebrating a mass attended by men and women in Harley vests among the faithful, many of whom were involved in a two-day anti-abortion event, Pope Francis greeted the “numerous participants” of the anniversary festivities. In a nod to the other large contingent in the crowd, he also offered prayers for “every human life, especially the most fragile, defenceless and threatened.”
Emmanuele Jaconi, an Italian biker, said he saw nothing strange in the juxtaposition. “Just because we’re motorcyclists doesn’t mean we’re not Catholics,” he said.
Marcel Taschenhofer, who had come from Rostock in northern Germany, said he was not religious and was a little disappointed not to be able to ride his bike right into St Peter’s Square. He added: “It’s just a hobby. We like to drive our bikes around, and if the pope thinks it’s good then all the better.”
Rome was invaded by thousands of motorcyclists for the four-day celebration, during which Pope Francis – in something of a marketing coup for the Wisconsin-based manufacturer – was given two white Harley-Davidsons for the Vatican police force, as well as a black leather vest with an eagle on the back.
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Pope Francis has taken his first major step towards reforming to the troubled Vatican bank, naming Monsignor Battista Mario Salvatore Ricca, a trusted cleric, to oversee its management.
The Vatican said Monsignor Battista Mario Salvatore Ricca had been approved as interim prelate of the Institute for Religious Work (IOR)s, as the bank is known.
Monsignor Battista Mario Salvatore Ricca currently runs a number of Church-owned properties.
The IOR, considered one of the world’s most secretive banks, has been at the centre of several scandals.
In February, German lawyer Ernst von Freyberg was named the IOR’s new chairman, eight months after his predecessor was ousted amid a money laundering probe.
The appointment was one of the last acts of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who became the first Pope to resign in 600 years later that month.
In May, Ernst von Freyberg said he was instituting checks on the IOR’s 19,000 accounts, which are mostly held by Vatican employees, charities, priests and nuns.
Pope Francis named Monsignor Battista Mario Salvatore Ricca to oversee Vatican bank management
Although Monsignor Battista Mario Salvatore Ricca was nominated by Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican announcement made clear that Pope Francis personally backed the appointment.
Monsignor Battista Mario Salvatore Ricca runs the hotel where the Pope is living while his official residence is renovated.
As the prelate of the IOR – a post that has been vacant since 2011 – Monsignor Battista Mario Salvatore Ricca will report to the five-member commission of cardinals that oversees the bank, attend board meetings and have access to information on its financial activities.
The IOR is currently seeking recognition from the Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering committee, Moneyval, that it is fully compliant with international standards on combating money laundering, tax evasion and terrorist financing.
Last year, Moneyval said the bank was making progress but needed to improve.
The bank’s rules for customer due diligence, wire transfers and suspicious-transaction reporting were insufficient, and it needed an independent supervisor, Moneyval added.
Founded in 1942, the Vatican bank has 114 employees and $7.1 billion of assets.
Pope Francis has acknowledged the existence of a “gay lobby” inside the Vatican.
The pontiff also said there was a “stream of corruption”, according to reports in Catholic media.
Pope Francis is said to have made the remarks during a private meeting with a group of Latin American Catholic clerics.
The clerics wrote up a report of the conversation that then appeared on the Chilean website Reflection and Liberation.
According to the report, Pope Francis was extremely open as he discussed problems at the Vatican.
He is said to have told the Latin American delegation that there were good, holy men in the administration, but that there was also corruption.
The Vatican would have to “see what we can do” about the “gay lobby” operating in the bureaucracy, he said.
Pope Francis has acknowledged the existence of a “gay lobby” inside the Vatican
“It is true, it is there,” the report quotes Pope Francis as saying.
In the days leading up to Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation in February, the Italian media carried many un-sourced reports that gay Vatican clergymen had been working together to advance their personal interests, leaving the Holy See vulnerable to blackmail.
There were even suggestions that the situation had influenced Benedict’s decision to resign.
At the time, the Vatican vigorously denied all the rumors.
It has so far declined to make any comment regarding the Pope’s reported remarks, other than that the audience with the Latin American clerics was private.
An organization representing the clerics, known by its Spanish acronym CLAR, has said it has apologized to the Pope for the publication of the report.
CLAR said in a statement that it “deeply regretted the publication of a text which refers to the conversation with the Holy Father”.
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According to the UN’ food agency, around 1.3 billion tonnes of food, or one third of what is produced for human consumption, gets lost or wasted every year.
Pope Francis denounced this week what he called a “culture of waste” in an increasingly consumerist world and said throwing away good food was like stealing from poor people.
“Our grandparents used to make a point of not throwing away leftover food. Consumerism has made us accustomed to wasting food daily and we are unable to see its real value,” Pope Francis said at his weekly audience in St. Peter’s Square.
“Throwing away food is like stealing from the table of those who are poor and hungry,” he said. Since taking office in March, Pope Francis has said he wants the 1.2-billion-strong Roman Catholic Church to defend the poor and to practice greater austerity itself.
He has also made several calls for global financial reform.
Pope Francis denounces a “culture of waste” in an increasingly consumerist world
In the industrialized world the majority of waste is by consumers, often because they buy too much and have to throw away what they do not manage to eat.
A UN-backed study released on Wednesday said simple measures such as better storage and reducing over-sized portions would sharply reduce the vast amount of food going to waste.
In US restaurants, diners wasted 9% of the meals they bought, partly because of a trend to increase the size of everything from cheeseburgers to soft drinks, said the report by the World Resources Institute and the UN Environment Programme.
Pope Francis said the “culture of waste” was especially deplorable given the prevalence of hunger in the world. The UN says hunger affects some 870 million people, while 2 billion suffer from at least one nutritional deficiency.
The Argentinean-born pontiff warned that too much focus on money and materialism meant financial market dips were viewed as tragedies while human suffering had become normal and ignored.
“In this way people are discarded as if they were garbage,” Pope Francis said.
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Pope Francis has condemned mafia groups for “exploiting and enslaving people”, urging mobsters to repent.
Speaking after his weekly blessing in St Peter’s Square in Rome, he said “we must pray to the Lord to make these mafiosi convert to God”.
The pontiff’s comments came a day after the beatification of Don Giuseppe Puglisi, a Roman Catholic priest murdered by the mafia in Sicily in 1993.
The ceremony marked the penultimate step on the path to his sainthood.
Pope Francis has condemned mafia groups for exploiting and enslaving people
“I think of the great pain suffered by men, women and even children, exploited by so many mafias, who make them slaves, through prostitution, through many social pressures,” Pope Francis said on Sunday.
“They cannot do this, they cannot make our brothers slaves,” he said.
Pope Francis also used his traditional Sunday appearance to pilgrims to hail Father Puglisi as a “martyr” and “an exemplary priest”.
The beatification ceremony in Sicily’s capital Palermo drew more than 50,000 people, although Pope Francis did not attend it.
By beatifying Don Giuseppe Puglisi, the Church is making a strong stand against mafia crime – which has been protected by a code of silence.
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The Vatican has denied claims that Pope Francis performed an exorcism, after TV 2000 images showed a man apparently reacting to the pontiff putting his hands on his head.
The encounter – during last Sunday Mass – was shown on a TV channel owned by the Italian bishops’ conference.
The station quoted exorcists as saying there was “no doubt” Pope Francis had either performed an exorcism or a prayer to free the man from the devil.
Its director later apologized for “having altered the truth”.
The Pope’s spokesman said he “did not intend to perform any exorcism”.
“Rather as he frequently does with the sick or suffering who come his way, he simply intended to pray for a suffering person,” said Federico Lombardi in a statement.
The footage shows a young man, who is in a wheelchair, opening his mouth and either screaming or breathing deeply as Pope Francis puts his hands on his head and prays for him during the Mass in St Peter’s Square.
TV 2000 images show a man apparently reacting to Pope Francis putting his hands on his head
The man then convulses and slumps in his chair.
On Tuesday, the director of the TV station which broadcast the pictures, TV 2000, apologized for the report, saying: “I don’t want to attribute to him a gesture that he didn’t intend to perform.”
“I apologize for having altered the truth of the facts and for the people who are involved, in particular I apologize to the Holy Father,” said Dino Boffo.
Religious figures in Rome had insisted the act had been an exorcism.
They included the Vatican’s former chief exorcist, Gabriele Amorth, who was quoted by Italian media as saying the act “was an exorcism alright” and that he had since performed his own exorcism on the young man, who he said was called Angelo.
Exorcism is the ancient practice of driving out demons or evil spirits from a person or place they are thought to possess. It is practiced by some Roman Catholics but treated with deep skepticism by others.
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In his first major speech on the financial crisis, Pope Francis has called on world leaders to end the “cult of money” and to do more for the poor.
Free market economics had created a tyranny, in which people were valued only by their ability to consume, the pontiff told diplomats in the Vatican.
“Money has to serve, not to rule,” he said, urging ethical financial reforms.
Meanwhile, the Vatican’s own bank announced it would publish its annual report for the first time.
The Institute for Works of Religion, which has been at the centre of various financial scandals in recent years, is to hire an external accountancy firm to ensure it meets international standards against money laundering.
The bank would launch a website and publish its annual report in an effort to increase transparency, new president Ernst Freyberg said.
The institute is considered one of the world’s most secretive banks.
In his first major speech on the financial crisis, Pope Francis has called on world leaders to end the “cult of money” and to do more for the poor
Pope Francis said life had become worse for people in both rich and poor countries.
In a biblical reference, the pontiff said the “worship of the golden calf” of old had found a new and heartless image in the current cult of money.
He added that reforms were urgently needed as poverty was becoming more and more evident.
People struggled to live, and frequently in an undignified way, under the dictatorship of an economy which lacked any real human goal, Pope Francis said.
Pope Francis made his remarks during an address to newly accredited ambassadors to the Holy See.
The new pontiff, who took over from Benedict XVI in March, is renowned for his efforts of tackling poverty in his native Argentina.
The pontiff has previously said that the Church has a special duty to defend the poor.
“I would like a Church that is poor and is for the poor,” he said following his election as head of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics two months ago.
The Pope said he had chosen the name Francis in a direct reference to St Francis of Assisi, the Italian founder of the Franciscan Order who was devoted to the poor.
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Pope Francis has proclaimed the first saints of his pontificate in a ceremony at the Vatican – a list which includes 813 victims of an atrocity carried out by Ottoman soldiers in 1480.
The “Martyrs of Otranto” were beheaded in the southern Italian town after refusing to convert to Islam.
Their names are unknown, apart from one man, Antonio Primaldo.
Within two months of taking office, Pope Francis has proclaimed more saints than any of his predecessors.
Among those canonized on Sunday were two Latin American nuns – Laura Montoya from Colombia and Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala from Mexico – who both died in the 20th Century.
Colombia’s first saint, Mother Laura Montoya dedicated her life to helping indigenous people while the woman named by Pope Francis as Mother “Lupita” sheltered Catholics during a government crackdown against the faith in the 1920s.
Pope Francis has proclaimed the first saints of his pontificate in a ceremony at the Vatican
The Italian “Martyrs of Otranto” were executed after 20,000 Turkish soldiers invaded their town in south-eastern Italy.
There was no hint of any anti-Islamic sentiment in the homily that Pope Francis delivered before tens of thousands of worshippers gathered in St Peter’s Square.
While it was Pope Francis’s predecessor, Pope Benedict, who gave the go ahead for their canonizations, the new pope is continuing the process of honoring a new generation of modern as well as historic martyrs.
Later this month an Italian priest, Father Giuseppe Puglisi, who was murdered by the Sicilian mafia 20 years ago will be beatified – the last step before being declared a saint.
Otranto 14 August 1480:
- The “Martyrs of Otranto” were 813 Italians beheaded for defying demands by Turkish invaders to renounce Christianity
- The Turks had been sent by Mohammed II, who had already captured the “second Rome” of Constantinople
- His fleet landed in Otranto, Italy’s easternmost city, and laid siege
- Its citizens held out for two weeks, allowing the King of Naples to muster his forces and prevent the fall of Rome
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Pope Emeritus Benedict has returned to the Vatican, two months after becoming the first pontiff to resign in 600 years.
The former pope was flown by helicopter from the Castel Gandolfo papal summer residence to live permanently in Vatican City.
Greeted by Pope Francis as he arrived, Benedict was driven the short distance to his new accommodation.
Ex-Pope Benedict, 86, was last seen in public on March 23 and there has been speculation about his health.
Observers said at the time he appeared more frail than when he stepped down on February 28.
However, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said this week that Emeritus Pope Benedict was not ill.
Pope Emeritus Benedict has returned to the Vatican, two months after becoming the first pontiff to resign in 600 years
Hours after his arrival, the Vatican issued a photograph of Benedict shaking hands with Pope Francis. However, unlike his departure from the Vatican, there was no live TV coverage of his return.
Benedict will live in the converted Mater Ecclesiae convent just behind St Peter’s Basilica, with his personal secretary, Georg Gaenswein.
The building, described as “small but well equipped” by Federico Lombardi, includes an attached chapel, a library and a study.
There is also a guest room available for when his older brother, Georg Ratzinger, visits.
The Vatican said Pope Francis welcomed Benedict “with great and fraternal cordiality”.
The two then held a “brief moment of prayer” in Benedict’s chapel.
Benedict will now dedicate himself to a life of private prayer in the service of the Church, according to the Vatican.
His arrival heralds an unprecedented era of a former pope living close to his successor at the Vatican.
But at the time of his abdication, Benedict suggested he would not try influence his successor, saying he would live out the rest of his days “hidden from the world”.
At a meeting in March with Pope Francis, he also repeated “unconditional reverence and obedience” to his successor.
When he resigned, Pope Benedict cited his advanced age as the reason, saying he no longer had the strength for “an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry”.
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Pope Francis has appointed a group of cardinals to advise him on how to reform the Vatican’s often arcane bureaucracy.
The Catholic Church’s new leader chose eight cardinals and a bishop who between them represent nearly every continent, and only one of whom is currently a Vatican official.
The bureaucracy, or Curia, has been blamed for the Church’s hesitant response to sex abuse and other crises.
It is nearly 50 years since the Vatican’s last major reforms.
The cardinals who elected Pope Francis last month were strongly critical about basic failings of the Curia under Pope Emeritus Benedict.
Pope Francis has appointed a group of cardinals to advise him on how to reform the Vatican’s often arcane bureaucracy
The cardinals include two Europeans (from Italy and Germany), two from Latin America (Chile and Honduras), one from the US, one from Asia (India), one African and one Australian. An Italian bishop will act as secretary.
Announcing the appointments, the Vatican said Pope Francis had got the idea of forming the advisory body from meetings ahead of his election by cardinals last month.
Pope Paul VI undertook the last major reform of the Vatican bureaucracy in 1967.
The new group is to have its first meeting on October 1-3.
Earlier this week the pontiff met personally all 300 staff members of the Vatican’s secretariat of state, the body responsible for carrying out Church policies.
Some radical reforms are expected soon, although Pope Francis is moving cautiously given the complexity and sensitivity of Church government.
Scandals have included clerical sexual abuse, financial problems at the Vatican bank and the theft of documents from Pope Benedict’s desk.
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Pope Francis prepares to tackle some of the Catholic Church’s major problems and he starts with the Vatican Bank, which has been accused of laundering money.
The pontiff is starting with the bank as he plans to reform the Church into a model of austerity and honesty.
Pope Francis has spent the first weeks of his papacy officiating at services and demonstrating how true servants of God should be.
Those close to Pope Francis, speaking on the condition of anonymity, say that he is considering plans to remove the head of the Vatican Bank, Cardinal Tarciscio Bertone, who is the Vatican’s second-in-command and is largely blamed for failing to stop infighting and corruption within the Holy See.
The officials warned that it would take time to change the bank, or to close it, but that it could certainly happen. One official doubted the likelihood that it would close, but that instead it would undergo serious restructuring.
Pope Francis prepares to tackle some of the Catholic Church’s major problems and he starts with the Vatican Bank, which has been accused of laundering money
Pope Francis, the officials say, has also indicated that he plans to tackle a number of other issues including scandals involving the sexual abuse of children around the world. The actions of a small minority of individuals has tainted the reputation of the 1.2 billion member church. Sadly, those problems have been exacerbated by the failure of Church leadership to cooperate with local authorities and to protect children in some cases.
It is expected that Pope Francis will also deal with this issue quite definitively, although no specifics have yet been discussed.
In many ways, Pope Francis represents a serious coup for the Church. Many Cardinals have been upset with how the Italian Cardinals, which dominate the Curia, have been operating. Therefore, it makes sense that after much prayer and petition, God should choose a relative outsider of great piety and spirit to cleanse His Church.
Insiders say that Pope Benedict XVI left a carefully composed secret report for Pope Francis. That report supposedly contains secret documents and a frank assessment of the scandals facing the Church. They discuss troubles with the Vatican bank as well as the Vatileaks scandal in which secret documents were smuggled out of the Vatican by Pope Benedict’s butler, Paolo Gabriele.
Paolo Gabriele was sentenced to 18 months in prison but was later pardoned and released by Pope Benedict XVI before Christmas.
Meanwhile watchdog organizations will continue monitoring the Vatican Bank and report on its progress.
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Pope Francis has delivered his first Easter Sunday message since being elected with a passionate plea for peace.
The newly-elected Pope used his “Urbi et Orbi” address to call for peace in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and across the globe.
Pope Francis singled out “dear Syria”, saying: “How much blood has been shed! And how much suffering must there still be before a political solution is found?”
Easter is the most important festival in the Christian calendar and pilgrims have attended church across the world.
Pope Francis has delivered his first Easter Sunday message since being elected with a passionate plea for peace
In his Urbi et Orbi (To the city and the world) speech, Pope Francis, 76, began with a simple “Happy Easter!”
The pontiff, who has begun his tenure by emphasizing humility, went on: “Christ has risen! What a joy it is for me to announce this message… I would like it to go out to every house and every family, especially where the suffering is greatest, in hospitals, in prisons.”
Later in his speech, the Pope said: “We ask the risen Jesus, who turns death into life, to change hatred into love, vengeance into forgiveness, war into peace.”
Pope Francis then mentioned troubled regions of the world in turn.
“Peace for the Middle East, and particularly between Israelis and Palestinians, who struggle to find the road of agreement, that they may willingly and courageously resume negotiations to end a conflict that has lasted all too long.
“Peace in Iraq, that every act of violence may end, and above all for dear Syria, for its people torn by conflict and for the many refugees who await help and comfort.”
For Africa, the Pope referred to Mali, Nigeria – “where attacks sadly continue” – the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.
He added: “Peace in Asia, above all on the Korean peninsula: may disagreements be overcome and a renewed spirit of reconciliation grow.”
Pope Francis concluded by saying: “Peace in the whole world, still divided by greed looking for easy gain, wounded by the selfishness which threatens human life and the family, selfishness that continues in human trafficking, the most extensive form of slavery in this 21st Century.”
The new Pope has reinforced his image as a man of simple, down-to-earth tastes, not wearing the more ostentatious of papal costumes and, for the moment, not moving into the grandiose papal apartments.
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Pope Francis celebrates his first Easter Sunday since his election, with an open-air Mass in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican.
The Pope will then deliver an “Urbi et Orbi” address from a balcony of St Peter’s.
Easter is the most important festival in the Christian calendar.
At an Easter vigil Mass in St Peter’s, Pope Francis appealed to non-believers and lapsed Catholics to “step forward” towards God.
At an Easter vigil Mass in St Peter’s, Pope Francis appealed to non-believers and lapsed Catholics to “step forward” towards God
“Let the risen Jesus enter your life, welcome him as a friend, with trust: he is life! If up till now you have kept him at a distance, step forward,” Pope Francis said.
“He will receive you with open arms.”
At the start of the service, the basilica was kept dark to signify Jesus’ tomb before what Christians believe was his resurrection. Pope Francis and the congregation held candles.
The service was shorter than usual, which the Vatican said was in line with Pope Francis’ preference for shorter Masses.
Pope Francis, formerly Buenos Aires Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was elected on March 13, becoming the first non-European pope for almost 1,300 years.
He replaced Pope Benedict XVI, who held the office for eight years and became the first pontiff in more than 700 years to resign, saying he no longer had the physical strength to continue.
Pope Francis, 76, has already set a new style at the Vatican, reaching out easily to ordinary people and expressing his thoughts in a conversational way that is easy to understand.
He has surprised many of the clerics who work at the Vatican, eating in a communal dining room with other priests and clearly finding much traditional Vatican ceremonial tedious.
Rather than moving into grand papal apartments, Pope Francis has remained in a Vatican guesthouse, where he has been inviting ordinary people to morning Mass.
In the days before Easter, Pope Francis reached out to women and Muslims.
During a Holy Thursday Mass at a youth detention centre he washed and kissed the feet of 12 people, including two girls and two Muslims, and in a Good Friday procession referred to the “friendship of our Muslim brothers and sisters” in the Middle East.
After Easter, Pope Francis will have to begin tackling the key issues facing the Church, such as the Vatican bureaucracy, the future of the Vatican bank and the clerical sexual abuse scandal.
Vatican watchers will be keeping a keen eye on new appointments to key positions.
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Italy’s Rai TV broadcast for the first time images of the Turin Shroud, which is revered by many Christians as the burial cloth of Jesus Christ.
The linen cloth bears a faint brownish image of what appears to be a man’s body.
A smartphone app was also created to show digital images of the Turin Shroud.
Pope Francis contributed a message to the broadcast, shortly before he was to celebrate his first Easter vigil.
Italy’s Rai TV broadcast for the first time images of the Turin Shroud
The newly-elected Pope will preside over a vigil at St Peter’s Basilica on Saturday evening – ahead of the main Easter Sunday celebrations.
Thousands of people from all over the world are expected at Sunday’s Mass.
Viewers were able to watch live images of the 1.21 x 4.42 m Turin Shroud in a 90-minute programme on Rai TV from Turin Cathedral.
The images were also streamed on various websites.
In a video message ahead of the exhibition, Pope Francis said: “It speaks to our heart.”
The Pope described the cloth as an “icon” or an image but was careful not to authenticate as a genuine relic.
His predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict, also recorded a video message.
The shroud has never been officially recognized as authentic by the Vatican.
Rigorous scientific testing seems to indicate that the Turin Shroud was woven between 700 and 800 years ago.
But diehard believers say other tests prove that it could have been made at the time of the crucifixion – give or take a couple of hundred years.
The only previous – recorded – TV broadcast of the shroud was in 1973. It was last shown to the general public three years ago when Pope Benedict XVI travelled to Turin to view it.
The Shroud has been kept in the northern Italian city for more than four centuries.
It was taken there by members of the former Italian and French royal house of Savoy who originally acquired it in France in the belief that it had been brought to Europe by returning Crusaders.
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Pope Francis has referred to “so many Muslim brothers and sisters” during a Good Friday procession dedicated to the suffering of Christians from terrorism, war and religious fanaticism in the Middle East.
The newly-elected Pope, who has rankled traditionalists by rejecting many trappings of his office, mostly stuck to the traditional script during the nighttime Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) procession at Rome’s Colosseum, one of the most dramatic rituals of Holy Week.
Pope Francis has referred to “so many Muslim brothers and sisters” during a Good Friday procession dedicated to the suffering of Christians from terrorism, war and religious fanaticism in the Middle East
With torches lighting the way, the faithful carried a cross to different stations, where meditations and prayers were read out recalling the final hours of Jesus’ life and his crucifixion.
This year, the prayers were composed by young Lebanese, and many recalled the plight of minority Christians in the region, where wars have forced thousands to flee their homelands. The meditations called for an end to “violent fundamentalism,” terrorism and the “wars and violence which in our days devastate various countries in the Middle East.”
Pope Francis chose, however, to stress Christians’ positive relations with Muslims in the region in his brief comments at the end of the ceremony.
Standing on a platform overlooking the procession route, Pope Francis recalled Pope Benedict XVI’s 2012 visit to Lebanon when “we saw the beauty and the strong bond of communion joining Christians together in that land and the friendship of our Muslim brothers and sisters and so many others.”
“That occasion was a sign to the Middle East and to the whole world, a sign of hope,” the new Pope said.
Friday’s outreach followed Pope Francis’ eyebrow-raising gesture a day earlier, when he washed and kissed the feet of two women, one a Muslim, in the Maundy Thursday ritual that commemorates Jesus’ washing of his apostles’ feet during the Last Supper before his crucifixion.
Breaking with tradition, Pope Francis performed the ritual on 12 inmates at a juvenile detention center, rather than in Rome’s grand St. John Lateran basilica, where in the past, 12 priests have been chosen to represent Jesus’ disciples.
Before he became pope, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio long cultivated warm relations with Muslim leaders in his native Argentina. In one of his first speeches as pope, he called for the church and the West in general to “intensify” relations with the Muslim world.
The Vatican’s relations with Islam hit several bumps during Benedict XVI’s papacy, when he outraged Muslims with a 2006 speech quoting a Byzantine emperor as saying some of Prophet Muhammad’s teachings were “evil and inhuman”. And in 2011, the pre-eminent institute of Islamic learning in the Sunni Muslim world, Cairo’s Al-Azhar institute, froze dialogue with the Vatican to protest Pope Benedict’s call for greater protection of Christians in Egypt.
However, Pope Francis’ past outreach to the Muslim community in Argentina seems to have changed that. Al-Azhar’s chief imam, Sheik Ahmed el-Tayyib, sent a message of congratulations to Pope Francis on his election and said he hoped for cooperation.
The Vatican’s efforts to reconcile with the Islamic world have not been welcomed by all. Italy’s most famous Muslim convert to Catholicism, Magdi Allam, announced last week he was leaving the church because of its “soft” stance on Islam. Magdi Allam was baptized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2008 during the high-profile Easter Vigil service when the pope traditionally baptizes a handful of adults.
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