Pope rebukes Trump administration over migrant deportations

ROME — Pope Francis issued a major rebuke Tuesday to the Trump administration’s mass deportation of migrants, warning that the program to forcefully deport people purely because of their illegal status deprives them of their inherent dignity and “will end badly.” Francis took the remarkable step of addressing the U.S. migrant crackdown in a letter […]

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Pope’s envoy worried over USAID cuts, US migrant crackdown

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis’ point-man on migration and development has urged the Trump administration to remember Christian principles about caring for others, saying people are being “terrorized” by the U.S. crackdown on migrants and vital church-run aid programs are being jeopardized by the planned gutting of USAID. Cardinal Michael Czerny, a Czech-born Canadian Jesuit, […]

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Italy says International Criminal Court made an ‘immense mess’ out of Libyan warlord arrest warrant

ROME — Italy’s justice minister strongly defended the government’s decision to repatriate a Libyan warlord wanted by the International Criminal Court, saying Wednesday that the court itself had made an “immense mess” of the case by issuing a contradictory and flawed arrest warrant. Justice Minister Carlo Nordio told the lower chamber of parliament that he […]

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Pope lists tragedies of children in war and trafficking at a rights summit

ROME — Pope Francis convened a high-level summit Monday to demand that children be protected from war, forced labor, trafficking and exploitation, throwing his moral authority behind a global initiative to uphold children’s fundamental rights despite the Catholic Church’s own poor record in protecting them from sexual abuse. Queen Rania of Jordan opened the summit, […]

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Richard Williamson, Catholic bishop whose Holocaust denial embarrassed Pope, dies

ROME — Richard Williamson, an ultra-traditionalist Catholic bishop whose denial of the Holocaust created a scandal in 2009 when Pope Benedict XVI rehabilitated him and other members of his breakaway society, has died. He was 84. Williamson suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in his native England on Jan. 24 and died Wednesday, the Society of St. […]

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Citing pope’s pro-family view, couple at heart of Vatican bank ban on workplace marriage go to court

ROME — Pope Francis has long urged couples to marry and have babies rather than dogs. He also has long championed the rights of workers and held up labor itself as the foundation of human dignity. So it has come as something of a surprise to many in the Holy See that the Vatican bank […]

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Pope Francis calls Trump’s plans of mass deportation of immigrants ‘a disgrace’

ROME — Pope Francis said Donald Trump’s plans to impose mass deportations of immigrants would be a “disgrace,” as he weighed in on the incoming U.S. president’s pledges nearly a decade after calling him “not Christian” for wanting to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. History’s first Latin American pope was asked about the […]

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Pope Francis is introspective and self-critical in his autobiography, at least about his youth

ROME — An introspective Pope Francis has divulged some of the behind-the-scenes dynamics of the secret 2013 conclave that elected him pope and the resistance he has encountered ever since, in his autobiography being released Tuesday that also doubles down on some of his more controversial decisions as pontiff. “Hope: The Autobiography” was only supposed […]

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Italy’s FM heads to Syria to encourage post-Assad transition and calls for EU to review sanctions

ROME — Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani is travelling to Syria on Friday to encourage the country’s transition following the ouster of President Bashar Assad by Islamist insurgents, and said Europe should review its sanctions on Damascus now that the political situation has changed. Tajani presided Thursday over a meeting in Rome of foreign ministry […]

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Pope Francis has named the first woman to head a major Vatican office

ROME — Pope Francis on Monday named the first woman to head a major Vatican office, appointing an Italian nun, Sister Simona Brambilla, to become prefect of the department responsible for all the Catholic Church’s religious orders. The appointment marks a major step in Francis’ aim to give women more leadership roles in governing the […]

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