Danny and Leila Abdallah with children Liana, Alex, Michael, and Selina spoke to CNA at the Vatican on June 23, 2022. / Daniel Ibáñez / CNA
Vatican City, Jul 5, 2022 / 10:07 am (CNA).
“Forgiveness allowed my marriage to survive,” Leila Abdallah… […]
Pope Francis, pictured on Oct. 4, 2014. / Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk.
Vatican City, Jul 5, 2022 / 06:53 am (CNA).
Pope Francis has expressed shock and sadness over the mass shooting that led to the death of at least six and wounded some 30 other… […]
Pope Francis waves at pilgrims from China at the general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Sept. 7, 2016. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA.
Vatican City, Jul 5, 2022 / 04:49 am (CNA).
Pope Francis said he hopes the Vatican’s provisional agreement with China on the appointment of Catholic bishops will be renewed for the second time in October.
In comments to Reuters published Tuesday, the pope said “the agreement is moving well and I hope that in October it can be renewed.”
The Vatican-China agreement was first signed in September 2018 and then renewed for another two years in October 2020. The terms of the agreement have not been made public.
Pope Francis spoke to Reuters about the China deal in a 90-minute interview which also covered his health, resignation rumors, and the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
In September 2021, the Vatican confirmed that the sixth Catholic bishop had been ordained under the agreement’s terms.
Seven bishops ordained before the 2018 agreement have also had their positions regularized by the Vatican.
Pope Francis said the appointment of bishops under the deal in China “is going slowly, but they are being appointed.”
The slow process, he said, is “‘the Chinese way,’ because the Chinese have that sense of time that nobody can rush them.”
Father Bernardo Cervellera, former editor-in-chief of AsiaNews, told CNA last year that the bishops who have been nominated and ordained are close to the Patriotic Catholic Association, “so this means that they are very near to the government.”
The Catholic Church is still in need of around 40 more bishops in China, according to Cervellera.
In the Reuters interview, Pope Francis said the Chinese “also have their own problems because it is not the same situation in every region of the country. [The treatment of Catholics] also depends on local leaders.”
He also defended the Vatican-China deal against its critics.
“Diplomacy is the art of the possible and of doing things to make the possible become a reality,” he said.
He compared today’s critics and those who spoke negatively of the Vatican’s diplomatic decisions during the Cold War, when the popes struck deals with Eastern European communist governments in an attempt to protect the interests of the Catholic Church.
“Diplomacy is like that. When you face a blocked situation, you have to find the possible way, not the ideal way, out of it,” the pope said.
First responders take away victims from the scene of a mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade on July 4, 2022 in Highland Park, Illinois. At least six people were killed and 19 injured, according to published reports. / Jim Vondruska/Getty Ima… […]
Photo illustration of Nigerian military uniform. / Shutterstock
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 4, 2022 / 11:41 am (CNA).
Residents of predominantly Christian villages in north-central Nigeria that came under attack from Fulani bandits on motorc… […]
I’ve been thinking a lot about my friends on the other side of the Dobbs business. Several of them have said they don’t know what they’re even celebrating this year, as we mark our Independence […]
Cardinal Cláudio Hummes arrives for the afternoon session of the Amazon Synod, October 8, 2019. / Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
Sao Paulo, Brazil, Jul 4, 2022 / 09:24 am (CNA).
Cardinal Cláudio Hummes, archbishop emeritus of São Paulo, Brazil, died on Mond… […]
Pope Francis / Daniel Ibáñez/CNA.
Vatican City, Jul 4, 2022 / 09:06 am (CNA).
It is no coincidence that Pope Francis chose the form of an apostolic letter to write about liturgy. Nor that he chose to write it one year after the publication of t… […]
Pope Francis / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, Jul 4, 2022 / 06:12 am (CNA).
Pope Francis has said he has no plans to resign soon and that his knee injury is healing.Reports of Francis resigning began to spread last month in light of three even… […]
Pope Francis speaks to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Paul Pelosi after Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on June 29, 2022. / Vatican Media
Vatican City, Jul 4, 2022 / 03:43 am (CNA).
Pope Francis condemned abortion in new comments about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
When asked whether a Catholic politician who supports the right to choose abortion can receive the sacrament of Communion, he warned of bishops losing their “pastoral nature.”
Speaking to Reuters over the weekend, the pope said he respected the ruling in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, though he did not know enough to speak about the juridical aspects.
The interview, published July 4, said Francis compared abortion to “hiring a hit man.”
“I ask: Is it legitimate, is it right, to eliminate a human life to resolve a problem?” Pope Francis said.
He was also asked about the debate over whether Catholic politicians who promote legal abortion should be admitted to Holy Communion.
In May, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was barred from receiving Communion in her home diocese of San Francisco by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone because of her advocacy of abortion.
Pelosi (D-Calif.) reportedly received Holy Communion at a Mass with Pope Francis at the Vatican on June 29. It is not clear if the pope was aware that Pelosi attended, though the Vatican issued a photo showing the two greeting each other in St. Peter’s Basilica.
Pope Francis told Reuters: “When the Church loses its pastoral nature, when a bishop loses his pastoral nature, it causes a political problem. That’s all I can say.”
The 90-minute interview in Italian took place on July 2 in a reception room on the ground floor of the Vatican’s Santa Marta guesthouse, where the pope lives.
In addition to the abortion topic, the interview covered the pope’s health, resignation rumors, and the possibility of trips to Kyiv and Moscow.
© Catholic World Report