GENEVA (CNS): “Our differences must not be excuses,” Pope Francis said, as he addressed a gathering of Christian leaders at headquarters of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva, Switzerland on June 21, noting that as Christ’s disciples, Christians can still pray together, evangelise and serve others.
 
He said that not only God, but today’s broken, divided world is begging for unity among Christians.
 

VATICAN (CNS): Pope Francis will review the finalised draft of the apostolic constitution that would govern the Roman Curia, Greg Burke, the Vatican spokesman, said on June 13.
 

VATICAN (CNS): “All dictatorships, all of them, began like this, by adulterating communication, by putting communications in the hands of people without scruples, of governments without scruples,” Pope Francis said in his homily during morning Mass at Domus Sanctae Marthae on June 18.
 
Typical standards, norms and laws in regard to communications are first eliminated, the pope said. 
 

VATICAN (CNS): Speaking to dozens of young astronomy students who were taking part in a month-long summer school sponsored by the Vatican Observatory, Pope Francis said on June 14 that scientists and people of faith must always admit they don’t know everything and they must never be afraid to explore and discover more.
 

VATICAN (CNS): Should Pope Francis ever make an apostolic trip to the International Space Station, he will be all set having received a custom-made blue flight suit on June 8.
 
The outfit has patches of the Argentine flag, the papal coat of arms and a pair of angel wings with his crew name, Jorge M. Bergoglio, and also comes with an add-on white mantle, just so there would be no mistaking that the wearer is the pope.
 

VATICAN (CNS): After an in-depth Vatican-led investigation into clerical sexual abuse and cover-ups, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of 61-year-old Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, Chile, along with those of Archbishop Cristian Caro Cordero of Puerto Montt, and Bishop Gonzalo Duarte Garcia de Cortazar of Valparaiso, both at the customary retirement age of 75.
 

VATICAN (Agencies): “People here in Escuintla have lost everything, family members, homes, crops, their animals,” Luis Rolando Sanchez, Catholic Relief Services’ emergency coordinator for Latin America, said, afer the horrific eruption of Volcan de Fuego (Volcano of Fire) in Guatemala on June 3 left more than 60 people dead.
 
Pope Francis sent his condolences in a June 5 telegramme addressed to Archbishop Nicolas Thevenin, apostolic nuncio of Guatemala, CNS reported.
 

VATICAN (CNS/UCAN): “The Holy Father has reached the conclusion that the document has not matured enough to be published,” said a letter signed by Archbishop Luis Ladaria, cardinal-designate and prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in which the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Germany was asked not to publish nationwide guidelines for allowing Protestants married to Catholics to receive Communion at Mass, but to continue having diocesan bishops judge specific situations.
 

VATICAN (CNS): In a letter to Catholics in Chile, Pope Francis expressed shame for the Church’s failure to listen and defend survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of the clergy.
 
Released by the Chilean bishops’ conference on May 31, the letter said that the time of “revision and purification” in the Church was possible through the efforts of abuse survivors “who, against all hope or painted as discredited, did not tire of looking for the truth.”
 

VATICAN (CNS): When Pope Francis speaks unguardedly, “there is a risk that some of his expressions can be manipulated or interpreted incorrectly,” investigative journalist for the Italian Catholic newspaper, Avvenire, Nello Scavo, explains.
 
From the moment of his election, Pope Francis’ down-to-earth way of communicating the gospel has led to countless front-page headlines either praising or criticising him.