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Pope set for World Youth Day

VATICAN (SE): Pope Francis is set for his visit to Poland during the upcoming World Youth Day that is to take place in Krakow from July 25 to 31.

He will fly into Krakow on July 27 and, after the usual round of meetings with civic authorities and the diplomatic corps, visit the president of Poland and the bishops.
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Turkey quick to react to genocide reference

VATICAN (SE): Although diplomatic in timing, Ankara was on the war path early on the day after Pope Francis returned to the Vatican from his visit to Armenia, saying that Turkey is disappointed with the language he used when describing the massacre of over one million people in Armenia.
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A mission to promote truth and healing of splits

YEREVAN (SE): Although the main text of Pope Francis during his June 24 to 26 visit to Armenia was Christian unity and peace, his visit will be mostly remembered for his explosive description of the deaths of over one million people in the country at the hands of the Ottoman Empire in April 1915 as genocide.

Speaking in the Armenian capital of Yerevan on the day of his arrival, Pope Francis departed from his prepared text and referred to the massacre of just over 100 years ago as genocide.
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Words are the new bullets in Battle of the Dardanelles

VATICAN (SE): Turkey recalled its ambassador to the Vatican last year in protest against the use of the word genocide by Pope Francis on April 24 to describe the mass killing of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire.

Quoting Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis said, “It is generally referred to as the first genocide of the 20th century.”
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Pope Francis calls the family an opportunity not a problem

On 4 April 2016, Timothy Cardinal Dolan gave an interview to the French Catholic newspaper, Crux, in which he ventured a guess at what Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation, The Joy of Love (Amoris Laetitia), was going to be about.

He predicted it would be about marriage and not divorce. Now that the document is public, one can easily see that he was right. 







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Death penalty deprives victims of justice

HONG KONG (SE): In the wake of an announcement by the government in Indonesia that it plans to execute a further 16 convicted drug traffickers after the celebration of Eid’l Fitr, the end of the holy fast of Ramadan, Pope Francis has come out strongly against the death penalty.
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Hong Kong prisoners send greetings to pope

HONG KONG (SE): A familiar figure around the prisons of Hong Kong, Reverend Edwin Ng Wing-hung was in Rome at the end of May for a conference on the permanent diaconate and had the honour of a private audience with Pope Francis.

Father Pat Colgan, from the Columban central administration and a Spanish speaker, does voluntary work with the prison ministry. He took advantage of the opportunity and invited men in the prisons that he spends time with to write letters to Pope Francis.
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Opening windows onto a closed Church

Pope John XIII is famous for opening the windows to let fresh air into the Church at the beginning of Vatican II, but in his own way, Pope Francis is also opening windows to the breath of the Spirit to blow through the musty corridors that describe and define life at the top of Church authority.







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Pope wants more Running Priests

VATICAN (SE): Pope Francis told the general chapter of a community most popularly known as The Running Priests that their reputation for moving quickly to help those in need is something that the Church could use much, much more of.

The Congregation of the Little Work of Divine Providence was founded in Italy by St. Liugi Orione, who died in 1940.
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Some priests stay mum on meeting with pope

HONG KONG (UCAN): Some of the priests from China who met with Pope Francis in Rome on April 27 have been reluctant to discuss their experience since they returned home, fearing repercussions from the government.

“It is inconvenient for me to talk, given the situation in China,” one priest said.
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