Pope Francis

In March, 2014, Pope Francis went to confession in St. Peter’s Basilica. A little more than a year after his election, he was leading a penitential service, which had been organized to encourage Catholics worldwide to fulfill their obligation to confess their sins (in the sacrament now called reconciliation) before…

Sitting in her family home in East Los Angeles, Rosa Manriquez kept her eyes on the TV screen as a flood of white smoke came pouring out of the roof of the Sistine Chapel 6,300 miles away — a century-old signal that the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church had…

It has been ten years since the election of Argentina's Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope Francis. In that decade he has accomplished a remarkable undertaking: launching a profound transformation of the 2,000-year-old Catholic Church. The very election of Pope Francis was a great novelty, for at least two reasons. First,…

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — When Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina became Pope Francis, much of his home country celebrated as if it had just won a soccer World Cup championship. A decade later, the first Latin American leader of the Catholic Church generates divided opinions and much less fervor. Francis, who…

Already have Rappler+? to listen to groundbreaking journalism. POPE'S HEALTH. Pope Francis leaves laughs with Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, at the Sakhir Palace south of Manama, Bahrain, on November 3, 2022. Yara Nardi/Reuters Pope Francis alternates between using a cane and a wheelchair and he has continued…

FILE - Pope Francis holds the pastoral staff as he leaves after celebrating a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, to mark Epiphany, Jan. 6, 2014. Pope Francis celebrates the 10th anniversary of his election Monday, March 13, 2023, far outpacing the "two or three" years he once…

Key PointsPope Francis says there is room to relax the requirement for celibacy among priests.The pontiff has been asked repeatedly over the years if the rule can be relaxed.The German Synodal Assembly for the Reform of the Catholic Church is pushing for the change.Pope Francis can, in principle, imagine abolishing…

ROME (RNS) — In an interview published Friday (March 10), Pope Francis called celibacy in the priesthood a gift from God but also a “provisional” discipline observed mostly in the Western Church that is not essential to ordination. The pope’s comment came as an interviewer with the Argentine news agency…

DHAKA: Rohingya refugees said on Monday their citizenship and basic rights must be guaranteed before returning to Myanmar, as the first step of a potential repatriation got underway. Around 1.2 million Rohingya people are living in squalid camps in the coastal district of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, most of whom…

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis marks 10 years as head of the Catholic Church on Monday, hugely popular but facing internal dissent after a decade of reform, even if he has left basic doctrine intact. When he appeared at the balcony of St Peter's Basilica on March 13, 2013 in…