Tag: pope

RIO DE JANEIRO (RNS) In one of the most inclusive gestures of his visit here, Pope Francis donned a headdress offered to him from an indigenous South American Indian at a ceremony in the city´s grand municipal theater.

The gesture was greeted with shouts of surprise initially.

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Just months after becoming the first pope in nearly 600 years to resign, reports are surfacing that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is in poor health with diminished stature and energy.

After a brief hiatus at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, Benedict returned to live in a converted monastery on the edge of the Vatican gardens last month.

Pope Francis on Wednesday (May 8) told leaders of women’s orders from around the world to be “fertile” spiritual mothers in the Catholic Church, not “spinsters.”

The Argentine pontiff addressed some 800 leaders of female religious orders who are in Rome for the meeting of the International Union of Superiors General.

I am not a Catholic. Truth be told, I know very little about the process for picking the next pope. As a Protestant pastor I probably know more than most about Catholicism, but when it comes to all things papal I confess ignorance, (confession is good for Protestants too).

The next pope will undoubtedly have to wade through a good deal of advice from official advisors as well as commentators across the global Roman Catholic community. He will be chosen on part as well because of his own ideas and his style. As a lay person from a local parish I offer him my own three suggestions and hope that somehow they get to him, not because I am special, but because I am ordinary — the regular lay person in the pew on Sunday mornings.

“Twitter is a secular reality … but we prefer to be present rather than stay away from something just to avoid a risk,” said Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, head of the Vatican’s department for social communications, during the launch of the annual papal message for World Communications Day.

Pope Benedict XVI opened his Twitter handle @Pontifex on Dec. 3. It has since gathered more than 2.5 million followers in nine languages, including Latin.