Vatican

Venezuela's embattled government and opposition leaders have agreed on an agenda for talks beginning next month aimed at defusing an increasingly tense political crisis, a Catholic church official said early Oct. 31.

The works to erect the Great Basilica in Pliska, the first capital of the first Bulgarian state founded in Southeast Europe, will receive additional funding, the government has decided.

The cabinet has thus increased the overall budget for construction to BGN 1.5 M in public money.

Pope Francis will next week make a brief trip to Lesbos, the Greek island on the frontline of Europe's migrant crisis, the Vatican confirmed on April 7.
 

Turkish researchers have been invited by Vatican librarian Jean-Louis Brugues to the Vatican Library, which hosts one of the world's most significant manuscript collectionsFrench archbishop and Vatican librarian Jean-Louis Brugues was in Istanbul on Feb.

Turkey has announced a decision to return its ambassador to the Vatican, Mehmet Paçac?, nearly 10 months after withdrawing him in protest at Pope Francis' description of the killings of Anatolian Armenians during World War I as "the first genocide of the 20th century."

Pope Francis met on Sept.20 with Fidel and Raul Castro, the brothers who have ruled Cuba since its 1959 revolution, after celebrating an outdoor mass attended by hundreds of thousands.

Pope Francis's visit on June 6 to Bosnia, where he is expected to be greeted by 100,000 people, is posing a significant security challenge in the Balkan country that has become a fertile ground for homegrown jihadists, experts said.

Pope Francis is planning to visit Cuba in September as part of a trip that will also take him to the United States, the Vatican announced on April 17.

Turkey has strongly reacted against Pope Francis' description of the mass killings of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire as "genocide," vowing to show an appropriate reaction against the Vatican.

Pope Francis says he wishes to overcome the obstacles between the Orthodox and the Catholic churches during his visit to Turkey late November Pope Francis said Oct. 24 he wished to overcome the obstacles between the Orthodox and the Catholic churches during his visit to Turkey late November.