Catholic Church

This year's Easter celebration will be pain-ridden and different for the entire Christian world, but the final tidings will be the same - "Christ Is Risen!," writes Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archbishop of Bucharest Aurel Perca in his Easter Pastoral Letter.

Australia's highest court on April 7 acquitted former Vatican treasurer George Pell of sexually assaulting two teenaged choirboys in the 1990s, freeing the 78-year-old cardinal after 404 days in jail.

He will, along with Metropolitan Amfilohije, head the liturgy in Podgorica tomorrow to protest the adoption of the Freedom of Religion Act.
As announced on Friday, he will visit the Cetinje Monastery.

 A visibly indignant Pope Francis had to pull himself away from a woman in a crowd in St Peter's Square on Dec. 31 after she grabbed his hand and yanked him toward her.

Pope Francis was walking through the square in Vatican City and greeting pilgrims on his way to see the large Nativity scene set up in the huge, cobbled esplanade.

Pope Francis received Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias at the Vatican on Wednesday.

Dendias also met with substitute for the Secretariat of State, Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra, and the current secretary for relations with states within the Holy See's Secretariat of State, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher.

Bucharest, Oct 20 /Agerpres/ - Four bishops, dozens of priests accompanied by believers will carry in the procession, on Sunday, the relic of Saint Pope John Paul II on the streets of Bucharest. The procession will start from the monument of Saint Pope John Paul II, located near the seat of the Apostolic Nunciature of Bucharest.

Pope Francis has elevated the Bulgarian Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Sofia Diocese into Eparchy in Bulgaria assigning it the name of "Eparchy of Saint John XXIII of Sofia for Catholics of Byzantine-Slavic rite in Bulgaria".

According to the press service of the President of Serbia, he will be received by Pope Francis and will meet with the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
"I am going to the Vatican to meet the Pope and to beg them not to recognize Kosovo," Vucic told reporters in Belgrade recently.

Bulgarian Ambassador to the Vatican, Bogdan Patashev, today presented his credentials to Pope Francis, the Foreign Ministry said.

The pastoral, ecumenical and state three-day visit of Pope Francis in Romania came to an end on Sunday afternoon, in central Sibiu, from where the Pontiff took off with a TAROM aircraft to Vatican.