Catholic Church

As Pope Francis readies to visit Romania, the Vatican is trying to find out whether some clergy collaborated with the infamous Securitate under the old regime.

Pope Francis ministered on Tuesday to the thriving Catholic community in the United Arab Emirates as he concluded his historic visit to the Arabian Peninsula with the first-ever papal Mass here.

Pope Francis received a grandiose, pomp-filled welcome on Feb. 4 as he opened his historic visit to the Arabian Peninsula by meeting with Emirati rulers ahead of an address to faith leaders gathered in a Muslim region known for its restrictions on religious freedom.

Pope Francis suggested on Wednesday that hostility to immigrants was driven by irrational fear, as he headed to Central America, a staging area from where migrants try to enter the United States, reported Reuters. 

Bucharest, Jan 11 /Agerpres/ - Pope Francis will pay a visit to Romania in the period May 31 - June 2, the Presidential Administration announced on Friday.

In a congratulatory message to Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin says Russia is open to dialogue with the United States on the widest range of issues, reported the Bulgarian National Television.

Putin emphasizes the importance of Russian-American relations as the most important factor for stability and international security.

Pope Francis on Monday assailed the "insatiable greed" of today's consumerism, calling on people in his Christmas homily to make "sharing and giving" more a part of their live, reports AFP. 

"Mankind became greedy and voracious," the leader of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics said in an address to thousands of followers in Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Men with deep-rooted homosexual tendencies should not be admitted to the Catholic clergy, and priests who are gay should be celibate or leave rather than lead a double life, Pope Francis said in a new book.

Austria has a launched a probe into a colonel suspected of spying for Russia for several decades, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said Friday, the latest in a string of cases where Moscow has been accused of espionage in EU states, reports AFP. 

Brazil's jailed ex-leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva tapped his running mate Fernando Haddad on Sept. 11 to replace him on the ballot in next month's presidential election, bowing out of the race after he was barred from seeking a new term.