Pope

In Rakovsky, the contest was completed and the painting, which will be given to Pope Francis when he visited the city in early May, was selected.
 
The competition involved eight local art tutors, with the theme of various themes and techniques to recreate the square and church "The Holy Heart of Jesus".
 

Representatives of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church will not participate in any of the events during Pope Francis' visit to Bulgaria. The exception is the meeting of Patriarch Neofit with the Pope in the Holy Synod, a decision of the Holy Synod (Bulgaria's Orthodox Church's governing body) said on 3rd of April.

From 5th to 7th May, an important and historical event will take place here - the visit of Pope Francis in Bulgaria, who was elected six years ago as a Roman pope.

Pope Francis's apostolic visit to Romania will be carried out between 31 May and 2 June, in Bucharest, Sumuleu Ciuc, Iasi and Blaj, the Presidential Administration informed on Monday. According to the quoted source, the Sovereign Pontiff will be in Bucharest on 31 May, on 1 June he will tour Sumuleu Ciuc and Iasi and on 2 June he will be in Blaj.

During his apostolic trip to Bulgaria from 5 to 7 May this year. Pope Francis will visit Sofia and Rakovski, and then on May 7 he will travel to Skopje, the presidential press service announced.

The press service of the Holy See has published on Thursday a working version of the pope's program in Bulgaria and northern Macedonia.

The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) said he "expected nothing else" of these Catholic clerics in Croatia.

Speaking for the tabloid Kurir, the patriarch announced his full response.

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. 

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.

Pope Francis on Sunday declined to comment on a letter by a former Vatican official that he had ignored sexual abuse claims against US cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was forced to resign last month.

Pope Francis, who has put the plight of migrants in Europe at the heart of his concerns, said on June 21 it was time "to invest wisely to give them work and education" in their countries of origin, in particular in Africa.