Sources: BBC
The tomb of Pope Francis at the Santa Maria Maggiore basilica in Rome, Italy, is opened for public viewing and photos are released by Vatican City. More than 13,000 people enter the basilica to view the tomb and pay their respects, while several thousand others remain outside. 2025-04-27
The Albanian consulate in Kharkiv is destroyed during Russian shelling. No casualties are reported. 2022-03-8
Pope Francis prays for victims of the earthquake in Albania and sends “heartfelt condolences” to Albanian President Ilir Meta. The quake's epicenter is less than 20 miles from Tirana, the country’s capital city, which has a population of 900,000. Additional earthquakes occurred in southern Bosnia and the Greek island of Crete. 2019-11-26
A 6.4 magnitude earthquake hits coastal Albania, bringing down many buildings and leaving people trapped under rubble. The Defense Ministry confirms 30 people killed and 650 others injured, mostly in Durrës County. 2019-11-26
Pope Francis issues a directive banning the sale of most tobacco in Vatican City as of January 1, 2018, because of its unhealthy attributes. A 2015 book stated the papal city netted $11 million (£8.7 million) per year from these sales. 2017-11-9
Pope Francis pleads for peace in a Christmas Mass in the Vatican. 2016-12-25
Authorities arrest four Kosovo jihadists men, three in Italy and one in Kosovo, for making nonspecific threats against Pope Francis and the former U.S. Ambassador to Kosovo. The men are described by police as highly dangerous and as having celebrated the November 2015 Paris attacks. 2015-12-2
The Vatican denies an Italian newspaper report that Pope Francis has a benign brain tumour, saying the 78-year-old pontiff is in good health, and denounces the article as utterly reprehensible. 2015-10-21
Pope Francis acknowledges that civil unions for LGBT people is a governmental move for economic and health management. 2014-03-6
Pope Francis presides at the closing Mass of World Youth Day 2013 at Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach for a crowd estimated at 3-million. 2013-07-28