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Pope Francis confirms in an interview with Italian broadcaster Canale 5 that the vaccination campaign in Vatican City will begin next week and that he will receive the vaccine.
2021-01-9

Pope Francis announces the creation of 13 new cardinals, including the elevation of Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Washington who will become the first African-American cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church. The elevation is scheduled to occur on November 28.
2020-10-25

Pope Francis recalls the 70th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions after his Sunday afternoon Angelus address. The 1949 conventions concern the treatment of the sick, the wounded, prisoners, and civilians in war.
2019-08-11

A court in Radom, Poland, hands a six-month suspended prison term and a 10,000 zloty fine to a Russian pilot who caused a security scare during Pope Francis's 2016 visit for World Youth Day. The Russian had flown from the Czech Republic to compete in an international aerobatics competition and unknowingly violated a no-fly zone imposed for the papal visit. After failing to contact the aircraft, local authorities scrambled two F-16 fighter jets to intercept it.
2018-04-20

In an apparent rebuke against United States Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump, Pope Francis speaks a sermon in Spanish warning against "fear" and the "walls" that divide.
2016-11-6

With a Moto Proprio, Pope Francis announces the establishment of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life. The Prefect of the new Dicastery is the Irish-born Bishop Kevin Joseph Farrell, currently serving as Bishop of Dallas.
2016-08-17

Pope Francis's visit to Armenia this weekend may stress relations with Turkey. The Pope is seeking to avoid reigniting the diplomatic dispute that arose last year when he described the 1915 mass killings of Armenians as a genocide. The Vatican prefers the Armenian phrase "Medz Yeghern," which roughly translates as "the great evil or calamity."
2016-06-23

Pope Francis arrives on the Greek island of Lesbos. Francis is expected to visit the Moria detention facility, where he will have lunch with some of the 3,060 men, women, and children there.
2016-04-16

Cuba announces it will release more than 3,500 prisoners in a goodwill gesture ahead of next week's visit by Pope Francis.
2015-09-11

Pope Francis closes the Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, a preparatory meeting which had as its theme the pastoral challenges to the family, with a Mass at the Vatican—with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and about 70,000 in attendance—featuring the beatification of Pope Paul VI, who concluded and implemented Vatican Council II and gained fame for writing the still-controversial "Humanae Vitae" sexual ethics encyclical.
2014-10-19