Pope Leo XIV: Failure to understand Eastern Christianity impoverishes the Church

Pope Francis dies at 88: The Holy See has confirmed the passing of the first Latin American pontiff. / Credit: EWTN News

Vatican City, Apr 21, 2025 / 05:48 am (CNA).
Pope Francis passed away at 7:35 a.m. local time on Easter Monday, April 21, a… […]

Vatican City, Feb 2, 2018 / 07:48 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican announced Friday that Pope Francis has added two day-trips in Italy to his schedule for spring 2018, including his already-scheduled visit to the towns of Pietrelcina and San Giovanni Rotondo for the 50th anniversary of Padre Pio’s death.

He will visit Alessano and Molfetta April 20 marking the 25th anniversary of the death of Antonio (Tonino) Bello, an Italian bishop whose cause for beatification was opened in 2007.

On May 10 Francis will visit Nomadelfia, a Catholic community of families and lay unmarried people who adopt a lifestyle inspired by the Acts of the Apostles. The same day he will visit Loppiano, near Florence, the location of the international complex of the Focolare Movement.

Francis’ schedule for his visit to Alessano and Molfetta, which both lie in the south of Italy, will begin with a short flight from Rome’s Ciampino Airport to the Galatina military airport. From there, he will travel by helicopter to Alessano.

He will visit the tomb of Bishop Tonino Bello, afterward meeting with the faithful of the town, where he will give a speech. He will then go by helicopter to the port town of Molfetta, where he will say Mass in the cathedral. He will return to Rome by helicopter around 1:30 pm.

The Pope’s program for May 10 begins with a transfer by helicopter from the Vatican to Nomadelfia. He will first stop will be to the local cemetery to visit the tomb of Fr. Zeno Saltini, the founder of the community at Nomadelfia.

Afterward he will meet with community members in the church, followed by an encounter with youth, where he will give an address. Transferring to Loppiano, he will stop for a prayer at the Maria Theotokos Sanctuary, located in the Focolare Movement complex.

In the yard outside of the sanctuary he will meet with the community, including answering questions from community members and giving a speech. He will also greet a community representative. Francis will return to Rome by helicopter around 12:30 pm.

These pastoral visits are in addition to his planned day-trip March 17 to Pietrelcina and San Giovanni Rotondo, which are the towns where St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina was born and lived. This visit marks the 50th anniversary of the death of the saint, one of the most beloved in Italy.

The visit will include a meeting with faithful in the square outside the church in Pietrelcina, where Francis will give a speech.

Afterward he will transfer to the town of San Giovanni Rotondo, where he will visit the pediatric oncology department of the local private hospital, which was founded by Padre Pio and is considered one of the most efficient in Italy and in Europe.

From there he will go to the Church of St. Pio of Pietrelcina, celebrating Mass in the square outside. He will also greet the local community of Capuchins and a group of faithful. He will return to Rome around 1:45 pm.

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Vatican City, Nov 24, 2017 / 09:26 am (CNA/EWTN News).- One of the Vatican’s top diplomatic voices has criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent decision to end the Temporary Protected Status of thousands of Haitians taking refuge in the U.S., saying the country isn’t yet ready for the influx after a slew of natural disasters devastated the island nation.

“That’s a sad decision, because the Haitian population in the U.S. that arrived after the earthquake and after the storm that destroyed half of the island, cannot go back to a situation that still is very difficult,” Archbishop Silvano Tomasi told CNA Nov. 24.

Reconstruction in Haiti following the brutal 2010 earthquake that left hundreds of thousands dead before Hurricane Matthew struck in 2016, causing further devastation, “is not well-advanced,” Tomasi said, “because there are not enough resources for the people  of Haiti.”

“We hope in the months ahead that there will still be some space to negotiate and delay, and continue the protection of status for Haitians in the United States.”

Archbishop Tomasi was formerly the Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations in Geneva, and is now Counselor for the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

He spoke during the Nov. 24 presentation of Pope Francis’ message for the 2018 World Day of Peace, titled “Migrants and Refugees: men and women in search of peace,” and dedicated entirely to the issue of migration.

The message comes just four days after Trump administration announced it will be ending protected legal residency for an estimated 60,000 Haitians living in the U.S., giving them until July 2019 to return to their country.

Thousands of Haitians flocked to the United States in 2010 following a catastrophic earthquake that measured at 7.0 on the Richter scale and which killed more than 200,000, displaced more than 1 million, and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses in and around the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince.

The Department of Homeland Security announced Monday that the “extraordinary conditions” necessitating TPS for Haitians in the United States “no longer exists.”

TPS, a policy begun in 1990, allows people who are unable safely to return to their home nations because of armed conflict, other violence, natural disasters, or other extraordinary and temporary circumstances to remain in the United States while the situation in their home country resolves.

However, the Trump administration’s decision Monday has raised the question for many as to whether Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, will be able to support an influx of 60,000 people returning home after seven years.

As far as the Holy See is concerned, Tomasi said they are working with local bishops conferences and the apostolic nunciature in Washington D.C. “to sensitize…public opinion” on the issue, and to “deal with politically irresponsible people.”

They are also hoping to illustrate “the fact that we need not only to be compassionate, but to be attentive to the need of these populations, which is a fact that is of benefit also to the United States because it will create an area of peace and cooperation not only in the Caribbean, but in the region.”

When it comes to the migration issue, Tomasi said it’s important to go beyond polemics and heated rhetoric.

Looking to what the reaction of many European countries has been to the arrival of refugees or asylum seekers, he said “there has been a multiplication of political parties where xenophobia dominates the goal of these organizations.”

“The solution is not to emphasize only security and control,” he said, but also involves thinking about how to welcome incoming migrants and refugees while taking into account “that the common good demands that both the necessity of the people arriving be taken into account, but also the limits that local communities welcoming them, accepting them, objectively have.”

“The important consideration I think is not to be too selfish, but to be open, to have a heart that is understanding and compassionate,” he said, adding that “we need to be men and women of compassion and empathy with the needs of others.”

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