Pope Francis has sent a powerful and clear message to Xi Jinping’s China. A message of friendship. He urges the Chinese people to be calm, to have faith in their great history, without beating themselves up about past tragedies He repeats to them that the world looks to China’s wisdom and civilization. The Bishop of Rome is hopeful that relations between the People’s Republic of China and the rest of the international community will contribute to the building of a peaceful future.

The Week of Unity coincided this year with the Year of Mercy, thus we can rename it as "the Week of Merciful Unity "or "the Mercy Leading to Unity".

Rome’s Anglican leader says Pope Francis is advancing ecumenism in every way.

In an interview with ZENIT in late January 2016 in Rome, the director of Rome’s Anglican Centre and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Representative to the Holy See, Archbishop David Moxon, expressed this view.

In addition to exploring how the Pope is advancing these relations, Archbishop Moxon discusses how the Argentine Pontiff makes ‘ecumenical’ personable and attractive and the possibility of closer relations between all Christians much deeper and more accessible.

The Pontifical Lateran University opens its doors to its first ever visiting professor, the director of the Institute of Shiite Studies in Qom. The visit is a result of an agreement that was signed in the sacred Persian city.

The Pope and the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran recalled “the conclusion and implementation of the Iran Nuclear Agreement” and “highlighted the important role Iran is called to play along with other countries in the Region, in promoting adequate political solutions to the problems afflicting the Middle East, preventing the spread of terrorism and arms trafficking”. This is what was said in a communiqué published at the end of Pope Francis’ audience with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani today.

A number of bishops visited our beloved Kingdom a few days ago. They were acquainted with the roles played by the local Church institutions in the spiritual, cultural, charity fields and others.

I was thinking back again to my seminary days back in the 1980s. I was asking myself, once more, why the rosary was not encouraged and, worse yet, why there was an unspoken understanding that if someone clung to the rosary that they would be suspect for a kind of fanaticism.

This change to the Church’s rules has been made official in a decree signed by the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Cardinal Robert Sarah. All of God’s people can now be chosen for the washing of the feet rite, which is no longer limited to “men or boys”.

Pope Francis on Monday January 18 received an ecumenical delegation from the Lutheran Church of Finland, as the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins. The Week of Prayer will end Monday with an ecumenical celebration in St. Paul Outside-the-Walls presided over by the Pope.

Pope Francis is following the lead of his immediate predecessors St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI, in his peacemaking efforts for the war-torn region.

In scanning the confusing array of conflict today in the Middle East and North Africa, one thing is certain: President George W. Bush should have listened to St. John Paul II who beseeched his administration, and other Western leaders, not to invade Iraq in 2003.