The very private meeting, without the presence of other people, took place after lunch in the apostolic nunciature of Santiago. They are people raped by men of the Church.

On the day in which he expressed his shame at the sexual abuse of minors committed by members of the clergy and religious, asking for forgiveness and assuring that the Church will do everything to ensure that these facts do not happen again, Francis met and embraced some victims in a strictly private form. We do not know how many they were (it was a small group), nor do we know their names.

There is always a lot to mediate upon from the Lord Jesus’ words and actions; there are, furthermore, there are many things to learn in order to eventually try to live life according to His will, and live it happily.

We read in the Bible that Jesus Christ said: "I am the light of the world", then in other places He said: "You are the light of the world and the salt of Earth." Jesus Christ is telling those who have ears that to be the “light” is simply to unite with Him.

But how? This begins by inward focus, and then unity.

The chaos of the Latin American scenarios alone is enough to make the framework - that reads Bergoglio’s international projections with the same formulas used in the reading of Karol Wojtyla’s pontificate - appear misleading. The icon of “Superstar Pope “ is now used by those who want to polarize attention on Francis, by separating him from the Church, to then rattle off his “failures”. It wouldn’t take much, however to get rid of this pre-established “script.

In the face of migrations, the Pope invites us to "overcome our fears so that we can go out to meet others, welcome them, know them and recognize them", an invitation that "offers the opportunity to draw close to each other to see where and how they live". "It is not easy to enter the culture of others, to put oneself in the shoes of people so different from us, to understand their thoughts and experiences", Francis says in the Mass homily celebrated in the Vatican Basilica on the World Day of Migrant and Refugee.

The parishioners of the Latin St. George the Martyr Church in Irbid, northern Jordan, led by its parish priest Suleiman Shobash as well as nuns and the believers, welcomed on Sunday, January 14, Most Rev. Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Apostolic Administrator of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem who was accompanied by Fr. Joseph Sweiss.

In an address, Fr. Suleiman welcomed the grand guest. Further speeches were addressed by leaders of local functionaries who shed light on the tasks assigned to them and the challenges they face.

According to the 2018 Open Doors Report, persecution has expanded geographically and numerically. The threat of religious or ideological nationalism is serious, especially in Asia and Africa.

More than 215 million Christians suffer from intolerance in the world (about 1 every 12 or 8.6%), 3060 Christians were killed, 1922 imprisoned, 793 churches targeted: these are the figures of the 2018 Report published yesterday by Ong Portes Ouvertes/Open Doors (reference period November 1, 2016-31, October 2017).

Pope Francis is asking the Catholic Church to adopt a “change of attitude” towards families and the problems they face today, the Vatican’s Secretary of State has said.

Asked in a January 11 interview about the ongoing discussion over the meaning of the pope’s 2016 apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, Cardinal Pietro Parolin said the document “flows from a new paradigm that Pope Francis is bringing forward with wisdom, prudence and patience.”

Pope Francis will spend a day in Temuco, the capital of a Chilean region with a large indigenous population, during his January 15-18 visit to the nation. The city's bishop has said the Pope decided to come to the area because it represents Chile's peripheries.

“If we look at where the Pope likes to go when on a visit, it is precisely the borders, the existential borders, where there is pain, where there is suffering, where there are wounds, where there is poverty, Bishop Hector Vargas Bastidas of Temuco told ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language sister news agency.

Francis’ video message a few days ahead of his departure for the two South American countries, “Thank you for the love you demonstrate towards those who are discarded by society”

“I will visit you as a pilgrim of the joy of the Gospel, to share “the peace of the Lord” with all and “to confirm you in the same hope”. Peace and hope, shared among all”. So Pope Francis begins his video message to all the “brothers and sisters of Chile and Peru” sent, as usual, a few days before the departure for his apostolic journey scheduled from 15 to 22 January.

The Pope speaks to the Diplomatic Corps and relaunches the Declaration of Human Rights: stop the arms race, the “ideological colonizations”, the trafficking of human beings. A call for dialogue in Korea and Syria, for the welcome and integration of migrants and refugees, and for the respect of climate commitments. The urgency of family support