During his weekly Angelus address, Pope Francis again appealed on Sunday, December 11, for an end to the fighting in Aleppo. He also expressed closeness to the victims of Sunday’s terror attack in Cairo.

Pope Francis has again appealed for an end to the brutal fighting in the Syrian city of Aleppo, calling war a “pile-up of tyrannies and lies” and asking people to say “no to destruction, yes to peace.”

At the end of his weekly Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square Sunday, the pontiff said: “Every day I am close, most of all in prayer, to the people of Aleppo.”

Interview with the Apostolic Administrator of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa: “Millions of refugees have changed the shape of our parishes. I don’t think those who have fled will want to return to Syria and Iraq”

The Pope said this in an interview with Belgian Catholic weekly Tertio. “Priest must not be ashamed of tenderness,” he stressed, adding that the media must not fall prey “to the sickness of coprophilia, which is always wanting to communicate scandal, to communicate ugly things”

The Polish Pope’s former spokesman said the late Fidel Castro “wanted to know everything there was to know about John Paul II”.

The Patriarch of Constantinople comments on the Apostolic Exhortation, which he says, speaks of “mercy rather than solely the moral rules and canonical regulations of men”

“‘Amoris Laetitia’ recalls first and foremost the mercy and compassion of God, rather than solely the moral rules and canonical regulations of men.” The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew wrote this in a comment about Pope Francis’ post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation.

“In this world, which has developed the most sophisticated technologies, weapons are sold that end up in the hands of child soldiers.” Pope Francis denounced this in a video message for December’s prayer intention, Vatican Radio reports. Francis reiterated the urgent need to “do everything possible so that the dignity of children may be respected, and end this form of slavery”.

This Advent, I invented a small spiritual exercise to help focus my mind on higher things. I’m trying to start each day by reflecting for a few moments on the question: What if today is the day the world ends?

Advent is meant as a time for reflecting on the current liturgical year, but also for reflecting on the Parousia, the Second Coming, which brings with it the end of days.

European leaders gathered on November 29 at a conference in Vienna to discuss Christian persecution and its resounding effect on Europe, particularly emphasizing the need to seriously address religious discrimination and genocide around the world.

“The persecution faced by Christians around the world must be recognized and treated by the international community with the seriousness it deserves,” Ellen Fantini, executive director of the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians, stated.

At the end of his general audience on Wednesday, November 30, Pope Francis greeted the Church of Constantinople, and the “beloved Patriarch Bartholomew” on the occasion of the Feast of the Apostle St. Andrew, traditionally held to be the founder of the See of Byzantium, which later became the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Pope Francis expressed his desire to be united to the Patriarch and to the church of Constantinople, offering them his “best wishes for all possible goods, for all the blessings of the Lord, and a warm embrace.”

Vatican Insider hears from Etienne Villemain, the man who came up with the idea that ended up in Pope Francis’ Apostolic Letter “Misericordia et Misera”: “In our communities we usually meet the poor at the church entrance. But their place is in the heart of the Church”

Not many get to launch an idea which then appears in black and white in a Pope’s Apostolic Letter. But Etienne Villemain invites us to look beyond: “I don’t think it was a proposal we came up with, it was the Holy Spirit that suggested it to us…”