The papacies of John XXIII and John Paul II are connected in their dedication to God and to lives of priestly service, a cardinal who worked with both of the pontiffs stressed.

“The two Popes are linked above all by the fact that they were Popes, and Saint Popes, and this is connected with the deepness of their ministry, of a life totally dedicated to their priestly service,” said Cardinal Paul Poupard, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Culture.

Cardinal Poupard worked at the Secretariat of State beginning in 1959, the second year of John XXIII’s papacy.

Francis baptized 10 people from six countries at the Easter vigil, and urged Christians to rediscover the source of their faith by “returning to our first love, in order to receive the fire which Jesus has kindled in the world and to bring that fire to all people”

"Vatican Insider" has interviewed the Ambassador of Tehran to the Holy See, Mohammad Taher Rabbani.“One of the Pope’s striking traits is the humility and love he feels for people.” This is how the ambassador, one of the first diplomats to present his letters of credence to the new Pope last year, talks to Vatican Insider about Francis’ first year as Pope and about the forthcoming visit to the Holy Land. Following is the text of the interview:

This May the Holy See is to present its initial report on the Convention against Torture (CAT) to the relevant UN committee. Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi confirmed this in a statement to journalists. Responding to their questions, Fr. Lombardi clarified that the Vatican would be presenting its report next month, alongside Cyprus, Lithuania, Guinea, Montenegro, Sierra Leone, Thailand and Uruguay.

The entire square fell silent when the Pope began his Palm Sunday homily, marking the start of Holy Week. Francis looked serious and deep in concentration as he left his prepared text to one side and began by asking himself and all those present the big question: Which Biblical figure do I identify myself with?

“Human life is sacred and inviolable” and “every civil right is based on the “first and most fundamental right,” the right to life.” “The unborn child in the womb is the most concrete example of innocence.” These are just some of the key phrases Francis used in the speech he has given to members of the Italian Pro-Life Movement (Movimento per la Vita). The audience took place in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace.

“The army has been more present in our region in the past few weeks,” the Bishop of Yola,a city near Cameroon, where three missionaries have been kidnapped, told “Vatican Insider”.

“When I learnt that three religious were kidnapped in Cameroon, I immediately thought it was Boko Haram that was responsible. All churches prayed for them on Sunday.”

Before the Arab Spring started, Majda Ayoub, a Christian Jordanian, decided to leave the US, where she was raised and educated, and settle down in her homeland.

The situation was very risky for Christians in Iraq, then in Egypt and Syria. But as Jordan has always been an “oasis of stability and security”, the idea of leaving out of fear for her and her family’s safety did not cross her mind at first, not before she saw Islamists take to the streets in unprecedented numbers, emboldened by victories of their peers in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco.

Violence and poverty are bringing the Central African Republic to its knees. In the place where everything seems lost, a Combonian nun tells the story of her silent work

Even if the Israeli diplomat strike drags on until the end of May, the Pope’s visit to the Holy Land is definitely going ahead. This is the prevailing view in Jerusalem, an opinion that a number of sources have confirmed, given that the details of the Pope’s visit were defined before the union unrest.