In memory of the 6th anniversary of his visit to Lampedusa, on Monday, 8 July, the Holy Father Pope Francis, will celebrate a Mass for Migrants, at 11:00, in St Peter’s Basilica. Around 250 people will participate in the celebration, among whom will be migrants, refugees and those who are dedicated to saving their lives.

Taking part in the Mass, presided over by the Pope at the Altar of the Chair of St Peter, will be only those persons invited by the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, to whom the Holy Father has entrusted the organization of the event…

Pope Francis is informed of the tragedy that killed fourteen Russian sailors on board a deep water research submarine and is grieving for the victims.

Answering questions put to him by journalists, Alessandro Gisotti, the interim director of the Holy See Press Office, said the Pope has expressed his condolences and closeness to the families of the victims and to all who have been affected by the disaster…

The Vatican has announced it is opening two tombs within a cemetery on Holy See territory to see if Emanuela Orlandi, the teenage girl who went missing 36 years ago, is buried there.

The two tombs are to be opened on 11 July, interim director of the Holy See Press Office, Alessandro Gisotti, confirmed on Tuesday. Gisotti said that the decision was made by Vatican promoter of justice, Gian Piero Milano, and his assistant, Alessandro Diddi in response to the request of Emanuela Orlandi’s family and their questioning “the possible concealment of her cadaver in the small cemetery located within Vatican City State.”

In April, the Vatican authorised the opening of an investigation into a tomb in the Teutonic Cemetery – a medieval cemetery reserved for Germans, Austrians, Dutch and Flemish people to be buried inside the walls of the Vatican – after the Orlandi family received an anonymous letter claiming the girl’s remains were buried there…