The Holy See has announced the schedule for Pope Francis’ Apostolic Voyage to Albania, set for 21 September 2014. It will be the second visit of a Pope to Albania, after Pope St John Paul II’s visit to the country in 1993.

Pope Francis trip will begin with a welcoming ceremony at Tirana’s “Mother Teresa” international airport, where he will be greeted by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama…

Pope Francis’ universal prayer intention for the month of August was released on Tuesday and focuses on “refugees, forced by violence to abandon their homes” that they may “find a generous welcome and the protection of their rights”.

Ahead of the papal appeal the French government announced that it is ready to help facilitate asylum in its territory for Christians and other minorities fleeing an Islamist onslaught in Northern Iraq…

• The Holy See Press Office issued a comunique Tuesday confirming the dates of the Apostolic Trip of the Holy Father in Sri Lanka and the Philippines.

  Accepting the invitation from the civil authorities and the Episcopate, His Holiness Francis will make an Apostolic Trip to Sri Lanka from 12 to 15 January and in the Philippines from 15 to 19 January 2015…

To mark the first 500 days of the pontificate of Pope Francis, the Argentinian weekly “Viva” (a supplement of the newspaper El Clarín) on Sunday published the first excerpts of an interview with Pope Francis conducted earlier this month.

Pope Francis reflected on many things – including his memories of his youth, social issues such as immigration, and even the secret of happiness…

The organisers of the largest petition in European history which called for an end to European funding of research that destroys human embryos have taken their case to the General Court of the European Union after the European Commission vetoed the initiative in May.

On July 25th, members of the Citizen’s Initiative “One of Us” lodged an application before the court in Luxembourg against the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, and the European Parliament, asking for the annulment of the Commission’s veto…

• Pope Francis on Sunday made another urgent appeal for an end to the conflicts in the Middle East, in Iraq and in Ukraine. Speaking after his regular Angleus address to thousands of people gathered in a hot and sunny St Peter’s Square, the Pope spoke of the victims of war, in particular the children who die or are injured and orphaned by the violence…

“….bambini morti, bambini feriti, bambini mutilate….”

I think especially, the Pope said, of the children whose hopes for a dignified future are taken from them, dead children, injured and mutilated children, orphans and children who have bits of weapons as toys, children who don’t know how to smile…