Amid pandemic, pope goes to Iraq to rally fading Christians

March 05, 2021

BAGHDAD (AP) — Pope Francis heads to Iraq on Friday to urge the country’s dwindling number of Christians to stay put and help rebuild the country after years of war and persecution, brushing aside the coronavirus pandemic and security concerns to make his first-ever papal visit.

Iraqis were keen to welcome him and the global attention his visit will bring, with banners and posters hanging high in central Baghdad, and billboards depicting Francis with the slogan “We are all Brothers” decorating the main thoroughfare. In central Tahrir square, a mock tree was erected emblazoned with the Vatican emblem, while Iraqi and Vatican flags lined empty streets.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said Iraqis were eager to welcome Francis’ “message of peace and tolerance” and described the visit as a historic meeting between the “minaret and the bells.” Among the highlights of the three-day visit is Francis' private meeting Saturday with the country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a revered figure in Iraq and beyond.

The government is eager to show off the relative security it has achieved after years of wars and militant attacks that nevertheless continue even today. Francis and the Vatican delegation are relying on Iraqi security forces to protect them, including with the expected first use of an armored car for the popemobile-loving pontiff.

Tahsin al-Khafaji, spokesman for Iraq's joint operations, said security forces had been increased. “This visit is really important to us and provides a good perspective of Iraq because the whole world will be watching,” he said. The high stakes will give Iraqi forces “motivation to achieve this visit with safety and peace.”

Francis is breaking his year-long COVID-19 lockdown to refocus the world’s attention on a largely neglected people whose northern Christian communities, which date from the time of Christ, were largely emptied during the violent Islamic State reign from 2014-2017.

For the pope, who has often traveled to places where Christians are a persecuted minority, Iraq's beleaguered Christians are the epitome of the “martyred church" that he has admired ever since he was a young Jesuit seeking to be a missionary in Asia.

In Iraq, Francis is seeking to not only honor its martyrs but deliver a message of reconciliation and fraternity. That's a tough sell given the few Christians who remain in Iraq harbor a lingering mistrust of their Muslim neighbors and face structural discrimination that long predated IS and the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that threw the country into chaos.

“The Pope’s visit is to support the Christians in Iraq to stay, and to say that they are not forgotten,” the Chaldean patriarch, Cardinal Luis Sako, told reporters in Baghdad this week. The aim of Francis’ visit, he said, is to encourage them to “hold onto hope.”

The visit comes as Iraq is seeing a new spike in coronavirus infections, with most new cases traced to the highly contagious variant first identified in Britain. The 84-year-old pope, the Vatican delegation and travelling media have been vaccinated; most Iraqis have not.

The Vatican and Iraqi authorities have downplayed the threat of the virus and insisted that social distancing, crowd control and other health care measures will be enforced. The Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said this week the important thing is for Iraqis to know that the pope came to Iraq as an “act of love.”

“I come among you as a pilgrim of peace, to repeat ‘you are all brothers,’” Francis said in a video-message to the Iraqi people on the eve of his visit. “I come as a pilgrim of peace in search of fraternity, animated by the desire to pray together and walk together, also with brothers and sisters of other religious traditions.”

Christians once constituted a sizeable minority in Iraq but their numbers began dwindling after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, and then fell further when IS militants in 2014 swept through traditionally Christian towns across the Nineveh Plains. Their extremist brand of Islam forced residents to flee to neighboring Kurdistan or further afield, to Europe, the U.S. or beyond.

Few have returned and those who have found their homes and churches destroyed. Returnees have had to contend with more struggles. Many cannot find work, and blame discriminatory practices in the public sector, Iraq's largest employer. Since 2003, public jobs have been mostly controlled by majority Shiite political elites, leaving Christians feeling marginalized.

While hard numbers are hard to come by, there were an estimated 1.4 million Christians in Iraq in 2003. Today the number is believed to be around 250,000. During his visit, Francis will pray in the Baghdad church that was the site of one of the worst massacres of Christians, the 2010 attack by Islamic militants that left 58 people dead. He will honor the dead in a Mosul square surrounded by shells of destroyed churches and meet with the small Christian community that returned to Qaraqosh, where he will bless their church that was used as a firing range by IS.

The Vatican and the pope have frequently insisted on the need to preserve Iraq’s ancient Christian communities and create the security, economic and social conditions for those who have left to return. But that hasn’t necessarily translated into reality.

“I am the only priest in Mosul. Every Sunday I hold mass at 9 a.m., and only around 70 people attend," said the Rev. Raed Adil Kelo, parish priest of the Church of the Annunciation in Mosul, the onetime de-facto IS capital.

Before 2003, the Christian population was 50,000, he said. It had dwindled to 2,000 before IS overran northern Iraq. He doesn't expect more to return, but he nevertheless said Francis' visit would have immeasurable importance for those who stayed.

“This visit will bring peace to Iraq” he said.

Winfield reported from Vatican City.

Dutch royals return from Vatican with royal heirloom

June 22, 2017

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Dutch king and queen are returning home from a state visit to the Vatican with a royal heirloom: the baton purportedly carried by William of Orange during the 16th century Dutch War of Independence from Spanish rule.

The head of the Jesuit religious order, the Rev. Arturo Sosa Abascal, handed over the wooden baton Thursday at a ceremony in the Apostolic Library after King Willem-Alexander and his Argentine-born wife, Queen Maxima, met with Pope Francis.

According to the Dutch royal household, Spanish Catholic forces took possession of the baton after they quashed the Protestant revolt headed by William of Orange at the Battle of Mookerheide in 1574. The baton had been housed in a Jesuit convent in Spain. It's going on display at the Dutch military museum in Soesterberg.

Pope names cardinals for Laos, Mali, Sweden, Spain, Salvador

May 21, 2017

VATICAN CITY (AP) — In a surprise announcement Sunday, Pope Francis named new cardinals for Spain, El Salvador and three countries where Catholics are a tiny minority: Mali, Laos and Sweden. "Their origin, from different parts of the world, manifests the universality of the Church spread out all over the Earth," Francis said, speaking from the window of the Apostolic Palace to thousands of faithful in St. Peter's Square.

The five churchmen chosen are Monsignor Jean Zerbo, archbishop of Bamako, Mali, where he has been involved in peace efforts amid Islamist extremism; Monsignor Juan Jose Omella, archbishop of Barcelona, Spain; Monsignor Anders Arborelius of Stockholm, who became a Catholic at the age of 20; Monsignor Louis-Marie Ling Mangkhanekhoun, apostolic vicar of Pakse, Laos; and Monsignor Gregorio Rosa Chavez, an auxiliary bishop who works as a parish pastor in San Salvador, El Salvador.

Francis will formally elevate the five to cardinal's rank in a ceremony at the Vatican on June 28. Then the new "princes of the church," as the red-hatted, elite corps of churchmen who elect popes are known, will co-celebrate Mass with Francis the next day, the Feast Day of Saints Peter and Paul, an important Vatican holiday.

Since being elected pontiff in 2013, Francis has made a point of visiting his flock in places where Catholics are in the minority, as well as of working to improve relations between churches and among believers of different faiths.

His brief pilgrimage last year to Sweden, where Lutherans are the Christian majority, was hailed by some as instrumental in helping to improve relations between the two churches. While there, he joined Lutheran leaders in a common commemoration of the Protestant Reformation that divided Europe five centuries ago.

Arborelius, who is 67, converted to Catholicism when he was 20. In 1998, when he was consecrated as a bishop in Stockholm's Catholic cathedral, Arborelius became Sweden's first Catholic bishop, of Swedish origin, since the times of the Reformation,

In Mali, a country bloodied by Islamist extremism, Muslims constitute the predominant religious majority. Zerbo's clerical resume reveals him to be a churchman working for reconciliation in society, a virtue repeatedly stressed by Francis. The Vatican noted that Zerbo, 73, who was named an auxiliary bishop of Bamako in 1998 and 10 years later was made that city's archbishop, has played a role in peace negotiations.

Extremists attacked a hotel in Bamako in 2015, killing 19 people. Last month, the U.N. peacekeeping chief for Mali called the security situation there alarming, warning that extremist groups operating under the al-Qaida banner were carrying out more sophisticated attacks and Islamic State militants were slowly making inroads.

There has been slow progress in implementing a peace deal reached in June 2015 between Mali's government, Tuareg separatists and armed groups in the north. In Laos, the tiny Catholic community has often struggled to persevere, including under communist-led rule. Mangkhanekhoun, 73, was ordained a priest in 1972 and has served as a bishop since 2001. The Vatican paid tribute to his work in visiting faithful in mountain villages. Since early this year, he has served as apostolic administrator in Vientiane.

Catholicism has been the majority religion in Spain and in El Salvador, although in parts of Central and South America, evangelical Protestant sects have been gaining converts from the Catholic church.

The resume of Chavez, 74, also includes credentials valued by the pope, who has made serving the poor a key focus of the Catholic church's mission. Chavez heads the Latin American division of Caritas, the Catholic charity. He was appointed an auxiliary bishop in 1982 for San Salvador, where he now will be based as a cardinal after serving as a parish pastor in the city.

Chavez worked closely with the late Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, who during El Salvador's civil war was shot to death by a right-wing death squad while saying Mass in 1980. Pope Francis has denounced Catholic clerics who "defamed" Romero after the slaying, a campaign that delayed Romero's eventual beatification.

Francis' pick for the Spain cardinal's post, Omella, 71, worked as a missionary in Zaire earlier in his career and serves on the Vatican's powerful Congregation of Bishops office. Since December 2015, he has been archbishop of Barcelona.

In announcing his selections, Francis expressed hope that the new cardinals with their work and "their advice will sustain me more intensely in my service as bishop of Rome, universal pastor of the church." In other remarks to the faithful in the square, Francis referred to the situation of another Catholic minority — Chinese whose loyalty to the pope has put them at odds with authorities of the state-sanctioned Catholic church in China, and sometimes brought persecution.

He prayed that Catholics in China would be able to bring their "personal contribution for the communion among believers and harmony in the entire society." Francis is eager to see improved Vatican-China relations. Both sides have for decades been at odds over Chinese authorities' insistence that they have the right to appoint bishops, a prerogative the Vatican says only belongs to the pope.

He urged Catholics in China to "stay open to meeting and dialogue, always."

World's oldest standing army has 40 new Swiss Guards

May 06, 2017

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The world's oldest standing army has 40 new members after a Vatican Swiss Guard swearing-in ceremony. Each man took a loyalty oath Saturday evening in a ritual-rich ceremony in the St. Damaso courtyard of the Apostolic Palace. The May 6 date commemorates the day in 1527 when 147 guardsmen died while protecting Pope Clement VII during the Sack of Rome.

Earlier Saturday, Pope Francis told the Guards they're called to "another sacrifice no less arduous" — serving the power of faith. The recruits, who enroll for at least two years, must be single, upstanding Swiss Catholic males younger than 30.

Wearing blue-and-gold uniforms and holding halberds — spear-like weapons — they are a tourist delight while standing guard at Vatican ceremonies. Their main duty is to protect the pope.

Trump to visit Israel, Saudi Arabia, Vatican, meet with pope

May 04, 2017

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday his first foreign trip as president will feature stops in Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Vatican, where he will meet with Pope Francis, an ambitious foray onto the world stage that will include meetings with NATO and a summit in Italy.

Senior administration officials said Trump chose Saudi Arabia as his first stop to show his commitment to improving U.S. relations with the Muslim world. Trump will meet with Saudi Arabia's King Salman and other leaders where they are expected to discuss efforts to defeat terrorism and discredit radical ideologies, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe internal planning.

Trump, joining religious leaders in the Rose Garden on Thursday, said his first foreign trip would "begin with a truly historic gathering in Saudi Arabia with leaders all across the Muslim world." "Saudi Arabia is the custodian of the two holiest sites in Islam and it is there that we will begin to construct a new foundation of cooperation and support with our Muslim allies to combat extremism, terrorism and violence and to embrace a more just and hopeful future for young Muslims in their countries," Trump said.

The weeklong trip will mark the president's first trip abroad and come about six weeks after the U.S. launched Tomahawk missiles against a Syrian air base in the aftermath of a chemical weapons attack in the war-ravaged country.

The trip will inject Trump into the thorny quest for Middle East peace, a prospect that has proven elusive for Trump's predecessors. The announcement follows Trump's meeting on Wednesday with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and his optimistic pledge to mediate peace efforts between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Trump has sought to forge strong ties with Israel's President Benjamin Netanyahu at the start of his presidency in hopes of facilitating peace. The visit to Israel will reinforce that alliance, officials said.

"Our task is not to dictate to others how to live but to build a coalition of friends and partners who share the goal of fighting terrorism and bringing safety, opportunity and stability to the war-ravaged Middle East," Trump said.

The Palestinians want to create a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, lands Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Abbas noted that demand when he joined Trump at the White House.

But Netanyahu has rejected the 1967 frontier as a baseline for border talks and ruled out partitioning Jerusalem where Palestinians hope to establish a capital. Netanyahu's government has expanded settlements despite U.S. efforts to curb the construction.

The White House had said previously that Trump would travel to Belgium for the NATO meeting and Italy for the G7 summit before Memorial Day. The president previously called NATO "obsolete" but has since recanted after listening to European leaders make the case for the military alliance.

Trump will be making his first overseas trip late into the start of his presidency compared to his predecessors. Former President Barack Obama visited nine countries by late April 2009, his first three months in office, meeting with allies such as Canada, Britain and Germany. The last first-term president to wait until May to venture abroad was Jimmy Carter in 1977.

His visit will also give him the opportunity to connect with Roman Catholics with his visit with Pope Francis at the Vatican. The White House said the president met privately Thursday with Roman Catholic cardinals.

Trump and Francis couldn't be more different in their approaches to some of the pressing issues of the day, with immigration and climate change topping the list. Francis has spoken of the need for bridges between nations, not the walls that Trump has called for. He has called for an end to the use of fossil fuels, while Trump has pledged to cancel payments to U.N. climate change programs and pull out of the Paris climate accord.

But both share a populist appeal and speak with a down-to-earth simplicity that has endeared them to their bases of supporters. And both share a common concern about the plight of Christians in the Middle East at the hands of Islamic militants.

Francis recently called for the U.S. and North Korea to step away from the brink and use negotiations and diplomacy to diffuse tensions on the Korean peninsula — an issue that is likely to feature in any Vatican audience.

During the campaign, when asked about Trump's border wall with Mexico, Francis famously said anyone who wants to build a wall is "not Christian." Trump shot back that it was "disgraceful" for a religious leader to question someone's faith.

Associated Press writer Nicole Winfield in Vatican City contributed to this report.

Vatican recognizes state of Palestine in new treaty

May 13, 2015

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican officially recognized the state of Palestine in a new treaty finalized Wednesday, immediately sparking Israeli ire and accusations that the move hurt peace prospects.

The treaty, which concerns the activities of the Catholic Church in Palestinian territory, is both deeply symbolic and makes explicit that the Holy See has switched its diplomatic recognition from the Palestine Liberation Organization to the state of Palestine.

The Vatican had welcomed the decision by the U.N. General Assembly in 2012 to recognize a Palestinian state and had referred to the Palestine state since. But the treaty is the first legal document negotiated between the Holy See and the Palestinian state, giving the Vatican's former signs of recognition an unambiguous confirmation in a formal, bilateral treaty.

"Yes, it's a recognition that the state exists," said the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said it was "disappointed." "This move does not promote the peace process and distances the Palestinian leadership from returning to direct and bilateral negotiations," the ministry said in a text message.

The United States and Israel oppose recognition, arguing that it undermines U.S.-led efforts to negotiate an Israeli-Palestinian deal on the terms of Palestinian statehood. Most countries in Western Europe have held off on recognition, but some have hinted that their position could change if peace efforts remain deadlocked.

The treaty was finalized days before Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visits Pope Francis at the Vatican. Abbas is heading to Rome to attend Francis' canonization Sunday of two new saints from the Holy Land.

"This is a very important recognition as the Vatican has a very important political status that stems from its spiritual status," said Abbas' senior aide, Nabil Shaath. "We expect more EU countries to follow."

The Vatican has been referring unofficially to the state of Palestine since 2012. During Pope Francis' 2014 visit to the Holy Land, the Vatican's official program referred to Abbas as the president of the "state of Palestine."

The Vatican's foreign minister, Monsignor Antoine Camilleri, acknowledged the change in status, but said the shift was simply in line with the Holy See's position. The Holy See clearly tried to underplay the development, suggesting that its 2012 press statement welcoming the U.N. vote constituted its first official recognition. Nowhere in that statement does the Vatican say it recognizes the state of Palestine, and the Holy See couldn't vote for the U.N. resolution because it doesn't have voting rights at the General Assembly.

The Vatican's efforts to downplay the move seemed justified given the swift condemnation of the development by Israeli groups: The American Jewish Committee said it was "counterproductive to all who seek true peace between Israel and the Palestinians." The Anti-Defamation League said it was "premature."

"We appreciate that the Vatican's basic intention is to promote Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation, but believe that this diplomatic recognition will be unhelpful to that end," the ADL's Abraham Foxman said.

The 2012 U.N. vote recognized Palestine as a non-member observer state, made up of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, lands Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians celebrated the vote as a milestone in their quest for international recognition. Most countries in Africa, Asia and South America have individually recognized Palestine. In Western Europe, Sweden took the step last year, while several parliaments have approved non-binding motions urging recognition.

This isn't the first time that the Vatican under Francis has taken diplomatic moves knowing that it would please some quarters and ruffle feathers elsewhere: Just last month, he referred to the slaughter of Armenians by Turkish Ottomans a century ago as a "genocide," prompting Turkey to recall its ambassador.

AP writers Ian Deitch in Jerusalem and Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank contributed.

Vatican prepares to open showers, barber shop for homeless

February 06, 2015

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Rome's homeless are about to get some TLC.

The Vatican said Friday it had finished renovations on public restrooms just off St. Peter's Square that will include three showers and a free barber shop for the city's neediest. Each "homeless pilgrim," as the Vatican called the clients, will receive a kit including a towel, change of underwear, soap, deodorant, toothpaste, razor and shaving cream. The showers will be open every day but Wednesday, when the piazza is full for the pope's general audience. Haircuts will be available Mondays.

Barbers volunteering on their days off - Rome's barber shops are closed Mondays - as well as students from a local beauty school will be donating their time, as well as some sisters from religious orders and other volunteers.

The bathrooms were made with high-tech, easy-to-clean materials to ensure proper hygiene, the Vatican said in a statement. The walls are grey, with white washbasins and a high-tech looking barber chair.

Francis' chief alms-giver, Monsignor Konrad Krajewski, has said the project is needed since homeless people are often shunned for their appearance and smell. The initiative is being funded by donations and sales of papal parchments sold by Krajewski's office.

Francis has stepped up the role of the Vatican "elmosiniere" as part of his insistence that the church look out for the poorest. In addition to small acts of charity, Krajewski's office handed out 400 sleeping bags to the homeless over Christmas, distributed 1,600 phone cards to new migrants on the island of Lampedusa, and this past week gave away some 300 umbrellas that had been left behind at the Vatican Museums to help the homeless cope with days of heavy rain in the capital.

Pope to see Syrian refugee crisis in Jordan

May 24, 2014

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — On the first leg of his three-day Mideast trip, Pope Francis will get a firsthand look at the plight of Syrian refugees and witness the toll the civil war next door is taking on Jordan.

Francis frequently has lamented the plight of refugees, denouncing the "globalization of indifference" that often greets them in their newly adopted homelands. At the same time, he and his predecessors have decried the flight of Christians from the Holy Land, insisting recently: "We will not be resigned to think about the Middle East without Christians!"

After meeting with King Abdullah II and Queen Rania at the royal palace, Francis is due to celebrate Mass on Saturday in Amman's International Stadium. The Vatican expects some 25,000 people to attend, many of them Palestinian, Syrian and Iraqi refugees. Later, he will meet one-on-one with refugees and disabled children at a church in Bethany beyond the Jordan, which many believe is the traditional site of Jesus' baptism.

Christians make up about 5 percent of Syria's population, but assaults on predominantly Christian towns by rebels fighting against President Bashar Assad's rule have fueled fears among the country's religious minorities about the growing role of Islamic extremists in the revolt. Christians believe they are being targeted in part because of anti-Christian sentiment among Sunni Muslim extremists and partly as punishment for what is seen as their support for Assad.

The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said Francis wants to offer comfort to all Christians who live in the region and encourage them to stay. "These Christians are living stones, and without their presence, the Holy Land and its holy sites risk becoming a museum," Parolin told Vatican Television on the eve of the trip.

Jordan last month opened a third camp for Syrian refugees, a stark indication of the strains the civil war is creating for the country. The sprawling facility is designed to accommodate up to 130,000 people and potentially become the world's second-largest refugee camp. Jordan is hosting 600,000 registered Syrian refugees, or 10 percent of its population. Jordanian officials estimate the real number is closer to 1.3 million.

For the Syrian Christians who will greet Francis, his presence is a chance to show the world their hopelessness as the conflict drags on. "We are very happy because he will see Christians in the Arab world, he will see us and see our suffering," said Nazik Malko, a Syrian Orthodox Christian refugee from Maaloula who will be among the 600 or so people to greet the pope at Bethany beyond the Jordan. "We wish that peace will be restored in the whole world, and in Syria."

Another Orthodox Christian from Maaloula, Yacoub Josef, said he couldn't wait to leave. "We wish that the situation in Syria would be better, but we hope to immigrate because we have had enough of being homeless," he said.

Francis will visit a Palestinian refugee camp on Sunday when he travels from Amman directly to the West Bank city of Bethlehem. It's the first time a pope has landed in the West Bank rather than Tel Aviv first, and Palestinian officials are eager to show Francis the limbo endured by generations of Palestinians forced or driven out in the war over Israel's 1948 creation. Today, along with their descendants, these refugees make up more than 5 million people scattered across the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Parolin, the Vatican No. 2, said Francis would emphasize the Vatican's longstanding position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: "The right of Israel to exist and enjoy peace and security inside its internationally recognized borders, and the right of the Palestinian people to have a sovereign, independent homeland, freedom of movement and the right to live in dignity."

Technically, the main reason for the trip is for Francis and the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians to mark the 50th anniversary of a historic meeting in Jerusalem by their predecessors which ended 900 years of Catholic-Orthodox estrangement. That highlight will come on Sunday, when Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I preside over a joint prayer service in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where Christians believe Jesus was crucified and resurrected.

Representatives of other churches also will be present, including Cardinal Bechara Rai, the first leader of Lebanon's largest Christian sect, the Maronite Catholic Church, to visit Jerusalem since Israel captured the city's eastern sector. Lebanon bans its citizens from visiting Israel or having business dealings with Israelis.

Underscoring the sensitive political nature of the trip, Rai's plans to visit Israel have drawn criticism. He angrily walked out of an interview with France 24 on Friday while in Amman, after the reporter pressed him on the motives for his visit.

"I don't come to the Holy Land for political, economic or military goals. ... Jerusalem is our city and we are in the Holy Land since hundreds of years, we cannot leave our land and our people," he said.

Francis will spend Monday in Jerusalem, visiting the grand mufti of Jerusalem and Israel's chief rabbis, albeit separately. He'll also pray at the Western Wall and visit the Holocaust memorial at Yad Vashem and will become the first pope to lay a wreath of flowers on Mount Herzl, named for the founder of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl. He returns to the Vatican Monday night.

Winfield reported from Rome.

Vatican says it's willing, wants to help Venezuela

March 28, 2014

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican said Friday it was "willing and desirous" to intervene diplomatically in Venezuela's crisis after weeks of deadly unrest but says it must study expectations and options about what role it could play.

On Thursday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accepted the idea of a good-faith facilitator after coming under mounting pressure to reconcile with opponents who have been protesting for nearly three months. He mentioned Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, until last year the Vatican's ambassador to Caracas.

Critics of Maduro's socialist administration have pressed for Vatican involvement: Shortly before he was arrested, opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez wrote an open letter to Pope Francis, the first Latin American pope, asking him to guide the country.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Friday the Holy See and Parolin were "certainly willing and desirous to do whatever is possible for the good and serenity of the country." He said Parolin, in particular, "knows and loves" Venezuela.

But he said the Vatican needed to have more information to understand "the expectations and the premise for undertaking a useful role that could achieve the desired outcome." Such a study, he said, was underway.

The oil-rich nation has been widely criticized for its harsh crackdown on opponents protesting inflation, crime and shortages. Clashes between protesters and loyalists have left more than 30 people dead.

While direct Vatican mediation in conflicts is rare, the Holy See's diplomats often works behind the scenes and have helped resolve conflicts in Latin America before. In 1978, Pope John Paul II sent an envoy to help Francis' native Argentina and Chile reach a compromise on a territorial dispute. The two countries had been on the brink of war over the Beagle Channel and its islands.

Joshua Goodman and Hannah Dreier in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this report.

Pope names 19 new cardinals, focusing on the poor

January 12, 2014

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis named his first batch of cardinals on Sunday, choosing 19 men from Asia, Africa, Latin America and elsewhere, including the developing nations of Haiti and Burkina Faso, in line with his belief that the church must pay more attention to the poor.

Francis made the announcement as he spoke from his studio window to a crowd in St. Peter's Square. Sixteen of the appointees are younger than 80, meaning they are currently eligible to elect the next pope, which is a cardinal's most important task. The ceremony to formally install them as cardinals will be held Feb. 22 at the Vatican.

Since his election in March as the first pontiff from Latin America, the pope has broken tradition after tradition in terms of protocol and style at the Vatican. But in Sunday's list Francis stuck to the church's rule of having no more than 120 cardinals eligible to elect the next pontiff.

The College of Cardinals is currently 13 shy of that 120-mark among eligible-to-vote members. In addition, three cardinals will turn 80 by May. That means Francis chose the exact number of new cardinals needed to bring the voting ranks up to 120 during the next few months.

Some appointments were expected, including that of his new secretary of state, the Italian archbishop Pietro Parolin, and the German head of the Vatican's watchdog office for doctrinal orthodoxy, Gerhard Ludwig Mueller. Two others named Sunday also come from the curia, as the Holy See's Rome-based bureaucracy is known.

But some names were surprising. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the pope's selection of churchmen from Haiti and Burkina Faso reflects Francis' attention to the destitute as a core part of the church's mission.

Also chosen to become a "prince of the church," as the cardinals are known, was Mario Aurelio Poli, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, a post Francis left when he was elected as the first Latin American pope in March. Poli had impressed Francis by earning a degree in social work from the public university of Buenos Aires.

In the case of the archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, the selection of Orani Joao Tempesta was widely hoped for back home as a kind of reward for Monsignor Orani Joao Tempesta's work in organizing Francis' wildly popular visit to that city in July.

Whether one continent or country has a large contingent of cardinals is heavily watched when it comes time to pick the next pope because churchmen could vote as a geographic bloc in hope of furthering the interests of their flock back home.

Not counting the four picks from the curia, who no longer represent the church in their homelands, the others new voting cardinals include two from Europe, three from North and Central America, three from South America, and two apiece from Africa and Asia.

Vincent Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster, in Britain, called his appointment a "humbling moment" of service to the church. The youngest new cardinal chosen by Francis is the 55-year-old Monsignor Chibly Langlois from Haiti.

In reading out the names, Francis said the new cardinals, coming from "every part of the world represent the deep church ecclesial relationship between the church of Rome and the other churches scattered throughout the world."

Francis has stressed that the church hierarchy must not view itself as an elite aloof from its flock but instead serve its flock, especially for the poor, others on the edges of society and disillusioned faithful.

Once again on Sunday, a pope has passed over a prominent churchman in predominantly Catholic Ireland as a potential cardinal: Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. He has irritated some in the Vatican by strongly criticizing how the hierarchy handled the worldwide clerical sex abuse scandal.

In a sentimental touch in Sunday's selections, the three men chosen as cardinals who are too old to vote for the next pope include 98-year-old Monsignor Loris Francesco Capovilla, who had served as personal secretary to Pope John XXIII. That late pontiff will be made a saint along with John Paul II in a ceremony at the Vatican in April.

Marco Sibaja contributed to this report from Brazil.

Pope Francis is Time's Person of the Year

December 11, 2013

NEW YORK (AP) — Time magazine selected Pope Francis as its Person of the Year on Wednesday, saying the Catholic Church's new leader has changed the perception of the 2,000-year-old institution in an extraordinary way in a short time.

The pope beat out NSA leaker Edward Snowden for the distinction, which the newsmagazine has been giving each year since 1927. The former Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected in March as the first pope from Latin America and the first Jesuit. Since taking over at the Vatican, he has urged the Catholic Church not to be obsessed with "small-minded rules" and to emphasize compassion over condemnation in dealing with touchy topics like abortion, gays and contraception.

He has denounced the world's "idolatry of money" and the "global scandal" that nearly 1 billion people today go hungry, and has charmed the masses with his simple style and wry sense of humor. His appearances draw tens of thousands of people and his @Pontifex Twitter account recently topped 10 million followers.

"He really stood out to us as someone who has changed the tone and the perception and the focus of one of the world's largest institutions in an extraordinary way," said Nancy Gibbs, the magazine's managing editor.

The Vatican said the honor wasn't surprising given the resonance in the general public that Francis has had, but it nevertheless said the choice was a "positive" recognition of spiritual values in the international media.

"The Holy Father is not looking to become famous or to receive honors," said the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi. "But if the choice of Person of Year helps spread the message of the Gospel — a message of God's love for everyone — he will certainly be happy about that."

It was the third time a Catholic pope had been Time's selection. John Paul II was selected in 1994 and John XXIII was chosen in 1962. In Argentina on Wednesday, Padre Toto, one of the many "slum priests" the pope supported for years as archbishop of Buenos Aires, praised Time magazine's selection.

"I think the recognition of Time magazine is good news, because Pope Francis embodies one of the values of a church that's more missionary, closer to the people, more austere, more in keeping with the gospel," Toto said. "He had the genius of knowing how to express this sense of the church and hopefully his way of being will catch on with other political leaders, business executives, sports figures. His leadership is inspiring."

Besides Snowden, Time had narrowed its finalists down to Syrian President Bashar Assad, Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, and gay rights activist Edith Windsor, whose Supreme Court case led to the fall of the Defense of Marriage Act, which prevented same-sex couples from federal benefits.

President Barack Obama was Time's selection for 2012. Time editors make the selection. The magazine polled readers for their choice, and the winner was Egyptian General Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who didn't even make the top 10 of Time's final list.

Associated Press writers Nicole Winfield in Rome and Rodrigo Abd in Buenos Aires contributed to this report.

Pope meets FIFA chief, Italy-Argentine rugby teams

November 22, 2013

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis met Friday with the head of FIFA and members of the Italian and Argentine national rugby teams.

Francis told the rugby players in town for a match on Saturday that theirs was a "tough" sport but one without violence, where individual and team greatness complement one another. Francis also met Friday with FIFA chief Joseph Blatter.

"We spoke the same language and it was language of football," Blatter said. "It was really a meeting between two sportsmen and two football fans." Blatter said he responded to the pope's request for FIFA to help the favelas, or slums, of Rio de Janeiro during the 2014 World Cup, with a promise to "do what we can."

"We cannot do everything," Blatter said. The soccer-mad Francis, a longtime member of his beloved San Lorenzo club in Buenos Aires, has amassed an impressive collection of soccer jerseys as gifts from visiting teams and players.

The two also unwittingly wound up confronting the relative strength in the numbers of active participants in their institutions, with those involved in football, including players and their families, slightly outnumbering Roman Catholics worldwide.

"We have 1.2 billion people and (the pope) said, 'I have no more than 1 billion,'" Blatter said with a laugh.

Vatican beatifies 522 killed in Spain during 1930s

October 13, 2013

MADRID (AP) — The Vatican on Sunday beatified 522 people — mostly priests and nuns — who were killed in the turmoil that led to Spain's civil war.

The beatification, the last step the Roman Catholic church takes before declaring sainthood, was conducted by Cardinal Angelo Amato in an outdoor ceremony attended by thousands in the northeastern Tarragona region. Pope Francis gave a brief address via a teleconference link to the congregation, which included almost 4,000 relatives of those being beatified.

So far, the church has beatified in several similar events more than 1,500 people killed during Spain's worst period of internecine strife in the 20th century. In the 1930s, Spain was engulfed in instability that saw the head of state, King Alfonso XIII, abandon the country and anti-clerical mobs attack clergy and burn churches.

The mayhem culminated in a 1936-1939 war, won by forces allied to Nazi Germany and fascist Italy and led by Gen. Francisco Franco.

Pope follows footsteps of namesake St. Francis

October 04, 2013

ASSISI, Italy (AP) — Pope Francis made a pilgrimage Friday to the hillside town of Assisi and the tomb of his namesake, St. Francis, the 13th-century friar who renounced a wealthy, dissolute lifestyle to embrace a life of poverty and minister to the most destitute. St. Francis was famously told by God to "repair my house."

In word and deed, the first pope to name himself after St. Francis has made clear how he wants to follow that command, with a church that is welcoming to all, but especially the most marginalized, and a church hierarchy that is worthy of its 1.2 billion flock.

Here are some of his main goals as he attempts to achieve the church St. Francis would have wanted.

A CHURCH 'THAT IS POOR AND FOR THE POOR'

Pope Francis was having lunch Friday with the poor being cared for by a Catholic charity in Assisi. Since becoming pope in March, Francis has made it clear that one of his principal objectives is a church that is humble, looks out for the poorest and brings them hope. The "slum pope," as he is known because of his work in Argentina's shantytowns, recently denounced big business "idolatry" of money and sought to encourage those without the "dignity" of work.

A CHURCH THAT WELCOMES EVERYONE, INCLUDING NONBELIEVERS

At his first public audience a few days after his election, Francis made an unusual exception: In recognition that not all in the room were Christians or even believers, Francis offered a blessing without the traditional Catholic formula or gesture, saying he would bless each one in silence "respecting your conscience, but knowing that each one of you is a child of God." That respect for people of different faiths or no faith at all has become a hallmark of Francis' papacy as he actively seeks out atheists for dialogue.

A CHURCH THAT DOESN'T JUDGE

The pope's "who am I to judge" comment about gays represented a radical shift in tone for the Vatican. Yes, Catholic teaching holds that gays should be treated with dignity and respect, so Francis was making no change in doctrine. But church teaching also holds that gay acts are "intrinsically disordered" — a point Francis has neglected to emphasize. This refusal to judge applies to just about anyone Francis encounters, including drug addicts and convicts. He has brought a simple message that they are loved and deserve to be loved.

A CHURCH THAT IS 'MESSY' AND GOES OUTSIDE THE SACRISTY

Francis told Argentine pilgrims during World Youth Day in July to make a "mess" in their dioceses and shake things up, even if it meant irritating their bishops. He wanted to convey his hope the church would stop being so inward-looking, and instead go out to the peripheries to spread the faith. Francis' first trip outside Rome was to Lampedusa, an island closer to Africa than the Italian mainland. The last-minute trip was organized after several boat migrants seeking a better life in Europe drowned. Francis' eulogy for all migrants lost at sea denounced a "globalization of indifference." It was a prescient message given Thursday's shipwreck off Lampedusa that killed scores of migrants.

A CHURCH THAT ISN'T STUCK IN THE PAST OR OBSESSED WITH RULES

Francis has made clear he cares little for the old Latin Mass and has disparaged traditionalist Catholics still very much attached to it. He has forbidden one religious order from celebrating the pre-Vatican II liturgy without specific authority, seemingly rolling back the 2007 decree signed by Benedict XVI allowing for its wider celebration. More well-known is his disagreement with the church's "small-minded rules," saying too many Catholics were focusing on them. Rather, he wants the church to focus on mercy.

A REFORMED CHURCH

Francis was elected on a mandate to reform the church, and he has set about doing that, perhaps with St. Francis' "repair my house" instruction in mind. He has just finished three days of meetings with advisers helping him rewrite the main blueprint for how the Catholic Church is governed. Ideas include a "moderator" to make the Vatican bureaucracy run more smoothly and a revised role for the powerful secretary of state. It also includes involving lay men and women more in the life of the church. Just as St. Francis wanted.

Pope says empty convents and monasteries should house refugees

ROME | Tue Sep 10, 2013

(Reuters) - Disused church buildings should be used to house refugees, who must be embraced rather than feared, Pope Francis told asylum seekers in Rome on Tuesday, underlining his papacy's emphasis on the poor and the plight of immigrants.

Turning convents and monasteries that have emptied due to a drop in vocations into hotels has raised funds for the Church, but also attracted criticism.

"Empty convents and monasteries should not be turned into hotels by the Church to earn money ... (the buildings) are not ours, they are for the flesh of Christ, which is what the refugees are," Francis told a private audience in the Jesuit Astalli Center for refugees, in a speech released to the press.

He met several asylum seekers, including some from Syria, after making an impassioned appeal for peace in the war-torn country at the weekend.

Francis said looking after the poor should not be the work of only "specialists", but engaged in by all members of the Church. It should also be part of the training of priests.

"The word solidarity frightens people in the developed world," the leader of the Catholic Church said.

Since expressing his wish for a "poor Church, and for the poor" shortly after his election in March, Francis' papacy has been marked by his humble style and the prominence given to the destitute.

In July he visited the Italian island of Lampedusa, where tens of thousands of illegal migrants arrive yearly, and condemned indifference to many who die making the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean seeking a better life.

(Reporting by Naomi O'Leary; editing by Mike Collett-White)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/10/us-pope-refugees-idUSBRE98918N20130910.

Pope all smiles as Brazilians swarm his car in Rio

July 23, 2013

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Pope Francis wants to ignite the passion of Roman Catholics for their faith while on his first international trip, and the boisterous, sometimes frenzied welcome he got on his first day in Rio seemed to fill those hopes.

Returning to his home continent for the first time since becoming pontiff, Francis smiled broadly as thousands of people rushed his car Monday after it became stuck behind buses and taxis when his driver made a wrong turn on a main avenue in Rio's center.

It was a nightmarish scene for security officials, but clearly a delight and another opportunity to connect for this pope, who was scheduled to take a day off Tuesday for rest and private meetings. The ecstatic throngs forced his motorcade to repeatedly come to a standstill, weeks after violent protests against the government paralyzed parts of Brazil. Francis' driver turned into the wrong side of a boulevard at one point, missing lanes that had been cleared. Other parts of the pope's route to the city center weren't lined with fencing, giving the throngs more chances to get close, with uniformed police nowhere in sight to act as crowd control.

The three dozen visible Vatican and Brazilian plainclothes security officials struggled to keep the crowds at bay. Francis not only looked calm but got even closer to the people. He rolled down his back-seat window, waved to the crowd and touched those who reached inside. He kissed a baby a woman handed to him.

"His secretary was afraid, but the pope was happy," said the papal spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi. The pope is here on a seven-day visit meant to fan the fervor of the faithful around the globe. That task has grown more challenging as Catholics stray, even in strongholds of the religion such as Brazil, yet it seemed to come easily to Francis even on the drive from the airport to an official opening ceremony.

After finally making it past crowds and blocked traffic, Francis switched to an open-air vehicle for a cruise along main streets past crowds of people who screamed wildly as he waved and smiled. He left his popemobile — the bulletproof one — in the Vatican garage so he could better connect with people during the church's World Youth Day.

Vatican officials insisted they had no concern for the pope's safety as his vehicles eased through the masses, but Lombardi acknowledged there might have been some "errors" that need correcting. "This is something new, maybe also a lesson for the coming days," Lombardi said.

Many in the crowd looked stunned to see the pope, with some standing still and others sobbing loudly. "I can't travel to Rome, but he came here to make my country better ... and to deepen our faith," Idaclea Rangel, a 73-year-old Catholic, said, choking through her tears after the pope passed by.

As many as 1 million young people from around the world are expected in Rio for the Catholic youth fest, a seemingly tailor-made event for the Argentine-born pope, who has proven enormously popular in his four months on the job. But the fervor of the crowds that regularly greet Francis in St. Peter's Square was nothing compared with the raucous welcome in Rio.

Popes generally get a warm welcome in Latin America; even the more aloof Pope Benedict XVI received a hero's welcome when he visited Mexico and Cuba in 2012. John Paul II frequently received rock star treatment, and during one 1996 visit to Venezuela, his motorcade was similarly mobbed when he stopped to greet well-wishers.

Outside Rio's Guanabara government palace where the pope was officially welcomed, Alicia Velazquez, a 55-year-old arts teacher from Buenos Aires, waited to catch a glimpse of the man she knew well when he was archbishop of her hometown.

"It was so amazing when he was selected, we just couldn't believe it. We cried and hugged one another," Velazquez said. "I personally want to see if he's still the same man as simple and humble whom we all knew. I have faith that he's remained the same."

Francis displayed that humility in greeting President Dilma Rousseff, saying he understood that to really know Brazilians, one must pass through their heart. "So let me knock gently at this door," Francis said in Portuguese at the official welcoming ceremony. "I have neither silver nor gold, but I bring with me the most precious thing given to me: Jesus Christ."

On the plane trip to Rio, Francis had lamented that an entire generation of young people risked not knowing what it's like to work thanks to an economic crisis that has seen youth unemployment skyrocket in many European countries while leaving the poor of the developing world behind.

"People get their dignity from work, they earn their bread," he told reporters aboard the plane. "Young people in this moment are in crisis." Francis arrived at a tense time for Brazil, as the country reels from sometimes violent demonstrations that began last month as a protest against public transport price hikes and mushroomed into a wave of protests against government corruption, inefficiency and spending for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics.

Those protests continued after Francis' arrival. Police and anti-government protesters clashed outside the government palace. The government has spent about $52 million for Francis' visit, but he does not appear to be a focus of protesters' rage.

"We've got nothing against the pope. Nobody here is against him," said Christopher Creindel, a 22-year-old art student and Rio native protesting outside the government palace. "This protest is against our politicians."

Lombardi confirmed that a homemade explosive device was found Sunday by Brazilian authorities in a public toilet near the basilica at Aparecida, a Marian shrine that Francis is to visit Wednesday. Vatican security was informed of the device but didn't think it was aimed at the pope, Lombardi said.

"There are no concerns for security. The concerns are that the enthusiasm is so great that it's difficult to respond to so much enthusiasm for the pope. But there is no fear and no concern," he told reporters.

Francis' weeklong schedule underscores his commitment to make his pontificate focus on the poor. He will walk through one of Rio's shantytowns, or favelas, and meet with juvenile offenders, an extension of his call for a more missionary church that goes to the peripheries to preach.

He will also pray at Aparecida, an indication of his strong Marian devotion that is shared in much of Latin America. And, in a rather incongruous matchup, he will preside over a procession re-enacting Christ's crucifixion on the beach at Copacabana, ground zero of Rio's Sin City.

Alex Augusto, a 22-year-old seminarian dressed in the bright green official T-shirt for pilgrims, said Monday that he and five friends made the journey from Brazil's Sao Paulo state to "show that contrary to popular belief, the church isn't only made up of older people, it's full of young people. We want to show the real image of the church."

Associated Press writers Jenny Barchfield, Vivian Sequera and Marco Sibaja contributed to this report.

Pope seeks Catholic rebirth in land of samba

July 20, 2013

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The white sands of Copacabana beach typically draw millions of sun-worshipers, New Year's Eve revelers and fans for free concerts by the likes of Stevie Wonder and the Rolling Stones. In the coming week, the star of the show is infinitely less flamboyant than Mick Jagger, but he promises to stir up just as much passion among devotees.

Pope Francis, the 76-year-old Argentine who became the church's first pontiff from the Americas in March, will turn the crescent-shaped shoreline into a giant stage for his first international trip as pope, returning to the embrace of Latin America to preside over the Roman Catholic Church's World Youth Day festival.

The pontiff is coming to the heart of a city known for pricey real estate and sexy samba with a message of humility, simplicity and support for the poor — priorities that he has set out already in his four months as pope.

The Catholic Church in Brazil is one he knows well, aware that it is losing legions of adherents to Pentecostal churches and secularism. But Catholic youth festivals are meant to reinvigorate the faithful, and Francis, a soccer-loving native son, is expected to rally young people with his humble and unconventional ways.

More than a million young Catholics are expected to flock to Rio to celebrate their new pope. The city overseen by the giant Christ the Redeemer statue has mobilized thousands of soldiers and police to make sure the visit goes smoothly, even as violent anti-government protests continue to erupt a month after Brazil saw mass demonstrations nationwide.

Some residents have already prepared a uniquely Rio de Janeiro welcome for Francis: They've built from sand life-sized images of the pope on Copacabana, in place of the usual sculptures of bikini-clad beauties.

Rafaela Bastos, a pilgrim walking along the beach a few days before the pontiff's arrival, said the "Francis effect" was already evident. As she spoke, an army of construction workers toiled at a furious clip on the beach to finish the enormous, white altar where Pope Francis will celebrate a Mass.

"Francis has captivated me; he's absolutely won me over," said the 23-year-old from Brazil's Minas Gerais state. "He's brought the church close to the people and especially to young Catholics. He's creative, he's modern, he's not changing doctrine, but he seems far more flexible and open to discussion."

That Francis is from Latin America "just makes him even better: He understands our culture and that brings him closer to us and allows us to understand him," Bastos said. Despite such optimism, these are worrying times for the church, and Brazil's case is emblematic.

The vast nation was 89 percent Catholic when Pope John Paul II became the first pontiff to visit in 1980. According to the national census, that figure had dropped to 65 percent by 2010. Such declines are happening all over Latin America, which is one of the church's remaining strongholds amid growing secularism in Europe and the United States. Sex abuse and corruption scandals have further eroded trust in the church.

Francis's response to the challenges has been to help find "an entirely new way to interact with the world" by the manner in which he communicates, said Sao Paulo Cardinal Odilo Scherer, one of two Latin Americans named to the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization created in 2010.

"The church, Christianity, the Catholic faith cannot be apart from the world," Scherer said. "It must be a part of the world, inside of it, and it must interact with modern society if it hopes to have repercussions and influence."

Francis has moved quickly to build a more everyman approach to his office. He still refuses to sign his name as pope, rarely refers to himself as pontiff, and thinks of his role more as a good pastor — and a good role model for other pastors. Once a priest who rode the subway to work, he is now a pope who spurns the ornate symbols of power: He passed on the red papal shoes for his old black ones and shed the fancy papal residence and gold pectoral cross.

Recently, Francis skipped a concert held in his honor in the Vatican auditorium, something unheard of among popes. Instead, he left his white papal chair empty as the concert went on without him. "He doesn't seem to be interested in the kind of symbolic things that hold him at the center," said the Rev. Joseph Fessio, a fellow conservative Jesuit and head of U.S. publisher Ignatius Press.

Still, he hasn't shied from flexing his papal authority. Francis' audacious decision to canonize Pope John XXIII was evidence that he knows full well how to wield papal power. Francis bypassed Vatican rules that require confirming a second miracle to John's credit before he could be declared a saint, skipping that formality so he could canonize both the liberal "father" of the Second Vatican Council and the conservative John Paul. That was seen as a balancing act aimed at keeping the disparate wings of the church happy.

So far, Francis' changes appear to have paid off, with public opinion polls showing broad popularity, at least among Catholics. One recent survey in Italy said 96 percent of Catholics there have "a lot" of trust in Francis, a level not seen since the apex of John Paul s papacy. A Pew Research poll in the U.S. said 84 percent of American Catholics also have a favorable view of the pontiff, compared to 67 percent for Francis' predecessor, Benedict XVI, in the first Pew poll taken after his election.

"I think the 'Francis effect' is real. He's captured the world's imagination. He comes across as more authentic because he practices what he preaches," said David Gibson, author of a biography on Benedict XVI. "He looks like your parish priest, he talks like your parish priest, and people connect with that.

"But people from the U.S. to Africa to Asia are watching and wondering how he'll come off. Will Pope Francis translate from Rome to Rio?" Francis will certainly take every opportunity to show off his simpler touch in Brazil, the world's biggest Catholic country, especially after what many considered the more aloof style of Benedict, who visited Brazil in 2007.

Francis is also well known for his outreach to Jews, Muslims and even atheists, so his appeal doesn't seem limited to Catholics alone. What's unclear, however, is how he will deal with the millions of Brazilians who have left the Catholic faith for evangelical churches that the Vatican considers "sects." Francis has no official encounters planned with representatives of other faiths.

After meeting with President Dilma Rousseff shortly after his arrival Monday, Francis will take a day off on Tuesday. On Wednesday he will begin his public activities in the rolling hills of rural Sao Paulo state, visiting a huge shrine built around a small clay statue of the Virgin Mary that is a figure of worship for millions of Brazilians. In Rio, he'll walk the Stations of the Cross surrounded by more than a million young devotees on Copacabana beach as part of World Youth Day festivities.

In one of the key events of his trip, the church's first Jesuit leader will venture into a rough slum that sits along a violence-soaked road known by locals as the Gaza Strip. For many Brazilians, images of that visit will conjure memories of the still beloved John Paul II, who made his own visits to Rio's slums in 1980 and 1997. Since then, evangelical groups have made deep inroads into Brazil's slums with their hands-on ministry of personal improvement and self-discipline.

Through much of the trip, Francis will forego the bullet-proof popemobile used by his two predecessors and instead wade through crowds in an open vehicle, a move strongly opposed by Brazilian security officials.

A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Francis chose to leave the popemobile home because he likes being able to get on and off the open-topped car to greet the faithful — something that's not possible from the bulletproof cage of the more secure vehicle.

Such moves are being closely watched by Brazilians such as Fernanda Neves, a 24-year-old lapsed Catholic in Brazil's biggest city, Sao Paulo, who this month attended her first blessing rite in more than a decade.

In a tiny chapel tucked behind the Sao Judas sanctuary in a working-class neighborhood, Neves looked startled when beads of holy water hit her forehead and dripped down onto her hot pink shirt as a young priest moved around the room, blessing the two dozen faithful gathered.

"I was raised in the church, my family is strongly Catholic, but by age 14 I felt emptiness in Mass. The messages were irrelevant to me," said Neves. "But this new pope, he speaks my language, he seems like a man of the people. It's easier to understand what he wants from us and I think he'll help bring Brazilians back to the church."

Associated Press writer Bradley Brooks reported this story in Rio de Janeiro and Nicole Winfield reported from Rome.

Francis without Roman numeral

March 13, 2013

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican says the new pope's official name is Pope Francis, without a Roman numeral.

Spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi sought to clear up any possible confusion, noting that Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who announced the name to the world, said simply Francis. It is listed that way in the first Vatican bulletin on the new pope.

"It will become Francis I after we have a Francis II," Lombardi quipped.

Catholics, world leaders welcome church's new pope

March 13, 2013

LONDON (AP) — World leaders sent in their congratulations and Catholics around the world were celebrating Wednesday after the Vatican announced the election of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio to the papacy — making him the first pontiff from the Americas.

As bells tolled and crowds cheered across Latin America, President Barack Obama offered warm wishes to Pope Francis and said the selection speaks to the strength and vitality of the New World. "I offer our warm wishes to His Holiness Pope Francis," Obama said. "As a champion of the poor and the most vulnerable among us, he carries forth the message of love and compassion that has inspired the world for more than 2,000 years."

In Europe, British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Francois Hollande, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also issued statements of congratulations. Wednesday was "a momentous day for the 1.2 billion Catholics around the world," Cameron said in a message posted to Twitter, while Merkel, the daughter of a Lutheran pastor, said millions of Catholics and non-Catholics alike would be looking to the new pope for guidance not just in questions of faith but in matters of peace, justice and protecting creation.

Merkel said she was particularly happy for Christians in Latin America, who now had one of their own called to be pope for the first time. Francis was elected after German-born Pope Benedict XVI stepped down last month, saying he lacked the strength to continue in the job.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he looked forward to cooperation with the Holy See under Pope Francis' "wise leadership," while European Union leaders Herman Van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso wished the new Catholic leader "a long and blessed pontificate."

The atmosphere across Latin America brimmed with excitement and surprise, with people bursting into tears and cheers on streets from Buenos Aires to Caracas, Venezuela. "It's incredible!" said Martha Ruiz, 60, who was weeping tears of emotion in the Argentine capital. She said she had been in many meetings with the cardinal and said, "He is a man who transmits great serenity."

At the St. Francis of Assisi church in the colonial Old San Juan district in Puerto Rico, church secretary Antonia Veloz exchanged jubilant high-fives with Jose Antonio Cruz, a Franciscan friar. "It's a huge gift for all of Latin America. We waited 20 centuries. It was worth the wait," said Cruz, wearing the brown cassock tied with a rope that is the signature of the Franciscan order.

Arcilia Litchfield, a 57-year-old tourist from Albuquerque, New Mexico, was walking down the cobblestone streets when they glanced at a TV and saw that a new pope had been chosen. She and her husband then went to the San Juan Cathedral, where the remains of Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon are buried.

"It's historic. It's the first time a pope has been chosen from this part of the world," she said. "It hasn't sunk in yet." Even in Communist Cuba, there was pride as church bells rang to celebrate the news. Elsewhere on the continent, people traded stories about the new pontiff.

"You would see him taking public buses," said Maurizzio Pavia, an Argentine now working in Puerto Rico, who said he was familiar with Bergoglio because they both came from the same region. "He would cook his own food. He would not let anyone serve him."

In the United States, the archbishop of Philadelphia said the new pope is a man of "extraordinary intellectual and cultural strengths." Archbishop Charles Chaput calls Francis a "wonderful choice" who comes from the "new heartland of the global church."

Despite the overwhelming outpouring of joy and goodwill, not everyone thought the news was positive. Andrew Reding of the World Policy Institute in New York said the choice of Bergoglio was an example of "superficial change."

"Once again, a conclave has made a bold geographical move while choosing a doctrinal conservative," he said. "To paraphrase an old saying, the more things change in the Roman Catholic Church, the more they stay the same."

On Twitter, the pope's mothballed account was revived and read: "HABEMUS PAPAM FRANCISCUM," a reference to the cardinal's new name: Pope Francis.

Associated Press writers from across the globe contributed to this report.

Pope Francis: Simple image, complex past

March 14, 2013

VATICAN CITY (AP) — On the streets in Buenos Aires, the stories about the cardinal who would become the first pope from the Americas often include a very ordinary backdrop: The city bus during rush hour.

Tales are traded about chatting with Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio as he squeezed in with others for the commute to work. They sometimes talk about church affairs. Other times it could be about what he planned to cook for dinner in the simple downtown apartment he chose over an opulent church estate.

Or perhaps it was a mention of his affection for the tango, which he said he loved as a youth despite having one lung removed following an infection. On the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica just after a rain shower Wednesday, wearing unadorned white robes, the new Pope Francis also appeared to strike the same tone of simplicity and pastoral humility for a church desperate to move past the tarnished era of abuse scandals and internal Vatican upheavals.

While the new pontiff is not without some political baggage, including questions over his role during a military dictatorship in Argentina in the 1970s, the selection of the 76-year-old Bergoglio reflected a series of history-making decisions by fellow cardinals who seemed determined to offer a suggestion of renewal to a church under pressures on many fronts.

"He is a real voice for the voiceless and vulnerable," said Kim Daniels, director of Catholic Voices USA, a pro-church group. "That is the message." Pope Francis, the first from Latin America and the first from the Jesuit order, bowed to the crowds in St. Peter's Square and asked for their blessing in a hint of the humble style he cultivated while trying to modernize Argentina's conservative Roman Catholic Church and move past a messy legacy of alleged complicity during the rule of the military junta of 1976-83.

"Brothers and sisters, good evening," he said before making a reference to his roots in Latin America, which accounts for about 40 percent of the world's Roman Catholics. Groups of supporters waved the white-and-blue Argentine flags in St. Peter's Square as Francis made his first public appearance as pope. Bergoglio reportedly had envoys urge Argentines not to fly to Rome to celebrate his papacy, but instead donate money to the poor.

In taking the name Francis, he drew connections to the 13th century St. Francis of Assisi, who saw his calling as trying to rebuild the simple spirit of the church and devote his life to missionary journeys. It also evokes references to Francis Xavier, one of the 16th century founders of the Jesuit order that is known for its scholarship and outreach.

Francis, the son of middle-class Italian immigrants, came close to becoming pope during the last conclave in 2005. He reportedly gained the second-highest vote total in several rounds of voting before he bowed out of the running before selection of Vatican insider Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI.

By returning to Bergoglio, the conclave confounded speculation that it would turn to a younger candidate more attuned to younger elements in the church and with possibly more stamina for the rigors of the modern papacy with nearly nonstop obligations and frequent global travel. Francis appears in good health, but his age and possible limitations from his single lung raise questions about whether he can face the demands of the position.

Unlike many of the other papal contenders, Bergoglio never held a top post inside the Vatican administration, or curia. This outsider status could pose obstacles in attempts to reform the Vatican, which has been hit with embarrassing disclosures from leaked documents alleging financial cover-ups and internal feuds.

But the conclave appeared more swayed by Bergoglio's reputation for compassion on issues such as poverty and the effects of globalization, and his fealty to traditional church teachings such as opposition to birth control.

His overriding image, though, is built around his leaning toward austerity. The motto chosen for his archdiocese is "Miserando Atque Eligendo," or "Lowly but Chosen." Even after he became Argentina's top church official in 2001, he never lived in the ornate church mansion where Pope John Paul II stayed when visiting the country, preferring a simple bed in a downtown building, warmed by a small stove on frigid weekends when the building turned off the heat. For years, he took public transportation around the city, and cooked his own meals.

He accused fellow church leaders of hypocrisy and forgetting that Jesus Christ bathed lepers and ate with prostitutes. "Jesus teaches us another way: Go out. Go out and share your testimony. Go out and interact with your brothers. Go out and share. Go out and ask. Become the Word in body as well as spirit," Bergoglio told Argentina's priests last year.

Bergoglio almost never granted media interviews, limiting himself to speeches from the pulpit, and was reluctant to contradict his critics, even when he knew their allegations against him were false, said Bergoglio's authorized biographer, Sergio Rubin.

Bergoglio's legacy as cardinal includes his efforts to repair the reputation of a church that lost many followers by failing to openly challenge Argentina's dictatorship. He also worked to recover the church's traditional political influence in society, but his outspoken criticism of President Cristina Fernandez couldn't stop her from imposing socially liberal measures that are anathema to the church, from gay marriage and adoption to free contraceptives for all.

His church also had no say when the Argentine Supreme Court expanded access to legal abortions in rape cases, and when Bergoglio argued that gay adoptions discriminate against children. Fernandez compared his tone to "medieval times and the Inquisition."

Yet Bergoglio has been tough on hard-line conservative views among his own clerics, including those who refused to baptize the children of unmarried women. "These are today's hypocrites; those who clericalize the church," he told his priests. "Those who separate the people of God from salvation. And this poor girl who, rather than returning the child to sender, had the courage to carry it into the world, must wander from parish to parish so that it's baptized!"

Bergoglio himself felt most comfortable taking a very low profile, and his personal style has been the antithesis of Vatican splendor. "It's a very curious thing: When bishops meet, he always wants to sit in the back rows. This sense of humility is very well seen in Rome," said the biographer Rubin.

His preference to remain in the wings, however, has been challenged by rights activists seeking answers about church actions during the dictatorship after the 1976 coup, often known as Argentina's "Dirty War."

Many Argentines remain angry over the church's acknowledged failure to openly confront a regime that was kidnapping and killing thousands of people as it sought to eliminate "subversive elements" in society. It's one reason why more than two-thirds of Argentines describe themselves as Catholic, but less than 10 percent regularly attend Mass.

Under Bergoglio's leadership, Argentina's bishops issued a collective apology in October 2012 for the church's failures to protect its flock. But the statement blamed the era's violence in roughly equal measure on both the junta and its enemies.

"Bergoglio has been very critical of human rights violations during the dictatorship, but he has always also criticized the leftist guerrillas. He doesn't forget that side," said the biographer Rubin.

The statements came far too late for some activists, who accused Bergoglio of being more concerned about the church's image than about aiding the many human rights investigations into the junta era. Bergoglio twice invoked his right under Argentine law to refuse to appear in open court. When he eventually did testify in 2010, his answers were evasive, human rights attorney Myriam Bregman said.

At least two cases directly involved Bergoglio, who ran Argentina's Jesuit order during the dictatorship. One examined the torture of two of his Jesuit priests — Orlando Yorio and Francisco Jalics — who were kidnapped in 1976 from the slums where they advocated liberation theology, which is the belief that Jesus Christ's teachings justify fights against social injustices.

Yorio accused Bergoglio of effectively handing them over to the death squads by declining to tell the regime that he endorsed their work. Jalics refused to discuss it after moving into seclusion in a German monastery.

Both men were freed after Bergoglio took extraordinary, behind-the-scenes action to save them, including persuading dictator Jorge Videla's family priest to call in sick so that Bergoglio could say Mass in the junta leader's home, where he privately appealed for mercy. His intervention likely saved their lives, but Bergoglio never shared the details until Rubin interviewed him for the 2010 biography.

Bergoglio told Rubin that he regularly hid people on church property during the dictatorship, and once gave his identity papers to a man with similar features, enabling him to escape across the border. But all this was done in secret, at a time when church leaders publicly endorsed the junta and called on Catholics to restore their "love for country" despite the terror in the streets.

But rights attorney Bregman said Bergoglio's own statements proved church officials knew from early on that the junta was torturing and killing its citizens, and yet publicly endorsed the dictators. "The dictatorship could not have operated this way without this key support," she said.

Bergoglio also was accused of turning his back on a family that lost five relatives to state terror, including a young woman who was five months' pregnant before she was kidnapped and killed in 1977. The De la Cuadra family appealed to the leader of the Jesuits in Rome, who urged Bergoglio to help them; Bergoglio then assigned a monsignor to the case. Months passed before the monsignor came back with a written note from a colonel: The woman had given birth in captivity to a girl who was given to a family "too important" for the adoption to be reversed.

Despite this written evidence in a case he was personally involved with, Bergoglio testified in 2010 that he didn't know about any stolen babies until well after the dictatorship was over. "Bergoglio has a very cowardly attitude when it comes to something so terrible as the theft of babies. He says he didn't know anything about it until 1985," said the baby's aunt, Estela de la Cuadra, whose mother, Alicia, co-founded the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo in 1977 in hopes of identifying these babies.

"He doesn't face this reality and it doesn't bother him," the aunt said. "The question is how to save his name, save himself. But he can't keep these allegations from reaching the public. The people know how he is."

Initially trained as a chemist, Bergoglio taught literature, psychology, philosophy and theology before taking over as Buenos Aires archbishop in 1998. He became cardinal in 2001, when the economy was collapsing, and won respect for blaming unrestrained capitalism for impoverishing millions of Argentines.

Later, there was little love lost between Bergoglio and Argentina's government. Relations became so frigid that the president stopped attending his annual "Te Deum" address, when church leaders traditionally tell political leaders what's wrong with society.

"Is Bergoglio a progressive, a liberation theologist even? No. He's no Third World priest," said Rubin. "Does he criticize the International Monetary Fund, and neoliberalism? Yes. Does he spend a great deal of time in the slums? Yes."

Associated Press writer Brian Murphy reported this story at Vatican City and Michael Warren reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.