Pope Francis offers prayers for Iraqi PM after assassination attempt
Pope Francis is praying for Iraq’s Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi after an attempted assassination attack on his home with armed drones. The Pope expressed his “prayerful closeness” in a telegram released by the Vatican on November 9 in which the attack in Baghdad was condemned as a “vile act of terrorism”. “Following the attack on your residence in Baghdad, his Holiness Pope Francis wishes me to convey his prayerful closeness to you and your family, and to those injured in condemning this vile act of terrorism,” said the message sent on the Pope’s behalf by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin. The Pope’s letter continued: “His Holiness once more expresses his confidence that with the blessing of the Most High God the people of Iraq will be confirmed in wisdom and strength in pursuing the path of peace through dialogue and fraternal solidarity.”
Charles de Foucauld and six others to be canonised in May
The Vatican announced that the canonisation of Bl Charles de Foucauld and six others will take place in Rome on May 15, 2022. The May 15 ceremony will be the Catholic Church’s first canonisation Mass since the start of the Covid outbreak. It will take place two years and seven months after the most recent canonisation, that of St John Henry Newman and four others in October 2019. Bl. Charles de Foucauld was a dissolute French soldier who became a Trappist monk and Catholic missionary to Muslims in Algeria. Known as Bro. Charles of Jesus, he was killed in 1916 at the age of 58. After his reversion to the Catholic faith, Foucauld wanted to imitate the life of Jesus, spending his last 13 years living among the Muslim Tuareg people, a nomadic ethnic group, in the desert of French-occupied Algeria. Pope Francis approved a miracle obtained through Foucauld’s intercession in May 2020, and the Church’s cardinals signed off on his and six other canonisations during a Vatican consistory a year later.
Vatican fields football team in friendly match against Roma minority
Pope Francis will field a football team from the Vatican in a friendly match against a team of Roma people later this month. The game, which is intended to counter racism and discrimination, will be played on November 21, in the town of Formello, 45 minutes north of Italy’s capital. The match will also raise funds for a Roma inclusion project organized by the Diocese of Rome. The Pope’s team has been named “Fratelli Tutti,” after his 2020 encyclical, and includes members of the Swiss Guard, Vatican employees and their children, priests working in the Roman Curia, three young immigrants, and a young man with Down syndrome. Pope Francis will also meet both teams at the Vatican a day before the match. Over 4,000 Romani people live in Italy’s capital city, in both authorised and illegal camps.