Franco Pisano

On 23 March, the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development (DSSUI) and the Vatican COVID-19 Commission will host a webinar on “Advancing integral disarmament in times of pandemic” in cooperation with the Strategic Concept for the Removal of Arms and Proliferation (SCRAP) at SOAS University of London.

“I too kneel on the streets of Myanmar and say: stop the violence! I too stretch out my arms and say: may dialogue prevail! ”. “Blood solves nothing. Let dialogue prevail”.

The current ban on entry into China is of particular concern to 23,000 Indians studying at Chinese universities. The announcement will bring them little relief as vaccines produced in China are not available in India. China's Foreign Ministry said Monday that China is willing to carry out mutual recognition of vaccination with other nations, but this process is expected to take time.

In a video message for the Day of Prayer for Myanmar, the Archbishop of Yangon calls for the military to take a "step back". “Pray for the leaders of our democracy movement - for Aung San Suu Kyi and her colleagues - and for the leaders of ethnic nationalities and all religious leaders. And pray for General Min Aung Hlaing and for the military, who just as God transformed Saul's heart on the road to Damascus, will change their hearts”.

A note from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith explains that the Church cannot change God's designs and therefore does not have the power to bless relationships, or even stable partnerships, which involve sexual practices outside marriage defined as the indissoluble union of a man and a woman open in itself to the transmission of life.

Francis spoke to the participants in the 31st course on the internal forum, organised by the Apostolic Penitentiary, saying that “going to confession is not like going to the dry cleaners to have a stain removed”. “The first expression that explains this sacrament, this mystery is abandonment to love'; the second is 'let one another be transformed by love'; and the third is 'to correspond to love'” It is “ Always Love.”

The Congregation for Eastern Churches notes that Christians in the region have lost jobs because of the absence of pilgrims. This has made living with dignity and providing for their families and children more difficult.

Francis dedicates the general audience to his journey to Iraq. The "unforgettable encounter" with the Great Ayatollah Al-Sistani. “Who sells weapons to terrorists? Who today sells weapons to terrorists who carry out massacres?”. "God, who is peace, grant a future of brotherhood to Iraq, the Middle East and the whole world!".

On the New Dawn newspaper, Prof Özcan Güngör, of Ankara University, talks about the “Theo-strategy of the Pope's visit to Iraq”. In a long article illustrated by a cartoon he cites Daesh (Islamic State) as a force that acted through means provided by “Western imperialism”. For the New Era newspaper, the Vatican is the centre of FETÖ, a putative organisation accused by Ankara of organising the failed 2016 coup.

Francis has Q&A with journalists on the flight back from Baghdad. The meeting with Al-Sistani validates the reasons for fraternity and dialogue; the one with the father of little Alan Kurdi highlighted the right to emigrate. Lebanon will be the destination of an upcoming trip, but nothing has been decided about Argentina.

The Mass celebrated in Erbil is the last public event in Pope Francis’s trip to Iraq. “We need the baneful temptations of power and money to be swept from our hearts and from the Church. To cleanse our hearts, we need to dirty our hands, to feel accountable and not to simply look on as our brothers and sisters are suffering.”

In Mosul, the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed capital, Pope Francis prayed for the victims of wars. In Qaraqosh, the main Christian city in the country, “Even amid the ravages of terrorism and war, we can see, with the eyes of faith, the triumph of life over death.”