Sent on a papal mission for peace, Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi returned from Kyiv on Tuesday amid mixed reactions from the champions and skeptics of Pope Francis' efforts to mediate in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
In an extraordinary move bridging a historical rift dating back to 451 AD, Pope Francis has added 21 Coptic Christians martyred by Islamic State terrorists on a Libyan beach in 2015 to the Roman Catholic Church's calendar, declaring them saints.
In an interview published Friday (March 10), Pope Francis called celibacy in the priesthood a gift from God but also a 'provisional' discipline observed mostly in the Western Church that is not essential to ordination.