Vatican News: Pope Francis & women's ordination, cardinal dies & Vatican protest against China

Hello and welcome to this week’s Vaticano Update, the most important news from Pope Francis and the Vatican.

TOP 1: Vatican says China violated terms of agreement with bishop installation

In a statement released on Saturday, the Vatican said that Chinese authorities had violated the terms stipulated in its provisional agreement on the appointment of bishops.

They expressed their “surprise and regret” that Bishop John Peng Weizhao had been installed as an “auxiliary bishop of Jiangxi,” a diocese not recognized by the Vatican.

The statement also noted reports that “prolonged and heavy pressure from local authorities” preceded the installation.

TOP 2: Pope Francis: God is present ‘in everyday things’

It is good to remember that God is present to us even in the small, everyday events of our lives, Pope Francis said on the first Sunday of Advent.

In his Angelus address the Holy Father invited everyone to bear in mind that God is concealed in the most common and ordinary situations of our lives.

God, he continued, “does not come in extraordinary events, but in everyday happenings.”

TOP 3: New cardinal from Ghana with heart problems dies at 63

Cardinal Richard Kuuia Baawobr, bishop of Wa, Ghana, died in Rome on Sunday evening at the age of 63.

The cardinal had been hospitalized for heart problems after arriving in Rome in late August and was therefore unable to attend the Vatican ceremony at which he was elevated to the College of Cardinals Aug. 27.

Baawobr served as a missionary in the Democratic Republic of Congo, France, and Tanzania, before being named bishop of Wa in Ghana in 2016.

From 2010 to 2016, Baawobr was also superior general of the White Fathers, the first African to hold that position.


TOP 4: Pope Francis: 'Petrine ministry has no room for women's ordination'

In an exclusive interview with America Magazine, Pope Francis emphasized the fact that the Petrine ministry has no room for the ordination of women.

The Pope explained that it is a theological question that concerns the ministerial dimension of the Petrine Church. However, he said, the Church "is more than a ministry". "Apart from the Petrine principle there is another principle that is still more important, that is the Marian principle, which is the principle of femininity in the Church, of the woman in the Church, where the Church sees a mirror of herself because she is a woman and a spouse".

TOP 5: Inauguration of the Vatican Christmas Tree and Nativity Scene

On Saturday, December 3rd at 5 pm, the Christmas tree in St. Peter’s square will be illuminated. A 30-m high silver fir from the small mountain village of Rosello in Italy’s Abruzzo region, the tree will be decorated with ornaments made by residents of a psychiatric rehabilitation centre in Rosello.

At the same time the Vatican will inaugurate its nativity scene. Made entirely of cedar wood, the nativity scene is harvested from a sustainable forest in northern Italian town of Sutrio in the province of Udine. It will be installed under the Christmas tree in St Peter's Square.

This will be the 40th Christmas tree in St Peter's Square, continuing a tradition started by Pope John Paul II in 1982.