Saturday, 3 October 2026

Vatican resumes public papal audiences and forms working group on excommunicating the mafia

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Vatican resumes public papal audiences and forms working group on excommunicating the mafia

Three church news items, which you may rank by importance yourself:.

public audiences with the Pope have resumed in the Vatican, having been suspended since November 2020 because of the pandemic; the Pope told the three hundred people gathered that he was very glad to meet them face to face;

the Catholic Holy See has announced the creation of a working group on the excommunication of the mafia, to include the chairman of Italy's Democratic Party, a philosopher, a confessor of mafiosi, a bishop, an inspector of prison chaplains, a specialist in legislative texts and the head of the Vatican Tribunal;

Francis I tried on a hat belonging to one of the faithful during an audience: a man in the crowd held out a red cap to the Pope, who took it, smiled, put it on and handed it back.

Personally, I was most delighted by the red cap.

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