Papal Visit to Great Mosque of Rome Likely Taking Shape

Sergio Mora — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 18:27:04 +0000

Pope Francis might soon visit the Great Mosque of Rome.
The Italian ANSA News Agency had reported, and the Vatican today affirmed, that before the general audience this morning, the Pope received a delegation from the mosque, which officially extended the invitation.
The visit would be in the context of the Jubilee of Mercy. In the Bull of Convocation of the jubilee, Francis pointed out that the concept of mercy is common to both religions.
The Great Mosque of Rome is the largest Muslim temple in the West, with a capacity for 12,000 faithful, and 40,000 on particular feasts. It is also the headquarters of the Muslim Cultural Center of Italy. Financed by King Faysal of Saudi Arabia, the first stone of the Mosque was laid in 1984 and the inauguration took place on June 21, 1995.
Last Sunday, on the occasion of the Pope’s visit to the Synagogue of Rome, Imam Yahya Pallavicini, vice president of the Muslim Religious Community, expressed the desire that the Holy Father visit the Mosque. “I wish it and I work for it,” he said to the media.
Pallavicini, together with Abdellah Redouane, director of the Muslim Cultural Center of Italy, who runs the Mosque of Rome, and several ambassadors and representatives of the Administration Council of the Great Mosque, presented the invitation to the Pope today.
Francis would be the first pontiff to visit the Mosque of Rome.
The first pope to enter a Muslim temple was Saint John Paul II in Damascus, on May 6, 2001; it was the Mosque of Omayyadi. Benedict XVI visited the Blue Mosque in Turkey on November 30, 2006. Pope Francis also was there on November 29, 2014, and last November 30 he visited the main Mosque of Koudoukou in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, as part of his apostolic journey to Africa.

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Bolivia: Prison Conditions Improve Thanks to Pope Francis

ZENIT Staff — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 15:10:42 +0000

Thanks to the message of Pope Francis, conditions for Bolivian prisoners is set to improve a bit.

When Pope Francis visited Bolivia last July, he had a meeting with prisoners at the Reform Center of Santa Cruz-Palmasola, one of the most controversial and over-crowded prisons in the country, housing some 4,000 inmates.

According to the Fides news agency, after the Holy Father’s visit, the Bolivian government has decided the «daily sum» (the government’s allotment for the upkeep of each prisoner) will rise to 8 bolivianos (about 1 euro or $1.25). The increase will apply to all 13,573 detainees in the country’s penitentiaries, prison director general Jorge Lopez has announced.

«During the meeting with Bolivia’s prison delegates in Palmasola, Pope Francis’ request for intervention was presented, so then we worked together with government delegates to meet these needs,» Lopez said in a press conference, according to a report sent to Fides.

“Our debate ended – he said- with the approval of administrative resolution number 62/2015 for an increase in the ‘daily keep’ for prison inmates in Bolivia, from 6,60 bolivianos to 8 bolivianos, as from the month of August.»

The government also decided to improve prison health care services.

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Papal Visit to Great Mosque of Rome Likely Taking Shape

Bolivia: Prison Conditions Improve Thanks to Pope Francis