Catholics can now listen to Pope Francis’ speeches live in five languages following the launch of a new smartphone app, the Vatican announced on Friday.

Vatican Audio translates Francis, who usually addresses the faithful in Italian, into Spanish, English, French, German and Portuguese, also offering Italian when he speaks in his native Spanish.

A Vatican spokesperson told AFP that the app will work for the pope’s Angelus speech this Sunday, finally enabling the thousands of people who will flock to St. Peter’s Square from around the world to understand the pontiff.

Vatican Audio will also work on Tuesday, when Francis will meet 60,000 altar boys and girls — mainly teenagers — taking part in a week-long pilgrimage to Rome from over a dozen countries. (AFP)

The two talked together for nearly an hour in the official papal library in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, about twice as long as Francis usually spends with heads of state or government.

They discussed “protection of the environment, migration, and multilateral commitment to conflict prevention and resolution, especially in relation to disarmament,” a Vatican statement said.

They also spoke about prospects for resolving conflicts in the Middle East and Africa and the future of Europe, it said.

At the end of the private part of the audience, Macron gave Francis a rare copy of Georges Bernanos 1936 book “Diary of a Country Priest”.

Francis gave Macron a medallion depicting Martin of Tours, a 4th century saint who is depicted cutting his cloak in half to give it to a beggar in winter.

“This means the vocation of those who govern is to help the poor. We are all poor,” Francis told Macron as he was giving him the medallion.

Macron earned himself the nickname “president of the rich” in France after scrapping a wealth tax and cutting a popular housing allowance in the first year of his mandate, hurting his popularity with the working class.

As Macron left the library, he and Francis exchanged a two-cheek kiss, another very unusual gesture between a pope and a visiting head of state.

The Vatican was expected to issue a statement later on the themes discussed during the private talks.

Two months ago, Macron called for stronger ties between the state and the Catholic Church, a move critics said blurred a line that has kept French government free of religious intervention for generations.

The issue is particularly sensitive in historically Catholic France, where matters of faith and state were separated by law in 1905 and which is now home to Europe’s largest Muslim and Jewish communities.

France’s guiding principles also hold that religious observance is a private matter, for all faiths.

Macron was raised in a non-religious family and was baptized a Roman Catholic at his own request when he was 12.

After leaving the Vatican he was installed as the “First and Only Honorary Canon” of the Rome Basilica of St John’s in Lateran, which is the pope’s cathedral in his capacity as bishop of Rome.

Under a tradition that began in the 15th century when France was a monarchy, French leaders are automatically given the title.

Macron took his seat of honor in basilica’s elaborately carved wooden choir stall to the applause of those in attendance, including members of the local French ex patriot community.

Le chef de l’Etat français, qui sera accompagné par son épouse Brigitte, des ministres Gérard Collomb (Intérieur et Cultes) et Jean-Yves Le Drian (Affaires étrangères) est attendu à 10h au Saint-Siège pour un tête-à-tête qui devrait durer une trentaine de minutes.

Il s’entretiendra ensuite avec le cardinal, secrétaire d’Etat Monseigneur Pietro Parolin, qui sera également présent à un déjeuner à la villa Bonaparte, le siège de l’ambassade de France au Vatican, avant une rencontre avec la communauté française et une conférence de presse.

Un an après leur premier entretien téléphonique, Emmanuel Macron “aura à coeur de présenter au pape son approche transversale” sur la question migratoire, souligne l’Elysée, et insistera sur l’importance d’améliorer la réponse européenne, à quelques jours d’un Conseil européen qui s’annonce houleux.

Le pape, qui avait réservé l’un de ses premiers déplacements en 2013 à l’île italienne de Lampedusa, où il avait fustigé “l’indifférence” du monde à l’égard de migrants, n’a pas mâché ses mots ses cinq dernières années sur la gestion européenne des flux de migrants traversant la Méditerranée.

Dans une interview à Reuters la semaine dernière, François a notamment mis en garde l’Europe contre un “hiver démographique” si le continent se fermait aux migrants et dénoncé les “psychoses” alimentées selon lui par les populistes.

La question des Chrétiens d’Orient, qui sera au coeur d’une mission qu’Emmanuel Macron entend lancer dans les prochains jours et qui devrait déboucher sur un rapport dans trois mois, sera également abordée. Celles du climat et de l’aide au développement pourraient également être évoqués.

Emmanuel Macron prendra symboliquement possession au cours d’une cérémonie de la stalle qui marque son titre de premier et unique chanoine d’honneur de la basilique Saint-Jean du Latran. Ce titre est remis de façon automatique aux dirigeants français en vertu d’une tradition qui remonte à Henri VI.

A l’exception de Georges Pompidou, de François Mitterrand et de François Hollande, tous les chefs d’Etat français de la Ve République depuis le Général de Gaulle en 1967 ont fait le déplacement à Rome pour prendre possession de ce titre.

Anticipant les potentielles critiques sur une atteinte à la laïcité, l’Elysée a insisté sur le fait que cette cérémonie n’avait “aucune dimension spirituelle mais une signification honorifique et historique”.

“Chanoine n’est pas un titre religieux mais laïc (…) il n’y a pas d’enjeu de laïcité”, a-t-on souligné, deux mois après le discours des Bernardins qui avait été bien perçu par les catholiques mais décrié par l’opposition comme une “atteinte sans précédent à la laïcité”.

Interpréter cette visite au pape “comme un nouveau pas en avant vers les catholiques paraît complètement abusif puisque chacun de ses prédécesseurs l’a fait”, a-t-on ajouté. Emmanuel Macron “a dit à maintes reprises qu’il était agnostique, il revendique sa formation jésuite, il revendique d’avoir été baptisé à 12 ans mais il revendique aussi aujourd’hui d’être en marge de l’Eglise”.

Oil company bosses will travel to the Vatican this week to discuss climate change with Pope Francis.
The meeting will be on June 8 and June 9 at the Casina Pio IV villa in the Vatican, with an audience with the Pope on the second day, according to a spokesman. It is being organized by a department headed by Cardinal Peter Turkson, who helped write Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical on climate.
“We look forward to the dialogue, and the opportunity to discuss how we can address climate change and opportunities in the energy transition,” a spokesman for Equinor ASA, Norway’s largest oil company, said in an e-mailed statement on Friday.
BP chief executive officer Bob Dudley will also travel to Rome for the meeting arranged by the University of Notre Dame, according to people familiar with the talks. The Pope has made climate change a cornerstone of his papacy, saying in an encyclical letter that the science around the topic is clear and that the Catholic Church should view it as a moral issue.
A spokeswoman for BP declined to comment. Exxon Mobil Corp and Eni SpA will also participate in the meeting, according to reports from Axios and Reuters. A spokesman for Royal Dutch Shell declined to comment on whether its CEO would be involved.
The University of Notre Dame didn’t respond to requests for comment.