New Year brings fresh challenges for Pope Francis

VATICAN CITY
GMA News

January 1, 2016

By JEAN-LOUIS DE LA VAISSIERE, AFP

VATICAN CITY, Holy See – Pope Francis faces a tough 2016, Vatican insiders say, with no let-up in his physically demanding schedule or the political battles over his efforts to modernize the Church.

The 79-year-old pontiff, who eschews holidays and has appeared worn out at times during the last year, has already scheduled major trips to Mexico (February) and Poland (July).

Visits to Kosovo and Armenia (to mark the 100th anniversary of the World War I mass killings) are expected to be added to his diary while France and his native Argentina are also seen as possible destinations in the next 12 months.

Laid low by the flu over Christmas, Francis nevertheless had the energy to insist that his wave-making shake-up of Vatican governance would be pursued in the New Year.

“The reform of the Curia (the Vatican bureaucracy) will progress with determination, clarity and resolve,” he said in his end-of-year message to the faithful.

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