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In Brazil, evangelical Christians have made inroads into the Catholic community with innovations like drive-through prayer centers and massive outreach fairs featuring popular pastors and pop stars. In a nation long dominated by Catholics, about 22 percent of Brazilians now identify as evangelical.
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The pontiff, the first Latin American head of the Church, will be making his first papal trip abroad to the world's most populous Catholic country.
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Theologians recently attributed a second miracle — the curing of a Costa Rican woman with a brain injury — to Pope John Paul II. The Vatican announced Friday that Pope John XXIII a saint.
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The resignations came just days after a senior cleric with ties to the institution was arrested after being caught with about $26 million in cash he was trying to bring into Italy from Switzerland. Pope Francis recently set up a special commission of inquiry to resolve the bank's problems.
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Authorities said Monsignor Nunzio Scarano was plotting to help friends smuggle the money by jet from Switzerland to Italy. Scarano is already under investigation for money laundering.
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A Costa Rican woman was reportedly cured of a severe brain injury when her family prayed to the late pontiff.
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The account has gained more than 100,000 followers worldwide in less than six months. Followers, who represent a wide variety of professions and religions, are convinced the language of the ancient Romans is perfectly suited to 21st century social media.
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The company sent the pope two motorcycles and a leather jacket. The occasion is a gathering of bikers in Vatican City this weekend hoping for a blessing of the motorbikes.
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His comments are an apparent confirmation of reports in Italian media that the Vatican denied in February.
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Francis says that anybody who seeks the pontiff's job "doesn't care much for themselves." He explains that he also rejected living in the papal apartments because he doesn't like living alone.