{"id":14389,"date":"2016-05-30T14:08:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-30T14:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/george-clooney-among-celebrities-honored-by-pope-francis-29007\/"},"modified":"2016-05-30T14:08:00","modified_gmt":"2016-05-30T14:08:00","slug":"george-clooney-among-celebrities-honored-by-pope-francis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/george-clooney-among-celebrities-honored-by-pope-francis\/","title":{"rendered":"George Clooney among celebrities honored by Pope Francis"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Pope_Francis_meets_George_and_Amal_Clooney_at_the_Vatican_May_29_2016_Credit_LOsservatore_Romano_CNA.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>Vatican City, May 30, 2016 \/ 08:08 am (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- On Sunday, Pope Francis praised Hollywood actors George Clooney, Salma Hayek, and Richard Gere at a conference promoting a Vatican education initiative that helps poor communities.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking in the Paul VI's Synod Hall, the Pope reminded the celebrities of their responsibility to \u201chelp the world recover the language of gestures.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During the gathering, the actors received the \u201cOlive Medal\u201d of peace, which were presented by the Scholas Occurentes initiative, who organized the Vatican conference.<\/p>\n<p>Touching on a separate topic altogether, Francis said he does not intend to step down from the papacy, as Benedict XVI did when he became the first pope to resign in centuries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI never thought of quitting being pope, or of leaving because of the many responsibilities,\u201d the pontiff said during a Q&amp;A session.<\/p>\n<p>The Argentine-founded Scholas Occurentes is an education initiative which aims to promote \u201cintegration of communities\u201d \u2013 especially poor communities \u2013 through the use of \u201ctechnology, sports, and artistic proposals,\u201d according to its website.<\/p>\n<p>The initiative, which works in various kinds of schools of different religious affiliations, is present in 82 countries and 400,000, with headquarters in Vatican City, Argentine, Spain, Paraguay and Mozambique.<\/p>\n<p>The May 27-29 conference also marks the launch of the Scholas's latest initiative: a new website which allows anyone to ask Pope Francis questions.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking in Spanish, Pope Francis praised the gathering for its climate of communication and encounter, offering a bridge in a world which is at risk of being \u201cfragmented.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Pope encouraged gestures such as smiling and making eye-contact, and being patient and tolerant. In contrast, \u201cbullying is an aggression that hides a deep cruelty,\u201d he said. \u201cThe world is cruel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo build a new world, a better world, we must banish all kinds of cruelty. And war is cruel. But this kind of war more cruelly still rages because an innocent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Pope said that the separation of peoples, families, and friends create animosity and hatred, where as \u201csocial friendship\u201d defends \u201cagainst every kind of throwaway culture.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?a=s_W6QF-75fM:wEPubgNcxgI:yIl2AUoC8zA\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews\/~4\/s_W6QF-75fM\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Pope_Francis_meets_George_and_Amal_Clooney_at_the_Vatican_May_29_2016_Credit_LOsservatore_Romano_CNA.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>Vatican City, May 30, 2016 \/ 08:08 am (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\" target=\"_self\">CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- On Sunday, Pope Francis praised Hollywood actors George Clooney, Salma Hayek, and Richard Gere at a conference promoting a Vatican education initiative that helps poor communities.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking in the Paul VI&#8217;s Synod Hall, the Pope reminded the celebrities of their responsibility to &ldquo;help the world recover the language of gestures.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>During the gathering, the actors received the &ldquo;Olive Medal&rdquo; of peace, which were presented by the Scholas Occurentes initiative, who organized the Vatican conference.<\/p>\n<p>Touching on a separate topic altogether, Francis said he does not intend to step down from the papacy, as Benedict XVI did when he became the first pope to resign in centuries.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I never thought of quitting being pope, or of leaving because of the many responsibilities,&rdquo; the pontiff said during a Q&amp;A session.<\/p>\n<p>The Argentine-founded Scholas Occurentes is an education initiative which aims to promote &ldquo;integration of communities&rdquo; &ndash; especially poor communities &ndash; through the use of &ldquo;technology, sports, and artistic proposals,&rdquo; according to its website.<\/p>\n<p>The initiative, which works in various kinds of schools of different religious affiliations, is present in 82 countries and 400,000, with headquarters in Vatican City, Argentine, Spain, Paraguay and Mozambique.<\/p>\n<p>The May 27-29 conference also marks the launch of the Scholas&#8217;s latest initiative: a new website which allows anyone to ask Pope Francis questions.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking in Spanish, Pope Francis praised the gathering for its climate of communication and encounter, offering a bridge in a world which is at risk of being &ldquo;fragmented.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The Pope encouraged gestures such as smiling and making eye-contact, and being patient and tolerant. In contrast, &ldquo;bullying is an aggression that hides a deep cruelty,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The world is cruel.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;To build a new world, a better world, we must banish all kinds of cruelty. And war is cruel. But this kind of war more cruelly still rages because an innocent.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The Pope said that the separation of peoples, families, and friends create animosity and hatred, where as &ldquo;social friendship&rdquo; defends &ldquo;against every kind of throwaway culture.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<div>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?a=s_W6QF-75fM:wEPubgNcxgI:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews\/~4\/s_W6QF-75fM\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vatican"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>George Clooney among celebrities honored by Pope Francis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Vatican City, May 30, 2016 \/ 08:08 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- On Sunday, Pope Francis praised Hollywood actors George Clooney, Salma Hayek, and Richard Gere at a conference promoting a Vatican education initiative that helps poor communities. Speaking in the Paul VI&#039;s Synod Hall, the Pope reminded the celebrities of their responsibility to &ldquo;help the world recover the language of gestures.&rdquo; During the gathering, the actors received the &ldquo;Olive Medal&rdquo; of peace, which were presented by the Scholas Occurentes initiative, who organized the Vatican conference. Touching on a separate topic altogether, Francis said he does not intend to step down from the papacy, as Benedict XVI did when he became the first pope to resign in centuries. &ldquo;I never thought of quitting being pope, or of leaving because of the many responsibilities,&rdquo; the pontiff said during a Q&amp;A session. The Argentine-founded Scholas Occurentes is an education initiative which aims to promote &ldquo;integration of communities&rdquo; &ndash; especially poor communities &ndash; through the use of &ldquo;technology, sports, and artistic proposals,&rdquo; according to its website. The initiative, which works in various kinds of schools of different religious affiliations, is present in 82 countries and 400,000, with headquarters in Vatican City, Argentine, Spain, Paraguay and Mozambique. The May 27-29 conference also marks the launch of the Scholas&#039;s latest initiative: a new website which allows anyone to ask Pope Francis questions. Speaking in Spanish, Pope Francis praised the gathering for its climate of communication and encounter, offering a bridge in a world which is at risk of being &ldquo;fragmented.&rdquo; The Pope encouraged gestures such as smiling and making eye-contact, and being patient and tolerant. In contrast, &ldquo;bullying is an aggression that hides a deep cruelty,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The world is cruel.&rdquo; &ldquo;To build a new world, a better world, we must banish all kinds of cruelty. And war is cruel. But this kind of war more cruelly still rages because an innocent.&rdquo; The Pope said that the separation of peoples, families, and friends create animosity and hatred, where as &ldquo;social friendship&rdquo; defends &ldquo;against every kind of throwaway culture.&rdquo;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/george-clooney-among-celebrities-honored-by-pope-francis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"George Clooney among celebrities honored by Pope Francis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Vatican City, May 30, 2016 \/ 08:08 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- On Sunday, Pope Francis praised Hollywood actors George Clooney, Salma Hayek, and Richard Gere at a conference promoting a Vatican education initiative that helps poor communities. Speaking in the Paul VI&#039;s Synod Hall, the Pope reminded the celebrities of their responsibility to &ldquo;help the world recover the language of gestures.&rdquo; During the gathering, the actors received the &ldquo;Olive Medal&rdquo; of peace, which were presented by the Scholas Occurentes initiative, who organized the Vatican conference. Touching on a separate topic altogether, Francis said he does not intend to step down from the papacy, as Benedict XVI did when he became the first pope to resign in centuries. &ldquo;I never thought of quitting being pope, or of leaving because of the many responsibilities,&rdquo; the pontiff said during a Q&amp;A session. The Argentine-founded Scholas Occurentes is an education initiative which aims to promote &ldquo;integration of communities&rdquo; &ndash; especially poor communities &ndash; through the use of &ldquo;technology, sports, and artistic proposals,&rdquo; according to its website. The initiative, which works in various kinds of schools of different religious affiliations, is present in 82 countries and 400,000, with headquarters in Vatican City, Argentine, Spain, Paraguay and Mozambique. The May 27-29 conference also marks the launch of the Scholas&#039;s latest initiative: a new website which allows anyone to ask Pope Francis questions. Speaking in Spanish, Pope Francis praised the gathering for its climate of communication and encounter, offering a bridge in a world which is at risk of being &ldquo;fragmented.&rdquo; The Pope encouraged gestures such as smiling and making eye-contact, and being patient and tolerant. In contrast, &ldquo;bullying is an aggression that hides a deep cruelty,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The world is cruel.&rdquo; &ldquo;To build a new world, a better world, we must banish all kinds of cruelty. And war is cruel. But this kind of war more cruelly still rages because an innocent.&rdquo; The Pope said that the separation of peoples, families, and friends create animosity and hatred, where as &ldquo;social friendship&rdquo; defends &ldquo;against every kind of throwaway culture.&rdquo;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/george-clooney-among-celebrities-honored-by-pope-francis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-30T14:08:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Pope_Francis_meets_George_and_Amal_Clooney_at_the_Vatican_May_29_2016_Credit_LOsservatore_Romano_CNA.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/george-clooney-among-celebrities-honored-by-pope-francis\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/george-clooney-among-celebrities-honored-by-pope-francis\/\",\"name\":\"George Clooney among celebrities honored by Pope Francis\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-30T14:08:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-05-30T14:08:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\"},\"description\":\"Vatican City, May 30, 2016 \/ 08:08 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- On Sunday, Pope Francis praised Hollywood actors George Clooney, Salma Hayek, and Richard Gere at a conference promoting a Vatican education initiative that helps poor communities. Speaking in the Paul VI's Synod Hall, the Pope reminded the celebrities of their responsibility to &ldquo;help the world recover the language of gestures.&rdquo; During the gathering, the actors received the &ldquo;Olive Medal&rdquo; of peace, which were presented by the Scholas Occurentes initiative, who organized the Vatican conference. Touching on a separate topic altogether, Francis said he does not intend to step down from the papacy, as Benedict XVI did when he became the first pope to resign in centuries. &ldquo;I never thought of quitting being pope, or of leaving because of the many responsibilities,&rdquo; the pontiff said during a Q&amp;A session. The Argentine-founded Scholas Occurentes is an education initiative which aims to promote &ldquo;integration of communities&rdquo; &ndash; especially poor communities &ndash; through the use of &ldquo;technology, sports, and artistic proposals,&rdquo; according to its website. The initiative, which works in various kinds of schools of different religious affiliations, is present in 82 countries and 400,000, with headquarters in Vatican City, Argentine, Spain, Paraguay and Mozambique. The May 27-29 conference also marks the launch of the Scholas's latest initiative: a new website which allows anyone to ask Pope Francis questions. Speaking in Spanish, Pope Francis praised the gathering for its climate of communication and encounter, offering a bridge in a world which is at risk of being &ldquo;fragmented.&rdquo; The Pope encouraged gestures such as smiling and making eye-contact, and being patient and tolerant. In contrast, &ldquo;bullying is an aggression that hides a deep cruelty,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The world is cruel.&rdquo; &ldquo;To build a new world, a better world, we must banish all kinds of cruelty. And war is cruel. But this kind of war more cruelly still rages because an innocent.&rdquo; The Pope said that the separation of peoples, families, and friends create animosity and hatred, where as &ldquo;social friendship&rdquo; defends &ldquo;against every kind of throwaway culture.&rdquo;\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/george-clooney-among-celebrities-honored-by-pope-francis\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/george-clooney-among-celebrities-honored-by-pope-francis\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/george-clooney-among-celebrities-honored-by-pope-francis\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"George Clooney among celebrities honored by Pope Francis\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\",\"name\":\"CNA Daily News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"CNA Daily News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"George Clooney among celebrities honored by Pope Francis","description":"Vatican City, May 30, 2016 \/ 08:08 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- On Sunday, Pope Francis praised Hollywood actors George Clooney, Salma Hayek, and Richard Gere at a conference promoting a Vatican education initiative that helps poor communities. Speaking in the Paul VI's Synod Hall, the Pope reminded the celebrities of their responsibility to &ldquo;help the world recover the language of gestures.&rdquo; During the gathering, the actors received the &ldquo;Olive Medal&rdquo; of peace, which were presented by the Scholas Occurentes initiative, who organized the Vatican conference. Touching on a separate topic altogether, Francis said he does not intend to step down from the papacy, as Benedict XVI did when he became the first pope to resign in centuries. &ldquo;I never thought of quitting being pope, or of leaving because of the many responsibilities,&rdquo; the pontiff said during a Q&amp;A session. The Argentine-founded Scholas Occurentes is an education initiative which aims to promote &ldquo;integration of communities&rdquo; &ndash; especially poor communities &ndash; through the use of &ldquo;technology, sports, and artistic proposals,&rdquo; according to its website. The initiative, which works in various kinds of schools of different religious affiliations, is present in 82 countries and 400,000, with headquarters in Vatican City, Argentine, Spain, Paraguay and Mozambique. The May 27-29 conference also marks the launch of the Scholas's latest initiative: a new website which allows anyone to ask Pope Francis questions. Speaking in Spanish, Pope Francis praised the gathering for its climate of communication and encounter, offering a bridge in a world which is at risk of being &ldquo;fragmented.&rdquo; The Pope encouraged gestures such as smiling and making eye-contact, and being patient and tolerant. In contrast, &ldquo;bullying is an aggression that hides a deep cruelty,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The world is cruel.&rdquo; &ldquo;To build a new world, a better world, we must banish all kinds of cruelty. And war is cruel. But this kind of war more cruelly still rages because an innocent.&rdquo; The Pope said that the separation of peoples, families, and friends create animosity and hatred, where as &ldquo;social friendship&rdquo; defends &ldquo;against every kind of throwaway culture.&rdquo;","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/george-clooney-among-celebrities-honored-by-pope-francis\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"George Clooney among celebrities honored by Pope Francis","og_description":"Vatican City, May 30, 2016 \/ 08:08 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- On Sunday, Pope Francis praised Hollywood actors George Clooney, Salma Hayek, and Richard Gere at a conference promoting a Vatican education initiative that helps poor communities. Speaking in the Paul VI's Synod Hall, the Pope reminded the celebrities of their responsibility to &ldquo;help the world recover the language of gestures.&rdquo; During the gathering, the actors received the &ldquo;Olive Medal&rdquo; of peace, which were presented by the Scholas Occurentes initiative, who organized the Vatican conference. Touching on a separate topic altogether, Francis said he does not intend to step down from the papacy, as Benedict XVI did when he became the first pope to resign in centuries. &ldquo;I never thought of quitting being pope, or of leaving because of the many responsibilities,&rdquo; the pontiff said during a Q&amp;A session. The Argentine-founded Scholas Occurentes is an education initiative which aims to promote &ldquo;integration of communities&rdquo; &ndash; especially poor communities &ndash; through the use of &ldquo;technology, sports, and artistic proposals,&rdquo; according to its website. The initiative, which works in various kinds of schools of different religious affiliations, is present in 82 countries and 400,000, with headquarters in Vatican City, Argentine, Spain, Paraguay and Mozambique. The May 27-29 conference also marks the launch of the Scholas's latest initiative: a new website which allows anyone to ask Pope Francis questions. Speaking in Spanish, Pope Francis praised the gathering for its climate of communication and encounter, offering a bridge in a world which is at risk of being &ldquo;fragmented.&rdquo; The Pope encouraged gestures such as smiling and making eye-contact, and being patient and tolerant. In contrast, &ldquo;bullying is an aggression that hides a deep cruelty,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The world is cruel.&rdquo; &ldquo;To build a new world, a better world, we must banish all kinds of cruelty. And war is cruel. But this kind of war more cruelly still rages because an innocent.&rdquo; The Pope said that the separation of peoples, families, and friends create animosity and hatred, where as &ldquo;social friendship&rdquo; defends &ldquo;against every kind of throwaway culture.&rdquo;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/george-clooney-among-celebrities-honored-by-pope-francis\/","og_site_name":"Catholic News","article_published_time":"2016-05-30T14:08:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Pope_Francis_meets_George_and_Amal_Clooney_at_the_Vatican_May_29_2016_Credit_LOsservatore_Romano_CNA.jpg"}],"author":"CNA Daily News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"CNA Daily News","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/george-clooney-among-celebrities-honored-by-pope-francis\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/george-clooney-among-celebrities-honored-by-pope-francis\/","name":"George Clooney among celebrities honored by Pope Francis","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-05-30T14:08:00+00:00","dateModified":"2016-05-30T14:08:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1"},"description":"Vatican City, May 30, 2016 \/ 08:08 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- On Sunday, Pope Francis praised Hollywood actors George Clooney, Salma Hayek, and Richard Gere at a conference promoting a Vatican education initiative that helps poor communities. Speaking in the Paul VI's Synod Hall, the Pope reminded the celebrities of their responsibility to &ldquo;help the world recover the language of gestures.&rdquo; During the gathering, the actors received the &ldquo;Olive Medal&rdquo; of peace, which were presented by the Scholas Occurentes initiative, who organized the Vatican conference. Touching on a separate topic altogether, Francis said he does not intend to step down from the papacy, as Benedict XVI did when he became the first pope to resign in centuries. &ldquo;I never thought of quitting being pope, or of leaving because of the many responsibilities,&rdquo; the pontiff said during a Q&amp;A session. The Argentine-founded Scholas Occurentes is an education initiative which aims to promote &ldquo;integration of communities&rdquo; &ndash; especially poor communities &ndash; through the use of &ldquo;technology, sports, and artistic proposals,&rdquo; according to its website. The initiative, which works in various kinds of schools of different religious affiliations, is present in 82 countries and 400,000, with headquarters in Vatican City, Argentine, Spain, Paraguay and Mozambique. The May 27-29 conference also marks the launch of the Scholas's latest initiative: a new website which allows anyone to ask Pope Francis questions. Speaking in Spanish, Pope Francis praised the gathering for its climate of communication and encounter, offering a bridge in a world which is at risk of being &ldquo;fragmented.&rdquo; The Pope encouraged gestures such as smiling and making eye-contact, and being patient and tolerant. In contrast, &ldquo;bullying is an aggression that hides a deep cruelty,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The world is cruel.&rdquo; &ldquo;To build a new world, a better world, we must banish all kinds of cruelty. And war is cruel. But this kind of war more cruelly still rages because an innocent.&rdquo; The Pope said that the separation of peoples, families, and friends create animosity and hatred, where as &ldquo;social friendship&rdquo; defends &ldquo;against every kind of throwaway culture.&rdquo;","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/george-clooney-among-celebrities-honored-by-pope-francis\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/george-clooney-among-celebrities-honored-by-pope-francis\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/george-clooney-among-celebrities-honored-by-pope-francis\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"George Clooney among celebrities honored by Pope Francis"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/","name":"Catholic News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1","name":"CNA Daily News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"CNA Daily News"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}