A second high-ranking Holy See official told a Vatican court on March 17 that Pope Francis had authorized spending hundreds of thousands of euros in ransom payments to try to free a nun who was kidnapped by al-Qaida-linked militants in Mali. Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra, the Holy See's No. 3, told the Vatican tribunal that
A second high-ranking Holy See official told a Vatican court Friday that Pope Francis had authorized spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in ransom payments to try to free a nun who was kidnapped by al-Qaida-linked militants in Mali.