Vatican novelty to start New Year as pope urges adoption

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has called for making it simpler for couples to adopt children as he presided over his first general audience of the New Year with a novel supporting cast. For the first time, a layman and a nun provided the English and Spanish translations of Francis’ weekly catechism lesson rather than a cloaked monsignor.  The small change on Wednesday emphasized his push for a less-clericalized Catholic Church. Vatican monsignors read the translations in French, German, Portuguese, Arabic, Polish and Italian. With the novelty of non-priests reading the two translations Wednesday, Francis’ catechism lesson focused on the figure of Joseph, the “foster father” of Jesus.