In the general scramble to grab a bit of Pope Francis’ luster in time for his upcoming trip to the United States, Politico has joined a host of other journals, pundits and politicians to stake a claim to the popular pontiff while attempting to distance him from their political adversaries.
In Pope Francis’ historic “virtual town hall” organized by ABC News last week, he used such blunt language to describe abortion as killing that Time magazine has felt the need to tone it down by deleting the offensive expressions.
An article in the current issue of The Economist shines a spotlight on an ugly problem in Japanese corporate life: harassment of pregnant women to the point of urging them to get abortions if they wish to save their careers.
In his most forceful appeal to date, Pope Francis launched an urgent plea Sunday asking all Catholic institutions on Europe to take in one refugee family, beginning with his own diocese of Rome.
Pope Francis slipped out of the Vatican Thursday evening and had his driver take him to an optometrist near the busy Piazza del Popolo to swap out the lenses in his eyeglasses.
In Hindu-controlled India, over 1,000 Muslim leaders and scholars have sanctioned a religious ruling, or fatwa, against the Islamic State as contrary to the true teachings of Islam.
The House Judiciary Committee has announced that Congress will hold its first hearing on the Planned Parenthood scandal next week, following the recess. Among the witnesses to provide testimony are two women who survived abortion attempts; they will speak from first-hand experience about the horrors of the abortion industry.
As a candidate for the Nigerian presidency, President Muhammadu Buhari ran on an anti-corruption platform, vowing to usher in an era of transparency and accountability.
In his online media event with groups of Americans in three cities earlier this week, Pope Francis congratulated a single mother on her decision to give birth to two daughters, telling her to hold her head high and not be ashamed.
In a Catholic-Jewish double-header, Pope Francis met in a private audience this morning with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, and later in the morning with Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, accompanied by Cardinal Vincent Nichols, head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.
For the upcoming Jubilee Year of Mercy, Pope Francis is hammering home the message of forgiveness, urging all the Catholic priests in the Church to dedicate plenty of time each week to hearing confessions.
Critics of the site say that Pornhub is luring countless young people to submit erotic videos of themselves under the pretense of encouraging university studies, while the website says that applicants don’t necessarily “have to film a porn” to win the scholarship. “It’s definitely not a requirement,” said Pornhub Vice President Corey Price. “The criteria [sic] isn’t to submit the best porn video and get a scholarship. I would be surprised if we had any pornographic entries,” though others counter that it is “understood” what Pornhub is really after.
The three major broadcast networks—ABC, NBC and CBS—together devoted more coverage time to the saga of the National Zoo’s baby panda twins in just three weeks than to the nine appalling Planned Parenthood videos describing the sale of human baby body parts over a seven-week period.
In the latest scuffle over gender issues, the Vatican has come down squarely in favor of the traditional male-female distinction of human beings, banning transgender persons from being godparents posing as the opposite sex from which they were born.
On Tuesday, the Vatican released a letter from Pope Francis on the upcoming Jubilee Year of Mercy, in which the Pope gives all Catholic priests the power to grant absolution to women who repent of the sin of abortion.
In his homily at Mass Tuesday morning, Pope Francis wondered aloud why Christians waste so much time talking about useless things, instead of focusing more on the things that really matter, like God and eternity.
China’s most prominent Christian lawyer, Zhang Kai, who defended and gave legal counsel to a number of Christian churches throughout the country especially against the government’s cross-removal campaign, was carried off by police on August 25 and now faces up to six months of secretive detention.
In his virtual town-hall event, the Pope spoke with from the Vatican with students from the Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago, parishioners of the Sacred Heart Church in McAllen, Texas, as well as homeless men and women and the people who work with them, in Los Angeles. The event was hosted by ABC News in an effort to reach out to Americans from all parts of the country, since Francis will only be able to three East coast cities during his visit later in September.
In the lead-up to the anticipated U.S. visit of Pope Francis next month, Vice President Joe Biden is the latest in a line of Democrats jockeying for position to enlist the Pope for their platform in the hope of siphoning off some of his popularity for their languishing party.
In his Angelus address before several thousand people in Saint Peter’s Square on Sunday, Pope Francis warned that outward obedience to the law is insufficient if there is no change of heart and a real love for God and one’s neighbor.
After his traditional Angelus message on Sunday, Pope Francis launched a heartfelt appeal on behalf of persecuted Christians in the Middle East, saying that there are more Christians killed for their faith today than during the brutal persecutions by the Roman Empire.
Two of the most notorious advocates of population control and unrestricted abortion —Ted Turner and Timothy E. Wirth—are chairing a UN-sponsored event in honor of Argentinian Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, who chairs a critical advisory panel in the Vatican.
“For us it is important that we not simply be married by the mayor. We love each other, and it’s beautiful to have the acceptance of the church,” said Isabell Storm and Cecilie Mundt, who were both born male. In June 2012 the Danish parliament approved a new law to allow gay marriages in the Lutheran National Church, but so far had not officiated unions between transsexuals.
Though a known opponent of gay marriage and “gender theory,” Pope Francis has unintentionally given his endorsement to a children’s book proposing alternative family styles, including same-sex parents, with a letter from the Vatican Secretariat of State.
With the Pope’s U.S. visit looming on the horizon, pundits are voicing their predictions that President Barack Obama will attempt to seize the opportunity to cash in on the Pope’s popularity to galvanize support for the Democratic Party.
