The president of the Indian conference of Catholic bishops, Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, has insisted that the Indian government take its responsibility seriously to bring to justice the criminals who raped an elderly nun and assaulted several others. “I ask the authorities to guarantee that justice is done,” he said.
Pope Francis returned to the topic of the West’s ageing population Wednesday, insisting that when the birthrate of a society barely makes it to one percent, “we can say that this society is sad and gray because it is left without children.”
Recent years have seen an increasing reluctance on the part of the Vatican to speak of the traditional “Just War Doctrine,” as Church officials have urged the exhaustion of diplomatic solutions before even considering the use of force. This reluctance seems now to be giving way to a grittier realism in the face of a relentless enemy with whom constructive, rational dialogue is impossible.
On Sunday, Pope Francis decried the massacre of Christians in Lahore, Pakistan, and denounced a worldwide effort to conceal the reality of Christian persecution.
Pakistani Christians have long protested the lack of government protection from terrorist attacks and random, unsubstantiated accusations of blasphemy. Sunday’s Taliban attack on two Christian churches in Lahore resulted in the death of at least 14 people, with many dozens wounded. Again, a lack of police presence seems to be a contributing factor in the violence.
Dignity USA, a nominally Catholic gay-rights advocacy group, has invited sex columnist and LGBT activist Dan Savage to give a keynote address at its 2015 biennial convention.
In response to an amicus brief submitted by 379 corporations and businesses encouraging the U.S. Supreme Court to declare homosexual “marriage rights,” the Cardinal Newman Society is urging Catholic schools, colleges and universities to refrain from providing honors, speaking platforms, or positions on boards and committees to the leaders and board members of these corporations.
In an interview Wednesday with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Emeritus Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun accused the Vatican of being naïve in its dialogue with Beijing, saying that the Church is preparing to give away too much. “Italians in the Roman Curia don’t know the Chinese dictatorship,” he said, “because they have never experienced a Communist regime.”
A former Vatican employee is demanding 100 thousand euros for the safe return of an extremely rare letter handwritten by Michelangelo, along with another letter he signed, which disappeared from the archives of Saint Peter’s Basilica nearly 20 years ago.
The French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has announced his intention to fight “Islamic fascism” and prevent massacres similar to the Charlie Hebdo affair through a massive injection of Islamic studies into French universities, a project that the Archbishop of Paris says is doomed to fail.
Too many so-called religious people are filled with worldliness, said Pope Francis, which blinds them to the situation of the people around them, especially those who suffer. “If your heart is worldly you cannot understand the needs and hardships of others,” he said.
A week away from the second anniversary of Pope Francis’ election to the papacy, the Pew Research Center has released its latest report on the Pope’s popularity, and far from diminishing, the Pontiff’s approval rating in America continues to soar.
The Pope had strong words Tuesday for the self-righteous, calling them “fake saints.” Their heart does not belong to the Lord, he said. “It belongs to Satan, the father of all lies, and this is fake holiness.”
In his weekly “general audience” Wednesday, Pope Francis once again employed forceful language in addressing the issue of the elderly in society, saying that the quality of a civilization is shown by the way it treats its older members. Many modern societies make no room for the elderly, he said, and carry in themselves “the virus of death.”
In a rare interview, the head of the Vatican police force, or “Gendarmerie,” Commander Domenico Giani, said this weekend that the Islamic State (ISIS) threats against Pope Francis are “real” and not just media propaganda. “This is what emerges from the talks I have had with Italian and foreign colleagues,” he said.
In his address to the Italian Confederation of Cooperatives Saturday, Pope Francis employed muscular language in speaking about money — while acknowledging its importance to business.
Archbishop Mario Zenari, the Vatican’s apostolic nuncio in Damascus, says that Syria’s ongoing civil war and its war with ISIS have produced one of the most catastrophic humanitarian crises since the Second World War, with “upwards of 200,000 deaths, more than a million casualties, more than 7 million IDPs and 4 million refugees.”
In a recent essay in the Daily Beast, Candida Moss and Joel Baden question Pope Francis’ liberal credentials, denouncing his attacks on gender theory.
On Sunday, Pope Francis spoke about the Christian season of lent, the period of prayer and penance leading up to Holy Week and Easter. “Lent,” said the Pope, “is a time of combat” and “a time of spiritual battle against the spirit of evil.”
The Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, Arizona, commemorated thousands of illegal immigrants who died at the Arizona border with Mexico, after Texas Federal Judge Andrew Hanen issued a temporary injunction halting President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty program.
Bishop Giovanni Martinelli could well be the last Italian left in Tripoli and he has no intention of leaving, despite repeated death threats. “My faithful are here, I have to stay,” he says.
Cardinal Joseph Zen has denounced China’s central government for concealing information about the fate of Cosmas Shi Enxiang, a 94-year-old underground Catholic bishop who was taken prisoner in 2001 and who is now rumored to be dead.
In one of his most important addresses to date, Pope Francis preached a powerful homily at Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday, concelebrated with Cardinals from around the world, the day after bestowing the “red hat” on a batch of twenty new prelates.
In his homily Saturday for the installation of the 20 new cardinals he has named, Pope Francis gave the prelates their marching orders, telling them to be magnanimous and respectful, and to avoid a series of vices including jealousy, pride and vanity.
In an email to subscribers, the president and editor-in-chief of the progressive Jesuit magazine America announced its expansion into what will now be called America Media: A Jesuit Ministry.
