British historian William Oddie has called Barack Obama “the most anti-Catholic American president in living memory” because “across the whole spectrum of contemporary moral issues, he is passionately committed to a series of views which run directly contrary to those of the Church.”
At his daily morning Mass Thursday, Pope Francis preached on false models of Christian living, warning his hearers against privatizing salvation and forming elite church cliques, rather than living as members of the people of God.
Pope Francis pulled off his kid gloves Wednesday, denouncing in the strongest terms what he called a “society without fathers.”
Though both China and the Vatican have made efforts in recent months to better diplomatic relations, Beijing’s recent announcement of its intention to ordain Catholic bishops in 2015 without the Pope’s approval is sure to extinguish whatever good will had been achieved.
This past Saturday afternoon, Pope Francis met with Diego Neria Lejárraga, a 48-year-old Spaniard who was born a girl but underwent a sex change operation eight years ago.
A papal tradition has come to a bizarre end. For years, popes have sent out white doves as a symbol of peace after an annual meeting with young people from the youth movement called Catholic Action.
“Dialogue is impossible with people who kill and destroy in God’s name,” said Ignatius Kaigama the archbishop of Jos and President of the Nigerian Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
“God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline,” said Pope Francis Monday, citing Saint Paul. The Pope went after spiritual wimpiness, saying that timidity and shame are the enemies of Christians.
“It’s an ugly thing that we Christians are divided,” said Pope Francis Sunday. “Jesus wants us united in one single body,” he said. In his weekly Angelus message, the Pope spoke of the week of prayer for Christian unity, which
When God forgives, “he throws a party,” said Pope Francis this morning. “It’s God’s job to forgive,” he added, “and it’s a beautiful job.” The Pope has started celebrating his daily Masses at his residence in the Casa Santa Marta
The relationship between the Catholic Church and China is “an open wound, which must be treated and cured,” says Joseph Wei Jingyi, the underground bishop of Qiqihar, in northeast China.
South African Cardinal Wilfrid Napier sent out a series of angry tweets after watching Tuesday’s State of the Union address, criticizing Obama’s secularism and exclusive focus on American interests.
In a special appeal at the end of his weekly General Audience Wednesday in Saint Peter’s Square, Pope Francis asked for prayers for the victims of the events of recent days in “beloved Niger.” The Pope also forcefully condemned “the brutality towards Christians, children and churches” perpetrated there in recent days.
During his trip to the United States next September, Pope Francis is planning to address a joint session of Congress as well as visit the White House, according to the Vatican’s permanent observer to the U.N. in New York. Francis aims to visit the White House on September 23 and will celebrate Mass at Washington’s Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception later that same day.
Though the final figures are not yet in, reports estimate that some six million people attended Pope Francis’ Mass is Manila on Sunday, making it one of the largest gatherings in human history.
Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco has called the Supreme Court’s decision to review the constitutionality of marriage laws “the most significant Court decision since the Court’s tragic 1973 Roe v. Wade decision making abortion a constitutional right.”
In a surprise announcement on his plane trip to Manila Thursday, Pope Francis said that he is planning to canonize the founder of California’s first missions and the father of the California wine industry when he visits the US next fall.
According to several news sources, rumors are circulating of an imminent Venezuelan coup on reigning President Nicolás Maduro.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church has been published for the first time in Farsi (modern Persian), the official language of Iran and Afghanistan, and includes an introduction by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
All Christians ask is for the freedom to carry out their mission, Pope Francis said in his homily at a Mass attended by a half million people.
Nigerian Catholic Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama has called for “the same international support to tackle Boko Haram as France has received since it was hit by Islamist attacks last week.”
