VATICAN CITY, Oct 5 (Reuters) – Pope Francis told a Roman Catholic meeting on family issues on Monday that the Church should not be a stuffy “museum of memories” but have the courage to change if that was what God wanted.
In his opening address to bishops gathered in Rome for the Vatican synod on marriage and the family, Pope Francis reminded them that the Synod is not a “Parliament” where participants argue their case or negotiate, but a gathering of believers attentive to the Holy Spirit.
The Pope said that Christian marriage is a cure for much of the solitude experienced by men and women in our own day. Our world, he said is characterized by loneliness and paradoxes. Today we enjoy “many sophisticated means of entertainment, but a deep and growing interior emptiness; many pleasures, but few loves; many liberties, but little freedom.” People need the family, even if they don’t realize it, Francis said.
Monsignor Krzysztof Charamsa, a 43-year-old Polish priest working at the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has been fired from his post, after coming out publically as an active homosexual Saturday.
On the eve of the Vatican synod on marriage and the family, progressive German Cardinal Walter Kasper has come out publicly against doctrinal “fundamentalism” in the Church, while expressing his hope that the synod will open a “dialogue” on contraception for Catholics and reconsider the situation of homosexuals.
Contents: Violence resurges in Central African Republic crisis war; Central African Republic canceling elections and Pope’s visit
With Wednesday’s expiration of the Congressional mandate for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), the American Catholic bishops have formally petitioned Congress to reinstate it.
When speaking of Europe’s migrant crisis, the Pope has often pointed to the need to address the conditions in migrants’ countries of origin, suggesting that the best long-term cure for the crisis is to stem the flow of those leaving their countries.
To many observers, it may seem strange that the Vatican would choose to keep a secret of what has been called “the most significant meeting” of the Pope’s entire trip to the United States: his 15-minute encounter with Kentucky County Clerk,
Pope Francis says that he had wanted to remind U.S. leaders “that the greatest wealth of the country and its people are its spiritual and ethical heritage,” built on the founding principle “that all men are created equal by God and endowed with inalienable rights such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Davis was jailed after the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was legal—something many conservatives have argued was an act of “judicial tyranny,” as Huckabee says. Huckabee and other conservatives have been fighting to ensure that people like Davis—those with religious objections to gay marriage in government and outside of government—aren’t forced to violate their religious beliefs to comply with that decision, which they view as unjust.
Pope Francis met privately with controversial Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis and her husband while he was in Washington, DC last week.
In the lead-up to October’s Vatican Synod on Marriage and the Family, the drafters express their deep concern over what they see as “widespread confusion” over the possibility of divorced and remarried Catholics receiving Holy Communion as well as the acceptance of homosexual unions, which they describe as “contrary to Divine and natural law.” On Tuesday morning, the petition was delivered to the Vatican, requesting that Francis offer “a clarifying word” to dispel the confusion that reigns among many of the faithful around the globe.
GOP presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson is standing by his opinion that House Speaker John Boehner’s resignation “will be a good thing.”
Following the departure of Pope Francis, the streets of eastern Holguín, Cuba, have been flooded with dozens of homeless people that residents say had “disappeared as if by magic” in the week before the Pope’s arrival.
“You know what happens to all walls,” Francis said. “All of them. All walls fall. Today, tomorrow or in 100 years, they will fall. This is not a solution. The wall isn’t a solution. At this moment, Europe is in trouble, it’s true. We have to be intelligent because a whole wave of migrants is arriving and it isn’t easy to find solutions. But with dialogue among different nations they will find them.”
Pope Francis spotted a baby dressed as a pope in the crowd at the papal parade Sunday in Philadelphia, PA. A security guard brought the child closer to the pope and he blessed the child. Pope Francis then complimented the couple on
While Pope Francis shuttled around during his historic visit to the U.S. in a Fiat, he shared the news cycle with Volkswagen.
He said the trip was “beautiful” and summed up the welcome he received in the three cities of his tour by saying that in Washington the welcome was “warm but more formal”; in New York the people were “exuberant” and in Philadelphia they were “very expressive.” The Pope also said he was “very struck” by the kindness of the people and by their “piety and religiosity,” evidenced during the religious ceremonies.
When asked about religious liberty aboard the papal plane during his return trip from the United States to Rome, Francis said that “conscientious objection is a right” and “if someone does not allow others to object on the basis of conscience, he denies a right.”
GOP presidential candidate former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) spoke exclusively to Breitbart News during Friday’s Values Voter Summit, reacting to the breaking news that House Speaker John Boehner resigned, slammed fellow GOP presidential candidates on immigration, and talked about Pope Francis.
At his final celebration in the United States before departing for Rome, Pope Francis told approximately one million people who attended Mass outdoors in Philadelphia Sunday that the simple daily acts of love expressed by family members to each other are what nurture both life and faith.
Among the dozens of babies and infirm people that Pope Francis has kissed during his three-city tour of the United States, perhaps none made him laugh louder than the tot decked out as the Bishop of Rome–complete with white cassock and matching papal miter.
For some reason, CNN’s Don Lemon asked Whoopi Goldberg to weigh in on Pope Francis’ visit to the United States and the Catholic Church’s teaching on abortion.
Pope Francis’ U.S. visit got a shot of star power as actor Mark Wahlberg, Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, and legendary tenor Andrea Bocelli welcomed the pontiff at an outdoor rally and concert in Philadelphia on Saturday.
