The Vatican released a statement Tuesday officially welcoming the nuclear agreement between the P5+1 world powers (U.S., UK, China, France, Russia, Germany) and Iran, stating that the Holy See believes Tehran will reduce its nuclear capabilities in exchange for sanctions relief. In calling for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons, the Vatican also appeared to target Israel, given that it is the lone nuclear power in the region.
New details are coming out regarding a terrorist attack planned against Pope Francis during his U.S. visit next week, after a lawmaker revealed on Sunday that an attempt had been derailed by Federal agents.
A star-studded cast of celebrities is slated to perform for Pope Francis during his upcoming visit to the United States. Notables like Aretha Franklin, The Fray, Sister Sledge, Andrea Bocelli, Juanes, and the Philadelphia Orchestra are scheduled to grace the stage in preparation for the Pontiff’s meeting with the people.
Pope Francis used a Portuguese radio interview to blame Europe’s post-modern childless culture for the huge migration wave of unskilled Muslims into Europe, and to cautiously warn against the growing danger posed by migrating Islamic jihadis.
In a novel response to Pope Francis’ decision to allow all Catholic priests to absolve women from the sin of abortion during the upcoming Jubilee Year of Mercy, a writer in New York Times accuses Pope Francis of “cruelty,” saying his offer of mercy is evidence of condescension toward women.
It is fascinating to watch the mainstream media create a narrative around Pope Francis that they hope will set the tone for his upcoming visit to the United States.
In a darkly toned essay reminiscent of The Borgias, Washington Post Berlin Bureau Chief Anthony Faiola tells his readers that a storm is brewing in the Church, pitting liberal “Francis Catholics” against a sour group of disenfranchised conservatives who are looking for ways to stymie the Pope at every turn.
After a year’s work by a special legal commission, Pope Francis has approved a reform of the Code of Canon Law to simplify and streamline the marriage annulment process. The new rules were presented at the Vatican Tuesday at noon and were laid out in two brief papal letters.
On Monday Pope Francis celebrated Mass in the Vatican with the new Armenian Patriarch, Gregory Peter XX Ghabroyan, and preached once more on the widespread persecution of Christians throughout the world.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
The German reformer Martin Luther, who once said that the Church of Rome was “the most lawless den of thieves, the most shameless of all brothels, the very kingdom of sin, death and hell,” will now have a square named after him in the Eternal City.
