The Vatican signed its first official treaty on Friday with the “State of Palestine,” while insisting upon Israeli and Palestinian leaders to make “courageous decisions” to end the conflict between the two sides.
In a story worthy of a Dostoevsky novel, the remains of a man who was tortured to death in Prague have proven to belong to Czech Catholic priest Josef Toufar, the “Miracle Priest” who died from torture at the hands of the Communist secret service (StB) in 1950.
Authentic Christians can be recognized by their ability to listen, above all to God, said Pope Francis Thursday, while warning that false prophets speak their own words rather than God’s.
On Wednesday, Pope Francis continued his reflections on the family, addressing the delicate question of divorce and separation, as well as its effects on family members. He invited his hearers to think more about the effects that adults’ actions have on the most vulnerable, especially little ones.
The Vatican’s new document that will serve as a guide for discussions in the upcoming synod on marriage and the family has caused consternation among liberals who see the text as a barrier to more progressive reforms in Catholic teaching on marriage.
On Sunday, Pope Francis denounced “the great powers” of the time for not stopping the Holocaust out of “self-interest,” by failing to bomb the railroads heading to concentration camps when they knew what was going on there.
Despite a torrential downpour, an estimated 500,000 people gathered Saturday in Rome under the banner of “Family Day,” protesting gender ideology and LGBT programs in schools and reaffirming the nature of marriage as the lifelong union of one man and one woman.
Pope Francis tackles more than just dirty air and polluted rivers in his new encyclical on the environment. He also warns that a society dominated by media and Internet can stifle human relationships and dull the mind, a syndrome he refers to as “mental pollution.”
For Pope Francis, in the framework of responsible stewardship for creation, the manipulation of gender implies an assault on the Creator and a disrespect for his designs. In his new encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si’, the Pope condemns the
Rarely has the Vatican reacted more swiftly to a journalistic fiasco than it did this week, banning veteran Italian journalist Sandro Magister from the Holy See Press Office and revoking his accreditation just hours after Magister published online a leaked version of the letter.
In no fewer than 17 tweets as of this printing, Pope Francis has begun e-blasting excerpts from his new encyclical letter on environmental stewardship, calling above all for an “honest debate” on the situation of the environment and what society can do about it.
This week Pope Francis received delegates of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church and the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren, who came to Rome to celebrate a “Liturgy of Reconciliation” on the occasion of the six hundredth anniversary of the burning at
At an address delivered at AFL-CIO headquarters, the archbishop of Washington, D.C. announced that organized labor is recognized by the Catholic Church as one of the “instruments of solidarity and justice,” and that such solidarity should not be taken for granted or denied.
A scientist who believes the world is overpopulated by 6 billion people has been appointed by Pope Francis to the Pontifical Academy of Science.
Nothing ever happens in a vacuum. Pope Francis’ ongoing concern for environmental issues, which will attain its fullest expression with the release of his encyclical on human ecology Thursday, has deep roots in his own personal experience, especially as archbishop of Buenos Aires, home to one of the most polluted places on the planet.
“Today we cannot help but recognize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach, which must integrate justice in the discussions of the environment, to hear the cry of the earth as much as the cry of the poor.”
A draft of the long-awaited Catholic Encyclical on Climate Change has been leaked four days early by an Italian magazine.
To achieve peace of soul, Christians need to learn to keep their hearts free from “passions” and “worldly noise,” which is the “devil’s noise,” Pope Francis counseled Monday in his homily at morning Mass in the Vatican.
Salon took the article from Alternet, calling it “The Perverse Obsessions of Right-Wing Patriarchal Christians.” The 2000-word rant by Valerie Tarico accuses conservatives of being obsessed with sex and procreation, along with—unbelievably—“anti-kid.”
In a powerfully worded address Thursday, Pope Francis urged the world not to wait for governments and international organizations to end hunger but to take the matter into their own hands.
In a 50-minute visit Wednesday evening, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Pope Francis in Vatican City, “devoted mainly to the conflict in Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East,” according to a Vatican communiqué.
In his continuing talks addressing marriage and family life, Pope Francis turned his thoughts to those families who have sick or handicapped members, praising their “hidden heroism” in the face of difficulties.
Pope Francis insisted again on Monday that the “complementarity of man and woman” is essential to marriage, but is under attack from “so-called gender ideology, in the name of a freer and fairer society.”
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, facing a tidal wave of international criticism over human rights violations and hunger strikes by his nation’s most famous prisoners of conscience, canceled a visit to the Vatican to meet with Pope Francis. Both dissidents and Vatican sources have told multiple Spanish newspapers that the cancelation, ostensibly due to a “cold,” actually occurred out of fear of being embarrassed on a public stage.
In his one-day visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina Saturday, Pope Francis held up Sarajevo as an example for the whole world of peaceful coexistence among Jews, Christians, and Moslems, who for centuries maintained their distinct cultures and beliefs yet lived together in harmony.
