An array of individuals who have served as political allies to President Obama will be on hand to greet Pope Francis when he arrives at the White House later this month.
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.
Gutiérrez, a vocal Donald Trump opponent and advocate for what he describes as “immigration reform,” painted the Republican presidential candidate as a “little devil” on the nation’s shoulder in contrast to the pontiff, who will assume the position of the “little angel” on the other shoulder when he visits the U.S. later this month. “On one shoulder, we have a billionaire out there saying Mexicans are murderers…On the other shoulder is a man who is not afraid to touch the feet of the poor and recognizes their humanity even in their poverty,” Gutiérrez said.
National Geographic’s August issue, featuring a cover photo of Pope Francis in the Sistine Chapel, was “denied entry” into Saudi Arabia, according to a tweet from the Arabic edition editor-in-chief.
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.
In a stunning show of chutzpah, a group of some 93 Democrats signed a letter to Pope Francis outlining the talking points they would like him to touch upon in his address to the U.S. Congress on September 24.
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.
CNN Religion Commentator Father Edward Beck argued, “We’ve become very xenophobic, I think, in our country” and “the gospel is really less capitalism, a little bit more Socialist” on Monday’s “CNN Newsroom.” Beck, while discussing Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to
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.
VATICAN CITY, Sept 6 (Reuters) – Pope Francis called on Sunday on every European parish and religious community to take in one migrant family each in a gesture of solidarity he said would start in the tiny Vatican state where
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 his online media event with groups of Americans in three cities earlier this week, Pope Francis congratulated a single mother on her decision to give birth to two daughters, telling her to hold her head high and not be ashamed.
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.
For the upcoming Jubilee Year of Mercy, Pope Francis is hammering home the message of forgiveness, urging all the Catholic priests in the Church to dedicate plenty of time each week to hearing confessions.
Pope Francis will celebrate Mass in Spanish in Washington, D.C., later this month in a bow to the large Hispanic population in the United States.
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.
Support for gay marriage is higher among American Catholics than it is in the general population, a new study claims, with one in six Catholics giving the go-ahead to same sex unions. The study comes as Catholics worldwide urge Pope
The U.S. ambassador to the Vatican said that during Pope Francis’ visit to the United States next month, he expects the Pope will urge the U.S. to embrace its history of welcoming immigrants.
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.
In his weekly Angelus address on Sunday, Pope Francis said that Jesus’ words are sometimes hard to accept, that they “rock our world” and challenge our secular mentality, because he doesn’t offer immediate success but a longer road to true happiness.
In preparation for Pope Francis’ U.S. visit next month, many Democrats are attempting to enlist the Pope as an advocate for their vision of immigration reform.
Part of me gets a big kick out of Trump’s sometimes-crude retorts to his critic’s questions and assertions. One could be tempted to say, “Hey, we’re not electing a pope here.” And that’s true. Yet even the pope—the current pope, to be clear—is not beyond using crudity to make a point.
In their write-up on the poll, Associated Press journalists Rachel Zoll and Emily Swanson wondered aloud how American bishops and priests could be so negligent in carrying the Pope’s words to their flocks. The writers lament that early on “questions arose about whether American bishops and parishioners would embrace the message with any enthusiasm.”
When CNN reporter Chris Cuomo asked presidential candidate Donald Trump for his thoughts on Pope Francis Wednesday, Trump responded that he thought “he seems like a pretty good guy,” along with questioning whether the Pope was as anti-capitalist as some
Pope Francis has become embroiled in the debate over the ownership of the Falkland Islands, as he was photographed holding a sign calling for a dialogue on the island’s future. The picture soon gained widespread interest when the President of
In his weekly Angelus message Wednesday, Pope Francis praised the value of hard work and a willingness to do one’s part for the common good rather than freeloading off society.
A New Jersey-based craft brewery will be debuting a new beer called “You Only Pope Once,” just in time for Pope Francis’ visit to the United States at the end of September.
Like a Catholic Uncle Sam, Pope Francis is telling priests from around the world, “I want YOU to hear confessions!” The Vatican has begun wholesale recruitment of priests to devote themselves to preaching forgiveness and hearing the confessions of repentant faithful during the upcoming Jubilee Year of Mercy.
In some of his sharpest language to date, Pope Francis condemned global violence against Christians on Thursday in a letter to the vicar of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Maroun Lahham.
