The iconic black Fiat 500 used by Pope Francis during much of his week-long United States visit last September has pulled in $300,000 at auction, selling for more than 12 times the car’s base price of $24,695. The Fiat was
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.”
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.
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.
Abortion giant Planned Parenthood is lashing out at the Pope, after he’s repeatedly spoken up for the right to life of the unborn in his visit to the United States, accusing him of limiting women’s rights and hampering “women’s health.”
In his address to the United Nations, Francis told the assembly that the limitation of power is “an idea implicit in the concept of law itself.” Citing the classic definition of justice as giving to each his own, Francis said that “no human individual or group can consider itself absolute, permitted to bypass the dignity and the rights” of others.
The Pope encouraged the children to live with joy in their hearts. “I see you smiling. Keep living like this,” the Pope said. “Help others to experience joy. It’s not easy. In every home there are problems, difficult situations, sickness. But don’t stop dreaming of living with joy.” Departing from his written text for a moment in his meeting with Harlem schoolchildren Friday afternoon, Pope Francis turned to one of his favorite topics, telling the students and their teachers that the devil is a killjoy who tries to spoil our dreams and destroy our happiness.
Pope Francis is appealing to “a moral law written into human nature itself” to assert the sacredness of every human life, including that of the unborn. A “fight against exclusion,” the Pope said in his address before the United Nations General Assembly Friday, demands “absolute respect for life in all its stages and dimensions.”
Pope Francis has come out swinging in his very first public address on American soil, telling President Obama that “climate change is a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation” while calling religious liberty “one of America’s most precious possessions” that must be defended from all threats.
The President and his staff showed tremendous disrespect for the Pope by intentionally inviting a series of individuals who publicly thumb their noses at Catholic teaching, including a pro-abortion religious sister, a transgender woman and at least two Catholic gay activists, along with Bishop Robinson. Moreover, they were invited precisely because of their anti-Catholic positions. It was only after Breitbart News publicized the discordant tone of the Obama guest list that the Holy See reacted by expressing its disapproval. In doing so, it made known its concern that any photos of the pope with these guests at the White House ceremony might be misconstrued as an endorsement of their activities.
President Obama may have gone too far by packing the Pope’s receiving line with a coterie of public dissenters from Catholic doctrine to greet him at the White House during his U.S. visit next week.
A gay lobbying group is pushing its preferred script for media coverage of Pope Francis’ visit to the United States.
GLAAD’s guide, titled “The Papal Visit: A journalist’s guide to reporting on Pope Francis and the LGBT community,” sets its preferred terms for covering homosexuality. It also suggests a series of story lines and plots to portray the lives of gays, lesbians and transsexuals as happy and positive, except when they’re supposedly victimized by the Catholic church.
President Obama will apparently test just how far Pope Francis’ notorious tolerance will go by inviting a rogue’s gallery of Catholic dissenters to greet the pontiff at the White House during his visit next week.
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.
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.
