In a public manifestation in Rome on Saturday, several hundred Muslims came from all over Italy to protest the actions of the Islamic State, calling it a “cancer” and insisting that it did not represent the position of Islam.
After initial investigations into the theft and dissemination of confidential documents of the Holy See, resulting in the arrests of Msgr. Lucio Vallejo Balda and Francesca Immaculate Chaouqui, a Vatican magistrate has indicted them and three others.
Pulling no punches, Pope Francis laid out statistic after statistic before a group of German bishops, and wondered aloud why the Church in Germany is in freefall.
For the second time in just three days, the U.S. Embassy to Italy has alerted American citizens to a serious security threat, this time regarding an “armed individual” at large on the streets of Rome.
The United States Embassy in Italy has issued a security alert to all Americans abroad, warning them to avoid locations that have been identified as potential targets for terrorist attacks. At the top of the short list is “St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City (Rome).”
From the outset of his pontificate, Pope Francis has predicted that he would have a short reign, and now a leading Vatican watcher has profiled a series of likely candidates to take his place when the time comes.
Pope Francis continued his meditations on the end of the world, preaching Tuesday morning on “how to behave in the face of persecution” and urging his hearers to defend their Christian identity at all costs.
Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin has acknowledged that the Vatican “could be a target” of Islamist attacks “because of its religious significance,” but insisted that “we will not let ourselves be paralyzed with fear.”
Immediately following Friday’s horrendous jihadist attacks, the Italian government decreed a level-two terrorist alert for the whole country, considerably increasing security measures around the Vatican City State, considered a prime target of ISIS terrorists. The level-two alert comprises the deployment
Two days after the horrendous jihadist attacks in Paris, Pope Francis preached about the “end times,” encouraging his hearers to be vigilant and ready at any moment to meet God face to face. In his Angelus message Sunday, the Pope invited
In a rare recognition of the abuses of radical environmentalism, Pope Francis condemned the immanentism of a form of ecology that refuses to look beyond creation to discover the glory of its Creator.
In a video message to the participants in a meeting of alumni of Jesuit Institutions, Pope Francis asked his listeners whether they still had “Jesuit virus” or if they no longer bore the distinctive characteristics of a Jesuit education.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is set to make official visits to France, Italy, and the Vatican next week. In doing so, he will be the first Iranian president to make state visits through Europe in a decade, according to reports.
While celebrating the ordination of a new bishop, Pope Francis encouraged priests to use simple words in their preaching and to shorten their sermons at Sunday Mass. “Preach the Word in season and out of season,” Francis said, but use “simple words that everyone can understand” and avoid “long sermons.”
In his Sunday midday Angelus message, Pope Francis came down hard on those involved in leaking confidential Vatican documents to the press, saying that many people had been upset by the news.
The Pope’s health is always a question—especially when dealing with a 78-year-old pontiff with a history of serious health issues—and tripping on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica Saturday has added more grist to the rumor mill.
Two former members of the economic commission entrusted with overseeing the reform of the Vatican Bank are charged with handing over confidential documents in what is being called Act 2 of the Vatileaks scandal.
On Sunday afternoon, Pope Francis traveled to Rome’s largest cemetery to celebrate Mass and pray for the “faithful departed,” an ancient Christian custom associated principally with All Saints Day (Nov 1) and All Souls Day (Nov 2).
In his Angelus message on the Christian feast of All Saints, the Pope said to the large crowd assembled in the sunny Saint Peter’s Square: “we experience in a particularly vivid way the reality of the communion of saints, our extended family, made up of all members of the Church, both those who are still pilgrims on earth, and those—immensely more—who have already departed for heaven.”
In his homily Friday morning, Pope Francis said that when God forgives us, He knows full well that we are guilty, not like a judge who acquits a criminal for lack of evidence; yet He pardons us anyway.
Pope Francis says direct attacks on Jews are not the only form of anti-Semitism, but that attacks on the State of Israel and its right to exist are also anti-Semitism.
A 67-year-old Roman Catholic nun was excommunicated and ousted from her religious order last week after revealing that she had been secretly ordained a priest earlier this year and has since been presiding over Catholic rituals.
In an address to an interreligious audience Wednesday, Pope Francis paid tribute to the Jewish people, noting that in Jewish-Christian relations, “indifference and opposition have turned into cooperation and goodwill.”
The Global Network of Rainbow Catholics is out with a response to the recently concluded Vatican synod on marriage and the family, noting its optimism that “a new era for inclusive pastoral care of LGBT people is going to start after the synod.”
In the lead-up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris next month, a group of cardinals, patriarchs and bishops have called for a radical, legally binding international climate agreement that mandates, among other things, complete global decarbonization by 2050 and “an end to the fossil fuel era.”
Pope Francis said that on hearing the news of the passing of Cardinal Korec, he was moved with “deep emotion” and sorrow, calling him “a generous and zealous shepherd who in his long ministry in the Church offered a fearless witness of the Gospel” and was a “staunch defender of the faith and human rights.” The pontiff sent a telegram of condolences to the President of Slovakia’s bishops’ conference.
The left-wing of Catholicism just concluded a two-year campaign to convince the universal Church to change its teachings on marriage, divorce, communion, and homosexuality.
In spite of sensational media claims that Pope Francis suffered a major “defeat” at the hands of conservative bishops during the recently concluded synod on the family, all evidence suggests that the Pope got exactly what he wanted: a frank debate on the situation of Christian families in the world today and how the Church can more effectively serve them.
As the Vatican synod on marriage and the family draws to a close with no significant change in Catholic doctrine or practice, liberals are left nursing their wounds over yet another revolution that didn’t happen.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi is vigorously denying rumors that Pope Francis is suffering from a brain tumor, calling the reports “entirely unfounded” and the reporting “gravely irresponsible.”
In his most important address yet to the bishops gathered for the Vatican Synod on the Family, Pope Francis reasserted his authority Saturday, reminding the bishops that the synod operates “not only with Peter, but also under Peter.”
Although many people have come to swallow the caricature of Pope Pius XII as “Hitler’s Pope,” after the malicious smear campaign by John Cornwell, the facts now seem overwhelmingly to reveal the opposite: not only was Pius adamantly opposed to the Führer’s policies; he actively sought to have him assassinated.
A recent article in the Atlantic features “a totally ordinary Catholic family,” one composed of two Lesbian ex-nuns and their adopted daughter. They’re campaigning to be accepted in the Roman Catholic Church.
Pope Francis is expressing his esteem for science, but also coming down hard against the “new atheists” such as Richard Dawkins who deny the existence of anything beyond the material world. Francis adds that “the Creator is infinitely greater than our knowledge.”
Pope Francis, who has often said that doctrine is not everything, praised Saint Paul Thursday morning as a model of one who defended doctrine–the doctrine of the greatness of God’s love.
“In the name of the Church, I would like to ask forgiveness for the scandals that have occurred in recent times, both in Rome and in the Vatican,” Pope Francis said at the beginning of Wednesday’s General Audience.
The redoubtable Archbishop of Philadelphia, Charles J. Chaput, told his fellow bishops gathered in the Vatican Synod on the Family that in a world as confused as our own, precise language is critical for keeping the Church united, and unity is key.
In the immediate wake of the Vatican sacking of a gay priest who attempted to upstage the Vatican Synod on the Family by “coming out” with his boyfriend the day before it began, Socialist French President François Hollande has withdrawn his proposal of Laurent Stefanini, an openly gay official, for the post of ambassador to the Holy See.
On Friday, an unprecedented letter written to Pope Francis by thirteen cardinals taking part in the Vatican synod on marriage and the family was published online, revealing contention regarding the revamped synodal process as well as the suitability of the draft document being used to guide the bishops’ discussions.
On Friday, Pope Francis asked the bishops and participants in the Vatican synod on the family to join him in offering midday prayers for the intention of reconciliation and peace in the Middle East.
