Tag Archives: Catholic Church

Reuters reports: Mexicans who help build U.S. President Donald Trump’s planned border wall would be acting immorally and should be deemed traitors, the Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico said on Sunday, turning up the heat on a simmering dispute over the project. In a provocative editorial, the country’s biggest Archdiocese sought to increase pressure on the government to take a tougher …

The New York Daily News reports: Pope Francis urged European leaders on Friday to resist the “false forms of security” promised by populists who want to wall themselves off and instead bank on a future of greater solidarity and union. Francis welcomed 27 EU leaders to the Vatican on the eve of a summit to mark the 60th anniversary of …

Via press release from Catholic League president Bill Donohue: The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), National Public Radio (NPR), and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), are all subsidized by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). The Trump administration is right to propose a budget that completely guts these entities of federal funding. That …

Yahoo News reports: Pope Francis on Friday advised priests who hear troubled confessions from parishioners to not hesitate to call on the services of an exorcist. A good confessor has to be very discerning, particularly when he has to deal with “real spiritual disorders,” the 80-year-old pontiff told priests at a Vatican training seminar on the art of hearing believers …

USA Today reports: Pope Francis says he is open to the possibility of permitting married men to become priests to address the serious shortage of Catholic priests in some countries. The pope raised the idea in an interview with the German newspaper Die Zeit. He ruled out the prospect of allowing single men who are already priests to marry, but …

Reuters reports: Pope Francis delivered another criticism of some members of his own Church on Thursday, suggesting it is better to be an atheist than one of “many” Catholics who he said lead a hypocritical double life. In improvised comments in the sermon of his private morning Mass in his residence, he said: “It is a scandal to say one …

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis repeated his appeal for people to build bridges of understanding, not walls as he marked a feast day of a Sudanese immigrant amid a global uproar over the Trump administration’s attempts to impose a travel ban on seven mostly Muslim countries. “In the social and civil context as well, I appeal not to create …

The New York Times reports: When Stephen K. Bannon was still heading Breitbart News, he went to the Vatican to cover the canonization of John Paul II and make some friends. High on his list of people to meet was an archconservative American cardinal, Raymond Burke, who had openly clashed with Pope Francis. In one of the cardinal’s antechambers, amid …

The New York Post reports: The pastor of a largely immigrant Catholic church in Queens has a suggestion for his anti-Trump parishioners: Go take a flying leap off the nearest building. “Show your hate for Trump. Do it for social justice. #JumpAgainstTrump,” read a meme posted by the Rev. Philip Pizzo just hours after he celebrated Sunday Mass. The message …

The New York Times reports: There may be a Gingrich in the Vatican just yet. Callista Gingrich, the wife of Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and a friend of Mr. Trump’s, is in the running to be ambassador to the Holy See, according to a person briefed on the discussions. Mr. Gingrich, reached by telephone, said that he was …

LOL. Via press release from the Vatican: “Upon your inauguration as the forty-fifth President of the United States of America, I offer you my cordial good wishes and the assurance of my prayers that Almighty God will grant you wisdom and strength in the exercise of your high office. At a time when our human family is beset by grave …

Reuters reports: Pope Francis has told bishops around the world they must adhere to a policy of zero tolerance for clergy who sexually abuse children and begged forgiveness for “a sin that shames us”. In a letter sent on Dec. 28 but released by the Vatican only on Monday, Francis said: “I would like us to renew our complete commitment …

Via press release from OutRight Action International: Today in the United Nations General Assembly, a cross-regional group of states affirmed the principles of universal human rights by blocking a hostile attempt to prevent the work established by the UN Human Rights Council of the Independent Expert on Discrimination and Violence based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. A small group …

Earlier this year Michael Voris, the virulently anti-gay and comically bewigged Catholic activist behind the website Church Militant, confessed that he had once led a “sexually sinful life of live-in relationships with homosexual men.” Today Voris’ site denounces Malta, which last week banned ex-gay torture. From their article: Although Malta has a 90-plus percent Catholic population and is a Catholic …

Via press release from Christian Newswire: The Diocese of Phoenix and Courage International will host the upcoming Truth and Love conference. The goal is to offer sound practical and pastoral guidance on the topics of homosexuality and sexual identity. The event, Jan. 9-11, 2017, at St. Paul Parish in Phoenix, is the third of its kind. Previous educational conferences organized …

The Washington Post reports: People who have “deep-seated homosexual tendencies” or who “support the so-called ‘gay culture’” cannot be priests in the Catholic church, the Vatican said in a new document on the priesthood. The document said the church’s policy on gay priests has not changed since the last Vatican pronouncement on the subject in 2005. Some have been hoping …

The Telegraph reports: Confession, they say, is good for the soul and, in some cases perhaps, the sooner the better. Now, for those with a burning need to unburden themselves, one Roman Catholic archdiocese has launched what is thought to be the world’s first interactive GPS-powered “confession finder”. Using similar technology to the dating hook-up app Tinder, it guides the …

NPR reports: Pope Francis has declared that abortion, which remains a “grave sin” in the eyes of the Catholic Church, can be forgiven by ordinary priests for the foreseeable future — instead of requiring the intervention of a bishop. The change was implemented on a temporary basis, for one year only, as part of the Catholic Church’s “Year of Mercy,” …

The BBC reports: The Vatican has condemned a right-wing Catholic radio station after a broadcast said the recent earthquakes in Italy were “God’s punishment” for gay civil unions. The remarks, made on the station Radio Maria, were “offensive and scandalous”, the Vatican said. A Dominican friar said the quakes, including one in August that killed nearly 300, were caused by …

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports: Between requests for prayers for the sick and a notice for an upcoming chastity luncheon, a newsletter from a Catholic church in Old Town that doubles as an election-day polling site included a flier that told parishioners they’ll go to hell if they vote for Democrats. Two Sundays later, the message had changed: Satan was …