Tag Archives: Vatican

Pope Pays Tribute To Late Accused Pedophile Cardinal

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis on Wednesday paid tribute to Cardinal George Pell, who spent 404 days in solitary confinement in his native Australia before his child sex convictions were overturned, praising his diligence in reforming the Vatican’s finances and his faith “even in the hour of trial.” Francis sent a telegram of condolences to the head of the …

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Body Of Former Pope Benedict Lies In State At Vatican

The Associated Press reports: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI ’s body, his head resting on a pair of crimson pillows, lay in state in St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday as thousands of people filed by to pay tribute to the pontiff who shocked the world by retiring a decade ago. As daylight broke, 10 white-gloved Papal Gentlemen — lay assistants to …

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Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI Dies At Age 95 [VIDEO]

The New York Times reports: Pope Benedict XVI, the eminent German theologian and conservative enforcer of Roman Catholic Church doctrine who broke with almost 600 years of tradition by resigning and then living for nearly a decade behind Vatican walls as a retired pope still clad in white robes, died on Saturday at age 95, the Vatican said. Just as …

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Pope Francis: Pray For “Very Sick” Ex-Pope Benedict

The Washington Post reports: Pope Francis said his predecessor Benedict XVI was “very sick,” and the Vatican said the 95-year-old’s health had “worsened,” putting the Catholic Church on watch about one of its most towering conservative figures. “I ask to all of you for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict,” Francis told pilgrims at his general audience Wednesday, asking …

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Late New York City Priest Left Millions To Biological Son

The New York Times reports: Louis R. Gigante was always larger-than-life. A Roman Catholic priest, the son of Italian immigrants and brother of New York mobsters, Father Gigante swaggered through the crime-ridden and crumbling South Bronx with a baseball bat and a development company that built thousands of apartments for the poor. But it turns out even the legend could …

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Pope Laments “Icy Winds Of War” In Xmas Speech

ABC News reports: Pope Francis used his Christmas message Sunday to lament the “icy winds of war” buffeting humanity and to make an impassioned plea for an immediate end to the fighting in Ukraine, a 10-month-old conflict he decried as “senseless.” At noon local time, Francis delivered the traditional “Urbi et Orbi” (Latin for “‘to the city and to the …

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Pope Francis Warns Holier-Than-Thou Vatican Officials

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis warned Vatican bureaucrats on Thursday to beware the devil that lurks among them, saying it is an “elegant demon” that works in people who have a rigid, holier-than-thou way of living the Catholic faith. Francis used his annual Christmas greeting to the Roman Curia to again put the cardinals, bishops and priests who work …

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Vatican Defrocks “Blasphemous” MAGA Priest [VIDEO]

The New York Times reports: A well-known Catholic priest and incendiary leader of the anti-abortion movement was removed from the priesthood by the Vatican, according to a letter from Pope Francis’s representative to the United States that was obtained by The New York Times. Frank Pavone, who leads the advocacy organization Priests for Life, and was once a religious adviser …

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Pope Warns Priests: Satan Enters When You Watch Porn

The BBC reports: Pope Francis has warned priests and nuns about the dangers of watching pornography online, saying it “weakens the priestly heart”. Pornography, he said, was “a vice that so many people have… even priests and nuns”. “The devil enters from there,” the Pope told priests and seminarians. “The pure heart, the one that Jesus receives every day, cannot …

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Vatican Finally Condemns Russia For War On Ukraine

The New York Times reports: The Vatican on Tuesday for the first time said that Russia was the aggressor in the Ukraine war, condemning Moscow’s invasion in strong terms after earlier comments by Pope Francis prompted criticism from Kyiv. “As for the large-scale war in Ukraine, initiated by the Russian Federation, the interventions of the Holy Father Pope Francis are …

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Pope Floats Retirement After Tiring Visit To Canada

The Guardian reports: Pope Francis has said that he can no longer travel like he used to because of his strained knee ligaments, saying his week-long Canadian pilgrimage was “a bit of a test” that showed he needed to slow down and one day possibly retire. Speaking to reporters while traveling home from northern Nunavut, Francis, 85, stressed that he …

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Archdiocese Sells 43 Properties To Pay Abuse Victims

The Christian Post reports: A Canadian court has approved the sale of 43 Catholic Church properties as part of a financial settlement with victims of sex abuse, with more sales expected to come later. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s, based in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, will sell the properties, including 13 church properties, after the …

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Pope Denies Rumors That He’ll Soon Resign [VIDEO]

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis has dismissed rumors he plans to resign anytime soon and that he hopes to visit Moscow and Kyiv after traveling to Canada later this month. Francis also told Reuters in an interview published Monday that the idea “never entered my mind” to announce a planned retirement at the end of the summer, though he …

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Elon Musk Has Vatican Audience With Pope Francis

The Associated Press reports: Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose $44 billion bid to buy Twitter remains in limbo, used the social media platform to announce he had met with Pope Francis. “Honored to meet @Pontifex yesterday,” Musk tweeted of the Friday afternoon audience, alongside a photo showing Musk, Francis and four of Musk’s teenage children. Francis frequently meets with high-profile …

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Pelosi Meets With Pope, Receives Communion At Vatican

NPR reports: U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with Pope Francis on Wednesday and received Communion during a papal Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, witnesses said, despite her position in support of abortion rights. Pelosi attended the morning Mass marking the feasts of St. Peter and St. Paul, during which Francis bestowed the woolen pallium stole on newly consecrated archbishops. …

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Rumors Swirl That Pope Francis May Soon Step Down

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis added fuel to rumors about the future of his pontificate by announcing he would visit the central Italian city of L’Aquila in August for a feast initiated by Pope Celestine V, one of the few pontiffs who resigned before Pope Benedict XVI stepped down in 2013. Italian and Catholic media have been rife with …

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Pope: Rapist Priests Are Eroding Trust In The Church

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis gave a new mandate to his sex abuse advisory commission Friday, telling its members to work with bishops around the world to establish special welcome centers for victims and to audit the church’s progress on fighting abuse from its new perch within the Vatican. Francis warned that without more accountability from the church, the …

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Cardinal Once Imprisoned For Molestation Calls On Vatican Officials To Reprimand Two Pro-LGBT Bishops

The National Catholic Register reports: Cardinal George Pell has called on the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) to publicly reprimand two of Europe’s most senior bishops for what he said was their “wholesale and explicit rejection” of the Church’s teaching on sexual ethics. In a statement released March 15, Cardinal Pell asked the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation to …

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Catholic Bishop Imprisoned In Sexual Abuse Scandal

Reuters reports: A Catholic bishop accused of sexually abusing young men studying to be priests was found guilty by a court in northern Argentina on Friday, capping over a week of often graphic testimony. Gustavo Zanchetta, the former bishop of Oran in Argentina’s northern province of Salta, was convicted of sexually abusing two former seminarians, which prosecutors said in a …

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Pope Visits Russian Embassy In Unprecedented Move

ABC News reports: Pope Francis visited the Russian Embassy on Friday to personally “express his concern about the war” in Ukraine, in an extraordinary, hands-on papal gesture that has no recent precedent. Usually, popes receive ambassadors and heads of state in the Vatican, and diplomatic protocol would have called for the Vatican foreign minister to summon the Russian ambassador. For …

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