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Audiences, 09.10.2021 This morning, the Holy Father Francis received in audience: - The Honorable Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States of America, with her husband and entourage; https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2021/10/09/211009b.html

@import url("chrome://global/skin/aboutReaderContent.css"); A woman walks past an anti-Pope Francis poster in Rome (Getty Images) The book, published under a pseudonym, makes numerous allegations about the Pope's behaviourA search is on for the author of a new book about the Pope which accuses him of being a “dictator”.Published on Kindle in English and in Italian, The Dictator Pope appears under the pseudonym “Marcantonio Colonna”, the name of an admiral who fought at the Battle of Lepanto.Colonna claims to be an Oxford-educated historian now based in Rome. His book tells the story of Francis’s pontificate, as well as his life before...

VATICAN CITY, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Monday extended indefinitely to all Roman Catholic priests the power to forgive abortion, a right previously reserved for bishops or special confessors. Francis, who has made a more inclusive and forgiving Roman Catholic Church a characteristic of his papacy, made the announcement in a document known as an "apostolic letter" after Sunday's close of the Church's "Holy Year of Mercy". He said he wanted to "restate as firmly as I can that abortion is a grave sin, since it puts an end to an innocent life" but "there is no sin...

Newly released documents from Wikileaks have exposed the efforts of hard-left billionaire George Soros to make Pope Francis quiet down on social issues like abortion and man-woman marriage and make income equality and global warming the centerpiece of his visit last year to the U.S. The documents show how these wealthy groups worked closely with the Pope’s closest advisers including two U.S. Bishops and one Latin American Cardinal. The plan was first advanced at a board meeting of Soros’s Open Society U.S. Programs Board in May, 2015, where the radical group boasts of direct influence with Pope Francis. At that...

Last Wednesday, I had a lively discussion with Msgr. Stuart Swetland, president of Donnelly College in Kansas City, Kansas, on Relevant Radio’s Drew Mariani Show, on whether or not Islam was a religion of violence. Msgr. Swetland argued not only that Islam was a religion of peace, but that to believe otherwise was to place oneself in opposition to the teaching of the Catholic Church. Now, I’m a Catholic. But if Msgr. Swetland is correct, I may not be one for long. Msgr. Swetland has now helpfully supplied me with remarks clarifying his position and supporting it with statements of...

August 9, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Italian Bishop Nunzio Galantino, a personal appointee of the pope and a prelate who has been extolled as the “prototypical ‘Pope Francis bishop,’” is coming under criticism after delivering a homily to young people at World Youth Day in which he rewrote the story of God’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. While the clear meaning of the text is to emphasize God’s hatred of sin, in the bishop’s telling the message of the story is about Abraham’s willingness to emphasize “positive possibilities” and "signs of hope" despite the “misdeeds” of the people of Sodom. It’s...

The German theologian Karl-Heinz Menke – one of the members of the new papal commission on female deacons – said in a 4 August 2016 interview with the German newspaper Die Welt that female cardinals are possible if that is what Pope Francis wishes. The retired professor of theology – who also was appointed in 2014 by Pope Francis to be a member of the International Theological Commission – points out in this interview that it is out of the question to make women ordained deaconesses because it would mean that they would become part of the three-fold Sacrament of...

The Vatican may need to step in and rebuke Hillary Clinton's pro-abortion running mate With the nomination of Senator Tim Kaine, American Catholic voters once again face a decision about whether to send a pro-abortion, dissenting Catholic to Number One Observatory Circle, the official residence of the Vice President of the United States.For the past eight years Vice President Joseph Biden has lived there, an abortion supporter for sure, but he never pitched his Catholic credentials to the voters in the way that Hillary, her surrogates, the Democratic Party and Kaine himself have done from the get-go.Kaine, unlike Biden,...

Gabriel Bodenheimer could have lost his job when he recently came out as transgender to leaders of a San Francisco Catholic high school. Instead, in what some call a momentous step, the English teacher will remain at Mercy High, fully accepted as a man. The announcement of support by an order of the Sisters of Mercy, which owns and operates the four-year college preparatory school for girls on 19th Avenue, offers a rare policy position on transgender rights from within an internationally respected Catholic order.

While delivering the first address from a pontiff to a joint meeting of Congress on Thursday, Pope Francis touched on topics ranging from the plight of immigrants to climate change and the death penalty. Many of his comments were lightly delivered and unlikely to elicit much controversy, though the reaction might be different if they were given by another world leader. Case in point: Toward the beginning of his address, Francis alluded to religious extremism, noting that "no religion is immune" from it. His full quote as prepared for delivery: "Our world is increasingly a place of violent conflict, hatred...

Pope Francis reaffirmed the Catholic Church's opposition to gay marriage on Wednesday, but suggested in a newspaper interview that it could support some types of civil unions. The Pope reiterated the church's longstanding teaching that "marriage is between a man and a woman." However, he said, "We have to look at different cases and evaluate them in their variety." States, for instance, justify civil unions as a way to provide economic security to cohabitating couples, the Pope said in a wide-ranging interview published Wednesday in Corriere della Sera, an Italian daily. State-sanctioned unions are thus driven by the need to...

File photo of another meeting between Pope Francis and Bishop Scicluna. The Pope is “shocked” by Malta’s Civil Unions Bill, which will allow gay couples to adopt children, Auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna has told The Sunday Times of Malta.Defending his decision to use his Christmas homily to reiterate that a family had to be built around a man and a woman, Mgr Scicluna said he had aired these concerns with Pope Francis when he met him on December 12.“We discussed many aspects...and when I raised the issue that’s worrying me as a bishop [the right for gay couples to...

"The Gospel tells us nothing: if she said a word or not ... She was quiet, but in her heart - how much she said to the Lord! 'You told me then - that's what we have read - that He will be great. You told me that You would give him the throne of his father David, that he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And now I see Him there!' The Blessed Mother was human! And perhaps she would have wanted to say, 'lies! I have been cheated!'.

Despite a recent strongly worded clarification from Rome, confusion is continuing to be stirred up over the Catholic Church’s practice of refusing Communion to those who are divorced and remarried. A prominent curial cardinal, and favorite of Pope Francis, has defied the Vatican’s doctrinal office, saying that he expects a change. Cardinal Walter Kasper has said bluntly, and in direct opposition to the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), that the rules will shortly be changed to allow divorced and remarried Catholics to be admitted to Holy Communion.

A leading lifestyle magazine that promotes gay rights and same-sex marriage has named Pope Francis its “Person of the Year.” The December issue of The Advocate features Pope Francis with a “NO H8” message photoshopped on his right cheek. Next to his photo is a quote from the pope’s interview with reporters in July, while en route from Brazil to Rome. “If someone is gay and seeks the Lord with good will, who am I to judge?” the pontiff told reporters. Pope Francis, who opposes same-sex marriage and vehemently fought its passage while he was archbishop of Buenos Aires,...

The persecution of Christians tells us that Christ's over evil "is near", over "worldly powers " for whom religion is a "private matter " and who forbid worship of God. At Mass this morning at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis spoke of the final struggle between God and Evil, which the end of year liturgy offers us in these days.Vatican Radio reports that the Pope spoke of a great danger: "universal temptation ." The temptation to give in to the lure of those who want to defeat God, have the better of those who believe in Him. But he who...

Pope Francis called on Friday for “mutual respect” between Christianity and Islam and an end to “unfair criticism” in a personal message congratulating Muslims on the feast of Eid al-Fitr. “We are called to respect the religion of the other, its teachings, its symbols, its values,” he said in a statement distributed by the Vatican press office. …

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis extended a hand to those who don't belong to any religion, urging them on Wednesday to work with believers to build peace and protect the environment. In his first ecumenical meeting, the new pope greeted representatives from Christian churches and other religions, including Jewish and Muslim leaders, who had come to Rome to attend his inaugural Mass on Tuesday. Francis said that he intends to follow "on the path of ecumenical dialogue" set for the Roman Catholic Church by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). But he also reached out to those who don't belong "to...