More than 500,000 people have signed a petition asking Pope Francis to reinforce traditional Church teaching on marriage and the family. The petition, launched by TFP Student Action, asks the Pope to take this action at the synod on the family in October. Backed by 25 pro-family groups around the world, the petition is titled Read more
US presidential hopeful Donald Trump has said he would scare Pope Francis about an ISIS threat if the Pontiff told him about capitalism’s faults. Multi-billionaire Mr Trump, who is one of the contenders to be the Republican Party’s presidential candidate, said this during an interview on CNN last week. Presenter Chris Cuomo presented a hypothetical Read more
Back in 2009, I ran a very large event in the Ha’apai Islands of Tonga. We managed to motivate over 3,000 people (from a total population of 4,500) to clean up the coastline and shipped 50 tonnes of rubbish to a location with a proper landfill to make an example of how a waste management Read more
Pope Francis has been drawn into Argentina’s dispute with Britain over the Falkland Islands after a brief incident at a general audience. During the Pope’s audience on August 19, an activist from the “Dialogue for Malvinas” campaign thrust a sign towards Francis’s hands as he passed by. It read: “It’s time for Argentina and Britain Read more
The Vatican is now taking applications from priests who want to be ‘missionaries of mercy’ for the upcoming jubilee Year of Mercy. In Misericordiae Vultus, promulgated in April, Pope Francis stated that the missionaries of mercy would be granted “the authority to pardon even those sins reserved to the Holy See”. These sins include desecration Read more
Wow your friends with a selfie with Pope Francis, all in the comfort of your own living room. If you can’t get enough of Pope Francis now you can buy your life-sized cardboard cut-out of the Pontiff. 72″ tall, made of recycled heavy duty corrugated cardboard or vinyl. You can have free standing one, or the Read more
Despite Pope Francis’s call for urgent action on climate change, many US Catholic dioceses and organisations retain major investments in energy companies. A Reuters’ investigation has shown some of the largest American Catholic organisations have millions of dollars invested in the energy sector. Investments range from hydraulic fracturing firms to oil sands producers. Dioceses with Read more
A bishop ousted from a diocese in Paraguay by Pope Francis has died in Argentina from complications related to diabetes. Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano, 69, resigned as the ordinary of Ciudad del Este diocese last September, but the Holy See never specified why. The resignation came after an apostolic visitation of the diocese arranged by Read more
Pope Francis’ nephew, José Ignacio Bergoglio, the son of the Pope’s only living sister, Maria Elena, this week granted an exclusive interview to the Spanish newspaper ABC. In the candid interview, the Pope’s nephew describes his personal relationship with his uncle, recalls the career the Pope shelved for the priestood, and talks about the possibility Read more