One of Pope Francis’s closest advisors says the issue of Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics is not the main focus of the upcoming synod on the family. Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga said the synod’s focus will be mainly on “pastoral conversion” in how the Church forms and nourishes marriage and families. The cardinal Read more
Pope Francis joined the presidents of Israel and Palestine in praying for peace in an “Invocation for Peace” at the Vatican on June 8. During his recent visit to the Holy Land, Pope Francis invited Israel’s Shimon Peres and Palestine’s Mahmoud Abbas to meet and pray together. On June 8, the two presidents met Pope Read more
With an Argentinian Pope at the helm of the Catholic Church, populist politicians in Latin America are doing their best to enlist him in order to promote their agendas. Within a week of Francis’ election, the Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro claimed that the new Pope’s statements on the “option for the poor” were, in fact, Read more
Pope Francis has warned married couples not give in to a culture of wellbeing and substitute owning dogs and cats for having children. To make this a deliberate choice can make for a bitter and lonely old age, the Pontiff warned at a Mass at his residence at the Vatican on June 2. Several couples Read more
One of Pope Francis’s closest advisors has said the world’s economic system is founded on a new idolatry. Speaking in Washington on June 2, Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga also defended Pope Francis’s critiques of free market capitalism. Cardinal Maradiaga was speaking at an event titled “Erroneous Autonomy: The Catholic Case Against Libertarianism”. The cardinal, Read more
Pope Francis has told Catholics from the charismatic movement that he was not always comfortable with the way they prayed. But little by little, he came to see the good the movement is doing for members and for the Church, the Pope told 50,000 people at Rome’s Olympic Stadium on June 1. The gathering involved Read more
An American archbishop has warned against what he called the “balkanisation” of United States’ Catholics. Indianapolis Archbishop Joseph Tobin is worried the divisive nature of the nation’s politics may be seeping into the US Catholic Church. At a theological convention on May 30, he expressed concern about the separation of people into ideological camps. Archbishop Read more
The family Blesilda “Blessie” Gotingco who was murdered on her way home from work last month has received a message of support from the Vatican. Father Craig Dunford, who presided at her requiem mass on Thursday said he had sent a message to the Vatican this week asking that Pope Francis remember her in prayer. Read more