Pope Francis urged President-elect Donald Trump to remember the poor when he takes office next year. Quoting an Italian daily newspaper, Religion News Service reported today that the pontiff offered no judgment about the reality TV star-turned-commander in chief. “I…
‘Exsurge Domine’: Pursuing Re-formation
“Arise, O Lord (Exsurge Domine), and judge thy cause. A wild boar is loose in thy vineyard.” That’s how Pope Leo X introduced his denunciation of Martin Luther in a papal encyclical released 15 June 1520. The document condemned a…
Pope says Church should ask forgiveness from gays for past treatment
Pope Francis also said the Church should ask forgiveness for the way it has treated women, for turning a blind eye to child labor and for “blessing so many weapons” in the past.
Pope Francis calls for world ‘free of the death penalty’
In a message to a world conference against the death penalty, Pope Francis says capital punishment “contradicts God’s plan for individuals and society, and his merciful justice.”
Year-old Laudato Si’ has stirred up action for Earth
Last year’s arrival of Pope Francis’ encyclical on “Care for Our Common Home” marked a significant moment as the Catholic church substantially entered the realm of environmental concern.
The Pope needs to do more than kiss the disabled
There’s a long history of disability serving only as an opportunity for non-disabled people to demonstrate their piety through service, a “charity model” that ultimately still promotes otherness and exclusion.
Pope Francis: Employers not offering health insurance are ‘true leeches’
Pope Francis has condemned employers who exploit their workers by offering only temporary contracts or not providing health insurance.
Pope Francis: Let’s study idea of ordaining women as deacons
In an opening with historic import, Pope Francis has said he wants to study the possibility of ordaining women as deacons, a step that could for the first time open the ranks of the Catholic Church’s all-male clergy to women.
Joyless about ‘Amoris Lætitia’
The Catholic Church, a multi-century institution, moves at glacier speed. Pope Francis’s recent post-synodal apostolic exhortation finally moved the Church into the 20th century. Like his earlier apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (EG), Francis attempts a joyful evangelical call for a…