Free Republic

<p>Rome — US secret services allegedly eavesdropped on cardinals before the conclave in March to elect a new pope, Italian weekly magazine Panorama claimed Wednesday.</p> <p>"The National Security Agency wiretapped the pope," the magazine said, accusing the United States of listening in to telephone calls to and from the Vatican, including the accommodation housing cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio before he was elected Pope Francis.</p>

The New Pope has raised a lot of eyebrows over the past few weeks with his unorthodox approach to his responsibilities. No more is the lavish apartment or gilded robes. In shocking turns, instead of people kissing his ring, the New Pope has stopped his motorcade to pray for the sick. Instead of preaching from a gilded chair, he goes to a prison and washes prisoners feet. These types of actions have shocked Traditionalists who are not happy at all with the New Pope. The New Pope, however, feels that he is going back to more of the attitude of...

(CNSNews.com) - A group of homosexual activists plan to protest Mass at Catholic churches nationwide Sunday in opposition to the church's stance on homosexuality. The group, Rainbow Sash, explained on its website that they "stand opposed to homophobia at the Eucharistic table" and "make no apologies for God's gift of our sexuality." The group encourages its members to wear the Rainbow Sash in a parish or cathedral as "an act of faith in the Lord, who works through weakness." "This year, Rainbow Sash has upped the ante," Catholic League President William Donohue said in a statement. He pointed to a...

In his teens, he was briefly a member of the Hitler Youth, drafted into the army and eventually deserted. He served time in a POW camp. In 1951, he was ordained and became a Cardinal in 1977. In 1981, Pope John Paul II appointed him head of the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, where he has served for the last quarter of a century. He is widely viewed as a conservative theologian and a hard-line enforcer of Catholic Church doctrine. In the 1980s, Ratzinger was a fierce opponent of liberation theology. He strongly opposes abortion, an increased role...

For the first time in 482 years, a German wears the papal ring and the country is aflutter in national pride. Yet many fear that John Paul II's conservative pal will make the Catholic Church even more rigid and alienating to liberal members of the flock. One paper even goes so far as to say that rather than a trustworthy shepherd, Pope Benedict XVI is really "a wolf among sheep." The Bild tabloid says: We are the Pope! German papers are archly divided over the lightning-quick selection of Bavarian Joseph Ratzinger as the new pope. On the one hand, Germans...

If you are a blogger not posting for some time, you are often punished by a hard choice what story to comment on next. The tragic legally sanctioned death by starvation of Terri Schiavo ? Death of John Paul II and the mass outpouring of sympathy for the great deceased Pontiff ? Attacks on Tom Delay ? Finally, I've decided to comment on a different event--a joyful one--today's election of a new Pope, a German cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who took a name Benedict XVI.

In church's dreams, Vatican II never happened April 13, 2005 BY ANDREW GREELEY The American TV networks spent huge sums of money and sent scores of people to Rome last week. Characteristically, they spent little time or energy on research and hence provided weak and stereotypical journalism, limited to questions about married priests, female priests, gays and sexual abuse. They missed completely the most critical issue for the church in the 21st century -- Vatican Council II and the changes it created. Many, if not most, of the cardinal electors would tell you that the council was an incident, a...

It could not have been that much more dramatic. On the evening that John Paul II died, halfway across the world, in the United States, a well-known seer from Medjugorje in Bosnia-Hercegovina said after his nightly apparition that the Blessed Mother had had something special for him that evening. It was April 2, hours after John Paul II had died, and appearing in the U.S., the seer, Ivan Dragicevic -- seldom known to exhibit emotions, and representing the most famous apparition site since Fatima (the Blessed Mother is alleged to have appeared at Medjugorje since 1981) -- appeared happier than...

Prague, 5 April 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Back in 1978, when the Roman Catholic Church last elected a pope, the world stood uneasily divided in a struggle between Soviet communism and the West. By most accounts, Pope John Paul II played a major role in ending that divide, largely by focusing attention on injustices in his native Poland, then under Soviet sway. Today, with the Vatican set to elect a new leader, the world stands divided yet again. The Cold War analogy is imperfect, but increasing tensions and violence are threatening what has been called a possible "clash of civilizations between...

On one of Pope John Paul II's last major trips four years ago, he stood in the ancient Omayyad Mosque in Syria and appealed for Christians and Muslims to seek common ground rather than confrontation. "May the hearts of Christians and Muslims turn to one another with feelings of brotherhood and friendship," urged the pontiff, the first pope to enter a Muslim place of worship. The words - spoken just four months before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks - now stand a challenge for his successor. Just as the Cold War defined the beginning of John Paul's 26-year papacy,...

VATICAN CITY (AP) - 0403dv-pope-usa The last time the College of Cardinals gathered to select a pope, the Cold War dominated the globe, non-European voices in the church were weak and unfocused and dialogue with other faiths was left to second-tier envoys. None of that is true today. When the cardinals assemble in the Sistine Chapel this month, the questions and priorities considered in selecting the successor of Pope John Paul II will reflect 26 years of profound shifts: the rising influence of African and Latin America clergy, greater pressure to allow married priests after damaging sex scandals and hopes...

Guessing Game Begins on Pope's Successor 33 minutes ago  Europe - AP By BRIAN MURPHY, AP Religion WriterVATICAN CITY - Roman Catholics and others began to speak out Sunday about their hopes — and expectations — for a new pope, as the intense guessing game began over who would succeed John Paul II in leading the Church.  AP Photo Complete news coverage• News & features • Photos & slideshows • Video, audio and more   Only one thing is certain: The cardinals must decide whether to follow John Paul II with another non-Italian or hand the papacy back to...