Free Republic

For the first time in history, Islamic prayers and readings from the Quran will be heard at the Vatican on Sunday, in a move by Pope Francis to usher in peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Francis issued the invitation to Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during his visit last week to Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority. Abbas, Peres, and Francis will be joined by Jewish, Christian and Islamic religious leaders, a statement released by Peres’s spokesperson said, according to the Times of Israel. Holy See officials on Friday said the evening prayers would be...

Pope Francis and Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople have agreed to plan for an ecumenical council to be held in Nicea in 2025, the AsiaNews service reports. Patriarch Bartholomew revealed that he and the Roman Pontiff had “agreed to leave as a legacy to ourselves and our successors a gathering in Nicaea in 2025, to celebrate together, after 17 centuries, the first truly ecumenical synod, where the Creed was first promulgated.” The Council of Nicea, held in 325, brought together over 300 bishops and approved the formula of faith now known as the Nicene Creed.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Popes pray for peace; it is part of their ministry. And when war is raging or peace negotiations seem hopelessly bogged down, recent popes have invited leaders of other Christian traditions and other faiths to join them in prayer. Pope Francis has put a twist on the interreligious prayer gathering by inviting political leaders, Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, "to come to the Vatican to pray together with me for peace." The event was scheduled for June 8, the day many Christians celebrate Pentecost. Pope Francis embraces Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at...

WASHINGTON — Taking direct aim at libertarian policies promoted by many American conservatives, the Honduran cardinal who is one of Pope Francis’ top advisers said Tuesday (June 3) that today’s free market system is “a new idol” that is increasing inequality and excluding the poor.

ROME – Pope Francis led a pep rally yesterday in Rome’s Olympic Stadium in front of more than 50,000 Catholics who follow charismatic movements.While listening to what many have termed “the most heinous music ever prayed to,” 50,000 Catholics raised their hands in unison as they prayed for Francis, who silently and repeatedly asked God Almighty to just make it stop.Francis told the faithful that the devil wants to destroy the family, which he described as the “domestic church,” and went on to plead for the end of the use of torture.“We also call on the international community to put...

VATICAN CITY, June 2, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The devil is trying to “destroy” the family because that is where children are born and learn to love, said Pope Francis this weekend. On two successive days, Pope Francis focused his remarks on the family and its importance in the Church and the world today. Speaking to a large gathering of charismatic Catholics in the Rome Olympic Stadium on Sunday, Pope Francis spoke of how the devil “attacks the family so much. The demon does not love it and seeks to destroy it.”“Amen! The battle for marriage and the family is...

ROME (AP) -- Pope Francis has led a pep rally to boost faith at Rome's soccer stadium, packed with more than 50,000 Catholics who follow charismatic movements, which he jokingly likened to samba dancing.Hands raised in unison, the faithful prayed in Olympic Stadium Sunday for Francis, who repeatedly has asked his church for prayers.

Istanbul (AsiaNews) - On his return from Jerusalem , where he met with Pope Francis at the Holy Sepulchre, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, has revealed an important appointment for unity between Catholics and Orthodox: a gathering at Nicaea in 2025, where the first real ecumenical council of the undivided Church was celebrated. Speaking exclusively with AsiaNews, Bartholomew says that together with Pope Francis "we agreed to leave as a legacy to ourselves and our successors a gathering in Nicaea in 2025, to celebrate together, after 17 centuries , the first truly ecumenical synod, where the Creed was...

In little-noticed remarks aboard the papal plane this week, the pontiff said he wouldn’t rule out following Pope Benedict XVI’s path. Pope Francis gave a candid midair press briefing to reporters traveling from back from the Middle East to Rome during which he talked about sex, money, and satanic Mass—and retirement. After a grueling but ultimately successful three-day visit to one of the most complicated regions on the planet, the idea of retirement probably sounded pretty good to Francis. So it is no surprise that when reporters traveling with him on the papal plane asked if he would consider resigning...

President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas immediately accepted a surprise invitation by Pope Francis in Bethlehem on Sunday to join him at the Vatican to pray for peace. He issued his call on the second day of his Middle East trip, in the midst of a large public Mass he celebrated in Manger Square, the site of Jesus’s birth. “Here, at the birthplace of the Prince of Peace, I wish to invite you to join me in heartfelt prayer to God for the gift of peace. I offer my home in the Vatican as a place for this...

Francis took off his shoes to step into the gold-topped dome, which enshrines the rock where Muslims believe the Prophet Mohammad ascended to heaven. Speaking to the grand mufti of Jerusalem and other Muslim authorities, Francis deviated from his prepared remarks to refer not just to his "dear friends" but "dear brothers." "May we respect and love one another as brothers and sisters," he said, and added, "May we learn to understand the suffering of others! May no one abuse the name of God through violence!"

A chandelier of candles hangs in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Israel. Credit: Lauren Cater / CNA. Jerusalem, Israel, May 26, 2014 / 02:35 am (CNA).- On the last day of his Holy Land pilgrimage Pope Francis stopped to pray at two sacred sites in Jerusalem. The Pontiff visited the the Western Wall in Jerusalem on the morning of May 26, pausing to pray at the site and leaving the Our Father in Spanish tucked into one of the cracks. The Wall is a sacred place for Jews, the only remains of second temple. Deviating from his...

Pope Francis and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traded words on Monday over the language spoken by Jesus two millennia ago. "Jesus was here, in this land. He spoke Hebrew," Netanyahu told Francis, at a public meeting in Jerusalem in which the Israeli leader cited a strong connection between Judaism and Christianity. "Aramaic," the pope interjected. "He spoke Aramaic, but he knew Hebrew," Netanyahu shot back. Like many things in the Middle East, where the pope is on the last leg of a three-day visit, modern-day discourse about Jesus is complicated and often political. A Jew, Jesus was born in...

ROME, May 16, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pope Francis raised eyebrows earlier this month by concelebrating Mass with and kissing the hand of a leading homosexual activist priest campaigning for changes in the Church’s teaching on homosexuality. On May 6, Francis received the 93 year-old priest who has cofounded the homosexualist activist organization, Agedo Foggia, that is opposed to Catholic Church teaching. Fr. (Don) Michele de Paolis concelebrated Mass with Pope Francis at the Domus Santa Martha and then presented the pontiff with gifts of a wooden chalice and paten and a copy of his most recent book, “Dear Don Michele...

Pope Francis arrived in Jordan on Saturday to kick off his first visit to the Middle East since becoming the head of the Catholic Church, bringing hope to the dwindling Christian population and an appeal to members of all religions to work together for peace.With a Rabbi and a Muslim leader in tow, the pontiff left Rome earlier on Saturday to begin his first visit to the Middle East, a delicate mission to push his vision of inter-religious dialogue as a vehicle for peace in the region.Security was tight on the streets of the Jordanian capital Amman on Saturday in...

Pope Francis privately visited the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome this morning to pray and entrust to the Virgin Mary his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. After 15 minutes of meditation and prayer before the image of Mary known as Salus Populi Romani, Pope Francis offered a bouquet of white and yellow roses at the feet of the Virgin. Since the beginning of his papal ministry in March 2013, this is the eighth visit Pope Francis has made to the Virgin Mary, under whose protection he has placed his pontificate. Speaking to Vatican Radio, the archpriest of the basilica,...

In FrontPage today I discuss the ill winds blowing as Pope Francis prepares to visit “the state of Palestine”: “The Che Guevara of the Palestinians” is set to visit Palestinian Authority-controlled Judea and Samaria next week, beginning in Bethlehem, and the city of Jesus’s birth is already in high excitement. The bearer of that illustrious title is none other than Pope Francis. According to Israel National News, “Rabbi Sergio Bergman, a member of the Argentinian parliament and close friend of Pope Francis…said that the pope intends to define himself as the ‘Che Guevera of the Palestinians’ and support their ‘struggle...

Die Welt [Summary: Pope Francis has excommunicated the Austrian president of the Catholic reform movement called We Are Church. A report in Tiroler Tageszeitung has confirmed that Martha Heizer and her husband can no longer participate in the sacraments. Excommunication is the most severe penalty the church can impose. The retired religious educator and her husband in their private home regularly celebrated with other believers but without ordained priests.] THE FOLLOWING TRANSLATION IS FROM GERMAN TO ENGLISH USING A TRANSLATION DEVISE, SO IT MIGHT NOT BE TOO GOOD FROM THE NEWS PAPER DIE WELT : Pope Francis, the Austrian...

The Vatican’s Secretary of State made a dramatic revelation ahead of Pope Francis’s visit to Israel next Sunday and Monday, declaring that the pope will talk about the “Palestinian people’s right to have a homeland, sovereign and independent.” Cardinal Pietro Parolin holds a role in the Vatican City State, located in the Italian capital of Rome, equivalent to that of a prime minister. … When asked what the pope particularly intends to talk about during the visit, Parolin revealed he would talk about “on the one hand, Israel’s right to exist in peace and security within internationally recognized boundaries.” On...

This coming Sunday, May 25, Pope Francis is scheduled to meet the Eastern Orthodox Church’s Ecumenical Patriarch (EP) Bartholomew at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem in order to commemorate the golden jubilee of the historic meeting between their respective predecessors, Paul VI and Athenagoras. According to the EP’s official website for the event, the occasion is “expected to be a strong symbolic confirmation of the commitment and determination to continue the path which the two great Church leaders inaugurated half a century ago.” Whether it will amount to anything more than that remains to be seen....