Free Republic

Yes, he said it over the phone to his favorite journalist, Italian editor Eugenio Scalfari of La Repubblica, in a conversation on October 28, revealed by the latter in an editorial published this Sunday. There is no reason to doubt its accuracy. We are way past the time of doubting the accuracy of the Scalfari quotes. Not now, that the papal interviews to Scalfari have been published in the Vatican website, that they have been occasionally published by the Vatican publishing house (LEV) itself - for instance, as part of the book to the right. It was a direct quote...

he scandalous synod on the family skidded to a stop last weekend in Rome but not before Pope Francis got in a few more licks at conservatives, whom he caricatured in his final remarks as heartless. The speech was notable for its nastiness, displaying the very lack of charity he routinely assigns to conservatives. The synod, he said, had exposed “closed hearts which frequently hide even behind the Church’s teachings or good intentions, in order to sit in the chair of Moses and judge, sometimes with superiority and superficiality, difficult cases and wounded families.” He continued: “It was about trying...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) denounced renewed GOP efforts to defund Planned Parenthood and claimed to have Pope Francis on her side. “Pope Francis urged that political leaders shun dogmatic rigidity and make pragmatic compromises for the good of the whole,” Pelosi contended. The “compromise” she suggested the Pope would support would be “to allow women to preserve their health by accessing the services of organizations like Planned Parenthood and to pursue the Catholic reverence for innocent life by sustaining those who cannot support themselves.” “If you pay attention to what Jesus actually said, you’ll find numerous mention of...

The Islamic Republic of Iran is already reaping diplomatic dividends from the disastrous nuclear deal it entered into last July with the P-5 + 1 nations (the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and Germany). Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will be visiting Rome Italy next month, marking his first trip to a European Union capital. His trip will include a meeting with Pope Francis. Rouhani will then be moving on to Paris. It is a victory lap by the president of a regime that got virtually everything it wanted in the deal, and is choosing selectively which portions...

Kai Diekmann, Editor-in-chief of Bild Zeitung, talks about his visit to Benedict XVI: “Bright-eyed, smiley, no signs of wearinessA small reception hall, a wooden staircase that leads up to the first floor. The sitting room is welcoming and bright, there is a white leather sofa and a simple seat. A book case that reaches the ceiling, a flat-screen TV with a DVD player and some religious icons on the walls. A coffee table and a piano with a black-and-white photo of his brother Georg. The story Kai Diekmann, Editor-in-chief of Bild Zeitung, wishes to share with his readers is very...

Pope Francis yesterday gave an address to the profoundly divided Synod on the Family in which he confirmed his plans to decentralise the Catholic Church – giving local bishops’ conferences more freedom to work out their own solutions to the problems of divorce and homosexuality. This is the nightmare of conservative Catholic cardinals, including – unsurprisingly – those in the Vatican. They thought they had a sufficient majority in the synod to stop the lifting of the ban on divorced and remarried Catholics receiving communion, or any softening on the Church’s attitude to gay couples. But in yesterday’s keynote speech,...

Today at the Synod, in a speech commemorating the institution of Synod, The Pope used language indicative that the outcome of the Synod is binding. “Finally,” explained Pope Francis, “the synodal process culminates in listening to the Bishop of Rome, called upon to speak authoritatively [It. pronunciare] as ‘Shepherd and Teacher of all Christians’: not on the basis of his personal beliefs, but as the supreme witness of the Faith of the whole Church, the guarantor of the Church’s conformity with and obedience to the will of God, to the Gospel of Christ and the Tradition of the Church.” That...

We can be confident in assuming that Pope Francis is in favor of finding a way to administer Holy Communion to those divorced, remarried, or actively homosexual. He would be in favor of either changing Church teaching or changing Church practice, i.e. finding a loophole in which he doesn’t have to promote heresy via a declaration, but rather, showing a false sense of “mercy” towards the sinner. How can I be so certain that he wants to defy Christ’s teaching? Simple. Cardinal Kasper said so. Cardinal Kasper, much like a priest exorcising a brand new baby in the old form...

If only Pope Francis were in my Buenos Aires taxi last Christmas. I could have used his moral authority (and Argentine-accented Spanish) in negotiating with a driver who’d forgotten the Golden Rule. And in witnessing my struggle, the self-described “very allergic to economics” pontiff might have gleaned a moral lesson, helping him Think Again about the free-enterprise system he’s criticized.

Conservative cheers resonated throughout much of Catholic social media when it was reported that on day one of the Synod of Bishops, Cardinal Péter Erdő, with Pope Francis seated directly by his side, delivered an address that forcefully reaffirmed traditional Church doctrine and discipline relative to the civilly divorced and remarried and those in homosexual relationships. Spurring on the applause is the fact that the cardinal’s intentions seemed rather obvious; namely, to preemptively discredit the arguments that are expected to be made by those who favor the controversial proposals put forth by Cardinal Walter Kasper. More provocative still is that...

We were the first to break the news in English at the time: the Pope granted a hidden audience to a same-sex couple (that is, two homosexual women) constituted of a transexual woman (who, after much transformation and hormones, uses the alias "Diego", and who complained of not being welcomed in her parish) and her "fiancée"...

A few weeks back, I happened upon an article from Catholic Answer’s own Karl Keating in which he speculated upon the possibility that Pope Francis might resign in a year or so in acceptance of his own limitations and suitability to the role. While that is certainly an interesting topic, it was not that part of the article that greatly interested me. After making fair and respectful critique of Pope Francis’ communication style and general suitability to the role of Vicar of Christ, Mr. Keating makes the following remarks: "I don’t think it [retirement] would be before October’s synod. He...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Kim Davis’ attorney is disputing the Vatican’s description and interpretation of her Sept. 24 meeting with Pope Francis. Attorney Mat Staver told The Associated Press early Friday that the meeting was an affirmation of the Kentucky county clerk’s right to be conscientious objector. He says Vatican personnel initiated contact with Davis’ camp on Sept. 14 saying the pope wanted to meet her.

(CBS) — Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich is on his way to Rome tonight. Before he left, he spoke out for the first time on that controversial meeting between Pope Francis and Kim Davis, the county clerk from Kentucky who refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses. Cupich in essence told CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine not to read too much into it. A highly placed source inside the Vatican claims the Pope was blindsided. The Vatican has since tried to distance Pope Francis from Davis. Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said the pope’s meeting with Davis was not an endorsement...

The meeting between Pope Francis and Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis came at the invitation of a high-ranking Vatican official connected to the Secretariat of State of the Holy See acting on behalf of the Pope himself, Breitbart News has learned. According to a person involved in arranging the meeting but who requested anonymity, the Vatican official called Robert Moynihan, editor of Inside the Vatican who is well known in Rome. The official asked Moynihan if he could help arrange a meeting while the Pope was in the United States.

Unpopular though it may be to say so, I, for one, grew exhausted by the nonstop pronouncements/commentaries of Pope Francis. The spiritual leader of 1 billion Catholics -- roughly half of the world's Christians -- Francis just completed a high-profile, endlessly publicized visit to the United States. But unlike past visiting pontiffs, the Argentine-born Francis weighed in on a number of hot-button U.S. social, domestic and foreign-policy issues during a heated presidential election cycle. Francis, in characteristic cryptic language, pontificated about climate change. He lectured on illegal immigration. He harped on the harshness of capitalism, as well as abortion and...

The catholic Left are desperate to silence the so-called “culture warriors”, especially to squelch Catholics who uphold clear Catholic teaching in the public square.You may have heard that during his visit to these USA Pope Francis is reported to have met privately with the “culture warrior” Kim Davis, the Christian, non-Catholic, county clerk in Kentucky who refuses to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.  She went to jail for a time rather than knuckle under.We don’t know for sure what Pope Francis said in this private meeting, but Davis didn’t say that the Pope told her to stop fighting.  She wasn’t disappointed afterward.  Quite the opposite,...

After first refusing to confirm nor deny it, the Vatican has confirmed that Pope Francis met with the Kentucky clerk Kim Davis at the Vatican Embassy in Washington, where Davis' attorney -- who made the news public after the pope's trip ended -- said Francis told her to "stay strong." And that simple encounter completely undermines all the goodwill the pope created in downplaying "the gay issue" on his U.S. trip. The pope played us for fools, trying to have it both ways. As I noted last week, he's an artful politician, telling different audiences what they want to hear...

Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis says a private meeting with Pope Francis has inspired her -– and given her a renewed sense of purpose. “I was crying. I had tears coming out of my eyes,” Davis said in an exclusive interview with ABC News. “I'm just a nobody, so it was really humbling to think he would want to meet or know me.”

Pope Francis met with Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis during the pope’s visit to the United States, the Vatican confirmed on Wednesday morning. Rev. Manuel Dorantes, a spokesman for the Vatican, said to The Washington Post, “I do not deny that the meeting took place, but I have no comments to add.” The meeting between Davis, who went to jail for six days after refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and the pope was announced late Tuesday by Liberty Counsel, a religious freedom nonprofit that is representing the elected Rowan County clerk in her ongoing legal struggles. Liberty...