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In a powerful symbolic gesture that is sure to resonate across the globe from Europe to the United States and Australia, Pope Francis will wash the feet of 12 refugees on Holy Thursday in Rome. He will do so on March 24, at a center that assists migrants in the city. The Vatican has not yet disclosed the venue. The breaking news comes at a time when many politicians in Europe, the United States and elsewhere are calling for the closing of the doors of their countries to refugees and migrants. Several governments in Europe, including Austria, Poland, Hungary and...

That sincere dialogue among men and women of different faiths may produce the fruits of peace and justice...

Not long ago, Francis' niece, Cristina Bergoglio, said that she sees "...the church as outdated," and added, "that's why I believe life has put my uncle to renew this certain system of thought that was getting stagnated." That "certain system of thought" is Roman Catholicism. As Randy Engel has said, "Catholicism is a religion of Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium, the fullness of the Faith, handed down to us from the time of the Apostles. It never was, is, or will be a religion of 'evolution' or 'change' related to dogmatic truths and morals. Yet, Francis continues to maintain...

That the Mexican Bishops were not pleased with Pope Francis’ discourse of February 13th, had been understood immediately. Even so, three weeks later the discontent has now exploded in “Desde la Fe”, the Archdiocese of Mexico City’s magazine, and simultaneously on the Archdiocese’s official site, in an unsigned editorial [in Spanish here], thus traceable to the Archbishop himself, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera. It was one passage in particular that humiliated the bishops in the Pope’s discourse, when Francis stopped reading the written text and said: “The mission is vast and it requires many ways to conduct it. And it is...

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico's main archdiocese has taken the unusual step of publicly saying Pope Francis had been badly advised when directed harsh words to local bishops during his visit in mid-February. The pope told a gathering of local bishops in February not to be career-minded clerics, saying, "We do not need 'princes,' but rather a community of the Lord's witnesses." The pope also urged them to maintain unity and show more transparency. "If you have to fight, fight. If you have to say things, say them, but do it like men: to the face," Francis told the bishops....

Pope Francis described the influx of migrants into Europe as an 'Arab invasion' before explaining that the new arrivals will enhance Europe for the better. The pontiff was giving a speech to an audience of French Christians when he reflected on Europe's history of migration and the positive impact it has had on its culture today.

Little children it is the last hour: just as you have heard, Antichrist is come, and even now many Antichrists have come to be, by which we know that it is the last hour. 1 John 2:18 Thus sinning against your brothers, and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 1 Corinthians 8:10 Since Christ made it clear (Matthew 24:36) that even he does not know the day and hour when heaven and earth will pass away, I have never wasted much time on people who think they have figured it out. Yet Christ also made...

The Pope and the Baby Killer In 2010, after I had lived in Italy about two years and had begun to understand the byzantine complexities of this country's politics, Emma Bonino decided to run for the office of governor of the region of Lazio. Once I found out what kind of person she was, I was seized with the urge to buy a crate of spray paint and go around Rome writing, "10,000 bambini assassinati non abbastanza per Emma 'la Bicicletta' Bonino," on all her posters. "10,000 murdered babies not enough for Emma 'the bicycle' Bonino." I thought of it...

It appears that a children's book titled Dear Pope Francis is to be released on March 1. Rorate Caeli obtained and posted a section of the book that is not only disturbing, but provides a snapshot into the mind of Francis concerning the ancient Mass of the Church. This is the excerpt: "Dear Pope Francis, Were you ever near the pries as the altar boy? Greetings from Alessio (Italy, age 9)" "Dear Alessio, yes, I was an altar boy. And you? What part among the altar boys do you have? It's easier to do now, you know: You might know...

Think about the logical implications of the Pope's criticism of a proposed wall on our border with Mexico. By calling such a barrier "un-Christian," the Pope is saying that it's the duty of Christians to suffer the disease, drugs, poverty and crime illegal immigrants bring in their wake. He's saying Americans have no right to protect our national identity from intruders unwilling to assimilate. He's saying that forcing the working poor to compete for jobs with cheap immigrant labor is the Christian thing to do. And he's saying U.S. taxpayers have a moral obligation to foot the bill for this...

A few days ago, Pope Francis and his spokesman Federico Lombardi directly contradicted the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church on contraception, including directly contradicting the clear words of Pope Paul's 1968 encyclical Humanae vitae. Various "Catholic" individuals and groups quickly lined up to support Francis, including the often heterodox Filipino Catholic Bishops Conference. But a surprisingly large and strong set of Catholics--beyond the expected set of minority traditionalists--has now risen up to resist, as if Francis, after years of this this sort of thing, has now crossed an obvious line. Who knew that line would be you know where....

Dear Pope Francis: I write this letter to you as a priest to the Bishop of Rome and as a son to a father. I write with a heavy heart, and I know that heaviness of heart is shared by many of my Catholic brethren both clergy and laity. I watched the early news one morning last week to find that one of the headlines proclaimed that in an interview on the flight from Mexico to Rome you indicated that the Church's teaching on contraception may be undergoing a change. As in the past, I went to the official translation...

Despite their staunch opposition to contraceptives, Philippine Roman Catholic bishops expressed their full support Saturday to Pope Francis' remarks suggesting artificial contraception can be used by women threatened by the Zika virus. The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines also backed the pope's uncompromising position against abortion, even in cases when a pregnant woman carries an unborn child afflicted with a deformity. "We, your bishops, reiterate church teaching: no matter that the child in the womb may be afflicted with some infirmity or deformity, it can never be moral to bring a deliberate end to human life," Archbishop Socrates Villegas,...

From the canonist Ed Peter’s fine blog In The Light Of The Law. He doesn’t have a combox over there and doesn’t mind if we use his stuff here. DO, however, go over there to his place regularly. Emphases are from Peters, comments mine: Misunderstanding the (alleged) 'Congo contraception' caseEven by the standards of his reign, the presser Pope Francis conducted on his return flight from Mexico has provoked an unusual number of questions. [No kidding. You should see my inbox, too!] I wish to address only one of those here.Preliminarily, I note that the burden is not on the...

In a February 8 interview with one of Italy's most prominent dailies, Corriere Della Serra, Pope Francis praised Italy's leading proponent of abortion - Emma Bonino -- as one of the nation's "forgotten greats," comparing her to great historical figures such as Konrad Adenauer and Robert Schuman. Knowing that his praise of her may be controversial, the Pope said that she offered the best advice to Italy on learning about Africa, and admitted she thinks differently from us. "True, but never mind," he said. "We have to look at people, at what they do." At 27, Bonino had an illegal...

Vatican City, Feb 25, 2016 / 12:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- For Pope Francis, dialogue with Islam is a core issue. He recently voiced hopes to meet a major Sunni leader: the Grand Imam of al-Azhar Mosque, Ahmed el-Tayeb. "I want to meet him. I know that he would like it," the Pope said during his Feb. 18 in-flight press conference. The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, headed by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, is reaching out to al-Azhar Mosque. "We are looking for the way, always through Cardinal Tauran because it is the path, but we will achieve it," Pope Francis said...

Praising A Murderer: Speaking to the Corriere della Sera on February 8th Pope Francis numbered the radical Italian politician Emma Bonino "among the big ones of today's Italy". When the journalist pointed out that Bonino doesn't think like the Church, Francis replied: "Whatever, one has to look at the persons, at what they do." Bonino openly admitted that she performed more than 10,000 illegal abortions during 1975 alone. She would vacuum the unborn child from the womb of the abortive mother with an air pump -- the kind used for bicycle tires -- putting the remains of her victim into...

The Pope's pregnant receptionist has been found dead in her apartment on the outskirts of the city. Miriam Wuolou, a 34-year-old of Eritrean origin, was seven-months pregnant when her body was discovered. She had worked at Pope Francis' home and a priests' guesthouse called Santa Marta for years.

Donald Trump should invite Pope Francis to his presidential inauguration. He helped pave the way for Trump to win the White House. Trump on Saturday won the South Carolina Republican primary, big time, knocking Jeb Bush out of the race. Now everything will fall into place.

In his visit to the U.S.-Mexican border, Pope Francis took the occasion to criticize American capitalism for the suffering of the poor. "In pursuit of profit the capitalists enslave working men and women, compelling them to exchange their precious time for money," the Pope complained. "Though not literally in chains, those forced to labor for their survival are rousted from repose to travel on often difficult and dangerous roads to arrive at an employer's place of exploitation. There they are given tiresome chores by cruel taskmasters. If they fail to perform satisfactorily they may be cast out into the streets."...