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The Roman Catholic Church’s chief adviser on clerical sexual abuse broke ranks with Pope Francis on Saturday after the pontiff accused Chilean abuse victims of slander. In a rare public rebuke, Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston said Pope Francis’s comments during a visit to Chile were “a source of great pain for survivors of sexual abuse by clergy or any other perpetrator.” O’Malley, appearing to engage in damage control after strong reactions in Chile, said Pope Francis “fully recognizes the egregious failures of the church and its clergy who abused children and the devastating impact those crimes have had on...

The new year is barely three weeks old and already the US Navy’s “freedom of navigation” operations are eliciting furious threats of retaliation from the Chinese military. Since President Donald Trump took office one year ago, the Navy and Air Force have increasingly sought to test the Chinese military response in the Pacific by sailing or flying within a certain perimeter – usually 12 miles – of one of China’s disputed territorial holdings in the South China Sea, according to RT.In the latest clash, the USS Hopper missile destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of Huangyan Dao, a tiny island...

The honeymoon, as it were, is apparently over. A day after Pope Francis grabbed headlines by pronouncing two flight attendants man and wife while flying 36,000 feet over Chile, the conservative Catholic commentariat on Friday questioned the legitimacy of the impromptu sacrament and warned it could cheapen the church’s marriage preparation down the line. “Do you know what’s a ‘marriage’ ripe for annulment?” tweeted the traditionalist blog Rorate Caeli. “One celebrated apparently on a whim in an airplane whose celebrant cannot even be sure if parties are validly baptized.” For those who missed the news, Francis on Thursday presided over...

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (Reuters) – Pope Francis said on Monday he was really afraid about the danger of nuclear war and that the world now stood at “the very limit”. His comment, made as he flew off for a visit to Chile and Peru, came after Hawaii issued a false missile alert that provoked panic in the U.S. state and highlighted the risk of possible unintended nuclear war with North Korea. Asked if he was worried about the possibility of nuclear war, Pope Francis said: “I think we are at the very limit. I am really afraid of this....

Pope Francis accused victims of Chile's most notorious pedophile of slander Thursday, an astonishing end to a visit meant to help heal the wounds of a sex abuse scandal that has cost the Catholic Church its credibility in the country. Francis said that until he sees proof that Bishop Juan Barros was complicit in covering up the sex crimes of the Rev. Fernando Karadima, such accusations against Barros are "all calumny." The pope's remarks drew shock from Chileans and immediate rebuke from victims and their advocates. They noted the accusers were deemed credible enough by the Vatican that it sentenced...

Pope Francis accused victims of Chile’s most notorious pedophile of slander Thursday, an astonishing end to a visit meant to help heal the wounds of a sex abuse scandal that has cost the Catholic Church its credibility in the country. Francis said that until he sees proof that Bishop Juan Barros was complicit in covering up the sex crimes of the Rev. Fernando Karadima, such accusations against Barros are “all calumny.”

Neither Rev. Rodriguez nor Pope Francis will be there, but President Trump will be, addressing the crowd by satellite Throwing the spotlight on so-called Men of the Cloth: It’s not President Donald Trump who needs to have his mouth washed out with soap for having allegedly made use of the vulgar ‘s’ word at a White House meeting on immigration. There’s just no getting around it that some words are more painful than cuss words, particularly when they heap praise on abortion advocates.

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Pope Francis accused victims of Chile’s most notorious pedophile of slander Thursday, an astonishing end to a visit meant to help heal the wounds of a sex abuse scandal that has cost the Catholic Church its credibility in the country. Francis said that until he sees proof that Bishop Juan Barros was complicit in covering up the sex crimes of the Rev. Fernando Karadimas, such accusations against Barros are “all calumny.”

Pope Francis admitted on Monday he was frightened by the prospect of an accidental nuclear apocalypse, as he began a weeklong visit to Chile and Peru to bolster a local Catholic Church riven by sex abuse scandals. “I think we are at the very edge,” the pope told reporters aboard his plane when asked about the threat of a nuclear war in the wake of a recent string of tests by North Korea and a false missile alert last week that sparked panic in the US state of Hawaii. “I am really afraid of this. One accident is enough to...

The Dutch politician Lilliane Ploumen has been made a Dame in the pontifical Order of St Gregory the Great.Ploumen confirmed the award in an email to the Catholic Herald, saying that she was “very honoured” by the pontifical medal, which was sent via the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs last month.It is not known whether the Pope was aware of the decision.Ploumen, a senior Labour party figure who served as Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation until last year, has been criticised for her record on life issues.Last year she launched an international campaign to support abortion after the...

In November, two external researchers received a warning from the Catholic University of Milan because of their adherence to the Filial Correctio. Marco Tosatti has published a letter of one of them on his blog. In December, they discovered that they had been eliminated from the list of collaborators of the university. Contrary to what they were promised, they did not receive a contract for January. The two were never contacted personally. In the meantime, the university cancelled their previous activities from its webpage. One of the victims is Dr Giuseppe Reguzzoni. He was for more than twenty years an...

A Vatican official has come out swinging in defense of Pope Francis’ insistence on the topic of immigration, accusing the Pope’s critics of being “obsessed” with national security and border control. Asked in an interview with Italian media whether the Pope isn’t “obsessed” with the immigration question, Jesuit Father Michael Czerny, undersecretary for the Vatican’s office of Migrants and Refugees, responded that it isn’t Pope Francis who is obsessive, but rather his critics. Many would say that the modern “obsession with borders and national security to the detriment of the rights and dignity of refugees and refugees” is excessive, the...

Now We Know Why Pope Francis Destroyed the Pontifical Academy for Life: New Appointee Declares Contraception Can Be a Duty by Christopher A. Ferrara January 13, 2018 It was always obvious why Pope Francis destroyed John Paul II’s Pontifical Academy for Life by sacking its entire membership of 172 persons, ordering the rewriting of its statutes and abolishing the pro-life oath that members were once required to take.  The plan was to convert the Pontifical Academy for Life into a vehicle for furthering his incredible program, now underway, of attempting to undermine the Church’s teaching on the intrinsic evil of...

Would Pope Francis say anything about this year’s Vatican nativity scene — which was so clearly meant as a nod to the LGBT lobby — when he paid it a visit on New Year’s Eve? He spoke not a word of course, but instead blessed it and chuckled as a few dignitaries, responsible for what some have called a “hideous” and “sacrilegious” crèche, gave him a guided tour. And yet something very eerie and ominous happened that evening. At exactly the same time as the Pope left St. Peter’s Basilica and walked to the crèche in St. Peter’s Square, a...

Almost exactly a year after they issued a call for prayer that the pope would uphold Catholic teaching on marriage, three bishops from Kazakhstan — Tomash Peta, Metropolitan Archbishop of the archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana, Jan Pawel Lenga, Archbishop-Bishop emeritus of Karaganda, and Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana — have issued a new statement, saying that any change in sacramental discipline that would allow Catholic divorcees living in new sexual unions to receive Holy Communion is “alien to the entire Tradition of the Catholic and Apostolic faith”. One year ago this...

Pope Francis is the most popular world leader among Irish people, who rate British prime minister Theresa May and US president Donald Trump poorly, an international opinion poll published today finds. The pope was viewed favorably by 70 percent of the Irish respondents to the poll and unfavorably by 21 percent. Mr. Trump polls an 82 percent unfavorable rating, with just 13 percent looking on him in a positive light. More than two-thirds of respondents (68 percent) viewed Ms. May unfavorably, compared to 22 percent who viewed her favorably. The research was carried out by the Worldwide Independent Network (WIN)...

After the secular press leaked to the Catholic world hidden evidence of the massive scandal in the Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa, presided over by the “Vice-Pope” Cardinal Maradiaga of Honduras, Pope Francis rushed to defend his friend, telling him “do not you worry.” [sic] It is already clear that Maradiaga will be protected despite the testimony of 50 witnesses regarding the endemic corruption in the Archdiocese - of which Maradiaga could not have been unaware - including monthly payments to him of some $40,000 for years from the Catholic University of Honduras. And now it seems another friend of Francis is...

The archbishop of Canterbury has spoken out against “tyrannical and populist” world leaders in a Christmas message likely to be seen partly as a rebuke against US president Donald Trump. Justin Welby was preaching at Canterbury cathedral at the same time as Pope Francis made oblique criticism of Trump in his traditional Christmas address in St Peter’s Square in Vatican City.

Before Akayed Ullah returned home to New York from his native Bangladesh, and tried to blow himself up with a pipe bomb in a crowded Manhattan subway station, he had one last thing to do — an all-night bus ride by himself to help Rohingya refugees. After visiting relatives here in the capital city, Dhaka, he traveled across the country, slept in a mosque and under a tree, and passed out a few hundred dollars of medicine in the crowded refugee camps. “When he left, he seemed happy,” said his mother-in-law, Mahfuza Akhter. “But when he returned, he was so...

Pope Francis is criticizing journalists who dredge up old scandals and sensationalize the news, saying it is a “very serious sin” that hurts all involved. Francis, who plans to dedicate his upcoming annual communications message to “fake news,” told Catholic media on Saturday that journalists perform a mission that is among the most “fundamental” to democratic societies. […] The pope said,“You shouldn’t fall into the ‘sins of communication’ — disinformation, or giving just one side, calumny that is sensationalized, or defamation, looking for things that are old news and have been dealt with and bringing them to light today.” …