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Vatican Official: Trump Pulling Out of Paris Climate Change Deal a ‘Slap in the Face’ News: World News AddThis Sharing ButtonsShare to FacebookShare to TwitterShare to Google+Share to EmailShare to Print by Christine Niles, M.St. (Oxon.), J.D.  •  ChurchMilitant.com  •  June 1, 2017    31 CommentsBp. Marcel Sanchez Sorondo also calls move "unscientific" VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) - A high-ranking Vatican official is calling President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Change Treaty a "slap in the face." Speaking Thursday to Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Bp. Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, said, "If he...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican, which under Pope Francis' insistence has strongly backed the Paris climate change deal, would see a U.S. exit as a slap in the face and a "disaster for everyone," a senior official said on Thursday. At their meeting last month, the pope gave U.S. President Donald Trump a signed copy of his 2015 encyclical letter that called for protecting the environment from the effects of climate change and backed scientific evidence that it is caused by human activity. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin urged Trump in a separate meeting not to quit...

An explosion has been reported at the Vatican. There is a video of the scene at the link. This must have just happened as Twitter is the only place I'm finding this so far.

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are in Rome, Italy as their third stop in their first international trip as POTUS and FLOTUS. After an early morning meeting with Pope Francis, On Wednesday, the pair was photographed in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City

A picture is worth a thousand words, as the phrase goes. And after this snap of Pope Francis looking miserable while standing beside President Donald Trump at the Vatican began circulating online Wednesday, many people rushed to social media to suggest what some of them might be: Trump’s differences in opinion with the pontiff over issues such as immigration and climate change are well documented. But it would be unfair to say the pope looked completely forlorn throughout the president’s visit. Reuters news agency noted how he “smiled faintly” as he greeted Trump, but also pointed out that the pontiff...

In what can only be described as a cordial, successful meeting, Pope Francis received U.S. President Donald Trump in the Vatican Wednesday amidst smiles, handshakes and camera flashes. The two leaders sat down for a half-hour face-to-face meeting, with the Pope leaning out over the table with his arms extended toward the President. On parting ways at the end of the meeting, the President thanked the Pope for his warm welcome, stating, “I won’t forget what you said.” In its official press release, the Vatican described the meeting as “cordial” and said the two men spoke favorably of “the good...

The US president said it was a 'very great honour' to meet the Pope Pope Francis and US President Donald Trump spent 30 minutes speaking privately in the library of the Apostolic Palace May 24, and as the president left, he told the Pope, “I won’t forget what you said.”The atmosphere at the beginning was initially formal, however, the mood lightened when Pope Francis met the first lady, Melania Trump, and asked if she fed her husband “potica”, a traditional cake in Slovenia, her homeland. There were smiles all around.Pope Francis gave Trump a split medallion held together by...

Pope Francis on Wednesday gave President Trump a copy of his 2015 encyclical letter on the environment and climate change. Trump responded to the gifts by saying: "Well, I'll be reading them," according to pool reports. The Trump administration has been pushing to roll back Obama-era regulations on the environment. Trump on Wednesday met with Pope Francis at the Vatican. At the beginning of the meeting, the president said it was a "great honor" to be meeting with the pope. The meeting lasted about 30 minutes. Trump said after its conclusion that it was a "fantastic meeting." Trump in March...

Full article title: "Melania and Ivanka wear black veils to meet the Pope at the Vatican after deciding not to wear head scarfs on Saudi visit (just like Michelle Obama) - as Pope asks the first lady if she's feeding Trump cake" First Lady Melania Trump and the president's daughter, Ivanka, dressed in all black and wore veils to meet Pope Francis on Wednesday, just as former First Lady Michelle Obama did when she met Pope Benedict. The women traveled to the Vatican on Wednesday with President Donald Trump, who was meeting with Francis for one of his most high-profile...

President Trump just landed in Rome, the next destination on the president's four-nation, five-stop tour of the Middle East and Europe, after wrapping up a two-day visit to Israel.(snip) President Trump meets with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Wednesday. The White House said Mr. Trump will celebrate the Catholic religion, as well as the contributions of Catholics to the U.S., and the president said in his weekly address that he was looking forward to talking with the Pope about "how Christian teachings can help put the world on a path to justice, freedom, and peace." This language is a...

Stacking the Deck: Francis creates 5 new Cardinals He announced it today, the consistory will be on June 28. The deck is getting stacked: They are Archbishop Omella of Barcelona, Spain; Bishop Arborelius of Stockholm, Sweden; Archbishop Zerbo, of Bamako, Mali; Apostolic Vicar Bp. Ling, of Pakse, Laos; and, bizarrely enough, from the Archdiocese of San Salvador, El Salvador, it's Auxiliary Bishop, Bp. Rosa Chavez (the Archbishop, named by Benedict XVI in 2008, is not a Cardinal).

ROME-Never one to shun surprises, Pope Francis today announced the creation of five new cardinals. The ceremony to induct the new Princes of the Church will take place on June 28, and the new cardinals will say Mass with him on the following day, the feast of Saints Peter and Paul.The fact that the five cardinals come from “diverse parts from the world,” expresses the “Catholicity of the church, diffused throughout the earth,” Pope Francis said.The five new cardinals are: Bishop Gregorio Rosa Chávez, auxiliary bishop of San Salvador in El Salvador;Archbishop Jean Zerbo, of Bamako, Mali;Bishop Anders Arborelius, of Stockholm,...

Below are excerpts from Pope Francis' Homily at Casa Santa Marta on Friday, May 19, 2017, on the same day as the speeches of the dubia signatories, Cardinal Burke and Cardinal Caffarra, at the Rome Life Forum. Is this Pope Francis' answer to the 'dubia' of the four cardinals?:  “So we are faced with two groups of people. The group of the apostles who want to discuss the problem, and the others who go and create problems. They divide, they divide the Church, they say that what the Apostles preached is not what Jesus said, that it is not the truth.” "There were...

Amid negotiations between the Holy See and China’s Communist government over the appointment of bishops, Pope Francis has asked the nation’s Catholics to remain “open to encounter and dialogue.” On May 24, which Pope Benedict declared a day of prayer for China’s Catholics, “we will all be united spiritually to the Catholic faithful of China, on the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary Help of Christians, venerated at the Sheshan Shrine at Shanghai,” Pope Francis said to the faithful following his May 21 Regina Coeli address. “To Chinese Catholics I say: let us raise our gaze to Mary Our Mother,...

Though Benedict is still living, Francis is trying to bury him. Upon his election in 2013, Francis began to pursue an agenda that Joseph Ratzinger had opposed throughout his career. A stress on the pastoral over against the doctrinal, a promotion of diverse disciplinary and doctrinal approaches in local churches, the opening of communion to the divorced and remarried—all these proposals were weighed and rejected by Ratzinger more than ten years ago in a heated debate with Walter Kasper. For better or worse, Francis now seeks to reverse Ratzinger. The conflict began with a 1992 letter concerning “the fundamental elements that are...

Is the Pope conversing here with his successor?  (God help us if he is!)Cardinal Pietro Parolin and the Knights of Malta  Has Bergoglio reached the end of his usefulness? And if so, what’s next on the agenda?  While most eyes are still lingering on the repellant business in Fatima, and watching the skies for fire from above, the rumour mill is firing up again. There are people around about who want information to come out, and they like to send it to me and to others we know who are doing similar work. I’ve also been having conversations with various...

Pope Francis thanked Genoa Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the outgoing president of the Italian Bishops' Conference, for his ten years of service notably "for the patience he has had with me." He added: "It is not easy to work with this Pope." Francis spoke at the opening of the general assembly of the Italian Bishops in Rome. Talking to the bishops he encouraged them to speak without fear, "I am ready to hear opinions that are unpleasant to me." In realty Francis has a long history of punishing or eliminating those who contradict or criticise him.

In his weekly address released today, President Donald Trump said he is looking forward to talking with Pope Francis about how Christian teaching can put the world on a path to freedom. Trump noted that after his visits in Saudi Arabia and Israel, he will be traveling to the Vatican. “I'll head to the Vatican,” said Trump, “where I will have the great honor of an audience with Pope Francis. I look forward to speaking with the Pope about how Christian teachings can help put the world on a path to justice, freedom, and peace.” {..snip..}

Fr. Arturo Sosa Abascal, a Venezuelan Communist and Modernist, is carrying out Francis’s agenda.

The wife of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R), Callista Gingrich, is going to be announced as the next ambassador to the Vatican, potentially this week, according to reports. The announcement is pending approval of the Office of Government Ethics, but is targeted to be made before President Donald Trump meets with Pope Francis on 24 May in Rome, according to the report. Newt Gingrich, a strong supporter of President Trump, acknowledged to reporters that his wife is “under consideration” for the Ambassadorship and he would be “very excited for her.” Have a terrific weekend.