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Vatican City (AFP) - The Vatican's first accord with the Palestinians -- an agreement that Israel has attacked as counter-productive to the Middle East peace process -- has come into force, the Holy See announced Saturday. The accord was signed in June, just over two years after the Roman Catholic Church recognised the Palestinian territories as a sovereign state in February 2013. The accord covers the operation of the Church in areas of the Holy Land under Palestinian control but its significance has been seen in broader terms as a symbol of growing international backing for a Palestinian state. "With...

full title: TurkeyÂ’s Erdogan to meet with Pope, thank him for opposing TrumpÂ’s recognition of Jerusalem as IsraelÂ’s capital. The United StatesÂ’ controversial recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is expected to dominate talks between President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan and Pope Francis on the presidentÂ’s first trip to the Vatican on Sunday. According to presidential sources, ErdoÄŸan will thank Pope Francis for his stance against U.S. President Donald TrumpÂ’s decision and his efforts to protect the status quo in the holy city. The Turkish president previously expressed his appreciation to Pope Francis who strongly opposed the bitterly-contested move...

Vice President JD Vance met with Pope Francis at the pontiff’s residence in Rome on Sunday, the Vatican said, in a previously unannounced visit during Easter celebrations.The Vatican said the meeting was a “brief” exchange of Easter wishes that lasted “a few minutes.” In a photograph released by the Vatican, the pope is seated in a wheelchair opposite Mr. Vance as the pair talk.The meeting came after the pope criticized the Trump administration’s deportation policies and urged Catholics to reject anti-immigrant narratives, in an unusually direct attack on the American government.The rebuke came in the form of an open letter...

I just learned of the passing of Pope Francis. My heart goes out to the millions of Christians all over the world who loved him. I was happy to see him yesterday, though he was obviously very ill. But I’ll always remember him for the below homily he gave in the very early days of COVID. It was really quite beautiful. May God rest his soul. https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2020/documents/papa-francesco_20200327_omelia-epidemia.html

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has died...

I think we don’t really realize what’s happening. When British PM Keir Starmer visited the White House, he rejected J.D. Vance’s claim that free speech is restricted in Britain. “We’ve had free speech for a very long time in the UK,” Starmer retorted, “and it will last for a very long time”. Unfortunately, Starmer’s Home Office seems not to have taken notice. Because it has just blocked a famous French writer from entering the UK to give a speech on the dangers of mass immigration, while in the courts British lawyers are trying to legalise Hamas. The writer is Renaud...

Last Sunday the Vatican released the first photograph of Pope Francis since his ordeal began. He was wearing a stole around his neck, indicating that he had concelebrated mass in the chapel of the Gemelli hospital. Admittedly, all he had to do was raise his hand and whisper a few words of consecration, but it would have been impossible to take such a photo a week earlier, when Vatican-watchers were checking their phones hourly to discover whether the See of Peter had become vacant.Francis is still very ill, of course, and everyone noticed that the…Last Sunday the Vatican released the...

Pope Francis is seriously worried about his health after being hospitalized with severe bronchitis, and is rushing to tie up loose ends ahead of the battle to succeed him. The pope was admitted to a special ward earlier this month in Gemelli Hospital in Rome with a respiratory infection, and he has since been forced to cancel a number of public appearances. It’s the latest health crisis for the 88-year-old pontiff, who had part of a lung removed as a young man and has become increasingly fragile in recent years. The Holy See press office has trickled out continuous updates,...

Trump border czar rebukes Pope Francis, tells Raymond Arroyo: ‘Trump’s policies are saving lives’‘When President Trump has illegal immigration down 90 percent, how many women are not being sexually assaulted? How many children are not dying crossing the river? How many women and children are not dying from fentanyl poisonings?’ Trump border chief Tom Homan asked.President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said that Trump’s policies containing illegal immigration are “saving lives,” in response to Pope Francis’ criticism.In an interview on Raymond Arroyo’s show The World Over, Homan was asked about his response to Pope Francis’s recent letter to the...

An Italian priest has been excommunicated after he said publicly that he believed Pope Francis is an “antipope”. Fr Natale Santonocito, 61, parish priest of San Cesarea Church, south east of Rome, was investigated after posting several online videos in which he says that Francis has never been pope. “The Pope is not the Pope,” he says in one of them. “He never was.” The priest, who was ordained in 2023, has been removed from active ministry in the Diocese of Tivoli and Palestrina and automatically excommunicated. He took to YouTube on Wednesday to issue a valedictory statement. “I have...

The Vatican City State has toughened sanctions for those who try to illegally enter its territory in areas where free access is not allowed. In a decree issued last month by the Holy See, the monetary sanctions and prison sentences for those who violate the strict security regulations of Vatican City have been considerably increased. The document, signed by Cardinal Fernando Vérguez Alzaga, president of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, provides for monetary fines ranging from 10,000 to 25,000 euros (about $10,200 to $25,700) and prison sentences ranging from one to four years. These fines will apply especially...

If Team Biden had called out the phony reports of famine and "genocide" from the start, and fully backed Israel's defensive war, the fighting might well have ended by now, writes the Post Editorial Board. Team Biden is slamming a report that warns of famine in northern Gaza. What a difference an election makes. Team Biden is blasting claims of famine in Gaza ... Indeed, if Team Biden had called out the phony reports of famine and “genocide” from the start, and fully backed Israel’s defensive war, the fighting might well have ended by now. On the bright side: A...

Thousands of pallets of humanitarian aid stacked at the Gaza border — from sacks of flour to blankets and canned food — are awaiting delivery by relief organizations that are unwilling to send supply trucks likely to be looted by Hamas terrorists and other street criminals. The aid, coming in on trucks from Jordan, Egypt and the West Bank, has already been inspected by the Israel Defense Forces before entering Gaza, where the international community and humanitarian organizations are in charge of delivering the assistance to Palestinians. But the path from the Israel-Gaza border to where the aid is needed...

President Biden has less than a month to go until his one-term presidency ends, and he is feeling reflective. He is voicing regrets about his decision not to sign his name to Covid relief checks and about his longtime reputation — once considered a virtue — of being the poorest lawmaker in Congress. And now, with a planned visit to meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican next month, the president is signaling that he may have additional issues on his mind. The visit, White House officials said as they issued a readout on Mr. Biden’s call with the pope...

ROME — Pope Francis called for a global ceasefire this weekend while again decrying Israel’s “cruelty” in dealing with Palestinians in Gaza. “Let us pray for a ceasefire on all war fronts, in Ukraine, the Holy Land, in all the Middle East and the entire world, at Christmas,” the pontiff said in his weekly Angelus address Sunday. “And with sorrow I think of Gaza, of so much cruelty; of the children machine-gunned, the bombing of schools and hospitals… So much cruelty!”

Why Did Rod Dreher Become Eastern Orthodox?Editor’s note: we appeal with love and respect to our separated brother, Mr. Rod Dreher, and all Catholics who have questioned or lost their faith in the ancient doctrine of the Apostolic See and taken refuge in one of the Greek schisms. This piece is authored by a Russian Orthodox Christian who reconciled with Rome after a thorough study of the Fathers and writes from Russia.The United States and Russia are not now on best terms. Yet, no compatriot of mine would deny you Yankees, your taste for a good bargain. So, as a...

A top Italian history professor has caused outrage after he claimed that the Roman Empire fell due to the rise of homosexuality.Roberto De Mattei, 63, a devout Roman Catholic, had already raised eyebrows by saying the Japan tsunami was "divine punishment", and now with his latest claim he faces calls to resign."The collapse of the Roman Empire and the arrival of the Barbarians was due to the spread of homosexuality," the Daily Mail quoted the vice-president of Italy's prestigious Centre for National Research as saying in a radio interview."The Roman colony of Carthage was a paradise for homosexuals and they...

[Catholic Caucus] Vatican on the Brink of Bankruptcy Due to Dramatic Decline in Global Donations Under Pope Francis’ Leadership: ReportThe Vatican, the spiritual and administrative heart of the Catholic Church, faces an unprecedented financial crisis, with reports suggesting it is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.A combination of plummeting revenues, disillusioned donors, and mismanagement under Pope Francis has left the institution struggling to meet its pension obligations, Daily Express reported.In 2023, the Vatican reported an operating deficit of $87 million, an increase of $5.3 million from the previous year. The shortfall stems largely from a dramatic decline in global donations...

Pope Francis laments ‘ecological debt,’ repeats call for ‘elimination’ of death penaltyPope Francis highlighted the three themes of the eradication of debt, the death penalty, and world hunger during his message for the 2025 World Day of Peace.Issuing a message for the 2025 World Day of Peace, Pope Francis renewed calls for global peace, the tackling of climate change issues, and the “elimination” of the death penalty.Entitled “Forgive us our trespasses: grant us your peace,” Francis’ message for the annual World Day of Peace – January 1, 2025 – focused on certain of his favored talking points, as well as...

Pope Francis unveiled the annual nativity scene at the Vatican over the weekend - raising some eyebrows in the process. A noticeable addition this year saw the seminal scene's baby Jesus draped in a keffiyeh - a traditional scarf used by Palestinians as a national symbol. Jesus was born into a Jewish family in Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago - and his death triggered the birth of Christianity. A statement from the wheelchair-bound pontiff, moreover, saw him humbly ask onlookers for peace in the Middle East, weeks after he called for an investigation into what he said may be a...