Free Republic

“#NotMyPope.” In the wake of Pope Francis’ equivocal response to the murder of a French priest by two Islamic jihadists, that’s the top trending hashtag in France and in Belgium. Which raises a question: Is the Pope doing more harm than good by continuing to deny—in the face of a mountain of evidence—that Islam has anything to do with violence? As I’ve noted several times in the past, the Church’s handling of the Islamic crisis may prove to be far more scandalous than its handling of the sex abuse crisis. The main scandal surrounding the revelation of priestly sex abuse...

Stephanie Kirchgaessner Sunday 6 September 2015 21.02 EDT S Pope Francis has called on every religious community across Europe to do their part to stem the refugee crisis and offer sanctuary to migrant families. In front of a crowd of thousands of people in St Peter’s Square, the Roman Catholic leader said it was not enough to simply encourage the refugees with calls for courage and patience. Instead, he suggested, tangible demonstrations of help were required. “May every parish, every religious community, every monastery, every sanctuary of Europe, take in one family,” he said.

In an interview with Portugal-based Radio Renascença aired yesterday, Pope Francis declared that the current refugee crisis in Europe is being caused by a “bad, unjust” socio-economic system that worships “the god of money.” In the interview, where questions were posed in Portuguese and the responses were given by Pope Francis in Spanish, the pontiff said coveting money will bring about both human and ecological ruin: “This is the tip of the iceberg. We see these refugees, these poor people who are escaping from war, escaping from hunger, but that’s the tip of the iceberg. But underlying that is the...

The U.S.-Mexico border may someday see a high-profile crosser – Pope Francis. The intrepid pontiff raised the possibility that among his future trips could be entering the U.S. border from Mexico. The pope, who made the comment while flying back recently from the Philippines, said he would do it to show solidarity with immigrants, according to the Latin Post. "To enter the U.S. from the Mexico border would be a beautiful sign of brotherhood and help for immigrants," the pope said, according to the Post and other outlets. There are some logistical factors, however, that the pope indicated he would have...