Free Republic

An Italian court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Cardinal Angelo Becciu which alleged that unfavorable media coverage cost him his chance to be pope.An Italian court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Cardinal Angelo Becciu which alleged that unfavorable media coverage cost him his chance to be pope. After recent legal setbacks in two lawsuits, the cardinal is ordered to pay thousands in damages and court costs. Italian journalists reported Wednesday that Becciu’s lawsuit against Italian newsmagazine L’Espresso has been dismissed in a civil court of Sanssari, in Sardinia. A judge ordered the cardinal to pay the magazine’s legal...

ROME — Pope Francis condemned conservative populists Sunday, accusing them of exploiting people’s real needs with “facile and hasty solutions.” “Let us not listen to prophets of doom,” the pontiff said in his homily for the World Day of the Poor. “Let us not be enchanted by the sirens of populism, which exploit people’s real needs by facile and hasty solutions.” “Let us not follow the false ‘messiahs’ who, in the name of profit, proclaim recipes useful only for increasing the wealth of a few, while condemning the poor to the margins of society,” he urged. Populists exploit people’s fears,...

The chief of the Anglesey Druid Order, Kristoffer Hughes, is giving the sermon at a service of thanksgiving in St Asaph’s Cathedral on 13 November, for those who have donated their organ and body tissues to help others survive. He told a Religion Media Centre briefing that the Anglican clergy wanted the service to be multifaith and to include the indigenous spiritual tradition of Wales. He had seen a resurgence of interest in the spirituality connected with the ancient order of Druids, which accompanied increased observances of folk festivals and a rise in the number of people learning Welsh. He...