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Rob Schmitt asked Tom Homan about the Pope’s harsh comments about the US’s planned mass deportation efforts. Mr. Homan told the Pope to concentrate on the Church because it’s a mess. Rob Schmitt: The Pope this week said that it’s a disgrace what we’re now doing with this new government, deporting all of these people we’ve got, you know. Obviously there’s, there’s going to be a lot of media searching for the sad stories here, trying to turn public opinion against this operation. What’s your message to the American people as you got to do this work?

Pope Francis has called out nuns with 'vinegar faces' and told them to avoid gossip in a bizarre tirade. The pope, 88, urged a group of Dominican nuns from the Union of St Catherine of Siena of the Missionaries to 'distance' themselves from tales. 'Gossip kills, gossip poisons. Please, no gossiping among you, none. And to ask this of a woman is heroic but, come on, let's move forward and no gossip', he said in one of his off-the-cuff speeches that are fast becoming part and parcel of his papacy. 'That's not something that helps to attract people. Vinegar is...

Most Catholics in all seven countries want the church to allow Catholics to use birth control. In most of the countries surveyed, majorities of Catholics also say the church should allow women to become priests.Opinion is more divided on whether the church should allow priests to get married. Views on whether the church should recognize the marriages of gay and lesbian couples vary among Catholics in the countries surveyed. Ten years ago, nearly all Catholics surveyed there (98%) expressed a favorable opinion of Francis, compared with 74% today.

Vatican’s top diplomat says Trump won’t change Pope’s line on ChinaROME – While congratulating Donald Trump and wishing him “much wisdom” in his second term, the Vatican’s top diplomat also bluntly declared Thursday that a controversial deal with China on the appointment of bishops will continue “regardless of reactions that may come from America” during a new Trump administration.Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, spoke to reporters on the sidelines of an event at Rome’s Jesuit-run Gregorian University on artificial intelligence and international humanitarian law.Asked about tensions that arose between the White House and the Vatican over...

ROME — Pope Francis has consecrated his monthly prayer intention to “the cry of the earth” this September, urging Christians to feel the earth’s “pain.” “If we took the planet’s temperature, it will tell us that the Earth has a fever,” the pontiff contends. “And it is sick, just like anyone who’s sick.” But are we listening to this pain?” he asks. “Do we hear the pain of the millions of victims of environmental catastrophes?” he continues. “The ones suffering most from the consequences of these disasters are the poor, those who are forced to leave their homes because of...

[Catholic Caucus] Rupnik artwork must come down, says top US cardinal as he breaks ranks with RomeAmerican Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston issued a statement saying he has asked the heads of all offices in the Roman Curia to take down the artwork of a famed priest and artist accused of abusing dozens of adult women.The statement came from the Pontifical Commission for Protecting Minors (PCPM), for which O’Malley serves as President, and said in that capacity, the cardinal has written to the heads of all Vatican departments asking that “pastoral prudence would prevent displaying artwork in a way that...

ROME — Pope Francis told CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell that conservatives are willfully blind and manifest a “suicidal attitude” in their narrowmindedness. In an interview set to air Sunday on 60 Minutes, the pope asserts that a conservative “is someone who clings to something and does not want to see beyond that. It is a suicidal attitude.” “One thing is to take tradition into account and consider situations from the past but quite another is to be closed up inside a dogmatic box,” he adds. The Pope addresses his conservative critics in the church. “Conservative is one who clings to...

ROME — Pope Francis commemorated Earth Day on Monday by warning that the planet is “falling into ruin” thanks to humanity’s failure to protect it. “Our generation has bequeathed many riches, but we have failed to protect the planet and we are not safeguarding peace,” the pontiff chided on X (former Twitter) “We are called to become artisans and caretakers of our common home, the Earth which is ‘falling into ruin,’” he declared, followed by “#EarthDay.”

Pope Francis has criticized certain conservative factions within the US Catholic Church, stating that they’ve replaced genuine faith with rigid ideology. He emphasized that a proper interpretation of Roman Catholic doctrine permits adaptation and change as time goes on. Pope Francis’ words highlighted the long-standing divisions within the US Catholic Church, which mainly consist of progressive and conservative factions fighting each other. Controversies have often centered around contentious issues like abortion and same-gender marriage.

“Quite Obvious to a Catholic”: Fernández Responds to Critics ImmediatelyIn a lightning-fast response to criticisms, the new head of the Office Formerly Known as Holy, Tucho “Heal Me with Your Mouth” Fernández responded to his comments about “the doctrine of the Holy Father.”Pentin summarises:Archbishop Fernández said popes have two charisms: safeguarding the “deposit of faith” and a “living and active gift” that is “at work” only in the person of the Holy Father and no one else.Now Fernández attempts to clarify:If you follow the argumentation above that sentence [about the Pope having two charisms] you will understand the meaning to...

ROME — Pope Francis has doubled down in his personal war on fossil fuels while condemning “extreme practices” such as fracking. It is time world leaders to “listen to science and institute a rapid and equitable transition to end the era of fossil fuel,” the pontiff urges in his message for the Feast of Creation, to be celebrated on September 1. It is “absurd to permit the continued exploration and expansion of fossil fuel infrastructures,” he insists. “Let us raise our voices to halt this injustice towards the poor and towards our children, who will bear the worst effects of...

Irish Catholics to protest as Archdiocese of Dublin hosts ‘ecumenical LGBT prayer service’The Irish Society for Christian Civilisation is organizing a prayerful 'rosary of reparation' outside the church during the service.DUBLIN (LifeSiteNews) — Irish Catholics will hold a prayerful protest outside a Catholic church in the Archdiocese of Dublin hosting an “ecumenical LGBT prayer service” for the second year running.The parish of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus in Dublin’s Donore Avenue proudly announced its upcoming LGBT ecumenical prayer service, planned for June 22.In an update given in the parish newsletter, parish priest Fr. David Corrigan SM stated the event...

I forgive Pope Benedict. I hope others can too.I first met Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 1994 when I was researching my book "Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church." I was getting ready to leave Rome and he was one of the last and most important interviews for the book. Because of illness, he had to cancel our first appointment and then graciously rescheduled me for a time when most Vatican officials were taking their siestas. At the end of the interview, I asked for his blessing — something I only did with two other Vatican...

Recalling Jesus’ birth in a stable, Pope Francis rebuked those “ravenous” for wealth and power at the expense of the vulnerable, including children, in a Christmas Eve homily decrying war, poverty and greedy consumerism. In the splendor of St. Peter’s Basilica, Francis presided over the evening Mass attended by about 7,000 faithful, including tourists and pilgrims, who flocked to the church on a warm evening and took their place behind rows of white-robed pontiffs. Francis drew lessons from the humility of Jesus’ first hours of life in a manger. “While animals feed in their stalls, men and women in our...

Pope Francis Prays U.N. Climate Summit Will ‘Unite the Human Family’ROME — Pope Francis said Wednesday that “Mother Earth groans and begs us to stop our abuse” of creation.Following his weekly general audience in the Vatican, the pontiff noted September 1 will mark the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, kicking off a month-long “Season of Creation,” culminating on October 4, the feast of St Francis of Assisi. The pope went on to express his wish that the call to listen to the voice of creation will “foster in everyone a concrete commitment to care for our...

The Pope called for more gun control in the United States after the horrific mass shooting at an elementary school in Texas, and a Cardinal in Chicago agreed. Pope Francis spoke about the shooting from St. Peter's Square at the Vatican during his weekly general audience. "I am praying for the children and adults who were killed, and for their families. It is time to say enough to the indiscriminate trafficking of arms," Francis said Wednesday. "Let us all make a commitment, so that tragedies like this cannot happen again," he added. Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago,...

ROME, Italy — Pope Francis accused the West of racism Friday, insisting migrants are “subdivided” by skin color and country of origin. “Refugees are subdivided,” the pontiff declared during a lengthy Good Friday interview on Italian television. “There’s first class, second class, skin color, [whether] they come from a developed country [or] one that is not developed.” “We are racists, we are racists. And this is bad,” the pope stated.

Pope says journalists accusing him of pro-Russian stance have a fetish for excrementROME – Pope Francis says journalists who accuse him of being pro-Russian for not condemning Vladimir Putin by name for his invasion of Ukraine are falling into “disinformation, slander, defamation, and coprophilia.”The pontiff was responding to a letter sent to him by Argentine journalist Gustavo Sylvestre, who works for the C5N television station, which is aligned with the current government of the South American country.“Coprophilia” is the technical term for a sexual fetish involving human excrement.In his letter to Sylvestre, Francis said some of the reporters accusing him...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis urged parents on Wednesday not to condemn their children if they are gay, in his latest gesture of outreach to the LGBTQ community which has long been marginalized by the Catholic hierarchy. Francis spoke off the cuff during his weekly Wednesday general audience dedicated to the figure of St. Joseph, the father of Jesus. Francis said he was thinking in particular about parents who are confronted with “sad” situations in their children’s lives. Citing parents who have to cope with children who are sick, imprisoned or who get killed in car accidents, Francis added:...

ROME — Humanity needs a global reset because the unjust, pre-pandemic world is not worth going back to, Pope Francis asserted Monday. In a message to the Paris Forum on Peace, the pope painted a dire picture of a pre-coronavirus world dominated by corruption, war, and capitalistic oppression. The reality we knew before the pandemic was that wealth and economic growth were reserved for a minority while millions of people were unable to meet the most basic needs and lead a dignified life,” Francis said, “a world in which our Earth was plundered by a myopic exploitation of resources, by...