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VATICAN CITY — Two-and-a-half years ago, Pope Francis was trying to fill a big job. For decades, that position — heading the powerful office that helps vet and select bishops — had gone to consummate Vatican insiders. But Francis had staked his papacy on expanding the boundaries of the Catholic Church. And he had his eye on a surprise contender: an American-born missionary operating in the coastal plains of Peru, some 6,000 miles from Rome.“You know that I am very happy in Peru,” the missionary, then-Bishop Robert Prevost, recalled telling Francis. “But if you ask me to take on a...

Leftist theologian attacks late pontiffMUNICH (ChurchMilitant.com) - A Marxist philosopher and dissident ex-priest is denigrating the theological legacy of Pope Benedict XVI. On Tuesday, the German magazine Publik-Forum published an article by Brazilian Liberation Theology proponent Leonardo Boff, who shared his Marxist perception of the late Pontiff. Boff declared that Benedict "proved to be the enemy of the friends of the poor." He berated the pope emeritus for focusing too heavily on traditional theology and not enthusiastically embracing Marxist theory. The laicized Brazilian has a long history of conflicts with Pope Benedict XVI, going back decades to when Benedict was...

Pope Demands Silicon Valley “In the Name of God” Censor “Hate Speech,” “Conspiracy Theories”Pope Francis thinks empowering giant corporations to silence free speech is Godly.Pope Francis invoked God in an effort to pressure Silicon Valley giants into censoring more content, including “hate speech” and “conspiracy theories.”Yes, really.The Pope made the remarks during a World Meeting of Popular Movements, a shadowy organization created to promote “social justice” and fight racism with the help of religious leaders.“In the name of God, I ask the technology giants to stop exploiting human weakness, people’s vulnerability, for the sake of profits without caring about the...

EDITOR'S NOTE: The opinions expressed in the following conversation are those of the book's author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of LifeSiteNews. September 1, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — Journalist Maike Hickson conducted an interview with author George Neumayr on his new book, The Political Pope. Neumayr offers insights into communist influences on Pope Francis.  Maike Hickson: Throughout your book, you make references to Pope Francis' relationship with communism or with certain communists in particular. Could you describe for us in general his attitude toward communism? George Neumayr: He tends to speak of communism in benign terms. He told the Italian press that he wasn't "offended"...

Next week, the California Department of Education will vote on a new statewide ethnic studies curriculum that advocates for the “decolonization” of American society and elevates Aztec religious symbolism—all in the service of a left-wing political ideology. The new program, called the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, seeks to extend the Left’s cultural dominance of California’s public university system, 50 years in the making, to the state’s entire primary and secondary education system, which consists of 10,000 public schools serving a total of 6 million students. In theoretical terms, the new ethnic studies curriculum is based on the “pedagogy of the...

Jeanine Áñez was detained in the early morning in her hometown of Trinidad and was flown to the capital, La Paz. She had earlier warned that officials were searching for her, terming it “abuse and persecution” in Twitter posts. The arrest of Áñez and warrants against numerous other former officials further worsened political tensions in a South American country already torn by a cascade of perceived wrongs suffered by both sides. Those include complaints that Morales had grown more authoritarian with nearly 13 years in office, that he illegally ran for a fourth reelection and then allegedly rigged the outcome,...

VATICAN CITY // The next pope will not be a “Francis II,” according to seasoned Vatican analyst Marco Politi, who shared his views in an interview with the French news agency AFP ahead of the conclave set to begin May 7. Politi, a prominent Italian journalist renowned for his progressive insights on Church affairs, responded to questions posed by AFP’s Vatican correspondent Clément Melki regarding the direction the cardinal electors may take. In his view, the successor to Pope Francis will mark a departure from the current pontificate’s distinctive approach. “We know there will be no Francis II,” he said,...

Even as the universal Church grieves the death of Pope Francis and prepares for the conclave to elect his successor, Chinese authorities are moving forward with episcopal appointments, signaling their determination to operate independently of Rome. In the Diocese of Shanghai, Father Wu Jianlin was confirmed April 28 as auxiliary bishop, AsiaNews reported. The next day, officials in the Diocese of Xinxiang chose Father Li Janlin for the same role. Both selections were made through a state-managed process involving only a single candidate — an approach Beijing continues to use despite its 2018 agreement with the Vatican on episcopal appointments.The...

China did not send any delegation to Pope Francis’ funeral, a fact that carries heavy potential consequences and implications in light of the late pope’s efforts to engage with the communist country, according to one Catholic anthropologist. The country’s decision to not send anyone to the April 26 funeral was akin to “a slap to Pope Francis,” wrote Michael Chambon in an April 28 op-ed for Union of Catholic Asia (UCA) News. “From the very beginning of his papacy, Pope Francis showed particular attention to China,” Chambon wrote. He pointed to how Pope Francis often expressed his love for the...

THE outpouring of grief following the death of Pope Francis was like a wall of noise, a practically uninterrupted blanket of praise, a seamless garment of tribute. Even his enemies fought to temper their public comments, undoubtedly conscious of the enduring Latin injunction de mortuis nil nisi bonum, that one must not speak ill of the dead. It was only in private conversations that one could truly gauge the true sentiments of rank-and-file Catholics. One devout woman, orthodox but very much in the mainstream of the Church, confided to me that when she heard of the death of Francis on...

First lady Melania Trump encouraged the President to start shaking hands with other world leaders during Pope Francis’ funeral Saturday. At one point during the three-hour Catholic mass, attendees were invited to share the “sign of peace” by shaking hands with one another. “Donald, look left,” Melania whispered, according to forensic lip reader Jeremy Freeman. Following the first lady’s lead, Trump turned to Estonian President Alar Karis and Spain’s King Felipe VI, saying, “Great to see you, great to see you,” while shaking their hands, Freeman said. Turning to his right, Trump then shakes hands with Finnish President Alexander Stubb,...

Numerous world leaders and royals have gathered in Rome for Pope Francis' funeral. Among the most prominent figures at the Vatican's St Peter's Square on Saturday morning were Prince William, US President Donald Trump and his predecessor Joe Biden, Britain's Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron. Their attendance comes at a fragile time for international diplomacy, with Trump meeting Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky before the service. So among the VIP attendees, who sat next to whom? Trump was in a front-row seat near Francis' coffin, alongside his wife Melania Trump, across the aisle from Macron and...

VIDEOIt sure looks like something strange happened when Joe Biden leaned forward to pray during the Pope's funeral. Notice that Jill Biden right away moved forward to tell Joe something. The people around them also noticed something strange. Did they also smell something strange? Was it something embarrassing? Something like what happened when he previously visited Vatican City? Accidents happen and sometimes they do repeat themselves in the same places.

Menu ADVERTISEMENT JFK’s Radical Grandson Accuses Vice President J.D. Vance of ‘Killing the Pope’ in Unhinged Online Rant by Jim Hᴏft Apr. 23, 2025 8:00 am265 Comments TruthTweetShareGettrGab Credit: Office of the Vice President / X Jack Schlossberg—grandson of former President John F. Kennedy—lashed out on social media Monday morning, accusing Vice President J.D. Vance of “killing the pope” just hours after the Vatican announced the death of Pope Francis. The accusation comes after Pope Francis’s passing, ending his 12-year tenure as head of the Roman Catholic Church. Vance, a Catholic convert since 2019, had a brief private meeting with...

On Sunday Pope Francis publicly blessed the Easter crowds from the balcony of St Peter's Basilica and privately received the Vice President of the United States to give Mr Vance's children a gift of Kinder Eggs. Yes, really: those Kinder Eggs. The following morning, the Holy Father died at his residence in the Vatican. If the choice of Easter chocolate was a conscious jest on the part of the Pontiff, it was an excellent one, and a reminder that even in America chest-thumping about liberty will only take you so far. So I thank him for that. Other than his...

As you’ve likely heard by now, Pope Francis has died. The 88-year-old progressive Pope had been battling pneumonia and passed away just one day after Easter. Many viewed Francis as “Obama’s Pope,” a nickname he got thanks to long-running rumors that Obama played a role in replacing traditionalist Pope Benedict with the more liberal Francis. And let’s be honest—after the Wikileaks Podesta/DNC dump exposed the Dem Party’s obsession with infiltrating the Catholic Church, those rumors didn’t seem so far-fetched. These tweets from 2016 are a reminder of the backlash: We now know that Dems created fake Catholic groups to try...

President Donald Trump announced that he and First Lady Melania Trump would be attending Pope Francis’s funeral after the Vatican announced early Monday that the Pope had died at the age of 88. “Melania and I will be going to the funeral of Pope Francis, in Rome,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “We look forward to being there!” As Breitbart News previously reported, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had died on Easter Monday after leading the Catholic Church for 12 years. A papal conclave will gather in order to select a successor and a new Pontiff.

Irish Saint Malachy, the 12th-century bishop of Armagh, prophesied that there would be only one more pope after Benedict.Editor's Note: Vatican officials confirmed that Pope Francis died on Monday, April 21. He was 88 years old. We are resharing this eerie prophecy issued put forth by the 12th-century Bishop of Armagh, now a saint.The prophecies of the Irish Saint Malachy (1094-1148), the 12th-century bishop of Armagh, have thrilled and dismayed readers for centuries. In a series of 112 cryptic Latin phrases, the Irish saint "predicts" the Roman Catholic popes. He predicted there would be only one more pope after Benedict,...

Cardinals will gather in Rome to elect successor to Pope FrancisHe was the great disruptor to some and the radical modernizer the Roman Catholic Church desperately needed to others. The remarkable — and at times turbulent — 12-year papacy of Pope Francis, who died Monday, was marked by ambitious reforms, internal division and global controversy. In the coming days, cardinals from every corner of the Catholic world will begin the process of electing a successor. In the Sistine Chapel, under the magnificent Last Judgment painted by Michelangelo half a millennia ago, 137 cardinal electors will convene and begin casting their...

Eternal and Just Lord, You raise up leaders in every age, and permit even flawed vessels to bear great weight. Receive the soul of Your servant, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who walked a path both revered and contested, and whose words shaped many, though not all in peace. In the quiet where truth stands uncloaked, may he now see clearly what once was dim. Where zeal was misplaced, may Your mercy abound. Where compassion blurred boundaries, may Your justice now restore what was unsettled. For those he shepherded, and those he unsettled— for every soul stirred by his charge— let Your...