Most Popular News Within Last 30 Days
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German Catholics’ manifesto opposes bishops’ Synodal Path
Pope Francis today received a document signed by almost 6,000 German Catholics, expressing opposition to the “Synodal Path” being pursued by the German episcopal conference. The...
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Pope gives homily—but does not preside—at Te Deum for year’s end
Pope Francis, who was scheduled to preside at the singing of the Te Deum in St. Peter’s basilica on December 31, bowed out of that role, but delivered a homily at the annual service. The...3
Vaccination in fore of Pope’s annual address to diplomatic corps
In his annual address to the ambassadors accredited to the Holy See, Pope Francis gave top billing to Covid vaccination, saying that vaccines are “the most reasonable solution for the...4
‘Savage wolves’: Patriarch of Alexandria denounces actions of Russian Orthodox Church in Africa
Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria, who has led the Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria since 2004, has issued an encyclical letter denouncing the Moscow Patriarchate after the latter created Russian Orthodox ecclesiastical structures in Africa and received over 100 Alexandrian clergy into the Russian church.Both patriarchates are among the autocephalous churches that make up Eastern Orthodoxy.
“The Russian Church, wanting to increase its power and prestige in the Orthodox world, using secular power and —sometimes —violence, began to trample and ‘enslave’ neighboring Orthodox churches,” Patriarch Theodore wrote. The Moscow Patriarchate’s recent action “is utterly hostile to our Patriarchate, as it is contrary to many other canons which forbid one church from violating the borders of another.”
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Democrats favor penalties for unvaccinated, poll shows
Most Americans who identify with the Democratic party would favor enforced penalties for those who are not vaccinated, according to a new Rasmussen poll.The poll also found that many Democrats—although not a majority—would favor prison terms for the unvaccinated, and even removing children from their custody.
Rasmussen found that 77% of self-identified Democrats support President Biden’s campaign for vaccine mandates, but only 22% of Republicans.
Among the poll results:
- 55% of Democrats favor fines for the unvaccinated;
- 59% say the unvaccinated should be “confined to their homes”—essentially under house arrest—except in emergencies;
- 48% say government should be allowed to fine or imprison people who question the effectiveness of Covid vaccines;
- 45% would approve a plan to let the unvaccinated “temporarily live in designated facilities or locations” (internment camps?) and
- 29% would endorse “temporarily removing parents’ custody of their children if parents refuse to take the COVID-19 vaccine.”
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News Analysis: Abuse report faults Munich leadership of Pope Benedict, Cardinal Marx
A long-awaited report by a leading German law firm has criticized Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI for his handling of sex-abuse cases while he was Archbishop of Munich. The same report also criticized...7
Vatican official: Pope is ‘trying to disconnect the leadership role from ordination’
The Wall Street Journal has interviewed Sister Nathalie Becquart, XMCJ. In February, Pope Francis named her an Undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops.“What Pope Francis is doing here at the Vatican . . . is trying to disconnect the leadership role from ordination,” she said, as she commented on the appointment of religious sisters and laity to leadership roles. “The Vatican is like a big cargo ship, it’s not just a small sailing boat. It doesn’t move quickly, you have to be patient.”
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‘Adoration comes from humility of heart,’ Pope tells pilgrims
In his Angelus address (video) on January 6, the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, Pope Francis reflected on the prostration of the Magi before the child Jesus.If “we abandon our pretense of self-sufficiency, if we make ourselves little inside, we will then rediscover the wonder of worshipping Jesus, because adoration comes from humility of heart,” Pope Francis said to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square. “May the Virgin Mary, the servant of the Lord, teach us to rediscover our vital need for humility and the vibrant desire to worship.”
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In handwritten letter, Pope Francis praises Sister Gramick’s 50 years of ministry
Pope Francis has written a letter to Sister Jeannine Gramick, co-founder of New Ways Ministry, the subject of a 1999 notification by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and a 2010 statement by the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.“I am thinking of your 50 years of ministry, which were 50 years with this ‘style of God,’ 50 years of closeness, of compassion and of tenderness,” Pope Francis wrote on December 10. “You have not been afraid of ‘closeness,’ and in getting close you did it ‘suffering with’ and without condemning anyone, but with the ‘tenderness’ of a sister and a mother. Thank you, Sister Jeannine, for all your closeness, compassion and tenderness.”
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