Senators in Pope Francis’ native Argentina voted against a bill that would have legalized abortion on demand until week 14 of a pregnancy early Aug. 9, following a marathon session that came as the latest twist in a three-month national debate marked with massive public rallies both in favor and against the measure.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the death penalty now is no longer admissible under any circumstances.
After an investigation into alleged irregularities in the Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of 57-year-old Auxiliary Bishop Juan Jose Pineda Fasquelle.
Despite repeated attempts to distance himself from his country’s sexual abuse crisis, including recently asserting there’s a climate of “slander” against the Catholic Church, Chilean Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati of Santiago is facing mounting scrutiny for his role in the scandals both from outside the Church and within.
As war continues to threaten the land of Jesus’ birth and to undermine the existence of Christian communities there, the international community must learn from the errors of the past and do more to bring lasting peace to the Middle East, Pope Francis said.
Don’t waste your time being involved in palace intrigue, and focus solely on serving Christ and his Church, was Pope Francis’s message to the 14 new cardinals he created on Thursday.
After a day of touting ways in which Christians might share in greater unity, that commitment to coming together didn’t prevent Pope Francis from backing the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog in its decision to insist on caution regarding proposals for intercommunion with Protestants.
While the purpose of Pope Francis’s trip to Geneva on Thursday was spiritual diplomacy, he also engaged in a bit of global peacemaking when he greeted a delegation of North and South Koreans earlier today.
In an address to nearly 150 Christian leaders from around the world on Thursday, Pope Francis called for a “new ecumenical spring” to redefine efforts towards unity – one marked not by tailoring the faith to “worldly ways of thinking,” but rather, one made possible by an attractive witness to the joy of the Gospel.
Speaking to a crowd of an estimated 40,000 Swiss Catholics on Thursday, Pope Francis used the “Our Father” as a tool for reclaiming Christian roots and values.
