View image | gettyimages.com This news popped up several days ago, and it’s now getting wider attention: Speaking to a global gathering of priests, Pope Francis signaled an openness to changing the date of Easter in the West so that all Christians around the world could celebrate the feast on the same day.The Pope on [Read More…]
What they’ve said: a brief roundup of reaction to Laudato Si’
June 19, 2015 by
Here you go. John Allen: Laudato Si seems destined to go down as a major turning point, the moment when environmentalism claimed pride of place on a par with the dignity of human life and economic justice as a cornerstone of Catholic social teaching. It also immediately makes the Catholic Church arguably the leading moral voice [Read More…]
Who said that?
June 18, 2015 by
Francis isn’t the first pope to speak out about the environment—though he is the first to pen an encyclical devoted to the topic. And it turns out, his views aren’t that different from his predecessors. So, a quick quiz. Which pope said which quote? John Paul, Benedict or Francis? 1.“Preservation of the environment, promotion of [Read More…]
Pope appoints renowned atheist and population control advocate to Pontifical Academy of Sciences
June 17, 2015 by
This tidbit popped up on the VIS website: Vatican City, 17 June 2015 (VIS) – The Holy Father has appointed Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, professor of theoretical physics at the University of Potsdam and director of the Institute for Climate Impact in Potsdam, Federal Republic of Germany, as ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. [Read More…]
Francis: encyclical will be part of Church’s social doctrine
June 17, 2015 by
From Vatican Radio: Pope Francis asked the faithful and all persons of good will to receive his new Encyclical letter on the care of creation with open hearts. Speaking to pilgrims and tourists gathered for his weekly General Audience on the eve of the much-anticipated document’s official release, Pope Francis said, “Tomorrow, as you know, [Read More…]
Holy See pulls press credentials for prominent Vatican journalist over encyclical leak
June 16, 2015 by
This news broke this morning on Twitter, following yesterday’s leak of a draft of the new encyclical: Sandro Magister of @espressonline loses his @HolySeePress credentials for disclosing embargoed draft of Encyclical. pic.twitter.com/gcaINTv5eh — Fr. Manuel Dorantes (@TweetingPriest) June 16, 2015 Details (roughly translated): In a press release, Federico Lombardi reported that he was withdrawing the [Read More…]
Forget “Jurassic World” — here’s the blockbuster everyone is waiting for this summer
June 14, 2015 by
Read all about it here. But catch the trailer below. [Read more…]
Pope to priests: “A Church where no discussions take place is a dead Church” — UPDATED
June 12, 2015 by
He gave a remarkable talk today to priests gathered in Rome — most of it unscripted. It sounds like it was extraordinary, in every sense. Catholic News Service has a good Twitter overview right here. (It includes at the bottom the full video.) And Rome Reports offers this brief report that gives a sense of the [Read More…]
Pope to meet publicly with married gay activist at roundtable next month
June 12, 2015 by
Details: Pope Francis is slated to hold his first public meeting with a married gay activist during a visit to Paraguay in July. The activist is Simón Cazal, executive director of the Paraguayan LGBT rights group SOMOSGAY, who married another SOMOSGAY activist, Sergio López, in neighboring Argentina in 2012. Though the pope has reportedly held pastoral [Read More…]
The upcoming encyclical: “An important event in the life of the universal church”
June 10, 2015 by
View image | gettyimages.com A couple of high profile people have been talking about the pope’s upcoming encyclical on the environment and climate change. Of course, nobody talking about it has even read the document, so it’s impossible to know what it contains. But what we do know right now is that the ideas expressed in an encyclical—any encyclical—are [Read More…]
