In an unprecedented response to the “grave threat” facing all peoples worldwide from climate change, Pope Francis and some 40 faith leaders have joined in an appeal for urgent action.
Gerard O’Connell
Gerard O’Connell is America’s senior Vatican correspondent and author of The Election of Pope Francis: An Inside Story of the Conclave That Changed History. He has been covering the Vatican since 1985.
Posted inFaith, Podcasts
Why don’t the U.S. bishops defend Pope Francis from American media attacks?
“I found it sad that the pope has to defend himself,” Gerard O’Connell said this week on Inside the Vatican. “EWTN is based in the United States. Can not the [U.S.] Catholic bishops’ conference defend the pope on this?”
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis responds to attacks from EWTN, other church critics: ‘They are the work of the devil.’
“I personally deserve attacks and insults because I am a sinner, but the church does not deserve them. They are the work of the devil,” the pope said to the Jesuits of Slovakia on his recent trip.
Posted inDispatches, Faith
Pope Francis: Rigidity in the church ‘is a sin against the patience of God’
“There is much resistance to overcome the image of a church rigidly divided between leaders and subordinates, between those who teach and those who have to learn,” the pope said during an audience with the faithful from the Diocese of Rome.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis: ‘I have never denied Communion to anyone.’
It was a significant revelation from Pope Francis, coming at a time when a group of bishops in the United States are pushing to deny Communion to pro-choice politicians, including President Joe Biden.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis to populist leaders: Do not use the cross for political purposes
The pope’s message on the meaning of the cross resonated with the Greek Catholic community, whose members suffered harsh persecution and were prohibited to exist under Czechoslovakia’s Communist rule from 1948 to 1989.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis urged priests to limit homilies to 10 minutes in a speech to religious in Slovakia
On his second day in Bratislava, Pope Francis called Slovakia “to be a message of peace in the heart of Europe” and the church to evangelize with “freedom, creativity, and dialogue.”
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis in Budapest calls on the Hungarian Catholic Church and its pastors ‘to be builders of bridges and promoters of dialogue’
Pope Francis called on this majority Christian nation to stop closing in on itself and to open its arms and hearts to peoples of other ethnic backgrounds, religions and cultures.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
What to expect from Pope Francis’ trip to Hungary and Slovakia
It will be a demanding trip health-wise for the 84-year-old pontiff coming just two months after his colon operation on July 4.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Would Francis have become pope if 9/11 hadn’t happened?
The 9/11 attack not only changed world history but also impacted the future of the Catholic Church.