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Book says businesspeople are fascinated, bewildered by Pope Francis

Father Martin Schlag says Pope Francis's focus on the good entrepreneur rather than the state makes him a natural ally of authentic U.S. capitalism. Schlag says the pope teaches "everyone in society has to work towards helping the poor, lifting them up — and therefore he is for the good entrepreneur, the good individual who creates work."

Expert says on liturgy, Pope isn't settling scores but harvesting fruits

A former executive director of the U.S. bishops' department on liturgy said Monday that by taking primary control over the translation of liturgical texts away from the Vatican and restoring it to local bishops' conferences, Pope Francis is doing more than settling historical scores from two decades ago. He is trying to "integrate" the Church's experience since Vatican II "and really balance everything."

British bishops lament "tragic consequences" of 50 years of legalized abortion
- Crux Staff
- October 23, 2017
Marking the 50th anniversary of the legalization of abortion in most of the UK, the bishops of the country said the “challenge that faces our society today is to recover an understanding of the immeasurable good of each unborn child and to value his or her life with even greater respect.” The bishops also spoke against efforts to strip conscience protections from medical and other healthcare personnel when it comes to abortion.
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Texas bishops criticize ACLU's support for teen immigrant's abortion
- Catholic News Service
- October 23, 2017
A 17-year-old from Central America is under federal custody in a shelter in Brownsville and seeking an abortion. She entered the United States in September and is in her 15th week of pregnancy. Texas bans most abortions after 20 weeks. “No one — the government, private individuals or organizations — should be forced to be complicit in abortion,” the bishops of Texas said in a statement.
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Priest among six arrested at Pennsylvania pipeline construction site
- Dennis Sadowski
- October 23, 2017
Father Bill Pickard was one of six people arrested and charged with defiant trespass during the second nonviolent protest in a week at land owned by the Adorers of the Blood of Christ in Columbia, Pennsylvania. The protests were designed to slow if not stop construction on a leg of a pipeline being built to carry gas from the Marcellus Shale in northeastern Pennsylvania.
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Philippines declares end to 5-month militant siege in Marawi
- Jim Gomez
- October 23, 2017
Hundreds of militants, many waving Islamic State group-style black flags, launched the siege on May 23 in Marawi, a bastion of Islamic faith in the south of the largely Catholic Philippines, by seizing the lakeside city’s central business district and outlying communities. Last week, troops killed the final two surviving leaders of the siege, and following their deaths, President Rodrigo Duterte traveled near the main scene of battle and declared Marawi had been essentially liberated.
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In Caribbean, church agencies help as process of rebuilding begins
- Ezra Fieser
- October 23, 2017
Thousands of families in the Caribbean are relying on aid agencies for basic needs more than a month after hurricanes Irma and Maria ripped through the region, killing dozens and causing billions of dollars in damage. Bishop Robert Llanos said the role of the Catholic Church “is to find the most vulnerable, those overlooked by other organizations or the government, to ensure those individuals are receiving the help that they need.”
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Can the Beatitudes inspire great cinema? These filmmakers think so.
- Catholic News Agency
- October 23, 2017
The “8beats” movie will bring together eight filmmaking teams from across North America who each have a story related to one of the Beatitudes. “Good art touches our deepest longings. This is universally true and that’s why we were attracted to the ‘8beats’ project,” said filmmakers Sean Schiavolin and David Kang of Eccel Films.
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Holy Land Christians must work together, pope tells patriarch
- Cindy Wooden
- October 23, 2017
Pope Francis told the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem that better cooperation is needed “in supporting Christian families and young people, so that they will not be forced to leave” the Holy Land. “By working together in this delicate area, the faithful of different confessions will also be able to grow in mutual knowledge and fraternal relations,” the pope said.
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Pope says amassing wealth while children die is 'idolatry that kills'
- Inés San Martín
- October 23, 2017
In his homily at morning Mass on Monday, Pope Francis returned to a familiar theme — how amassing wealth, both money and land, while children suffer and die, is a morally unacceptable form of idolatry. There’s an “idolatry that kills,” that makes “human sacrifices” Francis said, by those who are hungry of money, land and wealth, who have “a lot” in front of “hungry children who have no medicine, no education, who are abandoned.”
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After murder of Maltese journalist, can Church lead push for reform?

October 22, 2017

With a total population of just about 445,000 people, Malta is one of the world’s smallest sovereign nations, but both historically and today it’s punched well above its weight in Church affairs. In the wake of Monday’s shocking murder of an anti-corruption journalist, the Church there under Archbishop Charles Scicluna may be ideally positioned to inspire and sustain a serious push for reform.

Pope decries ‘eugenic tendency’ to eradicate people with disabilities

October 21, 2017

Pope Francis said Saturday that a “eugenic tendency” to suppress the “unborn with some imperfection” is the product of a “narcissistic and utilitarian vision.” A mentality of “rejection” prevails, as if people with disabilities weren’t capable of being happy, the pontiff said, addressing participants at an international conference on catechesis for people with disabilities.