Memo to Pope Francis: For God’s sake, take a break!
- August 13, 2016

Next week Texas is scheduled to execute a death row inmate who never killed anyone, and who may not even have known a crime was going to be committed. The execution is not only out of touch with Pope Francis and the U.S. bishops, but also growing public opinion against capital punishment.

Religious freedom advocates are praising the U.S. State Department’s International Religious Freedom report, but also calling on the administration to put teeth into its rhetoric with steps such as targeted sanctions, visa denials, and other measures.

The founder of Italy’s main Islamic organization says that since the country now recognizes civil unions for same-sex couples, there’s no reason that polygamous relationships shouldn’t also be afforded legal protection.

A Florida appeals court rejected a bid to end the state’s largest private school voucher program on Tuesday, an effort opposed by the state’s Catholic bishops. But experts say it’s unclear if the ruling will end the two-year-old legal battle.

Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki of Milwaukee called the violence that broke out in the city as part of protests over the fatal police shooting of an African-American man “a self-inflicted wound on the community,” adding that “violence is never tolerated.”

Nearly 500 years after Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the Castle Church door, the largest Lutheran denomination in the U.S. has approved a declaration recognizing “there are no longer church-dividing issues” on many points with the Roman Catholic Church.

When Pope Francis on Monday decried the suffering of women and the “shameful silence” surrounding persistent global conflicts, the fate of the Chibok girls in Nigeria, the suffering women of Iraq and Syria, and the ongoing bloodshed in the Democratic Republic of Congo were likely part of what he had in mind.

Archbishop Raphael Cheenath of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, India, who died Sunday at 81, was an ardent champion of the victims of anti-Christian persecution in today’s India, and his last wish was to see the martyrs who died in a 2008 orgy of violence declared saints of the Church.

Archbishop Raphael Cheenath of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, India, who died Sunday at 81, was an ardent champion of the victims of anti-Christian persecution in today’s India, and his last wish was to see the martyrs who died in a 2008 orgy of violence declared saints of the Church.
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When Pope Francis on Monday decried the suffering of women and the “shameful silence” surrounding persistent global conflicts, the fate of the Chibok girls in Nigeria, the suffering women of Iraq and Syria, and the ongoing bloodshed in the Democratic Republic of Congo were likely part of what he had in mind.
READ MOREActions generally speak louder than words, and rarely is that more evident than when a pope apologizes. Pope Francis has issued multiple apologies and suggested the need for even more. When he doe says “sorry,” he tries to align his words with his deeds, including recently sitting down with victims of prostitution rackets.
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Monday’s Feast of the Assumption had special significance in Baltimore, since for nearly two centuries – from the early years of the United States to the digital age – the feast has been celebrated at the cathedral named for Mary’s Assumption, the first Catholic cathedral built in the United States.
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For Father Gaston Ndaleghana Mumbere, the feast of the Assumption represents his hope for better tomorrows for his violence-plagued country, the Democratic Republic of Congo. Pope Francis mentioned his region of North Kivu on Monday, blasting a “shameful silence” surrounding the conflict.
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