Pope Francis

Islam’s atrocities don’t fit his narrative.

Pope Francis, terminally naïve about Islam, believes he has a true understanding of the faith based partly on the reassurances given him by his new friend, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb. “War is deceit,” says Muhammad in a famous hadith, and Al-Tayeb has been cheerfully deceiving the Pope every chance he gets. Pope Francis has learned a lot from Al-Tayeb. He insists in his new book, Non Sei Solo: Sfide, Risposte, Speranze (You Are Not Alone: Challenges, Answers, Hopes), that “either you are a terrorist or you are a Muslim.” A “true” Muslim, he thinks, cannot be a terrorist. No one has pointed out to the Pope that Muhammad himself says in another hadith that “I have been made victorious through terror.” (Bukhari 4:52.220) And Muhammad is the Perfect Man and the Model of Conduct, whose behavior is to be emulated by Muslims.

It is faintly odd to read him lecturing us on the rate of glacial melting and the absorption of carbon dioxide by the oceans

At last, the Pope is being taken seriously when he warns of moral degeneracy — well, sort of. When popes have tried to preach to us about abortion, promiscuity, materialism, drugs and selfish lifestyles, they have widely been treated as old fools or bigoted moralists who want to stop us from having fun and being who we are.

At last, the Pope is being taken seriously when he warns of moral degeneracy – well, sort of. When Popes have tried to preach to us about abortion, promiscuity, materialism, drugs and selfish lifestyles, they have widely been treated as old fools or bigoted moralists who want to stop us having fun and being who we are.

VATICAN CITY — Warning that “the world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point,” Pope Francis issued a renewed call for climate action Wednesday, singling out the United States for “irresponsible” Western excess and decrying the “weakness” of world leaders for failing to take bold steps.

Eight years after his landmark environmental encyclical, Laudato Si’, in which he scolded climate change deniers and called for an “ecological conversion” among the faithful, Francis released a follow-up, known as an apostolic exhortation. Considered a lower-level document, it was far more concise — 12 pages, compared with his 180-page encyclical. Its impact, too, may be more limited.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has suggested there could be ways to bless same-sex unions, responding to five conservative cardinals who challenged him to affirm church teaching on homosexuality ahead of a big meeting where LGBTQ+ Catholics are on the agenda.

The Vatican on Monday published a letter Francis wrote to the cardinals on July 11 after receiving a list of five questions, or “dubia,” from them a day earlier. In it, Francis suggests that such blessings could be studied if they didn’t confuse the blessing with sacramental marriage.

Sept 4 (Reuters) – Pope Francis acknowledged on Monday that his recent comments on Russia, seen by Ukraine as praise for imperialism, were badly phrased and said his intention was to remind young Russians of a great cultural heritage and not a political one.

Speaking to reporters aboard the plane returning from Mongolia, Francis also said he wanted to assure China, with which the Vatican has difficult relations, that the Catholic Church has no ulterior motives and should not be seen as a foreign power.

Is Francis’ visit to Mongolia simply an excuse to visit Moscow?

Keep your eyes on Pope Francis the next few days.

You may have noticed two dominant stories on the pope this week. One concerns his visit to Mongolia, arriving on Aug. 31 and staying through the weekend, returning to Rome on Sept. 4. The other involves controversial statements he made praising the “Great Russia” of the traditional past, which led to a mass media meltdown. Those statements were received positively by the Kremlin, which called them “very gratifying,” much more so than Francis’ comments last year critical of President Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine invasion, which were condemned by the very sensitive Kremlin.

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Off the cuff comments by Pope Francis lauding Russia’s former status as a “great imperial power” have drawn condemnation from Kyiv, elicited praise from Moscow and prompted the Vatican to deny that Francis supports the invasion of Ukraine.

During a live video address on Friday to young Catholics meeting in St Petersburg, Francis delivered a prepared speech in which he encouraged his audience to be “artisans of peace”.

ROME — Pope Francis began his four-day visit to Portugal for World Youth Day by blasting capitalism, populism, and insufficient attention to migrants and climate change.

“At a time when we are witnessing in many places a climate of protest and unrest, fertile terrain for populism and conspiracy theories, World Youth Day represents a chance to build together,” the pontiff told civil authorities and diplomats gathered in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon.