Pope Francis has described the increasing criticism he faces from conservative Catholics as a “rash” and demanded his foes challenge him “to my face” as he defended his much-maligned dealings with the Chinese government.
The Pope threw down the gauntlet to enemies of his “mercy-over-dogma” style as they step up attacks in the wake of the death last month of his retired predecessor Pope Benedict, whose moderating influence kept critics in check.
As the annual World Economic Forum takes place in Davos, Switzerland – gathering the global elite, wealthy and a host of anti-life and anti-freedom advocates – the Vatican’s news outlet is promoting the event as “presenting solutions” to world “crises.”
In an interview published January 19 on Vatican News, the local Catholic priest in Davos spoke about the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting. It is taking place in its customary January spot, after having been held online in 2021 and then in May last year.
Thousands of people convened in St. Peter’s Square in Rome on Sunday to hear Pope Francis deliver his Christmas Day speech.
The 86-year-old addressed the war in Ukraine while offering prayers for the war-torn country from the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.
“May the Lord inspire us to offer concrete gestures of solidarity to assist all those who are suffering, and may he enlighten the minds of those who have the power to silence the thunder of weapons and put an immediate end to this senseless war!” he said.
📹HIGHLIGHTS | Pope Francis celebrated the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord with Mass during the night, held in St. Peter's Basilica. The Christmas Mass had around 7,000 people in attendance, according to the Vatican. #ChristmasEve #Christmas2022 pic.twitter.com/d8cPOQRUar
— EWTN Vatican (@EWTNVatican) December 24, 2022
In a hard-hitting Christmas speech to Vatican officials, the Pope has warned them to watch out for the devil that “lurks among us”, calling it an “elegant demon” that appears with a bunch of flowers.
The Pope has often used his Christmas address to the cardinals and priests working at the Vatican to admonish them for their worldly sins, and this year he did not disappoint.
He told the prelates not to feel holier than thou just because they worked “in the service of the Holy See, at the heart of the Church”. He added: “Precisely for this reason, we could easily fall into the temptation of thinking we are safe, better than others, no longer in need of conversion.”
The Pope has offered a harrowing vision of the future, saying he has seen signs of an even darker time for humanity.
At a Mass at the Vatican, the Pope, 85, said on Sunday that he has a dire vision for the world with ‘omens of even greater destruction and desolation’.
The Mass was commemorating the feast of Our Lady Guadalupe, which fell yesterday. It commemorates the appearance of the Virgin Mary to a young man, Saint Juan Diego, in 1531 in Mexico City. The day is a national holiday in Mexico.
He dignifies this stance as the “way of diplomacy.”
Early in his papacy, Pope Francis tweeted out, “Inequality is the root of social evil.” That statement remains a defining moment of his pontificate. Contained in that one remark is a Marxist mindset alien to the Church’s teachings which has animated many of the pope’s worst policies, including his appallingly sympathetic treatment of China’s brutal regime. One of his Argentine cronies at the Vatican, Bishop Marcel Sorondo, has said with a straight face, “[A]t this moment, those who best realize the social doctrine of the Church are the Chinese.” Tell that to the millions of Chinese peasants suffering under the Marxist heel of crude Chicoms for whom the degradation of human life is routine. Forced equality, not inequality, is the root of social evil in China.
He should take John Paul II as his model in world affairs
There is a lot to dig into amid Pope Francis’s recent interview with America magazine, but the most interesting tidbits might be his commentary on foreign affairs. Whereas the traditional head of state represents the interests of a nation, the Holy Father’s most important duty is the shepherding of the Catholic faithful. His message thus carries much weight, not because of the raw power at his disposal, but because it is backed by the moral authority of the Catholic Church.
Perhaps they’re most upset that in a remarkable new interview the pope still wouldn’t mention Vladimir Putin by name.
Pope Francis has walked on eggshells to avoid the wrath of Vladimir Putin and, likewise, of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has long presented an altogether intractable if not impossible set of challenges for the Roman Catholic Church, recently rearing its ugly head yet again in the Ukraine war (that’s a separate column altogether). Francis has repeatedly and delicately prayed for the people of Ukraine and of Russia, each step of the way carefully avoiding poking a stick at the bear in the living room: Vladimir Putin.
That appears to have changed.
Pope Francis has sparked fury in Russia over an interview in which he suggested that Chechen and Buryat members of its armed forces showed more cruelty in Ukraine than ethnic Russian soldiers.
In an interview with the Catholic magazine America published Monday, the pope said that soldiers from Buryatia, where Buddhism is a major religion, and the Muslim-majority Chechnya republic, were “the cruellest” while fighting in Ukraine.
“Generally, the cruellest are perhaps those who are of Russia but are not of the Russian tradition, such as the Chechens, the Buryats and so on,” he said.
Pope Francis abandons the Catholic Church’s opposition to abortion
A high-ranking Vatican official stunned Catholics during a recent television interview by inadvertently confirming the Catholic Church’s retreat from one of its fundamental moral positions — a retreat FrontPage Magazine explored more than a year ago.
The official in question said on Italy’s national network Aug. 26 that the church had no interest in opposing that nation’s law allowing abortion. Enacted in 1978, Law 194 legalizes abortions in the first trimester and permits them afterward only if the mother’s life is in danger or if the fetus displays “serious abnormalities or malformations,” the law states.
Crux reports that the trial of Cardinal Joseph Zen, a stalwart opponent of the atheistic Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is set to begin this week in Hong Kong. Zen is facing charges for his association with the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, which “provided financial and legal aid to pro-democracy protesters” who publicly opposed a law that allows Hong Kong’s citizens to be extradited to mainland China. Prosecutors say that the organization was not properly registered. The trial has been delayed — likely for two days — because the presiding judge tested positive for COVID.
Zen was arrested earlier this year on charges of “collusion with foreign forces” in violation of the CCP-imposed national security law.
ROME — After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Pope Francis initially appeared to uphold the Vatican’s longstanding policy of not taking sides, before eventually changing tack and saying explicitly that Russia was the aggressor in the war.
Now, Francis has weighed in on a morally thorny issue, saying on Thursday that it is acceptable for countries to provide weapons to Ukraine so that the country can defend itself.
Self-defense in the face of aggression is “not only lawful but also an expression of love of country,” Francis said.
Francis has refused to side with the West since the invasion
Among some conservative Catholics, the current pontiff is known as “the Pope of confusion”. This not entirely unfair nickname gains a good deal of its rhetorical force from Francis’ spontaneous, colourful and discursive manner of speaking, which stands in sharp contrast to the more measured, precise and academic approach of his immediate predecessor, Benedict.
Nicaraguan Catholics are reportedly increasingly upset at Pope Francis for remaining silent as the oppressive Communist regime of dictator Daniel Ortega shuts down Catholic radio stations and sends goon squads to harass protesters.
When Pope Francis said, on his way out of Canada, that he believes what happened in this country’s residential schools amounted to genocide, what many Indigenous people across the country heard was a long-delayed acknowledgement of an obvious truth.
Ghislain Picard, the Assembly of First Nations regional chief for Quebec and Labrador, said the Pope’s comments, which he made during his flight back to Rome at the end of a six-day Canadian tour, are a sign of progress.
