Pope Francis, via the Vatican: As we look around us, how many men and women, young people and children are suffering and in utter need! This is not part of God’s plan. How urgently Jesus calls us to die to our self-centredness, our individualism and our pride! In this way, we can allow the spirit… Read More Pope Francis: Let Spirit of Fraternity Triumph over Self-Centeredness, Individualism, and Pride

via the Vatican: Let us say it forcefully: poverty is not inevitable!… At its foundations, we find a living faith translated into concrete actions capable of “moving mountains”. A faith that made it possible to see opportunity in place of insecurity; to see hope in place of inevitability; to see life in a place that… Read More Pope Francis: Poverty is Not Inevitable, Never Stop Fighting It

Here are some highlights from the pope’s in-flight press conference: Africa is full of life….The people who raised their children in the air, as if to say, “this is my treasure, this is my victory, my pride”. Children are the treasure of the poor. But they are the treasure of a homeland, of a country….… Read More Pope Francis Talks about Ideologues, Schismatics, Xenophobia, Witness, Ecology, and Children in Latest Press Conference

via Reuters: Pope Francis on Sunday celebrated a former student of his who is now sometimes called Madagascar’s “living saint” for having changed the lives of thousands of poor people who once lived in garbage dumps. Thousands of former slum dwellers, many of them children, gave the pope an ecstatic welcome, leaving him seemingly overwhelmed… Read More Pope Francis Meets with ‘Living Saint’ Fr. Pedro Opeka, Given Ecstatic Welcome in Madagascar

via CNS: Seattle Archbishop Paul D. Etienne said he will not live in the 9,000-square-foot mansion that many of his predecessors called home. In a letter sent to archdiocesan priests and deacons Sept. 3 — his first day as leader of the Archdiocese of Seattle — the archbishop wrote: “While the Connolly House has been… Read More Archbishop Etienne Won’t Live in Mansion: ‘The House Doesn’t Represent Who I Am’

via Crux: Pope Francis today said he is “honored” by the fact that a group of conservative, right-leaning Catholics from the United States attack him. The pope was speaking aboard a papal flight to Mozambique, the first stop of a three-nation swing through Africa, when he was presented a new book on conservative opposition to… Read More Pope Francis on Right-Wing Ideologues’ Attacks: ‘It’s an Honor that Americans are Attacking Me’

via Mike Lewis: Recent remarks by Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, captured on audio, prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Burke explicitly rejects the revised teaching on the death penalty in Catechism #2267 and urges catechists not to accept or teach the change that Pope Francis has mandated…. Perhaps Burke hasn’t spoken explicitly against Pope Francis’s… Read More The Open, Sophomoric Dissent of Alt-Catholics’ Favorite Cardinal