ROME- Pope Francis on Sunday called for the faithful not to be driven by end-times curiosities or apocalyptic preachers, urging them to focus on what is truly important: “The Lord and our neighbor.”
“Those who follow Jesus pay no heed to prophets of doom, the nonsense of horoscopes, or frightening sermons that distract from the truly important things,” Francis said.
It is important, he continued, to distinguish “the word of wisdom that God speaks to us each day” from the shouting of those who use “God’s name to frighten, to nourish division and fear.”
Francis’s words came as he was celebrating Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica, in Rome. Continue reading
(RNS) The alliance between Roman Catholics and evangelical Protestants on a range of issues dear to social conservatives has been one of the biggest storylines in religion and politics in recent decades.
“Plenty of people on both sides of the political aisle have described the stakes of the upcoming presidential election in biblical terms. But at least one person in a San Diego Catholic church took things a step further in recent weeks. In an insert to the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church’s weekly bulletin on Oct. 16, a flier told parishioners that “it is a mortal sin to vote Democrat,” 
“The Vatican has condemned a right-wing Catholic radio station after a broadcast said the recent earthquakes in Italy were “God’s punishment” for gay civil unions. The remarks, made on the station Radio Maria, were “offensive and scandalous”, the Vatican said. A Dominican friar said the quakes, including one in August that killed nearly 300, were caused by sins of man. He said these included the approval of same-sex civil unions last May. But the Vatican rejected the remarks as pagan, and said they had nothing to do with Catholic theology.” –
“Dutch politician Geert Wilders has spent years speaking out against the threat Islam poses to his country, and now he finds himself in legal trouble for it. …The charges stem from a March 2014 rally in which Wilders asked a room full of supporters if they wanted “more or fewer Moroccans” in the country. When the audience chanted, “Fewer, fewer!” Wilders responded, “Well, we’ll arrange that, then.” This led the Dutch government to prosecute Wilders for “offending members of a group based on their race, and hate speech and discrimination,” according to the 
“-no comments posted on this Vatican video.” – 
“On the surface, this seems like such a simple request…it’s not! After digging and finding the TRUE agenda on the climate change scam, it’s very clear that this entire thing is an effort to redistribute wealth around the world. Don’t believe us? Just check out the comments from the people attending the Paris Climate Summit:” –
“The latest WikiLeaks dump of John Podesta emails shows the Obama administration kept a list of high-profile Muslims it wanted to appoint to top administration jobs, sub-cabinet jobs and outside boards, agencies and policy committees. The 2008 emails reveal that it wasn’t enough to be Arab American, you had to be Arab and Muslim to make it onto this list.” –
Pope Francis is giving marching orders to members of his Jesuit order and their new superior. He wants them to go to the “peripheries” to serve freely and obediently.