ROME — Jorge Bergoglio, also known as “Pope Francis,” asked for Mary to intercede for the oppressed on Monday and claimed to the thousands gathered to observe what is known as the Roman Catholic “Feast of the Assumption” that she had been “assumed into Heaven body and soul.”
“To the Queen of Peace, who we contemplate today in heavenly glory, I wish to entrust once again the anxieties and sufferings of the people who, in many parts of the world, are innocent victims of persistent conflict,” he said. Continue reading
“The remarks followed similar comments made Wednesday, when Pope Francis argued that the current Middle East conflicts are wars over economic and political interests—not religion or so-called “Islamic terrorism.” “There is war for money,” he said Wednesday, according to The Wall Street Journal. “There is war for natural resources. There is war for the domination of peoples. Some might think I am speaking of religious war. No. All religions want peace; it is other people who want war.” –
Many Muslims attended church in France this Sunday to show compassion for slain priest, Father Jacques Hamel, and solidarity with their Catholic compatriots.
Muslims and Catholics joined in Friday prayers at the mosque in the Normandy town where an elderly priest was slain this week, with one imam chastising the extremists as non-Muslims who are “not part of civilization.”
“I do not believe it is right to identify Islam with violence,” the Pope told journalists during the July 31 papal flight to Rome following his apostolic journey to Poland. “This is not right and it is not true.” “I don’t like to speak about Islamic violence,” the Pope said, taking into account that one sees violence every day in the newspapers, even at the hands of baptized Catholics. “There are violent Catholics!” he said. “If I speak of Islamic violence, I must speak of Catholic violence.” –
A priest was killed and another person seriously injured when two members from an Islamic extremist group stormed the Church of Saint-Etienne du Rouvray in Normandy, France, on July 26. The assailants slit the throat of Father Jacques Hamel, who was 85 years old.
French religious leaders have called for more security at places of worship following the murder of an elderly priest in Normandy on Tuesday.
OXFORD, England- Catholic church leaders have reacted to the slaying by Islamists of an elderly French priest yesterday morning with a call to resist feelings of vengeance and hatred and to help build a civilization of love.
About two weeks before the opening ceremony for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Father Leandro Lenin Tavares was putting the final touches on what he hopes will be a very successful spiritual mission: coordinating the interreligious center for athletes at the Olympic Village.