With a hugely symbolic hug and an exchange of kisses on the cheek, Pope Francis and the grand imam of Cairo’s al-Azhar Mosque, which houses a 1,000-year-old university, took a major step toward restoring relations between major branches of the world’s two largest faiths, Roman Catholicism and Sunni Islam. The two met privately for 25 minutes in the pope’s private library at the Vatican.
“This meeting is the message,” the pope told the imam, Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb. Continue reading…
WASHINGTON — An ecumenical event featuring Hillsong United, Lecrae, Michael W. Smith, Josh McDowell, Ravi Zacharias, Francis Chan and other renown evangelical and Catholic speakers and musicians that is set to take place in Washington, D.C. is raising concerns as it seeks to draw a million attendees to “link arms” in unity, including with the Vatican.
“Together 2016” is an event to be held on July 16 at the National Mall in Washington, and seeks to unite those of various backgrounds to “stand together for Jesus.” Both Christians and Catholics alike will be featured at the prayer and worship event…
This week, Hall announced that Jorge Bergoglio, also known as Pope Francis, will be delivering a video message to those in attendance…
Hall traveled to Rome on Thursday to meet with the Roman Catholic leader and other Vatican officials ahead of the event… Continue reading…
Related: Pope and Hillsong plan a 1 million man gathering in DC
A document obtained by Crux, related to accusations of sexual and other forms of abuse against the founder of a powerful Catholic lay movement in Peru, suggests that the Vatican was informed of the charges as early as May 2011 but essentially took no action for four years.
A May 17, 2016, letter addressed to Peru’s bishops by the head of the country’s main ecclesiastical court lists multiple steps taken to inform Rome of allegations against Luis Fernando Figari, founder of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), and expresses mounting frustration at the lack of response. Continue reading…
The Vatican has voiced support for global health care goals and has said that Catholic institutions are committed to combating problems like communicable diseases.
“The Holy See delegation welcomes the vital emphasis on the dignity of the human person and the strong focus on equity expressed in the pledge that ‘no one will be left behind’,” said Bishop Jean-Marie Mupendawatu.
The bishop headed the Holy See’s delegation to the World Health Organization’s World Health Assembly, held in Geneva May 23-28.
The assembly reviewed the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which has 17 goals and 169 associated targets. The agenda was adopted by the U.N. Sustainable Development Summit. Continue reading…
WLOS — HAYWOOD COUNTY, N.C. — A little bit of Western North Carolina is presented to the Pope.
Lake Junaluska World Methodist Museum wanted to present Pope Francis with a small sculpture of Methodist church founder John Wesley, seeing parallels between them.
“The Pope goes into the communities,” museum director Jackie Bolden said. “He goes into the slums, and when he travels, he goes where the people are.” Continue reading…
“The European Union reached an agreement Tuesday with some of the world’s biggest social media firms, including Facebook and Twitter, on ways to combat the spread of hate speech online. Under the terms of a code of conduct, the firms, which also include YouTube and Microsoft, have committed to “quickly and efficiently” tackle illegal hate speech directed against anyone over issues of race, color, religion, descent or national or ethnic origin. The sites have often been used by terrorist organizations to relay messages and entice hatred against certain individuals or groups.” –Source
And how will they define the hate speech? If it speaks against any viable foundational structure regarding Rome’s long prophesied agenda to place a mark on every person on earth, they will make the biblical truths that the remnant people preach illegal. The fact using the Bible to share truth with people in danger of hellfire is already considered a hate crime in Canada as well as in America confirms any mention of biblical truth will soon become illegal worldwide. Continue reading…
(RNS) The Vatican has always been a hothouse for conspiracy theories, and a new controversy over the so-called Third Secret of Fatima is showing just how persistent such fixations can be — to the extent that the latest episode even forced Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI out of seclusion to refute claims that he once shaded the truth about the mysterious prophecy.
At the same time, however, the new Fatima saga has overshadowed what could be a much more problematic bit of Vatican intrigue: how Benedict’s presence as the first ex-pope in more than six centuries is continuing to raise questions about the nature of the papacy, and the authority of Francis, the current pope.
So far, most of the media attention has been focused on the three Fatima “secrets” that the Catholic Church believes were vouchsafed by the Virgin Mary to three shepherd children in Portuguese town of Fatima in 1917. Continue reading…
Despite Pope Francis’ literal embracing of a top Islamic cleric and declaration that their “Meeting is the message,” his top aid said Christians must apply Matthew 28 to everyone, including Muslims.
“We have a mission to convert all non-Christian religions’ people [except] Judaism,” Cardinal Kurt Koch said. “And what is very important for us is that we can make mission only with a credible witness and without any proselytism.” Continue reading…
Historically in Catholic devotional life, the month of June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus with the First Friday of June observed as the proper feast day of the Sacred Heart. This year, the feast falls on June 3.
The Sacred Heart devotion was formalized in the seventeenth century, through apparitions of Jesus Christ to St. Margaret Mary Alocoque, a simple Visitation nun in Paray-le-Monial, France.
As the Church enters the month of June during this Jubilee Year of Mercy, influenced by the Divine Mercy devotion from Poland, some questions come to mind: Is there a shared message between the Sacred Heart devotion given to St. Margaret Mary Alocoque in the seventeenth century, and the Divine Mercy devotion given to St. Faustina in the twentieth century? Continue reading…
VATICAN CITY — When then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger met the press in 2000 for the formal release of the so-called Third Secret of Fatima, he said he knew many people would be disappointed.
Almost 16 years later, at the beginning of a yearlong preparation for the 100th anniversary of the apparition of our Lady of Fatima in 2017, now-retired Pope Benedict XVI is still dealing with people not convinced the secret is really out. Continue reading…