Category: Rome

Calling on a greater power! EU bosses hope for Pope Francis blessing for ‘common Europe’

pope-francis-667419The bloc’s chief bureaucrats – European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, European Council president Donald Tusk and European Parliament president Martin Schulz – will tomorrow visit the Vatican City.

Pope Francis will be bestowed with the Charlemagne Prize by the trio, which is handed out each year for efforts towards European unity.

This is despite Pope Francis having previously hit out at the “aloof” and “bureaucratic” EU.

He also recently rebuked Brussels for its handling of Europe’s migrant crisis.  Source

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Food Theft in Italy May Not Be a Crime, Court Rules

Canzio, reato immigrazione clandestina inutile,dannosoROME — Stealing food from a supermarket may not be a crime in Italy if you are homeless and hungry, the nation’s highest appeals court has ruled.

In a case that has drawn comparisons to“Les Misérables,” the Supreme Court of Cassation threw out the conviction of a homeless man from Ukraine, Roman Ostriakov, who was caught trying to take 4.07 euros — about $4.70 — worth of cheese and sausage from a store in Genoa without paying for it. A trial court sentenced him in February 2015 to six months in jail and a fine of €100.

“The condition of the defendant and the circumstances in which the merchandise theft took place prove that he took possession of that small amount of food in the face of the immediate and essential need for nourishment, acting therefore in a state of need,” and therefore the theft “does not constitute a crime,” the appellate court wrote in its decision, which was reported on Monday by the Italian news agency ANSA.  Source

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Francis rails against child sexual abuse, saying abusers must be ‘severely’ punished

Pope Francis Visits SardiniaPope Francis railed against the sexual abuse of children in a weekly address in St. Peter’s Square Sunday, calling any such abuse a “tragedy” and saying the church cannot tolerate the matter and “must severely punish the abusers.”

Greeting members of an Italian association that has worked to raise awareness against pedophilia and to report sexual abuse crimes, who were present in the Square for the recitation of the Regina Coeli prayer, the pontiff thanked them for their work before departing from his prepared text.

“This is a tragedy,” said Francis off the cuff, his voice raised and his arm extended from the window of the Vatican’s apostolic palace above the Square. “We must not tolerate the abuse of minors. We must defend minors. And we must severely punish the abusers.”

The Catholic church around the world has been embroiled in scandals over its handling of sexually abusive clergy for decades, with survivors, advocates, law enforcement agencies, and some local jurisdictions saying members of the hierarchy covered up crimes in order to protect the institution at the risk of children’s well-being.  Source

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Group of teenagers get opportunity to confess sins to Pope Francis

1461480443025VATICAN CITY –  Sixteen teenagers have gotten an unexpected opportunity to confess sins to Pope Francis.

The pontiff made a surprise appearance late Saturday morning in St. Peter’s Square, where thousands of Catholics faithful, ranging in age from 13 to 16, were participating in a special Holy Year youth day, including confession near the famed Colonnade of Bernini.

Francis and each of the 16 teenagers sat face-to-face in simple chairs set up in pairs for him and many others hearing confessions in the square. The teenagers seemed at ease, with Francis shaking hands warmly with the youths. In all, the pope spent more than an hour in the square.

He has dedicated the Holy Year to two central themes of his papacy: mercy and reconciliation. Source

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Evangelicals lose water supply as officials punish them for refusing to pay amount to fund Catholic fiesta in Mexico

evangelicals-in-mexicoAn evangelical community in Mexico is now suffering from lack of potable water after local authorities cut off their supply for refusing to pay their contribution for the holding of a Roman Catholic fiesta in honour of a Catholic saint.

The family of Maranatha Church’s pastor Octavio Gomez and four other evangelical families in San Jose village in the city of Teopisca in Chiapas state, Mexico refused to pay when the authorities, together with the fiesta organisers, came to visit them early this month demanding a fixed contribution of 200 pesos, equivalent to about $12, the Evangelical Focus reports.

The authorities threatened to cut off their water supply if they persisted in not paying the amount. Moreover, the authorities warned that they would have to pay a fine of 4,000 pesos ($229) to have the water line reconnected once it’s been cut.  Source

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‘Shameful’: Catholic Spanish teacher admits molesting 9 kids, but gets no jail term

5718c72fc461887a658b4599A Catholic Spanish schoolteacher has admitted in court that he abused nine children, all seven years old, but won’t be spending any time behind bars because of a legal loophole.

Roberto P.S. admitted he had molested eight girls and one boy, a spokeswoman for the court said, as cited by The Local.

The teacher got individual sentences of one year per child, totaling nine years in jail, prosecution and defense have agreed, Cadena Ser TV reported.

However, here’s when the tricky law comes to the molester’s rescue: due to the fact that the teacher received individual sentences of one year, and not an entire nine-year sentence, he qualifies for a suspended sentence, according to a reform to the country’s criminal code. Source

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Pope hailed as savior for opening Vatican to refugees

web-pope-mytilene-getPope Francis, during a trip to the Greek island of Lesbos, chose 12 Syrian refugees to come live at the Vatican – all clean-cut, two-parent families with children, one of which is headed by a microbiologist and another, by a tailor and teacher.

NBC News reported one of the families, Hasan and Nour Essa, are simply like any other in the world, hoping to find a decent preschool for their son, 2, Riyad, and are thankful for the pope’s intervention.

“What’s happening with us, it’s like a dream,” said Nour Essa, who’s a microbiologist, to NBC News. “It’s like a beautiful dream.” She later called Francis a “real human being” who’s “more important than any Muslim religious mans,” the news outlet reported.

The pope, in what he described as a “last minute decision,” let the Essas and two other Syrian families join him on his flight back to Rome over the weekend. Vatican officials say the three families were chosen simply because their papers were in order.  Source

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How US covered up Saudi role in 9/11

crash_trade_centerIn its report on the still-censored “28 pages” implicating the Saudi government in 9/11, “60 Minutes” last weekend said the Saudi role in the attacks has been “soft-pedaled” to protect America’s delicate alliance with the oil-rich kingdom.

That’s quite an understatement.

Actually, the kingdom’s involvement was deliberately covered up at the highest levels of our government. And the coverup goes beyond locking up 28 pages of the Saudi report in a vault in the US Capitol basement. Investigations were throttled. Co-conspirators were let off the hook.

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Catholic fans chant ‘You killed Jesus’ during basketball game

church-sign-saying-jews-killed-jesus-2873765_289753_ver1-0_640_480Catholic high school students chanted, “You killed Jesus” at a basketball game against a predominantly Jewish high school in a Boston suburb on Friday night.

During the playoff contest between Catholic Memorial School and the public Newton North High School, fans of the latter began shouting, “Sausage fest!” at the opposing team, an off-color reference to the fact that CMS is an all-boys institution.

In response, the Catholic fans repeated, “You killed Jesus, you killed Jesus,” spectators at the event said.

The Catholic fans’ cheer was a reference to Jewish deicide, the charge that Jews are responsible for the death of Jesus Christ. Source

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Joe Biden will visit the Vatican to discuss his fight to cure cancer

PANAMA-US-MARTINELLI-BIDENVice President Joe Biden, who has traveled to some America’s leading medical centers in recent weeks as part of what he has called his moonshot to cure cancer, will soon take his quest to the Vatican.

Biden will address a major conference on the progress of regenerative medicine in Vatican City on April 29, the vice president’s office said Wednesday.

The gathering, hosted by the Stem for Life Foundation and the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture, will also draw leading physicians, ethicists and philanthropists to discuss the potential of emerging research to treat cancer and other diseases. The initiative has been championed by Pope Francis, who worked as a chemist before he entered the priesthood and has written in support of scientific progress.

Biden, the nation’s first Catholic vice president, attended Francis’ papal inauguration in 2013 and attended multiple events during the Catholic leader’s visit to the U.S. last fall, including his address to Congress and departure from Philadelphia after the World Meeting of Families there. Source

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