Pope Francis: ‘I Do Not Believe It Is Right to Identify Islam with Violence’

Pope_Armenia_press_conference_CNA_576d6ca58e010_112081-650x495“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.” –Source

Finally, this Jesuit ordained Pope admits that he doesn’t see the violence of Islam as being an issue. And he even goes so far as to use his own flock as a way to belittle or downplay the violence of Islam. Of course, he’s doing so in a way that suggests violent Catholics are only those we see in bar room brawls. He won’t mention the Roman Catholics killing people in Mexico that refuse to convert, or even the burning of the dead bodies of their victims that refuse to bow to the Pope. He doesn’t mention the 1260 years wherein the Catholic church and all civil leaders that were Roman Catholic killed hundreds of millions of Christians and he certainly isn’t going to declare Catholics violent as his priests continue to violently rape little boys. Nor will he mention any of the violent acts done by his predecessors. The list of Vatican violence is so far off the chart just naming a few as I just did won’t even amount as a pimple on mountain of evidence compiled exposing them. Continue reading

LEADERS OF THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCHES IN FRANCE EXPRESS SOLIDARITY WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

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.

In response, the Union of Federations of the Adventist Church in France (UFA) issued the following statement:  Continue reading

Pope sends personal message to Christian prayer event on Washington, D.C. mall [Video]

In a world where wars are waging, shootings are on the rise and terror is around every corner, thousands of youth attended a Christian prayer event on the Washington, D.C. National Mall.
The meeting called for unity among all Christians and, with Pope Francis sending a special video message from Rome, for all people to stand together and “give Jesus a try.”

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Bishops counter Rouen attack with promise to build ‘civilization of love’

20160726T1637-0610-CNS-WYD-OPEN-BLONIA-MASS-690x450OXFORD, 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.

The peculiar horror of the attack, in which two young men attacked Fr Jacques Hamel while the 86-year-old was saying Mass, then made him kneel and slit his throat while chanting in Arabic at the altar, produced a wave of shock and revulsion across the world.

It was also clearly designed to feed deep-seated fears of a religious attack on Christianity itself.

Pope Francis responded not only to express his horror but also, pointedly, to describe it as an act of “absurd violence.” Continue reading

Catholic Priests Leads Interreligious Center at the Olympics

20160720t1017-4715-cns-olympics-rio-interreligious-centerAbout 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.

“We hope that the center will encourage harmony and unity among different countries and among different religions,” Father Tavares told Catholic News Service.  Continue reading

‘World can’t afford to silence us’: black church leaders address climate change

African American religious leaders have added their weight to calls for action on climate change, with one of the largest and oldest black churches in the US warning that black people are disproportionally harmed by global warming and fossil fuel pollution.

The African Methodist Episcopal church has passed its first resolution in its 200-year history devoted to climate change, calling for a swift transition to renewable energy.

“We can move away from the dirty fuels that make us sick and shift toward safe, clean energy like wind and solar that help make every breath our neighbors and families take a healthy one,” states the resolution, which also points to research showing that black children are four times as likely as white children to die from asthma. Continue reading

Hillary Clinton’s running mate is a Jesuit trained Catholic

(RNS) Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton announced Tim Kaine, the junior Democratic senator from Virginia and former governor of that state, as her vice presidential running mate Friday (July 22).

Kaine, a Roman Catholic, will appear with Clinton, a Methodist, at next week’s Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

Here are five faith facts about the new vice presidential candidate.

1. He was taught by Jesuits.

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Montel Williams Implores Christians to Accept LGBT Community: ‘We Are All Equal In the Eyes of the Lord’

Television host Montel Williams addresses those gathered for a brunch in Cleveland to promote LGBT inclusivity in the GOP. (Image provided to TheBlaze)CLEVELAND — Following television personality Montel Williams’ address to a conservative LGBT brunch, Colorado Attorney Gen. Cynthia Coffman said she felt like she was at church.

Coffman’s speculation wasn’t far off. As Williams addressed the brunch held to promote inclusion of the LGBT community among the Republican Party less than a mile from the GOP convention, he admonished Christians to repel discrimination against anyone — especially discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation.

“Too often we hear religious liberty used as a justification for legislative ideas that marginalize the LGBT community,” Williams, an ardent opponent of the so-called bathroom bills, said. Continue reading