The wise Roman maxim “Si vis pacem, para bellum”—“If you want peace, prepare for war” still applies today. The prospects for peace in our times have dimmed since the fall of the Berlin Wall thirty long years ago. The reality of war was made patent by the brutal 9/11 attacks and the … Read more
The Amazon Synod is causing irritation and perplexity for countless Catholics, as can be seen in the reaction to the initial working document (Instrumentum laboris), a sort of green proclamation tinged with clear sympathies for the (pagan) habits of the Amazonian peoples. The malaise increased with the publication of the list of … Read more
Commenting on Pope Francis’s statements during his recent trip to Mozambique, the Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano, headlined: “Pope Francis: ‘Gluttony and lust are not grave sins. Clericalism, fixated on sex, is a true perversion in the Church.’” Supporting the Sexual Revolution Reading this headline, a Catholic could be tempted to conclude that … Read more
Two famous names associated with both the United Nations and abortion are on the guest list for the upcoming Synod on the Amazon. American economist Jeffrey Sachs, 64, and Korean former Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, 75, are among the 185 people invited to the synod, which will take place … Read more
“It’s an honor that the Americans attack me.” Whose anti-American diatribe is this? Is it Venezuelan socialist dictator Maduro’s or Bolivia’s equally socialist Evo Morales? Perhaps Nicaragua’s bloodthirsty tyrant Daniel Ortega? It hurts to say it, but it came from the lips of the common father of the faithful (including Americans)—Pope Francis. … Read more
The world is crying its heart out for the Amazon. Of course, no sensible person wants this vast and important territory to become a burning torch. No one wants to see the devastation of the planet’s most abundant source of fresh water or the largest complex of animal and plant life on … Read more
People concerned with the threat of radical environmentalism would be mistaken to assume that the Catholic Church’s upcoming Amazon Synod of Bishops, to be held in Rome in October 2019, is an internal affair dealing with pastoral matters. On the contrary, it will be a laboratory of ecological activism that promises, in … Read more
Since 1965, the Institute of the Consolata for Foreign Missions, originally from Turin and present in 28 countries, has had a mission among the Yanomamis in Brazil. The mission is currently led by the Italian priest Fr. Corrado Dalmolego, assisted by three women religious of the Institute’s female branch. In a recent … Read more
At the General Audience of April 3, to justify his marked sympathy for Islam Pope Francis repeated the cliché that “along with the Muslims, we are the descendants of the same Father, Abraham.” Do All Religions “Always Look to Heaven; They Look to God”? In that same statement, Pope Francis sought to counter … Read more
Catholics throughout the world should welcome Bishop Athanasius Schneider’s timely op-ed “On the Question of a Heretical Pope,” released March 21. The position adopted by the Auxiliary Bishop of Astana on the canonical consequences of a public acknowledgment of a pope’s crime of heresy—denying he may lose the Papacy in any event—enriches … Read more