South Sudan peace talks: Machar and Kiir in deadlock over states

From The BBC-

The two rivals are under increasing international pressure to meet a deadline of 22 February to implement a power-sharing deal.

The US last year warned that it would impose sanctions on anyone working against the peace process.

Pope Francis and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, spiritual leader of the Anglican Church, have said they will visit South Sudan once a national unity government is formed.

Mr Machar has long demanded that President Kiir reverse his decision to increase the number of states to 32, seeing it as a way to give positions to presidential loyalists and boost his power base.

On Saturday, the president agreed to return to a system of 10 states and sacked all 32 state governors, raising hopes of an end to the deadlock.

More here-

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-51521778

Pope Francis prays at St. Paul’s tomb with Orthodox and Anglican Christians

From Catholic News Agency-

Pope Francis prayed at the tomb of St. Paul with Orthodox and Anglican leaders Saturday to conclude the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

“God’s priority is the salvation of all,” Pope Francis in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls Jan. 25.

“This is an invitation not to devote ourselves exclusively to our own communities, but to open ourselves to the good of all, to the universal gaze of God who took flesh in order to embrace the whole human race and who died and rose for the salvation of all,” he said.

On the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, the pope presided over ecumenical vespers with Metropolitan Gennadios, representative of the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch, and Anglican bishop Ian Ernest, personal representative of  the Archbishop of Canterbury.

More here-

https://angelusnews.com/faith/pope-francis-prays-at-st-pauls-tomb-with-orthodox-and-anglican-christians/

Pope and Anglican Archbishop Join in Urgent Appeal to South Sudan

From South Sudan-

An Christmas Day appeal for peace addressed to leaders in South Sudan has been issued by Pope Francis, the head of the Roman Catholic Church and Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, leader of the Anglican Communion, joined by the Rev. John Chalmers, former moderator of the Church of Scotland.

"In this Christmas season and at the beginning of a new year, we wish to extend to you and to all the people of South Sudan our best wishes for your peace and prosperity, and to assure you of our spiritual closeness as you strive for a swift implementation of the Peace Agreements," the leaders said.

"We raise our prayers to Christ the Saviour for a renewed commitment to the path of reconciliation and fraternity, and we invoke abundant blessings upon each of you and upon the entire nation. May the Lord Jesus, Prince of Peace, enlighten you and guide your steps in the way of goodness and truth, and bring to fulfilment our desire to visit your beloved country."

More here-

https://allafrica.com/stories/201912250199.html 

and here-

https://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article68757

and here-

https://www.thenewsnigeria.com.ng/2019/12/pope-religious-leaders-send-south-sudan-rivals-christmas-peace-appeal/

Francis becomes 1st pope to visit an Anglican church in Rome

From Rome-

Pope Francis on Sunday became the first Catholic pontiff to visit an Anglican parish in Rome, using the historic occasion to press for greater closeness after centuries of mistrust, prejudices and hostility between the two churches.

Francis and the Anglican bishop in Europe, Robert Innes, prayed side-by-side in the All Saints Church not far from the Spanish Steps.

Innes welcomed Francis by praising the Roman Catholic leader for his solidarity with refugees and migrants.

Anglicans split from Catholicism in 1534, after England‘s King Henry VIII was denied a marriage annulment.

Both churches are working to develop friendly bonds despite obstacles that include deep differences on such issues as ordaining women and allowing openly gay bishops.

More here-

https://insiderfinancial.net/francis-becomes-1st-pope-to-visit-an-anglican-church-in-rome.html

Pope, Anglican archbishop affirm desire to visit South Sudan together

From Crux-

Pope Francis and Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, said they would travel together to South Sudan if the country’s leaders fulfill their promise to form a transitional government by late February.

The pope and Welby met at the Vatican Nov. 13 while the Anglican leader was in Rome to install a new director of the city’s Anglican Centre.

“During the friendly discussions, the condition of Christians in the world was mentioned, as well as certain situations of international crisis, particularly the sorrowful situation in South Sudan,” the Vatican press office said in a statement later.

More here-

 https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2019/11/13/pope-anglican-archbishop-affirm-desire-to-visit-south-sudan-together/

Catholics, Anglicans welcome news of Card. Newman’s canonization date

From Vatican News-

Catholics and Anglicans have welcomed Monday’s announcement that Pope Francis will declare English Cardinal John Henry Newman a saint on Sunday, October 13, at a Mass in St. Peter’s Square in Rome.  

The day of canonization was established on July 1, as the Pope held an Ordinary Public Consistory of cardinals to formally approve the canonization of Card. Newman along with four others: Giuseppina Vannini, Mariam Thresia Chiramel Mankidiyan, Irmã Dulce Pontes and Marguerite Bays.

Newman, a former Anglican priest who became a Roman Catholic in 1845 and eventually a Cardinal, is regarded as one of the most influential figures from his era for both Anglicanism and Roman Catholicism, noted the Church of England in a press release on July 1.

More here-

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2019-07/cardinal-newman-canonization-date-catholics-anglicans.html

Why Pope Francis may open the door to married priests

From The Economist-

NOT FOR the first time, Pope Francis—or, to be more precise, his aides in the Vatican—have raised eyebrows. On June 17th, in a document that sets the agenda for a meeting in October to discuss the problems of the Amazon basin, they declared that the Catholic church should consider ordaining married men. The problems of Amazon communities range from the destruction of the natural environment to the persecution of its indigenous peoples. For the Catholic church, however, there is another pressing issue—it does not have anywhere near enough priests to minister to the existing Catholic population, let alone proselytise or fend off a growing challenge from Evangelical Christianity. Some Catholic figures talk of confronting a “Eucharist famine”.

The document asks the bishops who will attend the gathering, or synod, to discuss making priests of “elders, preferably indigenous, respected and accepted by their community, even if they have a constituted and stable family”. It also moots the idea of women taking part in what it calls “official ministry,” but quite what that could mean is unclear. The bishops would not be able to authorise the change, but they could recommend it to Francis who does have the power to enact it.

More here-

https://www.economist.com/erasmus/2019/06/18/why-pope-francis-may-open-the-door-to-married-priests 

and here-

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/vatican-may-allow-some-married-men-to-become-priests-1.3929497

The Māori King has met with Pope Francis in Rome

From New Zealand-

They talked about current issues facing all New Zealanders, particularly Māori and indigenous communities when it comes to employment, youth issues, housing, health, and education.

The Anglican Church was pivotal in securing the audience with the Pope and the royal party for the papal audience was supported by a delegation that included the Anglican Archbishop Emeritus Sir David Moxon and Archdeacon Ngira Simmonds. 

The King is of Pai Mārire faith, while his daughter was baptised Catholic by the people of Whanganui.

The King and his delegation then went on to Monte Cassino, where he paid his respects at the Cemetery of Cassino to the 457 New Zealand soldiers that died there, including the 60 from the 28th Māori Battalion. 

More here-

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/113027915/the-mori-king-has-met-with-pope-francis-in-rome

also here-

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/papal-audience-m-ori-king-invites-pope-francis-new-zealand

At retreat for South Sudan leaders, pope literally begs for peace

From Catholic Philly-

The retreat was the idea of Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, who attended the final part of the gathering. He and Pope Francis have been supporting the peace efforts of the South Sudan Council of Churches and, the pope said again April 11, they hope to visit South Sudan together when there is peace.

Pope Francis told the politicians and members of the Council of Churches that “peace” was the first word Jesus said to his disciples after the resurrection.

“Peace is the first gift that the Lord brought us, and the first commitment that leaders of nations must pursue,” he told them. “Peace is the fundamental condition for ensuring the rights of each individual and the integral development of an entire people.”

More here-

http://catholicphilly.com/2019/04/news/world-news/at-retreat-for-south-sudan-leaders-pope-literally-begs-for-peace/

The Vatican lays groundwork for formal debate on married Catholic priests

From Pittsburgh (AP)-

As the Vatican copes with the growing clergy sex abuse scandal and declining number of priests worldwide, it is laying the groundwork to open formal debate on an issue that has long been taboo: opening up the priesthood to married men in parts of the world where clergy are scarce.

Pope Francis has convened a meeting of South American bishops next year focusing on the plight of the church in the Amazon, a vast territory served by far too few priests. During that synod, the question of ordaining married men of proven virtue — so-called “viri probati” — is expected to figure on the agenda.

This week, a two-hour documentary on Italian television is likely to contribute to the conversation. “The Choice: Priests and Love” profiles more than a dozen men in four European countries who are either living clandestinely with women, have created their own unsanctioned church communities where married priests preside at Mass, or left the Catholic priesthood altogether to marry.

More here-

https://share.newsslide.com/ppg/story/bcbba6ca-8ea5-48b8-a1b8-eba933c0f23a/?EditionId=0be11f2d-4e26-4173-9e0a-9e3bd0c22e43&SectionId=41e9b6e9-4c3e-408e-a140-9259a5319a74&IncludeChrome=True&fbclid=IwAR2aOe-oP9aM6veDJUuMVoKHTU3CQmgIZ3MYUDm9LKvzXkxORVV6B_jc78g

A Church in Ruins

From Philadelphia-

“The righteous cry, and the Lord hears them; and delivers them from all their troubles.”  (Ps. 34:17)
Pope Francis is almost assuredly not going to visit, while he is in Ireland, the ruins of Kilcorban Abbey in east Galway.  The abbey was established by Third Order Dominicans some time in the mid-fifteenth century.  It lies along the road that goes from Portumna to Tynagh, and is adjoined by more recent graves to the south of the ruins, and a pasture to the north where cows graze.

I have passed by the ruins many times on my way to the barn at Flowerhill, where I have been going for the past five years to ride horses in the lush green Irish countryside.  Often I have stopped at the ruins of the abbey (which is also sometimes called a friary, or a priory) on the way to barn.   The roof-less grey stone walls describe a rectangular church, running east to west.  On the north side of the church an archway leads into what is thought to have been a Lady Chapel, where an altar still stands.  Many times I have prayed in that half-ruined chapel: sometimes silently and alone, sometimes aloud with others, once explicitly to remember the dead, and more than once on a Sunday when it was my only place of worship.  I’ve stood at the altar and looked out and up at the emptiness around me, and the graves beyond.  I’ve looked, but never stepped down into the little stone well, outside by the road, which may have been a font, and which includes a little shrine to Mary.  I’ve never said Mass at that altar, although there’s nothing to stop me.  All I’d need is bread, wine, the Gospel, and one other person.

More here-

http://www.saintmarksphiladelphia.org/sermons/2018/8/26/a-church-in-ruins

On papal flight, Francis says intercommunion policy should be decided by diocesan bishops

From Catholic News Agency-

Pope Francis said Thursday that the German bishops’ debate on the reception of the Eucharist by the non-Catholic spouses of Catholics, also referred to as intercommunion, should be decided by diocesan bishops, rather than bishops’ conferences.

Speaking aboard the papal flight from Geneva to Rome June 21, the pope told journalists that the Code of Canon Law leaves decisions about the criteria for intercommunion to diocesan bishops, in order that their decisions will apply only to their individual dioceses, rather than to the Church across an entire country.
The pope said that although the German bishops attempted to establish guidelines through their episcopal conference, “the Code does not foresee that. It foresees the bishop of the diocese, but not the conference, because a thing approved by an episcopal conference immediately becomes universal.” 

More here-

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/on-papal-flight-francis-says-intercommunion-policy-should-be-decided-by-diocesan-bishops-86244

Vatican stalls German bishops’ plan to give Protestants Communion

From Salt Lake-

Disagreements between Catholic bishops in Germany about plans to give Communion to Protestants have spilled out into the wider Roman Catholic Church.

Last Monday (June 4), the Vatican’s doctrine chief, Archbishop Luis Ladaria, informed senior members of the German Catholic hierarchy that the pope believes their plans to make it easier for Protestant spouses of Catholics to receive Communion are “not ready” to be published. The letter signaled that top leaders in Rome were not prepared to let these guidelines become accepted practice in the German church — at least not yet.

The dispute highlights Pope Francis’ plans to move the church away from obsessing over doctrinal purity while giving bishops on the ground more decision-making power.

More here-

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900021295/vatican-stalls-german-bishops-plan-to-give-protestants-communion.html 

Vatican: Claim that pope denied hell’s existence is unreliable

From America Magazine-

The Vatican said comments attributed to Pope Francis denying the existence of hell are a product of an Italian journalist's "reconstruction" of the pope's remarks and not a faithful transcript of the pope's real words. 

Eugenio Scalfari, a co-founder and former editor of La Repubblica, an Italian daily, said Pope Francis -- with whom he has had several telephone conversations and face-to-face meetings -- invited him to his residence March 27. 

During their conversation, Scalfari, 93, an avowed atheist, claims the pope said that while the souls of repentant sinners "receive the forgiveness of God and go among the line of souls who contemplate him, the souls of those who are unrepentant, and thus cannot be forgiven, disappear."

"Hell does not exist, the disappearance of sinful souls exists," Scalfari claims the pope said in the interview published March 29.

The Italian journalist has explained on more than one occasion that he does not take notes or record his conversations with the pope; he re-creates them afterward from memory, including the material he puts in quotation marks.

More here-

https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/03/29/vatican-claim-pope-denied-hells-existence-unreliable

Pope approves sainthood for slain Salvador Archbishop Romero

From Crux-

Pope Francis has cleared the way for slain Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero to be made a saint, declaring that a churchman who stood up for the poorest of the poor in the face of right-wing oppression should be a model for Catholics today.

The Vatican announced Wednesday, the previous day, during a meeting with the head of the Vatican’s saint-making office, Francis had approved a decree confirming a miracle attributed to Romero’s intercession. Also approved was the miracle attributed to Pope Paul VI, paving the way for his canonization as well.

No date has been set for either ceremony, which Francis would be expected to celebrate.

Romero was gunned down by right-wing death squads on March 24, 1980, as he celebrated Mass in a hospital chapel. The country’s military dictatorship had vehemently opposed his preaching against the repression of the poor by the army at the start of the country’s 1980-1992 civil war.

Francis declared Romero a martyr in 2015.

More here-

https://cruxnow.com/ap/2018/03/07/pope-approves-sainthood-slain-salvador-archbishop-romero/

Pope suggests it's better to be an atheist than a bad Christian

From CNN-

If you're a Christian who exploits people, leads a double life or manages a "dirty" business, perhaps it's better not to call yourself a believer, Pope Francis suggested in a homily on Thursday in Rome.

"So many Christians are like this, and these people scandalize others," Francis said during morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta, according to Vatican Radio. "How many times have we heard -- all of us, around the neighborhood and elsewhere -- 'But to be a Catholic like that, it's better to be an atheist.' It is that: scandal."

"But what is scandal? Scandal is saying one thing and doing another."

In the Catholic Church, causing scandal also a grave offense.

Examples of such sins abound, the Pope said, from money launderers to business owners who take beach vacations while stiffing their employees.

More here-

https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/23/world/pope-atheists-again/index.html

Losing Our Religion and Our Humanity

From National Review-

Cain and Abel and the Tower of Babel: These are far from the most inspiring of biblical images. And so they are the ones that jump out at you upon reading Pope Francis’s recent message on “fake news” and our communications today. As I quickly checked Twitter before setting down to write this column, I saw someone express a wish that an ideological opponent would get hit by a bus, simply for having a different point of view. In such a climate, when we are losing our grasp on the reality of our common humanity, the pope’s message seemed like an urgent plea from a wise pastor. Pope Francis talked about why it can be difficult to unmask and eliminate fake news:


Many people interact in homogeneous digital environments impervious to differing perspectives and opinions. Disinformation thus thrives on the absence of healthy confrontation with other sources of information that could effectively challenge prejudices and generate constructive dialogue; instead, it risks turning people into unwilling accomplices in spreading biased and baseless ideas. The tragedy of disinformation is that it discredits others, presenting them as enemies, to the point of demonizing them and fomenting conflict. Fake news is a sign of intolerant and hypersensitive attitudes, and leads only to the spread of arrogance and hatred. That is the end result of untruth.

Read more at:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/455853/pope-francis-asks-kinder-communication

Christians recognize God’s grace at work in one another, pope says

From Catholic Sun-

When different Christian Churches recognize the validity of one another’s baptisms, they are recognizing that God’s grace is at work in them, Pope Francis said.

“Even when differences separate us, we recognize that we are part of the redeemed people, the same family of brothers and sisters loved by the one Father,” the pope said Jan. 25 at an ecumenical evening prayer service closing the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

The week ends on the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, and the papal vespers are celebrated at Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, the church where, according to tradition, the apostle is buried.

At the beginning of the prayer service, Pope Francis stood before what is believed to be St. Paul’s tomb, accompanied by Orthodox Metropolitan Gennadios of Italy and Malta and Anglican Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi, the archbishop of Canterbury’s personal representative to the Holy See.

More here-

http://www.catholicsun.org/2018/01/27/christians-recognize-gods-grace-at-work-in-one-another-pope-says/

Pope shocks Chile by accusing sex abuse victims of slander

From RNS-

Pope Francis accused victims of Chile’s most notorious pedophile of slander, an astonishing end to a visit meant to help heal the wounds of a sex abuse scandal that has cost the Catholic Church its credibility in the country.

Francis said that until he sees proof that Bishop Juan Barros was complicit in covering up the sex crimes of the Rev. Fernando Karadimas, such accusations against Barros are “all calumny.”

The pope’s remarks on Thursday (Jan. 18) drew shock from Chileans and immediate rebuke from victims and their advocates. They noted the accusers were deemed credible enough by the Vatican that it sentenced Karadima to a lifetime of “penance and prayer” for his crimes in 2011.

More here-

http://religionnews.com/2018/01/18/pope-shocks-chile-by-accusing-sex-abuse-victims-of-slander/

How To Make The World A Better Place In 2018, According To Pope Francis

From NPR-

Pope Francis has some surprising things to say about the state of the world.

On Monday, Pope Francis delivered his annual address to his diplomatic corps, ambassadors from 183 nations to the Holy See. The speech outlined a bold vision for a peaceful, free and just world. The pontiff touched on themes that have been in the headlines, like the Syrian war and the Rohingya refugee crisis.

But he also drilled down on development topics like child labor, global inequality and the threat of technological advances that may put millions of people, especially the poorest, out of work.

Here are a few highlights from his speech, delivered at the Vatican Apostolic Palace in Vatican City:

More here-

http://wesa.fm/post/how-make-world-better-place-2018-according-pope-francis#stream/0