Pope Francis has signaled prior to this that Protestants should be able to receive Holy Communion

On January 10, Pope Francis granted a private audience to Reverend Michael Jonas, pastor of the Lutheran Evangelical Community in Rome. In a subsequent interview with the official website of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), evangelisch.de, Jonas reports on his conversation with the Pope, saying that the Pope “stressed” that “Catholics and Protestants are very close to one another in what they do in their public worship [Gottesdienst].”
He also reported that the Pope then referred to an incident where a Catholic priest helped a Lutheran minister in celebrating a liturgy of the word for his Lutheran community.
This interview with evangelisch.de had sparked interest both in German-speaking and English-speaking outlets.
The minister’s claim that the Pope told him that the Catholic Mass and a Lutheran worship service are very similar is causing a stir in some Catholic circles. The Catholic Church teaches that Jesus Christ is truly present in the Holy Eucharist and that during Mass there takes place an unbloody sacrifice of Our Lord. Lutherans, in general, however, do not believe in the Real Presence of Our Lord, nor in His unbloody sacrifice at Mass. Lutherans also do not pray for the Pope and the bishops of the Catholic Church, nor do they invoke the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mother and of all the saints during their worship ceremony.
LifeSiteNews reached out to Reverend Jonas, asking him for confirmation of this earlier Evangelisch.de interview and for clarification concerning a passage of the evangelisch.de interview which seems to indicate that it was the Pope himself who had once helped out with the public worship of a Lutheran pastor in the north of Europe.
--> READ MORE

Pope Francis celebrates 50th ordination anniversary by honoring his mentor

Vatican City, Dec 13, 2019 / 06:00 am (CNA).- Fifty years ago on Dec. 13, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was ordained a Jesuit priest in Argentina. As pope, he will celebrate his ordination anniversary Friday by honoring one of his early spiritual mentors, Fr. Miguel Angel Fiorito.
Fiorito, 1916-2005, was a Jesuit Argentine priest, professor, and spiritual writer who died when Cardinal Bergoglio was Archbishop of Buenos Aires.
In a preface to a five-volume collection of his writings to be launched Dec. 13, Pope Francis wrote that Fiorito had a “passion for the spiritual exercises,” and “taught many to pray and to discern the signs of the times.”
The future Pope Francis first met Fiorito as a young priest shortly after his ordination in 1969. Bergoglio later put Fiorito in charge of the last stage of Jesuit seminary formation when he served as Jesuit provincial for Argentina.
As a professor of Jesuit spirituality, Fiorito understood that “the spiritual mercy is to teach to discern,” Pope Francis wrote of Fiorito in the preface to his spiritual writings to be presented at the General Curia of the Society of Jesus Dec. 13.--> READ MORE

Pro-gay US bishop: Majority of bishops at Amazon Synod ‘favor’ female deacons

Pro-LGBT Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego believes the majority of bishops who attended the Pan-Amazonian Synod favor allowing women deacons. He also said that he himself is in support of “opening any ministry we have in the Church to women which is not clearly precluded” by the Church’s doctrines. 
McElroy is one of the most heterodox bishops in the United States. He was hand-picked by Pope Francis to attend the controversial gathering, where some Catholics claim “idol worship” of a naked pagan statue (“Pachamama”) was performed in the Vatican Gardens. Pope Francis also asked liberal U.S. Cardinals Blase Cupich of Chicago and Sean O’Malley of Boston to participate in the synod. McElroy made his comments during a recent interview with Catholic News Service (CNS).--> READ MORE

‘So many bishops’ disagree with Francis but are ‘afraid’ to say so

October 28, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Vittorio Messori, a famous Italian convert, journalist, and interviewer of two popes, has accused Pope Francis of “touching” the doctrine, of “laying his hands on that which the pope should instead be defending.” He said as much in a wider interview this Monday with the Italian media La Verità on the occasion of the republishing of the book he wrote after his conversion, Jesus Hypotheses. Last September, in a similar interview with La Fede Quotidiana, he said: “The Church is not of Bergoglio or of the bishops, but only of Christ.”
One interview was given before the Amazon Synod, underscoring the concerns that had already arisen about the synod’s agenda. The other appeared after the three weeks of harrowing news coming out of Rome, but it did not record any reactions of Messori to the more spectacular events surrounding the synod, such as the “Pachamama” worship in the Vatican gardens.
He did speak of Pope Francis’s failure to “defend the doctrine,” calling him “the first pope who often seems to give a reading of the Gospel that does not follow tradition.”--> READ MORE

Jewish, Muslim and Christian representatives sign joint declaration against euthanasia

Pope Francis proposes female deacons, married priests at Amazon synod

Pope Francis, rounding out his synod of Amazonian clergy, announced Saturday that he would be reopening a commission to study the history of women as deacons in the early days of the Catholic Church.

After calls by women for greater decision-making roles in the Church, the pope made the announcement at the end of his three-week assembly discussing issues facing the Amazon region, solutions to a shortage of priests, environmental protection and the role of women.

Francis originally opened a commission to study the possibility of women in the role in 2016, but the commission ended its work without a consensus on the topic. A gathering of 181 bishops voted on 120 recommendations presented to the pope. The recommendation to re-examine female deacons passed the two-thirds vote threshold, 137 in favor and 30 opposed, according to the Wall Street Journal.--> READ MORE

Why the Catholic Church’s new saint John Henry Newman is surprisingly relevant in a Pope Francis era

Pope Francis on Sunday will canonize John Henry Newman, a Victorian-era intellectual, Catholic convert and cardinal. A self-described “controversialist,” Newman was an early leader in the Oxford Movement, an attempt to reinstate ancient forms of faith and worship in the Church of England. After converting to Catholicism at age 44, Newman went on to found a Catholic university and a religious community, as well as a school, and he clashed with authoritarian, or “Ultramontane,” Catholics over the issue of papal infallibility.

Unlike many of Francis’s recent actions, the decision to make Newman a saint has won praise from both conservative and liberal Christians. Scratch the surface, though, and it’s easy to find deep disagreements about the life and legacy of this modern saint, who is often invoked to praise and condemn the pope’s vision.--> READ MORE

Pope faces 'threat of religious coup from traditionalists in Catholic Church'

POPE FRANCIS is under threat in the Vatican as his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI – along with the traditionalist wing of the Catholic Church backed by former Donald Trump strategist Steve Bannon – look to undermine his Papacy, according to journalist Wayne Madsen. Wayne Madsen, in his article for Strategic Culture Foundation, outlines that Francis’s enemies have challenged his authority due to his differing approach. Mr Madsen says that when Francis vowed to clean up the Church of paedophile priests, he was charged by his right-wing enemies, including, Benedict, Maria Vigano, Raymond Burke, Steve Bannon, Opus Dei, the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, of tolerating paedophiles and homosexuals in the church. Francis has attempted to thwart corruption in Vatican City, where corporate cash is frequently funnelled to dodge regulations and tax. As Mr Madsen highlights, on October 1, 2019, Francis ordered Vatican police to seize documents, computers, and portable electronic devices from the Vatican Secretary of State and the Financial Information Authority, the latter the financial watchdog of the Vatican.--> READ MORE