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

Amazonian States Want $30 Billion in Ecological Reparations from ‘Rich Countries’

A group of regional leaders from the Amazon proposed Monday at the Vatican that rich nations be compelled to indemnify them for environmental damage caused in the so-called “lung of the planet.”

Gathered for the Vatican’s Pan-Amazonian Synod, Brazilian governors as well as regional governments of other Amazon countries held a special summit at the Pontifical Academy for Sciences Monday, in which they insisted that the Amazon is a natural carbon sink that releases oxygen for the whole world and they deserve compensation for it.
Governor Wellington Dias of the Brazilian state of Piauí proposed the creation of the Pan-American Permanent Forum for the Defense of the Amazon, which met with unanimous approval by the other governors and participants.
“Science points to a great risk of climate change on the planet and there is a need to address this issue more swiftly,” Mr. Dias said. “Brazil, as a country that captures carbon dioxide and emits oxygen, has an estimated $30 billion in receivables.”
The payments, Dias said, would go into a financial fund to address the damage caused to the environment by the “rich countries,” which with high levels of consumption are the most responsible for the emission of greenhouse gases on the planet. --> 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

The Idols of Pachamama in Rome Are Destroyed and Cast Into the Tiber River

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