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ENCYCLICAL LETTER
LAUDATO SI’
OF THE HOLY FATHER
FRANCISON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME

1. “LAUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord”. In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs”.[1]

2. This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she “groans in travail” (Rom 8:22). We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth (cf. Gen2:7); our very bodies are made up of her elements, we breathe her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters.

Nothing in this world is indifferent to us

3. More than fifty years ago, with the world teetering on the brink of nuclear crisis, Pope Saint John XXIII wrote an Encyclical which not only rejected war but offered a proposal for peace. He addressed his message Pacem in Terris to the entire “Catholic world” and indeed “to all men and women of good will”. Now, faced as we are with global environmental deterioration, I wish to address every person living on this planet. In my Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, I wrote to all the members of the Church with the aim of encouraging ongoing missionary renewal. In this Encyclical, I would like to enter into dialogue with all people about our common home. ...

http://w2.vatican.va/content/france...-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html
 
When Pope Francis was elected, he made clear that the name contained a full agenda for his pontificate inspired by Saint Francis of Assisi: the poor, the environment and peace. At top of the list came the poor.

As he recounted his choice of the name, the new pope explained that Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes leaned over and whispered in his ear, “Don’t forget the poor.” Then the newly elected pope recalls, he immediately thought of Francis of Assisi.

Saint Francis is also known as Il Poverello, that is, “the poor man” or more precisely, “the little poor man.” He identified with poor, cared for them, most notably the lepers, and preached God’s love to them. ...

http://americamagazine.org/issue/what-environmental-encyclical-means
 
They still only give 3 percent of their plunder to the poor. Also their home building program is not green. Shouldn't they be building urban apartment high rises? :)-
 
They still only give 3 percent of their plunder to the poor. Also their home building program is not green. Shouldn't they be building urban apartment high rises? :)-

Oh, I'm still agnostic. Its interesting observing the journey Francis which Francis is taking.
 
Portsmouth Abbey Institute Summer Conference Talk — In Defense of Pope Francis’ Economics

Last weekend I spoke at a conference in Portsmouth, Rhode Island devoted to understanding the Francis papacy. I spoke for 20 minutes and then answered questions, which I think there is video of somewhere. The purpose of my talk was to offer an explanation and defense of Pope Francis’ economics. Here are my remarks in full.

Portsmouth Abbey Talk: Pope Francis’ Economics

Hello, and thank you so much for joining us tonight to consider Pope Francis’ contributions to our understanding of economics. I’m thrilled to be talking with you all tonight, and I’m especially grateful to Chris Fisher and the Portsmouth Abbey Institute for putting this important conference together. Chris has been especially indispensible – I suspect at least half of the huge number of emails he must have answered in the past several weeks came from me – so, I wanted to recognize all he has done and to thank him for putting in such an amazing effort.

I hope you have all enjoyed your time here – I expect the contributions made here will help advance dialogue about Pope Francis’ papacy both inside and outside the Church. I know I’m honored to share a speaking schedule this weekend with colleagues and mentors I respect tremendously, and I trust at the end of this conference we will all go forward with a developed and nuanced set of insights into Pope Francis’ tenure as Pope so far.

With this talk, I’m aiming to establish two ideas: first, that there is an extraordinary misunderstanding of Pope Francis’ economics that is largely the result of peculiar American historical tendencies in politics; second, that Pope Francis’ economics represent the most faithful, reasoned approach to contemporary global problems. I will begin with the first effort: that is, untangling the confusion surrounding Pope Francis’ economics. ...

http://elizabethstokerbruenig.com/2...ce-talk-in-defense-of-pope-francis-economics/
 
Nick Cohen takes Francis to task over Contraception.

... Anti-Catholicism is still a residual force in Britain and a great mistake of secularists who fall into the prejudice is to imagine that the church’s dogmas are as dumb as the blabbering of the worst type of knuckle-dragging, know-nothing Protestant fundamentalist. Reading the pope’s encyclical on the care of our common home ought to provide an antidote. It shows, if nothing else, why apparently intelligent men and women can lose themselves in the richness of Catholic theology.

The encyclical is plainly written – Francis examines our throwaway society and declares: “The Earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.” It emphasises the interconnectedness of the natural world and is properly appalled that humanity is presiding over a mass extinction of species. Francis shows a concern for the poor that would shame most rich leftwingers, let alone their conservative opponents. And like his recent predecessors he is comfortable with modern science. Even if you think, as I do, that there is no God and the pope should grow up, you should admit that there is grandeur in this view of life, to take Darwin’s words wildly out of context, and a moral vigour too.

But it won’t wash.

When he is forced to choose between intellectual honesty and dogma, the pope chooses dogma without hesitation. Like Aquinas, he descends into special pleading, without admitting to the reader or perhaps to himself that he is rigging the debate.

You do not need to see humanity as a cancer killing mother Gaia to accept that a world of 7 billion is overpopulated and will become grossly overcrowded if humanity reaches 9 billion in 2050. Every extra person on the planet increases carbon emissions and the demands on scarce resources. ...

http://nickcohen.net/2015/06/23/birth-control-and-the-future-of-the-planet-pope-still-a-catholic/
 
Nick Cohen takes Francis to task over Contraception.
11058240_10205280094616662_2024909565117424107_n.jpg
 
Rep. Bob Brady (D-Pennsylvania) got a very unique souvenir from Pope Francis' speech to Congress yesterday.

ABC News reports that, after the speech, Brady "bee-lined for the podium, picked up the glass Pope Francis drank out of, and brought it back to his office." Brady, a devout Catholic, subsequently drank from the glass. He also gave some of the water to members of his staff and his wife, Debra.

Brady's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. He provided photos of himself and his family with the water glass to ABC News. Brady also confirmed that he "kept the remainder of the water and plans to sprinkle some on his grandchildren."

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/offbeat/a-congressman-took-pope-francis-water-glass/ar-AAeNkgC
 
Rep. Bob Brady (D-Pennsylvania) got a very unique souvenir from Pope Francis' speech to Congress yesterday.

ABC News reports that, after the speech, Brady "bee-lined for the podium, picked up the glass Pope Francis drank out of, and brought it back to his office." Brady, a devout Catholic, subsequently drank from the glass. He also gave some of the water to members of his staff and his wife, Debra.

Brady's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. He provided photos of himself and his family with the water glass to ABC News. Brady also confirmed that he "kept the remainder of the water and plans to sprinkle some on his grandchildren."

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/offbeat/a-congressman-took-pope-francis-water-glass/ar-AAeNkgC

Better just hope His Holiness doesn't have a cold sore.

Doesn't a figure have to be a saint for items to become official, holy-imbued relics?
 
I don't know if this is real footage but, if it is, I love Pope Francis a bit more everyday (NSFW for sweary music at the end)


aaaww .. it's fake (of course) :( .... very well done though

 
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After Pope Francis wrapped up a successful goodwill tour of the United States, he saw his that goodwill largely undermined when it leaked out that he had met with Kentucky marriage license clerk Kim Davis, who is considered by many Americans to be enemy number one when it comes to gay rights. This prompted the Pope to put out a statement clarifying that while the meeting took place, he in no way endorsed her agenda. And now he’s expected to go a step further, removing the Archbishop who set up the meeting from power.

http://www.dailynewsbin.com/news/po...who-tricked-him-into-kim-davis-meeting/22694/
 
What Does Mercy Mean to Pope Francis?
In a new book, the Pope sits down with a Vatican reporter to discuss mercy, sin, and love in the twenty-first century.


After Pope Francis’s return from his 2015 trip to Latin America, he sat down with veteran Vatican reporter Andrea Tornielli for an in-depth theological interview that now makes up the majority of the new book The Name of God is Mercy. The slim, white volume also contains the papal bull announcing the Holy Year of Mercy, a special jubilee year decreed by Francis during Lent of 2015. But the majority of the book is a conversation between Francis and Tornielli, who has established himself as an enthusiastic chronicler of Francis’s papacy. In 2013, Tornielli published a kind ofprimer on the new pope, and in 2015 he wrote a spirited exploration of Francis’s views on capitalism and the Church’s social teaching.
But in The Name of God is Mercy, Tornielli turns from the world’s fixation on Francis and his famed displeasure with the ravages of capitalism, and renders a far more contemplative, theologically sensitive picture of the Argentinian priest who now leads the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics. There are certainly shades of Francis’s past remarks in the book; he refers to poverty as “one of the many slaveries of the third millennium,” and excoriates a man who, nonchalant about an affair with his maid, seemed to believe “in the existence of superior and inferior human beings, with the latter destined to be taken advantage of.” But Tornielli opens with a warning that the book is not an entry into the fervid genre of Francis-related media debate, which “often felt,” he says, “like a kind of match between fans of opposing teams.”

https://newrepublic.com/article/127679/mercy-mean-pope-francis
 
Pope Francis battles hardliners as new “Joy of Love” omits gays, divorcees

Pope Francis wants the Church to be responsive to social reality, to life as it is lived by the world’s estimated 1.2 billion CatholicsPhoto by: MalacanangPhotoBureau, public domain

Can there be any doubt now that Pope Francis wants the Church to be responsive to social reality, to life as it is lived by the world’s estimated 1.2 billion Catholics?

The problem is that the social reality, the life as it is lived in this 236 page document titled Amoris Laetitia, or “the Joy of Love” belongs to the faded pre-Age of Aquarius world of 1963, not to 2016.

Nevertheless, supporters and critics will parse this document this week for clues about where Francis will lead the church, reminding me of the way nationalists and unionists used to parse new political declarations in hardest years of the peace process in Ireland.

It is abundantly clear now that Francis wants a political settlement, one that addresses the new realities of the faithful, and puts the conflicts of the past to rest.

But it is equally clear that hardliners behind the scenes want to retain the right to determine who’s in and who’s out, and ensure the power behind the papal throne still speaks with the loudest voice.

Francis may wish to throw open the church’s doors to the tens of millions of Catholics who feel excluded by church doctrine, but that gesture would convulse his senior clerics. ...

http://www.irishcentral.com/opinion...tm_campaign=Best of IrishCentral - 2016-Apr-9
 
Francis should tell them to go to Hell! Er, on second thoughts...

VATICAN INVESTIGATES CATHOLIC GROUP AFTER EXORCISM CLAIM THAT FRANCIS IS DEVIL'S MAN
26 June 2017 | by Daniele Palmer

On 2 June Herald's leader, Mgr. Clá Dias, unexpectedly resigned and reports emerged of a Vatican investigation into the group

The leader of a Brazilian traditionalist movement that was praised in the past two pontificates has resigned, and a video has subsequently emerged of the leader relaying bizarre claims by one of his priests regarding Pope Francis. Mgr João Scognamiglio Clá Dias, the founder and now ex-leader of the Heralds of the Gospel, can be seen in the video saying that the devil had told the Heralds priest that Francis was “my man”. Satan said Francis is “stupid” and does “everything I want”, Clá Dias says.

But speaking to The Tablet, Fr Angel Veiga, a Rome-based leader of the order, said the video has been “taken out of context”, and what was said in it does not equate to the position of the Heralds. They were simply relaying Satan’s message.

“It’s the Devil, no? The Devil is the father of lies,” Fr Veiga explained, adding that the video showed “a private, intimate conversation between our founder [Clá Dias] and various priests.”

The video, first reported by respected Vatican journalist Andrea Tornielli, shows around 60 priests listening to Mgr Clá Dias relaying what the priest said to him. The things had been said - the priest believed by the devil - when the priest was carrying out an exorcism. ...

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/736...er-exorcism-claim-that-francis-is-devil-s-man
 
I knew priests were supposed to commune with God, but what are they doing communing with Satan? Isn't that against certain rules?
 
I hope Francis reaches out to these people and assists them in publicising their grievances.

Hooded activists in Chile have burned a bus and scattered pamphlets in protest of an upcoming visit by Pope Francis to a southern region claimed by the Mapuche indigenous group as its ancestral territory.

Police said on Friday that the arson attack took place in the Araucania region, about 370 miles (600 kilometers) south of the Chilean capital. The pamphlets read: “Fire to the churches. Pope Francis: You’re not welcome to Araucania.”

Francis will visit Chile from 15-18 January, and he will lead a mass in Temuco, the capital of the Araucania region, on 17 January.

The Mapuche are Chile’s largest indigenous group. They resisted the Spanish conquest for 300 years until the Chilean military in the late 19th century forcibly “pacified” Araucania, south of the Bio Bio river. The government then encouraged European immigrants to colonize the area.

Most of the indigenous people there now live in poverty on the fringes of land used by timber companies or ranches owned by the descendants of the European colonists. ...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...s-visit-to-contested-indigenous-land-in-chile
 
Francis should tell them to go to Hell!

About that.

During the meeting Scalfari asked the pope where “bad souls” go, to which he was quoted as responding: “They are not punished. Those who repent obtain God’s forgiveness and take their place among the ranks of those who contemplate him, but those who do not repent and cannot be forgiven disappear. A hell doesn’t exist, the disappearance of sinning souls exists.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...bles-to-clarify-popes-denial-that-hell-exists

And hours later, St Peter's Basilica started crumbling.

http://metro.co.uk/2018/03/30/vatic...-pope-francis-says-hell-doesnt-exist-7428578/
 
There are going to be so many conspiracy theories ...

The Pope's pregnant receptionist has been found dead in her apartment on the outskirts of the city.

Miriam Wuolou, a 34-year-old of Eritrean origin, was seven-months pregnant when her body was discovered. She had worked at Pope Francis' home and a priests' guesthouse called Santa Marta for years. The Italian press reports she worked as a kind of gatekeeper for the Pontiff, as well as for the bishops and cardinals who stay there.

The Pope opted to live at the Santa Marta guesthouse after his appointment in 2013, rejecting the grand papal apartments because he found them too sumptuous and he feared isolation.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/pregnant-secretary-pope-francis-found-7430464
 
No trolling for Lent!

VATICAN CITY, Feb 26 (Reuters) - During Lent, Catholics are called on to give up something, like sweets. On Wednesday, Pope Francis added a modern twist to the list of things to quit during the season and beyond: insulting people on social media. The pope made his appeal to tone things down while speaking to tens of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square for his general audience on Ash Wednesday, the start of the 40-day season that leads up to Easter.

Lent, he said in partially improvised remarks, “is a time to give up useless words, gossip, rumors, tittle-tattle and speak to God on a first name basis,” he said. “We live in an atmosphere polluted by too much verbal violence, too many offensive and harmful words, which are amplified by the internet,” he said. “Today, people insult each other as if they were saying ‘Good Day.’”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pope-francis-no-trolling-lent_n_5e56f774c5b66622ed765503
 
The Two Popes: Mostly concentrates on Francis (Jonathan Pryce) but Benedict (Anthony Hopkins) is shown to have his human side as well. Even though he generally doesn’t get jokes he tells one anyway, it’s a German joke (he says) so it doesn’t have to be funny. Far more interesting is the scene where he counsels Francis who he is reflecting on the days of the Dictatorship in Argentina. Francis feels that he didn’t do enough, Benedict points to all of the lives that he saved. Some interesting flashbacks about that period, it is easy to see why Francis felt conflicted. Their debates cover style more than dogmatic Theology but Francis constantly points to how the Church itself has changed over the centuries. We also see the younger Francis before he became a priest, when he was romantically involved. An engrossing film, Directed by Fernando Meirelles from a screenplay by Anthony McCarten. 8/10. On Netflix.

And no, Hopkins wasn't channeling Hannibal Lecter.
 
And no, Hopkins wasn't channeling Hannibal Lecter.
No Comparison...one character oversees an organisation that's responsible for the death and misery of millions and covered up child abuse on an industrial scale and the other is a fictional serial killer.
 
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