Pope Francis: Immigrants face ‘globalization of indifference’
Immigrants the world over face a “globalization of indifference,” Pope Francis declared on his first visit outside Rome, to the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, where Italy intercepts and puts...
View ArticlePope Francis: Door open to gays, closed to women as priests
En route home from the World Youth Day celebration in Brazil, Pope Francis did what popes have never done and U.S. presidents and presidential candidates now rarely do: He held a wide-ranging,...
View ArticleNuns warily anticipate session with Sartain
Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain will take on his “other” job next week, flying to Florida as the Vatican’s point man in a bid to make the largest organization of American nuns toe the Vatican...
View ArticleArchbishop Sartain to nuns: I’m your friend
Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain, charged by the Vatican with making American nuns toe the line, told the largest annual assembly of U.S. Catholic sisters that he is “your brother and friend.”...
View ArticleWrite the pope, and he might call back
Pope Francis is again outflanking the protocols and removed presence of the papacy, and has taken to making phonecalls to ordinary people who send him letters. The pontiff’s calls have even prompted a...
View ArticleVatican open to (more) married priests
The incoming Secretary of State at the Vatican, number two man to Pope Francis, has hinted strongly that the Catholic Church should discuss priestly celibacy saying that the requirement is “not a...
View ArticleU.S. Catholics: Up with Francis, disagree with bishops
Pope Francis has made an overwhelmingly positive impression with America’s Catholics, with nearly 70 percent agreeing with the pontiff that the Catholic Church has been too focused, too much of the...
View ArticlePope: ‘Service’ not ‘servitude’ for women
Pope Francis continues to tantalize with the prospect of change in in a hitherto dogma-burdened church, the latest in a weekend speech arguing that “women are called to service, not servitude.” The...
View ArticlePope bounces the ‘bishop of bling’
Pope Francis, who has vowed to live humbly before the Lord, on Wednesday suspended and exiled a German bishop who has made headlines with a $41 million remodeling of his official residence and...
View ArticleThe Vatican wants to hear from people in the pews
The Vatican has asked bishops’ conferences in America and other countries to undertake a sweeping poll of the Catholic faithful asking for lay peoples’ opinions on such controversial church teachings...
View ArticleCatholics: Full pew push for immigration reform
U.S. Catholics are being urged on call their U.S. House members on Wednesday with a simple message on immigration: Support a path to citizenship. In a departure from its preoccupation with same-sex...
View ArticleBishops: Coal ports must get ‘exhaustive, independent review’
Huge proposed coal export terminals at Longview and Cherry Point, north of Bellingham, must get “exhaustive and independent review” of potential environmental, economic and climate change impacts,...
View ArticleSarah Palin is OK with Pope Francis
Ex-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, lately in a book tour bashing “angry atheists” and “liberal secularists,” says she didn’t mean to take out after Pope Francis during a CNN interview earlier this week. The...
View ArticlePope Francis decries ‘idolatry of money,’‘trickle down’ economics
Pope Francis has published a lengthy apostolic exhortation decrying the “exclusion” of the less fortunate from society, the “idolatry of money,” and inequality spawned by “trickle down theories” —...
View ArticleRush Limbaugh vs. Pope Francis
Rush Limbaugh is in a rage at the latest social justice preachings of Pope Francis, which the radio voice of the American right described on Wednesday as “pure Marxism.” Pope Francis in his new...
View ArticleChurch ‘outmarketed’ on gay marriage: Cardinal Dolan
The Catholic Church has found itself “outmarketed” in its opposition to same-sex marriage contending with Hollywood and caricatured as homophobic, according to Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. The...
View ArticleThousands of gay couples tie the knot here
Seven thousand same-sex couples were wed in Washington during the first nine months of marriage equality in the Evergreen State, according to figures released on Thursday by the state Department of...
View ArticleState’s Catholic bishops boost gun safety initiative
The state’s four Catholic bishops have strongly endorsed Initiative 594, the proposed gun safety measure that would require a criminal background check on almost all gun sales in Washington, closing...
View ArticlePoll: Pope Francis gets thumbs-up from Americans
A whopping 57 percent of Americans take a favorable view toward Pope Francis, nearly twice as many as viewed positively predecessor Pope Benedict XVI at his retirement, according to an NBC News/Wall...
View ArticleEastside Catholic students protest diocese-ordered resignation
More than 300 students at Eastside Catholic High School staged a cafeteria sit-in on Thursday, protesting the forced resignation of a popular vice principal, who married another man last summer. The...
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