Pope slammed for telling Russians to hold on to ‘legacy’ of a ‘great empire’

Pope Francis has come under fire after he encouraged Russian youths not to give up their “legacy” as heirs of a “great, enlightened Russian empire.”

“Never give up this legacy, you are the heirs of the great Mother Russia, go forward with it,” Pope Francis told young Russians gathered for the All-Russian Meeting of Catholic Youth in St. Petersburg on Friday.

During the speech, a clip of which was posted online, the pope also invoked former Russian emperors Peter I and Catherine II, two rulers who played key roles in expanding Russia’s conquests in Europe, and who are known as symbols of Russian imperialism.

Pope Francis castigates Europe in speech on solidarity

Europe is struggling to live up to the vision of its founders, Pope Francis has said in a powerful speech that asked: “What has happened to you, the Europe of humanism, the champion of human rights, democracy and freedom?”

Speaking as he became the first pope to accept the prestigious Charlemagne prize for his work on behalf of European solidarity, the pontiff called for Europe to reclaim the principles that had been established after the second world war, above all by embracing integration and revamping its economic model to “benefit ordinary people and society as a whole”.

The Pope Looks East Toward Russia and China

ROME -- Pope Francis is about to leave for a five-day trip throughout Mexico. This country is among the most visited by recent popes, especially John Paul II. Francis will reach areas where his predecessors never wandered, ending his journey at Ciudad Juarez along the border with the U.S. Generally for his visits abroad, he seeks both meaningful and unexpected destinations (Albania, the Central African Republic, Sweden next October), and when possible, chooses places that are free of other pontiffs' footprints.

Whose world view will dominate 2016: The Donald or The Pope?

The planetary question in 2016 will come down to this: whose values will the world follow, The Pope’s or The Donald’s?

As we inch toward war and fascism in much of the West while spouting the rhetoric of peace and love set to Jingle Bells, will it be hands across the water, or Trumpian walls against the sky; a “reconciled diversity”, or the Republic of Scapegoating?

The Pilgrim of Peace and the Bloviating Billionaire are going after the same thing: hearts, minds, and yes, souls. What they have on offer couldn’t be further apart. The latest incarnation of God and Mammon is the Cool Pope and the Shameless Capitalist.

Everything We Know About Kim Davis’ Alleged Secret Meeting With The Pope

The same day that Kim Davis’ lawyers at the Liberty Counsel had to admit that there was never a 100,000-person prayer rally for her in Peru, they issued a bold new claim: she met with Pope Francis when they were both in Washington, D.C. last week. Here is everything we currently know about this alleged meeting:

The story was first reported by a conservative Catholic magazine.

Why Did Pope Francis Meet With Kim Davis?

The pope has left the United States, but details are still coming out about his trip. Here’s a big one: Last Thursday afternoon, during his time in Washington, D.C., he met with Kim Davis, the Rowan County clerk who has refused to perform same-sex marriages, her lawyers say.

“She left at 1:15 exactly, and she was at the Vatican [embassy] a hour and a half or so, maybe up to two hours, waiting, and that also included the meeting,” said Mat Staver, her attorney at the firm Liberty Counsel, said. Davis and her husband, Joe, met with the pope for “under 15 minutes,” Staver said. “The pope came out and greeted her, held out his hand, ask Kim to pray for him, and she clasped his hands with her hands, and asked the pope to pray for her.”

How Pope Francis Undermined the Goodwill of His Trip and Proved to Be a Coward

After first refusing to confirm nor deny it, the Vatican has confirmed that Pope Francis met with the Kentucky clerk Kim Davis at the Vatican Embassy in Washington, where Davis' attorney -- who made the news public after the pope's trip ended -- said Francis told her to "stay strong." And that simple encounter completely undermines all the goodwill the pope created in downplaying "the gay issue" on his U.S. trip.

The pope played us for fools, trying to have it both ways. As I noted last week, he's an artful politician, telling different audiences what they want to hear on homosexuality. He did that in Argentina as a cardinal -- railing against gay marriage when the Vatican expected him to do so -- and he's done that since becoming pope, striking a softer tone on the issue after Benedict's harsh denunciations were a p.r. disaster for the Catholic Church in the West. But this news about Kim Davis portrays him as a more sinister kind of politician. That's the kind that secretly supports hate, ushering the bigots in the back door -- knowing they're an embarrassment -- while speaking publicly about about how none of us can judge one another.

My Problem With the Pope

Pope Francis the Good is one truly uplifting presence on the world stage. Millions of us welcome and rejoice over his messages about helping those less fortunate, building tolerance and seeking justice -- all goals that could use reinforcing in almost every corner of this turbulent planet. Even for us Protestants, it's a good time to share the name Frances, by whatever spelling.

But the pope and I have a small disagreement.

Pope Francis Elevates Dorothy Day’s Call For Economic Justice

"We must talk about poverty, because people insulated by their own comfort lose sight of it,” preached the visionary militant Dorothy Day, who forged the Catholic Worker Movement against war, economic inequality, racial discrimination, the neglect of refugees and the mistreatment of immigrants.

When Pope Francis talked about Day before the Congress of the United States, in one of the most anticipated speeches by a religious leader in modern times, he signaled an understanding that it is necessary to move the debate about economic justice away from kind words and toward genuine deeds.

Catholic Presidential Candidate Explains Why He Won’t Listen To Pope Francis

On the same day that Pope Francis spoke to thousands of people in Washington, D.C. about the need to fight poverty and climate change, Catholic presidential candidate Marco Rubio went on Fox News to explain why he disagrees with the Holy Father on the specifics of those issues.

Appearing on “Special Report,” Sen. Rubio (R-FL) told host Bret Baier that Pope Francis is “infallible” — but only on questions of morality.

The 10 Most Important Lines From Pope Francis' Historic Speech to Congress

In a powerful speech to a joint session of Congress Thursday morning, Pope Francis pushed the United States to confront several political issues that tend to divide Republicans and Democrats, including immigration, climate change, the Iran deal, Cuba, poverty, and the death penalty. His speech noted that politics "cannot be a slave to the economy and finance." He didn't chastise any political party, and he, not surprisingly, had a clear but brief reference to opposing abortion. But overall, his address had a progressive cast.

NYPD Expels Homeless People Encamped Near Pope Visit Site

New York police scattered about a dozen homeless people from the foot of a Harlem train station Wednesday ahead of Pope Francis’ visit to the city, which will include a stop at a Catholic school located near the long-standing informal encampment on 125th Street.

The school Francis is visiting is 13 blocks away. William Burnett, an advocate for the homeless, is dubious of the city’s rationale for sweeping the Harlem encampment, telling Newsweek that the city is “using [Francis] as an excuse” to drive the camp’s residents elsewhere.

Pope Celebrates Mass In Havana, Warns Against Dangers Of Ideology

HAVANA, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Pope Francis celebrated Mass in Havana's Revolution Square on Sunday, offering both spiritual and political messages for the tens of thousands who packed the plaza, the symbolic heart of the Cuban revolution.

He warned of the dangers of power and ideology when others are excluded. At the same time, Cuban police kept some dissidents from attending and pounced on others apparently attempting to hand out flyers near the Mass.

If the Pope gets climate change, why can't we?

In an unprecedented season of hundreds of B.C. wildfires, Premier Christy Clark can disappear from view for a long time. Yet she is calling a rare summer session of the provincial legislature for an LNG debate (so-called), to rubber-stamp the ratification of her government’s first proposed LNG project, near Prince Rupert.

The premier who would balance the B.C. budget on the backs of teachers and families with budget cuts to numerous services paints a rosy picture of LNG. The facts speak differently.

Harper's refusal to seek residential-schools apology from Pope 'deeply disappointing'

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is under fire for turning his back on aboriginal residential school survivors after he skipped a chance to personally urge the Pope to apologize for the Catholic Church’s role in the abusive system.

Harper met with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Thursday, just nine days after the release of the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

Instead of backing that commission’s call for a papal apology, Harper merely “drew attention” to a four-paragraph letter that Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt wrote last week to the Vatican to inform it of the TRC report.

Pope Francis Is a Christian, Not a Communist

If you pay much attention to the media in the coming weeks, you might find yourself wondering whether or not Pope Francis is a communist. Bad-faith political mislabeling of Francis is, by this early point in his papacy, already distressingly common: Rush Limbaugh has accused the pontiff of espousing Marxism and socialism, a pair of claims that Fox host Sean Hannity later echoed. These feverish charges arose as a result of several of Francis’ statements about the failures of trickle-down economics and the ravages of inequality. But the latest round of McCarthy-esque red-spotting is due to conservative nervousness about Pope Francis’ upcoming encyclical on the environment, expected to be released June 18.

Pope Francis Slams 'Prejudiced Mentality' Of Believers Who Fearfully Cling To Religious Laws

VATICAN CITY (RNS) In a powerful sermon that signaled his desire to push ahead with historic reforms, Pope Francis on Sunday (Feb. 15) said the Roman Catholic Church must be open and welcoming, whatever the costs.

He also warned the hierarchy not to be “a closed caste” but to lead in reaching out to all who are rejected by society and the church.

Pope Francis Slams EU's 'Opulence' And 'Aloofness' In Historic Parliament Speech

STRASBOURG -- Pope Francis has attacked the European Union's "opulent" and "aloof" leadership and institutions in an extraordinary speech to the Strasbourg parliament, the first from the pontiff in more than a quarter of a decade.

The historic address, which accused politicians of treating citizens not with "dignity and transcendence" but as "cogs in a machine", saw the Pope take the EU's handling of the economic crisis to task, saying it had forgotten how to talk about anything but economics and treat people as humans beings.

Pope Francis and the G.O.P.’s Bad Science

It’s a shame that there is no provision in the Constitution of the United States that would permit Pope Francis to serve as the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Or, for that matter, that there’s no way for him to lead the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Instead, it looks like we are going to have Republicans James Imhofe, of Oklahoma, and Ted Cruz, of Texas in those jobs.

That’s too bad, because the Pope believes that science, rational thought, and data all play powerful and positive roles in human life. The senators seem as if they do not. Last month, Francis made a lot of news when, in an address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, he said, essentially, that the Catholic Church had no problem with evolution or with the Big Bang theory of the origins of the universe. “When we read the account of Creation in Genesis, we risk imagining that God was a magician, complete with an all-powerful magic wand. But that was not so. … Evolution in nature does not conflict with the notion of Creation,’’ Francis said.

Pope To G20: 'Unbridled Consumerism' Damages The Planet

In what has become an annual ritual, Pope Francis now sends a letter to whomever is chairing the G20 each year to express his concerns about the global economy and the state of world affairs. Here is his letter this year to Tony Abbott, the prime minister of Australia, who is chair of the G20 Leaders' Summit that convenes in Brisbane Nov. 15-16:

THE VATICAN -- The G20 agenda in Brisbane is highly focused one efforts to relaunch a sustained and sustainable growth of the world economy, thereby banishing the spectre of global recession.