The opponents of Pope Francis have indirect links to Vladimir Putin, according to a writer who has been called the Pope’s “favourite journalist”.
Andrea Tornielli made the suggestion in a piece co-written with Giacomo Galeazzi for the Italian newspaper La Stampa, headlined “Catholics who are anti-Francis but love Putin”.
The article quoted sociologist Massimo Introvigne: “It is the mythical idealisation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is presented as a ‘good’ leader in contrast to the ‘bad’ leader, the Pope, because of his stance on homosexual people, Muslims and immigrants. Russian foundations that have strong ties with Putin cooperate with the anti-Francis opposition.”
Mr Tornielli has published a book-length interview with Pope Francis, The Name of God Is Mercy.
The La Stampa piece describes various organisations and individuals who have expressed scepticism about the current pontiff. These include priests and theologians who have asked for clarification of the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, and writers and journalists such as Alessandro Gnocchi, who believes the Pope “is systematically surrendering the Church to the world; the Church is becoming worldly. His pontificate is based on the brutal handling of power.”
The article also quoted historian Roberto Mattei as saying: “The Church is going through one of the biggest moments of chaos in its history and the Pope is one of the causes … This chaos is above all to do with the Pope’s magisterium. Francis is not the solution but part of the problem.”
Bishop suggests Pope could ‘start a Lutheran revolution’
An English bishop has suggested Pope Francis might start a “revolution” by permitting Lutherans to receive the Eucharist.
Bishop Kenney, an auxiliary bishop of Birmingham, who has worked on several ecumenical bodies, was speaking to Crux ahead of Pope Francis’s visit to Sweden on October 31.
“If I wanted Francis to cause a pleasant revolution in Lund, he would say Lutherans can, under certain circumstances and without asking all the time, receive the Eucharist,” he said. He suggested that a Lutheran spouse “could always go to Communion with his or her partner.”
Currently, non-Catholics can only be given permission to receive the Eucharist in a few circumstances – for instance, if they believe Church teaching and are in danger of death.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, concerning “Ecclesial communities derived from the Reformation and separated from the Catholic Church”, that “Eucharistic intercommunion with these communities is not possible”. This is attributed to Vatican II’s teaching that such communities have “not preserved the proper reality of the Eucharistic mystery in its fullness”.
Papal bedroom opens to public
Pope Francis is opening the doors to the papal apartment – including the bedroom where popes have slept – at Castel Gandolfo.
The apartment was for centuries the summer residence of the Roman pontiffs, but Pope Francis has decided not to use it. Instead, in 2014, he opened the palace gardens to the public and last year opened a portion of the Apostolic Palace as a portrait gallery.
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