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While Christians may think of themselves as divided into different churches and denominations, the devil actually sees that they are one in their faith in Jesus, Pope Francis said in a video message to a Christian unity celebration in Phoenix.

“Division is the work of the ‘Father of Lies,’ ‘the Father of Discord,’ who does everything possible to keep us divided,” the Pope said on Saturday in the message to the gathering sponsored by the John 17 Movement.

But he harshly criticized the gap between the wealthy and the impoverished, saying: “I ask them not to yield to an economic model which is idolatrous, which needs to sacrifice human lives on the altar of money and profit.”

Malcolm wrote:Fucking wow.

But he harshly criticized the gap between the wealthy and the impoverished, saying: “I ask them not to yield to an economic model which is idolatrous, which needs to sacrifice human lives on the altar of money and profit.”

Said the man who has a private jet, the Pope-mobile, lives in a super palace, and is the absolute monarch of an organization with mountains of wealth.

TheCatt wrote:

Malcolm wrote:Fucking wow.

But he harshly criticized the gap between the wealthy and the impoverished, saying: “I ask them not to yield to an economic model which is idolatrous, which needs to sacrifice human lives on the altar of money and profit.”

Said the man who has a private jet, the Pope-mobile, lives in a super palace, and is the absolute monarch of an organization with mountains of wealth.

iirc, he lives in a guesthouse or such, not the Vatican "apartments"

Francis took the step by signing a decree declaring that the inexplicable 2008 recovery of a Brazilian man who suddenly woke from a coma caused by a viral brain infection was due to the intercession of the Albanian nun, who died in 1997.

The Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, the postulator spearheading Mother Teresa’s canonization case, said in a statement Friday (Dec. 18) that the man fully recovered following his wife’s prayers and he has since returned to work as a mechanical engineer.
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It noted that the pontiff’s action came three days after a Vatican panel of cardinals and bishops affirmed the judgment of medical experts and theologians who concluded that there was no medical explanation for the apparent cure.

Does this mean couples in these largely Catholic countries should abstain from sex for two years? Or should they use so-called "natural family planning"? The method, which involves a woman monitoring her basal body temperature and vaginal secretions to avoid having sex at fertile times of the month, has a 25% failure rate, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Or, because of Zika, should couples use more effective methods of birth control?

So far, the church hierarchy has remained silent on these questions.

Malcolm wrote:1) birth control or
2) not fucking

Malcolm wrote:1) birth control or
2) not fucking

you forgot 3) abort the deformed ones

Although all forms of abortion are illegal in Honduras, Rodriguez said he was saddened to read a medical professional’s writing apparently in support of “therapeutic abortion,” which is one that is carried out if the life of the mother is in danger or if there is risk of fetal abnormality.
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Scott James, a professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, this week wrote a column for the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention in which he explained what the virus is and how Christians should not panic but do what they can to help those afflicted.

He also said that even if a believer does not oppose birth control, Christians should beware of any moral reasoning that would lead to aborting a Zika-infected fetus.

Malcolm wrote:Yeah, but that's not preventing pregnancy, it's stopping one in progress.

TPRJones wrote:Yeah, until the Vatican starts liquidating and using that wealth to do what they say other people should do with their money, they have no place to talk on such issues.

"In fact, we have discovered that the situation is much healthier than it seemed, because some hundreds of millions of euros were tucked away in particular sectional accounts and did not appear on the balance sheet."

The Brazil Without Abortion movement, which claims 100,000 members across the country, has attacked the Anis proposal. Its president, Lenise Garcia, also a microbiologist at the University of Brasilia, compared it to “Nazi philosophy.”

“The mentality that is behind this is the same,” Garcia said. “It is prejudice against a disabled person.”

An estimated 800,000 to 1 million illegal abortions take place in Brazil every year, and about 200,000 women are hospitalized with complications from the procedure.

“Girl Scouts is exhibiting a troubling pattern of behavior and it is clear to me that as they move in the ways of the world it is becoming increasingly incompatible with our Catholic values,” the archbishop wrote in the letter, dated Feb. 18.
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Archbishop Carlson criticized the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. for its ties to Amnesty International, the Coalition for Adolescent Girls, Oxfam and other groups because of their support for sex education and reproductive rights. He said the organization’s promotion of Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan as role models was “in conflict with Christian values.”

"...the ways of the world is becoming increasingly incompatible with our Catholic values..."

But Nuzzi alleged that the process was both unfair and shockingly unsupervised. The Catholic Herald says wealthy donors could essentially bankroll their selected candidate for sainthood, while potential saints who didn't have deep-pocketed supporters would not have the funds for the necessary research.

Leftover money from well-supported sainthood campaigns was supposed to go into a fund to help poorer candidates, but somehow it seemed there was never any spare cash, no matter how flush a sainthood "cause" was, Nuzzi writes.