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Catholic Tag

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ordered the conversion of Istanbul's Hagia Sophia into a mosque. The 1,500-year-old cathedral would open to Muslim worship later this month. The announcement was met with the cries of 'Allahu akbar' by a crowd gathered outside Hagia Sophia, media reports said on Friday.

Last week, we reported that faithful Catholics threw primitive figurines in the Tiber that were used in a Vatican garden ceremony and placed by an altar in Rome’s Church of Santa Maria in Transpontina. The Catholic men were offended that the "Pachamama" statues were more akin to fertility goddesses than sacred Catholic images. In an apologetic statement, Pope Frances indicated that the statues have now been dredged up and may be displayed again.

I recently reported that at the Amazon synod, Pope Francis created a stir by pondering the possibility of married priests. But that wasn't the only significant controversy associated with the event.  A video going around shows a man throwing statues in the Tiber used in a Vatican garden ceremony and placed by an altar in Rome's Church of Santa Maria in Transpontina.

During a gathering of South American bishops at the Vatican, Pope Francis urged them to consider dropping celibacy requirements for some priests to address a severe priest shortage in remote areas of the region.
The three-week Synod of Bishops for the Amazon also will address crucial regional topics ranging from protection of rainforests and local cultures to climate change, migration and clean water.

A team of American and Israeli archaeologists claim they found the Church of the Apostles supposedly built over the home of Jesus Christ's apostles Peter and Andrew. From Fox News:
Experts from the Kinneret Institute for Galilean Archaeology at Kinneret College, Israel and Nyack College in New York, have been excavating the site of el-Araj on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. The archaeologists believe that el-Araj is the site of the ancient Jewish fishing village of Bethsaida, which later became the Roman city of Julias.

Facebook is going overboard in an attempt to make sure nobody gets their feelings hurt on the platform. Pro-life activist Domenico Bettinelli claimed that Facebook deleted a quote from St. Augustine because it violated the platform's Community Standards on hate speech.

As a practicing Catholic who visited the famous Notre Dame Cathedral in 2015, watching the news reports covering the conflagration, the destruction of its roof, and the collapse of its iconic spire was gut-wrenching.

George Pell, an Australian cardinal who was once the third-highest ranking Vatican official, was sentenced to six years in prison for molesting 2 choirboys in 1996.
The cardinal was convicted on five counts in December, making him the most senior Catholic official — and the first bishop — to be found guilty in a criminal court for sexually abusing minors, according to BishopAccountability.org, which tracks cases of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.

Catholic News Agency (CNA) reported on Tuesday that Phillips led a rally in an attempt to disrupt Mass at DC's Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception last Saturday. It happened a day after Phillips confronted students from Covington Catholic High School that launched a viral video, which led to a bunch of problems.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) wrote a scathing op-ed, which was published in The Hill Tuesday, in which she lambasted lawmakers who questioned US district judicial nominee Brian Buescher about his affiliation with the Catholic organization, Knights of Columbus. While Rep. Gabbard never mentioned Sen. Hirono by name, the only two Senators to have made an issue of Buescher's participation in the Knights of Columbus were Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI).

As a Catholic, I have been following the response of the Catholic Church to the detailed testimony of former Vatican diplomat Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò that the Vatican knew about the sexual abuse allegedly perpetrated by an American cardinal and covered it up. So far, American Catholics are giving the pontiff low marks for his handling of the scandal.
Just 3 out of 10 American Catholics say the pope has done an “excellent” or “good” job handling the church’s sex abuse crisis. The approval percentage is the lowest that Catholics in the U.S. have given the pope since the Pew Research Center began tracking views of his performance more than four years ago.