- Francis appoints “pastor” as new vicar of Rome, by John Allen, Jr. 05/26/17. "Pope Francis has chosen Bishop Angelo De Donatis to be the new vicar of Rome, the first non-cardinal to hold the position in nearly 500 years."
- Pope Francis, Trump hold landmark first meeting Catholic News Agency. 05/24/17. After months of anticipation, Pope Francis and U.S. President Donald Trump finally met at the Vatican Wednesday in a friendly encounter which included an emphasis on protection of life and freedom of conscience.
- Five former ambassadors weigh in on Pope/Trump summit, b Ines San Martin. Crux 05/22/17.
- Pope Francis: I am suspicious of ongoing Medjugorje apparitions Catholic News Agency. 05/13/17. "Pope Francis said the original apparitions more than three decades ago deserve further study, but voiced doubt in the supposed ongoing visions."
- Pope: No research justifies the destruction of human embryos, by Ines San Martin. Crux 05/18/17:
Meeting a group of people suffering from Huntington's Disease, Pope Francis told them that despite their illness, they are “precious in the eyes of God” and in the eyes of the Church. Speaking to the scientists present in the room, he also said that the search for a cure must be done in a way that doesn’t fuel the “throw-away culture” that at times “infiltrates even the world of scientific research.”
- Pope Francis: ‘I do not see Cardinal Burke as an enemy’, by Ines San Martin. Crux 03/08/17:
In a new interview with a German newspaper, Pope Francis denies seeing conservative American Cardinal Raymond Burke as an "enemy," but does take a gentle swipe at "fundamentalist Catholics," saying their self-assurance reminds him of St. Peter just before he denied knowing Jesus.
- Pope quietly trims sanctions for sex abusers seeking mercy, by Nicole Winfield. Crux 02/25/17. Pope Francis has quietly reduced sanctions against a handful of pedophile priests, applying his vision of a merciful church even to its worst offenders in ways that survivors of abuse and the pope’s own advisers question. One case has come back to haunt him.
- Francis stacks the College of Cardinals, by Fr. Thomas Reese. National Catholic Reporter 05/25/17. "Pope Francis has done numerous revolutionary things during his first four years as pope, but it is hard to top the change he has made to the College of Cardinals. He has changed the system so that an incumbent pope can stack the college with bishops who support his views. This change will have an impact on the church for centuries to come."
- Pope Francis and the Doctrinal Ideologues, by Carl Olson. Catholic World Report 05/22/17:
... put bluntly, I see such homilies and addresses [from Francis] as exercises in posturing and polemics—and not very sound polemics at that. Put together (and I've only noted a few here), they add up to a collection of blustering statements meant to shut down any and all questions about Amoris Laetitia and related matters. What would be funny if all of this wasn't so serious is just how heavy-handed, clumsy, and even bush league so much of this stuff has been.
- Burying Benedict, by Matthew Schmitz. First Things 05/22/17:
Though Benedict is still living, Francis is trying to bury him. Upon his election in 2013, Francis began to pursue an agenda that Joseph Ratzinger had opposed throughout his career. A stress on the pastoral over against the doctrinal, a promotion of diverse disciplinary and doctrinal approaches in local churches, the opening of communion to the divorced and remarried—all these proposals were weighed and rejected by Ratzinger more than ten years ago in a heated debate with Walter Kasper. For better or worse, Francis now seeks to reverse Ratzinger. ...
Though he is usually portrayed as spontaneous and non-ideological, Francis has steadily advanced the agenda that Kasper outlined over a decade ago. In the face of this challenge, Benedict has kept an almost perfect silence. There is hardly any need to add to the words in which he resoundingly rejected the program of Kasper and Francis. And yet the awkwardness remains. No pope in living memory has so directly opposed his predecessor—who, in this instance, happens to live just up the hill.
- "Is the Pope a heretic? (Pt 1), by Fr. John Hunwicke.
- 'What Pope Francis Really Said': Q&A with author Tom Hoopes, by Sean Salai, S.J. Q&A with Tom Hoopes, author of What Pope Francis Really Said: Words of Comfort and Challenge.