[VIDEO] Sen. James Inhofe: Pope Francis Ought to Stay Out of Climate Change Debate

Attendees at the annual Heartland conference agreed that Pope Francis ought to spend more time on how to lift the poor from poverty rather than on green politics that hurt the poor.

Via: The Gateway Pundit

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The President Finally Gets an Official Twitter Account

Yesterday morning, Barack Obama officially joined Twitter — except, didn’t he do that already!?

Wait, whoa, what?! Why are you now @POTUS? Bobama, didn’t you practically invent political Twitter? Aren’t you already @BarackObama? Or @WhiteHouse? What’s the deal here?

Let us explain!

According to the White House, @POTUS will be the official account of the President of the United States, regardless of who holds the office. So while Obama will be able to tweet from @POTUS for the next two years, showing the world his fighter jets and Instagrammed breakfasts and policy whatnots, the handle will be given to the next President as a symbol of the peaceful democratic transfer of powerthat makes America great.

(As an analogue, Pope Francis inherited @Pontifex from Pope Benedict XVI, who is currently locked in a library with old encyclicals and probably doesn’t care for having his own Twitter account. The Vatican itself has its own Twitter account.)

On the other hand, the White House’s Twitter account belongs to whatever administration sits in the executive mansion, while @BarackObama, which became a symbol of 2008 Obama’s tech-savvy campaigning, is run by the Obama for America team. Obama himself occasionally tweets from that account, but by having an official account for the Presidency, can disentangle his official Tweets from his campaigning/advocacy/community organizing Tweets.

As for why it took so darn long to get an official @POTUS account up and running — let’s just assume the White House and Twitter worked for a long time to secure a direct Presidential Twitter account that doesn’t allow the President to DM Anthony Weiner pics.

Welp, this is a neat story out of the White House; nothing could possibly make it seem odd. Oh…

Via: Mediaite

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Installing ‘angel-hood’ on Christian persecutors

Having convinced themselves that they will be able to convert the centuries old Catholic Church now that Pope Francis has thrown in with Obama and Palestine, the chickens of the lib-left are heading home to roost.

The pious music you can hear in the background, emanating as steadily as greenhouse gas emissions,  is coming from three of the far left’s top dogs belting out “I love Pope Francis” hymns on their way to conversion.

n our upside-down world, hawks are doves; wolves are sheep; and the Three Tenors are now the Three Marxists.

First came President Barack Obama

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“Obama called Francis “transformative,” saying the pope’s “insistence” that fighting poverty be at the heart of the Christian life has made him a global icon. (CruxNow, May 12, 2015)

“That emphasis is why he’s had such incredible appeal, including to young people all around the world, and I hope it’s a message everyone receives when he comes to visit,” Obama said Tuesday, referring to the pope’s September visit to the United States.”

“In particular,” Obama said, “I want to thank His Holiness Pope Francis, whose moral example shows us the importance of pursuing the world as it should be, rather than simply settling for the world as it is.” (KRCR News, April 22, 2015)

If the Pope were American he’d never be singled out for that kind of praise from Obama.  Since circa 2009, it’s been a mortal sin to be American.

Via: American Thinker

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‘President Latch-on’ knows how to find the limelight

President Barack Obama never even once visited the iconic Nelson Mandela while he was still alive, but count on him hogging all the limelight he can at the freedom hero’s funeral.

t is a matter of public record that Obama ignored Mr. Mandela during all four years of his first term as president.

Michelle Obama briefly visited Mandela during her 2011 South African trip before going on safari with her two daughters. 

During Obama’s June 2013 South African trip, Obama “deferred” to the family of an ailing Mandela by not visiting Mandela at his sick bed.

Does anyone notice how Obama excels at latching on to public figures like any common opportunist?  Today it’s Nelson Mandela.  Yesterday it was Pope Francis.

Obama gives the world the impression that he has suddenly fallen in love with an allegedly-gone-completely-Marxist Francis.

After first channeling most of the American presidents, Obama proves he will hitch a ride on anybody’s little red wagon he views as important.

“I am one of the countless millions who drew inspiration from Nelson Mandela’s life,” said Obama.  “And like so many around the globe, I cannot fully imagine my own life without the example that Nelson Mandela set”.

Too bad, Obama hadn’t taken the opportunity to speak those passionate words into the ear of Mr. Mandela during his first term of office when Mr. Mandela was still alive.

These are the words Obama used in describing his newfound admiration for Pope Francis: “I think Pope Francis is showing himself to be a just and extraordinarily thoughtful, and soulful, messenger of peace and justice.”

Via: Canada Free Press

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Obama’s call to close Vatican embassy is ‘slap in the face’ to Roman Catholics

The Obama administration, in what’s been called an egregious slap in the face to the Vatican, has moved to shut down the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See — a free-standing facility — and relocate offices onto the grounds of the larger American Embassy in Italy.

The new offices will be in a separate building on the property, Breitbart reported.

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SEE ALSO: Pope Francis takes veiled swipe at ‘progressive’ Democrats

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And while U.S. officials are touting the relocation as a security measure that’s a cautionary reaction to last year’s attacks on America's facility in Benghazi, several former American envoys are raising the red flag.

It’s a “massive downgrade of U.S.-Vatican ties,” said former U.S. Ambassador James Nicholson in the National Catholic Reporter. “It’s turning this embassy into a stepchild of the embassy to Italy. The Holy See is a pivot point for international affairs and a major listening post for the United States, and … [it’s] an insult to American Catholics and to the Vatican.”

Via: Washington Times

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US 'spied on future Pope Francis during Vatican conclave'

The National Security Agency spied on the future Pope Francis before and during the Vatican conclave at which he was chosen to succeed Benedict XVI, it was claimed on Wednesday.

The American spy agency monitored telephone calls made to and from the residence in Rome where the then Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio stayed during the conclave, the secret election at which cardinals chose him as pontiff on March 13.

The claims were made by Panorama, an Italian weekly news magazine, which said that the NSA monitored the telephone calls of many bishops and cardinals at the Vatican in the lead-up to the conclave, which was held amid tight security in the Sistine Chapel.

The information gleaned was then reportedly divided into four categories — “leadership intentions”, “threats to financial system”, “foreign policy objectives” and “human rights”.

At that time, Benedict XVI was Pope, suggesting that the Vatican may also have been monitored during the last few weeks of his papacy.

Via: The Telegraph

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No communion for Nancy Pelosi: Vatican court head

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has no Catholic right to be granted Communion, said the leading cardinal of the highest court at the Vatican.

Mrs. Pelosi should be denied Communion until she changes her advocacy views on abortion, Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke said, according to the Western Center for Journalism.

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PHOTOS: Famous quitters: Those who bailed rather than face scandal, scrutiny or stress

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That’s canon law, not opinion, he said. Canon 915 states that Catholics who are stubbornly contrary “in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”

And Cardinal Burke said Mrs. Pelosi fits the definition.

“Certainly this is a case when Canon 915 must be applied,” he said, the Western Center for Journalism reported. “This is a person who obstinately, after repeated admonitions, persists in a grave sin — cooperating with the crime of procured abortion — and still professes to be a devout Catholic.”

The cardinal also said that Mrs. Pelosi is a perfect example of Catholics who separate their faith from day-to-day living.

“This is a prime example of what Blessed John Paul II referred to as the situation of Catholics who have divorced their faith from their public life and therefore are not serving their brothers and sisters in the way that they must — in safeguarding and promoting the life of the innocent and defenseless unborn, in safeguarding and promoting the integrity of marriage and the family,” he said.

The cardinal, an American, is the prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura in Rome, Life News reported.

Via: Washington Times

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Pope Francis: Church too focused on gays and abortion

Pope Francis has said the Catholic Church is too focused on preaching about abortion, gay people and contraception and needs to become more merciful.

He warned that the Church's moral structure could "fall like a house of cards" unless it changed.

The Pope used the first major interview of his papacy to explain comments he made in July about homosexuality.

He told a Jesuit magazine the Church must show balance and "heal wounds".

The pontiff used the 12,000-word interview with La Civilta Cattolicato to set out his priorities as Pope, acknowledge his own shortcomings and open up about his cultural interests.

'Freshness and fragrance'

His vision for relegating the Catholic Church's reliance on rules marks a contrast to the priorities of his predecessors, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, who saw doctrine as the paramount guide for clergy

"The church's pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently," Francis said.

"We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel."

Instead, he said, the Catholic Church must work to heal the wounds of its faithful and seek out those who have been excluded or have fallen away.

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“Start Quote

We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the Church is likely to fall like a house of cards”

Pope Francis

"It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars," he said. "You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else."

Via: BBC

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