4/17/2019

FRANCE/POPE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump called Pope Francis to offer his condolences Wednesday [4-17-19] for the Notre Dame fire and said the U.S. would offer ‘our great experts on renovation and construction”’ to help France rebuild the iconic cathedral…Trump spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron a day earlier to discuss the blaze that roared […]

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6/20/2018

BORDER/CHILDREN/IMMIGRATION/POPE FRANCIS/RELIGION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Before President Trump’s about-face on Wednesday [6-20-18], Pope Francis criticized the administration’s separation of migrant children from their parents, saying in an interview earlier this week that ‘populism is not the solution’ to a migration crisis that is transforming global politics. In a rare sit-down interview, Francis told Reuters that ‘I […]

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3/6/2018

CLIMATE CHANGE/IMMIGRATION/POPE FRANCIS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Pope Francis remains broadly popular with Roman Catholics in the U.S., according to a new study from the Pew Research Center, but a growing number of Catholic Republicans are concerned about the direction of the church under his leadership. Overall, 84% of Catholics in the U.S. hold a favorable opinion […]

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1/8/2018

IMMIGRATION/POPE FRANCIS: “Pope Francis has sharply criticized global leaders who only talk about the plight of migrants and refugees ‘for the sake of stirring up primal fears,’ telling ambassadors accredited to the Vatican in an annual address Jan. 8 it is time to ‘abandon the familiar rhetoric’ and help the record numbers of people fleeing […]

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1/8/2018

NATIONAL SECURITY/NORTH KOREA/NUCLEAR/POPE FRANCIS/SOUTH KOREA: “Pope Francis Monday [1-8-18] called for stronger efforts for nuclear disarmament, particularly on the Korean Peninsula, the day before representatives of South and North Korea are due to meet in Seoul for their first official bilateral talks in two years. ‘It is of paramount importance to support every effort at […]

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12/21/2017

AMBASSADOR/NOMINATIONS/POPE FRANCIS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Callista Gingrich, wife of the former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, on Friday [12-22-17] became U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, which is at odds with Washington over immigration, climate change and Jerusalem. Callista Gingrich, 51, an author, documentary filmmaker and former congressional aide, presented her credentials to Pope Francis […]

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12/6/2017

FOREIGN POLICY/ISRAEL/PALESTINE/POPE FRANCIS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Pope Francis called Wednesday [12-6-17] for the preservation of Jerusalem’s ‘identity’ in the wake of President Donald Trump’s expected move to declare the city the capital of Israel… Also on Wednesday, the leaders of Christian communities in Jerusalem told Trump in an open letter that recognizing the city as Israel’s […]

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9/11/2017

CLIMATE CHANGE/DREAMERS/IMMIGRATION/POPE FRANCIS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “As he flew near Caribbean islands devastated by Hurricane Irma on his way back to the Vatican from Colombia on Sunday [9-10-17], Pope Francis said that political leaders and others who denied climate change reminded him of a passage from the psalms about man’s stubbornness. ‘Man is stupid, the Bible […]

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8/21/2017

IMMIGRATION/POPE FRANCIS: “Pope Francis urged political leaders on Monday [8-21-17] to defend migrants, saying their safety should take precedence over national security concerns and that they should not be subjected to collective deportations. His challenge to politicians, made in a comprehensive position paper on migrants and refugees, again appeared to put him at odds with […]

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8/7/2017

POPE FRANCIS/RELIGION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump’s evangelical advisory board is asking Pope Francis for meetings with him and other high-level Vatican officials to discuss ‘efforts to divide evangelicals and Catholics.’ The request, which was first reported in Time, comes a few weeks after two of Francis’s closest allies published an extremely critical article about the […]

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8/2/2017

POPE FRANCIS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Two close associates of Pope Francis have accused American Catholic ultraconservatives of making an alliance of ‘hate’ with evangelical Christians to back President Trump, further alienating a group already out of the Vatican’s good graces. The authors, writing in a Vatican-vetted journal, singled out Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s chief strategist, […]

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5/25/2017

POPE FRANCIS/TRUMP PEOPLE/SEAN SPICER: “The most visible moment for White House press secretary Sean Spicer on President Donald Trump’s first foreign trip this week was a moment of invisibility. Spicer fumed to colleagues after being excluded from the President’s meeting with Pope Francis, an administration official told CNN on Thursday [5-25-17]. He was eagerly anticipating […]

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5/14/2017

AMBASSADOR/POPE FRANCIS/TRUMP PEOPLE/CALLISTA GINGRICH: “Less than two weeks before a potentially tense and diplomatically delicate meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican, President Trump has apparently settled on nominating Callista Gingrich, the wife of Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, as the United States ambassador to the Holy See, according to two people close to […]

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5/4/2017

FOREIGN POLICY/ISRAEL/POPE FRANCIS/SAUDI ARABIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump will travel to Saudi Arabia and Israel this month, the White House announced on Thursday [5-4-17], making the two countries his first foreign destinations since taking office, as he seeks to intensify the war against the Islamic State, rally the region against Iran and negotiate Middle East […]

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4/20/2017

POPE FRANCIS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump wants to meet Pope Francis when he visits Europe next month. But the two world leaders have clashed in the past. ‘Obviously, we’d be honored to have an audience with His Holiness,’ White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters at Wednesday’s [4-19-17] press briefing. In response, Archbishop Angelo […]

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04/10/2017

IMMIGRATION/POPE FRANCIS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “As politicians around the world including President Trump take an increasingly hard line on immigration, a powerful force is rallying to the side of migrants: the Roman Catholic Church led by Pope Francis. Catholic cardinals, bishops and priests are emerging as some of the most influential opponents of immigration crackdowns backed […]

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3/30/2017

CLIMATE CHANGE/POPE FRANCIS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Vatican urged U.S. President Donald Trump to listen to ‘dissenting voices’ and reconsider his position on climate change on Thursday [3-30-17], saying the United States risked losing its environmental protection leadership to China. Pope Francis has made defense of the environment a key plank of his papacy, strongly backing […]

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