Pope’s Canadian apology is deeply inadequate
After a century and a half of widespread abuse, followed by decades of scrutiny and years of intense public pressure, Pope Francis finally delivered an apology for the treatment of Indigenous children at Canadian residential schools operated by the Catholic Church. The scripted apology came only after Indigenous leaders traveled to the Vatican to request […]
Being childfree is not selfish
It has been one week since Pope Francis labeled childfree people “selfish” and I am still not over it. If you were fortunate enough to miss it, I will fill you in: To an audience at the Vatican, Pope Francis explained that “We see that some people do not want to have a child … […]
The pope, Bladensburg, Planned Parenthood — & so much more — kept our hands full
Sometimes people ask us how we at the Freedom From Religion Foundation manage to get so much done within a single week.
Priest rapists are tools of the Church, not of “Satan”
Comedian Flip Wilson popularized “The devil made me do it” in the 1960s. Now, the best Pope Francis can offer, after a four-day summit on priest sexual abuse of children, is to contend that these predators are “tools of Satan”?
Charlie Hebdo portrays god as terrorist, Vatican predictably upset about “blasphemy”
FFRF Attorney Andrew Seidel explains why the Vatican is wrong: religion has no right to be free from mockery or criticism. Ideas that resort to violence or cries of blasphemy to demand respect are not worthy of it.
Why I find it hard to laud pope’s ‘Laudato’
When I read of the pope’s encyclical calling attention to global warming of “sister earth,” my immediate reaction, on face value, was that an encyclical calling for action on global warming is about the best we could hope for from a pope. It seems hard to quarrel with someone influential sounding the alarm about climate […]
Pope admits all Catholic bishops, priests are selfish, greedy
Pope Francis is a bit like butter, which is to say that lately, he’s been on a roll. FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor has had to explain a few things to him in recent weeks. Obvious things, such as hitting children is unacceptable and mocking religion is not a crime. Well, he’s stepped in […]
How nice! The world censures papal comment
A caretaking adult hitting a child is innately demeaning, contrary to what Pope Francis and the bible preach. As the world now knows, the pope, in praising good fatherhood in an address in St. Peter’s Square Wednesday, said: “I once heard at a wedding a father say, ‘I sometimes have to hit my children a […]
We can and we must make fun of faith
“You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others.” So chided Pope Francis yesterday in Manila, speaking after the terrorist murders of the staff of the French satiric magazine, Charlie Hebdo. While claiming he wasn’t blaming the victims, that the violent attack wasn’t justified, that’s […]
