Latest news with #Catholics
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bono on Trump, Springsteen feud: ‘There's only one boss in America'
Bono is defending fellow superstar musician Bruce Springsteen, who was recently attacked by President Trump after the 'Born to Run' singer blasted the president during an overseas concert earlier this month. 'I think there's only … only one boss in America,' Bono said during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel's late night program when asked which side of the feud he was on. The Irish singer-songwriter also dismissed the president's accusations that he, Springsteen and other celebrities were paid to endorse former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. 'Two points I'll make: One, to be in the company of Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, and Oprah — I'd play tambourine in that band. And two, U2 and I have never been paid or played a show to support any candidate from any parts. That never happened,' he said. The musician, born Paul Hewson, alluded to attacks Trump has leveled against Kimmel, saying, 'I don't want to cut in on your action, because I know the president at 1 a.m. or 1:30 or whatever that was is usually thinking about you.' The comments were first highlighted by Mediaite. Trump has ramped up his criticism of Springsteen and other celebrities in recent weeks, posting an edited video on social media last week showing him hitting Springsteen with a golf ball amid the ongoing back-and-forth. Springsteen, during a concert in the U.K. days earlier, had criticized the president, saying the U.S. is 'currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.' Bono, during the interview with Kimmel, said, 'We've got a lot of very religious Catholics, evangelicals, conservatives, who are very, very, very angry with the person that they voted into office, having demolished instruments of mercy and compassion,' mentioning the scaling back of humanitarian assistance throughout the world through the United States Agency for International Development. 'That's the America that we love,' he said. 'That's the America that we all want to be part of, and they are not happy, and there will be trouble.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Hill
Bono on Trump, Springsteen feud: ‘There's only one boss in America'
Bono is defending fellow superstar musician Bruce Springsteen, who was recently attacked by President Trump after the 'Born to Run' singer blasted the president during an overseas concert earlier this month. 'I think there's only … only one boss in America,' Bono said during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel's late night program when asked which side of the Trump vs. Springsteen feud he was on. The Irish singer-songwriter also dismissed the president's accusations that he, Springsteen and other celebrities were paid to endorse then-Vice President Harris in her race against Trump last year. 'Two points I'll make: One, to be in the company of Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, and Oprah — I'd play tambourine in that band. And two, U2 and I have never been paid or played a show to support any candidate from any parts. That never happened,' he said. The musician alluded to attacks Trump has leveled against Kimmel, saying, 'I don't want to cut in on your action because I know the president at 1 a.m. or 1:30 or whatever that was is usually thinking about you.' The comments were first highlighted by Mediate. Trump has ramped up his criticism of Springsteen and other celebrities in recent weeks, posting an edited video on social media last week showing him hitting Springsteen with a golf ball amid the ongoing tension. Springsteen, during a concert in the U.K. days earlier, had criticized the president, saying the U.S. is 'currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.' Bono, during the interview with Kimmel, said, 'We've got a lot of very religious Catholics, evangelicals, conservatives, who are very, very, very angry with the person that they voted into office, having demolished instruments of mercy and compassion,' mentioning the scaling back of humanitarian assistance throughout the world through USAID. 'That's the America that we love,' he said. 'That's the America that we all want to be part of, and they are not happy, and there will be trouble.'
AFP
a day ago
- Politics
- AFP
Video showing Pope Leo XIV praising Burkina Faso's leader is AI-generated
'Pope Leo XIV Responds to Captain Ibrahim Traore /A message of Truth, Justice and Reconciliation,' read the caption of a video posted on Facebook. The video, published on May 15, 2025, shows the pope giving an address while holding two pieces of paper. Image Screenshot of the false Facebook post taken on May 26, 2025 'To His Excellency President Ibrahim Traoré, President of the Sovereign Nation of Burkina Faso, son of African soil, defender of his people, may grace and peace multiply for you through wisdom, courage and truth,' the pope appears to say at the beginning of the 17-minute clip. Included is an English transcript of the audio. The video appeared on X and Facebook accounts in Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria. Robert Francis Prevost became Pope Leo XIV on May 8, 2025, after cardinals from around the globe elected him, in less than two days, to be the first US leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics (archived here). However, the posts claiming to feature a video of the pontiff responding to a letter from Traore are false. Altered video The movement of the Pope's lips appears to match the audio, and there are no visual inconsistencies in his appearance, which can be signs that a video has been altered using AI. However, the pontiff appears to mispronounce Traore's name in different ways in quick succession, calling him 'President Trayas' at 2'33' in the video and 'President Trayor' four seconds later – an unlikely occurrence if he delivered the speech. The English transcript (in red bold letters) partially obscures a line of French text, which indicates that the pope originally delivered an address at the Salle Paul VI audience hall at the Vatican (archived here). Image Screenshot showing the French text (circled orange) that indicates the location of the event, taken on May 29, 2025 A reverse image search using keyframes extracted from the video further shows that the original clip was from a press conference held on May 12, 2025, when the pope called for the release of imprisoned journalists and urged the world to 'avoid the paradigm of war' (archived here). The pope addressed journalists in Italian, not English, as portrayed in the altered clip. The altered clip was also posted on YouTube by Pan African Dreams, a channel that regularly publishes content about Traore. This was on May 17, 2025 – days before it circulated elsewhere on social media – and was identified as synthetic content that was digitally generated. The owners of the YouTube account also included a disclaimer. It reads: 'This video is a work of fiction inspired by the life of IBRAHIM TRAORÉ. While some elements are based on real events, the situations and dialogues described are entirely imaginary and do not reflect any actual events'. Image Screenshot showing the disclaimer attached to the altered video on YouTube An authentic English transcript of the original address published on the Vatican's website showed that the Pope did not mention Africa or Traore during the entire speech (archived here). AFP Fact Check extracted the audio from the altered clip and ran it through – an audio tool that looks for specific forensic traces left by voice generators. The result showed a 99 percent probability that the audio was generated with an AI tool. Image Screenshot of the results, taken on May 26, 2025 The Vatican media department has also denied that the Pope received a letter from Burkina Faso or delivered a public address responding to Traore (archived here). Traore became Burkina Faso's military leader after a coup in September 2022 amid growing anti-French sentiment in the Sahel region (archived here). He is a frequent topic of viral social media posts in which supporters cast him in a positive light, but observers say his online rise has been accompanied by a flood of misleading and false claims. More AFP fact-checks related to artificial intelligence can be found here.
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
The Other American ‘Popes'
WHEN WHITE SMOKE DRIFTED over the Sistine Chapel and the name Leo XIV was announced earlier this month, billions of Catholics and non-Catholics alike around the world raced to learn more about the new pontiff. Born Robert Francis Prevost and raised in Chicago, he is the first American to ascend to the papacy. He is a product of an American Catholic family and an alumnus of American Catholic institutions, having graduated from Villanova and the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago before joining the Order of St. Augustine and spending years in missionary service in Peru. As news of his election spread, so did Chicago-themed memes and other displays of hometown pride. A small number of Americans, though, believe we've already had an American pope. Unrecognized by the Vatican and distant from mainstream Roman Catholicism, a handful of would-be pontiffs have made claims to the throne of St. Peter, enjoying support from internet users, eliciting the curiosity of many who came across them, and attracting followings—dedicated if not large. Few of these figures ever set foot in a seminary, let alone rose through the clerical ranks; you won't find them in cathedrals or basilicas. Their holy haunts are garages, rental halls, and the occasional roadside chapel. And while they can be found at the very edge of the religious fringe, these figures personify the continuing challenges to papal authority presented by and within our postmodern age. The main thing that unites this diverse bunch of papal claimants is their shared rejection of Vatican II. Convened between 1962 and 1965, the Second Vatican Council was a landmark effort by the Roman Catholic Church to engage more directly with the modern world. Initiated by Pope John XXIII, the council introduced sweeping reforms: It permitted the Mass to be celebrated in vernacular languages rather than Latin, emphasized ecumenical dialogue with Orthodox and Protestant communities, redefined the Church's relationship with non-Christian religions (especially Judaism), and shifted the Church's tone from one of hierarchical authority to one of pastoral outreach. For many, these changes felt like an enlivening wind, in keeping with Pope John's (possibly apocryphal) call to 'open the windows of the Church' and let some fresh air into it. Chief among the council's champions was Pope John Paul II, who had attended Vatican II as a young bishop and later embodied its spirit through global outreach, interfaith dialogue, and a renewed emphasis on human dignity. He also helped modernize the papacy itself, embracing television, global travel, and media interviews to bring the Church's message to a wider, contemporary audience. Keep up with all The Bulwark's articles, newsletters, podcasts, and livestreams—and pick which ones show up in your inbox: But while some Catholics found Vatican II exhilarating, for others, it was deeply disorienting. Many Catholics felt alienated by the rapid changes, whether because they preferred the Latin Mass or were uncomfortable with various other reforms. This sense of upheaval gave rise to movements like the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1970, which flatly rejected key aspects of Vatican II and has maintained an uneasy relationship with Rome ever since while undergoing continuous institutional and communal growth. Even among conservative Catholics who don't go as far as SSPX, Vatican II remains a point of deep concern and contention, and it remains an abiding preoccupation among hyperonline Catholic commentators. The resurgence of young Catholic women wearing veils, the renewed popularity of the Latin Mass, and the proliferation of apologists defending every conceivable Church teaching all point to a growing skepticism toward, or at least a re-evaluation of, Vatican II's more open ethos. There are also those so radical as to not only reject the council but also to deny the legitimacy of the popes who have upheld it. These are the sedevacantists—those who believe 'the seat'—sedes, referring to the papal throne—is 'vacant,' which is to say, the one who currently occupies it is illegitimate. Sedevacantists hold that this has been the case since the 1958 death of Pope Pius XII on the grounds that all officially recognized popes since Vatican II have embraced its alleged heresies. In the words of Philippe Roy-Lysencourt, a scholar of Catholic traditionalism, 'For these movements, the council is like a foreign body in the life of the Church, like a cancer to be fought.' While its community of adherents is small and fragmented, sedevacantism represents the furthest extreme of traditionalist dissent—after all, who else would answer 'no' to the question, 'Is the Pope Catholic?' And way out at the furthest reaches of the sedevacantist world, we find a handful of those who, unwilling to wait for a legitimate pope to emerge, have taken matters into their own hands. These are the people who have conducted their own conclaves in living rooms and hotel conference rooms, and who claim to have found St. Peter's true successor living in their own hometowns. Share THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY'S original homegrown papal claimant must be regarded as a prelude, because his actions took place decades before the Second Vatican Council that would unite the later generation of faux popes in opposition to it. Adam Anthony Oraczewski, a Polish-born immigrant, declared himself 'Pope Adam II' in 1927 following several years of religious mischief, fraud, and forgery, much of his behavior likely resulting from undiagnosed mental illness. At one point, he circulated a photo to newspapers that depicted him in an approximation of papal garb; a reporter at one of the papers pointed out that the young would-be pontiff had left his tennis shoes on for the picture. It would be half a century before the first of the Vatican II–rejecting American-born papal claimants would emerge. Chester Olszewski was originally an Episcopal priest in Pennsylvania. After encountering Anne Poore, a visionary claiming miraculous experiences and stigmata, Olszewski embraced a radical traditionalist Catholicism. He would eventually claim to receive his own mystical visions, and in 1977, he proclaimed himself Pope 'Chriszekiel Elias,' later adopting the name 'Peter II.' He led a small sect calling itself the True Catholic Church, rooted in apocalyptic Marian devotion; it has since faded into obscurity. A little over two decades later, in 1998, Lucian Pulvermacher, a former Capuchin friar from Wisconsin, was elected pope by a roughly fifty-member conclave of sedevacantist lay people associated with the True Catholic Church network. Taking the name 'Pius XIII,' he operated his ministry and issued papal decrees from a trailer in Kalispell, Montana, and later from Springdale, Washington. He died on November 30, 2009, at the age of 91. His followers' plans to convene a new conclave to choose a successor have so far come to naught. Another: Citing inspiration via mystical revelation, Reinaldus M. Benjamins of Malone, New York, claimed to be 'Pope Gregory XIX.' But as 'alternative popes' researcher Magnus Lundberg writes, little is known of Benjamins today. But the best-known American claimant to the papacy is the late David Bawden, known to many by his chosen papal name of 'Pope Michael I.' Born in Oklahoma in 1959 and raised in a fiercely traditionalist Catholic household, David Bawden came of age believing that the Second Vatican Council was not a reform but a rupture, one that cut the institutional Church off from its own timeless teachings and liturgical beauty. His family refused to attend the post-conciliar Mass, clung to pre-1958 catechisms, and eventually aligned with the dissenting SSPX. Bawden enrolled in an SSPX seminary but was dismissed after a brief tenure, prompting him to pursue his theological education on his own—through books, correspondence with traditionalist and sedevacantist Catholics, and fervent prayer. By the mid-1980s, he had moved on from the SSPX to embrace outright sedevacantism. Join now Convinced that the Catholic Church was in a state of emergency, Bawden took a radical step. In 1990, at the age of 30, he gathered five others (including his parents) into a makeshift conclave in a Kansas thrift store chapel. They elected him pope by unanimous vote. He took the name 'Michael I' and claimed divine sanction to restore what Rome had lost. From a farmhouse-turned-chapel in Delia, Kansas, he spent the next three decades issuing papal decrees, publishing newsletters, and maintaining a website called 'Vatican in Exile.' Toward the end of his life, he had a channel on YouTube, a platform on which his sermons, theological discussions, interviews, and explanations of his papal claim have been watched by thousands. While many dismissed him as a crank, a curiosity, a theological prank, or a person disturbed in the manner of his predecessor Oraczewski, Bawden's sincerity was difficult to deny. As documented in the 2010 film Pope Michael, he lived with monastic simplicity, took no salary, and led a quiet life of devotion alongside his elderly mother, Tickie. He prayed daily for the Church, answered emails from curious seekers, and carried out his self-imposed papal duties with unwavering conviction. In 2011, after more than two decades without the ability to celebrate the sacraments (despite claiming to be pope), Bawden was ordained a priest and consecrated a bishop by Robert Biarnesen, an independent bishop from a schismatic Old Catholic lineage (he himself had only just been consecrated a month prior by Bishop Alexander Swift Eagle Justice). Because Bawden had never been ordained by a bishop, valid or otherwise, prior to this, he had taken himself to be unable to perform even the most basic sacramental duties of the priesthood, let alone exercise the full authority of his alternative papacy. Beginning in 2011, though, Bawden at last felt authorized to celebrate Mass, hear confessions, and ordain others, a possibility that he seized with his first (and possibly only) seminarian, Phil Friedl. His movement remained minuscule, with perhaps a few dozen core followers, but the internet gave Pope Michael surprising reach, drawing adherents from as far away as India and the Philippines. One of those, a Filipino bishop named Rogelio Martínez, became his right-hand man and, after Bawden's death in 2022, Martínez was elected by his predecessor's remaining followers to become 'Pope Michael II.' He still posts to the movement's YouTube channel, but viewership remains scarce. Share LEO XIV'S PAPACY HAS NOW BEGUN. The Chicagoan begins his tenure at a time when papal authority is contested. Pope Francis, pastoral reformer that he was, was a figure of great controversy among both liberals and conservatives in the Church, and especially among hyperonline traditionalists, for whom he represented a corruption of the office. For years, such figures accused him of sowing confusion, undermining tradition, and embracing a modernist agenda. Some of his critics began to flirt openly with sedevacantist ideas, creating a cultural commotion in the Church. So it is that in our digital present, when YouTube apologists, livestreamed liturgies, and anonymous Twitter accounts shape the Catholic imagination, the claims of figures like Bawden no longer feel quite so radical or strange. This is part of what Leo XIV has inherited from Francis: a Church that is struggling, along with every other societal institution, to find its way in an increasingly chaotic information environment—a virtual world in which, it seems, everyone gets to be their very own pope. Zap this article over to a friend or zip it up onto social media: Share
Herald Malaysia
a day ago
- General
- Herald Malaysia
Catholic Social Teaching is for everyone
The modern tradition of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) — the toolbox of principles the Church calls us to draw upon to build the just social order — was instigated by Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903). We now have a new pope, Leo XIV, who is reminding us of this corpus of teaching as a resource as the world May 30, 2025 Pope Leo XIII is depicted in this official Vatican portrait. He laid the foundation for modern Catholic social teaching with his landmark 1891 encyclical "Rerum Novarum," addressing the rights and dignity of workers in the face of industrialization. (OSV News photo/Library of Congress) By Jason AdkinsThe modern tradition of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) — the toolbox of principles the Church calls us to draw upon to build the just social order — was instigated by Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903). We now have a new pope, Leo XIV, who is reminding us of this corpus of teaching as a resource as the world is torn by war and faces the challenge of a new digital industrial revolution. This Catholic Social Teaching tradition, however, is not just for Catholics. It can be studied and applied by all people of goodwill because it is a true philosophy of society, rooted in principles such as the common good, the dignity of the human person, subsidiarity and solidarity. Catholic Social Teaching transcends the normal political binaries. This great tradition is effective in bringing together people of all backgrounds to tackle difficult social problems, and how it does so was the subject of a recent Catholic in America podcast (May 19) with internationally renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs. A gift to the world Sachs, who is Jewish, is a Harvard-trained economist and member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences who has advised two popes (John Paul II and Francis) in the development of papal social encyclicals. He sees in Catholic social teaching a great gift of the Church to the world, and he thinks Catholics should not be sheepish about proposing CST principles to shape public life — not because they are the teachings of a religious community, but because they are true. Pope Francis sought out Sachs because of his work on sustainable development as the former was drafting his encyclical Laudato Si' (On the Care of Our Common Home), which was published ten years ago. The Holy See gathered experts from a variety of disciplines to consider what it means to steward creation while also respecting the human person. In a world that pits humans against the environment, how can the church point the way forward? The great gift of Laudato Si' was to apply the principles of Catholic social teaching to the problem of creation care. The result was the concept of integral ecology, which does justice to both persons and the environment, because everything is connected. Sachs and I discussed how both the words economics and ecology, have the same Greek root word, oikos, which means household. Hence the English title of the encyclical calling us to steward our common home. Economics should put first the well-being of the family and the household. The political community is a family of families, and economic life should promote distribution and social justice, as well as the common good. But while providing for human needs and managing scarce economic resources, we must also work together to promote environmental stewardship and care for our common home. That's a responsibility that transcends every household, community, and nation. Laudato Si' was addressed not just to Catholics, but all people of goodwill, and ten years later it continues to shape the thinking of people from all different backgrounds about how to properly care for creation. Pope Leo XIV's call Although Sachs and I recorded our conversation before Pope Leo XIV's election, the latter is again rekindling interest in Catholic Social Teaching. In his May 16 address to the papal diplomatic corps, Pope Leo XIV stressed that we are called to pursue peace, especially eliminating the violence and destruction that comes from conflict and war. But to achieve peace, he said, we must act justly, and doing so requires knowing the truth. He stated: 'It is the responsibility of government leaders to work to build harmonious and peaceful civil societies. This can be achieved above all by investing in the family, founded upon the stable union between a man and a woman, a small but genuine society, and prior to all civil society. In addition, no one is exempted from striving to ensure respect for the dignity of every person, especially the most frail and vulnerable, from the unborn to the elderly, from the sick to the unemployed, citizens and immigrants alike.' Like Francis, Pope Leo XIV is articulating Catholic Social Teaching's rich philosophy of a just social order built on the oikos of family life and the dignity of every human person. In a world hungry for a way to break out of the false binaries of politics, the principles of Catholic social teaching provide real hope. We need not hide this gift under a bushel but instead, as non-Catholics such as Sachs exhort us, we should bring it confidently into every corner of social life.--OSV (Jason Adkins is host of the new Our Sunday Visitor podcast called 'Catholic in America,' which explores topics related to the missionary imperative of faithful citizenship in our time.)
