Farmington church to offer Bible school

Cross Roads Community Church, 2400 N. Butler Ave. in Farmington, will host its annual Vacation Bible School from 8 a.m. to noon from June 1 to June 5.

This year’s theme is “Follow the Leader.”

For more information, visit www.crcnaz.com.

Pope: God will judge how you treated Earth

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has warned the rich and powerful that God will judge them on whether they fed the poor and cared for the Earth.

Francis’ delivered the warning Tuesday during a Mass for the Vatican’s Caritas Internationalis charity federation. It was his latest exhortation ahead of the release of his eagerly awaited encyclical on the environment, which is expected sometime next month.

He said: “We must do what we can so that everyone has something to eat, but we must also remind the powerful of the Earth that God will call them to judgment one day, and there it will be revealed if they really tried to provide for him in every person and if they did what they could to preserve the environment so that it could produce this food.”

Liberation theology founder lauds Vatican

VATICAN CITY – The father of liberation theology, once criticized by the Vatican for its Marxist undercurrents, praised the “new climate” at the Vatican under Pope Francis that has focused the church’s attention on social justice and serving the poor.

Peruvian theologian the Rev. Gustavo Gutierrez made his first appearance at an official Vatican press conference Tuesday. It was a historic moment given that the Vatican spent much of the past few decades cracking down on the Marxist excesses of liberation theology, a Latin American-inspired theology advocating for the poor, and disciplining some of its most vocal supporters.

Gutierrez, who himself was never disciplined, said the upcoming beatification of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, a hero to the movement, signaled that “the wall has fallen.”

Herald Staff & Associated Press