February 12, 2016, Friday — Common Declaration of Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill in Cuba The Middle East — “We call upon the international community to act urgently in order to prevent the further expulsion of Christians from the Middle East.”—Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill, Common statement, issued today in Cuba, just a few minutes […]
St. Evaristus succeeded St Clement in the See of Rome during the reign of Trajan and governed the Church for about eight years, as the fourth successor of St. Peter. The Liber Pontificalis says that he was the son of a Hellenic Jew of Bethlehem. In his first epistle addressed to the bishops of Africa, […]
Here is the schedule for the papal prayer vigil [as of Friday evening]. 5:45 pm (Rome time) — About 50 priests will begin hearing confession in designated areas under the Bernini colonnades. Pope Francis has asked that the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) be made available throughout the evening because “true peace springs from a heart that […]
“Do you fast? Then feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, visit the sick, do not forget the imprisoned, have pity on the tortured, comfort those who grieve and who weep, be merciful, humble, kind, calm, patient, sympathetic, forgiving, reverent, truthful and pious, so that God might accept your fasting and might plentifully grant […]
The present and former Pope met yesterday (March 24), in a moment without precedent. And the words which remain are the ones spoken by Pope Francis to Benedict: “We are brothers.” As Nicole Winfield put it in her comprehensive Associated Press dispatch article: “The two men in white embraced and showed one another the deference […]
The key thing that Pope Francis did yesterday was to greet Patriarch Bartholomew I, ecumenical patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church, based in Constantinople, as “my brother Andrew.” Now, Andrew was the brother of Simon Peter, the first Bishop of Rome. They were fishermen together on the Sea of Galilee, 2,000 years ago. So Pope […]
Yesterday a new pontificate officially began. The essential message in the homily given by Pope Francis to open his pontificate draws on the work and image of St. Joseph, spouse of Mary, head of the Holy Family. And that message is to “protect.” This message is important at a time when the figure of the […]
March 14, 2013, Thursday — To Mary Today Pope Francis, on the first day after his election, did four remarkable things, and did not do a fifth. 1. Mary. At about 8 a.m., he slipped out of the Vatican in a single, unmarked black car — a Volkswagen, not a Mercedes — without an escort, and […]
March 6, 2013, Wednesday — Silence Silence, of a sort, has descended over the meeting of the cardinals in the lead-up to the Conclave. The American cardinals today canceled their scheduled press conference at the North American College — the NAC, as it is called, on the Janiculum Hill just above the Vatican. Cardinal Timothy […]
February 24, 2013, Sunday — Angelus “The Lord is calling me ‘out to the mountain’ to devote more time to prayer and meditation, but this does not mean I’m abandoning the Church.” –Pope Benedict XVI, in his final Sunday Angelus address as Pope, at noon [Feb. 24] in St. Peter’s Square The Sun Broke Through at […]
“[N]ews reports abound which are often unverified or unverifiable, or completely false…” –Communique this morning from the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, released at the Vatican Press Office The Vatican Speaks Out Evidently concerned that the upcoming papal conclave to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI (the conclave is now expected to be held between […]
“…As we grow older the world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated…” –T.S. Eliot, The Four Quartets, East Coker The Witnesses Last night, my phone rang twice, just before 3 in the morning. In the morning, I found three emails from the same person, a priest I know. He called again this morning. He wanted […]
“Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate” — Psalm 143:4. The Secret Report Given to the Pope on December 17 Today a veil of secrecy was shredded in this eternal city. Today therefore marked the beginning of a difficult, important struggle for the purification of the government of the […]
“Only a permanent formation of the heart and mind can actually create intelligibility and participation which is more than one external activity, which is an entering of the person, of his or her being into communion with the Church and thus in fellowship with Christ.”—Pope Benedict XVI this morning, in his annual address to the […]
“While the Lord continues to raise up examples of radical conversion, like Pavel Florensky, Etty Hillesum and Dorothy Day, he also constantly challenges those who have been raised in the faith to deeper conversion.”—Pope Benedict XVI, at his next-to-last General Audience, this morning in the Paul VI Audience Hall in Vatican City Benedict Reaches Out […]
Today the Vatican announced that its ability to process credit card transactions, interrupted since January 1 by a decision of the Bank of Italy, had been restored. The renewed access to international financial networks comes one day after Pope Benedict announced that he will step down from his office as successor of Peter on February […]
Each year, Inside the Vatican magazine chooses 10 people we believe are examples of great courage, fidelity to the Church and heroic Christian charity. Our choice for “Person of the Year”: Pope Benedict XVI. He passed through the crucible of the “Vatileaks” scandal and continued to preach the Gospel, in season and out of season… […]
A Pope in the pages of an ordinary newspaper? As a columnist? Never happened before. But it happened yesterday. Pope Benedict was asked by the Financial Times of London to write a brief essay for them related to his new book on Jesus, and he agreed. His essential message to London and the world: do […]
The cardinals and bishops of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints gave the “go ahead” on December 10 for Paul VI’s beatification, Italian Vatican journalist Andrea Tornielli reported on his Vatican Insider website on December 14. “The late Pope’s Positio – the collection of documents used in the process by which a person is […]
Pope Benedict is said to be “saddened” by the discovery that one of his closest aides, Paolo Gabriele, 46, his valet or butler, has betrayed his trust, copying and disseminating secret Vatican documents from the Pope’s own apartments. Some in Rome are concerned that the emotional strain of these events could harm the health of […]
No cardinal is under suspicion of being the mastermind behind the “Vatileaks” affair which is rocking Rome, Father Federico Lombardi, S.J., the Pope’s spokesman, told journalists in the Vatican Press Office shortly after noon today. Nor has the Pope constituted a special team of lay investigators, led by a woman, to look into the case […]
“Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” — Gospel of St. John, 15:13 There are some men who sum up the character of a nation. One such man was Vincent Robert Capodanno. Capodanno represented what was best about America, and now those who remember him would […]
“Qui pro vobis et pro multis effundetur.” —The words of the consecration of the wine in the Mass, meaning literally “(my blood) which is poured out for you and for many” “But when He added pro multis He wanted that there be understood the rest of those chosen (electos) from the Jews or from the […]
“So it is ourselves that we must spread under Christ’s feet, not coats or lifeless branches or shoots of trees, matter which wastes away and delights the eye only for a few brief hours. “But we have clothed ourselves with Christ’s grace, or with the whole Christ … so let us spread ourselves like coats […]
