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News on the Church in the world. Reporting on everything from theology to technology. A mix of magazine articles, web reporting and email newsflashes.

Letter #6, 2024, Monday, March 4: Melloni on conclaves

    Italian historian Alberto Melloni. He has written a book on the history of papal conclaves (link). Now he is calling on Pope Francis to change the rules of the next papal conclave... in order to avoid a possible division among the cardinals, and a division in the Church after the conclave... Melloni teaches History of [...]

Letter #5, 2024, Monday, March 4: Hilarion on Blessings

Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev of Budapest, Hungary. He just gave an interview in which he expressed grave concern regarding the Vatican document on blessing, published December 18, Fiducia supplicans. The full text of the interview is below     Letter #5, 2024, Monday, March 4: Hilarion in Blessings     Below is an interview given a few days [...]

Letter #4, 2024, Friday, March 1: Demos II

    The text below is a "pre-conclave" text — a text that seeks to begin the process of electing the next Pope.     It is also anonymous.     The text is a brief letter which raises a number of concerns about the pontificate of Pope Francis (2013-present).     It claims to be written by a member of the College [...]

Letter #3, 2024, Tuesday, February 6: Blessings, and a farewell

    Professor Nina Sophie Heereman. Heereman has just published an important analysis of the issues involved in the December 18 Vatican document on ecclesial blessings Fiducia supplicans ("Supplicating trust"). Born and raised in Germany, Heereman is a scripture scholar who studied or did research and lecturing in India, Switzerland, France, Rome and Jerusalem. She is currently [...]

Letter #2, 2024, Monday, January 8: Fernandez

    We are about to have a live podcast discussing a newly discovered writing of Cardinal Victor Fernandez, which has just been rediscovered and is causing considerable controversy.     The podcast will begin in about 20 minutes.     Here is the link to watch live on YouTube (link). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXf_LvQbaEg&ab_channel=UrbietOrbiCommunications

Letter #1, 2024, Thu, January 4: More confusion

    Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issues new clarification on blessings for gay and irregular couples     January 4, 2024     In Rome, at noon today, a new text (link) has just appeared attempting to explain the Vatican's controversial position on the blessing of same-sex couples.     Entitled "Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith: Press release [...]

Letter #184, 2023, Thursday, December 28: Armenian Quarter

    This area (above) of the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem has become the object of a struggle which today led to violence in Jerusalem.     Here below are two screen shots of an "urgent communique" about the dispute posted on the Armenian Patriarchates website today at this link.     Letter #184, 2023, Thursday, December 28: Armenian Quarter [...]

Letter #183, 2023, Thursday, December 28: Memory of a hymn

    A sheet containing the first verse of the hymn Silent Night prepared for a Christmas dinner in Washington, D.C. in December 2014, more than nine years ago     Letter #183, 2023, Thursday, December 28: Memory of a Hymn     I received in my email today a link to the Christmas Homily delivered by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, [...]

Letter #182, 2023, Wednesday, December 27: In the heart

Pope Benedict XVI, who died at the age of 94 on December 31 last year, and Peter Seewald, a German writer who worked with Benedict for 25 years to produce a number of book-length interviews which became best-sellers     "As a South American and a Jesuit, he (Pope Francis) has erased much of what was precious [...]

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