Interview with Eduardo Delgado Bermudez, Cuban envoy to the Vatican, on the March visit of the pontiff The expectations raised by Benedict XVI’s journey to Cuba 14 years after John Paul II’s historic visit to the island; the hopes which the Pope’s message will bring to the people of Latin America; the journey’s program and [...]
February 2012 — The central concern of Pope Benedict is the “new evangelization,” the sharing of the “Good News” about Jesus Christ. But how to go about it? Perhaps, he says, by starting with silence... Pope Benedict XVI, who will turn 85 this spring, wants to tell the world about Jesus. And one way to [...]
Even as a baby in his cradle they noticed he was cross-eyed, and so Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (1591-1666) became known as Il Guercino, “the little squinter,” a nickname that stuck until his death. Luckily, this handicap did not seem to affect his drawing or painting skills. Born in Cento, a small town bet-ween Bologna and Ferrara [...]
In his famous book Crossing the Threshold of Hope, John Paul II wrote: “First of all I remember the primary school of Wadowice, where in my class one quarter of the pupils at least were of Jewish origin. Now I have to mention my friendship in my schoolboy days with one of them, Jerzy Kluger. This [...]
After the ordinariates erected in England, the Unites States and soon in Australia, what will be the future of this new ordinariate? Father Dwight Longenecker, author of this article. In 1995, after 10 years serving as a minister in the Church of England, I, along with my wife and children, came “home to Rome.” For [...]
Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli on January 11 concelebrated a Mass at Santa Maria in Transpontina, near St. Peter’s, in memory of American Cardinal John P. Foley, who died on December 11, 2011 There were mostly Americans and a few TV reporters in the church of Santa Maria in Traspontina on Wednesday, January 11, a sunny, [...]
Karol Wojtyla and Jerzy Kluger met often after they were reunited in 1965, two decades after the slaughter of World War II. On the last day of 2011, Jerzy joined his childhood friend Karol. He died in Rome after the Alzheimer’s disease from which he suffered had prevented him from even being present at the May [...]
The formula that came to be associated with the distribution of ashes: “Remember, man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return,” focuses on our mortality, as an incentive to take seriously the call to repentance. Our time here is brief. Since Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, it also has a baptismal [...]
The Holy Father will travel to Mexico and Cuba on his second visit to Latin America, March 23 - 28 The Pope’s upcoming March trip to Cuba and Mexico is strongly desired by, and, according to some, also a little “forced” by, the bishops of Mexico. Dates and program were defined by the organizer of [...]
December 2012 Monday 12 POPE RECALLS CARDINAL FOLEY Benedict XVI said he hoped the legacy of the late Cardinal John P. Foley, who died December 11 in Darby, Pennsylvania, after a battle with leukemia, would inspire others to make the Gospel known through the mass media. “I recall with gratitude the late cardinal’s years of priestly [...]