May 27, 2017, Saturday “The final battle between the Lord and the reign of Satan will be about marriage and the family.” —Sister Lucia of Fatima, in the 1980s, in a corresponden...
Read more
The Motu Proprio was released on Tuesday, establishing the Institute to carry forward the work of the two recent Synods of Bishops and the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia. The ‘media notes’ statement is signed by Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, Grand Chancellor of the Institute, and Msgr. Pierangelo Sequeri, its President. It discusses the inspiration and sources behind […]
Pope Francis has set up a new Pontifical institute for the study of marriage and the family, replacing the organisation set up by his predecessor in 1981. In a Motu Proprio, published on Tuesday, the Vatican announced that the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences is being established to carry […]
“Compassion,” “drawing near,” “to restore.” At the morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis prayed to the Lord, that He might give us “the grace” to have compassion for all those who are suffering; to draw near to these people in order to “take them by the hand” to restore them to the place of “dignity that God wills for them.” The Holy Father […]
As Christians we must pray for our elected leaders, even if we don’t agree with their politics. That was Pope Francis’ message during Mass in the Casa Santa Marta on Monday, as he reflected on the readings for the day. Pope Francis took as his starting point the First Reading from St Paul’s Letter to […]
Pope Francis’ homily at the Mass in the Casa Santa Marta this morning focused on the figure of Our Lady of Sorrows, whose feast day the Church celebrates on September 15th. Contemplating the Mother of Jesus We need to contemplate the Mother of Jesus, said the Pope, we need to contemplate “this sign of contradiction, […]
Pope Francis on Wednesday met privately in the Vatican with the Indian Catholic priest who was freed from abduction by gunmen in Yemen. The Vatican’s newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, reported on the Pope’s meeting with Salesian Father Tom Uzhunnalil at the papal residence of Santa Marta, after his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square. After being rescued on Tuesday, […]
Pope Francis celebrated his first daily Mass in the Casa Santa Marta on Thursday following the summer break, reflecting on the Cross of Christ as the mystery of love. On the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, Pope Francis during his homily at daily Mass preached on the “mystery of love” that is the […]
Pope Francis addressed the participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Congregation for Clergy on Thursday. The Plenary Assembly opened on May 30th, with a packed schedule that included the introduction, consideration, and discussion of several major documents, one of which was the draft text of an Instruction “On some questions regarding the parish, the […]
“Such a step splits the Church” and “leads her toward schism” Robert Spaemann is a professor emeritus of philosophy at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Monaco of Bavaria. He is one of the leading Catholic philosophers and theologians in Germany. This following is my own translation of the interview on Amoris Laetitia, extensively excerpted, that […]
“Does the Pope say the divorced and civilly remarried may now be readmitted to Holy Communion? No.” The Bishop of Portsmouth, England, Philip Egan, has described the Pope’s exhortation Amoris Laetitia as a “magnificent” document, “breathtaking in scope,” and has urged everyone, “clergy and people,” to read and study it. Below we reprint excerpts from […]
The official response of Bishop Athanasius Schneider to Amoris Laetitia Following are excerpts from the text published on April 24, by His Excellency Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of St Mary in Astana, Kazakhstan, on the Italian website Corrispondenza Romana. It was the first public statement by a Catholic bishop calling for an […]
The Pope sees it “not as a place to solve every problem,” but to “discover first that there is a problem to be solved” The ink of the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia (“The Joy of Love”) is not even dry, and already various commentators, particularly in the secular press, have decreed that Pope Francis […]
With a double article about the history of books in this issue’s “Of Books, Art, and People,” what more appropriate time to suggest a visit to Rome’s Caffè Greco! Here for more than 200 years the great minds of art, literature, and music have been meeting around its tiny, marble-topped tables. The café was opened […]
Fr. Harrison: “May we believe Francis alone is right, and all his predecessors wrong?” A proper understanding, appreciation and evaluation of Amoris Laetitia will require considerable time, study and prayerful reflection. But it is already quite clear from certain key passages that, with carefully crafted language, plausible arguments and persuasive rhetoric, the Holy Father is […]
Pope Francis made an important point during his Morning Meditation on May 9 when he emphasized the unique impact of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the One who makes the difference, who sets souls on fire and breathes life into the actions of the Christian. Often the Holy Spirit is either forgotten or […]
A message of hope and rebirth released on the 75th anniversary of St. Maximilian Kolbe’s martyrdom at Auschwitz “Faith means deciding to stay with the Lord, to live with Him.” So Father Raffaele Di Muro concludes in his study of St. Maximilian Kolbe, Maximilian Kolbe: The Triumph of Love (Vatican Publishing House, 2016). The book […]
“My name is Julius: what do you like best about being Pope?” “What I like, sincerely, is being a parish pastor.” Julius’ question, and Pope Francis’ response, were taken from the pontiff’s dialogue with some members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Rome, Sunday, November 15, 2015; from it we can see, as if it […]
Two splendid exhibitions this spring concern the history of the book in Europe during the Middle Ages and Renaissance and its impact on European and thus world culture: I Libri Che Hanno Fatto l’Europa (The Books That Made Europe) on at Palazzo Corsini in Trastevere, Rome, until July 22 (Via della Lungara 10, Rome, entrance […]
“Are You Ready To Move Mountains?” Interview with Eduardo Verastegui, Mexican Actor and Hollywood Producer From a little town in Northern Mexico, Eduardo Verastegui has made the American dream a reality: he became a Hollywood star, rich, famous and successful. Then one day he realized he didn’t want to be part of the negative stereotype […]
