Just before dawn: A rainy November morning just before dawn in Rome, today, November 22, Feast of St. Cecilia, and 61 years since the assassination of U.S. President John Kennedy in 1963 The Vatican's Sala Regia, next to the Sistine Chapel (which is through the door just visible on the right), where tonight the two [...]
Above, Blessed Carlo Acutis (May 3, 1991-October 12, 2006 -- he died of leukemia at the age of 15) will become St. Carlo Acutis on Sunday, April 27, 2025, in Rome. Pope Francis made the announcement this morning in Rome during his General Audience in St. Peter's Square. Below, the Via della Conciliazione, leading up [...]
Above, Pope Pius XII (Pope from 1939 to 1958) opens the Holy Door in St. Peter's Basilica to begin the Jubilee of the Holy Year of 1950. He saw the Holy Year as the real conclusion of the World War II conflict. He called the people of many nations to come to Rome and to [...]
Above, Father Roberto Pasolini, 53, an Italian Franciscan Capuchin friar and a biblical scholar from northern Italy. It was announced on Saturday, two days ago, that Fr. Pasolini has been named the new "Preacher of the Pontifical Household," arguably the most prominent preaching "pulpit" in the Church, next to that of the Pope himself. Soon [...]
Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea | photo: Grzegorz Galazka Above, Cardinal Robert Sarah. The much-loved African cardinal, born in Guinea in West Africa in 1945 and now 79, was for some years the head of the liturgy office in the Vatican. He is known for his deep mysticism and his compelling, Christo-centric vision [...]
Pope Francis greets Microsoft President Brad Smith today in Vatican City. | Vatican Media Letter #48, 2024, Monday, November 11: Microsoft Microsoft and several other companies, in collaboration with the Fabbrica of San Pietro, spent the last two and a half years creating a stunning new visual presentation of the St. Peter's Basilica using drones [...]
Miniature which depicts Leo I, contained in the Menologion of Basil II (c. 1000 AD, Vatican Library) Letter #47, 2024, Sunday, November 10: Pope Leo the Great Today, November 10, is the Feast Day of Pope St. Leo the Great, who lived in the mid-400s. Tonight, after the Byzantine liturgy in Santa Maria in Trastevere, I will have dinner [...]
Christ holds out his hand above the facade of St. John Lateran church in Rome this evening, November 9, 2024. Tonight was the 1,700th anniversary of the dedication of the church on November 9, 324 A.D., in the time of the Emperor Constantine (died 337), and just 6 months before he summoned the [...]
King David sang in Psalm 146: “Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing Thursday, November 7, 2024, Rome — I write this after midnight, early on November 7, just hours after [...]
Cardinal James Harvey, 75, who for many years served St. John Paul II (1920-2005) as the Prefect of the Pontifical Household, today, on the late Pope's feast day, read a tribute to the late Pope in the Vatican Gardens. Five guests then planted five special "John Paul II tulip bulbs" in a little garden set [...]
