Above, from top, a young Joseph Ratzinger at the time of his ordination to the priesthood in 1951, when he was 24 (he was born in 1927); and a close-up from about the same time; and during his papacy (2005-2013) when he was about age 80 December 29, 2022: Feast of The Holy Family "We [...]
Above, from top, a young Joseph Ratzinger at the time of his ordination to the priesthood in 1951, when he was 24 (he was born in 1927); and a close-up from about the same time; a photo of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in his office in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the [...]
Pope Benedict XVI, 95, is "very ill," Pope Francis told those present at his General Audience in Rome this morning. Pope Francis then tweeted on his official account (link): "Let us #PrayTogether for Pope Emeritus Benedict who is supporting the Church in silence. Let us ask the Lord to console him and to sustain him [...]
Two views of the statue of the Virgin Mary which rises on a hilltop above the coastline of Lebanon, called "Our Lady of Lebanon" (link). The statue is located at the Shrine of Harissa. The shrine is visited daily by hundreds of Lebanese, Christians and Muslims alike. Thus, Mary is for many a true force [...]
Pope Francis greets the crowd as he leads his Christmas message and his blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city and the world) from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican Dec. 25, 2022. (CNS photo/Vatican Media) “The Lord comes to the world in a stable... He comes among us [...]
Archbishop Viganò. He has just released a long essay for Christmas, focused on the Kingship of Jesus Christ Letter #132, 2022, Monday, December 19: Viganò's latest Here (below) is the latest text from Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, 81, former nuncio of the Holy See to the United States (2011-2016). It is his Christmas reflection [...]
St. John of the Cross Letter #130, 2022 Thursday, December 14: Dark night Christmas is drawing near. Yet we remain forgetful of who was born this day: the Logos of God... the meaning of God. Though Christmas nears, our culture remains in a collective "dark night," marked by a forgetfulness of the deepest things, and [...]
A section of Rome’s Via delle Fornaci that runs by a large estate owned by the Russian embassies to Italy (located on the left side of that wall) has been blocked off since late October. But there has also been a "roadblock" in efforts of the Vatican to initiate talks for peace in Ukraine (Credit: [...]
The late Ambassador Frank Shakespeare in retirement near Madison, Wisconsin one year ago. Shakespeare passed away peacefully this morning at his home near Madison at the age of 97 Ambassador Frank Shakespeare in the mid-1980s with US President Ronald Reagan and St. John Paul II in the Vatican. Shakespeare was the 2nd US ambassador to [...]
Letter #128, 2022, Wednesday, December 14: Vatican Fraud Today is the Feast of St. John of the Cross (1542-1591). John of the Cross is most famous for his book The Dark Night of the Soul, a central work in the history of Christian mysticism... that is, in the writing about the search for God, and [...]
