Dossiers, Reflections and penetrating analysis by Inside The Vatican’s editors
On the Feast of the Holy Family we offer all the members of our own families on the altar for God’s blessing. Homily starter anecdote: Grandparents are a treasure: Pope Francis said that as a child, he heard a story of a family with a mother, father, many children and a grandfather. The grandfather, suffering from Parkinson’s [...]
“Such a step splits the Church” and “leads her toward schism” Robert Spaemann 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 [...]
“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 his [...]
8/04/2016 Vatican City. Press conference presenting Pope Francis' Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation "Amoris laetitia", on love in the family, in the Holy See Press Office. From left, Bishop Fabio Fabene, Under-Secretary of the Synod of Bishops; Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops; Cardinal Christoph Schonborn O.P., Archbishop of Vienna; Father Federico Lombardi, [...]
A depiction of the institution of the Church and the mission entrusted to her, entitled "Feed My Sheep" by the great Raffaello Sanzio, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England The Pope sees it “not as a place to solve every problem,” but to “discover first that there is a problem to [...]
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 [...]
As Apostolic Exhortations go, Amoris Laetitia has been one of the most widely read – and furiously commented upon – in recent memory. Issued following the October 2014 Extraordinary and October 2015 Ordinary Synods on the Family, the document given to the world by Pope Francis is an eloquent meditation on love, marriage and family life. [...]
The passing of the personal secretary of Pope John XXIII on May 26 at the age of 100 brings a period of Church history, the period of Pope John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council, to a close. What next? Robert Moynihan “There was a second envelope.” —The late Cardinal Loris Capovilla, speaking to [...]
The devil is portrayed in this stained-glass church window (CNS photo from Crosiers) “He knows that he is running out of time” From its very beginning, the holy Bride of Christ has been the butt of devilish attacks. In fact, Lucifer is paying her a compliment: he knows that to direct his poisonous arrows [...]
Excerpts from a talk given by Dr. Anna Silvas in which she argues that parts of Amoris Laetitia are “subtly treacherous” I am aware that Amoris Laetitia, as an apostolic exhortation, does not come under any rubric of infallibility. Still it is a document of the Papal Ordinary Magisterium, and thus it makes the idea of [...]
