Dossiers, Reflections and penetrating analysis by Inside The Vatican’s editors
“Majestic Hill”: William and Ruth Moynihan walking together on Horsebarn Hill in Storrs, Connecticut, in 2016. William was 89 and Ruth was 82. “When my children were little I used to bring them here to look up at the stars,” Ruth said. Bill said he and his wife had been taking walks around the hill [...]
One Citizen of Rome Tells How the Pandemic Has Changed the Eternal City, And, Perhaps, the Church By Giuseppe Rusconi Grzegorz Galazka photo It’s something with which no one was acquainted. Or perhaps, for the elderly, it was an echo of the sad times of the Second World War. For everyone here in Italy [...]
Reflections by a Member of the American Catholic Medical Association, Part One By Thomas W. McGovern, M.D. “Inspiring physicians to imitate Jesus Christ” — CMA Vision Statement “There are many patients dying in the hospital today... There are no visitors allowed. Limited visitation when death is imminent... It is a brutal human tragedy. When we get through [...]
The Sacraments in a Time of Crisis: a Canon Lawyer Critiques Current Prohibitions By Philip C.L. Gray, JCL Christ Heals the Sick, a woodcut from a Bible illustrated by Gustave Dorè Faith is a free gift from God (Eph. 2:8; Catechism, Art. 153). But like any gift, if we do not use the Faith [...]
Cyprian’s Perfect Blend of Holiness and Worldly Wisdom Challenged Christians in His Time — and Still Does Today By John Byron Kuhner Last month I wrote about the Latin word pestis, which is usually translated plague, but really should be thought of in a broad sense: not just bubonic plague but any sudden-onset, highly contagious, potentially [...]
Pope Francis looks out the window of the papal library in the Apostolic Palace onto an empty St. Peter's Square on April 13, 2020, Easter Monday, after reciting the Regina Coeli prayer via livestream. (CNS photo/Vatican Media) Rome in a time of virus, everything closed... By Christina Deardurff The Catholic Church during her [...]
Pope Francis prays in the atrium of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, March 27, 2020. The Pope led a prayer service for the world suffering from the coronavirus pandemic, and gave his blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city and the world). The service was live-streamed because of COVID-19 quarantines. (CNS photo/ Yara Nardi, [...]
by Robert Moynihan My father, William T. Moynihan, passed away at his home in Connecticut, just before dawn on March 28, after a brief illness. He was 93. I was not able to be with him due to travel restrictions connected with the coronavirus “Like a flower he comes forth and withers. He flees like a [...]
Christians Have Never Been Helpless in the Face of Epidemics and Social Turmoil By Cornelius Sullivan* vision of St. Michael the Archangel by Cornelius Sullivan At the time of the plague of 590 AD and the Black Death of 1348 in Rome, prayers were the primary, and effective, remedy. Prayer produced an astonishing sign [...]
Evangelizing your neighbor really does mean embracing the lost sheep By Robert Wiesner Pope Francis pictured celebrating Mass in 1998 in a poor section of Buenos Aires, Argentina (CNS photo) A book recently appeared which relates the conversion story of a, shall we say, “differently-gendered” university literature professor. The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely [...]
