Articles from Inside The Vatican Magazine.
His outstretched finger points to something—Someone—other than himself By John Byron Kuhner St. John the Baptist Announces the Coming of Christ by Mattia Preti (c. 1665) I once had the misfortune of touring the Uffizi Galleries in Florence in the company of a renowned professor of art history. Art history professors are of course [...]
This year is the 10th anniversary of the election of Pope Francis to the papacy, which occurred on March 13, 2023. In recognition of this anniversary, several news outlets were granted interviews with the Holy Father in the month of March. Francis addressed the questions in his signature style of frankness and informality. The topics covered [...]
God's word will quench the thirst of your soul By Anthony Esolen Detail of the mosaic in the apse of St. John Lateran with the cross from which the baptismal water flows for all to drink Lately, I’ve been providing the notes for my new translation of Augustine’s Confessions (forthcoming from TAN Books), and [...]
BISHOPS’ TEAM REPORTS TO VATICAN ON INDIAN CATHEDRAL DESECRATION A Vatican-appointed team, retired Archbishop Maria Callist Soosa Pakiam of Trivandrum, and retired Bishop Stanley Roman of Quilon, has wrapped up its fact-finding exercise into the alleged “desecration and sacrilege” at a cathedral-basilica in southern India, linked to a decades-old dispute over the mode of celebrating Mass. [...]
Early Teenage Years In his 1998 book Milestones: Memoirs 19271977, Joseph Ratzinger recounts the circumstances surrounding his entry into the minor seminary at age 12: For us, the seizure of power in Austria by the brown rulers [the Nazi party, in 1938] had a positive aspect. The borders of this neighboring country had been closed by [...]
Against the dramatic backdrop of Hitler's Germany, a boy's faith—and vocation—mature Located in Bavaria, the most densely Catholic region of Germany, the Ratzinger family’s home life was imbued with the Catholic faith. Hitler had come to power when young Joseph was only five, but the family’s faith and spiritual practices fortified them through the difficulties that [...]
By Federico Lombardi Joseph Ratzinger was born on April 16, 1927, in Marktl am Inn, Bavaria. Joseph came into the world into a Bavarian family of deep-rooted Catholic tradition and modest circumstances – his father, also named Joseph, was a policeman, and his mother Maria was a housewife, but occasionally worked as a cook for the [...]
By Tracey Rowland When in 1946 Joseph Ratzinger entered the seminary for the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising along with his older brother Georg, fellow students distinguished the pair by the names “Organ-Ratz” and “Bücher-Ratz” (the organ-playing Ratzinger and the bookish Ratzinger). Joseph was the scholar, Georg the musician. Joseph completed both his doctorate and Habilitationsschrift dissertations under [...]
January 5, 2023 — St. Peter’s Square. After Archbishop Georg Gänswein has placed the Gospel and kissed the coffin, the Funeral Mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, presided over by Pope Francis, begins. One hundred-thirty cardinals, 400 bishops and 3,700 priests participated (Photos Grzegorz Galazka) Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s last words were “Lord, I [...]
From his "Commentary on Dei Verbum, Articles 8-10," 1967, written while holding the Chair of Dogmatic Theology at the University of Tübingen, Germany Article 9 takes us to the focal point of the controversy, the question of a mutual relation of Scripture and tradition. The text shows clear signs of the firm position taken during the [...]
