Our forte. Get the scoop on what’s current inside the Vatican.
Pope Francis addressed the participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Congregation for Clergy on Thursday. The Plenary Assembly opened on May 30th, with a packed schedule that included the introduction, consideration, and discussion of several major documents, one of which was the draft text of an Instruction “On some questions regarding the parish, the ministry [...]
APRIL FRIDAY 29 Blood-red Trevi Fountain a Wake-up Call on Christian Persecution Cardinal Mauro Piacenza Illuminated by the red light that spilled across Rome’s Trevi Fountain this evening, voices from persecuted Christian communities across the world shared stories of friends and loved ones killed for the faith, and urged the world to take greater [...]
APRIL FRIDAY 1 Pope Francis Sends Vestments, Financial Aid to Iraqi Christians Bishop Francesco Cavina As a sign of affection and closeness, Pope Francis has decided to send vestments used in the liturgy and a financial donation to Christian refugees in Erbil through the Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need. “Mercy [...]
NOVEMBER SUNDAY 1 The Path of the Beatitudes The beatitudes are the most direct path toward happiness and holiness, Pope Francis said during Mass on All Saints’ Day. He urged the congregation to imitate Jesus in walking the difficult, yet rewarding, road to heaven. The Pope said the beatitudes make up “the path of holiness, and [...]
SEPTEMBER Friday 18 Vatican parish welcomes first refugee family following Pope’s appeal The Vatican announced that a family of four — mother, father and two children — was welcomed by the community of the Vatican’s St. Anne Parish in Rome after Pope Francis made an appeal earlier this month for every church in Europe to open [...]
SUNDAY 4 Pray for peace, look to Mary Peace is a gift. It comes through prayer and small daily efforts to sow harmony in one’s family, parish and community, Pope Francis said today. “At the beginning of this new year, we are all called to reignite in our hearts a spark of hope, which must be [...]
Tuesday 7 Pope Francis Phones a Convent Pope Francis today made a personal telephone call to a small community of nuns in southern Italy. “My congratulations because you answered right away,” the Pope told Sister Maria Gonzalez, the 48-year-old Guatemalan mother superior of the St. James Major monastery of Palo del Colle in Bari. “When I [...]
Pilgrims prat at a statue of Mary in 2011 on Apparition Hill in Medjugorje. A commission set up by the Vatican to study the alleged apparitions at Medjugorje in Bosnia has completed its work and handed in its report. Next: a decision... Granting Medjugorje the status of an approved Catholic shrine is among the [...]
The first months of Pope Francis’ pontificate and the new view of the Vatican and the Church. The text was first published on the Il Sismografo website on December 20. Geopolitics is synthetically, but appropriately, referred to as the discipline dealing with the relation between politics and geography. Also, a country’s foreign policy is deeply affected [...]
Sunday 10 PRAYERS FOR THOSE HIT BY DEADLY TYPHOON During the Angelus with pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope expressed his concern and prayers for the estimated tens of thousands of people dead and others affected by Super Typhoon Haiyan, which devastated parts of the central Philippines November 8. “I wish to express my closeness [...]
