Vatican Watch

Our forte. Get the scoop on what’s current inside the Vatican.

Vatican Watch: February, March and April, 2025

February Tuesday 11 Holy See calls for digital responsibility to curb anti-Semitism in Europe Father Domenico Vitolo, Secretary of the Apostolic Nunciature to the Nordic Countries, delivered the statement at the annual conference on addressing anti-Semitism in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) region on February 11. He expressed the Holy See’s conviction [...]

Vatican Watch: A day-by-day chronicle of Vatican events: December and January, 2025

December Thursday 12 Pope meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Pope Francis held a 30-minute long meeting December 12 with Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine. Speaking to Vatican Media’s Roberto Cetera immediately afterwards, President Abbas described the meeting as “fruitful,” adding that “every time I meet the Pope, it’s like meeting an old [...]

Vatican Watch: A day-by-day chronicle of Vatican events: October, November and December 2024

By Matthew Trojacek with CNA Reports - Grzegorz Galazka and CNA photos October Wednesday 16 Pope Francis to release groundbreaking autobiography Hope in 2025 In a historic move, Pope Francis is set to become the first sitting pontiff to release an autobiographical memoir. Titled Hope, the much-anticipated book will be published [...]

A day-by-day chronicle of Vatican events: February-March-April 2023

February Thursday 23 Holy See and the Sultanate of Oman establish diplomatic ties The Holy See and Oman have established full diplomatic relations, leaving only six countries worldwide without any diplomatic connection to the Vatican. The announcement on February 23 did not come as a surprise as, in November during Pope Francis’ trip to Bahrain, there [...]

“This was a time of interior exultation” Excerpts from the Ratzinger brothers’ memoirs

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 [...]

“We learned what it means to have a firm grasp of faith”

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 [...]

Benedict XVI: The Scholar Pope

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 [...]

Joseph Ratzinger on the “Catholic Idea of Sola Scriptura”

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 [...]

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