The Moynihan Letters

Vatican Media     The casket of the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died in Rome on the last day of the year 2022, December 31.     Below, a brilliant text by Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, 80 (link) which seems certain to serve for future generations as an exemplary biography of the just deceased Pope, [...]

(CNS photo/Paul Haring)     Archbishop Georg Gänswein, 66, personal secretary to Pope Benedict XVI from 2003 until his death on December 31, 2022.     Pope Francis asked Gänswein to meet with him yesterday morning. No details about the meeting of the two have been made public.     Here below, the first published excerpts from Gänswein's new [...]

    Archbishop Georg Gänswein, 66, personal secretary to Pope Benedict XVI from 2003 until his death on December 31, 2022. Pope Francis asked Gänswein to meet with him yesterday morning. No details about the meeting of the two have been made public (CNS photo/Paul Haring)     Preliminary note: "Less is more"         I just received the following note [...]

    Above, the nearly 1,000-year-old Cathedral of the Assumption (or Dormition) of the Most Holy Theotokos ("God-bearer") in Kyiv, capital of Ukraine. In Greek, "Theo" means "God" and "tokos" means "bearer," so "Theotokos" means "God-bearer" and refers to Mary, who bore Jesus. So this cathedral is the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. (It [...]

The casket of the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. A document was placed inside the casket for future generations, containing a summary of the life and work of the late Pope (Vatican Media)     Letter #8, 2023, Monday, January 9: Text from Benedict's Coffin     Here below is a text which was placed in the coffin of [...]

    “Dare to love.” —Pope Benedict XVI to young people for World Youth Day in 2007 (written on January 27, 2007 text, the message was read on Palm Sunday, April 1, in Lisbon, Portugal, and throughout the world; the full text is at the very end of this letter). This message contains the essence of Pope [...]

    The hands of the late Pope Benedict, as he lay in state in St. Peter's Basilica from January 2 to 4, before his funeral in Rome on January 5, yesterday. The rosary beads that wrapped his fingers suggested that he was a man of prayer, a man who spent his last years praying for the [...]

CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano via Reuters     Pope Francis visits Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery in Vatican City to exchange Christmas greetings almost 10 years ago, on December 23, 2013, just 10 months after Pope Benedict resigned. | Vatican Media     Letter #5, 2023 Friday, January 6: Francis' Homily     The last days [...]

Benedict XVI in prayer (Vatican Media)     Letter #4, 2023 Wednesday, January 4: "Love is possible"     In this letter, I send 10 quotations from Pope Benedict XVI on love and suffering.     One or another of these may be a thought or sentence that you may wish to memorize, or keep.     I then send two [...]