Table of Contents

To view each article, simply click the article title. 

EDITORIAL

Nunc Dimittis by Robert Moynihan, Ph.D.

LEAD STORY

New Book: A major new biography of Pope Benedict XVI, now in English by Edward Pentin (National Catholic Register), interviewing Peter Seewald

NEWS

VATICAN NEWS ITEMS/Pope Francis issues new book, Let Us Dream; U.S. Bishops prepare for Biden presidency; Biden calls Pope Francis; Basketball players visit Pope; abuse trial underway in Vatican City by Inside the Vatican Staff 

VATICAN/Lack of clarity on where to go to reach “The Economy of Francesco” by Michael Greaney 

HOLY SEE/Vatican finally issues its long-awaited “McCarrick Report” by Inside the Vatican Staff

HOLY SEE/Pope exhorts 13 new cardinals to humility — November 28 consistory by Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service (CNS) 

INTERVIEW/Cardinal Pell on prison, the Vatican, and vindication by Nicole Winfield, Associated Press

CHRISTMAS ART ESSAY 

CHRISTMAS THOUGHTS/“The Ancient of Days has become an infant” by St. John Chrysostom

CULTURE

DEBATE/The COVID vaccines: how safe? by Dr. Anthony Jay, Ph.D.

ANALYSIS/The Vatican’s New “Global Compact” on Education by Prof. Anthony Esolen, Ph.D.

INTERVIEW/A new Dean at the Angelicum: Sister Helen Alford of South Africa by Dr. Jan Bentz

EDUCATION/A new boys’ high school “prepares the soil” by President Daniel Kerr of St. Martin’s Academy in Fort Scott, Kansas, USA 

SCRIPTURE/”Let us be nourished by Mary’s example” by Prof. Anthony Esolen, Magdalen College, New Hampshire, USA

URBI ET ORBI: CATHOLICISM AND ORTHODOXY

Icon/New Church of Sts. Joachim and Anne Opes in Front Royal, Virginia by Robert Wiesner

East-West Watch/Pope Francis and the search for “synodality” by Peter Anderson

News from the East/Ukrainian Orthodox Church commemorated for first time by Becky Derks

FEATURES

LATIN/On the date of Christmas, in Latin… by John Byron Kuhner, Paideia Institute, Rome

Art/The story of Italy’s only Christmas carol by Lucy Gordan

BOOK/Selection from Lord of the World (originally published in 1907) by Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson

Vatican Watch/A day-by-day chronicle of Vatican events: October and November by Becky Derks

People/Blessed Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus by Becky Derks 

Food for Thought/The Vatican Christmas Cookbook from the Swiss Guards by Mother Martha