In the March-April 2024 issue of Inside the Vatican, our Lead story covers the Pope’s condemnation of surrogacy, IVF and all technologies that reduce human beings to commodities; we follow African Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo’s extraordinary trip to Rome to register African rejection of Fiducia Supplicans; Benedict XVI biographer Peter Seewald talks about the late Pope’s “heartbreak”; and Russia’s new ambassador to the Holy See talks about his — and the Vatican’s — diplomatic mission.
LEAD STORY
Pope Francis declares human surrogacy “deplorable” by Courtney Mares (CNA)/ITV staff
Surrogacy is a betrayal of Woman by Anthony Esolen
NEWS
AFRICA/Cardinal explains steps in African rejection of Fiducia Supplicans by ACI Prensa/CNA
HOLY LAND/Christians in Gaza: “Everyone is in danger” by Christopher Hart-Moynihan
VATICAN/Will Francis finally visit his own country? by Zenit/ITV staff
VATICAN/Pope to Journalists: Build bridges instead of divisions by Devin Watkins (Vatican News)
CULTURE
Interview/Biographer Peter Seewald on Benedict XVI: “He was stabbed in the heart” by Nico Spuntoni
Report/Benedict continues to speak to the world by ITV staff/NCR
Exhibit/The Martyrdom and Beatification of the Ulma Family by Anna Artymiak
Interview/Ivan Soltanovsky, Russia’s new Ambassador to the Holy See by Victor Gaetan
Homily/Palm Sunday message: “His royal throne is the wood of the Cross” by Pope Francis
Interview/Sr. Salvatrice Musial: the Divine Mercy devotion, and the convent where it all began by Barbara Middleton
Footsteps on the Way/Preparing for the Jubilee Year 2025 by Anna Artymiak
Scripture/What is your “Mammon?” by Anthony Esolen
Spirituality Behind Bars/The Weapons of Our Warfare by Marcellus Roberts
URBI ET ORBI: CATHOLICISM AND ORTHODOXY
Icon/The Creed: The Ascension by Robert Wiesner
East-West Watch/Defrocking: A Weapon Against Dissent by Peter Anderson
News from the East/Syrians on brink of starvation; defiance in Syro-Malabar churches; Belarus Catholics face new wave of arrests; Ukrainian officials deny violence against faithful by Matthew Trojacek
FEATURES
Tradition and Beauty/When Mary Spoke to Me by Aurelio Porfiri
Art/St. Peter’s Baldacchino, Under Restoration for Holy Year 2025 by Lucy Gordan
Lord of the World/“They’re going — to wipe out Rome” by Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson
Vatican Watch/A day-by-day chronicle of Vatican events: December 2023 and January 2024 by Matthew Trojacek
People/ Cardinal Becciu’s ‘balance sheet’; new French Consul in Jerusalem; Cardinal Zen on Fiducia Supplicans; French bishops back farmers; Myanmar conflict targeting Christians by Matthew Trojacek
Food/ Top chef Heinz Beck speaks at the UN by Mother Martha
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