In the November-December 2024 issue of Inside the Vatican, we discuss the multi-year, contentious and at times confusing Synod on Synodality — and ask, what did it all mean? We also profile the 21 new cardinals chosen by Francis, men who will not only guide the Church but elect the next Pope; we introduce and highlight sections of the Pope’s new encyclical on the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus for each one of us; and we offer Christmas meditations by the Church Fathers set in a lovely icon art essay.
LEAD STORY
The Key to Understanding the Synod on Synodality by Robert Moynihan, with reports from CNA and analysis by Matt Gaspers
INTERVIEW/Cardinal Gerhard Müller: The Holy Spirit or the Spirit of the Times? by Matt Gaspers
NEWS
ANALYSIS/America’s “Event Horizon”: The Popes warned us, but we didn’t listen by Christopher Ferrara
LEBANON/Christians caught in the crossfire as Gaza conflict worsens by Christopher Hart-Moynihan
VATICAN/Francis releases new encyclical, Dilexit Nos, on the loving Heart of Jesus by Alessandro Di Bussolo (Vatican News)
VATICAN/SPECIAL/Pope Francis names 21 new cardinals by Christina Deardurff
VATICAN/“The Pope of Surprises” stirs controversy in Indonesia and Oceania by ITV staff
CHRISTMAS ART ESSAY: The Incarnation in the Words of the Church Fathers
St. Basil the Great: God is in the Flesh
St. John Chrysostom: The Ancient of Days Has Become an Infant
St. Athanasius: By His Power, He Restored the Human Race
St. Gregory of Nanzianus: O Strange Conjunction! The Uncreated is Created
St. Hippolytus: He Refashioned our Fallen Nature
St. Gregory of Nyssa: The Notable Day of Our Feast is at Hand
St. John Damascene: We Stand to Him in the Relation of Brothers
St. Augustine of Hippo: He Wished One Day Set Aside for His Human Birth
CULTURE
Scripture/What Do You See? by Anthony Esolen
Spirituality Behind Bars/Struck Down but Not Destroyed by Marcellus Roberts
URBI ET ORBI: CATHOLICISM AND ORTHODOXY
Icon/The Creed: The Church by Robert Wiesner
East-West Watch/Ukrainian government moves to outlaw Ukrainian Orthodox Church by Peter Anderson
News from the East/ Pope meets with Middle-Eastern bishops as war rages; Iraqi cardinal urges Christians to give “testimony of life”; young Russian Catholics gather; Obituary: Vassula Rydén by Matthew Trojacek
Analysis/A Critical Opportunity for the Orthodox of Ukraine by Peter Anderson
FEATURES
Tradition and Beauty/ Sacred Music Relegated to Concerts by Aurelio Porfiri
Art/“The Treasure of the Holy Land” on Display in Florence by Lucy Gordan
Lord of the World/“God was man, then, after all” by Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson
Vatican Watch/A day-by-day chronicle of Vatican events in August-September, 2024 by Matthew Trojacek
People/ Swiss Guards; Jeff Bezos; Myanmar’s jailed former leader; Japanese sculptor; Akita visionary Sr. Agnes Sasagawa by Matthew Trojacek
Food for Thought/ The Appian Way: Directions, Sights and Gastronomy by Mother Martha
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