March 26, 2016, Saturday - Holy Saturday The Silence of the Lord "In the hours of Holy Saturday, a great silence overtakes the Church. Our silence commemorates that God in Christ descended to where no human word is uttered or heard— the silence of the grave. Yet even in that silence God is speaking. "In fact, [...]
March 21, 2016, Monday - Corrected Emeritus Pope Benedict Text A few lines left out This letter is to correct an oversight in my Letter #16 of March 17 which was entitled "Emeritus Pope Benedict Grants an Interview." I translated the text from Italian into English during the night between March 16 and March 17. I [...]
March 17, 2016, Thursday -- Emeritus Pope Benedict Grants an Interview on Justification and God's Mercy “What the human person needs for salvation is the intimate openness to God.” —Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, in a 2015 interview with Jesuit theologian Father Jacques Servais. The interview was conducted during 2015 for a book on the doctrine of [...]
May 23, 2015, Saturday — Thinking about Francis The news stories keep coming: — the Irish referendum yesterday on marriage (the Irish voted "Yes," to allow same-gender marriage); — the upcoming papal encyclical on the environment (June); — preparations for the Pope's trip to Cuba and the USA (September); — the "Bishops' Synod, Part #2" (October); [...]
At Santa Marta on Thursday morning, Francis offered Mass for Benedict XVI on his 88th birthday, inviting the faithful present to join him in praying “that the Lord sustain him and grant him much joy and happiness”. In his homily, the Pontiff spoke of obedience, a prominent theme in the day’s liturgy. He began by quoting [...]
April 16, 2015, Thursday — Benedict Turns 88 "Preparing for one's death means preparing to meet God." —Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, speaking with an Italian television station this week, on how an elderly Emeritus Pope Benedict is spending his time preparing for death. The Emeritus Pope turned 88 today Today, April 16, Emeritus Pope Benedict turned 88. [...]
March 13, 2015, Friday — Pope Francis Announces Jubilee Year of Mercy “This is the time of mercy. It is important that the lay faithful live it and bring it into different social environments. Go forth!”—Pope Francis, speaking on New Year's Day, 2015, in words which foreshadowed the announcement today of a Jubilee Year of Mercy [...]
February 5, 2015, Thursday — The Peril the Pope Fears "I advise you to read it." —Pope Francis, to the Vatican press corps, during a press conference on the papal airplane on January 19, flying back from the Philippines, referring to the novel by the British Catholic convert from Anglicanism, Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson, The Lord [...]
January 4, 2015, Sunday — Message from Rome "The glory of God is man alive; but the life of man is the vision of God." —Irenaeus of Lyons, in the territory of France, c. 180 A.D. "At the dawn of a new year, we are all called to rekindle in our hearts an impulse of hope, [...]
"I can tell you a nice story. Pope Francis granted a lengthy interview to Jesuit Padre Spadaro who is the director of the most important Jesuit magazine Civiltà cattolica in August, which was published too, so after Padre Spadaro had given Pope Francis the first issue of this magazine, the Pope gave it to me telling me [...]