We all know that “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Indeed, Rome is a layer-cake of history built on seven hills, and it is appropriately nicknamed “The Eternal City” because visitors can see monuments and art from almost every period of her c. 2,700-year history: Ancient Greek, Republican Rome, Imperial Rome, Medieval (if not so much), [...]
The dome of St. Peter's Basilica is seen in the distance as people attend the Family Day rally at the Circus Maximus in Rome Jan. 30. The rally was held to oppose a bill in the Italian Senate that would allow civil unions for homosexual and heterosexual couples (CNS photo/Paul Haring) In the [...]
Italian Senator Marcello Pera with then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Though not a Christian believer, Pera agreed with Ratzinger that Europe needs to rediscover its Christian soul or risk losing all. Who is Marcello Pera? A seventy-one-year-old Italian philosopher and politician, known for his friendship with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, which began during Pera’s years as president [...]
The unusual Vatican Press book display centered on a "cupola of books" in the shape of Michelangelo's cupola above St. Peter's Basilica. More than 1,000 different books spread out on tables in the shadow of a great dome constructed out of books in the shape of the cupola of St. Peter’s Basilica. Such was [...]
“A miracle which will amaze the world!” In these few and mysterious words, the second miracle in Blessed John Paul II’s canonization process was being described earlier this year by people close to the cause. Then came rumors among Vatican correspondents that the chosen case involved a miracle in Costa Rica: a woman healed from severe brain [...]
Archbishop Pietro Sambi 1938–2012 Pietro Sambi was a diplomat, a man of dialogue, a man of peace, and we would like to honor him among the “Top Ten” of 2011, and mourn his passing. He died on July 27 at the age of 73. All who knew him loved him. When the archbishop died [...]
