A talk with Gordon Thomas, an investigative journalist who explains in his new book how the Vatican saved thousands of Jews during WWII. Pope Pius XII addresses a postwar crowd in St. Peter’s Square. Seventy years ago this October, in the fall of 1943, Rome’s close-knit Jewish community underwent its most agonizing trial. [...]
Within hours of his ordination as Auxiliary Bishop of Shanghai on July 7, 2012, Thaddeus Ma Daqin was taken away by some unknown men sent by the Chinese authorities, and has not been seen in public since. This 54-year-old charismatic priest from Shanghai diocese was ordained bishop with the approval of Pope Benedict and the Chinese [...]
Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, Archbishop of Abuja. Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan has been a powerful voice for peace between Muslims and Christians in his country, Nigeria, and for this reason we honor him as one of our “Top Ten” People of 2012. Pope Benedict XVI created him a cardinal at the consistory of November [...]
His Eminence Cardinal Angelo Scola, Archbishop of Milan, traveled to London for a meeting and a public lecture on November 15. One of the leading bishops in the Catholic Church, Cardinal Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan (the largest diocese in Europe), came to London on a rare visit in November to present the experience of [...]
Cardinal Antonio Cañizares, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of Sacraments. My proposal to include Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, Prefect and President Emeritus of the Sacred Congregation for the Clergy and the Ecclesia Dei Commission, respectively, among the “Top Ten People of 2009” was motivated by his exceptional apostolic zeal [...]
Archbishop Georg Gänswein. Recently Msgr. Georg has seemed more serene. On public occasions, he has at last begun to smile again. It certainly was not easy for the Pope’s secretary to address the “Vatileaks” storm which broke in May. Now, appointed archbishop and promoted to prefect of the papal household while still remaining Benedict’s [...]
Cardinal Bechara Butros Rai, Maronite Patriarch of Antioch. In much of the Middle East, Christians face grave difficulties. But in Lebanon, for generations a “model” of religious coexistence, Christians have lived in relative security and peace. A leader in the effort to keep this so is Patriarch Bechara Boutros Rai, 72, head of Lebanon’s [...]
Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Catholic woman sentenced to death for blasphemy. Asia Bibi, 41, a Pakistani Catholic woman, the mother of five children, has been held in solitary confinement in a Pakistani jail for the last three years on charges of blasphemy against Islam and the Prophet Mohammed. Her cell is bare; it does [...]
Cardinal Timothy Michael Dolan, Archbishop of New York and President of the US Bishops’ Conference. During the past year, he has consistently, eloquently, spoken out in defense of the unborn and traditional marriage, led the American bishops and been a much-loved pastor to the ordinary faithful in one of the world’s largest and most [...]
Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris and President of the French Bishops’ Conference. One of the world’s most secularized societies is that of France. And yet, this year an unlikely coalition in defense of traditional marriage has emerged from within that society, led by the cardinal archbishop of Paris and president of the French [...]