November 2013

Pope Francis’ Mind, Heart and Soul

Pray for Me, The Life and Spiritual Vision of Pope Francis, First Pope From the Americas. In Pray for Me : The Life and Spiritual Vision of Pope Francis, First Pope From the Americas, author Robert Moynihan offers the reader an inside look at the events of the days and weeks after Cardinal Jorge [...]

The Catholic Church Looks for Dialogue with Non-Believers

“We might, perhaps, set out on a part of the journey together”: these words are the heart of the letter that Pope Francis wrote to the Italian journalist Eugenio Scalfari on September 11, and they reveal a central part of the Holy See’s current strategy for dealing with a Western culture which has entered a profound [...]

New Series of Pope Francis’ Books

“And now we take up this journey. Bishop and People ... A journey of fraternity, of love and mutual trust. Let us pray for one another. Let us pray for the whole world that there may be a great spirit of fraternity.” These words of the newly-elected Pope Francis show the essence of his teaching as [...]

Ratzinger’s Students Meet Pope Emeritus Benedict for Special Mass

Father Stephan Otto Horn. Could you briefly describe the last Schülerkreis meeting? Father Stephan Otto Horn: The Holy Father Emeritus invited members of the Schülerkreis (former students) together with those of the New Schülerkreis (scholars of Benedict’s thought) to celebrate Holy Mass privately with him at the Vatican. We were very happy that he [...]

Pope Francis Receives Hackett, New U.S. Envoy to Vatican

Pope Francis welcomes Kenneth Hackett, who presented his credentials to the pontiff October 21 (CNS photo). Presenting his credentials to Pope Francis, Kenneth F. Hackett officially took over as U.S. ambassador to the Holy See October 21, filling a role that had been vacant for nearly a year. “The United States and the Holy [...]

Pope Francis: Special Lenten Spiritual Exercises

In mid-October, Father Federico Lombardi, SJ, the head of the Vatican Press Office, confirmed press reports that Pope Francis had decided to make his first annual Lenten spiritual exercises with the Curia’s heads at a Pauline retreat house outside of Rome, instead of following the traditional practice of making the retreat in the Vatican itself. In [...]

Vatican Official Reaffirms Teaching on Divorced, Remarried Catholics

Pope Francis greets newlyweds (Galazka photo). Amid increasing speculation that the Catholic Church might make it easier for divorced and remarried members to receive Communion, the Vatican’s highest doctrinal official on October 22 reaffirmed Church teaching barring such persons from the sacrament without an annulment of their first, sacramental marriage. But Archbishop Gerhard Müller, [...]

Vatican Watch – November 2013

Thursday 5 A LETTER TO PUTIN Pope Francis wrote to Vladimir Putin, Russian president, host of the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, September 5-6. The pontiff asked leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies to “lay aside the futile pursuit of a military solution” to the Syrian civil war and promote instead a “peaceful solution through [...]

The Lives Saved by Fr. Bergoglio

“What if the cardinals have elected the wrong man?” That was the doubt which blogs and websites began to spread a few hours after the election of the first Latin American Pope. Even important international newspapers, Argentinian and Italian, insinuated that Jorge Mario Bergoglio, elected superior of the Argentinian Jesuits three years before the military putsch, [...]

Analysis of a Religious Decline

Readers who enjoy discussions of the “Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?” variety will love this book. Starting with the all-but-universal assumption that today’s lower birthrates throughout the West are a consequence of the decline in religious belief and practice, Eberstadt provides abundant evidence that this reverses the actual causality. “Smaller families mean less [...]

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