April 27, 2016, Wednesday -- The Next Synod: The Return of "The Peace of God"? "The Pope would like to dedicate the next Synod of Bishops to the theme of peace." —The Italian news agency ANSA, in a short news article released this morning in Italy. The question of what topic the next Bishops' Synod would [...]
On Day Marking 11-Year Anniversary of German Pope’s Election, Pope Benedict Sends Message of Gratitude Via Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation Today marks the 11-year anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s election as Pope, and the German retired Pontiff has reached out to thank those who have given him 89th birthday wishes on Saturday. “Giving thanks for [...]
April 7, 2016, Thursday -- The Synod Document and the Problem of God The essential question is the existence of God... and so, consequently, the nature of man... "The splendor of being an image of God no longer shines over man, which is what confers on him his dignity and inviolability, and he is left only [...]
Vatican Paper Lauds Spotlight as Brave, Not Anti-Catholic The film Spotlight, which won the Oscar for best picture on February 28, is a courageous movie that is not anti-Catholic, the Vatican daily L’Osservatore Romano said in two articles commenting on the Oscars. Spotlight Italian historian and journalist Lucetta Scaraffia (photo), in an op-ed titled [...]
Pope Benedict XVI (photo Galazka) An unexpected and thought-provoking interview with Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI A new book containing an extensive interview with Pope Emeritus Benedict has been published in Italy, entitled Through Faith: Doctrine of Justification and Experience of God in the Preaching of the Church and the Spiritual Exercises, by Jesuit [...]
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 [...]
January 21, 2016, Thursday -- "A regression without precedent" “To create new and lasting unity (in Europe), political, economic and juridical instruments are important, but it is also necessary to awaken an ethical and spiritual renewal which draws on the Christian roots of the Continent, otherwise a new Europe cannot be built."—Pope Benedict XVI, April 9, [...]
November 2, 2015, Monday, Feast of All Souls — Vatileaks, Part 2 "Radix omnium malorum cupiditas est" ("The love of money is the root of all evils"). —St. Paul, First Letter to Timothy, 6:10; a more idiomatic understanding of this phrase is, "For every possible kind of evil can be motivated by the love of money," [...]
A concert offered by the Courtial Foundation at the Church of St. Ignatius in Rome Hans Albert Courtial, president of the International Foundation of Sacred Music and Art. He came from Germany to Rome, and never left... We are looking down upon the statues that encircle St. Peter’s colonnade. To our left we [...]
October 23, 2015, Friday — From Russia to Rome "The word mother can be traced back cleanly to Proto-Indo-European, as can father, brother and sister -- it appears in cognate form in languages like Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and so forth, and it may go back further." —Discussion of the origin of the word "mother" on an [...]
