The documentation on Vatican Council II was enriched a few days ago with a new text never published before. And of noteworthy value. It is made up of certain portions of the diary of Cardinal Roberto Tucci (in the photo), at the time the director of “La Civilta Cattolica.” And it was precisely this magazine Read more
The future Blessed Pope John XXIII, born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli’s vision stretched far, very far. Vatican II had to return to its evangelical roots and get rid of the shell that had built up around it over the centuries, driving it further and further away from its Master. “There will never be a Pius XIII”: to Read more
The Vatican II council, which began 50 years ago next month, was the most momentous religious event in 450 years. On January 25, 1959, the newly elected Pope John XXIII invited 18 cardinals from the Vatican bureaucracy to attend a service at the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls in Rome. He told them Read more
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is calling Pope John XXIII’s encyclical Pacem in Terris, “a great thing.” “I would say what struck me about it was how modern it is and how in tune it is with modern thinking,” Wales told CNA. Wales, who is not a Catholic, is in Rome as a guest of the Read more
In 1962, I moved from the Brigidine Convent at Indooroopilly in Brisbane to St Joseph’s College, Nudgee Junior, under the care of the Christian Brothers. I was an impressionable eight-year-old and was in grade 3. I well recall one of the brothers taking the class up to the top floor of the school. We gathered Read more
The saint whose story inspires me the most is Blessed Pope John XXIII. Born into a peasant family, one of 13 children, he wore hand-me-down clothes until he was in gradate school. He was unabashedly human. He smoked cigarettes, drank wine and enjoyed eating. He was elected pope at the age of 77 in 1958 Read more
Considering the fact that they are elected to lead people in prayer, mission and good works, surprisingly few popes have been beatified or canonized, especially in the last 500 years. From St. Peter to Pope Benedict XVI, there have been 265 popes; 78 of them are saints, and Pope John Paul II’s beatification brought to Read more